
Parabola on ReMarkable: A Guide [pdf] - davisr
http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/install-guide-latest.pdf
======
thelazydogsback
What I'd really love to see is OneNote integration rather than their internal
notetaking app - or at least import/export. That would turn it from just a
nice PDF reader to a more useful tool for me. Is there a path there using
Parabola? I'm not even sure if they offer a REST API to get at your own
notebook data or anything -- there are no technical details on the site at
all.

~~~
striking
There are all sorts of tools on here: [https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-
reMarkable](https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable)

None of them using OneNote, I'm afraid, but at least there are APIs and on-
device tools that are very usable.

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amacbride
As an aside, kudos on the document format —- very reminiscent of Sun
documentation from back in the day. (I still miss FrameMaker.)

~~~
replwoacause
Yep, looks like it was made in LaTeX.

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thelazydogsback
"All reMarkable hardware works except for the Wi-Fi radio because it requires
proprietary firmware"

So you need to use USB to xfer documents onboard?

~~~
davisr
That's correct. The device is exposed over USB as a composite device,
consisting of a virtual Ethernet port and a virtual serial port. Network
communications may happen over that link, as well as SSH/SCP'ing files.

It also supports USB OTG, so one could plug in a libre-compatible Wi-Fi card
and use that.

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scroot
Hi davisr, what are your plans for this system? I see elsewhere that you are
interested in the Smalltalk/Dynabook concepts. Are you envisioning a
completely new user interface for this at some point?

~~~
davisr
Hi scroot,

I can see from your comment history this is something you're interested in. ;)

Basically, every tablet manufacturer ever hasn't a clue about how to build a
proper interface, for using computing as a medium and the digital notebook as
a creative tool. The biggest problem is that too many people think of
'computer education' as learning to navigate pre-defined interfaces without a
thought ever going to a) constructing those interfaces, b) working with
abstract objects, or most-importantly c) utilizing symbolic expression to
transcribe and refine thoughts.

I don't directly blame the manufacturers. I would say that most "programmers"
haven't a clue about this art of expression themselves. The world is still
blind to the greater picture behind Engelbart, Nelson, Kay, and etc.

And so, I am tired of living in this darkness: I'm making a dynabook
(lowercase to distinguish from Kay's vision). The hardware is here, but the
software is out 'there'. I can't go get it because it requires financial
resources, so I'm releasing programs for the reMarkable tablet community
hoping to gather those funds.

My idea is simple: it's for magic paper. The computer will help us define and
refine our thoughts with a _real_ contextual interface, a context that will
never go out of style: writing and drawing. My dynabook will contain a free-
sketch area where users may draw, and a contextual inference program will
determine what they are drawing and suggest actions. These actions,
themselves, are more sets of drawings in a specific constraint-based
symbolic/visual language. The dynabook is kick-started with a relational
symbolic database containing basic symbols, from which meanings are derived.
Meanings are contextual: the definitions of symbols are fuzzy.

For instance, in this database, one could ask, "Is the sky blue?" It would
respond, "Sometimes: the sky is blue if it is a sunny day, gray if it is a
cloudy day, and dark if it is a night." Every definition is defined in-
relation to other definitions. Eventually, some _things_ won't have a
definition, which is fine--they have a label, so they _are_. If the computer
needs to know properties of these things, it can ask the user to define them.

    
    
      night is when: not when day
      day is when: sun is above
      above is: not when below
      sun is: bigfireball [not defined]
    

This will be fused with a handwriting recognition engine based on relational
pattern detection: imagine drawing the letter, 'O'. Look at its x/t and y/t
graphs: they have a clear sinusoidal pattern. Drawing a larger 'O' repeats the
pattern, but with larger amplitude. These patterns, with a couple heuristics
(like a no-draw-pause means 'space' or 'separation') defines new symbols in
the database.

From the ground-up, this produces a very powerful system/database of fuzzy
symbolic expression. Especially in the handwriting recognition, this relation-
ality would allow one to write in any orientation, in any size, and the
computer will infer what was scribbled.

On a macro-scale, the user will be able to e.g. draw a coordinate plane, then
write an f(x) = y equation, then the computer will detect a compatible action,
ask the user to draw the equation into the plane, and then do it--and here's
the kicker--in the user's own handwriting. So, a line on a graph looks like
the user drew it with a pencil. Or, if the user writes a statement like " 14 +
5 = " the computer will recognize the evaluation opportunity, then write the
answer " 19 " in the correct spot in the user's handwriting.

I'd really like to take this as far as I can go because it is my own personal
mountain. But, this is all dependent on funding because I am living in very
uncomfortable conditions and won't be able to survive this winter in
Wisconsin. So, maybe my reMarkable work will provide enough, or maybe a
corporation or foundation will sponsor me. It's tough to get noticed. If you
know anyone/leads funding this kind of work, please let them know of me!

~~~
scroot
Thanks for the extensive response. I've bookmarked your site. There's a lot
more I can say about some of this, but I think I'll just email you when the
time is right.

At the moment I don't really know about funding sources. It's really tragic --
there are many people with interesting ideas who are never going to get the
funding they need. And it's not even a lot of money, just enough to pay for
their living, some equipment, and the time and space to screw around. One guy
on this site, who goes by "linguae," is someone else you might want to get in
touch with if you can, for example.

I preordered the rM2 and will get one in October unless they delay it again.
You'll have my support for sure.

~~~
davisr
Thanks for your support. :) If you ever want to talk more about this, I'd love
to hear from you. You can find my email on my website. Until then...

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catchmeifyoucan
This is awesome! Remarkable 2 is coming out soon. Hoping this might work with
it as well. I think the WiFi is a hard trade off, since internet connectivity
lets us pull new information. I saw Ethernet as supported in the guide, but
there’s no Ethernet port right? What’s the way to transfer new information

~~~
davisr
I just mentioned this here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294868](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294868)

The device is exposed over USB as a composite device, consisting of a virtual
Ethernet port and a virtual serial port. Network communications may happen
over that link, as well as SSH/SCP'ing files.

It also supports USB OTG, so one could plug in a libre-compatible Wi-Fi card
and use that. Or, if one doesn't mind throwing their freedom under a bus, one
could use the proprietary driver.

~~~
ianai
So there’s a proprietary Wi-Fi driver for Linux? The way it read I thought
that was just out completely.

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JoelMcCracken
Is it possible to use a keyboard with this? That is one thing I’d really want

~~~
davisr
Yes, see here for Emacs running with an external keyboard.
[https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/iis4fo/em...](https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/iis4fo/emacs_on_remarkable/)

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submeta
Is it possible to run Emacs on it? Anyone knows this?

~~~
davisr
Yes, check out the demo video at 13m30s. It demos the X version of Emacs, but
Emacs runs faster in '-nw' mode from the console.

[http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-
rm/](http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/)

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mskalski
I guess something similar not possible/very hard for onyx boox as they not
publish kernel sources.

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tomcat27
Dumb question -- is this guide related to reMarkable gadget?

~~~
davisr
Yes, Parabola GNU/Linux-libre may be used as a replacement OS for the device.

I put up a project page with a demo video, this manual, and distribution
downloads: [http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-
rm/](http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/)

~~~
wrycoder
You say replace. I gather dual booting is not (yet) possible?

~~~
davisr
Oh sure, you could run this in a chroot without a problem as long as you use
the kernel with deferred-IO mode enabled. In fact, that's what I did when I
posted on this on the /r/RemarkableTablet subreddit a few months ago.

[https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/gkktxy/de...](https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/gkktxy/desktop_linux_on_remarkable_xournal_doom_and_more/)

