Maybe this will restore my faith in digital tablets.
I made notes, saved them. Only for the next morning to find my device out of battery and the notes missing. I don't get it, feels like I was zapped by some evil overlord that didn't want me recalling what I had written for the next part of my cartoon.
Really sad the official lack of proper support for using it as a general purpose device for the ones that would like time because otherwise the hardware is really great.
I like mine very much except the limitation that I can't do too much with it.
This is pretty refreshing to read. "Its just linux", seems to ship with SSH/root terminal enabled (over USB at least, with a simple way to enable networked access), built in webserver, just uses systemd for service control, etc.
Maybe other tablets are like that too, to be honest I'm too poor to swing the 700-1000$ for what I can cover with an paper note pad (with the bonus of being able to comfortably sit my coffee cup on it, use any pen or pencil, rip pages out, drop it, forget it somewhere, etc etc) to buy one but at least it seems like a product I would support.
This is the achilles heel of modern tech. Devices are just so brittle and if it is not online 24/7 on returning back online, you need to perform incantations to get things working.
Long shell life is a taboo in the tech world where 5 years is a long time.
Manually updating a config file to enable the web server was a wholly unnecessary step as that's just a toggle in the "Storage" section of settings.
reMarkable software has its faults, but I keep coming back to them for the best-in-class hardware, developer-friendly platform, which itself spawned an active developer community. Could it be an easier platform to develop on? Sure. But that hasn't stopped a huge number of supported mods being made available
I bought a Remarkable 2 tablet a while back. I quickly realised two things -
1. Remarkable's own software is a steaming pile of poo. Their inbuilt web server for uploading files is extremely buggy and unusable. It's dog slow. You can't try to drag many files in one go, or it crashes. You can't try to upload a large file, or it crashes. There is also a hard limit on the file size you can upload (something like 100MB) which makes it unusable for some heavy PDF files I have. They push you towards paying for their cloud service subscription, which I will never do, just to be able to sync files. There is also no way to just ssh files over because their pdf reader will refuse to read them. All I want is to connect the remarkable every day for a few minutes to my computer and have it sync my files, and there is no way to do that.
2. Most of the "hacks" online are written assuming that you can install toolchains like Toltec on the device, and they are NOT updated for the newer firmware. My remarkable came with 3.15 and while there are some instructions on how to downgrade the firmware before installing the toolchain, they never worked for me. So I stuck with the subpar software and reading experience...
... until I discovered [ReManager](https://github.com/rmitchellscott/reManager). It just worked out of the box, did not require a firmware update, and I was able to install KoReader and other goodies (such as some launcher improvements). It can also transfer large files easily. What's ironic is that KoReader can read djvu files, which removes my need to use large PDFs in the first place. Equivalent djvu files are much much smaller.
Thanks to everyone in the remarkable community who contributed to ReManager and other assorted remarkable hacking!
EDIT: Also must point out a cool thing that I discovered recently - ReManager comes with a one click installer for the Zig toolchain on the Remarkable 2! It is slow, but I was able to compile and run zig programs on the tablet.
I did not update my ReMarkable 2 for years either and had probably the same clock issue. There was an article on the FAQ website from remarkable, if I remember correctly, that took me to a step-by-step process by which I could update it. Don't remember exactly how (I think I had to use the cable and connect to PC; which normally is not needed) but let's just say even if at first it seems like it doesn't work anymore and you have to hack it yourself, it is not actually needed.
Nonetheless, this hackabality is the main reason I got mine (although I don't hack it, the optionality and thus probable longevity made the difference in my buying decision. I do not regret.).
Isn't it insane that we have to "revive" 4 year old devices? How is it unthinkable that even 10 year old device would just work out of the box even if it hasn't seen light of day since it was purchased?
Yeah, immediate thought was why should a 4 year old device be in need of any revival? Specifically a writing tablet, I assume it just works still. But after reading the article the scourge of 'always online' devices seems to have bitten. You need the time in sync for updates and cloud sync to work seemingly. Why these things are not more robust I don't know. It should have shipped day 1 with management software (that itself still works without updates) and a simple plug-device-into computer and drag files into it update mechanism as a method of last resort and direct PC / using PC internet connection update source.
You don't have to "revive" the device in order to use it.
The problem was: out-of-sync device clock prevented software updates which in turn prevented cloud syncing. You don't need software updates or cloud syncing for the device to work.
The fix is to set the clock and do the software updates.
I always thought that the reMarkable ecosystem was tightly locked in, forcing your to have an ongoing subscription to do anything useful with it. It seems not to be. Has anyone setup an ecosystem that is not tied to a reMarkable subscription? The hardware itself is super cool.
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[ 0.28 ms ] story [ 15.8 ms ] threadI made notes, saved them. Only for the next morning to find my device out of battery and the notes missing. I don't get it, feels like I was zapped by some evil overlord that didn't want me recalling what I had written for the next part of my cartoon.
Now just use good ole paper and pen.
My kids still using thinkpad 430 from 2013
I like mine very much except the limitation that I can't do too much with it.
They even list it in the user guide https://remarkable.guide/guide/access/ssh.html along with an "developing software" guide https://remarkable.guide/devel/index.html.
Maybe other tablets are like that too, to be honest I'm too poor to swing the 700-1000$ for what I can cover with an paper note pad (with the bonus of being able to comfortably sit my coffee cup on it, use any pen or pencil, rip pages out, drop it, forget it somewhere, etc etc) to buy one but at least it seems like a product I would support.
Long shell life is a taboo in the tech world where 5 years is a long time.
reMarkable software has its faults, but I keep coming back to them for the best-in-class hardware, developer-friendly platform, which itself spawned an active developer community. Could it be an easier platform to develop on? Sure. But that hasn't stopped a huge number of supported mods being made available
I actually like that the RM 1 is plastic, it feels durable and light.
1. Remarkable's own software is a steaming pile of poo. Their inbuilt web server for uploading files is extremely buggy and unusable. It's dog slow. You can't try to drag many files in one go, or it crashes. You can't try to upload a large file, or it crashes. There is also a hard limit on the file size you can upload (something like 100MB) which makes it unusable for some heavy PDF files I have. They push you towards paying for their cloud service subscription, which I will never do, just to be able to sync files. There is also no way to just ssh files over because their pdf reader will refuse to read them. All I want is to connect the remarkable every day for a few minutes to my computer and have it sync my files, and there is no way to do that.
2. Most of the "hacks" online are written assuming that you can install toolchains like Toltec on the device, and they are NOT updated for the newer firmware. My remarkable came with 3.15 and while there are some instructions on how to downgrade the firmware before installing the toolchain, they never worked for me. So I stuck with the subpar software and reading experience...
... until I discovered [ReManager](https://github.com/rmitchellscott/reManager). It just worked out of the box, did not require a firmware update, and I was able to install KoReader and other goodies (such as some launcher improvements). It can also transfer large files easily. What's ironic is that KoReader can read djvu files, which removes my need to use large PDFs in the first place. Equivalent djvu files are much much smaller.
Thanks to everyone in the remarkable community who contributed to ReManager and other assorted remarkable hacking!
EDIT: Also must point out a cool thing that I discovered recently - ReManager comes with a one click installer for the Zig toolchain on the Remarkable 2! It is slow, but I was able to compile and run zig programs on the tablet.
The problem was: out-of-sync device clock prevented software updates which in turn prevented cloud syncing. You don't need software updates or cloud syncing for the device to work.
The fix is to set the clock and do the software updates.