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audiodef
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:22 pm    Post subject: Installing Gentoo on tablets Reply with quote

Is there an arch for tablets? What's the story on installing Gentoo on tablets? I just ordered one and I would love to blow the factory install away and put Gentoo on it - assuming there's a usable setup I can achieve (being able to use the touch-screen, etc.).
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666threesixes666
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

gnome3 would work nicely for tablets, as it has an on screen keyboard for touch screens, what model number / manufacturer did you order?
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audiodef
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 3:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hm, I'm not normally a fan of Gnome, but I'm perfectly willing to try it out for this purpose. I'm glad I asked, because I did not know that about Gnome.

I got a Kocaso M730W 1.2GHz 4GB 7" Capacitive Touchscreen Tablet from Geeks.com. I found a couple of positive user reviews on it. Since I don't want or need anything fancy or expensive, I figured I'd nab one.
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dasPaul
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 8:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

At night he sometimes dreams of a Xperia-Z-like tablet with fully supported hardware and running gentoo. Dont stop dreaming little paul, dont wake up! :roll: :lol:
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audiodef
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 4:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Teach us this Weirding Tablet, Muad'dib.
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

audiodef,

Well, it runs Android. It may well be a ARM CPU of some sort, Google doesn't know much about the internals.
It probably has proprietary kernel modules to drive the hardware too.

With only 4G of FLASH, Gentoo will be a tight squeeze.

If you haven't done anything with ARM yet, get a Raspberry Pi to play with. You will learn a lot putting Gentoo on that and it will all be good stuff for a tablet too.
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audiodef
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey Neddy,

I have a Pi, been waiting to have time to sit down and play with it. I got Gentoo on a 4 GB SD card, but I need to try formatting it differently, as I ran out of inodes at 2 GB of disk usage.

The trick would be getting a Gentoo tablet setup optimized for a keyboardless touch-screen device (I'm guessing) with only 4 GB of flash. I wonder if you can expand an installation onto an SD card on a tablet?
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yngwin
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It seems to be based on the Allwinner A13 SoC. This means it is an ARM device, and you should be able to install Gentoo on it. Though this may not be easy! It has a microSD slot, so you're not limited to the 4GB on-board flash. I'd keep the base system on the 4GB, and put anything non-essential (/home and portage tree, maybe logs, and so on) on the SD card.

See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allwinner_A1X
http://linux-sunxi.org/Linux
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dilfridge
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of us (creffett) is working on packaging plasma-active (the tablet environment of KDE) for Gentoo. We need testers, so if you feel adventurous... The architecture is arm in most cases.

As a side note, we need testers of KDE on any sort of arm device. For example, a ChromeBook... :) Installation may however be nontrivial. Ask on freenode (#gentoo-kde and #gentoo-embedded)...
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audiodef
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dilfridge wrote:
One of us (creffett) is working on packaging plasma-active (the tablet environment of KDE) for Gentoo. We need testers, so if you feel adventurous... The architecture is arm in most cases.

As a side note, we need testers of KDE on any sort of arm device. For example, a ChromeBook... :) Installation may however be nontrivial. Ask on freenode (#gentoo-kde and #gentoo-embedded)...


I may take you up on that. I've decided to leave Android on it for now, but if I get another tablet later, I might use my old one for this.

Do you think this would work on a Pi? Because I have one and it's totally free for messing around with.
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Jonathan_R
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

@dilfridge,

I used to be part of open-slx and my role was documentation for Plasma Active. So in regards to testing Plasma Active, I'm game. Maybe I can contribute by writing some docs as well.

I have an EXOPC, so it's all x86 software. So far, no distro has got the multitouch to work (like pinch to shrink or enlarge), simulated right click ( by a long press) doesn't work, plasmaboard doesn't work on all apps and certainly doesn't work on KDM. Plasma Active is not a hardwareless keyboard system. Not yet. Plasma Active 3, from what I understand, did get the multitouch working, the pink to shrink or enlarge. Plasmaboard still doesn't work with everything. You have to use Plasma Actives embeded browser to the multitouch to work and for the plasmaboard to work. If you use some app outside of Plasma Active....say Firefox, then the keyboard wont work and neither will the multitouch. In my opinion, this is wrong. Sounds like a Linux type of vendor lock in.

I have looked around for docs from Gentoo for tablets and Plasma Active and such, and have found there to be extremely little if any at all. So I guess I'll do an install from a Live DVD (in which the touch doesn't work at all), and add overlayes and packages as needed to get the results I want.
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

audiodef,

KDE on a Pi ... Put everything except /boot either on NFS or on a USB drive, use cross distcc and it might work.

It will be slow at 700MHz and with only 512Mb RAM.
Later kernel/firmware combinations will let you overclock and overvolt the CPU/RAM without setting the I_HAVE_VOIDED_MY_WARRANTY bit in the CPU.
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Jonathan_R
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jonathan_R wrote:
@dilfridge,

I used to be part of open-slx and my role was documentation for Plasma Active. So in regards to testing Plasma Active, I'm game. Maybe I can contribute by writing some docs as well.

I have an EXOPC, so it's all x86 software. So far, no distro has got the multitouch to work (like pinch to shrink or enlarge), simulated right click ( by a long press) doesn't work, plasmaboard doesn't work on all apps and certainly doesn't work on KDM. Plasma Active is not a hardwareless keyboard system. Not yet. Plasma Active 3, from what I understand, did get the multitouch working, the pink to shrink or enlarge. Plasmaboard still doesn't work with everything. You have to use Plasma Actives embeded browser to the multitouch to work and for the plasmaboard to work. If you use some app outside of Plasma Active....say Firefox, then the keyboard wont work and neither will the multitouch. In my opinion, this is wrong. Sounds like a Linux type of vendor lock in.

I have looked around for docs from Gentoo for tablets and Plasma Active and such, and have found there to be extremely little if any at all. So I guess I'll do an install from a Live DVD (in which the touch doesn't work at all), and add overlayes and packages as needed to get the results I want.


The Live DVD was an abismal failure. The EXOPC uses athros drivers for the wifi. In specific ath9k. I was surprised when the wireless didn't work. The touch didn't work at all. I'm using Sabayon Linux to get a working install (wireless worked right nor did the touch). Once I have the rudimentary install working, I'll then use portage and essentially turn it into a Gentoo system. I noticed there are some packages and configurations that can make this work. elographics and eGalax. Both of these have configurations to add into xorg.conf. Hopefully, that's all it is.
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MorganRoss
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

dilfridge wrote:
One of us (creffett) is working on packaging plasma-active (the tablet for sale environment of KDE) for Gentoo. We need testers, so if you feel adventurous... The architecture is arm in most cases.

As a side note, we need testers of KDE on any sort of arm device. For example, a ChromeBook... :) Installation may however be nontrivial. Ask on freenode (#gentoo-kde and #gentoo-embedded)...


It's raelly amazing that I have looked around for docs from Gentoo for tablets and Plasma Active and such, and have found there to be extremely little if any at all.

This user turns out to be a spammer.

See the "last edited" note at the bottom? That's when they added a spam-URL link to a phrase inside the quotation. Even tried setting the colors so it blends in better, no doubt hoping it goes unnoticed.

Post kept as-is (except for the link, which was rendered inactive) because the question, even if insincere, prompted nice answers; and also as a heads-up to be on the lookout for spammer's ever-scamming ways and report them when found.


Last edited by MorganRoss on Mon Apr 01, 2013 4:12 am; edited 1 time in total
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MorganRoss,

Welcome to Gentoo.

Gentoo is a community effort and we are all in the Gentoo community.
Feel free to contribute to wiki.gentoo.org, or file a bug with more formal documentation at bugs.gentoo.org.

If you need help to help others in the community, please ask PM is ok with me.
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i92guboj
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 1:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If it's Android, then it's probably ARM, as someone told you above.

The problem is not installing Gentoo or running a given desktop. I mean, that might well pose a challenge, but the first show stopper you'll be facing is that of getting your hardware detected.

I only have experience with phones, not with tablets, but they are essentially the same kind of animal. Most manufacturers pick a given kernel version, and then patch it to add the needed hardware, fs and whatever-else support. Some manufacturers do not make a good work at publishing the modifications (if at all), violating (or better said, raping) the GPL and some other licenses in the way.

In some occasions, obtaining the kernel sources just to add in cifs support and a couple more candies has been difficult. And in most situations I've had to tweak the thing so the kernel doesn't complain when loading pre-compiled kernel modules which I wasn't able to get the sources for (mostly wifi chips drivers).

If you can't compile a kernel that will allow you to use all the features then you'd probably be better off using Android.

I know nothing about that concrete model you speak of, but I wouldn't expect much luck. The tablets nowadays are in the same situation which pcs were in late 90s and early 2000s. By that time, you had to be very very picky about each single component, when buying a desktop pc, or you would end having to install Windows just to print or to use your crappy winmodem or to kill some aliens.

There are some projects around (auraslate comes to mind) that seem to be developing what they call "open hardware" tablets, but I haven't developed enough interests in the whole "tablet thingy" to care enough to look into them.
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dasPaul
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PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 5:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dasPaul wrote:
...dreams of a Xperia-Z-like tablet with fully supported hardware...


Ok, maybe this is interesting:

Sony releases its Android drivers for AOSP
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Spanik
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PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 7:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
As a side note, we need testers of KDE on any sort of arm device. For example, a ChromeBook... Installation may however be nontrivial. Ask on freenode (#gentoo-kde and #gentoo-embedded)...


Now that would be nice! On the other hand I have issues installing Gentoo on whatever these days so probably not for me. (somehow I have the impression that 5-7 years ago it went better, not faster as it was a stage-1 but the chance of booting into a working Gentoo on the first try was far greater)
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