Asus TF300T - Is it still usable?

[dcung]

Found this Asus TF300T in a box that my children left at our place ages ago. They said they don't want it nor its content anymore. It's still in good condition and both batteries still hold charge well.

Specs wise, I think it's this one with 32GB storage (since I saw ~27GB free space).
https://www.gsmarena.com/asus_transform ... t-4596.php

I found YouTube videos of people showing it running Ubuntu 11, Debian 9 or upgrade it to later Android.
So, I'm curious to know if you can load any puppy or dog linux for basic browsing or is it too old and destined for landfill?

I did factory reset, which I probably shouldn't have.
It boots fast and snappy, but every app is too old and can not be updated since Google Play won't update anymore. I can only do a Google search but can not access 99% of the resulting websites since it always came up with 'browser too old' and not supported.

I'm not experienced with rooting or anything like that at all.
Is there still life for this thing for basic browsing?

Thanks.

[rockedge]

Some work was done in this direction. Check the topic : viewtopic.php?p=39025#p39025

It seems Manjaro will run okay on this device. Would be interesting if possible to Weedogit but Manjaro (based on Arch Linux) is a nice distro and appears it will run all of the devices on the Asus.

viewtopic.php?t=4213
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... f#p1049450

[rcrsn51]

This appears to be an Android device.

[dcung]

This appears to be an Android device.

It is.
But I have seen videos and articles that indicated it is also possible to load linux on it.
Have not found details "how to" yet.

I gotta figure out how to get this thing to boot of a thumb drive, since it got a USB port, I'm hoping it's possible.
I can connect it to a Windows PC and access its internal storage.
That's as far I got for now.

[dcung]

Just found this.
This will keep me reading for a while...

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guid ... t.3554744/

[Phoenix]

As far as I'm aware, there is no puppy with support for ARM architectures beside Raspup. Also since this is an Android device, you'll need to break into the bootloader and from there, custom flash it. Otherwise the factory bootloader will notice and overwrite, nor will it permit modifications. As well, judging by your specifications, this would only hold up with 2 or so browser tabs, with nothing else on the typical web page due to memory. But problems quickly crop up, since not many would support this specific model. (Bigger fishes to fry for these distributions unfortunately)

You're probably better off flashing a custom Android ROM rather than trying to get Linux though.

[dcung]

You're probably better off flashing a custom Android ROM rather than trying to get Linux though.

Thanks for info Phoenix.

[dcung]

Update -

In case anyone needs it.

I found this (link below) - and can confirm it works for me.
Following the guide, I managed to update it with the custom ROM.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guid ... .3554744/

[bigpup]

How To Install Linux On Asus Transformer Tf300t
https://www.systranbox.com/how-to-insta ... er-tf300t/

https://linuxontablets.tuxfamily.org/AS ... Pad_TF300T

If you get this working by following this info.

To see what happens.
I would try using Raspup 8.2.1 or Easy OS for the Raspberry PI computers.
The Pi computers are still just a basic ARM based computer.

You never know what will work until you try it.

[dcung]

You never know what will work until you try it.

It's tempting bigpup...I'll read the article, but I think I'll pass for now...
I'm satisfied that I can delay disposing it for the time being, now that it's at least usable.

I actually found 2 of these tablets in their boxes...but the other one has dead batteries.
The battery sells for AUD $80 each here and this thing takes 2 batteries if you want to use the docking too.
Not worth it IMO. So, that one will be spare to cannibalize in case this one needs it.