A family member in a nursing home is confined to a bed and was playing simple games coming with a Debian distro on a laptop which is now too big for her needs as she is unable to move from bed to table on her own. She is asking me to put those games on a tablet which she can move more easily and play with a touch-screen. I know nothing about tablets.
It seems that it is possible to do so through an application called Debian Noroot.

Has anyone any advice or experience on the subject?

I was thinking of buying something like a Lenovo TAB M10 HD selling for $AU199.00 which, apparently, she should be able to connect to the internet through the plan of her cell/mobile phone if she wants to surf the net but most if not all apps available on the gadget, as well as any other software from the distro, are probably useless to her. This device seems to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon SDM429 Processor.

Any hint welcome.

Thank you for your help.

Installing on a tablet is the same as a phone. You would need to find a ROM for the device and be able to unlock the boot loader.

Have you looked at a Chromebook that can convert into a tablet? That way you could just install the Linux games into ChromeOS without rooting the device.
https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/0...ons-chrome-os/

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Might have to consider something like the HP tablet that had an intel processor and lte??

Tablets are kind of difficult to get linux on too.

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Linux on a tablet is not going to be a good experience for someone in a nursing home. The touchscreen is a problem.

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Does she use the touchscreen on a cellphone? If she doesn't , she probably can't use a linux tablet. Look for an intel chipset with a normal bios that can boot from usb, otherwise it is challenging to put linux into it. Google is your friend.
I find that xfce4 can be tweaked to make a good linux tablet desktop interface. You are going to need to set it up to boot straight to the graphical desktop with no login and to configure a grapical keyboard app like xvkbd and customize xfce4 with large icons that are grandma simple for her to start what she wants to use before handing it off too her (and probably giant fonts for everything too).

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Worse comes to worse I guess you could use an emulator (virtual machine) on some windows 2in1 or tablet?

Could maybe use linux in a 2in1 gizmo.

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What about a small laptop instead? Either Amazon or ebay let you search by screen size.

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Thank you for the answers.

I will give that one a miss. Instead, I'll see if a used Samsung Slate XE700T1A (selling for around $AU210 including freight) fits her wishes. I have the feeling she was impressed by nursing home staff manipulating their own tablet with ease without realising that what they do with it is not what she wants to do with hers. It looks like that Samsung Slate XE700T1A, although a bit bigger should do the job.

A tablet should work if she is willing to accept games that are similar but not identical. There are thousands of games available for Android and Apple tablets. There should be games available that are very much like the ones she is used to. That is likely the way i would go.

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There are very few tablets which can have (any) Linux installed on them successfully. They all need specific porting to the hardware.
Nevertheless, the UBPorts project is successfully porting Ubuntu Touch onto various phone devices: https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/
The BQ Aquaris M10 has Ubuntu Touch installed on it, and it still works. The device would likely now be considered under-powered for today's requirements, though it will play the basic games that are available via the OpenStore: https://open-store.io
If you can find one of these now quite old devices for sale, then you can likely root it, ditch the stock Android 5.1, and install Ubuntu Touch.
Then, along with all the latest OTA security updates, you can install the games that you would like.
Congratulations also to your family member for using or wanting to use Linux. My elderly parents use it, and for years now I haven't has any worries about them getting infected with any Windoze virus thingies!
Hope this helps.

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My thoughts are somewhat in line with several above but with slight tangent here.

Almost any android tablet has tons of games available in the play store and could easily be configured to wake up/power on with/without security. A 7 inch tablet would likely be a bit small but the 10 inch ones would be about right. A tablet could be set for larger fonts or more contrast depending on grandma's needs and would not require a lot of finagling to set up. A tablet is also light and much easier to use than a laptop when reclining.

I personally am using the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 (10.5 in) with the samsung book-cover/keyboard and it can easily be used as just the tablet using touchscreen only (including on-screen keyboard) or tablet with keyboard as a laptop. It has really good battery life and font size and brightness control. I added a glass screen protector to mine just in case, but in several years and several tablets have never needed it myself -- Who knows what others might need, especially if it gets dropped.

The only drawback I see would be the price. New ones are around $700 although they are readily available within the $200 - $400 price range on ebay (book-cover case/keyboard extra).

Just my $0.02

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I have no idea what you mean there?

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withdrawn

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Most tablets have built in security that prevents unauthorized use if enabled. It is, however, relatively simple to configure them to use or not use the security features.

Newer versions of android actually encrypt the system and if you are unable to properly meet the security challenge (pin, fingerprint, face recognition, etc) and fail enough times the system will reset back to factory defaults, wiping all user files, etc.

For an older person who is bedridden having security enabled might be a problem.
OTOH leaving the tablet without security would allow anyone who got hold of it to use it.
Thus, if security was not enabled it would be up to someone (the owner, family, staff, etc.) to store it so it did not grow legs and walk away, or to prevent unauthorized use.

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From experience with my mother, I know that stuff does walk away in nursing homes. Some of the residents are far gone in dementia, and may walk into someone else's room thinking it's theirs, and if they see something lying around, may just pick it up. But I wouldn't be too concerned with security, because they rarely would be able to use the device at all. I would disable all of it that I could.

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