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I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

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Re: I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

#161

Post by marysol5 »

mewse-hn wrote: post #134
NoboruWataya wrote: post #14

Since it seems AI is pretty good at reverse-engineering stuff like this, is there any educational material on how to use it for that purpose? Seems like it could really help port things like postmarketOS to new devices (and improve support on existing ones)?

I have claude code hooked up to deepseek, I hooked up my spare cheapo android tablet, installed adb and fastbook with my package manager and asked the AI to jailbreak the tablet. It discovered the tablet was running a unisoc t606, found a CVE from a couple years ago, and unlocked the bootloader for me. I was the meat puppet holding the "volume up" button and plugging in the usb cable a bunch of times. Like most of my…

I had Google Gemini de-tuya and flash a smart bulb for me.

It managed at first, but the bulb didn't light, it couldn't work out the GPIO/IC it was using.

So left it plugging away, and now it's bricked

Yay

Re: I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

#162

Post by marysol5 »

Oxodao wrote: post #154

Is there any way to flash it to internal emmc instead of relying on an SD card. I'd love a small linux tablet but I don't want it to be febrile

Seeing as you're not changing the bootloader, I'd say no.

You could probably have the bootloader just load the kernel from the SD and then everything from the local storage

Re: I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

#163

Post by pjmlp »

bdavbdav wrote: post #159
pjmlp wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I originally ran Slackware 2.0 with 32 MB on a Pentium 75 Mhz. So the software does exist, plus for the TUI and CLI folks, that would be plenty of space.

Unfortunately I think just the SSL stack to support a TLS connection would saturate that now

Depends on how much browsing one is planning to do, which is why I focused on the TUI and CLI as examples on my comment.

Even if it is SSH to some cloud server it might be ok.

We lost quite a bit moving away from Internet protocols into everything is HTTP(S).

Re: I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

#165

Post by Fnoord »

pjmlp wrote: post #147
nine_k wrote: post #23

Booting into Debian with most devices fully functional is great. What I'd like to know is what software runs adequately under it in 4 GB RAM. Web browsing should definitely be possible, but I suppose it's limited to very few tabs. Some very lightweight DE could likely make it more usable. Running something like WezTerm + tmux as the DE could be even more economical, leaving some room for e.g. development tools.

I originally ran Slackware 2.0 with 32 MB on a Pentium 75 Mhz. So the software does exist, plus for the TUI and CLI folks, that would be plenty of space.

We also had a Pentium 75 MHz IIRC, but IIRC it came with 8 MB RAM. It came with OS/2 Warp. Running DOS on top of it was too limited, performance wise. Running MSDOS directly however, was amazing. The machine would run all the software I wanted. Apps and games. It also ran Windows 95, but the learning curve and speed. I was used to MSDOS.

Re: I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

#166

Post by Fnoord »

I'm in the market for a tablet for my kid. Currently using an iPad Pro which cannot be used with Linux, sadly. The iPadOS version on it does not get updates anymore.

You might wanna run something like pmOS on it though, with a UI focussed on touchscreen. Not sure which one is best these days.

Re: I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

#167

Post by tomaskafka »

This is exactly what I want from the iPad Pro. Unlock the virtualization support to let me have a debian/ubuntu VM with a complete development environment that I could take for holiday to make emergency fixes, and leave the precious MBP at home.

Re: I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

#168

Post by HlessClaudesman »

not_your_vase wrote: post #64
nine_k wrote: post #23

Booting into Debian with most devices fully functional is great. What I'd like to know is what software runs adequately under it in 4 GB RAM. Web browsing should definitely be possible, but I suppose it's limited to very few tabs. Some very lightweight DE could likely make it more usable. Running something like WezTerm + tmux as the DE could be even more economical, leaving some room for e.g. development tools.

Can't speak for OP, of course. Some time ago I got myself a similarly priced x86-64 Windows tablet on Amazon (Celeron N4020 + 4 GB RAM). I installed Linux Mint on it with a slightly customized kernel (some extra quirks were needed). I connected an old SSD to it with a SATA2USB adapter, and I use it as a home file server and HTPC. It has a micro HDMI output, and it is connected to my TV. During the day it is playing m…

Yeah can confirm Mint XFCE works well on low end devices. The only bug I encountered is backups quickly swamping available HDD space, but it runs fine with auto backups off.

Re: I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

#169

Post by tech4bot »

Fnoord wrote: post #166

I'm in the market for a tablet for my kid. Currently using an iPad Pro which cannot be used with Linux, sadly. The iPadOS version on it does not get updates anymore. You might wanna run something like pmOS on it though, with a UI focussed on touchscreen. Not sure which one is best these days.

I used phosh, which is also used by postmarketOS.

Re: I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation

#170

Post by exe34 »

squarefoot wrote: post #102
exe34 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of debug/probing harness did you have? I find it hard to conceptualise, when nothing boots yet. Did you have serial output working right from the beginning? Or did you have to get that first and then everything else was possible?

Nothing aside a normal PC. I was the slow human in the middle swapping cards and typing/copying/pasting commands and results; I admit being far away from being able to do that myself; tried a few years ago and failed, then AI happened. The board SoC (Allwinner A20) is already well supported by Linux but there was no image available and the on board hardware wasn't documented, but at least I had a working system to pr…

That's helpful thank you!
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