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e-reader devices? (e-ink)

Added by Replicant #0 almost 8 years ago

Hi,

There are lots of e-reader devices that started using Android, from smaller ones (like kobo or nook) to bigger ones (like Boox M96 and newer ones). They use a Freescale CPU most of the times.
Would it be possible to have Replicant in these devices? Some of them have 512MB/1GB of RAM and can be a bit laggy thanks to Android, so with replicant not only you would gain a Free environment, but also a way more faster one.

What do you think? They are becoming more and more popular (it's easy to imagine that in future they will all run Android, once the hardware will be more and more powerful) and if you can give a good feedback to producers maybe they will even fund you to collaborate with them.

I hope you will take this in consideration!


Replies (2)

RE: e-reader devices? (e-ink) - Added by Wolfgang Wiedmeyer about 7 years ago

I'm also interested in getting an e-ink device supported by Replicant. I used a Sony PRS-T1 for some time a few years ago, but it was too slow with more complex pdf files and the lack of a color display made studying certain graphics pretty hard. So if there is a device available at some point that has a color display and that has more powerful hardware, I'd be very interested in getting it supported.

Replicant #0 wrote:

There are lots of e-reader devices that started using Android, from smaller ones (like kobo or nook) to bigger ones (like Boox M96 and newer ones). They use a Freescale CPU most of the times.
Would it be possible to have Replicant in these devices? Some of them have 512MB/1GB of RAM and can be a bit laggy thanks to Android, so with replicant not only you would gain a Free environment, but also a way more faster one.

Some research could be done to identify devices that already have support for LineageOS or CyanogenMod. Sometimes, AOSP-based builds are available. See the Targets Evaluation page for more details. I doubt that it will be faster with Replicant as Replicant usually can't make use of hardware acceleration for graphics and software rendering needs to be used.

What do you think? They are becoming more and more popular (it's easy to imagine that in future they will all run Android, once the hardware will be more and more powerful) and if you can give a good feedback to producers maybe they will even fund you to collaborate with them.

Yes, this would obviously be great. To make the porting work as easy as possible, producers need to publish as much source code as possible for the devices and there must be a way to flash images. Donating devices to Replicant developers would also be very helpful to get the work started.

RE: e-reader devices? (e-ink) - Added by robin p about 7 years ago

Wolfgang Wiedmeyer wrote:

Yes, this would obviously be great. To make the porting work as easy as possible, producers need to publish as much source code as possible for the devices and there must be a way to flash images. Donating devices to Replicant developers would also be very helpful to get the work started.

This is one area we are in a great situation with the Kobo; I use that device for Xcsoar, software for hang gliders and para gliders and it is very open to hacking. The developers of the Kobo provide lots of assistance for that software and for hacking in general, mostly via the mobileread.com forums. This could be a good resource for anyone who wants to develop Replicant for Kobo.

e.g. this list of hacks:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217160

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