10 Years Later, Linux Getting A Touchscreen Driver For A Once Popular Tablet

[bezirg]

Very detailed info, thanks hansdegoede!

Then, I will wait a bit until this bleeding edge stuff land on mainline / fedora 39.

[kn00tcn]

If it's like some other Atom based tablets, then no because all they are is a standard x86 based system with a touch screen for input. But, you will need a wired keyboard so you can get at the firmware options screen

omg... why did i never think this could be a possibility, so i should try mashing DEL or F11 with a usb keyboard on reboot on the trash dell android tablets i've acquired?

[hardfalcon]

hansdegoede: As far as the touch controller's model number is concerned: This posting in Acer's customer forum hints towards the touchscreen controller being a Novatek NT11205, and that hint gets confirmed by a matching hardware specification in the tablet's "Service Guide" (which can easily be found online for free).

Quote from the "Service Guide":

Touch Panel

1st: Capacitive type, GF solution, Driver IC: Goodix GT9293 5 point Touch panel 2nd: Capacitive type, on cell TP solution(TOD, Touch on Display), Driver IC: Novatek NT11205 5 point Touch panel(Actually 10 point)

The first two lines are stricken through in the original document (I've marked that part in red here since the forum doesn't offer strikethrough formatting).

Some of the other hardware specs also seem to differ between a supposed first and second hardware revision. For example, according to the same document, the first revision is 0.35mm thicker, has a different display panel and a different camera sensor.

[hansdegoede]

omg... why did i never think this could be a possibility, so i should try mashing DEL or F11 with a usb keyboard on reboot on the trash dell android tablets i've acquired?

If they are using an Intel CPU from the Bay Trail or Cherry Trail families then yes that might be an option. To find out the SoC family enter the CPU number in duckduckgo and then go to the ark.intel.com page for it. E.g. : https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...-2-39-ghz.html says "Products formerly Bay Trail" .

[hansdegoede]

hansdegoede: As far as the touch controller's model number is concerned: This posting in Acer's customer forum hints towards the touchscreen controller being a Novatek NT11205, and that hint gets confirmed by a matching hardware specification in the tablet's "Service Guide" (which can easily be found online for free).

Thanks, that is a good find. I've submitted a patch upstream to add this info to the drivers description:

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-input/[email protected]/