Snippets of Boox Max 2 knowledge

[KindleMeAndrey]

@elementarythree, great work! Thanks for sharing with us.

Could you describe the processes the bog down the device and how to remove them?

[elementarythree]

So much Karma all of a sudden.

I kind of don't want to make general statements about it, because I don't need them, yet you might. I disable all google related stuff, even the store backend stuff, it is needed by some applications though. I disable most of Onyx' inbuilt stuff too. It doesn't need much but I'll never use email or the browser for example. The background OTA services I also stop because I don't like updates pushed upon me and since this thing is barely seeing the internet in a few cases, it doesn't really need to run. I find it amazing how much memory all this simple stuff needs. When my gentoo linux installation is in full gear with some stuff emulated in Wine, and two browsers open with god-knows how many tabs my system needs about 1,5 GB of RAM. That Android mess sits there and does nothing and is already at ~800 without stuff disabled.

If it wasn't for the eInk screen I wouldn't really be interested in this tablet but the screen is really nice and the SoC is powerful enough to stand on it's own and run a bunch of programs in termux for coding, writing and even mailing (I let it *only* connect to my mail server via thetering to my PC exclusively) and spreadsheets. I also telnet into my workstation and run programs there. Text only is entirely fine for this thing. That said, I wonder if Termux support sixels for pictures. xterm does since a few months.

It would be so, so much more interesting if they'd unlock the bootloader and let us at it. The SoC is even supported in mainline Linux. I run an ASUS Tinkerboard that has the same SoC with the current latest stable kernel.

/rant

[sogaiu]

Originally Posted by elementarythree

That said, I wonder if Termux support sixels for pictures. xterm does since a few months.

Not sure, but there has been interest apparently:

https://github.com/termux/termux-app/issues/142

It would be so, so much more interesting if they'd unlock the bootloader and let us at it. The SoC is even supported in mainline Linux.

You are not alone:

http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/...tloader/237/24

[elementarythree]

I kind of am not annoyed as much about the usability of apps because I find most android apps awful anyways. They're good and well designed in regards to looking stuff up quickly on your phone, not really for day-to-day work IMHO. Sticking to linux programs only and text works perfectly fine on the Max 2, thanks to Termux. (The existence of Termux was the only reason I even bought it) I understand that most people need a GUI though.

I do agree that this thing still after a few months feels way too expensive for how shoddily put together it feels. I'm keeping it because there's nothing else like this and I love eInk, the companies involved in eInk do the technology not any favors regarding spread though. Feels kinda like they only want people to read books and books only and screw you if you actually want to use eInk for general purpose computing.

The tablet always felt to me like Onyx couldn't decide if they want to do a general tablet or an eReader, and as a result it ends up lacking in both aspects. If they'd market this thing as an ARM computer with big eInk screen for linux people and open up everything, I bet it could even make some people consider the steep price who wouldn't buy it in it's current (locked) state in a million years.

[tjw321]

I totally agree. My Max spends more time running ssh than anything else - though I do use it to read books - just nowhere near as much as remoting into my workstation from the garden (where most LCD screens are near unreadable).

[mdp]

Originally Posted by elementarythree

I kind of am not annoyed as much about the usability of apps because I find most android apps awful anyways. They're good and well designed in regards to looking stuff up quickly on your phone, not really for day-to-day work IMHO

It is nice to have Android apps available. They add quantity and diversity to the Linux software collection, which could be richer, and Android has good libraries for development. Not really fun to work on it - irate boiling and gnashing of teeth may abound -, but apart from the time wasted since to go from 10 Implementing Street to 16 of the same you had to study more maps than Columbus (with less chance to reach the Indies by chance), you can get things properly done.
Of course, no comparison with the quality of software we found 20 years ago, on ridiculously limited machines. Marvels of technology to run Atari logic. You can use a tablet, but it is always provisional - real work is at the desktop. (Hence my interest in using these tablets as monitors.)

Originally Posted by elementarythree

how shoddily put together it feels [...] the companies involved in eInk do the technology not any favors regarding spread though. Feels kinda like they only want people to read books and books only and screw you if you actually want to use eInk for general purpose computing.

The tablet always felt to me like Onyx couldn't decide if they want to do a general tablet or an eReader, and as a result it ends up lacking in both aspects.

No. I just guess that this is what was practically possible, in the real contextual world.
The «companies involved in E-Ink», in many ways apart from Onyx, see too small a market to act differently.

Originally Posted by elementarythree

If they'd market this thing as an ARM computer with big eInk screen for linux people and open up everything, I bet it could even make some people consider the steep price who wouldn't buy it in it's current (locked) state in a million years.

It takes time, resources, interest, and the good old absolute intention - apart from sales projections etc.
I dream of a device with dualboot, Android and X11/Wayland/etc.

[sogaiu]

Originally Posted by elementarythree

The tablet always felt to me like Onyx couldn't decide if they want to do a general tablet or an eReader, and as a result it ends up lacking in both aspects. If they'd market this thing as an ARM computer with big eInk screen for linux people and open up everything, I bet it could even make some people consider the steep price who wouldn't buy it in it's current (locked) state in a million years.

Would that there would be enough of us

[elementarythree]

Originally Posted by mdp

It is nice to have Android apps available. They add quantity and diversity to the Linux software collection, which could be richer, and Android has good libraries for development. Not really fun to work on it - irate boiling and gnashing of teeth may abound -, but apart from the time wasted since to go from 10 Implementing Street to 16 of the same you had to study more maps than Columbus (with less chance to reach the Indies by chance), you can get things properly done.
Of course, no comparison with the quality of software we found 20 years ago, on ridiculously limited machines. Marvels of technology to run Atari logic. You can use a tablet, but it is always provisional - real work is at the desktop. (Hence my interest in using these tablets as monitors.)

In recent years, I kinda got used to stay in the terminal and do everything there, even on desktop computers. Doing it the Unix way of chaining programs that do their thing well together. You'd be surprised how even very low-powered machines suddenly can do your entire workload if you're willing to think out of the box a little. We kind of keep reinventing the wheel and adding edges to it in the software world. A program that has nothing to add to because it's feature complete and does what it is supposed to do perfectly isn't considered "done" it's considered "unmaintained", even experienced people then flock to newer programs with more recent code changes even when they don't do the job better. Very weird when you first get aware of it.

Originally Posted by mdp

No. I just guess that this is what was practically possible, in the real contextual world.
The «companies involved in E-Ink», in many ways apart from Onyx, see too small a market to act differently.

Yeah probably. I can only repeat that eInk is amazing and it doesn't nearly get the attention it deserves. Imagine affordable eInk monitors in various sizes. Hell, imagine them with a handful of different colors they can display. (You may say I'm a dreamer..) I recently got a HiDPI 4k screen and while it's certainly nice, it still cannot hold up to the sheer reading comfort of the Max' screen, not even to mention the difference in power consumption, even if you include the LED-Lamp for the Max in that calculation.

Originally Posted by mdp

It takes time, resources, interest, and the good old absolute intention - apart from sales projections etc.
I dream of a device with dualboot, Android and X11/Wayland/etc.

As nice as that would be sadly it's more likely that they replace Android with something worse before that happens.

--

I was thinking some more about the rooting thing and prodding around. there's absolutely no way whatsoever writing to the block devices. I even pulled images and then tried to dd some unimportant bytes here and there - no dice. I looked at dm-verity and there might be some chain-of-thrust mount thing going on. I wonder how Kingroot does it. Honestly, permanent root isn't even all that interesting. It'd be much more interesting to have an unlocked bootloader.

[hansipansi65]

Hello Guys (and Girls ;-),
I own a Boox Ereader, but the "Note Pro":
I cant get root with KingRoot (both Windows + ADB and .apk tried); I already created a SubThread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=322626

Does somebody know a way to achieve root for this device, many thanks in advance :-)
I know this is the wrong thread probably but you seem to be the experts here