Linux distro and hardware for working with Blender with a partition for google chrome OS for chrome apps?

mintin1 · 08-13-2017, 12:02 PM

Hi, total newbie here, researching which equipment and distro I should put together. I tried to partition my dual core but crashed and burned from lack of Ram and video card capabilities I think. So I'm askin' for help cuz I obviously do not know how to go about doin' this. This bein' a Linux or Google OS with the Hardware you Recommended for running the Blender app or the Optimal Recommendation to see how much the cost difference is.

The trick is that I would really like to have a large display screen laptop convertible to a touch tablet for stylus drawing (weight and slimness are not important) and I have seen none that have the capability to run Blender in Linux. What cooling system/body style is available for this would be hot runner? Also wondering if a second tablet could be used in the Optimal recommendations.

Will Linux be offering a laptop convertible to a tablet with touch screen for stylus and a Linux OS that would be compatible with Google Chrome system apps like Oprah (mostly) is? Does Linux have an app store? Earlier research suggested that Linux Mint was the best for Blender work, is that correct, and which flavor?

Finally, I would like to be able to tether my laptop/tablet to my phone so which phone should I get to go with the Linux OS or do I need to go with a chrome OS? I was looking at the soon to be available Moto Z Droid Force that will be unlocked coming out in September(?)it would be compatible with Chrome, I think, would it be compatible with Linux? I am especially interested in the Droid Force because it is supposed to be expandable and have an attachment that will allow the Force to program new apps for itself.

Is there anyone out there that has all this goin' on? Or can you refer me to where I can have this kind of system built?

Thank You in advance for your help.

Hopin' to be mintin1 system soon.

rokytnji · 08-13-2017, 12:33 PM

Examine the benchmarks in the zip for the link I am providing to get a idea I guess for hard ware requirements. My Dell XT2 dual core touchscreen with wacom pen Antix Laptop with 6 gig of ram I built for about 75 bucks. My Samsung S7 Phone cost me more but interfaces just fine with it. Not sure if my Dell meets hardware specs though. I am no graphics guy,

http://www.eofw.org/bench/

Oh yeah

Code:

harry@biker:~
$ apt-cache policy blender
blender:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2.72.b+dfsg0-3
  Version table:
     2.72.b+dfsg0-3 0
        500 http://ftp.gr.debian.org/debian/ jessie/main i386 Packages

Code:

$ inxi -fMGI
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Latitude XT2
           Mobo: Dell model: 0HJ48R Bios: Dell v: A01 date: 05/07/2009
Battery    BAT0: charge: 38.0 Wh 101.4% condition: 37.5/38.0 Wh (99%)
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo U9600 (-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB 
           clock speeds: max: 1601 MHz 1: 1200 MHz 2: 1200 MHz
           CPU Flags: acpi aperfmperf apic arch_perfmon bts clflush cmov
           constant_tsc cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts est flexpriority
           fpu fxsr ht ida lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx monitor msr mtrr nx pae pat
           pbe pdcm pebs pge pni pse pse36 sep smx ss sse sse2 sse4_1 ssse3 tm
           tm2 tpr_shadow tsc vme vmx vnmi xsave xtpr
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.Org 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1280x800@60.1hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express x86/MMX/SSE2
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3
Info:      Processes: 184 Uptime: 19 min Memory: 616.6/5004.5MB
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.0

IsaacKuo · 08-13-2017, 08:18 PM

A 3D artist "stoneseeker" on TabletPCReview uses a Fujitsu Lifebook T902. It's a bit thicker than the T904, but this provides enough space for a standard 2.5" SATA SSD and better cooling on 3D accelerated graphics card. The resolution of 1600x900 is pretty good. The specs on his T902 are:

Fujitsu T902
-i7-3520M -16 gigs of RAM -512 gig SSD -extra modular bay battery -Wacom penabled dual digitizer 13.3" 1600x900

I have older Fujitsu Lifebook tablet PCs, but I haven't upgraded to a T902 just yet. My experience is that they work with Debian out-of-box with the exception of the wifi driver. I have to manually tell it to install "firmware-iwlwifi" with the command "apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi" and that's what gets wifi to work.

The way I prefer to use my Fujitsu Lifebook tablet PCs, I actually use them upside-down. The keyboard is upside-down, further away from me. The screen is folded all the way toward me, with the hinge on top and the latch closest to me. This even tilts the screen a bit nicely. So, I have to invert the display, tell the Wacom stylus input to map inverted (to match the display), and I even invert the axes on the touchpad. This gives me access to the keyboard for keyboard commands, even if it's upside-down. Resting a keyboard on top of the upside-down laptop keyboard is also nice.

Tilting the screen this way eliminates the annoyance of the thickness of old school tablet-PCs.

My own main setup is actually a pair of Fujistu Lifebook T5010 tablet-PCs, side-by-side. See attached for a photo of my main workstation setup. I'm left-handed, so I place the main drawing area on the right. I use x11vnc/xtightvncviewer to view/control the secondary screen on the left T5010. Basically, the left T5010 is just a VNC client to control the right T5010's left screen. So, I put various controls on the left screen while using most of the right screen for drawing area.

The stylus is actually not the normal Fujitsu Lifebook stylus. It's a Motion Computing LE series stylus. I like it because it's bigger/thicker and its very sensitive to light strokes. The official Fujitsu Lifebook stylus is good also, though, and it has more buttons (a rocker switch instead of just a single side button).

IsaacKuo · 08-13-2017, 08:22 PM

Oh - one extremely annoying bug with the just released Debian 9 - there's a bug with the Wacom driver which causes boot to hang for 250 seconds. It looks like the system has frozen up with a black screen, but in fact it's just waiting for the Wacom driver. Apparently a stupid bug where a wait that was supposed to be 250 milliseconds was instead typo'd so it waits 250 seconds instead.

This is a stupid dumb bug, but it's not such a big deal in practice if you "suspend" instead of "shutdown".