TCL Nxtpaper 14" as Linux laptop

[8833]

I've just bought and managed to configure the Nxtpaper 14" as a full laptop replacement.

I really didn't expect it, but hey it's real https://github.com/intxgo/termux-setup

[8833]

It seems I can't edit my earlier post to add info, but I wanted to say that I've tried a lot of setups,

- with LXQt the cpu stays iddle, with over 1GB free ram (not even used by ram cache)
- with KDE cpu stayed constantly busy, ~200MB free ram but with over 1GB of swap in use

it was similar with Gnome vs XFCE, but these GUIs were overall a bit more resource hungry and problematic to setup correctly the hidpi of this tablet

[Quoth]

Have you tried Mate desktop?

What about Synaptic Graphical Package manager as sometimes it's not obvious what you need via apt directly?

The 11 is slightly more attractive for this idea as it has the SD Card slot.

Also I'd only be interested in using a real mouse and keyboard (USB preferred to BT or other wireless).

Can the Linux access USB mass storage natively? This was the fatal flaw to Crostini Linux on ChromeOS.


Certainly my Raspberry Pi4B running Linux (Maybe Ubuntu + Mate) has much less storage and RAM than the Nxtpaper 11, and less RAM but simmilar storage to the Nxtpaper 14. It has 2G RAM and 512G SD Card. Firefox is worst on it, but it does run LO Writer, Calibre and Firefox at the same time.

Mate has the dpi setting (Appearance, Fonts) and I leave hidpi mode disabled on my 16″ QHD and 23″ 4K screens on Linux Mint. It's ages since I ran XFCE, KDE etc. Current Gnome and KDE use a lot more resource than Mate.

I use Jota+ for notes (onscreen or external keyboard) and Nebo on Android. I think a 14″ screen is a little small for Linux, though I can use an 11″ one that's not even HD, but prefer plugging in the 16″ QHD screen to that laptop (ex-Chromebook).

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Have you tried Mate desktop?

What about Synaptic Graphical Package manager as sometimes it's not obvious what you need via apt directly?

The 11 is slightly more attractive for this idea as it has the SD Card slot.

Also I'd only be interested in using a real mouse and keyboard (USB preferred to BT or other wireless).

Can the Linux access USB mass storage natively? This was the fatal flaw to Crostini Linux on ChromeOS.


Certainly my Raspberry Pi4B running Linux (Maybe Ubuntu + Mate) has much less storage and RAM than the Nxtpaper 11, and less RAM but simmilar storage to the Nxtpaper 14. It has 2G RAM and 512G SD Card. Firefox is worst on it, but it does run LO Writer, Calibre and Firefox at the same time.

Mate has the dpi setting (Appearance, Fonts) and I leave hidpi mode disabled on my 16″ QHD and 23″ 4K screens on Linux Mint. It's ages since I ran XFCE, KDE etc. Current Gnome and KDE use a lot more resource than Mate.

I use Jota+ for notes (onscreen or external keyboard) and Nebo on Android. I think a 14″ screen is a little small for Linux, though I can use an 11″ one that's not even HD, but prefer plugging in the 16″ QHD screen to that laptop (ex-Chromebook).

Termux can't access USB devices without root natively.

It's a bit jank IME. You have to run the GUI over VNC and there's possible issues from how Android treats Termux and how Termux typically doesn't have root and isn't a proper distro. It can mostly work okay though.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Termux can't access USB devices without root natively.

That makes it pointless.

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

It's a bit jank IME. You have to run the GUI over VNC and there's possible issues from how Android treats Termux and how Termux typically doesn't have root and isn't a proper distro. It can mostly work okay though.

So sideways alternative to Crostini on ChromeOS, but maybe worse.

I'm not going to run a GUI over VNC except in an emergency to a remote computer.

There are usable text editors such as Jota+ on Android.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

That makes it pointless.



So sideways alternative to Crostini on ChromeOS, but maybe worse.

I'm not going to run a GUI over VNC except in an emergency to a remote computer.

There are usable text editors such as Jota+ on Android.

It's not pointless. It does open a lot of possibilities, programming, desktop web browsers, Calibre, etc. that you can't really get in a native Android app. And with the right VNC client it can be pretty usable. I couldn't tell with TinyVNC.

You can get a very portable/flexible setup but still useful with Termux.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

It's not pointless. It does open a lot of possibilities, programming, desktop web browsers, Calibre, etc. that you can't really get in a native Android app. And with the right VNC client it can be pretty usable. I couldn't tell with TinyVNC.

You can get a very portable/flexible setup but still useful with Termux.

But it was for writing. That's what I was referring to. Termux may have some use cases.

I totally agree that native Android apps are very limited for content creation/editing compared to Linux. I have theory about it, but that's a separate story.

I have laptops, though none are as good a screen as Nxtpaper, however my portable 16″ QHD screen is nearly as nice. OK indoors and controlled lighting / selecting working position. My 23″ 4K is nearly glare free and positioned so it's like working on paper, i.e. no lights or daylight to reflect off it.

[8833]

Nxtpaper 11 is definitely too small for me to use as a desktop. I've been using 12" 16:9 laptop for quite a time, but with age it became a little too small for me. I've bought the 11 tablet only out of curiosity, and it serves only one purpose - to read books in foreign language I'm learning at the moment. I prefer e-ink for books, but when reading in foreign language I need a good dictionary integrated with the reading app to keep the reading flow, learning new words on the go.

I find the 14" really large, because it's 3:2 its height is equal to common 15.6" 16:9 laptop.

The Android exposes the Termux home dir in the File app as if it was a removable drive, that's why I've setup my proot-distro home folder in the special visible path. Then I can use File app to copy to/from Termux to other storage. This little limitation doesn't bother me, seems easy enough to occasionally copy some files.

You can use USB keyboard and mouse. I've connected a simple USB hub and a thunderbolt docking station, both works well. Nonetheless, I prefer to use my ThinkPad Trackpoint II BT keyboard. I guess any USB device will drain battery, whilst I charge my BT keyboard at most once a month. The "onboard" virtual keyboard is really nice too, also everything adapts well to orientation changes.

I do regular rsync backups. I guess I'll do them even more frequently on the tablet. With regular laptop you can always take out the ssd to read it elsewhere, but the moment I break the tablet all data on internal storage will be be gone with it.

VNC offers lower quality than Termux-x11. The latter is using some derivative of VNC protocol if I'm not wrong, but it's much better than any VNC settings I've tried.

Desktop Firefox works well with simple pages, like wikipedia, but most of the web has a lot of bloatware, no only ads, telemetry, etc, but also unnecessary CSS effects which take a toll on the CPU if not accelerated. Someone claims on reddit to have full support for the GPU, but it didn't work for me. In fact I don't care. On Android 14, the Alt+Tab works well so I can use Fennec app for web all the time, though I need to find a way to install "Firefox multi account containers" plugin.