GPD Win (x86 Computer / Palmtop)
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Awesome pale, really awesome. I'll buy it!
mikesheley
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I was on the fence with this thing and had planned to wait until reviews came out after release, but after all the awesome updates in the last month or so I'm drinking the kool-aid and placed a pre-order. Really hope I'm not disappointed!
slimeycat
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Alperoot
Welcome! Welcome to Airstrip 17.
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Well, AFAIK we still didn't get a confirmation about installing different operation systems. But to think about it, it won't run emulators that doesn't have retroarch cores (if I understood correctly), so how practical would it be?
SNESFAN
Retro game fanatic
there's an x86 branch of retroarch with plenty of cores
Well, I just tried Linux on the GPD Win.
Booting from a USB stick was painless (which was a bit of a surprise, as I expected UEFI to crap things out, but nope, no big deal!).
Of course, the screen was rotated on boot up
First I tried my ArchLinux install stick, as I love ArchLinux.
It had quite a few tracebacks in the boot up log and while the broadcom Wifi chipset was found, it couldn't connect to the access point (I remember that my sister-in-law has the same issue with a broadcom Wifi chipset... maybe the same. I never found a solution except for using a Wifi stick).
As I couldn't do much from here without Wifi, I tried a stock Ubuntu image.
The kernel is a bit older there, so at least the same or even more issues were to be expected.
The touchscreen works fine (except that you can't hit the tiny buttons with your fingers), the screen is rotated (as expected) and trying to rotate it crashes the unit right now - probably something with the Intel graphics driver (a more recent kernel might help here).
Wifi has the same issue, no soundcard was being found, no battery, brightness control or power management (still, running Linux kept the GPD Win a lot cooler than Windows), so yes - it's working, but missing A LOT of driver stuff.
I couldn't test 3D as Ubuntu didn't have the drivers installed and without Wifi... yeah
GPD might fix those issues (if they can, I don't think they can do much with the broadcom chipset, the firmware is closed), but who knows whether they plan to release a hacked up Linux install version or whether they will contribute to the kernel (if they're allowed to, if there's closed-sourced stuff in there...).
If they hack it up, it might be hard to install any other Linux distribution on there, and who knows whether you can update it or not...
Maybe these missing things will be fixed over time with new kernel versions, but maybe not.
Don't expect to run any stock Linux distribution without any issues from the beginning though!
Booting from a USB stick was painless (which was a bit of a surprise, as I expected UEFI to crap things out, but nope, no big deal!).
Of course, the screen was rotated on boot up
First I tried my ArchLinux install stick, as I love ArchLinux.
It had quite a few tracebacks in the boot up log and while the broadcom Wifi chipset was found, it couldn't connect to the access point (I remember that my sister-in-law has the same issue with a broadcom Wifi chipset... maybe the same. I never found a solution except for using a Wifi stick).
As I couldn't do much from here without Wifi, I tried a stock Ubuntu image.
The kernel is a bit older there, so at least the same or even more issues were to be expected.
The touchscreen works fine (except that you can't hit the tiny buttons with your fingers), the screen is rotated (as expected) and trying to rotate it crashes the unit right now - probably something with the Intel graphics driver (a more recent kernel might help here).
Wifi has the same issue, no soundcard was being found, no battery, brightness control or power management (still, running Linux kept the GPD Win a lot cooler than Windows), so yes - it's working, but missing A LOT of driver stuff.
I couldn't test 3D as Ubuntu didn't have the drivers installed and without Wifi... yeah
GPD might fix those issues (if they can, I don't think they can do much with the broadcom chipset, the firmware is closed), but who knows whether they plan to release a hacked up Linux install version or whether they will contribute to the kernel (if they're allowed to, if there's closed-sourced stuff in there...).
If they hack it up, it might be hard to install any other Linux distribution on there, and who knows whether you can update it or not...
Maybe these missing things will be fixed over time with new kernel versions, but maybe not.
Don't expect to run any stock Linux distribution without any issues from the beginning though!
FlapJack
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Thank you for trying the Linux install. I was wondering about that and whether the OS will see certain things. Apparently it did more than I thought. I'll be good either way, but you answered some questions that I was going to need answers upon day one of receiving this device.
Pickle
Mega GP Mania
Its older software but NDISwrapper might work in getting the wifi running.
A, right, NDISwrapper might work...
More concerning for me right now is the missing power saving features. No battery meter, no governor control, no way to change brightness of the LCD... and of course the crash when you rotate the screen.
I hope GPD can fix that and push their stuff mainline... bu then again, the XD never received a kernel update and still sits on Android 4.4 :/
More concerning for me right now is the missing power saving features. No battery meter, no governor control, no way to change brightness of the LCD... and of course the crash when you rotate the screen.
I hope GPD can fix that and push their stuff mainline... bu then again, the XD never received a kernel update and still sits on Android 4.4 :/
vcoleiro1
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The final GPD WIN version with fan has been in the hands of internal testers for a little bit now, so that's good. Apparently the Z8750 is up to 5% faster than the Z8700 .
GPD are planning to start shipping to Chinese JD.com backers as of the 8th, ie next week. Will have to see how that goes.
GPD said a week or so ago , that they had over 7000 backers/pre-orders as of then. Of course that's still climbing. So it will be interesting to see how many backers/pre-orders they get coming up to retail launch day.
GPD are planning to start shipping to Chinese JD.com backers as of the 8th, ie next week. Will have to see how that goes.
GPD said a week or so ago , that they had over 7000 backers/pre-orders as of then. Of course that's still climbing. So it will be interesting to see how many backers/pre-orders they get coming up to retail launch day.
SNESFAN
Retro game fanatic
Progress is good, but didn't the JD campaign start after the indigogo one? That kinda sucks they are shipping out of order :/
vcoleiro1
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The delivery date for JD.com backers was always the 10th of September though, as stated on that campaign from day one.
It is true that their campaign started later though. They also got it cheaper , but that's because local shipping is cheaper.
I'm not sure when Indiegogo backers will get theirs. It could be one progressive send. Not sure. The stated due date is October though
Pretty sure Makuake backers will get theirs last , as that campaign was run by a third party who will also do local certification in Japan.
It is true that their campaign started later though. They also got it cheaper , but that's because local shipping is cheaper.
I'm not sure when Indiegogo backers will get theirs. It could be one progressive send. Not sure. The stated due date is October though
Pretty sure Makuake backers will get theirs last , as that campaign was run by a third party who will also do local certification in Japan.
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thatgui
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Reminds me of the Thinkpad 8 (Atom based tablet), that I have lying around: lost WiFi and Audio-out capabilities due to a Windows 10 Update. Going back to Windows 8 did not change anything and Linux as an alternaive offers the exact same drawbacks.
FlapJack
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I'll probably get it around the winter, which will be great. Hopefully they will have shipped thousands of units and will have shaken out the bugs before I get mine. I'd rather be the beneficiary of a well-tested game console than be the one crying about how my unit is overheating playing Solitaire.
Exophase
Nothing good will ever come of Exophase.
I was reading on Dingoonity, and a comment was posted from GPD saying that the fan can only be manually operated. So does that mean that the user presses a switch that toggles the fan between off and full RPM?
If so this is a very limited design. It's going to be really annoying to have to constantly turn the fan on when you think it'ss needed and off when you think it isn't, or live with the drain on power consumption and noise by having it always run (and also deal with increased wear...). Plus no ability to run the fan at a lower speed if that's all that's necessary for cooling.
If so this is a very limited design. It's going to be really annoying to have to constantly turn the fan on when you think it'ss needed and off when you think it isn't, or live with the drain on power consumption and noise by having it always run (and also deal with increased wear...). Plus no ability to run the fan at a lower speed if that's all that's necessary for cooling.
vcoleiro1
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@Exophase
It does look like the fan will be manually operated, although it's very difficult to tell, as the only GPD person we have contact with is the PR person. So at times they don't really know the technical details of the system.
That all said, the fan has three settings, OFF, LOW and HIGH. So there is a low setting.
If it is manual only as it looks to be, it's going to be a little initial trial and error to get a feel for what games generally require it (& at what setting), and which don't . After that, you should get the hang of which will and wont need the fan to keep from thermal throttling. To initially asist with that, you can display the temp in the bottom corner and turn on the fan when it gets above a certain temp. Not the best, but far better than only having a passive cooling option I suppose
Intial tests have shown the fan makes a tremendous difference over the fanless WIN prototype. Whereas demanding games like Street Fighter 5 were getting to over 80C and thermally throttling after 10 minutes , with the fan it's stable at around 55C.
I suppose for heat control you just can't beat a fan, well , not unless you have water cooling.
It does look like the fan will be manually operated, although it's very difficult to tell, as the only GPD person we have contact with is the PR person. So at times they don't really know the technical details of the system.
That all said, the fan has three settings, OFF, LOW and HIGH. So there is a low setting.
If it is manual only as it looks to be, it's going to be a little initial trial and error to get a feel for what games generally require it (& at what setting), and which don't . After that, you should get the hang of which will and wont need the fan to keep from thermal throttling. To initially asist with that, you can display the temp in the bottom corner and turn on the fan when it gets above a certain temp. Not the best, but far better than only having a passive cooling option I suppose
Intial tests have shown the fan makes a tremendous difference over the fanless WIN prototype. Whereas demanding games like Street Fighter 5 were getting to over 80C and thermally throttling after 10 minutes , with the fan it's stable at around 55C.
I suppose for heat control you just can't beat a fan, well , not unless you have water cooling.
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My first though when I read this:
Would've been hard to play a game with one hand always busy running the fan. At least it wouldn't hurt battery life, so that's a plus.
