Member Avatar for Member #710387

I have a toshiba portege M400 will I have to continue using Windows XP or Windows 7 to get the full tablet functionality or is there a linux OS that is just as good or better? E.g. a Version of Ubantu, Mint or one of the more popular ones?

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Short answer: yes — the Portégé M400 series uses a Wacom-style digitizer and Linux has mature Wacom support, so you can get real pen pressure, eraser, rotation mapping and drawing tools working; the trick is using the right kernel/X drivers and the right apps. This thread already has the right instincts from and ; the Linux Wacom Project and community docs are the place to follow for driver/details. (control-d.com)

Quick practical checklist to test/configure the stylus (do this from a live USB before installing):

# kernel/device
dmesg | grep -i wacom
lsusb

# X / drivers
xinput --list
xsetwacom --list devices

If the kernel sees the hardware but apps treat it like a mouse, install/update the Wacom kernel module and the X driver / helper packages (input-wacom, xf86-input-wacom, libwacom) and use xsetwacom to map/rotate/adjust pressure. The xsetwacom manpage and distro docs show common commands and config files. (mankier.com)

Apps and handwriting: for drawing and pressure-aware painting use Krita, MyPaint or GIMP; for note-taking and PDF annotation try Xournal++ — these support stylus input and pressure once drivers are correct. Handwriting-to-text on Linux is weaker than Windows OneNote out of the box: open-source tools like CellWriter provide a user-trained handwriting input panel, while commercial SDKs (MyScript) are the higher-quality option if conversion is critical. Try the apps in a live session to confirm behavior (Wayland vs Xorg can matter; Xorg + xf86-input-wacom is historically the most predictable). (linux.com)

A couple of final tips: use a current distro/kernel (many tablet fixes landed in kernels after 3.x and continue to improve), search for an M400-specific thread before you flash (some users already posted rotate/xsetwacom scripts), and if you meant replacing Android on an Android tablet (as asked) that’s a different, device-specific challenge — projects like UBports and postmarketOS aim to replace Android on some devices but support varies by model. (linuxwacom.github.io)

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Member Avatar for necrolin

I don't have this tablet PC, but I did do a Google search for you. Users are reporting that all is working fine with Ubuntu. One thing to keep in mind is that Ubuntu is distributed as a live CD so you can try it out before installing it just to make sure that everything works for you.

As far as "as good or better" is concerned I suppose that it depends on what you do. Windows is better suited for some tasks while Linux is better suited, in my opinion at least, for others. I recommend downloading Ubuntu and giving it a test run. All it will cost you is some bandwidth and a blank CD. If you like it then install it. If you don't then give the CD away and your Windows install machine will still be just the way you left it.

Edited by necrolin because: n/a
Member Avatar for Member #710387

I don't have this tablet PC, but I did do a Google search for you. Users are reporting that all is working fine with Ubuntu. One thing to keep in mind is that Ubuntu is distributed as a live CD so you can try it out before installing it just to make sure that everything works for you.

As far as "as good or better" is concerned I suppose that it depends on what you do. Windows is better suited for some tasks while Linux is better suited, in my opinion at least, for others. I recommend downloading Ubuntu and giving it a test run. All it will cost you is some bandwidth and a blank CD. If you like it then install it. If you don't then give the CD away and your Windows install machine will still be just the way you left it.

Thanks I have tried that before, however I am looking for the stylus, pen support by linux so I can draw, write on the screen in linux programs, I don't think that is widely support or has software for it. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_pc#Linux

I think there is no support by open office so I may still need to use windows office. What else could I do? Can someone build a os that will work or develop one?

Member Avatar for necrolin

Thanks I have tried that before, however I am looking for the stylus, pen support by linux so I can draw, write on the screen in linux programs, I don't think that is widely support or has software for it. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_pc#Linux

I think there is no support by open office so I may still need to use windows office. What else could I do? Can someone build a os that will work or develop one?

The report that I read clearly stated that the stylus was automatically detected and configured by the latest version of Ubuntu. Can't help you much more than that though, sorry. I don't use a stylus, but I have seen them used with Linux. I don't think that Ubuntu includes the program for inputing your writing by default so it's something that you may need to search for it in the repositories. Wish I could be more helpful.

Member Avatar for JasonHippy

I have an old RM Tablet PC (which uses a Wacom tablet/screen) at home which is currently running Ubuntu 9.04 on it with no problems.
The stylus works fine for the usual mouse-like activities (e.g. navigating the file-system and for drawing in gimp, blender and Inkscape etc.)

Regarding handwriting to text:
I know there are a few on-screen keyboards that work with the tablet/stylus in linux, but I don't know offhand if any of them support converting handwriting to text. I use a mini-usb keyboard with my tablet for text input, so I've not used any of the on-screen keyboards yet. But it might be worth trying a few of them and having a play just in case they do have input panels for converting handwriting to text. I've got a sneaky suspicion that at least one of them does.

If you can find an on-screen keyboard that supports handwriting to text, that would probably solve your problem! Try taking a look in the repositories or perhaps do a quick google to see if there are any other open source on-screen keyboards for linux that perhaps aren't in any of the major distros repositories.

There's quite a lot of open source linux software out there that doesn't get into the main repositories of the major distros. The only minor downside to this of course is that you'd probably have to build the software from source (which could prove to be a pain if it has obscure dependencies), unless the project owners have pre-compiled packages for your distro/platform.

Cheers for now,
Jas.

Edited by JasonHippy because: n/a
Member Avatar for sirisrikanth6

i got a doubt rearding the OS...the thing is that " can i install a linux os in my Android tablet pc with out dual booting..completely linux as a single OS and i want to remove all the Android stuff in my tablet is it possible...dont think its irrelevant "

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