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A few day ago, I wondered if it would be possible to build a good Laptop around a Raspberry Pi? Not the best performance but modular, upgradable and well suppor

A few day ago, I wondered if it would be possible to build a good Laptop around a Raspberry Pi? Not the best performance but modular, upgradable and well supported by the Linux kernel.

5e92cb50239222b 5y ago
It's all been done before (story of my life). https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/the-best-raspberry-pi-laptop-kits https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/the-best-raspberry-pi... https://all3dp.com/2/best-raspberry-pi-laptop-kits-projects/ https://all3dp.com/2/best-raspberry-pi-laptop-kits-projects/
- sprash 5y ago
  None of those projects support the new compute module which is the only viable option for day to day desktop use. The only attractive looking device from Waveshare has a fake touchpad and can't be used for anything serious either. There is a real niche for RaspPi CM4 compatible Laptops which is not yet filled. (And all other options are useless children's toys for "tinkering".)
  - foxfluff 5y ago
    What does the CM offer that the Pi4 doesn't have?
tomcooks 5y ago
Pi top is a real product
kiwijamo 5y ago
I have a Raspberry Pi 4. If you use the official distro, which includes all the hacks to make the hardware function, it works well yes but only barely. Try any other distro and it does not work very well since Linux itself doesn't actually have a lot of suppprt upstreamed. I have to use binary blobs, tweak lots of knobs etc to make simple things like video playback work. Some (all?) distros still recommend 32-bits due to limited support for 64-bits still. Quite eye opening for me as i always thought support for Raspberry Pi was of a high standard. The reality couldnt be further than the truth. Ironically I have a Lenovo which works well out of the box with no blobs or weird hacks on Arch or Debian (despite no official support for my particular model that I know of). The latter is what I would describe as "well supported by the Linux kernel". Certaintly not Raspberry Pi.
- foxfluff 5y ago
  I never liked the Pi's NIH config stuff, but I'm running 64 bit Alpine Linux on a Pi 4 without any major issues. Still it's quite underpowered for me to treat it like a daily use laptop/pc.
  - kiwijamo 5y ago
    Are you able to play videos on it? Arch Linux ARM struggles to play videos smoothly. The official distribution seems to be better only if you use their Desktop Environment and certain blessed apps—I switched to a different DE and all of a sudden my smooth video playback broke. Asked around regarding video playback on Arch and was told to stick with the 32-bits edition instead. Agree it's no daily driver. It's great as a Samba server though which I use to share files etc—currently using the official OS for this but my next project for it is to switch to Arch which I use for all my other Linux devices. Was hoping to use it as a driver for my TV but have decided to just use it as a file server instead and watch videos over the network.
folmar 5y ago
You can just get the PineBook Pro. It's not exactly Raspberry but the support and modularity is as good and the board has far fewer problems (and there is a ready laptop). There are a few tablet designs with PI3 CM but the performance is way below PI4.

A few day ago, I wondered if it would be possible to build a good Laptop around a Raspberry Pi? Not the best performance but modular, upgradable and well supported by the Linux kernel.

5e92cb50239222b 5y ago

It's all been done before (story of my life). https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/the-best-raspberry-pi-laptop-kits https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/the-best-raspberry-pi... https://all3dp.com/2/best-raspberry-pi-laptop-kits-projects/ https://all3dp.com/2/best-raspberry-pi-laptop-kits-projects/

sprash 5y ago
None of those projects support the new compute module which is the only viable option for day to day desktop use. The only attractive looking device from Waveshare has a fake touchpad and can't be used for anything serious either. There is a real niche for RaspPi CM4 compatible Laptops which is not yet filled. (And all other options are useless children's toys for "tinkering".)
- foxfluff 5y ago
  What does the CM offer that the Pi4 doesn't have?

tomcooks 5y ago

Pi top is a real product

kiwijamo 5y ago

I have a Raspberry Pi 4. If you use the official distro, which includes all the hacks to make the hardware function, it works well yes but only barely. Try any other distro and it does not work very well since Linux itself doesn't actually have a lot of suppprt upstreamed. I have to use binary blobs, tweak lots of knobs etc to make simple things like video playback work. Some (all?) distros still recommend 32-bits due to limited support for 64-bits still. Quite eye opening for me as i always thought support for Raspberry Pi was of a high standard. The reality couldnt be further than the truth. Ironically I have a Lenovo which works well out of the box with no blobs or weird hacks on Arch or Debian (despite no official support for my particular model that I know of). The latter is what I would describe as "well supported by the Linux kernel". Certaintly not Raspberry Pi.

foxfluff 5y ago
I never liked the Pi's NIH config stuff, but I'm running 64 bit Alpine Linux on a Pi 4 without any major issues. Still it's quite underpowered for me to treat it like a daily use laptop/pc.
- kiwijamo 5y ago
  Are you able to play videos on it? Arch Linux ARM struggles to play videos smoothly. The official distribution seems to be better only if you use their Desktop Environment and certain blessed apps—I switched to a different DE and all of a sudden my smooth video playback broke. Asked around regarding video playback on Arch and was told to stick with the 32-bits edition instead. Agree it's no daily driver. It's great as a Samba server though which I use to share files etc—currently using the official OS for this but my next project for it is to switch to Arch which I use for all my other Linux devices. Was hoping to use it as a driver for my TV but have decided to just use it as a file server instead and watch videos over the network.

folmar 5y ago

You can just get the PineBook Pro. It's not exactly Raspberry but the support and modularity is as good and the board has far fewer problems (and there is a ready laptop). There are a few tablet designs with PI3 CM but the performance is way below PI4.