Thread: GPD Pocket
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Posts: 671 | Thanked: 1,630 times | Joined on Aug 2010
#126
Originally Posted by pichlo View Post
You and I have very different ideas of the meaning of the word "fantastically".

Mine is admittedly a second-hand device and it is possible that the previous owner did not set it up optimally. It is also the Gnome version rather than KDE. Still, there were inexcusable glaring issues with it, such as the Settings application crashing with a kernel fault when I was trying to edit users, and then refusing to start again until I logged out completely and back in again. There was a pending OS update that fixed that but it did not fix other issues, such as...
  • Booting up and shutting down takes Bloody Ages™ (read: about three minutes), with absolutely zero feedback during the process, just a black screen, so you have no idea whether you pressed the button or WTF is going on.
  • There is no sound. No sound device is listed in Settings.
  • Closing the lid does not suspend the device and there is no setting to make it so. At least twice I had to finish what I was doing quickly so I just shut the lid and put the laptop in the bag, only to find it hot and with a dead battery when I took it out again after less than an hour.
  • The screen scale factor can be set only to 100%, where everything is so tiny that you need a magnifying glass to read the menus and 200%, where most dialog boxes do not fit on the screen. Nothing in between.
  • There is a noticeable lag in operation, in the order of seconds between e.g. tapping on an icon to start a new application and any visible reaction. Not at all what I would call "snappy".
  • No sensible package manager, like Debian's Synaptic, only a very high level "Software". That is a major issue for me. I tried to find one but no luck. There is "Gnome Packages" in the repo that is utterly useless. Whatever I do, it just presents an empty window, despite having sources set correctly.

Maybe you are used to "small things" like that but I expect things to work flawlessly and out of the box.



Can you confirm it works? Having suffered the above, I was tempted to install Ubuntu on it. I found an "official" Ubuntu ISO (16.04.1-desktop-amd_0809_2) and tried it live. It shows up sideways which does not inspire confidence to actually install it.
WoW! - you got the exact wrong iso, .


I loaded a xubuntu iso from https://apt.nexus511.net/
and it works fantastic. (+ some minor tweaks)
There are other newer efforts which may deserve a check.
(I loathe ubuntu - but xubuntu is okay, for my preference)

sound really can work
lid really can sleep the machine
you may need to scale the desktop settings depending which iso

(My updates no longer work so I am looking to upgrade OS,
which is why I was checking into MX-17.1)


This device takes a small effort to get linux on it,
but it is bread and butter for my commutes and meetings.
__________________
Three n900s: One for stable working platform,
One for development testing Chopping Onions
One for saltwater immersion power testing resurrected ! parts scavenging

My Mods for Wonko's Advanced Clock Plugin:
ISO8601 clock mod and Momental_IST clock mod

Printing your Email with the N900
 

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