Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 248 posts

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

#181

Post by tech4bot »

kokada wrote: post #180
tech4bot wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The hardware is already powerful enough. An iPad Pro with unlocked virtualization and a proper Linux VM would be an amazing travel dev machine. This is the reason I made this project, and I am still exploring for other tablets with better resolution and more resources.

That is also my dream, iPads Pro are very expensive but the hardware is so good (that is including the Magic Keyboard). BTW OP, have you ever tried a hybrid Chromebook tablet like Lenovo Duet 3? This is my favorite device for travel exactly because it is so good as a small Linux machine. Crostini fits the "I want to run a Linux VM". You can even use postmarketOS if you want an even more "traditional" Linux experience…

Thanks, I’ll check it out. Seems interesting.

I usually prefer cheap devices for travel, because you never know when something gets lost, broken, or stolen. This tablet fits that well, Android for the kids or for testing an app, and Linux when I need something more specific.

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

#183

Post by abyssin »

non-nil wrote: post #175

I'm loving these LLM-powered hardware liberation projects! Another one that caught my eye that I'm hoping to make use of myself is to run Kodi on old Boxee media players: https://github.com/yoavmagor/boxee-2026-yoavm

I hope we get similar momentum for all cheap Android phones!

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

#184

Post by nubinetwork »

exe34 wrote: post #173
nubinetwork wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opening Chrome, Firefox, discord or Spotify instantly takes up 1gb on my laptop... so that already puts me at 3-4gb... someone needs to find out why kwin leaks so much shared memory, after a week of running that alone can take up a few gigs as well. My next laptop has 32gb at the very least.

Try xmonad.

Sorry, but I'm not distrotube.

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

#185

Post by sylwester »

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 just released a online book on that, free of charge: https://github.com/DatanoiseTV/practical-reverse-engineering

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

#186

Post by MSFT_Edging »

exe34 wrote: post #34
singpolyma3 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much everything. I only had 4GB ram until two or three years ago. No swap. Never ran into an issue.

I have 8GB, which I've had since 2012. Never had a problem - I run a lean Nixos with just xmonad and dmenu, chrome, emacs, and about a dozen open pdfs and video tutorials.

Hello fellow xmonad enjoyer. There's dozens of us out there.

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

#187

Post by fsflover »

tomaskafka wrote: post #167

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.

Here is the tablet that can do this: https://puri.sm/products/librem-11. It can even run Qubes OS.

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

#188

Post by Dead_Lemon »

tomaskafka wrote: post #167

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.

Consider Asahi Linux limited feature support for the M1, after all these years, this is not going to ever happen. Its not like Apple has every shown any interest in opening their hardware up to 3rd party OS support and nor will they.

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

#189

Post by fsflover »

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.

> What I'd like to know is what software runs adequately under it in 4 GB RAM

I daily driver Librem 5 phone running a Debian-based operating system with 3 GB of RAM. NoScript on Firefox allows me to browse quite well. Zram helps, too. By the way, unlike the discussed device, my phone runs a mainline Linux kernel.

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

#190

Post by MarsIronPI »

NL807 wrote: post #148
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.

>What I'd like to know is what software runs adequately under it in 4 GB RAM. I find this question rather sad.

I can run my everyday software stack (Emacs + Firefox + Dino) on my 3 GB RAM Pinephone. It's not as fast as my 8 GB laptop, but that's partly the CPU too.

Hope this makes you feel better.

Post reply on HN