I bought a little x86 tablet for $50 with no OS on it. Surprisingly, it works great. I loaded Mint 21.1 (with XFCE) on there and everything “just worked”! But as you can imagine, everything was very tiny, and using the touch screen was mostly impossible.
Before I go heavily modifying my Mint XFCE installation, and wind up with less-than-optimal results, I wanted to ask if there’s an x86 Linux distro for tablet/mobile? I just tried Debian 12 with Phosh, and am surprised how bad Phosh was. It couldn’t even size apps properly. For instance the address bar of the web browser is hidden by the UI Toolbar. So you can open the browser, but you can’t use it. Same for most other apps. I might try an absolutely clean install and see if it makes things better, but does anyone know of any Linux DE for mobile that will run on an x86 tablet?

  • TheBaldness@beehaw.orgOP
    1·
    1 year ago

    I was hopeful, and gave Android x86 a shot. It froze solid when attempting to find wifi networks. Oh well…

    • fulano@lemmy.eco.br
      2·
      1 year ago

      Too bad :(

      I looked at your other comments. You had problems with kde, but did you use the standard desktop kde or plasma mobile? If you didn’t try it, I’d suggest giving plasma mobile a shot.

      Another suggestion is to use a distro with wayland, so you can run waydroid and have the option to use android apps.

      • TheBaldness@beehaw.orgOP
        2·
        1 year ago

        I tried Plasma Mobile. The issues I’m having with various distros is that the UI is not for mobile, or the hardware doesn’t work. I need to find a mobile-friendly distro I want to use, and then get my hardware working. It’s quite a PITA, and I’m surprised things are still this primitive. I think part of the problem is that the touchscreen shows up as a generic two-button mouse, and I don’t know if there are linux drivers for it.

        • fulano@lemmy.eco.br
          1·
          1 year ago

          Interesting, because plasma mobile is designed for phones. The linux mobile ecosystem is still too immature, unfortunately.

          Did you have any luck so far with some os and gui combination?

          • TheBaldness@beehaw.orgOP
            1·
            1 year ago

            Okay, maybe I didn’t do it right. I downloaded KDE Plasma Neon. I guess that’s not mobile. I seem to remember KDE didn’t have the proper network drivers so I couldn’t download anything. Is it possible to install Plasma Mobile over something like Linux Mint?

              • TheBaldness@beehaw.orgOP
                2·
                1 year ago

                I’m installing the Manjaro image right now. It looks promising. At least the on-screen keyboard and wifi are working.

              • TheBaldness@beehaw.orgOP
                2·
                1 year ago

                The Manjaro image is promising, but fairly messed up. Icons are off the side of the screen, etc. Overall this looks good. I might try one of the other plasma mobile distros.

                • fulano@lemmy.eco.br
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  When you get your tablet ready for usage, you definitely need to post here, so we will know the conclusion of your saga :D