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The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

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Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#21

Post by frontsideair »

This was supposed to be my dream setup too. I got a Raspberry Pi which is gathering dust on the shelf now. I was so eager to use it when it came out, then I had a faulty microSD card and lost all spirit to turn it into a credit card-sized media center. I hope if I can find some spare time, and a working SD card, I'll achieve this goal.

I also needed an Android tablet a couple months ago, because I didn't want to miss the tablet side of the Android. (There are not many tablet exclusive apps, but I'm way too obsessive to miss them.) But unfortunately I couldn't spare too much money and ended up with a 8 GB Nexus 7.

I wanted it to replace all my laptop needs -I haven't had a laptop for many years, after my last one died and got a desktop which I still love- but without a hardware keyboard and a big enough display, it's only great for reading anywhere. (Which I also don't, I'm too busy most of the time, and at the other times plain lazy.)

I hope Android ecosystem will mature even more in the near future. Look, Ubuntu is installable on the Nexus 7 right now. (I haven't done this yet, you can see the pattern here.) That basically means almost everything you can do on Linux, you can do it on your tablet too. And if you can support it with something with more horse-power than Raspberry Pi, you can call it a thin client/fat server pair.

The only thing left is to have a good tablet that can run Linux, has a big enough display, and has keyboard accesories. I personally don't like Microsoft, but the new line of Surface tablets look promising. As long as it lets me run whatever OS I want to, I'm all for it. Asus Transformer is not a bad option, but having the keyboard double as the cover and keeping it light sounds so much awesome.

Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#22

Post by frontsideair »

Buzaga wrote: post #15

I've been thinking about getting this kind of setup too, without the Pi(Also, I'm in Brazil, it's probably hard to get one around here) What I was thinking of was getting an Asus Transformer and running Ubuntu on it, I've read that's possible(maybe without touchscreen, but I just need a long battery, keyboard, command-line, vim, browser) could somebody tell me what's wrong with this?(I see browser could be an issue i…

There's a vim app on Play Store, which I tried and loved it. I used it on my Nexus 7 tablet with software keyboard and attaching my USB keyboard via USB-OTG adapter, and it was a great experience. If I had a Transformer, I'd do all my coding on it without any hassles.

Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#23

Post by frontsideair »

ukjadoon wrote: post #7

I have a Nexus 7 with a bluetooth keyboard, I rooted it and installed Debian. I can SSH into it and pretty much do anything I want (I use ConnectBot or Terminal IDE). I have installed Vim, PHP5 Cli, MySQL and also PHPUnit. For testing sites locally in a browser, I have installed KSWeb. I also use an RDP client to access the LXDE desktop on Debian. Is there really a need to SSH into an RPi when one can have a setup li…

What kind of keyboard are you using? I also have a Nexus 7, but it's hard to find any decent keyboard. Does it hold the tablet, or do you have to support it yourself?

Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#24

Post by frontsideair »

frontsideair wrote: post #22
Buzaga wrote: post #15

I've been thinking about getting this kind of setup too, without the Pi(Also, I'm in Brazil, it's probably hard to get one around here) What I was thinking of was getting an Asus Transformer and running Ubuntu on it, I've read that's possible(maybe without touchscreen, but I just need a long battery, keyboard, command-line, vim, browser) could somebody tell me what's wrong with this?(I see browser could be an issue i…

There's a vim app on Play Store, which I tried and loved it. I used it on my Nexus 7 tablet with software keyboard and attaching my USB keyboard via USB-OTG adapter, and it was a great experience. If I had a Transformer, I'd do all my coding on it without any hassles.

Here's the aforementioned app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.momodalo.a...

Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#25

Post by randomchars »

Buzaga wrote: post #15

I've been thinking about getting this kind of setup too, without the Pi(Also, I'm in Brazil, it's probably hard to get one around here) What I was thinking of was getting an Asus Transformer and running Ubuntu on it, I've read that's possible(maybe without touchscreen, but I just need a long battery, keyboard, command-line, vim, browser) could somebody tell me what's wrong with this?(I see browser could be an issue i…

Android is not a fork of Linux. It uses the Linux kernel. End of story.

Programming on Android is not easy. As you want ruby you can have a look at SL4A [1].

There are several terminal emulators and IDEs like Terminal IDE[2] that was mentioned in the article. From the descriptions it seems to have Vim or at least bindings for it.

There're also a few IDEs like DeuterIDE[3].

There's even a git client.[4]

[1]: https://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/

[2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spartacusr...

[3]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.didactic.D...

[4]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madgag.agi...

Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#26

Post by programminggeek »

You know, you can do pretty much the same thing with an iPad and the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard. I do that with a Prgmr instance and it's pretty awesome, but by no means perfect. I'm starting to think the ARM Chromebook might be closer to perfection as I can SSH from chrome anyway and you can get cheap 3G on there.

I would love a 3g/4g enabled ARM based Macbook Air with 12 hour battery life. Of course, iPad 4 with 4G LTE would be pretty close for pretty cheap....

Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#27

Post by stephengillie »

7777 wrote: post #14

I don't get what the Raspberry Pi is for. The Transformer is a lot faster and already runs Linux, you could just install Ubuntu/Debian in a chroot and use that instead of sshing to the Raspberry Pi.

This exactly. He has a very good Transformer setup that I'm going to duplicate. The only reason I could see for the PI is if he used it to provide USB Host mode or something similar - connecting the two long-term to extend their features.

OR if he were programming the PI from the Transformer...

Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#28

Post by yebyen »

Buzaga wrote: post #15

I've been thinking about getting this kind of setup too, without the Pi(Also, I'm in Brazil, it's probably hard to get one around here) What I was thinking of was getting an Asus Transformer and running Ubuntu on it, I've read that's possible(maybe without touchscreen, but I just need a long battery, keyboard, command-line, vim, browser) could somebody tell me what's wrong with this?(I see browser could be an issue i…

Thought I would chime in, because I've had a fair amount of experience with this and it's basically a battleground... if you try just once to install a reasonable Linux on your android transformer, you might get the wrong idea and believe that Android Linux is just not usable.

My favorite configuration on my TF-101 is TeamEOS nightly builds with a separate partition for Ubuntu Precise which I run without X11. The partitioning can be accomplished using OLiFE Prime (don't mind that you may not have the TF Prime, that's not what prime means here.)

There are various APKs that will let you install Linux from several (mostly debian-based) distros into a chroot, by mounting a loopback file. I had good luck with "Debian Kit" and my current install of Ubuntu is older than my current install of Android, so I can't tell you exactly how I got it installed, but if you're not familiar with the chroot method of installing Linux, there are several different market apps with the goal of making it easy for you.

I found it's best to forego any X11 stuff. You wanted Linux so you could run a terminal, apt-get, and compile software? You got it. Android Terminal Emulator supports the control key, shift, and "back" for escape, it's perfectly usable.

That all works OK, but you have to take some care to get the armhf (not armel) versions installed, they work great and are much faster. You can also ignore that. I have read that they are much faster but I don't have empirical evidence to support that. "Feels true"

Finally for end of the 2 minute elevator pitch for Android Linux, as soon as you try using something that requires SYSV IPC, you will probably find it doesn't work (that means Apache, MySQL, basically any kind of multi-process server), unless your kernel mastery far outstrips my own, or if you settled on AOKP instead of EOS build of Android. The AOKP builds I tried _do_ support SYSV IPC. But nobody else does.

I did manage to enable X11 once by OLiFE installer, the system I installed was a "natty" at least two generations old, it worked fine out of the box from OLiFE, but it was kludgy at best, I tried upgrading everything to oneiric and precise, and from then on nothing worked. I did not want to lose my Android notifications backbone, so I went back.

I do everything in a chroot now.

Don't get me wrong. It worked. I just don't see the point of having a touch screen on a system that was engineered for a mouse and keyboard first. So, tl;dr, you can most certainly get a full working Linux terminal on Android JellyBean, I have... it's possible to install rvm in the usual way, and if you are a vim user, you'll be wanting that escape key, don't forget to set the options correctly in the Android Terminal Emulator app.

Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#29

Post by yebyen »

yebyen wrote: post #28
Buzaga wrote: post #15

I've been thinking about getting this kind of setup too, without the Pi(Also, I'm in Brazil, it's probably hard to get one around here) What I was thinking of was getting an Asus Transformer and running Ubuntu on it, I've read that's possible(maybe without touchscreen, but I just need a long battery, keyboard, command-line, vim, browser) could somebody tell me what's wrong with this?(I see browser could be an issue i…

Thought I would chime in, because I've had a fair amount of experience with this and it's basically a battleground... if you try just once to install a reasonable Linux on your android transformer, you might get the wrong idea and believe that Android Linux is just not usable. My favorite configuration on my TF-101 is TeamEOS nightly builds with a separate partition for Ubuntu Precise which I run without X11. The par…

tl;dr #2

Yes you can, install Linux on your Android

I started with Linux Installer STANDARD (Galoula) It worked, but only for a short time (random freezes)

Debian Kit (Sven-Ola) worked great

I outgrew it, eventually picked Linux Deploy (Anton Sk.)

All of these are a great choice, none of them will get you ARMHF binaries by magic, unless I missed some feature changes. ARMEL is fine though.

Re: The Ultimate Mobile Computer: Connecting an Asus Transformer and a Raspberry Pi

#30

Post by habosa »

mooism2 wrote: post #3

From the title I was expecting the RPi to be permanently inserted inside the Transformer somehow. Being at the mercy of the vagaries of 3G reception / public wifi provision is the sort of thing that puts me off doing this kind of thing myself. Why an RPi as the backend though? Why not something that will compile your code faster? I recognise that not everyone is comfortable with renting a virtual server, but if you'r…

I wanted my "backend" to be always-on, power efficient, and powerful when headless. The MacBook wasn't a good option because I often close it or leave it uncharged, and OS X doesn't have as many command line tools available as Debian or other Linux distros. It's also a huge waste of power to use the MBP as a server, whereas the RPi sips power from a cellphone charger.

I could have also used an EC2 Micro instance or a Linode, but those are both much more expensive than an RPi for something I don't even use every day.

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