[fedora-arm] Re: Any inexpensive ARM tablet w unlocked bootloader known to work?

On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 6:35 PM, Fernando Cassia <fcassia@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> The market is flooded with $100 or less ARM based tablets (usually
> 7"), but finding one with unlocked bootloader is a quest....
>
> So any brand/model I should know about?

There's a bunch of AllWinner tablets that are unlocked that should
work. I say should because with all the cheap tablets it's a constant
moving target because they'll change screens, touch interfaces, sound
codecs and wireless chips so it's a tail chasing process and we really
don't have the resources, both financial to buy all of the various
revs and human to work out the changes, write the bits needed, and
test it all, so it's not really a market we chase. I think this is
felt similar by other traditional Linux distros as well as other more
focused on that market such as LineageOS and their similar level of
support for such devices.

> I was about to buy an ages-old HP touchpad just because I read in the
> forums that dual booting android/linux was possible, yet the thought
> of just 1GB ram makes me feel uncomfortable, as I know today's Chrome
> browser can easily eat up 1GB all by itself.....

I'm not aware of a cheap tablet that offers over a gig of RAM that we support.

> And brand name ones (eg Samsung) are way out of my current budget.
>
> I know there must be a niche player somewhere in Shenzen pumping out
> ARM tablets with unlocked bootloader....

All of the AllWinner tablets are in this category but see issues
above, if there's tablets based on the Rockchips 32xx SoC they might
be an option but I'm not aware of any. There's a handful of AllWinner
reference devices (they appear on the market in many iterations but
have the issues mentioned above) that we have enabled and have has
reports of levels of success but you'll likely need to roll your
sleeves up and deal with kernel stuff to get the last mile.

> Any leads/ideas? thanks in advance...

Honestly not really, it's not an area we focus on, not because it's
not attractive but with limited resources we need to focus on best
bang for buck (whether that be project/company/personal) in terms of
usage and that is currently the SBC/IoT/Server/Embedded style device
and to a lesser extent Chromebooks/Laptops as that where the
users/contributors are interested.

P

> FC
>
> --
> During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary
> act
> Durante épocas de Engaño Universal, decir la verdad se convierte en un Acto
> Revolucionario
> - George Orwell
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