The hardware isn’t so much of a problem as there are companies who can make or source compatible tablets like the PineTab2 and the PineNote.

It’s making the software compatible with a lower power mobile device and learning what needs to fixed.

It would have been much easier to deal with getting a tablet up and running before dealing with getting a mobile device functional.

Making the small steps from laptop to tablet then to phone would have saved them a lot of grief and software mistakes.

They really shot themselves in the foot by going straight to phones.

The better way would have been to work on tablets first and working out all the bugs on larger devices with a limited feature set before moving into phones with the attendant issues of regional cell bands and restrictions.

Rather than play the “will this product work on Linux” game I bought an enclosure and made my own. I got an Orico enclosure and put a large HDD into it.

Most enclosures are OS agnostic (but check anyway) and you can put quite large drives in them.

I wouldn’t consider it a backup solution, I use Timeshift for that.

It’s more of a file syncing software like Syncthing.

I have it set up to one way sync certain folders on my computer to an external USB HDD that I can disconnect and take with me if I have to evacuate.

Have you had a look at “Lucky Backup”?

Have a look at XNview MP

I can definitely say that it is avery good photo management program.

I am only using about 20% of it’s features and it is my go to image software.

What I do is start up Firefox first to create all the first start files then close it and delete everything in the Firefox folder then copy across everything from the original pc.

Seems to work alright.

I have had several distros working on the X205TA (I even had a how to guide written up on reddit years ago).

But I was not able to get a usable system (i.e. being able to use the system without waiting on average 20-120 sec for the device to process an action).

Life has gotten to the point that the effort to do so is better directed into activities that I would enjoy.

To be brutally honest about this, your best bet is to recycle the unit.

The problems of trying to get a distro to install properly, have all the hardware working right and have a usable experience are not worth the minimal upsides.

I have an ASUS X205TA which is a similar unit and after trying for countless hours to get a usable device out of it was not going to be worth the headaches plus if I was getting paid for the time I spent on it I could have brought an off lease laptop with better specs.

I have an LTS kernel as a backup in case something doesn’t work with my main kernel.

Just recently I had an issue where my main kernel had a bug where snap’s can’t start up, so I just restarted into the LTS kernel to use it then restarted back into my main kernel.

I have used a Logitech G440 Hard Gaming Mouse Mat for the last 20 something years.

It’s gotten a bit battered and starting to de-laminate on one edge but it’s still perfectly usable even after all these years.

Hannah Montana Linux

I had updated the kernel several days ago and have rebooted several times since then.

Ended up rebooting into a lower kernel to use the snap, luckily I don’t often need to use it.

If you can, get yourself a wireless access point instead.

You can connect the computer by ethernet to the access point that then connects to the WiFi network.

By having the device separate you can have it situated away from the computer for better connection and the computer only sees a wired connection.

Plus they tend to be more stable than dongles.

Try going into a menu first.

Just had fun with this with my optiplex 790.

Things I have found:

If you are using the front USB ports try the lower ports.

Make sure that you have formatted your live USB properly.

On boot press F12 to get the one time boot menu, if everything is right you should get a menu that gives you legacy boot options with UEFI boot options below that.

The big thing here is that not all live distros appear to work with the Dell UEFI implementation (got Linux Lite and Manjaro working)

This is why you back up your data!

I use both Timeshift and Lucky Backup.

Timeshift is setup to back up the entire OS and user data and fire off a backup when updating (onto an internal drive).

Lucky Backup has been setup to do a one way sync of my user folders (doc’s, download, pictures, videos etc) onto an external drive.

Yep and in game menu.

I had the same issue when playing Minecraft until I realized that I had to go into a menu so the game would unlock the mouse &/or keyboard.

Try going into a menu first so the game isn’t stealing the mouse and keyboard focus.

Settings > advanced > open links in apps

Set it to never and the blue dots should disappear (the instal option doesn’t go away from the menu though).