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I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

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Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#111

Post by codezero »

nahtnam wrote: post #59

Is this really worth $400 + $50-$100 for a pen? Why not just get an iPad instead?

Many people would be fine with that solution, it's definitely more robust in a lot of ways.

A few reasons I like my remarkable (I have an original and a 2, and got my wife one):

1. forced isolation - no notifications come into this device when I'm using it out of the box. It's a nice intentionally crippled feature for focus.

2. The feel. It's like writing on paper, or very near to it. The texture of the tablet and the pencil together is really ... remarkable. It's not at all the same as writing on an iPad or iPad Pro.

3. I doubt in a quantitative comparison the remarkable would beat the iPad in latency, but it still feels damn good. Surprisingly good compared to other touch screen/pencil tablets.

Gripes:

- some edge effects when writing, loses some precision

- the touch buttons on the original were more ergonomic for navigation, the swipe gestures in the 2 seem to work 50-60% on the first try.

- replacing the nubs on the pencil is annoying, but I barely made it through my first included package with the remarkable 1, so not a real problem.

- software is rudimentary. A lot of quality of life features do not exist and maybe should. The writing app, which should kind of be the only thing given attention is pretty far behind, and has only made small improvements (at least visibly to me, this is not to diminish what I am sure is a lot of behind the scenes work to make everything fast).

I probably wouldn't jump to buy a third one, unless it had physical navigation buttons, but the progression from 1 to 2 was pretty amazing. The thing was already thin, but the 2 is so thin I'm amazed it can house a USB-C port.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#112

Post by mariusor »

zhdc1 wrote: post #105
kayodelycaon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reMarkable is surprisingly good for its primary purpose. Everything else it does... is limited. They things they did do are done well given how they are implemented. The epub/pdf experience sucks because it doesn't have a real pdf reader. It just renders the epub to pdf and then throw the pdf into the note-taking app. Arguably, none of the functionality is half-assed. It works very well as a writing tablet. It ab…

The Onyx Boox series is really good. The writing experience is almost as good as a Remarkable. The reading experience is excellent, and it's runs Android.

> and it's runs Android

I apologize for the snark, but I refuse to see how this is a plus over "it runs vanilla linux".

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#113

Post by a-dub »

_e wrote: post #99
kayodelycaon wrote: post #70

Oh boy do I have opinions with this one. This seems like a lot of work to avoid using a perfectly good package manager on the device . They could have used rsync without installing rsync on the device. The target device doesn't need to have rsync for rsync to be used. They could have installed the package manager and left it. It doesn't run anything in the background on my device. It's easy enough to verify you don't…

Does remarkable use a fork of ChromiumOS? ChromiumOS uses the BOOT-A and BOOT-B partitions for upgrades and it reverts to the previously used boot partition if the OS fails to successfully boot[0]. [0] https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...

using two partitions in this way on embedded devices has been a trope for a very long time. service/warranty calls are expensive!

usually there are three. system a and system b which are updated and flipped and some sort of emergency recovery that either has a factory image or a very light rom that phones home for a new image.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#114

Post by judge2020 »

drfuchs wrote: post #65
NieDzejkob wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does your phone have this sticker?

In the battery compartment.

No, or at lease, not on iPhone: https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/QAtX1WnxfYrMhOZg.hug... (13 on the left, 12 on the right; via iFixit)

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#115

Post by tjoff »

Eeems wrote: post #85
kayodelycaon wrote: post #70

Oh boy do I have opinions with this one. This seems like a lot of work to avoid using a perfectly good package manager on the device . They could have used rsync without installing rsync on the device. The target device doesn't need to have rsync for rsync to be used. They could have installed the package manager and left it. It doesn't run anything in the background on my device. It's easy enough to verify you don't…

I know I reacted hard to this statement: > Going further down the rabbit hole, the toltec GitHub page mentions that it works on top of the Entware distribution, and recommends what is basically “wget | bash”. I’m not a fan of this. Could I install my own rsync? We made sure that the toltec install process includes a hash of the install script to prove that it isn't modified by a man-in-the-middle. Toltec itself requi…

> We made sure that the toltec install process includes a hash of the install script to prove that it isn't modified by a man-in-the-middle.

A bit late for that, no?

Maybe I misunderstood but the modified version could do it's thing and then download the official script to fool that check.

Or pretty much anything else imaginable.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#116

Post by wedn3sday »

LegitShady wrote: post #83
Andrex wrote: post #4

Not trying to shill too hard, but it's rare I fall in love with a device the way I've fallen in love with my Remarkable 2. I can't say it was 100% worth the price (half was paid as a gift), but everything about it is refreshingly elegant and simple. Great to know recovering from a brick is possible too.

My problem with it is that I'd rather have an iPad and a cheaper e-reader to get access to many more apps and functions. If it was 1/2 the price it would be at least interesting but I use the iPad to read ebooks, to browse the web, to paint in procreate, to sequence synths and record using an audio interface, to watch YouTube in the kitchen or Netflix in bed, and with a logitech keyboard work on documents in Microsof…

I absolutely cannot read for any significant period of time on an ipad screen, it kills my eyes. I love my rM2, but agree that not having support for 3rd party apps seriously sucks, its (IMO) the one thing thats really missing from the device.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#117

Post by jcun4128 »

greenhathacker wrote: post #55
jcun4128 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you not just use it as is? I have not connected to a WiFi yet and you can sync to your own cloud. I guess you do need a way to get the docs on the device. Their sync process is weird.

I've never connected mine to WiFi, but that's because it does all I need through ssh.

Are you able to ssh and move files by something like sftp or no? ssh by wire? Was curious what the file format is of each note.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#118

Post by LegitShady »

wedn3sday wrote: post #116
LegitShady wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with it is that I'd rather have an iPad and a cheaper e-reader to get access to many more apps and functions. If it was 1/2 the price it would be at least interesting but I use the iPad to read ebooks, to browse the web, to paint in procreate, to sequence synths and record using an audio interface, to watch YouTube in the kitchen or Netflix in bed, and with a logitech keyboard work on documents in Microsof…

I absolutely cannot read for any significant period of time on an ipad screen, it kills my eyes. I love my rM2, but agree that not having support for 3rd party apps seriously sucks, its (IMO) the one thing thats really missing from the device.

Turn down the brightness, use something with an inverted colour scheme, adjust the text size to something reasonable, and don't read in the dark if you're doing that

But as I said I also have a Kobo reader for reading on its own, and it was very cheap compared to the remarkable.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#119

Post by greenhathacker »

jcun4128 wrote: post #117
greenhathacker wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never connected mine to WiFi, but that's because it does all I need through ssh.

Are you able to ssh and move files by something like sftp or no? ssh by wire? Was curious what the file format is of each note.

Yep! When you plug it in to your machine through a USB-C cable, it attaches as an ethernet device and answers to `ssh root@10.11.99.1`. You can also activate an http UI that you can then use to upload files with `curl --form "file=@\"$1\"" "http://10.11.99.1/upload"`.

If you're curious about the file format, have a look at https://remarkablewiki.com/tech/filesystem#user_data_directo...

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#120

Post by Eeems »

tjoff wrote: post #115
Eeems wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know I reacted hard to this statement: > Going further down the rabbit hole, the toltec GitHub page mentions that it works on top of the Entware distribution, and recommends what is basically “wget | bash”. I’m not a fan of this. Could I install my own rsync? We made sure that the toltec install process includes a hash of the install script to prove that it isn't modified by a man-in-the-middle. Toltec itself requi…

> We made sure that the toltec install process includes a hash of the install script to prove that it isn't modified by a man-in-the-middle. A bit late for that, no? Maybe I misunderstood but the modified version could do it's thing and then download the official script to fool that check. Or pretty much anything else imaginable.

I guess you haven't looked at our install instructions[0]. The hash check is done before running the script. You can't run the script if it doesn't match unless you choose to just run it manually and ignore the check.

0. https://toltec-dev.org/

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