Have Zeki need Kubuntu tablet OS

[woodsmoke]

Hi
I bought this at Sears for 99 bucks , figured that I couldn't lose too much.

The main "complaint" about it seems to be short battery life:



It has 8gig onboard memory but I'd buy an SD card if needed.

The usb is the "mini".

I have installed Kubu on a usb stick, but have not done a computer install FROM kubu on a usb stick.

So, I will have to put Kubu on a USB stick and then connect through the "mini" port, a cable is provided.

If I can dual boot with the onboard Android that would be preferable.

So, if both can fit in the 8 gig I would do that, or purchase an SD card and install on that, I will accept any recommendations on how it might best be done.

But, also I'll need an URL from which to download the OS.

I quite realize that the Kubu tablet OS is in beta, but that is what I have always done, put OSs on strange and wonderful hardware.

So...

Have Gun Will Trav... oops

Have Zeki need Kubu tablet OS and some advice!

woodsmoke

[blackpaw]

Unfortunately I see no indication that Kubuntu Active will run on that hardware, as far as I know its fairly specialised.

[blackpaw]

Nice looking tablet though - hows the Android experience on it?

[woodsmoke]

Hi
I'm charging it now, it takes ten hours.

The instructions are on one sheet two sides.

side a) turn it on and hit the wi-fi button
side b) hit the button on the screen to install preloaded apps.

Amazon app store
Aldiko E-book Reader
ES-Explorer
forum.

Shelf view in the e-book reader app has a "user's manual".

The second review (above) says that it is "pre-rooted" so that people who are familiar with "hacking an android" should be able to add software.

So, ....am I to take it that there is no Kubu tablet OS to try to install?

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

Addendum to below post, here is one return for "the forum".

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/...id-tablet.html

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

hardware hackers and how to install play store at the bottom

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.p...-7-quot-Tablet

[woodsmoke]

The hardware hack

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1621831

[woodsmoke]

another hardware hack forum

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...php?p=32946346

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

A "big idea" that I seemed to get from perusing the threads is that since it is "rooted" one can download the "zip file" for Play Store( android) or even "Chrome" and just "install it", by unzipping etc.

Also can do it to the sd card but they are just installing in the original memory.

So, it would seem that maybe if one "zipped" an OS, put it into the memory and unzipped it might go through the install within the memory?

just a thought.

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

installing google apps (play store) on the sd card,

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1802609

relevant items
be "in root" not in a "folder",
unzip etc.

So....maybe try that or, maybe try a "net install"?

woodsmoke

[blackpaw]

Also no, OS's need to be built specifically for the hardware they run on - boot, kernel, drivers etc. e.g, when you install Kubuntu on a PC its specifically for the x86 platform. You couldn't install that same download on an Alpha, you need a special build for that.

The Play Store and Chromium zips your looking at are are designed to work on Android, java basically which abstracts the hardware platform for them. Its exactly the same as rooting an Android phone.

[SteveRiley]

Wow, interesting. Never heard of Zeki. The reviews appear pretty favorable. Screen resolution seems a bit low, though...that's probably how they keep the cost down.

I did some digging; even found photos of someone's disassembly. Zeki uses the Allwinner A10 processor, which includes an ARM CPU and a MALI GPU. At 1.2 GHz, it'll struggle a bit with multiple apps running. You might be able to overclock it with a different ROM that includes an alternate kernel. Download the SetCPU app from the Market Play Store to see what kind of CPU tweaking you can do.

Keep an eye on the Plasma Active download page. Some ARM images are listed, but they are for specific tablets. Unlike x86, there is no such thing as a generic ARM. Like nearly all ARM variants, the A10 is a system-on-chip, and we'll have to wait for the Plasma folks to create a build for the A10.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
Thanks guys for the comments .
I'm typing this with dtwo finger kramer style on the device.

If there is a closed site for a plasma tablet beta I would much rather try that than install plain kubu.
However if there is just no plasma tablet available then I could do kubu .
Woodtwofingerkramersmoke

[woodsmoke]

Ok, so I looked at the Kubuntu download page and it has an ARM that is OMAP4 which I would assume is a more widely used chip.

So, well, it is working ok.

The "free stuff" which is in a "git-jar", all has some kind of advert with them, and there are not that many useful items, but I did install a memo and Angry Birds.

The e-book reader is not as sophisticated as the one that is in Android play store and will only read .pdf and Epub, but after a bit of searching I found Jeeves and Wooster at a non-Gutenberg site which provided both a .pdf and epub that did work. However, no bookmarks or stuff that I can discern.

The instructions in the vieweable doc are sketchy at best.

There is no way to add a "third party" application except from the get-jar although there is an obvious tool for removal of apps.

It did occur to me that possibly there might be something I might do with trying to get Kontact to work or maybe a "Windows" version of KDE office, etc. to run in some kind of virtual machine.

It also did occur to me that when the appropriate version for the particular ARM is available that I could try to specifically install it to the sdcard, if Kubuntu would somehow also install a GRUB so that I could choose between the two.

There is no obvious way to get multiple users on the device, only to set a password.

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

Ok, so I looked at the Kubuntu download page and it has an ARM that is OMAP4 which I would assume is a more widely used chip.

Binaries compiled for x86 won't work on ARM chips, so you can't run "regular Kubuntu" at all. And binaries compiled for OMAP won't run on A10.

The "free stuff" which is in a "git-jar", all has some kind of advert with them, and there are not that many useful items

If you can find a Google Apps bundle for your device -- frequently called "gapps" on XDA Forums -- then you'll get the .apk for the Play Store.

There is no way to add a "third party" application except from the get-jar although there is an obvious tool for removal of apps.

Have you tried sideloading?

It also did occur to me that when the appropriate version for the particular ARM is available that I could try to specifically install it to the sdcard, if Kubuntu would somehow also install a GRUB so that I could choose between the two.

ARM bootstrapping is a completely different beast than x86. I don't know of anything remotely like GRUB for ARM devices. ARM devices aren't intended to be general-purpose computers, so much of the flexibility we associate with PCs and laptops simply doesn't exist in ARM land. That said, it's possible to multiboot multiple Android ROMs on some devices.

There is no obvious way to get multiple users on the device, only to set a password.

Not an Android feature.