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newsDebian-noroot works great on new Alldocube 7-inch tablet
I posted several days ago about installing "DebDroid-ng" on my Huawei tablet:
https://bkhome.org/news/202108/debdroid-ng-works-great.html
...that uses a VNC server in Debian and a VNC viewer in Android, and is launched from termux.
More recently, I tested termux's method of running a Debian desktop:
https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Graphical_Environment
...and tried both "Xserver XSDL" and "Android Xserver", instead of VNC.
Android Xserver is only a partial implementation of X11, and the desktop
was badly broken. Xserver XSDL works, but as warned, is unstable -- a
few minutes after starting, the mouse pointer froze.
Having a native Android X server is more efficient than going through a VNC connection, so I explored this some more...
Sergii, the guy who developed Xserver XSDL, has also created a
complete Debian Buster XFCE desktop, bundled with Xserver XSDL, as an
Android APK package. It is simply a matter of install, tap the "debian"
icon, and the Debian desktop is up and running.
I thought that as Sergii has modified this Debian specifically to run
on his Xserver XSDL, that it should be stable, and yes, it is. Used it
for about an hour yesterday, no freeze, no crash. Again today, still
stable.
Firstly, here is his Xserver-XSDL project page:
https://github.com/pelya/xserver-xsdl/tree/xsdl-1.20
...it looks like he attempted to go up to SDL 2.x, but has fallen back to using SDL 1.2 -- which I can understand!
There is an Xserver XSDL APK file for Android, that I installed for the termux
tests, however the Debian noroot APK has the X server builtin, so it is
standalone. So, I uninstalled Xserver XSDL (and Android Xserver), and installed this, from the
Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cuntubuntu
For the record, here is the project page:
https://github.com/pelya/debian-noroot
And Sergii has put APKs here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/libsdl-android/files/apk/XServer-XSDL/
I found the mouse scrollwheel
doesn't work. Ah yes, mouse... absolutely essential. Very sluggish.
So definitely there are issues! But, a lot does work. I installed
Gimp and Inkscape, they work. Slow, but they do work. A photo showing
the Synaptic Package Manager, that I used to install Gimp and Inkscape:
I should mention, I am doing this on my new 7 inch Alldocube tablet, posted about recently:
https://bkhome.org/news/202108/7-inch-tablet-with-4g-lte.html
It arrived a few days ago. Minimal specs, but a surprisingly pleasant
experience to use. But, had a storage problem...
I formatted a 128GB SD card as internal storage, and
used a USB cable to copy in several hundred MB of videos -- but later
on, they just disappeared. The folder that I had created for them still
existed, but contents were gone. Huh???
This must be something to do with the SD card being internal storage.
So I reformatted it as portable storage, and copied the videos again.
This time they have been retained.
However, back to only 16GB internal storage. Have installed a few
apps, including a GPS offline mapping app, and of course Debian-noroot and Gimp/Inkscape,
and Settings is now showing 10GB used. Need to be careful not to run out
of internal storage!
Pare for the course, vendors cheating on device specs. I am treating
it as normal now. At least for products from China. Alldocube are
honest,
which does make it hard for them, as many other vendors of smartphones
and tablets on Aliexpress are outright scam artists. However, Alldocube
are incorrect with one of the specs, claiming a weight of 224g:
https://www.alldocube.com/en/parm/iplay7t-parm/
...I weighed it at 239g. Which reminded me, I am posting weights on
my blog, using a cheap Kmart digital scale. Need to confirm that it is
accurate, so have ordered a set of steel calibration weights 5g to 200g.
OK, back onto Debian-noroot, here is some user feedback:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SamsungDex/comments/kvwu98/best_linux_implementation_so_far_for_me_debian/
https://www.nextpit.com/turn-your-android-device-into-a-linux-pc-without-rooting
...swipe from the right, to expose the three command buttons, and tap
on the "back" button, and hey-presto the keyboard appears and can type
in the terminal window. Tap again on the "back" button to make the
keyboard go away.
Here are videos. The first one was created in 2014, but note that Debian-noroot had a significant upgrade in 2020...
"Use an Android phone like a desktop PC"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFulMBNvjZA
"debian linux on android"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SxJv8KHTPM
"install debian linux on android"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_GqtFsVtgQ
It has been fun getting Debian-noroot running on the tablet. An extremely restricted environment of course, but I can see the usefulness of Gimp and Inkscape to provide superior image editing. Maybe more uses, we shall see.
Tags: linux