Linux on a tablet
Hello all,
This is my first post. So please let me know if I am putting this on the wrong section of the forum. I have seen the ipads and droid tablets out there. But I want a tablet running Linux. I would love to have Debian or Ubuntu on a tablet. But I can't find any companies selling such devices. I have seen the news stories out there that claim Ubuntu might have an announcement on an Ubuntu tablet in over a year from now.
Well I know Linux can run on almost anything. So why not an existing tablet? Can anyone point me in the right direction to a guide to installing Debian or Ubuntu on an existing Tablet? I currently do not own any tablet hardware. So any hardware that will be best suited for this project I will see about purchasing.
Thanks for your time and attention.
Comments
-
Hi Arran,
Thank you for the response. While that may be true that iOS is more polished than Linux, I am ok with that. I would rather have Debian on a tablet than iOS. Apple is happy to tell me what I can and cant do with their software and hardware. The idea of paying apple hundreds of dollars for their tablet and then have to put up with them trying to control my every move with it is rather unappealing. I would rather get a droid tablet and install Linux on it and have the power and security and control that Linux gives all with the awesome mobility the tablet market gives.
Best,
David Brooks0 -
David,
You can recompile any distro to run on your tablet, however you will need to make a custom kernel supporting all hardware, including the proprietary drivers, which may make it very difficult. If you are seeking a challenge you can try to build debian for your tablet, but if you wait a few months ubuntu will be releasing a tablet OS.0 -
Arran,
Please only respond if you have content of value that can help the discussions. All off subject and opinion based responses from you will be deleted until value content is added. If this continues I will consider you a spammer and be forced to block you from the website.0 -
Thanks mfillpot,
It sounds like a fun challenge. I will either get a tablet booting with Debian or break one trying. hah
Best,
David Brooks0 -
I have a Viewsonic G-Tablet that I've been experimenting with for a while. The problem with running pure Linux is the lack of drivers. Video drivers for Tegra 2, wifi drivers and drivers that are used to access the webcam.
XDA-Developers and SlateDroid have threads that talk about installing Linux inside Android, but that's not the same as running pure Linux.
Droid Basement has kernels that are developed for mobile devices including tablets, here's the link:
http://droidbasement.com/db-blog/
I bought the G-Tablet because I thought Nvidia would keep updating the drivers, but, after Froyo, the older devices were abandoned and newer drivers were built for newer devices/components. Which means, unless someone can engineer new drivers to work with newer kernels, we're all stuck with a non-updatable tablet. There are many who are trying, but, a stable honeycomb or ICS for older Froyo built tablets has been illusive. They come close, but, everytime there's a problem, it's usually caused by the lack of a newer driver or workable module.
You might also be interested in this http://developer.nvidia.com/linux-tegra . While this doesn't really cover the harmony platform that my G-Tablet was built on, newer tablets that use the Cardhu or Ventana platforms might be able to use it to build a pure Linux tablet.
By the way good luck, and, keep us informed with what you come up with.
BTW - Searching through the Slatedroid and XDA-Developer sites and reading up on what problems the devs are working on will help you get a good start. No need to duplicate the work they've already done.
Hope this helps.0 -
FWIW, Android IS a Linux distribution. Yes, it is configured with device-specific drivers (necessary for most tablets and phones), but for the most part it IS open source. You can get the source code, and usually you can unlock the boot loader so you can install new kernels and other system-level software. As for "pure" Linux on tablets, that may also be possible, since you should be able to load/use the Android drivers for your specific device on another kernel of the same release level. In any case, the device and display/video drivers are the key things that need to be supported properly in order to have a reasonable experience.0
-
I saw some babbling about this unit on the web in the past couple of days (Slashdot, Ars, whatever?) and thought it looked interesting. I may get one in a few months, once the initial release bugs are ironed out! :-)
0 -
Yes, tasty Plasma - it makes your tongue tingle!0
-
Great find MasenM,
I am going to just get one of those.
I am very excited to be able to support people making what seems to be exactly what I am looking for. May can't get here soon enough!
0
Categories
- All Categories
- 218 LFX Mentorship
- 218 LFX Mentorship: Linux Kernel
- 791 Linux Foundation IT Professional Programs
- 353 Cloud Engineer IT Professional Program
- 178 Advanced Cloud Engineer IT Professional Program
- 82 DevOps Engineer IT Professional Program
- 147 Cloud Native Developer IT Professional Program
- 137 Express Training Courses
- 137 Express Courses - Discussion Forum
- 6.2K Training Courses
- 47 LFC110 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 71 LFC131 Class Forum
- 42 LFD102 Class Forum
- 226 LFD103 Class Forum
- 18 LFD110 Class Forum
- 38 LFD121 Class Forum
- 18 LFD133 Class Forum
- 7 LFD134 Class Forum
- 18 LFD137 Class Forum
- 71 LFD201 Class Forum
- 4 LFD210 Class Forum
- 5 LFD210-CN Class Forum
- 2 LFD213 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 128 LFD232 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 2 LFD233 Class Forum
- 4 LFD237 Class Forum
- 24 LFD254 Class Forum
- 697 LFD259 Class Forum
- 111 LFD272 Class Forum
- 4 LFD272-JP クラス フォーラム
- 12 LFD273 Class Forum
- 148 LFS101 Class Forum
- 1 LFS111 Class Forum
- 3 LFS112 Class Forum
- 2 LFS116 Class Forum
- 4 LFS118 Class Forum
- LFS120 Class Forum
- 7 LFS142 Class Forum
- 5 LFS144 Class Forum
- 4 LFS145 Class Forum
- 2 LFS146 Class Forum
- 3 LFS147 Class Forum
- 1 LFS148 Class Forum
- 15 LFS151 Class Forum
- 2 LFS157 Class Forum
- 29 LFS158 Class Forum
- 7 LFS162 Class Forum
- 2 LFS166 Class Forum
- 4 LFS167 Class Forum
- 3 LFS170 Class Forum
- 2 LFS171 Class Forum
- 3 LFS178 Class Forum
- 3 LFS180 Class Forum
- 2 LFS182 Class Forum
- 5 LFS183 Class Forum
- 31 LFS200 Class Forum
- 737 LFS201 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 3 LFS201-JP クラス フォーラム
- 18 LFS203 Class Forum
- 134 LFS207 Class Forum
- 2 LFS207-DE-Klassenforum
- 1 LFS207-JP クラス フォーラム
- 302 LFS211 Class Forum
- 56 LFS216 Class Forum
- 52 LFS241 Class Forum
- 48 LFS242 Class Forum
- 38 LFS243 Class Forum
- 15 LFS244 Class Forum
- 2 LFS245 Class Forum
- LFS246 Class Forum
- 49 LFS250 Class Forum
- 2 LFS250-JP クラス フォーラム
- 1 LFS251 Class Forum
- 153 LFS253 Class Forum
- 1 LFS254 Class Forum
- 1 LFS255 Class Forum
- 7 LFS256 Class Forum
- 1 LFS257 Class Forum
- 1.3K LFS258 Class Forum
- 10 LFS258-JP クラス フォーラム
- 118 LFS260 Class Forum
- 159 LFS261 Class Forum
- 42 LFS262 Class Forum
- 82 LFS263 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 15 LFS264 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 11 LFS266 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 24 LFS267 Class Forum
- 22 LFS268 Class Forum
- 30 LFS269 Class Forum
- LFS270 Class Forum
- 202 LFS272 Class Forum
- 2 LFS272-JP クラス フォーラム
- 1 LFS274 Class Forum
- 4 LFS281 Class Forum
- 9 LFW111 Class Forum
- 259 LFW211 Class Forum
- 181 LFW212 Class Forum
- 13 SKF100 Class Forum
- 1 SKF200 Class Forum
- 1 SKF201 Class Forum
- 796 Hardware
- 199 Drivers
- 68 I/O Devices
- 37 Monitors
- 103 Multimedia
- 174 Networking
- 91 Printers & Scanners
- 85 Storage
- 758 Linux Distributions
- 82 Debian
- 67 Fedora
- 17 Linux Mint
- 13 Mageia
- 23 openSUSE
- 148 Red Hat Enterprise
- 31 Slackware
- 13 SUSE Enterprise
- 353 Ubuntu
- 468 Linux System Administration
- 39 Cloud Computing
- 71 Command Line/Scripting
- Github systems admin projects
- 93 Linux Security
- 78 Network Management
- 102 System Management
- 47 Web Management
- 63 Mobile Computing
- 18 Android
- 33 Development
- 1.2K New to Linux
- 1K Getting Started with Linux
- 371 Off Topic
- 114 Introductions
- 174 Small Talk
- 22 Study Material
- 805 Programming and Development
- 303 Kernel Development
- 484 Software Development
- 1.8K Software
- 261 Applications
- 183 Command Line
- 3 Compiling/Installing
- 987 Games
- 317 Installation
- 97 All In Program
- 97 All In Forum
Upcoming Training
-
August 20, 2018
Kubernetes Administration (LFS458)
-
August 20, 2018
Linux System Administration (LFS301)
-
August 27, 2018
Open Source Virtualization (LFS462)
-
August 27, 2018
Linux Kernel Debugging and Security (LFD440)