Puppy on Tablets

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edoc · #1 Post by **edoc** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 13:54

This forum documents about a year solving the challenges of Linux on Chinese-label tablets, one member just posted adding WiFi success to the list of todo's

http://techtablets.com/forum/topic/linu ... s/page/12/

The Chuwi Hi12 appears to be one device of interest & success

http://www.gearbest.com/tablet-pcs/pp_350502.html

Linux Mint KDE 17.3 64bit appears to be the latest & greatest successful distro.

What Puppy versions might do as well, please?

starhawk · #2 Post by **starhawk** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 15:03

FatDogARM is the only currently-developed Pup for ARM processors. The others have all been abandoned.

edoc · #3 Post by **edoc** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 15:23

starhawk wrote:FatDogARM is the only currently-developed Pup for ARM processors. The others have all been abandoned.

Do you have a link to the most current thread?

Maybe they can link-up with these developers & share what they're learning?

EDIT:

Had to fix a problem with the A/C in the car - 100F here lately - not a good time for it to fail!

Back inside I found the link & posted a link to the other Forum
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 967#911967

edoc · #4 Post by **edoc** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 17:35

starhawk wrote:FatDogARM is the only currently-developed Pup for ARM processors. The others have all been abandoned.

rcrsn51 just pointed out that the Chuwi Hi12 is an Atom device not ARM.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 984#911984

Oooops!

Back to the original question - which Puppy is likely to match-up best with what they're doing on their forum with the Atom tablet & Linux Mint?

starhawk · #5 Post by **starhawk** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 17:43

See my response in that thread

Pete · #6 Post by **Pete** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 17:58

I vaguely remember reading something where BarryK is looking at or at least considering a light weight distro on top of a stripped Debian base for mobile devices.
Not sure if ARM or X86 though.
If I find the link again, will post here.

edoc · #7 Post by **edoc** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 18:46

Thanks Pete!

I just looked around & came up empty.

I did spot his reference in 2015 to a "cross-developer's Quirky"

An OS designed to build apps for Android, iOS, Linux, & MS versions of windows

Looked as thought it dead-ended.

Pete · #8 Post by **Pete** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 18:53

Aha, I found it:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 373#909373

From BarryK's post:

This is a very quick way to get Debian running on the phone, and all the details of sharing Android functionality have been worked out (such as Internet access).
Then, I install my easy.deb and voila, a new Puppy-like distro running on the phone.

edoc · #9 Post by **edoc** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 19:15

Buried in a thread about a logo ... arghhh!

Is the Nexus 5 an Atom device?

I seem to recall it runs Snapdragon & is ARM compatible or something.

WDYT?

Pete · #10 Post by **Pete** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 20:43

edoc wrote:

Is the Nexus 5 an Atom device?

I seem to recall it runs Snapdragon & is ARM compatible or something.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_5

it is powered by a 2.26 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor with 2 GB of RAM.

and from here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualcomm_Snapdragon

The Snapdragon central processing unit (CPU) uses the ARM RISC instruction set, and a single SoC may include multiple CPU cores, a graphics processing unit (GPU).....

Whilst the Atom is from the X86 family:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Atom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_I ... processors

edoc · #11 Post by **edoc** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 21:16

Sigh ... so BarryK's effort doesn't help either.

Pete · #12 Post by **Pete** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 21:37

@edoc

I'm confused now, are you hoping to use a Nexus 5 which is an ARM based device or another X86 device?

If it's the Nexus 5, then BarryK talks about Maru OS,
It's an Android and Debian OS in one:
http://barryk.org/news/?viewDetailed=00363

If on the other hand you want to install Linux on a X86 based tablet, then there are several options, although none of them puppy-like but any Linux distro has to be better than Android:

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/ ... om-1162825

also have a look here, although I suspect that these are mainly ARM based but it may give you a lead to other X86 solutions:

http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Fe ... e-to-Linux

starhawk · #13 Post by **starhawk** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 21:41

@edoc -- try some of the newer LxPups. I don't use 'em but my understanding is that peebee keeps fairly new kit in there -- glibc and kernels and all -- so that would be your best chance at success outside of development-issue XenialPup.

X-Tahr (which is TahrPup 602 with XFCE) and TahrPup 605 /might/ run -- both 32bit and 64bit versions of TahrPup 605 should at least /try/ to boot on Cherry Trail kit. No guarantees, though!

edoc · #14 Post by **edoc** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 22:36

Pete wrote:@edoc
I'm confused now, are you hoping to use a Nexus 5 which is an ARM based device or another X86 device?

The target device was/is the Chuwi Hi12 tablet.

It uses the Atom architecture.

You had mentioned BarryK's work but that turned out to be ARM for his Nexus 5.

So we're back to Atom and Linux Mint 17.3 is the Linux platform being actively-developed on it.

I will probably go with that rather than asking Puppy volunteers to invest effort in a parallel effort - unless someone chooses to do so for their own purposes & can tap the Mint effort to smooth their path.

A Devuan (Debian fork) Puppy for the Atom tablet would be awesome but I don't see that happening & I lack the time and talent to do it myself.

Thanks for helping to clear things up!

edoc · #15 Post by **edoc** » Sat 09 Jul 2016, 22:39

starhawk wrote:@edoc -- try some of the newer LxPups. I don't use 'em but my understanding is that peebee keeps fairly new kit in there -- glibc and kernels and all -- so that would be your best chance at success outside of development-issue XenialPup.

X-Tahr (which is TahrPup 602 with XFCE) and TahrPup 605 /might/ run -- both 32bit and 64bit versions of TahrPup 605 should at least /try/ to boot on Cherry Trail kit. No guarantees, though!

Thanks starhawk!

I think I should just sit with the Linux Mint 17.3 KDE effort for the moment.

If one of the Puppy developers has a personal interest in Atom tablets, perhaps even specifically the Chuwi Hi-12, that would be awesome - otherwise I'd only waste valuable volunteer time asking tons of questions in an effort to shoehorn a Puppy not purpose-built for that tablet.

Thanks for the ideas!

Pete · #16 Post by **Pete** » Sun 10 Jul 2016, 00:24

@edoc

Like you say, perhaps one of the Puppy developers are keen to work on an Atom project, but in the mean time going with the Mint effort is probably your best bet.

IMO, one of the stumbling blocks with porting any OS to mobile devices is the sheer number of different ARM processors and capabilities and Intel came late to the party and as a result, Atom based devices still only have a small market share.
This makes porting to Atom based devices even less attractive.

Have a look at the article below, it's a bit dated now but still has some interesting stats:

http://www.androidauthority.com/intel-v ... gy-338340/

Insomniacno1 · #17 Post by **Insomniacno1** » Mon 07 Nov 2016, 20:16

Hi, I know this is an old thread now - but i have done extensive research on this exact topic and you can follow it in my thread:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=108295

Current problems:

Rotation
Video resolution
Wi-Fi
Sound
Bluetooth

I found the drivers for Ubuntu but can't seem to find a developer that will make the drivers Puppy style.

With kind regards

JBJ

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Puppy on Tablets

Puppy on Tablets