# Experience in Tablet-PC's

## tuner23

Hello community,

i want to buy a Tablet-PC and install gentoo on it.

Has some experience with installing gentoo on Tablets, are there problems to consider during installation?

Which  Tablet-PC should i buy (on which is gentoo/linux working)?

Thanks in advance,

Antonios.

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## ManDay

I've had an ASUS EEE Slate and a Samsung XE700T1A. On both, installation was no problem and I got all the hardware but the light- and accelleration-sensors working straight away. If you need an on-screen-keyboard you may want to try mine:

https://github.com/ManDay/gboard

and try Cellwriter for handwriting recognition.

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## tuner23

Hy ManDay,

thanks for your information, i will try out the samsung device and checkout your software.

Tabs are so conveniend when you are on the way and wan't to do a small hack or compile/test a kernel  :Very Happy: 

Greets,

Antonios.

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## ManDay

 *tuner23 wrote:*   

> Hy ManDay,
> 
> thanks for your information, i will try out the samsung device and checkout your software.
> 
> Tabs are so conveniend when you are on the way and wan't to do a small hack or compile/test a kernel :D
> ...

 

I guess it depends very much on your taste and the purpose you want it for. I originally had thought the same and went with a convertible and these two tablets for years, but in the end, I went back to a netbook and an e-reader w/ pen.

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## tuner23

Hy,

that's the thing.

I do a longer holiday trip and want to introduce myself on kernel hacking by the way. So i wanted a cheap and easy solution instead of my notebook.

Another notebook isn't a solution for me, because after that i wouldn't have use for it anymore and also i need a tablet, when i'm on the way so i will try this out..  :Smile: 

Did you maybe know a good and easy to use howto for installing gentoo on a tablet? 

I would appreciate it if i could get some hints..

Greets,

Antonios.

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## srs5694

I don't own a tablet, but my understanding is that most modern tablet computers use UEFI instead of BIOS, so you may well run into UEFI issues. There are a number of recent threads here on UEFI (or EFI; UEFI is just EFI 2.x) issues, so you can do a search on this forum to learn about them. You might also want to check my Web page on EFI boot loaders for information on that specific (U)EFI issue.

One additional issue: If you buy a tablet that ships with Windows 8, it will almost certainly ship with Secure Boot enabled, which will complicate matters further. This isn't a big deal on an x86 or x86-64 system if you understand firmware setup utilities, since you can pretty easily disable Secure Boot. On ARM-based systems, though, Microsoft requires that Secure Boot can not be disabled. At the moment, that will be a significant stumbling block, since AFAIK there is as yet no Linux boot loader that's signed with a key that will let it boot on an ARM system with Secure Boot enabled and set to boot Windows. This issue will probably eventually be overcome, but you should probably avoid ARM tablets with Windows pre-installed for the moment. ARM tablets that run Linux (including Android) are probably OK, but it's conceivable that some manufacturers will have locked them down, so it's best to look into this issue before buying.

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