Friday, December 17, 2010

WeTab recovery, BIOS and stuff

Ok so in my previous post I complained loudly about there being no obvious specialness to the BIOS on the WeTab and that all the WeTab-specific shtuff (including the recovery program) existed on the SDD only.

I rescind that statement, I was...sadly...but thankfully....WRONG!

I was having trouble using the Recovery USB-Stick method because the sticks weren't being picked up by the BIOS process. I'm not sure why, I've had that problem consistenly with my WeTab...when I added the Plop boot  manager and tried to boot from a USB stick, that same USB would in some cases load up fine and in others give me a kernel panic on boot-up. I'm not sure why that happens, I'm thinking maybe the USB ports are a little off, maybe the metal contacts on the USB-stick are a little worn out, I'm not sure exactly why. Anyhow switching to a different USB-stick with the WeTabRecovery image on it worked fine for me and I was able to recover to the updated image offered on the developers website.

That's actually good news because it means no matter how bad I mess around with the SDD contents, I could always recover without having to break the hardware warranty by opening up the device and taking out the disk (I'm not sure how easy that would have been either).

Regarding the update to the Keyboard, I'm actually liking it except for the fact that the CTRL and SHIFT keys aren't there. The ESC now exists as well as most of the symbols you might need for some scripting/programming, though using the virtual keyboard extendedly is just a pain.

I'm still thinking that ergonomically using tablets is not much fun. Something still feels like it's lacking, looking down at the thing for extended periods of time gives you a crick in the neck. Also if your not sitting up straight the weight of the device gets uncomfortable. And then if your lying down in bed you have to keep your elbows bent to be able to interact with the device. Yes yes, I am a lazy SOB.

So here's an idea of how this can all be mitigated. First we have to eliminate the hand interaction altogether, I always thought the idea of a "touch" device was nice because, well, in some ways it's a much more "personal" experience ( wonder if Jim Morisson was that far ahead with all that LSD, I swear, before I bought that Wetab I could almost hear some of those devices call out to me "come on come on now touch me babe" ). Anyhow so here's the first link:



A couple of years from now and that headset will probably be as comfortable as earphones I suppose.

Now once that is solved we need to do something about the weight of the device. When we were in disneyland about some 15 years ago, I was just dazzled by one the rooms that had had some quite nifty holograms with ghosts flying around in a room that you looked into from the side. Actually if you've seem the Second Iron Man movie they've already thought of that idea, personal computer that threw up a hologramic screen that floated around the room. I guess you could call that invention a Holo-PC.

Well enough day-dreaming for one day.

Hmmm...I wonder what the EFI BIOS looks like and how to mess around with that...I never learn...

9 comments:

  1. Hi, have you tried installing Mac OS X (hackintosh) on wetab if yes what distributive have you used, I've tried with MSIWindOSX, SnowyWindOSX, Vanilla none of installed normally.

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  2. Nope, sorry I haven't had much time lately to experiment at all.

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  3. hi.
    i would install wetabos on ExoPC but i have some problem with the iso's recovery. any suggestion?

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  4. Sorry Simone, I don't own an ExoPC...what problem are you having?

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  5. tnx Etheros for the reply :)

    i've downloaded (from the official site) the iso "for other device", but when i boot from my usb i see the Recovery Process of weTab.
    To continue i should press quick button of wetab, but i have an exopc and i can't continue :(

    any suggestion?

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  6. Simone, could you provide me with the link for the iso "for other device"?

    All I found was: HowTo – Boot from another device or enter BIOS

    but I think that just explains how to boot the WeTab from USB...

    Cheers

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  7. INSTALLING WETAB: WeTab Installer image stops at a screen with lots of text and International warning symbols saying to press the EXOPC's ambient light sensor twice to start the install: THAT DOESN’T WORK. Instead, once at that screen:
    1) attach a USB keyboard
    2) press CTRL-ALT-F3 to get a shell
    3) log in as root, password “wetab”, then enter:
    4) tiitoo-installer.sh silent_installer /mnt/live/system.tar.bz2
    press CR, be patient as initially there’s no feedback anything’s happening; after a long while you should get a progress meter showing that WeTab is installing

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  8. has anyone here been able to boot the weTab off another USB key that isn't the recovery key with out using plop?

    ie just plug in a ubuntu key and go?

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  9. Actually yes, check out the Ubuntu install post: http://wetabz.blogspot.com/2011/02/wetab-ubuntu-installation.html

    I booted Gparted straight off using the powerbutton/quicktouch combo described on the support site for wetabs.

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