Install Linux on Toshiba WT7-C tablet?

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mikeymikec

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
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A customer gave me this tablet for free a while ago.

Specs:
http://www.toshiba.co.uk/discontinu...ni-wt7-c-100/?categoryNameProductPage=laptops


It came with Win8x, and despite me doing a fresh install of Win8.1 32-bit on there, its paltry 1GB RAM is really showing its limitations these days given that modern browsers will eat that up in no time at all. My use of the tablet is extremely light (a bit of bedtime browsing, that's about it), but the tablet can't even handle a single tab on YouTube without running out of RAM and causing the video to stutter (nothing is installed on the laptop besides drivers, Firefox and SumatraPDF, and I've tried configuring FF to not do multiprocess to try and curb its memory usage, Chrome is obviously worse, Metro IE is awful and desktop IE's touch capabilities are not good). This makes the tablet pretty much useless to me, hence my thought about trying Linux on it.

Has anyone tried installing Linux on a tablet? Any experiences there? Is memory usage likely to be significantly better on Linux to allow sufficient resources to work with light browsing? What about the touch interface, how does Linux fare on that front, and is it a PITA to get the touch interface working?

The laptop has a micro USB port and I have an adapter for it, so when setting it up before I was able to plug in a hub, keyboard and mouse in case touch needs to be convinced to work.
 
lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
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I doubt you're gonna get around the ram issue. The web's just too fat, and there's only so many places to trim. If you had the full 1gb, it would be iffy, and you still have to share that with an o/s. Maybe try upgrading to 10, and using edge as a browser? Otherwise, you may get some kind of gnu/linux installed, but I don't think it'll solve your problem.
 
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whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
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You might be able to use a lightweight web browser such as Midori with a light Linux distro.
 
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whm1974

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mxnerd said:
Tested lubuntu 32-bit in 1GB virtual machine, seems working fine for youtube using included Firefox browser.

https://lubuntu.net/
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Yeah but due to low specs of this tablet, and they were very low even back in 2012, I doubt the OP can really get that much out of it even with a lightweight Linux Distro with light webbrowsers.
 
mxnerd

mxnerd

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Jul 6, 2007
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whm1974 said:
Yeah but due to low specs of this tablet, and they were very low even back in 2012, I doubt the OP can really get that much out of it even with a lightweight Linux Distro with light webbrowsers.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's really low spec with a 1024x600 screen.

It doesn't hurt for OP just trying different distros.

I doubt touch screen will work on Linux though.

Win8.1 doesn't work anyway according to OP, however.
 
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whm1974

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Jul 24, 2016
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mxnerd said:
Yeah, it's really low spec with a 1024x600 screen.

It doesn't hurt for OP just trying different distros.

I doubt touch screen will work on Linux though.

Win8.1 doesn't work anyway according to OP, however.
Click to expand...
Well that is true, but I still wouldn't expect much from it as having only 16GB of storage would limit it more then then the lack of memory would.
 
mxnerd

mxnerd

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Jul 6, 2007
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16GB storage is plenty for lightweight Linux.

My VM now uses 4GB disk space.

RAM is a problem.

Wonder whether OP have tried Windows 10? Since the product page recommends Windows 10.
 
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whm1974

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Jul 24, 2016
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mxnerd said:
16GB storage is plenty for lightweight Linux.

My VM now uses 4GB disk space.

RAM is a problem.

Wonder whether OP have tried Windows 10? Since the product page recommends Windows 10.
Click to expand...
Well he could try updating to Windows 10. But yeah another 1GB of memory would help a great deal here.
 
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whm1974

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Jul 24, 2016
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I would check out lubuntu Alternate 32 bit, but I don't have a 32-bit system to check it out on. A lot of the mainstream Linux Distros have moved away from 32-bit support, and Microsoft will sooner or later follow suit.
 
mxnerd

mxnerd

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Jul 6, 2007
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Because you don't have enough memory.

There is absolutely nothing wrong running 32 bit OS on 64 bit CPU system if you have less than 4GB memory. It's more efficient in using the memory than 64 bit.

Running 64 bit code on a system with less than 4GB does not really give you much advantage.

Developers moving away from 32bit system/code is just because they don't want to maintain 2 sets of codes.

==

Your supercar can run at 300 miles per hour does not mean you have to run the car at 300 miles/hr.
 
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whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
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mxnerd said:
Because you don't have enough memory.

There is absolutely nothing wrong running 32 bit OS on 64 bit CPU system if you have less than 4GB memory. It's more efficient in using the memory than 64 bit.

Running 64 bit code on a system with less than 4GB does not really give you much advantage.

Developers moving away from 32bit system/code is just because they don't want to maintain 2 sets of codes.

==

Your supercar can run at 300 miles per hour does not mean you have to run the car at 300 miles/hr.
Click to expand...
But since all x86 systems are 64-bit w/ 4GB more of memory now, can you blame them?
 
mxnerd

mxnerd

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I was referring to OP's tablet.

Why would I blame systems that come with more than 4GB of memory? ;)
 
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whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
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mxnerd said:
I was referring to OP's tablet.

Why would I blame systems that come with more than 4GB of memory? ;)
Click to expand...
I was referring to the developers not wanting to maintain two sets of code as even Atoms are 64-bit now.
 
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