Thread: Using the N900 as a complete desktop replacement, is it possible?
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malfunctioning is offline malfunctioning
2013-05-05 , 03:51
Posts: 330 | Thanked: 556 times | Joined on Oct 2012
#15
Originally Posted by Estel View Post
Using kernel-power and Pali's BME replacement bits (or even without them, but then you need to execute some scripts manually), you can have USB 2.0 hub connected to N900, <whatever> number of devices connected to that HUB, and N900 charging from USB - all at the same time.
Thank you for confirming that. Do you think it would be possible in the future to be able to use the N900 connected directly to AC without any battery? That's another of the things I hope are possible.

Originally Posted by Estel View Post
Personally, I use USB keyboard *and* USB mouse, handled by extkbd and extmou packages, respectively (this way, you don't need to stick for some over-priced brands, you may use whatever you want, and generic ones are going to work perfectly). N900 is connected to flat TV's via video out.
I suppose that would be fine, now that I know it's possible to charge the N900 at the same time that it communicates with the keyboard and mouse through the same USB cable, by using Pali's code. Hmm... somehow I didn't realize how amazing it is you can do that until I spelled it out explicitly in a sentence.

I might dedicate one of my N900s to be used like this. I like the fact that it wouldn't be necessary to connect / disconnect the N900 from USB often, as connections would take place on the other end of the hub if necessary. It plays well to one of the N900's weaknesses (the tendency for the USB connector to break).


Originally Posted by Estel View Post
The last part is bootleneck - there isn't problem with 800x480 upscaling, that would be still ideal. The problem is, that video out does *downscaling* to PAL or NTSC, which is main reason for blurriness (be sure to use PAL when available, it have slightly better image quality, due to more lines).
Wait, but NTSC is 480 vertically, just like the native resolution of the N900, isn't it? I honestly don't get how upscaling to 576 (PAL) helps, but I do believe you. I just don't understand how that would help.

Originally Posted by Estel View Post
One of things that I finally need to set up "someday", is making a nice travel body for my Raspberry Pi, and, paired with N900 via USB networking, using it as HDMI video out for Easy Debian (at any resolution we feel fancy, even monitor/TV native ones). It all works perfectly well - there are just some glitches with USB keyboard, as extkbd *still* isn't working well with xephyr, so no good external keyboard mapping inside Easy Debian's LXDE (freemangordon, I'm looking at you). One could workaround it by installing bt-hid-scripts package everytime one want to have xephyr and external keyboard, then revert back to extkbd afterwards, but it is a PITA.

/Estel
I didn't know it would be possible to achieve (kind of) arbitrary resolutions from Easy Debian through the Raspberry Pi. Do you use it often? Isn't there a bandwidth problem to achieve a reasonable frame rate at higher resolutions? Anyway, that is very impressive.
 

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