I tried a Whitedeer WHTG1301 with an A733, but it only uses eMMC as the primary boot device. Now I’ll try another one with an A523 and see if I have better luck there.

Exactly. The hardware is already powerful enough. An iPad Pro with unlocked virtualization and a proper Linux VM would be an amazing travel dev machine. This is the reason I made this project, and I am still exploring for other tablets with better resolution and more resources.

That is also my dream, iPads Pro are very expensive but the hardware is so good (that is including the Magic Keyboard).

BTW OP, have you ever tried a hybrid Chromebook tablet like Lenovo Duet 3? This is my favorite device for travel exactly because it is so good as a small Linux machine. Crostini fits the "I want to run a Linux VM". You can even use postmarketOS if you want an even more "traditional" Linux experience.

I wrote about it here :

- https://kokada.dev/blog/my-favorite-device-is-a-chromebook/

- https://kokada.dev/blog/my-favorite-device-is-a-chromebook-w...

PostmarketOS is amazing on supported arm chromebooks. Unfortunately the newest 'community' level supported devices are all from the early 2020's and are getting a bit long in the tooth, especially when it comes to web browsing. I have a few that I throw in a bag for beach/jungle holidays - they are literal e-waste, something liberating about carrying a laptop that's worth significantly less than a decent family meal.

"Another issue is that this device is working well enough in v25.12 release, but I tried edge once (the rolling release channel) and my touchpad started to work in absolute instead of relative mode."

I (foolishly) did an apk upgrade and ran into this one - an AI fixed it for me, its caused by keyd having a too broad device mask (0000:0000) so it grabs everything including the touchpad causing havok. From my noteslop: "The fix was to patch /usr/bin/pmos-generate-cros-keymap to match the exact cros_ec keyboard ID, k:0000:0000:af5c732c, then regenerate the config and restart keyd so it no longer grabs the touchpad. "

> PostmarketOS is amazing on supported arm chromebooks.

Any tips on best models that are abundantly available used on the cheap and work well?

> I have a few that I throw in a bag for beach/jungle holidays - they are literal e-waste, something liberating about carrying a laptop that's worth significantly less than a decent family meal.

I definitely do this with a few Thinkpad 11e I have laying around from a failed project 4 years ago.

However I’d really like to switch to e-waste as what you describe would be very liberating. An e-waste Linux device with encrypted disk that you just wifi tether to phone and works fine for use old school types. I wonder how cheap they can go? How easy to flash? etc

I've always been disappointed with postmarket for its intended purpose (it's supposed to be a phone os) but as a thin client OS it is best in class.

Thanks, I’ll check it out. Seems interesting.

I usually prefer cheap devices for travel, because you never know when something gets lost, broken, or stolen. This tablet fits that well, Android for the kids or for testing an app, and Linux when I need something more specific.

I used phosh, which is also used by postmarketOS.

The project itself is MIT, meaning the scripts/docs I wrote. Everything else remains under its respective upstream license, GPL, vendor/proprietary blobs, debian packages, firmware, etc.

I did mention this in the license section, last line of the README.

Only when it comes to videos or something that it requires to use the CPU instand of the GPU, but overall works good.

Is not real. RK3562 supports maximum 8GB.

It's 4G just like the others:

16GB RAM (4GB+Up to 12GB Extended RAM)

Yes, in terminal the keyboard has all the keys. If you check my video you will see it when I open the terminal.

Yes, workstation is a bit exaggerated. But it is still more useful to me than stock Android on this hardware.

Bookworm was a conservative choice. I haven’t properly tested Trixie yet, so I don’t know. In theory the rootfs should be swappable.

Performance is usable, especially compared to stock Android, because there is less background bloat. It’s fine for terminal work, light browsing, VS Code, and small experiments.

If you want you can check my video: https://youtu.be/DbX13_mahKc

Ok, performance is definitely better than the Samsung. Think I'll be giving this a go.

I’d be interested in that.

I completely agree, this is not the place to let AI blindly edit kernel code. The useful approach is to use it conservatively: understand the error, compare against downstream sources, propose a small patch, review it, test it, and then move one step further.

I’d be happy to work together on an article or guidance document, where to start, how to approach debugging, what to never let AI touch blindly, and how to build confidence step by step. That could help others avoid a lot of mistakes and maybe give a second chance to other devices.