Linux 5.17 To Introduce A New Driver Just To Deal With Buggy x86 Tablets

[Shtirlic]

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That's great news, thx to all involved, I have old Chuwi Hi8Pro and it's working almost perfect on Arch with latest kernel, even with bluetooth keyboard autoconnection and cryptosetup. With case and keyboard it's very portable device with latest kernel and KDE.

[Nille]

How is this different compared to broken device tree files on arm?

both try to fix broken design decisions.

[stormcrow]

I always had suspicions; Android tablets are trash. They only work with the binary blobs they are shipped with. They have so much hardcoded information that Linux kernel has no chances.

This isn't why Android tablets are the unwanted stepchild of the mobile world. it's because Android developers don't bother to check to see if their apps even work or display properly on the form factor. Hence, no one wants them. There are performant Android tablets out there. I have one, but its user experience is vastly inferior to even my low end iPad. It's not the hardware, which is sufficient for a tablet. It's the software experience that isn't great.

The hardware situation isn't even visible to the majority of users. If it was, the awful peripheral I/O situation that exists in the desktop/laptop market would be very different and wouldn't be full of broken, low quality, and impossible to support chips: AMD PSP, Intel IME, buggy UEFI firmware, broken RTCs, non-functional I/O bridge chips, out of spec HDD/SDD, plethora of broken USB connected devices of all descriptions, broken USB HUBs and controller chips, a market flooded with trash USB cables, etc. They get away with it because drivers cover up this mess just to make these computers appear like they're functioning normally when they aren't.

I'd bet it's near impossible to find a single computer, mobile or not, without at least one malfunctioning circuit being covered up either in firmware, drivers, or being sold cheap with the malfunctioning circuit entirely disabled.

That's on top of the fact that no one in their right mind really wants an x86 tablet, and if they buy one, they quickly find out why. It's not quirky hardware. It's SLOW hardware with awful battery life. I also have one of those monstrosities. It's experience is even worse than the arm Android tablets. It wouldn't be saved by putting Android on it.

[some_canuck]

How is this different compared to broken device tree files on arm?

[caligula]

Lucky because my Bay Trail tablet is even worse (half RAM, half storage), and the touch panel is broken too (doesn't detect input in one region, and when it does, it is very jittery/jumps from side to side when changing fingers).

Well.. 1GB 16GB tablet is just a steaming pile of crap in late 2021. Even web browsing pretty much assumes 2GB.

[tildearrow]

nice, i have an old baytail tablet with 32GB emmc and 2 GB Ram. windows i pure garbage on it and android would be chance but most functions are not working with linux. but the touch screen has ghost inputs, so maybe the digitizer is broken :/

Lucky because my Bay Trail tablet is even worse (half RAM, half storage), and the touch panel is broken too (doesn't detect input in one region, and when it does, it is very jittery/jumps from side to side when changing fingers).

[sfrieske]

I happen to have a Chuwi Hi8 just as a display for temperature etc. I'm very happy to read this good news. Thanks Michael for this article and thanks Hans for this driver (de Goede is very likely Dutch and probably means "the good one"

[mradalbert]

Some of those tablets do work, but installing Linux on them is a hassle. Mine Cherry Trail tablet for example does not recognize accelerometer and tochscreen AND has issue showing mouse pointer upside down and registering clicks on the opposite side of screen.

Sad because these quite capable devices are forced to run windows 8 or 10 which are a bit heavy for them not mentioning that windows can be unstable on them. Mine experiences regular blue screens. Maybe it's the drivers, maybe I cannot install different ones because there are none.

[V1tol]

I have Chuwi Hi12 and tried Elementary OS 5 (because GNOME was laggy as hell and Windows was wiped immediately) on it some time ago. It even worked, I had only to recompile touchscreen driver and correct accelerometer orientation. But rolled back to Cyanogen. Will be interesting what will change for me with the new kernel.

[Nille]

nice, i have an old baytail tablet with 32GB emmc and 2 GB Ram. windows i pure garbage on it and android would be chance but most functions are not working with linux. but the touch screen has ghost inputs, so maybe the digitizer is broken :/