this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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ThinkPad

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Anyone using a Thinkpad in portrait mode? (self.thinkpad)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by solrize to c/[email protected]
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That is, turned on its side so the display is vertical, using an external keyboard. I'm thinking of getting one of the Yoga models, which are naturally suited to that. I run primarily browsers, emacs, and maybe calibre, under Debian GNU/Linux. My questions:

  1. Any issues getting the X server to work that way?

  2. Any issues with cables having to stick out of the edges and poke things? At minimum a power cable, but i like to use Ethernet instead of WiFi when I can.

Thanks!

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[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Hell yeah!

L390 Yoga, in portrait mode as a book reader with Arianna app.

  1. Yesn't. It works, but not quite with a touchscreen. It emulates a mouse pointer. A pressed down mouse pointer. You can't even scroll in browser, and I haven't gotten maliit-keyboard to work under X11, but it may work with some effot. Also, Plasma doesn't adjust to tablet mode under X11 (larger buttons and taskbar icon spacing).
    It's just a mess, under X11.
    But why use that, Wayland works beautifully. No emulated mouse pointer, it actually properly works as touchscreen. You can use virtual keyboard, scroll like you'd scroll stuff on a phone, it adjusts to tablet mode properly.

  2. Well, you can turn it either way, but if resting it against something you can obviously only use the top side.

I haven't tried if long press and 2 finger zoom work under X11, but I doubt the latter would work.

[โ€“] solrize 1 points 2 months ago

Interesting, thanks. I hadn't even thought about Wayland. I've been using MATE and it runs X by default. I wonder if I can change that. I've never used Wayland and don't know much about it.

I've never had trouble using a USB keyboard with X. I don't think X realizes there are two keyboards. Bluetooth might be different.