Messages

1

Gemini PDA - Linux / Controlling brightness from other WMs

« on: October 28, 2018, 05:07:01 pm »

Finally got back to looking into this, it seems that i3 is not able to evaluate the XF86MonBrightnessUp/Down key events for some reason. I've established with xev that the keypress events are properly generated on pressing Fn+b and Fn+n, but I cannot use that to trigger an event (such as calling a script to change brightness).
The same issue probably applies to the XF86AudioLowerVolume and XF86AudioRaiseVolume buttons.
Has anyone had similar issues, or a pointer for some solution? It's quite annoying to not be able to use those keycombinations. Could it be that the version of i3 supplied via Debian stretch is simply too old?
How does the standard window manager use them?

2

New products and alternatives / Topjoy falcon

« on: October 24, 2018, 09:52:10 am »

Looking forward to this one (and the One Mix 2 Yoga)!

I had been hoping the Gemini PDA could become my go-to-travel computer, but I haven't been able to get Linux working painlessly enough (stuck on Debian stretch atm, so can't get most recent packages for texlive, usability issues with i3 window manager, missing F-keys). One thing I particularly found to be unfortunate in the Gemini is that xrandr cannot be used to control a virtual screen, so I haven't been able to get a secondary screen connected via VNC. For many people that might not be a major concern, but since I intend to travel with an 7.8 or 10 inch Android e-Reader anyway, it would make lots of sense to be able to use one of these as an extended screen when working from a hotel room - with these small screens the extra space makes a lot of difference. In the Gemini PDA, the graphics driver (hwcomposer) doesn't seem to provide the ability to use an extra screen (at least I haven't found out how to do it).

With either the Falcon or the One Mix 2, this shouldn't be an issue as they use standard intel graphics. Will be a bit heavier/bulkier, but also more versatile.

3

Gemini PDA - Linux / Gemini New Debian Experience

« on: August 30, 2018, 04:32:08 pm »

Really cool! Thank you for sharing! I've done similar setup with: i3+polybar+dmenu.
The only trouble I have so far, is that the keyboard doesn't work propely (ESC key mainly). From what I see you have (in config.h) keyboard configuration in DWM? Am i corretct?

Sorry to capture this, but have you had any trouble with displaying fonts in the status bar with i3? I assume polybar is some replacement for i3status - maybe this avoids the problem I had with the fonts not being displayed at all? The best I could do last time I tried was to use the old default fonts and they were very tiny. Possibly KorpuS' problems with i3 were of the same type as mine? Would be very interested in a solution as I've grown accustomed to i3...

4

Gemini PDA - Linux / VNC server and xrandr on Gemini

« on: August 30, 2018, 04:28:40 pm »

I had planned on using an Android tablet (more specifically the Android e-Reader Onyx Boox Note) as an extended external screen for the Gemini on Linux, basically along the lines of what is described here: https://www.hitbits.net/2016/02/26/use-an-a...r-for-linux-pc/

Unfortunately, I hadn't thought of the issues that the Gemini's somewhat idiosyncratic graphics implementation raises. In particular, I'm stumbling on the crucial step of getting xrandr to make an additional, virtual output available. The only advice I found online for that so far involved adding lines to xorg.conf (or the modern descendants), but those instructions were specific to intel graphics. On the gemini, xrandr only has a hwcomposer device. I don't know much about these things, but I got the impression that's actually an Android thing?

In any case, does anyone have any advice to either introduce a VIRTUAL output for xrandr to then pipe to a VNC server, or any other method of being able to use a tablet device with a VNC client to display an extended Linux desktop?

As an aside, in case anyone else is interested in such a solution -if it turns out to be feasible - in terms of connectivity I'm aiming to have the Android device connected to the Gemini via a USB network, which should be comparatively unproblematic using the rndis device that automatically shows up (and for the Android-side of things, in case anyone's interested, there are quick instructions and even a simple app on mobilereads by user mdp: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthrea...2001&page=5 ).

5

Gemini PDA - Linux / Controlling brightness from other WMs

« on: August 30, 2018, 04:18:35 pm »

Has anyone figured out a solution for getting the relevant start scripts from lxqt working on i3, in particular for things like brightness control? If there was a solution above, I did not understand how it would work - was the idea that the linked script

I also have noticed the issue that at least on the default settings, the fonts are not rendered at all on the i3bar/i3status. Just asking as this question mentiones i3 specifically and I'd love to use it too, alternatively I can open a new thread for this.

6

Gemini PDA - Linux / left/middle/right mouse clicks and F1-F12 and Insert keystrokes

« on: August 18, 2018, 04:20:18 pm »

Has anyone found a way to get a right mouseclick? (Or any non-left click, for that matter)

7

Gemini PDA - Linux / Using newer packages than stretch

« on: August 18, 2018, 04:02:37 pm »

I noted before even getting my Gemini that it appears to be impossible for now to use Debian testing proper, as there seem to be some special packages that aren't available there. (Correct me if I'm wrong, of course!)

It's possible to build Debian testing (buster) rootfs with https://github.com/gemian/gemian-multistrap...fig/tree/buster. It's somewhat less stable for sleep sequence, but otherwise should work same. Ping me in IRC on #gemini-pda if you need help setting that up, can provide a tarball if needed.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how I would proceed to build from there. If you could give me a few pointers, it would be great!

8

Gemini PDA - Linux / Using newer packages than stretch

« on: August 18, 2018, 03:59:06 pm »

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be how it works, even with only stretch-backports the system does not boot up properly after apt upgrade.

Strange. I'm using stretch-backports with no problem. apt upgrade should not actually use anything from backports by default. You have to explicitly ask to install packages from the backports distribution, IIRC.

Regarding buster, I did install one package from buster but have  everything else from stretch. Of course, this is only really possible with applications that have very few and shallow dependencies.

What kind of problems are you having with i3?  Seems to work fine for me but I've only used it briefly, preferring stumpwm.

I have currently settled on using a chroot from Android installed via Linux Deploy. So as it's been a bit since I tried running Linux proper, I'm not sure of the details of the i3 problems any more, but one issue I remember was that I couldn't control brightness - the only way to do so was if I first started lxqt, log out and then log into i3 - in this case, the regular keyboard shortcuts work. If I log straight into i3, this does not work however, and xbacklight is not working either.

I'm pretty sure there was something else not working the way I wanted, but I can't remember right now. Might try another setup, if you say that you got backports to work that might already be sufficient for my (texlive) needs.

Another issue, albeit probably not restricted to i3, was with getting a right click on the touch screen, which would actually be useful in a variety of circumstances (even in browsing etc.). A similar  issue are the Fn keys, especially Fn11 would be useful for toggling fullscreen.

9

Gemini PDA - Linux / Using newer packages than stretch

« on: July 15, 2018, 12:17:03 pm »

I noted before even getting my Gemini that it appears to be impossible for now to use Debian testing proper, as there seem to be some special packages that aren't available there. (Correct me if I'm wrong, of course!)

It's possible to build Debian testing (buster) rootfs with https://github.com/gemian/gemian-multistrap...fig/tree/buster. It's somewhat less stable for sleep sequence, but otherwise should work same. Ping me in IRC on #gemini-pda if you need help setting that up, can provide a tarball if needed.

That sounds great, thanks!! Will be travelling for a bit now, but I'd like to take a look at this next month, so might get in touch then if I get stuck.

10

Gemini PDA - Linux / Alternative Linux available

« on: July 15, 2018, 10:15:35 am »

Hi, I've also currently resorted to using a Linux chroot instead of the native Linux due to problems with getting up-to-date packages and getting i3 to work in a clean way. So I'm using Linux Deploy to install Debian testing to the partition that the Gemian Linux normally goes to (/dev/block(mmcblk0p29).
Note that you can use this same method to chroot into the "native" Linux install as well (but then you are stuck with Debian stretch for now).

For accessing the chrrot I'm using a ssh app (ConnectBot) and for a desktop I'm using XSDL x-server instead of VNC. I'm using XFCE in this setup (not sure how well something like i3 would work in this context, ideally I'd like to get to the point where I could use i3 in the native Linux boot and XFCE for the Android chroot, but that will probably be a while)
Currently I have two main problems with that:
1) XFCE used to start without problems on installs on other Android devices, but currently I'm always getting an error when I start the chroot from Linux Deploy. (Currently cannot look up the error, but might supply that later if anyone's able to have a look at it). The easy, albeit a bit cumbersome workaraound is to use ConnectBot to ssh into the chroot (user@127.0.0.1) and run the relevant commands there:

export DISPLAY=:0
xfce4-session

This works ok, although it would be nice to fix the problem so that XFCE starts right away.

2) More seriously, the keymap seems to be slightly off. I haven't been able to figure out yet if that's a problem of my Linux install or of the settings of XSDL x-server app. I copied the /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/planet_vndr/gemini file into the relevant directory of the XSDL app and also added the gemian repository to my sources.list, so that I have the necessary files in place inside my Linux chroot as well, but there are still a few signs that are missing. I'm using a German keyboard layout, and it largely works (including the Umlaute öäü and the ß), what is not working are the following symbols that are produced with Fn-combinations:
(Fn+K) -  
(Fn+L) +
(Fn+3) \  
(Fn+8)  [
(Fn+9) ]

and additionally / (Shift+7) and = (Shift+0).

I've opened a ticket in the GitHub for XSDL X-server, but if anyone has hints concerning this issue, that would be great!

11

Gemini PDA - Linux / Using newer packages than stretch

« on: July 15, 2018, 10:01:55 am »

I noted before even getting my Gemini that it appears to be impossible for now to use Debian testing proper, as there seem to be some special packages that aren't available there. (Correct me if I'm wrong, of course!)

I can live with having stretch as the basis, but there are some packages that I'd need newer packages of, for example texlive, which has an old 2016 version in stretch. I also have trouble with i3 window manager, which may or may not be solvable with the packages (may ask in the i3-related thread separately).
So I thought, I'd use apt-pinning to make stretch-backports and/or testing packages available without updating the whole system.
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be how it works, even with only stretch-backports the system does not boot up properly after apt upgrade. I was still able to get into it via Linux Deploy from Android, but the normal Linux boot just sat on the splash screen for half an hour, until I decided to just shut down the device.

I have for now decided that I cannot use the native Linux productively with this restriction and am trying to get workable Linux Deploy chroot + XSDL x-server setup running in Android. (This has its own issues with getting the keymap to work properly, unfortunately, but I'll try and find the appropriate thread for asking about that when I find some more time).  However, ideally I'd like to be able to use the native Linux without fearing not to get back in. Does anyone know of a way to get newer packages working without breaking the device? Or could anyone pinpoint what is causing the problems when trying to update so as to try and build around the relevant packages that must not be updated?

12

Gemini PDA - Linux / left/middle/right mouse clicks and F1-F12 and Insert keystrokes

« on: July 15, 2018, 09:52:20 am »

So my inability to get a right mouse-click to work isn't just my own misconfiguration, it doesn't work for anyone (except for the alternative driver in another thread which uses the touchscreen as a trackpad)?

If anyone knows how to get a right click on the touchscreen, I'd love to hear about solutions! I tried using evdev instead of libinput, but that didn't help (maybe expectedly considering libinput is more modern).

The F1-F12 keys would also be useful to get to. Somewhere I read that you should be able to get them with Fn+Shift+1-12, maybe give that a try. It might work in the native Linux, does not in a chroot running via Android, but maybe that is to be expected. (I decided yesterday to try a chrooted Linux for the time being, as I need newer packages than those provided in stretch and using testing or even stretch-backports seems to break the ability to boot into the native linux.)

13

Gemini PDA - Linux / apt-get upgrade broke libreoffice

« on: July 15, 2018, 09:44:57 am »

In case none of the above helped, I was able to get things (sort of) working again using this as root (i.e. first sudo su):

for FILE in $(dpkg-divert --list | grep nvidia-340 | awk '{print $3}'); do dpkg-divert --remove $FILE; done


Got the command from this ubuntu page: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2388026&page=3

Afterwards I was able to uninstall libreoffice-base and reinstall.