13 ms·

Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

579 points by felixr 2y ago

joemazerino 2y ago
Awesome work. Know any surplus stores that carry BB keyboards?
- walterbell 2y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41139869 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41139869
anonzzzies 2y ago
Shame it's not available for purchase at the moment. Would like one.
- walterbell 2y ago
  https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/hackberrypi-cyberdeck-handheld-with-bbq20-keyboard/ https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/hackberrypi-cyberd... More HackPi Q10 will be restock within 5 days. More HackPi Q20 will be restock in 2 weeks.
  - anonzzzies 2y ago
    Oh thanks, I missed that. Didn’t know this site.
dchuk 2y ago
This form factor is so tempting. I’ve gotten close to pulling the trigger on the minimal phone like 5 times but just don’t know if I can actually reasonably switch from my iPhone and not end up annoyed with the change (https://www.minimalcompany.com/ https://www.minimalcompany.com/). But a calm, keyboard oriented device just seems great.
- smashah 2y ago
  The N900 (or N810) form factor is also great, especially for CLI commands/coding. There was a team trying to bring it back to life (neo900)
more_corn 2y ago
This is super neat! Well done. Very well done. I love the dual battery, hard power switch, good keyboard. I know how hard it is to do these right and I’m impressed.
atrus 2y ago
This is one of the very few Cyberdeck kinda things that looks like it could be actually useful. I love it!
- bloopernova 2y ago
  I have a vague idea of what my ideal Cyberdeck would be, no idea if there's anything like this already: One of those super-wide small screens, 1920x720 or thereabouts, with the screen split into 2 terminals. Since I'm wishing, I'd also like that screen to have a 300 to 600ppi e-ink screen built in to a layer, so that when the colour screen is off, the e-ink is visible. A PC, x86_64 or arm64, built into the screen, with lots of ports, IO, compatible with Pi hats/shields. For extra coolness, a pluggable system like Framework so if someone wants a real RS232 port, they can get one. With USB-C power so I can use any powerbank or other compatible power supply. A Keychron lightweight Alice-style keyboard, folding a bonus, QMK mandatory, standard bluetooth and/or USB.
marcodiego 2y ago
I wonder if simply adding one of these ESP with GSM builtin would turn this into a practical linux phone.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  You'd need an additionnal micro and speaker, or at least some usb-c headset but yeah this give some ideas. Also battery life would probably sink.
- wildzzz 2y ago
  The GPIO port is accessible under the back cover so I could easily see add-on modules that could piggyback on. Design a small backpack to use the existing latch, add some tiny pogo pins and the module could be easily swapped out. A lorawan transceiver and a GPS receiver would be an excellent pair.
- hawski 2y ago
  Unfortunately advertised battery life isn't practical. Though maybe with software enchantments it could get there.
swores 2y ago
I wasn't expecting to see buy now links, so I wasn't too disappointed when I did see them but found they both say out of stock - was completely ready to impulse buy the BB Q20 keyboard version (or either, really!) and hope that having registered to hear it more being sold I'll be able to get one. I'd almost be tempted to try to put one together myself, but it's not something I'd find particularly easy and there's other stuff I'd rather spend time on. But might be tempted...
- walterbell 2y ago
  Stock ETA is 1 or 2 weeks, depending on model.
  - swores 2y ago
    Yep thanks, I'm indeed hoping to take advantage of that! But I have a sneaking suspicion it won't be a big enough quantity to satisfy even the people who've seen this HN submission so may well come down to what time of day / how quickly I see the email
    - walterbell 2y ago
      Both models say "Sold out since Aug 02". If all the existing stock was bought by HN readers today, then 1-2 weeks isn't bad for the next batch, and today's waitlist can influence batch size. There seem to be lots of BB keyboards on Amazon, so hopefully the constraint is funding and manufacturing, not components. Lots of demand from HN can only help with funding!
      - swores 2y ago
        I saw this thread almost immediately after it was posted and both versions were already out of stock when I got to those pages minutes later, so my assumption was that there either were very few devices (just a couple of PoCs) or that sales had come from somewhere other than HN, either way leaving the majority of people who want to buy it from seeing this thread on the waiting list with me. Though maybe I'm wrong about how popular it will be, and actually only the handful of people who've explicitly commented about wanting to buy it, like me, will have joined the waiting list and some may then decide not to buy it having slept on it - but it's definitely possible that lots of people are looking forward to getting one or more!) I also assumed that it was a fairly DYI project done by a single founder (DYI as in him making them himself one by one, rather than having either a team or an outsourced factory ready to scale up to meet whatever demand is on the waiting list), but again I may be guessing wrong (or may have forgotten something they wrote that shows I'm wrong), but it's a few hours past my bedtime so I'll just hope that when I wake up they might have replied to my message asking if I could reserve one rather than spend more time guessing about their production capacity :D )
rbanffy 2y ago
If it used the Blackberry Passport format (and screen) I'd love it even more.
notpeter 2y ago
Very similar to the Beepberry. Exciting to see someone else building into that form factor. Also love to fun to see the Nokia BL-5C battery (originally introduced in the Nokia 3650 in 2003) still alive and kicking 20years later. https://blog.beeper.com/2023/05/16/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry/ https://blog.beeper.com/2023/05/16/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry/
- jsheard 2y ago
  That appears to have been renamed to the Beepy, and the product page now has the repurposed Blackberry keyboard blurred out. Did whoever owns the corpse of Blackberry go after them for trademark infringement? https://beepy.sqfmi.com/ https://beepy.sqfmi.com/
  - itomato 2y ago
    Is this when they start pre installing QNX? https://carleton.ca/rcs/qnx/installing-qnx-on-raspberry-pi-4/ https://carleton.ca/rcs/qnx/installing-qnx-on-raspberry-pi-4...
ntw1103 2y ago
Looks super awesome. I've been slowly working towards building pretty much the same thing, but haven't had enough time to finish. I added myself to the wait list. Intend to purchase 3 if I'm able to. Getting everything into such a nice packet is very cool.
zitterbewegung 2y ago
Wow this is amazing it’s the best cyber deck I have ever seen or would consider using. I wonder if you could get rid of one battery and shove in a 4g LTE modem connected to a usb port.
anotherjesse 2y ago
Has anyone built something like this in the hiptop/sidekick format? If not, this might be a good second option for hacking together a chat device for LLMs with notes I had been thinking about using https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck as a base - but prefer using Linux to microcontrollers
- garciasn 2y ago
  I miss my Hiptop(s). Nothing has come close to that experience since. I could carry on 10 AIM conversations, IRC, and be doing browsing and email while typing at ~100 WPM.
bee_rider 2y ago
It looks neat. It is a shame, though, to use an RPi and not exploit the GPIO pins a little more. Maybe add a slot on the side to fit some probes or something? I guess the Pi is all digital anyway so maybe the pins are not as interesting…
- amelius 2y ago
  It has DAC/ADC ports, I suppose.
- boguscoder 2y ago
  Pins are still pretty handy though. Tangential to the OPs use case, but I use my Zero 2 as a debug probe (with openocd) for few MCUs (mostly Pi Pico), and it comes out $$$ cheaper than JLink’s official one and analogs
deleted 2y ago
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amelius 2y ago
Is there a page where they describe where they sourced the components, e.g. screen and keyboard?
- walterbell 2y ago
  Amazon has vendors listing BB Q10 parts, including keyboard and LCD for < $20, https://www.amazon.com/s?k=blackberry+q10+keyboard+replacement+parts https://www.amazon.com/s?k=blackberry+q10+keyboard+replaceme... Fairberry has a PCB design for adding Q10 keyboard to any mobile phone with a USB port, https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry
keheliya 2y ago
Amazing! How hard will it be to replace the screen to an eInk one similar to the beepberry/beepy? I love everything except the screen, and I assume eInk will be the perfect match considering the terminal and power consumption.
afandian 2y ago
I bought the Bluetooth keyboard from this maker, ZitaoTech. The fit and finish was excellent. Highly recommended.
- henearkr 2y ago
  So it's a recently made clone of the keyboard, rather than an original one? The readme is unclear on this subject, they advertise "original keyboard".
  - afandian 2y ago
    To be clear I mean this: https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/blackberry-bb9900-bleusb-keyboard/ https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/blackberry-bb9900-... It’s an original new old stock BlackBerry keyboard, packaged in a good 3d printed case with Bluetooth, USB and battery charger.
    - henearkr 2y ago
      Oh ok! Thanks.
83457 2y ago
Looks like it could be a great pocket device for pico-8 development.
- grugagag 2y ago
  That’s my thoughts as well. I ordered a uConsole from clockworkPI, long waitlist there. This is tempting me again. I feel this may have even better ergonomic qualitty for my personal taste and appeara more portable.
  - 83457 2y ago
    Every time I see a little game/dev device with a square screen I think about pico-8. The devterm looks like it could be a good device too as you could have pico-8 running on one side with code editor taking up the rest of the screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XC5lC9nGWM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XC5lC9nGWM
  - ngcc_hk 2y ago
    Order one. Dead on arrival. Gave up. Now may think to savage at least the rpi …
    - grugagag 2y ago
      Sorry to hear. How many months after you ordered it did you actually receive it? Im taking a gamble on this but wasn’t aware they do no testing before shipping.
  - matheusmoreira 2y ago
    There's a waitlist for the uconsole? I was planning to buy one but that made me reconsider.
neon_me 2y ago
Would love to see "real phone" version w gsm/lte module and at least a day lasting battery (optimization)
- oneplane 2y ago
  Isn't that what the PinePhone and Librem 5 are? They don't have an embedded physical keyboard and do have a touchscreen, so the physical features are slightly different, but otherwise they are still a mobile ARM linux computer.
  - Y_Y 2y ago
    The touchscreen is a big difference though. You need to run some kind of graphical environment to handle the touch input and then it's slow and you have a crappy keyboard. I love my pinephone, but even with sxmo I find it unresponsive and hard.to work on. The keyboard shell for the pinephone is good, but changes the form factor then.
    - tetris11 2y ago
      Nokia N900 has a pinephone port
helpfulContrib 2y ago
I'm quite enamoured by the uConsole [0] .. I've had it for a few weeks and find myself reaching for it more and more, having set it up with the close family/friends Discord channels .. its nice having a machine just for the task, kind of thing. It would be so nice for a few more of my friends/family to have such little things, and leave the world of third-party-based social communication well and truly behind .. Surely, somewhere out there, someone has a small fleet of these cyberdecks, connected with tunnels, doing nicely secure communication .. [0] - https://www.clockworkpi.com https://www.clockworkpi.com
wifipunk 2y ago
I've been wanting to build my own handheld ever since I picked up a 3d printer so the last few months I've been checking these builds out. The blackberry keyboard is my favorite part of the build, definitely going to do the same for mine. Looks great with the casing.
- deepspace 2y ago
  I am working on the same kind of thing. For me the ideal keybaord/screen combination was the Keyboard Featherwing from Adafruit https://www.adafruit.com/product/4818 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4818 . Unfortunately, it is a discontinued product. I managed to snag one of the last ones, but I am reluctant to use something that I cannot get any more of.
starik36 2y ago
There is also the Tindie Null 2 kit - it's built around Rapsberry Pi Zero 2W. I picked one up several years ago and built a gameboy replacement of sorts. It was a lot of fun. Lots of soldering. https://www.tindie.com/products/ampersand/null-2-kit/ https://www.tindie.com/products/ampersand/null-2-kit/
ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
Oh great! Another awesome looking cyberdeck that I want to own and will find absolutely no practical use for. I've added myself to the waitlist already.
- IgorPartola 2y ago
  See I do have a use for this kind of thing, but not exactly. I have a few desktop towers and Raspberry Pi devices that sometimes due to upgrades or random acts of Zeus absolutely fail to boot up. I want some ability to connect a keyboard and a screen to these so I can see the actual boot screen. Normally for me this involves lugging the device to my office and connecting it to my office monitor and keyboard which is highly inconvenient given that some are in the attic. Instead I want a small screen and keyboard in one device I can hook up to an HDMI or VGA or mini HDMI or just a serial port + USB for keyboard. Something lightweight I can carry anywhere. And no that doesn’t need its own computer but it might be nice to have one to be able to hook it up to the network and download and transfer files to the broken machine or be able to download and quickly boot off a rescue image or some such. These are rare enough problems that I don’t actually bother building a device like that but every time they do happen I wish I did.
  - T3OU-736 2y ago
    I _think_ you are describing (minus the screen) what a PiKVM and similar would give you.
    - rft 2y ago
      I can confirm that getting a PiKVM has very much eliminated lugging around my server or a screen. Having some form of display input would be the one feature I would wish to add if given the choice. Not having HDMI-In, e.g. via capture card, makes sense in this form factor and power budget, but would make this an instant buy for me. I would really enjoy having a small, very portable device to debug things with. I recently got linked to a CCTV tester [1] that at least handles the display part. Sadly it does not seem to have keyboard emulation. It might be possible to hack this in as this is an Android tablet at its core and the USB controller might support gadget mode. [1] https://www.rsrteng.com/products/ipc-9800movtadhs-pro https://www.rsrteng.com/products/ipc-9800movtadhs-pro
idiotsecant 2y ago
I want this so bad.
GardenLetter27 2y ago
It looks cool, but I've found the Steam Deck is the only portable computer that's versatile enough for me to actually use for all sorts of different stuff.
- dsp_person 2y ago
  Anyone know if steam deck can act as a USB OTG keyboard? I remember this being a cool feature of those GPD Pocket computers. It would be cool to hook something up to the USB and send keystrokes from the steam deck (not necessarily from the touchscreen keyboard, but by scripts).
  - fragmede 2y ago
    you have to enable USB Dual-Role Device in the BIOS settings for it to act as a device, but yes.
    - dsp_person 2y ago
      ah thanks for that. I was searching for OTG not DRD This is cool https://github.com/Frederic98/GadgetDeck https://github.com/Frederic98/GadgetDeck
- canuckintime 2y ago
  >> Steam Deck is the only portable computer that's versatile... Would you clarify your categorization? I personally consider 'portable computer' to be any computer with an internal battery (including laptops etc). I don't find the Steam Deck especially versatile in that category. A separate/sub-category for me would be 'pocketable computers' (like this Hackberry-Pi_Zero, the GPD Win mini etc) for which the Steam Deck would be unusually versatile—albeit the Steam Deck does NOT fit in any of my pants or jacket pockets.
teraflop 2y ago
This looks like a pretty cool device! However, I was immediately curious about how the "dual battery" feature works. The IP5306 power-management IC seems to be designed only for a single battery, and as far as I can tell from the schematic[1], the two battery connectors are just directly connected to each other in parallel (across VBAT and GND). This seems really sketchy. If you plug in two batteries that are not at the same state-of-charge, then you're going to get a very large current flowing from the higher-voltage battery to the lower-voltage one, probably significantly exceeding the batteries' rated current limits. At best this wastes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat, and at worst it could be a fire hazard. [1]: https://github.com/ZitaoTech/Hackberry-Pi_Zero/blob/main/Schematic/Schematic_HackberryPi_Q10.pdf https://github.com/ZitaoTech/Hackberry-Pi_Zero/blob/main/Sch...
- fecal_henge 2y ago
  At best this wastes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat, and at worst it could be a fire hazard. - you just described my high spec HP laptop.
- zitterbewegung 2y ago
  If you ran it with one battery would you not have the problem ?
  - teraflop 2y ago
    There's no problem if you use one battery, and there should also be no problem if you use two batteries and charge/discharge them both simultaneously (because then the voltages are matched). The problem shows up when you try to "hot-swap" just one of the batteries and replace it with one at a different state of charge, as the README claims you can do.
    - fecal_henge 2y ago
      What is the expectation here about functionality? They are using some kind of COTS battery system to keep the cost down, but at the consequence of this safety qustion. Should these people expect any buyer to antipate this? Its not really a consumer product after all. I think there is no shortage of battery management ICs, but the number that can arbitrate between external power/battery A/Battery B certainly eliminates 97% on your Digikey parametrics.
rogerpeters 2y ago
Are there any compact 4G/5G boards which can be plugged into this for outside connectivity? Last I looked, these breakout boards were far too cumbersome.
- oofbey 2y ago
  I think connectivity would be a key challenge for this device. RPI zero2W only has WiFi4 == 802.11b/g/n. In a modern crowded building, 2.4GHz is often super crammed and busy, and I find wifi4 barely works. Lots of dropped packets, sometimes full seconds of latency.
forinti 2y ago
It's nice, but I would use something with a bit more memory. An Orange Pi Zero 2W with 4GB maybe. 512MB nowadays is only practical if you don't use a GUI.
mafuyu 2y ago
My pet peeve with RasPi for these types of handheld projects is that they don't support suspend, and don't have a true poweroff state. Even in poweroff, they sit there consuming a bunch of current. Beepy is a similar project that uses a RasPi Zero, and their approach is to cut power to the RasPi entirely with a management MCU. On my Beepy, I switched to a Radxa Zero instead and ported over any relevant kernel modules and device tree overlays, because it has an Amlogic SoC that actually supports suspend.
- boomskats 2y ago
  Am I right in assuming it's fairly straightforward swap hardware wise? Do you have any measurements of the difference in battery drain between the two? Is it a fairly recent kernel? With that Sharp memory LCD and proper suspend that's potentially a gamechanger for the beepy. Any direction you can point me in appreciated.
  - rcarmo 2y ago
    Ditto. I’ve wanted to get a Beepy for a while, and I have a Radxa Zero already.
    - swiatlo 2y ago
      what is better? for ssh?
  - mafuyu 2y ago
    Hey, sorry for the late response. I posted my notes here: https://github.com/Hylian/beepy-radxa-zero-notes https://github.com/Hylian/beepy-radxa-zero-notes. It's a straight swap hardware-wise, and for software, you just need to build/install the kernel modules and configure some kernel boot arguments. Feel free to ask in the Discord if you have any questions.
- erohead 2y ago
  I'd love to learn more! I'm one of the Beepy creators...I just emailed you
jll29 2y ago
I want my Blackberry back badly, and this project is giving me hope. The case it a bit too big, there are still battery issues, and of course a 5G card + microphone + loudspeaker need to be added. But perhaps the day will come that I can roll that wheel to view my emails again, use that excellent small keyboard to reply without having to touch glass.
- walterbell 2y ago
  With some customization, Fairberry can fit a Blackberry keyboard on mobile phones with a USB port, https://liliputing.com/fairberry-lets-you-attach-a-blackberry-keyboard-to-modern-phones-some-assembly-customization-required/ https://liliputing.com/fairberry-lets-you-attach-a-blackberr...
- F7F7F7 2y ago
  I’m right there with you. The side scroll wheel on my 7520 was perfection. I could operate it from my pocket completely blindly. Punkt showed off a device that had me hopeful for awhile but it doesn’t look like they are releasing it.
jejeyyy77 2y ago
nice!
johnklos 2y ago
I'd love one of these! I just built a portable enclosure with a charge controller, USB hub, ethernet and four 18650 batteries. While The Hackberry Pi Zero would've been a lot easier (assuming I'd've just bought one instead of making it myself), the only downside is the battery life. My application is for having a server that travels with me and is on 100% of the time, sometimes running on battery for hours at a time. This, though, is so much smaller... It's definitely something to consider when they're shipping. Edit: just read, "Main Processor: Only compaticable with Raspberry pi zero 2w." I wonder why it's not compatible with the original Zero. Is it just that the drivers and preinstalled OS are 64 bit? Even though the 2W is more performant per watt, it still takes more absolute power. Hmmm.
- axelthegerman 2y ago
  > My application is for having a server that travels with me You probably have your reasons but I wonder why anyone would need that
  - rcarmo 2y ago
    I have one, and it’s very, very useful: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/10/07/1830 https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/10/07/1830
    - johnklos 2y ago
      Nice! My next tiny machine may be a Radxa Zero 3E. A tiny form factor machine with ethernet is definitely appealing. My current portable uses a Raspberry Pi Zero (not Zero 2). Lower overall power is much more important than performance, and for my use, 700 MHz single core and 512 megs of memory is more than I need. It has been a good project to learn about power controllers.
  - johnklos 2y ago
    Does anyone really NEED anything? That'd be a tangent. I want a portable server because I want my data to be in my physical possession. Also, I enjoy telling people I'm already doing the thing that they're telling me can't be done. I'll write it up some time. Perhaps you'll see it here on ycombinator.
ianpenney 2y ago
See also: Lilygo Tdeck https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck Runs meshtastic: https://meshtastic.org/ https://meshtastic.org/ The new UI is being developed right now… https://youtu.be/mtFwETD7nY4?feature=shared https://youtu.be/mtFwETD7nY4?feature=shared
petschge 2y ago
If that thing had VGA-in on top of the keyboard and mouse out via USB, it would be a great tool to carry in a data center when you have to physically interact with a machine.
- rasz 2y ago
  Plenty of commercial stuff that does just that. You can even buy dedicated network testers with this functionality. [The most useful networking tool I own - AliExpress "CCTV Tester" that does a lot more than test CCTV] Cameron Gray https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZQSkFl4yIM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZQSkFl4yIM
KennyBlanken 2y ago
> There is a red switch on the left side to decide if the keyboard controller communicates with the HackberryPi or with other device through the USBC-Port underneath. OK, having it be able to function as an emergency USB keyboard is pretty cool, though I think I'd prefer emulation of a USB device so I could run a sequence of commands, inject usernames and passwords for logins, etc.
squarefoot 2y ago
FYI, there was a board named Hackberry over 10 years ago not related to the Raspberries. It employed the Allwinner A10 CPU and had WiFi on board, which was not common back in the day. It however lacked any exposed GPIO which made it unsuitable for hardware hacking, but had good audio (much much better than the RPis available back then) and decent overall performance. I still have one somewhere and recall using it both as webradio receiver for music and with SDR dongles using rtl_tcp. Later, smaller and better boards such as the NanoPi M1 turned out more useful for remote SDR applications. https://linux-sunxi.org/Miniand_Hackberry https://linux-sunxi.org/Miniand_Hackberry
Havoc 2y ago
Is the keyboard original? The one on the q20 bb was great
swayvil 2y ago
The keyboard is the weak link. We need a better voice to text. One that tunes into its user's voice perfectly without getting distracted. And that you can subvocalize at. An optimized spoken language for talking to phones too. Something harsh, insectile and dystopian.
- F7F7F7 2y ago
  The keyboard is the point.
tempodox 2y ago
The name alone is ingenious. I'm completely enamored.
heavyset_go 2y ago
Back in the day, the Nokia N770/N810/N900 line fit the bill for this perfectly. Its form factor was perfect for the "Linux terminal in your pocket" use case. Might be something to look into for design inspiration.
- nextos 2y ago
  I miss them so much. Even the N9, which lacked a physical keyboard, was so nice. A planned N9 variant with a sliding keyboard was never released once the series was discontinued. It was so refreshing to have a mobile that acted as a regular Linux machine. You could copy files from your other computers normally just using scp. Or tweak the GSM radio, as you would do with any other device, just using ifconfig.
  - heavyset_go 2y ago
    To this day, I am disappointed that Maemo/Meego didn't prevail in the mobile OS market, same thing with Palm/HP's iteration of webOS. It was truly a great experience being able to use your standard Linux tools as first-class citizens on your mobile devices.
pipeline_peak 2y ago
I wonder why the two switch system was necessary. Would an auto switch when an external keyboard is plugged in require something that would drain resources like a hardware listener?
szundi 2y ago
I love these gadgets
jeden 2y ago
Such computers are cool, but fat and inconvenient. I don't understand why decent companies like ibm, samsung or others won't make a Linux handheld seriously. With a good processor that will be power efficient and run for a long time on a single charge. Terminal and ssh will suffice in many cases. People a lot of time used only terminal and live.
- techn00 2y ago
  Because there's no money to be made from such devices
- walterbell 2y ago
  2023 Pixel tablet can run GrapheneOS and supports Android Virtualization Framework (pKVM) for real Linux VMs alongside Android.
znpy 2y ago
I wonder if selling this as a kit with parts to solder and assemble would make it easier to sell more of these.
RecycledEle 2y ago
I wish someone would make a 5" to 7" clamshell "laptop" that runs a Linux command line and lasts forever on an internal lithium (or replaceable AA) battery. I want the retro feel of mini laptops back when GUIs were only on $20k UNIX workstations.
- abawany 2y ago
  I have a MNT Pocket Reform on order just for this reason. I recently sold a Sony PGH (~2009 model) that still ran modern Debian just fine as I'm expecting to get my order soon. Edit: I also bought a broken HP 95LX so I could replace its innards with a RPi Zero 2w and a screen but I haven't made progress on that yet.

579 points by felixr 2y ago

joemazerino 2y ago

Awesome work. Know any surplus stores that carry BB keyboards?

walterbell 2y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41139869 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41139869

anonzzzies 2y ago

Shame it's not available for purchase at the moment. Would like one.

walterbell 2y ago
https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/hackberrypi-cyberdeck-handheld-with-bbq20-keyboard/ https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/hackberrypi-cyberd... More HackPi Q10 will be restock within 5 days. More HackPi Q20 will be restock in 2 weeks.
- anonzzzies 2y ago
  Oh thanks, I missed that. Didn’t know this site.

dchuk 2y ago

This form factor is so tempting. I’ve gotten close to pulling the trigger on the minimal phone like 5 times but just don’t know if I can actually reasonably switch from my iPhone and not end up annoyed with the change (https://www.minimalcompany.com/ https://www.minimalcompany.com/). But a calm, keyboard oriented device just seems great.

smashah 2y ago
The N900 (or N810) form factor is also great, especially for CLI commands/coding. There was a team trying to bring it back to life (neo900)

more_corn 2y ago

This is super neat! Well done. Very well done. I love the dual battery, hard power switch, good keyboard. I know how hard it is to do these right and I’m impressed.

atrus 2y ago

This is one of the very few Cyberdeck kinda things that looks like it could be actually useful. I love it!

bloopernova 2y ago
I have a vague idea of what my ideal Cyberdeck would be, no idea if there's anything like this already: One of those super-wide small screens, 1920x720 or thereabouts, with the screen split into 2 terminals. Since I'm wishing, I'd also like that screen to have a 300 to 600ppi e-ink screen built in to a layer, so that when the colour screen is off, the e-ink is visible. A PC, x86_64 or arm64, built into the screen, with lots of ports, IO, compatible with Pi hats/shields. For extra coolness, a pluggable system like Framework so if someone wants a real RS232 port, they can get one. With USB-C power so I can use any powerbank or other compatible power supply. A Keychron lightweight Alice-style keyboard, folding a bonus, QMK mandatory, standard bluetooth and/or USB.

marcodiego 2y ago

I wonder if simply adding one of these ESP with GSM builtin would turn this into a practical linux phone.

prmoustache 2y ago
You'd need an additionnal micro and speaker, or at least some usb-c headset but yeah this give some ideas. Also battery life would probably sink.
wildzzz 2y ago
The GPIO port is accessible under the back cover so I could easily see add-on modules that could piggyback on. Design a small backpack to use the existing latch, add some tiny pogo pins and the module could be easily swapped out. A lorawan transceiver and a GPS receiver would be an excellent pair.
hawski 2y ago
Unfortunately advertised battery life isn't practical. Though maybe with software enchantments it could get there.

swores 2y ago

I wasn't expecting to see buy now links, so I wasn't too disappointed when I did see them but found they both say out of stock - was completely ready to impulse buy the BB Q20 keyboard version (or either, really!) and hope that having registered to hear it more being sold I'll be able to get one. I'd almost be tempted to try to put one together myself, but it's not something I'd find particularly easy and there's other stuff I'd rather spend time on. But might be tempted...

walterbell 2y ago
Stock ETA is 1 or 2 weeks, depending on model.
- swores 2y ago
  Yep thanks, I'm indeed hoping to take advantage of that! But I have a sneaking suspicion it won't be a big enough quantity to satisfy even the people who've seen this HN submission so may well come down to what time of day / how quickly I see the email
  - walterbell 2y ago
    Both models say "Sold out since Aug 02". If all the existing stock was bought by HN readers today, then 1-2 weeks isn't bad for the next batch, and today's waitlist can influence batch size. There seem to be lots of BB keyboards on Amazon, so hopefully the constraint is funding and manufacturing, not components. Lots of demand from HN can only help with funding!
    - swores 2y ago
      I saw this thread almost immediately after it was posted and both versions were already out of stock when I got to those pages minutes later, so my assumption was that there either were very few devices (just a couple of PoCs) or that sales had come from somewhere other than HN, either way leaving the majority of people who want to buy it from seeing this thread on the waiting list with me. Though maybe I'm wrong about how popular it will be, and actually only the handful of people who've explicitly commented about wanting to buy it, like me, will have joined the waiting list and some may then decide not to buy it having slept on it - but it's definitely possible that lots of people are looking forward to getting one or more!) I also assumed that it was a fairly DYI project done by a single founder (DYI as in him making them himself one by one, rather than having either a team or an outsourced factory ready to scale up to meet whatever demand is on the waiting list), but again I may be guessing wrong (or may have forgotten something they wrote that shows I'm wrong), but it's a few hours past my bedtime so I'll just hope that when I wake up they might have replied to my message asking if I could reserve one rather than spend more time guessing about their production capacity :D )

rbanffy 2y ago

If it used the Blackberry Passport format (and screen) I'd love it even more.

notpeter 2y ago

Very similar to the Beepberry. Exciting to see someone else building into that form factor. Also love to fun to see the Nokia BL-5C battery (originally introduced in the Nokia 3650 in 2003) still alive and kicking 20years later. https://blog.beeper.com/2023/05/16/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry/ https://blog.beeper.com/2023/05/16/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry/

jsheard 2y ago
That appears to have been renamed to the Beepy, and the product page now has the repurposed Blackberry keyboard blurred out. Did whoever owns the corpse of Blackberry go after them for trademark infringement? https://beepy.sqfmi.com/ https://beepy.sqfmi.com/
- itomato 2y ago
  Is this when they start pre installing QNX? https://carleton.ca/rcs/qnx/installing-qnx-on-raspberry-pi-4/ https://carleton.ca/rcs/qnx/installing-qnx-on-raspberry-pi-4...

ntw1103 2y ago

Looks super awesome. I've been slowly working towards building pretty much the same thing, but haven't had enough time to finish. I added myself to the wait list. Intend to purchase 3 if I'm able to. Getting everything into such a nice packet is very cool.

zitterbewegung 2y ago

Wow this is amazing it’s the best cyber deck I have ever seen or would consider using. I wonder if you could get rid of one battery and shove in a 4g LTE modem connected to a usb port.

anotherjesse 2y ago

Has anyone built something like this in the hiptop/sidekick format? If not, this might be a good second option for hacking together a chat device for LLMs with notes I had been thinking about using https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck as a base - but prefer using Linux to microcontrollers

garciasn 2y ago
I miss my Hiptop(s). Nothing has come close to that experience since. I could carry on 10 AIM conversations, IRC, and be doing browsing and email while typing at ~100 WPM.

bee_rider 2y ago

It looks neat. It is a shame, though, to use an RPi and not exploit the GPIO pins a little more. Maybe add a slot on the side to fit some probes or something? I guess the Pi is all digital anyway so maybe the pins are not as interesting…

amelius 2y ago
It has DAC/ADC ports, I suppose.
boguscoder 2y ago
Pins are still pretty handy though. Tangential to the OPs use case, but I use my Zero 2 as a debug probe (with openocd) for few MCUs (mostly Pi Pico), and it comes out $$$ cheaper than JLink’s official one and analogs

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amelius 2y ago

Is there a page where they describe where they sourced the components, e.g. screen and keyboard?

walterbell 2y ago
Amazon has vendors listing BB Q10 parts, including keyboard and LCD for < $20, https://www.amazon.com/s?k=blackberry+q10+keyboard+replacement+parts https://www.amazon.com/s?k=blackberry+q10+keyboard+replaceme... Fairberry has a PCB design for adding Q10 keyboard to any mobile phone with a USB port, https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry

keheliya 2y ago

Amazing! How hard will it be to replace the screen to an eInk one similar to the beepberry/beepy? I love everything except the screen, and I assume eInk will be the perfect match considering the terminal and power consumption.

afandian 2y ago

I bought the Bluetooth keyboard from this maker, ZitaoTech. The fit and finish was excellent. Highly recommended.

henearkr 2y ago
So it's a recently made clone of the keyboard, rather than an original one? The readme is unclear on this subject, they advertise "original keyboard".
- afandian 2y ago
  To be clear I mean this: https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/blackberry-bb9900-bleusb-keyboard/ https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/blackberry-bb9900-... It’s an original new old stock BlackBerry keyboard, packaged in a good 3d printed case with Bluetooth, USB and battery charger.
  - henearkr 2y ago
    Oh ok! Thanks.

83457 2y ago

Looks like it could be a great pocket device for pico-8 development.

grugagag 2y ago
That’s my thoughts as well. I ordered a uConsole from clockworkPI, long waitlist there. This is tempting me again. I feel this may have even better ergonomic qualitty for my personal taste and appeara more portable.
- 83457 2y ago
  Every time I see a little game/dev device with a square screen I think about pico-8. The devterm looks like it could be a good device too as you could have pico-8 running on one side with code editor taking up the rest of the screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XC5lC9nGWM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XC5lC9nGWM
- ngcc_hk 2y ago
  Order one. Dead on arrival. Gave up. Now may think to savage at least the rpi …
  - grugagag 2y ago
    Sorry to hear. How many months after you ordered it did you actually receive it? Im taking a gamble on this but wasn’t aware they do no testing before shipping.
- matheusmoreira 2y ago
  There's a waitlist for the uconsole? I was planning to buy one but that made me reconsider.

neon_me 2y ago

Would love to see "real phone" version w gsm/lte module and at least a day lasting battery (optimization)

oneplane 2y ago
Isn't that what the PinePhone and Librem 5 are? They don't have an embedded physical keyboard and do have a touchscreen, so the physical features are slightly different, but otherwise they are still a mobile ARM linux computer.
- Y_Y 2y ago
  The touchscreen is a big difference though. You need to run some kind of graphical environment to handle the touch input and then it's slow and you have a crappy keyboard. I love my pinephone, but even with sxmo I find it unresponsive and hard.to work on. The keyboard shell for the pinephone is good, but changes the form factor then.
  - tetris11 2y ago
    Nokia N900 has a pinephone port

helpfulContrib 2y ago

I'm quite enamoured by the uConsole [0] .. I've had it for a few weeks and find myself reaching for it more and more, having set it up with the close family/friends Discord channels .. its nice having a machine just for the task, kind of thing. It would be so nice for a few more of my friends/family to have such little things, and leave the world of third-party-based social communication well and truly behind .. Surely, somewhere out there, someone has a small fleet of these cyberdecks, connected with tunnels, doing nicely secure communication .. [0] - https://www.clockworkpi.com https://www.clockworkpi.com

wifipunk 2y ago

I've been wanting to build my own handheld ever since I picked up a 3d printer so the last few months I've been checking these builds out. The blackberry keyboard is my favorite part of the build, definitely going to do the same for mine. Looks great with the casing.

deepspace 2y ago
I am working on the same kind of thing. For me the ideal keybaord/screen combination was the Keyboard Featherwing from Adafruit https://www.adafruit.com/product/4818 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4818 . Unfortunately, it is a discontinued product. I managed to snag one of the last ones, but I am reluctant to use something that I cannot get any more of.

starik36 2y ago

There is also the Tindie Null 2 kit - it's built around Rapsberry Pi Zero 2W. I picked one up several years ago and built a gameboy replacement of sorts. It was a lot of fun. Lots of soldering. https://www.tindie.com/products/ampersand/null-2-kit/ https://www.tindie.com/products/ampersand/null-2-kit/

ndsipa_pomu 2y ago

Oh great! Another awesome looking cyberdeck that I want to own and will find absolutely no practical use for. I've added myself to the waitlist already.

IgorPartola 2y ago
See I do have a use for this kind of thing, but not exactly. I have a few desktop towers and Raspberry Pi devices that sometimes due to upgrades or random acts of Zeus absolutely fail to boot up. I want some ability to connect a keyboard and a screen to these so I can see the actual boot screen. Normally for me this involves lugging the device to my office and connecting it to my office monitor and keyboard which is highly inconvenient given that some are in the attic. Instead I want a small screen and keyboard in one device I can hook up to an HDMI or VGA or mini HDMI or just a serial port + USB for keyboard. Something lightweight I can carry anywhere. And no that doesn’t need its own computer but it might be nice to have one to be able to hook it up to the network and download and transfer files to the broken machine or be able to download and quickly boot off a rescue image or some such. These are rare enough problems that I don’t actually bother building a device like that but every time they do happen I wish I did.
- T3OU-736 2y ago
  I _think_ you are describing (minus the screen) what a PiKVM and similar would give you.
  - rft 2y ago
    I can confirm that getting a PiKVM has very much eliminated lugging around my server or a screen. Having some form of display input would be the one feature I would wish to add if given the choice. Not having HDMI-In, e.g. via capture card, makes sense in this form factor and power budget, but would make this an instant buy for me. I would really enjoy having a small, very portable device to debug things with. I recently got linked to a CCTV tester [1] that at least handles the display part. Sadly it does not seem to have keyboard emulation. It might be possible to hack this in as this is an Android tablet at its core and the USB controller might support gadget mode. [1] https://www.rsrteng.com/products/ipc-9800movtadhs-pro https://www.rsrteng.com/products/ipc-9800movtadhs-pro

idiotsecant 2y ago

I want this so bad.

GardenLetter27 2y ago

It looks cool, but I've found the Steam Deck is the only portable computer that's versatile enough for me to actually use for all sorts of different stuff.

dsp_person 2y ago
Anyone know if steam deck can act as a USB OTG keyboard? I remember this being a cool feature of those GPD Pocket computers. It would be cool to hook something up to the USB and send keystrokes from the steam deck (not necessarily from the touchscreen keyboard, but by scripts).
- fragmede 2y ago
  you have to enable USB Dual-Role Device in the BIOS settings for it to act as a device, but yes.
  - dsp_person 2y ago
    ah thanks for that. I was searching for OTG not DRD This is cool https://github.com/Frederic98/GadgetDeck https://github.com/Frederic98/GadgetDeck
canuckintime 2y ago
>> Steam Deck is the only portable computer that's versatile... Would you clarify your categorization? I personally consider 'portable computer' to be any computer with an internal battery (including laptops etc). I don't find the Steam Deck especially versatile in that category. A separate/sub-category for me would be 'pocketable computers' (like this Hackberry-Pi_Zero, the GPD Win mini etc) for which the Steam Deck would be unusually versatile—albeit the Steam Deck does NOT fit in any of my pants or jacket pockets.

teraflop 2y ago

This looks like a pretty cool device! However, I was immediately curious about how the "dual battery" feature works. The IP5306 power-management IC seems to be designed only for a single battery, and as far as I can tell from the schematic[1], the two battery connectors are just directly connected to each other in parallel (across VBAT and GND). This seems really sketchy. If you plug in two batteries that are not at the same state-of-charge, then you're going to get a very large current flowing from the higher-voltage battery to the lower-voltage one, probably significantly exceeding the batteries' rated current limits. At best this wastes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat, and at worst it could be a fire hazard. [1]: https://github.com/ZitaoTech/Hackberry-Pi_Zero/blob/main/Schematic/Schematic_HackberryPi_Q10.pdf https://github.com/ZitaoTech/Hackberry-Pi_Zero/blob/main/Sch...

fecal_henge 2y ago
At best this wastes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat, and at worst it could be a fire hazard. - you just described my high spec HP laptop.
zitterbewegung 2y ago
If you ran it with one battery would you not have the problem ?
- teraflop 2y ago
  There's no problem if you use one battery, and there should also be no problem if you use two batteries and charge/discharge them both simultaneously (because then the voltages are matched). The problem shows up when you try to "hot-swap" just one of the batteries and replace it with one at a different state of charge, as the README claims you can do.
  - fecal_henge 2y ago
    What is the expectation here about functionality? They are using some kind of COTS battery system to keep the cost down, but at the consequence of this safety qustion. Should these people expect any buyer to antipate this? Its not really a consumer product after all. I think there is no shortage of battery management ICs, but the number that can arbitrate between external power/battery A/Battery B certainly eliminates 97% on your Digikey parametrics.

rogerpeters 2y ago

Are there any compact 4G/5G boards which can be plugged into this for outside connectivity? Last I looked, these breakout boards were far too cumbersome.

oofbey 2y ago
I think connectivity would be a key challenge for this device. RPI zero2W only has WiFi4 == 802.11b/g/n. In a modern crowded building, 2.4GHz is often super crammed and busy, and I find wifi4 barely works. Lots of dropped packets, sometimes full seconds of latency.

forinti 2y ago

It's nice, but I would use something with a bit more memory. An Orange Pi Zero 2W with 4GB maybe. 512MB nowadays is only practical if you don't use a GUI.

mafuyu 2y ago

My pet peeve with RasPi for these types of handheld projects is that they don't support suspend, and don't have a true poweroff state. Even in poweroff, they sit there consuming a bunch of current. Beepy is a similar project that uses a RasPi Zero, and their approach is to cut power to the RasPi entirely with a management MCU. On my Beepy, I switched to a Radxa Zero instead and ported over any relevant kernel modules and device tree overlays, because it has an Amlogic SoC that actually supports suspend.

boomskats 2y ago
Am I right in assuming it's fairly straightforward swap hardware wise? Do you have any measurements of the difference in battery drain between the two? Is it a fairly recent kernel? With that Sharp memory LCD and proper suspend that's potentially a gamechanger for the beepy. Any direction you can point me in appreciated.
- rcarmo 2y ago
  Ditto. I’ve wanted to get a Beepy for a while, and I have a Radxa Zero already.
  - swiatlo 2y ago
    what is better? for ssh?
- mafuyu 2y ago
  Hey, sorry for the late response. I posted my notes here: https://github.com/Hylian/beepy-radxa-zero-notes https://github.com/Hylian/beepy-radxa-zero-notes. It's a straight swap hardware-wise, and for software, you just need to build/install the kernel modules and configure some kernel boot arguments. Feel free to ask in the Discord if you have any questions.
erohead 2y ago
I'd love to learn more! I'm one of the Beepy creators...I just emailed you

jll29 2y ago

I want my Blackberry back badly, and this project is giving me hope. The case it a bit too big, there are still battery issues, and of course a 5G card + microphone + loudspeaker need to be added. But perhaps the day will come that I can roll that wheel to view my emails again, use that excellent small keyboard to reply without having to touch glass.

walterbell 2y ago
With some customization, Fairberry can fit a Blackberry keyboard on mobile phones with a USB port, https://liliputing.com/fairberry-lets-you-attach-a-blackberry-keyboard-to-modern-phones-some-assembly-customization-required/ https://liliputing.com/fairberry-lets-you-attach-a-blackberr...
F7F7F7 2y ago
I’m right there with you. The side scroll wheel on my 7520 was perfection. I could operate it from my pocket completely blindly. Punkt showed off a device that had me hopeful for awhile but it doesn’t look like they are releasing it.

jejeyyy77 2y ago

nice!

johnklos 2y ago

I'd love one of these! I just built a portable enclosure with a charge controller, USB hub, ethernet and four 18650 batteries. While The Hackberry Pi Zero would've been a lot easier (assuming I'd've just bought one instead of making it myself), the only downside is the battery life. My application is for having a server that travels with me and is on 100% of the time, sometimes running on battery for hours at a time. This, though, is so much smaller... It's definitely something to consider when they're shipping. Edit: just read, "Main Processor: Only compaticable with Raspberry pi zero 2w." I wonder why it's not compatible with the original Zero. Is it just that the drivers and preinstalled OS are 64 bit? Even though the 2W is more performant per watt, it still takes more absolute power. Hmmm.

axelthegerman 2y ago
> My application is for having a server that travels with me You probably have your reasons but I wonder why anyone would need that
- rcarmo 2y ago
  I have one, and it’s very, very useful: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/10/07/1830 https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/10/07/1830
  - johnklos 2y ago
    Nice! My next tiny machine may be a Radxa Zero 3E. A tiny form factor machine with ethernet is definitely appealing. My current portable uses a Raspberry Pi Zero (not Zero 2). Lower overall power is much more important than performance, and for my use, 700 MHz single core and 512 megs of memory is more than I need. It has been a good project to learn about power controllers.
- johnklos 2y ago
  Does anyone really NEED anything? That'd be a tangent. I want a portable server because I want my data to be in my physical possession. Also, I enjoy telling people I'm already doing the thing that they're telling me can't be done. I'll write it up some time. Perhaps you'll see it here on ycombinator.

ianpenney 2y ago

See also: Lilygo Tdeck https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck Runs meshtastic: https://meshtastic.org/ https://meshtastic.org/ The new UI is being developed right now… https://youtu.be/mtFwETD7nY4?feature=shared https://youtu.be/mtFwETD7nY4?feature=shared

petschge 2y ago

If that thing had VGA-in on top of the keyboard and mouse out via USB, it would be a great tool to carry in a data center when you have to physically interact with a machine.

rasz 2y ago
Plenty of commercial stuff that does just that. You can even buy dedicated network testers with this functionality. [The most useful networking tool I own - AliExpress "CCTV Tester" that does a lot more than test CCTV] Cameron Gray https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZQSkFl4yIM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZQSkFl4yIM

KennyBlanken 2y ago

> There is a red switch on the left side to decide if the keyboard controller communicates with the HackberryPi or with other device through the USBC-Port underneath. OK, having it be able to function as an emergency USB keyboard is pretty cool, though I think I'd prefer emulation of a USB device so I could run a sequence of commands, inject usernames and passwords for logins, etc.

squarefoot 2y ago

FYI, there was a board named Hackberry over 10 years ago not related to the Raspberries. It employed the Allwinner A10 CPU and had WiFi on board, which was not common back in the day. It however lacked any exposed GPIO which made it unsuitable for hardware hacking, but had good audio (much much better than the RPis available back then) and decent overall performance. I still have one somewhere and recall using it both as webradio receiver for music and with SDR dongles using rtl_tcp. Later, smaller and better boards such as the NanoPi M1 turned out more useful for remote SDR applications. https://linux-sunxi.org/Miniand_Hackberry https://linux-sunxi.org/Miniand_Hackberry

Havoc 2y ago

Is the keyboard original? The one on the q20 bb was great

swayvil 2y ago

The keyboard is the weak link. We need a better voice to text. One that tunes into its user's voice perfectly without getting distracted. And that you can subvocalize at. An optimized spoken language for talking to phones too. Something harsh, insectile and dystopian.

F7F7F7 2y ago
The keyboard is the point.

tempodox 2y ago

The name alone is ingenious. I'm completely enamored.

heavyset_go 2y ago

Back in the day, the Nokia N770/N810/N900 line fit the bill for this perfectly. Its form factor was perfect for the "Linux terminal in your pocket" use case. Might be something to look into for design inspiration.

nextos 2y ago
I miss them so much. Even the N9, which lacked a physical keyboard, was so nice. A planned N9 variant with a sliding keyboard was never released once the series was discontinued. It was so refreshing to have a mobile that acted as a regular Linux machine. You could copy files from your other computers normally just using scp. Or tweak the GSM radio, as you would do with any other device, just using ifconfig.
- heavyset_go 2y ago
  To this day, I am disappointed that Maemo/Meego didn't prevail in the mobile OS market, same thing with Palm/HP's iteration of webOS. It was truly a great experience being able to use your standard Linux tools as first-class citizens on your mobile devices.

pipeline_peak 2y ago

I wonder why the two switch system was necessary. Would an auto switch when an external keyboard is plugged in require something that would drain resources like a hardware listener?

szundi 2y ago

I love these gadgets

jeden 2y ago

Such computers are cool, but fat and inconvenient. I don't understand why decent companies like ibm, samsung or others won't make a Linux handheld seriously. With a good processor that will be power efficient and run for a long time on a single charge. Terminal and ssh will suffice in many cases. People a lot of time used only terminal and live.

techn00 2y ago
Because there's no money to be made from such devices
walterbell 2y ago
2023 Pixel tablet can run GrapheneOS and supports Android Virtualization Framework (pKVM) for real Linux VMs alongside Android.

znpy 2y ago

I wonder if selling this as a kit with parts to solder and assemble would make it easier to sell more of these.

RecycledEle 2y ago

I wish someone would make a 5" to 7" clamshell "laptop" that runs a Linux command line and lasts forever on an internal lithium (or replaceable AA) battery. I want the retro feel of mini laptops back when GUIs were only on $20k UNIX workstations.

abawany 2y ago
I have a MNT Pocket Reform on order just for this reason. I recently sold a Sony PGH (~2009 model) that still ran modern Debian just fine as I'm expecting to get my order soon. Edit: I also bought a broken HP 95LX so I could replace its innards with a RPi Zero 2w and a screen but I haven't made progress on that yet.