One day an unusual tablet came into my hands, TCL Nxtpaper 11, really basic tablet but with unusual screen, matte. The TCL followed up on the success of the 11" model with new versions, including a 14". I was thinking about it, but honestly I don't need such large mobile device (think very limited mobile apps designed for tiny-screens, instead of desktop apps on a large screen). Nonetheless, I took the plunge buying quite cheaply the 14" version on Amazon. I didn't have much hope to make it the 100% of my "typing machine", but surprisingly it fits the purpose largerly exceeding my expectations! The only app where I "feel" the lack of computing power is the web browser. The browser responds reasonably well (i.e. I can't complain about its speed whatsoever) but some web pages are clearly not functioning properly having significant delays on loading some content, etc.
So here are my notes of the setup
Install Termux app
Install Termux-x11 app, nightly build
Start Termux app and execute:
pkg update
pkg install x11-repo
pkg install pulseaudio
pkg install proot-distro
also install a companion, nightly build, for the GUI app
pkg install termux-x11-nightly
Go to Android settings, enable 'Developer options' menu where you turn on 'Disable child process restrictions' to avoid random processes being killed, as explained on github, also 'Stay awake' to avoid suspending long operations when connected to power source.
pkg proot-distro install debian
pkg proot-distro login debian
To be able to see the user home folder from Android File app, it has to be placed in special location instead of /home/user
mkdir /data/data/com.termux/files/home/user
Add user pointing to the desired home location
useradd -d /data/data/com.termux/files/home/user user
passwd user
apt update
apt install sudo
usermod -aG sudo user
su - user
chsh -s /bin/bash
exit
exit
At this point create helper script bash.sh
proot-distro login debian --user user
./bash.sh
Install desktop
sudo apt install lxqt -y
Wait util it asks you for keyboard choice, then leave it running overnight (be patient it'll be stuck for hours in 'unpacking papirus-icon-theme')
Install libreoffice
sudo apt install libreoffice -y
sudo apt install libreoffice-qt6 -y
sudo apt install onboard -y
exit
The libreoffice QT plugin is needed for proper hidpi scalling.
Then create script for starting the desktop destkop.sh, credits
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
# Kill open X11 processes
kill -9 $(pgrep -f "termux.x11") 2>/dev/null
# Enable PulseAudio over Network
pulseaudio --start --load="module-native-protocol-tcp auth-ip-acl=127.0.0.1 auth-anonymous=1" --exit-idle-time=-1
# Prepare termux-x11 session
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=${TMPDIR}
termux-x11 :0 >/dev/null &
# Wait a bit until termux-x11 gets started.
sleep 3
# Launch Termux X11 main activity
am start --user 0 -n com.termux.x11/com.termux.x11.MainActivity > /dev/null 2>&1
sleep 1
# Login in PRoot Environment. Do some initialization for PulseAudio, /tmp directory
# and run KDE as user.
# See also: https://github.com/termux/proot-distro
# Argument -- acts as terminator of proot-distro login options processing.
# All arguments behind it would not be treated as options of PRoot Distro.
proot-distro login debian --shared-tmp -- /bin/bash -c 'export PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 && export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=${TMPDIR} && su - user -c "env DISPLAY=:0 startlxqt"'
exit 0
Te goal is to have a cristal crisp display using full screen resolution, but for the setup process you can set a 'scalled' 200% resolution in the Termux-x11 app options.
./desktop.sh
Open 'Preferences -> Session settings'
- set 'Scale factor: 2.00`
- uncheck 'Power Management' in LXQt Modules list (to avoid error popups during startup)
- add 'onboard' to autostart
- add env variable
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=qt6 - add env variable
SAL_VCL_QT6_USE_CAIRO=true
The VCL env variable are needed to actually turn on the use of 'libreoffice-qt6' rendering plugin which adheres to the overall QT desktop scaling factor. I had no luck making the GTK rendering frontend accept a hidpi scalling.
Logout in the GUI. Open app preferences to change resolution to 'native' and start ./desktop.sh again in Termux app shell.
In the GUI, start onboard-settings to cofigure the onscreen keyboard to your liking, for example 'Window -> Dock to screen edge'
The above setup fullfills all my needs. Everything else will be just a cherry-on-the-top.
There are some ways to pass-through harware acceleration. This account, which I foud earlier, have an interesting article to explore further.
I'm going to use web browser, ebook and pdf readers native apps, but who knows, if the termux setup proves to be energy efficient and fully accelerated I might just only use termux.
The Alt+Tab from external keyboard is handled early, switching between Android apps instead of giving it to the Linux desktop.
Beware that when you switch back with Alt+Tab to the Termux-x11 desktop, the Alt key stays sticky. All touch and keyboard events are as if Alt+[event] was commanded, untill you tap Alt key again to release the sticky key behavior.
Surprisingly this tablet let me disable all Google apps, including Google play services. I had to install first some fossify apps from f-droid for the default apps to set them in Android settings -> Apps -> Default apps, instead of the Google apps before I could disable them. That's really what I like as I have no use of play store on my tablet but these apps will do something (useless) in background by default.
A LibreOffice Calc opened up with on-screen keyboard
Session-settings
Autostart onboard
Session env variables
