[HN Gopher] Using e-ink tablet as monitor for Linux
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Using e-ink tablet as monitor for Linux
Author : yolkedgeek
Score : 229 points
Date : 2025-12-09 14:10 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (alavi.me)
(TXT) w3m dump (alavi.me)
| bee_rider wrote:
| So it is vim on the eink screen, mostly?
|
| When writing a lot of LaTeX I wished I had an eink monitor. LaTeX
| already takes a moment to compile. I'd probably want vim on a
| conventional monitor.
| yolkedgeek wrote:
| It's text on the E-ink screen mostly, be it in the browser, a
| plain text file, Logseq, Obsidian etc. But sometimes simple
| writing can be done too. I wouldn't suggest writing code
| because of the high latency.
|
| Most of my work is reading rather than writing so when I want
| to read something I use the E-ink screen.
| jwrallie wrote:
| I'd really like a Linux laptop with an e-ink screen. I'm well
| aware of the downsides.
|
| It seems Android tablet with a keyboard or Windows laptop with
| double screen exist but to live with the limitations of such a
| screen, nothing would top having full control of the OS
| interface.
| larodi wrote:
| incredible, isn't it, that no single usable e-paper device is
| being sold. like no Mac with e-ink, no Surface with e-ink, no
| ASUS with e-ink, even though this is the best thing an operator
| can do to his tired eyes.
| ablob wrote:
| I'd wager that the whole modus operandi for desktop
| environments is not made with e-ink in mind. E-ink fits in a
| situation where only a few updates are ever required, and
| completely breaks down for anything requiring higher
| framerates.
|
| The market might just not be big enough to warrant creating a
| product.
| fragmede wrote:
| https://shop.dasung.com/products/dasung-paperlike-103-the-
| wo...
|
| This is that product. A 60 Hz eink monitor, for $340.
| nihiven wrote:
| I have one of these. It's only 'ok'. There is significant
| ghosting and it's not very good when the scene is dark,
| but it's much better than my BOOX tablet. I just got it
| so I'm still experimenting with different uses.
|
| Here's a clip of it playing video:
| https://youtu.be/povlk3hKTVA
| j_bum wrote:
| Wow that's far more impressive than I expected. I want a
| laptop with this for programming...
| danparsonson wrote:
| I had no idea such a thing existed, thanks - did you need
| to install anything to get it working or does it just
| plug and go like a normal monitor?
| nihiven wrote:
| It functions like a normal monitor. It connected to my
| Macbook air (M2) and Windows machine without installing
| anything. It has a USB-C video port, but an HDMI->USB-C
| converter works too. It has an 1872x1404 (4:3)
| resolution, which is why I used Miami Vice for the video.
| It would not connect to my PS5, which I think comes down
| to the PS5 only supporting 16:9/21:9.
| OtomotO wrote:
| On the product page "Linux is not supported"... What a
| bummer!
| dotancohen wrote:
| It's specifically says no Linux support. It seems to me
| that excludes a large portion of tinkerers and those
| willing to accept the downsides of bleeding edge
| technologies, which is probably also their target market.
| Such as me.
| shaky-carrousel wrote:
| But it was. 90s laptops had a refresh rate comparable to
| e-ink. That's why the windows mouse cursor can be
| configured to leave a trace.
| jwrallie wrote:
| It could be sold without any dedicated software, and let
| the community come up with the interface. Just an LVDS
| display that fits a widely available Thinkpad would do it.
| anthk wrote:
| CWM or any light WM could perfectly fit. Once you either
| use terminal tools or ancient Motif applications (or QT
| with no animations at all), everything looks usable. Forget
| Gnome 4 or Plasma with all the bells and wistles on.
| axiolite wrote:
| > the whole modus operandi for desktop environments is not
| made with e-ink in mind
|
| It used-to be in the DOS and terminal days, and it wouldn't
| take much to get us back there. Shut off all the eye-candy
| transition effects. Make your web browser, PDF viewer,
| etc., always scroll a full page at a time, instead of
| scrolling 1mm when you click on the button or use the mouse
| wheel. Just those few changes and you'll have something
| that'll work pretty well.
| nottorp wrote:
| The problem is, you can't doom scroll 1 minute videos on
| e-ink.
|
| It's a feature of course, but most people don't realize
| it.
| folmar wrote:
| It's not usual for PC, but if you select "remove animation"
| on Android you're good on 2 fps. Many applications do like
| crap as the first placeholders are given little attention,
| but there are only big refreshes, and only handful of apps
| written so bad that they ignore the setting and make
| animated placeholder.
|
| The only thing is that you need to stick to Page Up/Page
| Down for scrolling.
| baobun wrote:
| I think PineNote qualifies by now?
|
| https://pine64.org/devices/pinenote/
|
| Also https://usetrmnl.com/
| shakna wrote:
| Whilst they're certainly not Apple, you can walk into most
| retailers, and out with one of Boox's offerings.
|
| (Just be aware they're open GPL violators.)
| Zambyte wrote:
| I'm replying to this comment on a Daylight Computer.
| norman784 wrote:
| This sounds like a good opportunity for a 3rd party e-ink
| screen for the framework laptops.
| moneywoes wrote:
| Any suggested eink tablet with higher refresh that this would
| work better for?
| RossBencina wrote:
| Many if not all of the current generation Boox devices. Choose
| comparison category "Refresh Time" here:
|
| https://www.mydeepguide.com/daf-tool
|
| Be aware that Boox runs Android apps. Many other brands do not.
| cons0le wrote:
| I use the Boox 10.3 for reading emails, text-based sites like
| this, and manga. Its bliss and has replaced 80% of my ipad.
| The experience of using it outside completely trounces normal
| screens.
|
| As soon as they make larger, better 60hz panels I will 100%
| switch all my monitors over. I think making videos look worse
| is a positive. We don't need doomscrolling. We don't need
| 60fps react buttons with smooth gradients. We don't need to
| HDR the entire web. I primarily use text based sites anyways,
| so eink is perfect for me.
| Zambyte wrote:
| I'm writing this on a Daylight Computer. It's been my primary
| mobile device (instead of a smartphone) for all of 2025. I
| cannot recommend it enough.
| RossBencina wrote:
| The main thing I'd miss with this, versus using an actual e-ink
| monitor, is the ability to refresh/clear ghosting from a keyboard
| hotkey.
| exasperaited wrote:
| How long will the display last like this?
| ashirviskas wrote:
| from 6.7 to 42 would be my guess.
|
| But being serious, I personally have not seen a degraded e-ink
| display.
| Groxx wrote:
| I've seen a couple minor, older-hardware cases when they've
| been powered off with something on the screen for years, but
| that's about it. in theory they can also "burn in" by not
| clearing the display occasionally (afaict it has something to
| do with accumulating charge) but most or all of those should
| clear eventually after cycling a bunch (afaict, though it can
| definitely persist to a minor degree for dozens of full
| refresh cycles). extreme ghosting, basically.
|
| they seem pretty durable to me.
| sgt wrote:
| Even in a lot of direct sunlight or leaving it out in the
| heat?
| edent wrote:
| I've been using an eInk screen for over 12 years - it is
| refreshed multiple times per day.
|
| It is as crisp and clear as the day I got it.
|
| Admittedly, I'm not trying to run video on it constantly and it
| doesn't get hot. But eInk seems remarkably durable.
| exasperaited wrote:
| That's probably, what, 200,000 refreshes?
|
| From what I gather, at book-reading speeds, newer e-ink
| displays may never wear out in a human lifetime.
|
| But at usable computer display speeds I rather suspect many
| of these panels have a lifetime one might measure in months.
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| I backed this project: https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-
| tech/modos-paper-monitor on Crowd Supply to see how close they
| can come to a "monitor" experience with an e-paper display.
| disdi wrote:
| Same here. I saw a demo in Fosdem which was pretty smooth.
| skeptrune wrote:
| Ooh, crowdsupply looks interesting. This is my first time
| seeing it.
| iamflimflam1 wrote:
| CrowdSupply is great - I ran a successful project through
| them. And I would definitely recommend anyone doing some
| hardware taking a look.
|
| There are a couple of things to be aware of - everything is
| shipped to the US and then distributed from there (using
| Mouser US).
|
| From the project point of view this means, depending on where
| things are manufactured) tariffs can come into play. The
| terms of shipping to mouser are delivery duty paid - so it's
| the shipper who pays.
|
| For backers it does mean people outside of US can pay quite
| high shipping costs.
|
| The other thing from a project point of view is that mouser
| is a distributor. They want a reasonable (around 40%) margin
| on the things they ship.
|
| With CrowdSupply there are two sets of orders:
|
| Orders placed during the campaign - the project gets the full
| money (minus fees etc...)
|
| Orders placed after the campaign and any additional bulk
| orders - the project gets the wholesale price.
|
| I wrote a fairly detailed write up of it here:
| https://www.atomic14.com/2025/07/21/crowd-funding-retro
| eggfriedrice wrote:
| This was a really interesting read! Back in the day a
| friend and I started a company and Kickstartered a RPi add-
| on. The kickstarter campaign failed, but we ended up
| building anyway after one of the silicon manufacturers
| spotted the project and provided some FoC devices which
| changed the economics.
|
| We spent oodles of time on it, learned lots, build a fairly
| simple product but ended up selling it through some of the
| bigger RPi retailers. It was all an excellent learning
| experience, and ignoring our time we made about 50p out of
| the entire batch of a thousand. Factor in our time and it
| was a complete financial disaster, but we were young and
| carefree and had fun doing it!
| simlevesque wrote:
| I see btop in the video, I'd like to see a video of btop on that
| screen.
| hartator wrote:
| There are directly ekink monitors now.
|
| Dasung 13k color is workable-ish even on MacOS with no tweaks.
| yolkedgeek wrote:
| Well this is no replacement for them! The monitors you mention
| are from 700$ (Dasung 13k is 750USD currently) up to 2000USD.
| This is an old tablet you maybe have lying around or can get
| for 200USD maybe?
|
| And this is more than a monitor. the VNC provides you with an
| interface. you can use your tablet as the input device. and
| it's also portable.
| ahamilton454 wrote:
| Reading this on my eink Bigme Hibreak pro :).
| niceguy1827 wrote:
| Dasung 253 is a 25.3 inch eink display.
|
| https://shop.dasung.com/products/dasung-25-3-e-ink-monitor-p...
|
| I bought it two years ago for over $1800, and I have to say, it
| was worth every single dollar.
|
| I can read on it, work on it, (kind of) watch youtube videos on
| it, play (some) RTS game on it. And mine only had 33hz refresh
| rate, not the latest 60hz.
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| I want one of those but I keep waiting for the price to drop
| significantly. Seems like it'll take forever.
| danielsokil wrote:
| Does it support linux based systems?
| captn3m0 wrote:
| Page does mention Linux but there's a separate Mac variant
| (which also needs an app) and a warning never to plug a Mac
| on the standard variant. What about people who use both?
| bbarnett wrote:
| When I tried (and returned) one of their monitors, it was
| absolutely horrific with ghosting. This was perhaps 5 years
| ago.
|
| There was no manual, and it had a closed source application
| to time or force refresh. Of course, being closed source it
| wouldn't work on a Pi (arm64), nor did I feel comfortable
| about unknown code, or it working in a few years on a newer
| version of Linux.
|
| It was all exceptionally poorly done. Amazon says it was a
| Dasung E-Ink Paperlike 3 HD Front-Light and Touch 13.3"
| Monitor.
|
| If the app had been OSS, or it had an open API via the cable,
| I could have scripted an auto-refresh upon scrolling in vi or
| some such. Or just hacked into something seeing change scope
| under X. Point is, I could have made it work for me.
|
| The default modes were terrible.
|
| I hope things are better, but no way will I install some
| weird closed source client.
|
| I have a fairly new tablet, and it handles refresh incredibly
| well, but I'm sure that's with strong integration into the
| display stack. Which is fine, of course, but that doesn't
| help me with coding.
|
| EDIT: one of the things which makes some of these e-ink
| tablets incredible for refresh, is partial, very well done
| sectional refresh. So if a small part of the screen changes,
| BAM!, it's refreshed instantly for ghosting.
|
| Again, I suspect this is tied into the display stack. The
| monitors I've seen don't seem anywhere as good. I'd love to
| to be wrong on newer models.
| tuananh wrote:
| the 60hz version says it doesn't
|
| > Only Support Mac, Windows > Linux is not supported
| thfuran wrote:
| So it's ewaste.
| pumphaus wrote:
| Input is just HDMI, so works on Linux without issue. There
| might be an app or something that lets you control the
| settings, but I've never used that once. All relevant stuff
| can be configured from the front panel buttons. I think the
| Mac issue is that macos slightly dithers/moves the image with
| a high rate which would kill the EInk pixels quickly. There
| appears to be an app to deactivate this behavior though.
| overfeed wrote:
| > Input is just HDMI, so works on Linux without issue
|
| HDMI is not _always_ plug and play. I unfortunately
| encountered a situation where a Phillips HDMI display only
| worked with Windows, but not Linux due to EDID /Nvidia
| driver issues
| niceguy1827 wrote:
| I cannot make guarantees but I do remember temporarily using
| it for my Debian installation for my home server -- can't
| think of any reason why it wouldn't work though. For both
| Windows and Mac it's just plug and play.
| logicallee wrote:
| the version you linked is a monochrome one, right? Don't you
| find it difficult to read and work on it without color?
| pumphaus wrote:
| I have both, a Boox Mira pro (monochrome only) as well as a
| Dasung Color EInk Monitor.
|
| You actually get used to the monochrome thing. I've adjusted
| my syntax highlighting to use more italic, underline, bold
| etc so you get by without the semantic coloring.
|
| The color eink is way better though. Only downside is that it
| has less contrast than the purely monochrome one. Color makes
| up for it nicely, though. Plus the refresh rate on the Dasung
| is way higher, so you can actually use a mouse without going
| insane trying to predict cursor movement.
|
| Where the monochrome monitor was more of a secondary display
| primarily used for coding, I'm now using the Color EInk one
| as my main display.
| niceguy1827 wrote:
| Yes, it's basically a large Kindle.
|
| For reading and work, I actually prefer this experience. The
| contrast for text is way better and more crisp than regular
| LED/LCD/OLED displays, unless you turn the regular display's
| brightness way up, until which point my eyes hurt from all
| that light emitted. This was my primary reason for buying
| such a display -- I love my Kindle and want to use it more,
| but I couldn't.
|
| Now for entertainment you are obviously limited. For
| informational Youtube videos you could be getting by alright
| -- you don't really need to see colors for those. Games is
| tricky since you could only do non-demanding ones. Shopping
| gets tricky since you can't see colors. Sometimes I find
| myself hopping on my iPhone to check before placing orders.
| thefounder wrote:
| I couldn't make it work on macOS (I.e Mac Studio 2).
| summarity wrote:
| What problems did you run into?
| thefounder wrote:
| Over HDMI I've got a no-signal error. I think I've tried
| display port or something else and got very bad ghosting
| and a kind of very bad contrast issue. You couldn't really
| read text(unlike what I've seen on YouTube videos). Tried
| different kinds of settings still couldn't get it into a
| working state. Like it needs a special driver or something
| like that.
| niceguy1827 wrote:
| Weird. I have a work MacBook Pro m3 and a personal m1 MacBook
| Pro. Both are just plug and play for me. I actually have my
| displayed connected to a CalDigit TS3 dock and just connect
| different computer to the same dock.
| niceguy1827 wrote:
| Forgot to mention one benefit, for the ultra-lazy like myself.
|
| You can just leave the display on forever and you never have to
| wait for the screen to wake up again. I use amphetamine on
| macOS and just set a session forever. I'm more comfortable this
| way since eink displays don't emit light and thus should
| consume less power.
| knubie wrote:
| I've tried this setup (and a different setup using a capture
| card) with a BOOX Note Max but the input latency is just too high
| to be usable, even for simple cli work.
|
| Are the dedicated eink monitors (like Dasung) better in this
| regard?
| yolkedgeek wrote:
| I've been using this solution for about 4 days now. It's not
| meant to be used as your main monitor. I use it only when I
| want to read something I or someone else has written. I think
| it's also good for simple writing too. But if I try to use it
| as my main monitor, browsing the web, writing code, etc. it
| will become a real headache because of the latency.
|
| One huge plus is that it isn't *just a monitor*. because of the
| VNC connection, I just pick up my tablet and roam around the
| office while reading something, even making tiny edits, It can
| be also used as a great drawpad. I use it to explain things to
| my coworkers, since drawing freehand diagrams, shapes and text
| isn't very easy with a mouse.
| timeforcomputer wrote:
| How is the latency for drawing? I am going to start doing
| this, but it makes me think, it would be nice to have a way
| to disable full refresh while drawing, and doing tablet-side
| drawing over the current VNC frame while the stream is
| paused, and asynchronously forwarding the input which will
| hopefully recreate the same drawing path on the server.
| yolkedgeek wrote:
| I don't know how to do what you are describing, but right
| now, the drawing is OK. it's not instantaneous but good
| enough for me, not creating artworks. just doodles and
| scribbles. I just don't look at the tablet screen for
| drawing. I only use it as an input because the refresh rate
| is low for this. but the VNC latency itself is not annoying
| (I would guesstimate ~0.2s), although I think there are
| ways to make VNC latency less.
| knubie wrote:
| The latency for drawing on the Boox Note Max is excellent.
| Best on the market or close to it.
| carlosjobim wrote:
| Yes they are significantly better. But no battery so no
| portability.
| somat wrote:
| I don't really want an e-ink "monitor" as that does not really
| play into the advantages of an e-ink display. By the time the
| e-ink display is uprated enough to act as a monitor It feels like
| a lot of the advantages of e-ink are lost and the display server
| does not really downrate enough to utilize e-ink's strength.
|
| But an e-ink "terminal" would be nice, not an actual tty but
| something more like a tablet form factor that has a few buttons,
| little to no internal smarts and you can push images to it.
| bgnn wrote:
| this would do? https://shop.dasung.com/products/dasung-
| paperlike-103-the-wo...
| ahoef wrote:
| No HDMI is really sad. This means there are probably closed
| source drivers. Linux is not mentioned as supported, so I
| suspect crapware.
| ibrahima wrote:
| Funnily you're describing https://usetrmnl.com/ which also
| happens to be pretty hacker friendly.
| wiether wrote:
| Until now, I had resisted the urge to order one
|
| But now that they have a bigger version, with controls and a
| clear case...
|
| I'm not sure that I should be thanking you for making me
| spend money!
| ibrahima wrote:
| Yeah... I bought the regular version a few months before
| the bigger one was announced. Now I kinda want it but can't
| really justify it at this point. It's a cool product though
| and a lot of the code is open source or has open source
| alternatives (e.g. the official backend is not but they
| have sponsored the development of open source alternatives
| so that if they go out of business or something you can
| host your own backend).
| baobun wrote:
| PineNote?
| the_gipsy wrote:
| > not an actual tty
|
| Hold up, this could be good
| sgt wrote:
| What's the cheapest eInk display one can get, like phone sized or
| tablet sized? I mean just for experimentation.
| IshKebab wrote:
| I'd look for an Inkplate on ebay. I got the 10 inch one for
| about PS60 which is very good.
| quijoteuniv wrote:
| I wonder if xpra can be used for this, seems to work really nice
| on thin clients
| butz wrote:
| I love when a blog post starts with demonstration of end result.
| kalek wrote:
| Since Boox runs android, you can also run a shell on it using
| termius and simply ssh to a host device instead of setting up
| vnc, if you have a terminal based workflow.
| bbarnett wrote:
| Boox devices are riddled with phone home to all sorts of
| domains, including to .cn domains, just run tcpdump on your
| firewall and watch. You should do absolutely nothing security
| conscious with them. For example, like putting keys on them, or
| sshing into a box with them.
|
| At least with vnc, you could create a private network between
| the boox and your linux box, and it'd be sharing the screen.
| Still an issue, but passwords and hidden fields would be typed
| on the keyboard on the Linux box, not the boox.
|
| I rooted mine, and installed afwall, and still won't ever used
| it for anything security conscious.
| shekharupadhaya wrote:
| Benefits aside, but the latency / refresh rate makes it not
| usable for practical purpose, ergonomics nightmare.
| hexo wrote:
| This is basically impossible due to **** animations everywhere.
| bmsleight_ wrote:
| I hacked together a HDMI e-ink monitor
| https://barwap.com/projects/okmonitor/
|
| I wanted an e-ink screen I could just plug-in. Versatile, big and
| cheap. Connection is via a VGA or HDMI. Works like an appliance.
| All automated. Wireless.
|
| Specifications: 1024x768, 6fps, lag: ~1.2s, Connection: VGA or
| HDMI Specifications Single Screen: 1024x768, 5fps, lag: ~1.2s,
| Connection: VGA or HDMI
| engr wrote:
| What I really want is an A3 e-ink display that is designed to
| have a pdf loaded onto it, then can be disconnected and taken
| around a machine shop. No WiFi or Bluetooth etc
| malfist wrote:
| You'll pay out the nose on that. From what I understand, the
| larger the e-ink screen is the harder it is to manufacture.
| Which is why small tablet ones reign supreme, and larger
| monitor sized ones are shockingly expensive, somebody else here
| has already linked to a 25 inch display for $1800
| pluc wrote:
| Using white text on a pink background? No wonder you need an
| e-ink tablet
| cramcgrab wrote:
| That's pretty neat! I've been looking at ESL e-ink displays for a
| while as a more static status display, but the lack of standards
| and open source software is a problem.
| nanomonkey wrote:
| As much as I like e-ink, it has terrible refresh rates. I'd love
| a larger version of the Sharp Memory display technology that
| could support at least 80 characters wide, and perhaps 8 bit
| greyscale. The current ones support 60hz refresh and sip power
| but are limited to black and white only.
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(page generated 2025-12-14 20:00 UTC)