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Comment by thot_experiment | Hacker News Reader

I'm desperately searching for an e-book reader and i wonder if someone here has a good answer. I'd like a something I can root and or at least run arbitrary userland code on. I want a size that's good for edc in a small backpack or handbag, maybe 7 - 11", pen support would also be really nice, does any such thing exist?

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I got a Boox Go Color 7 as a less locked in alternative to my Kindle a while back, and overall I've really enjoyed it.

It's apparently rootable, although I haven't done that personally. It's Google Play certified so anything from the Play store works, and side loading Android apps works too. I use it with the open source KOReader app and in tandem with Calibre Web Automated. I did a writeup[0] with some details if you're interested.

[0] https://blog.eldrid.ge/2025/03/12/self-hosted-ebook-manageme...

You have a cool blog.

Thank you!

I second this, been using an Onyx Boox tablet for a year and a half for uni. It's great for reading and taking notes and it fits nicely in my laptop bag on top of my laptop.

Onyx violate GPL with their linux-based OS. I'd go Kobo or remarkable over them for that alone

It's an easy process; I wrote up how to do it: https://gist.github.com/carlosonunez/a0ec3f02576867329bc313b...

I habe a "Pocketbook Verse Pro" that runs Linux. No need to root, you can copy ARM executables to the SD card and run them (that's how I use Syncthing on it). KOReader also works on it.

+1 for the PocketBook. I have an Era and use it with KOReader and Calibre. Installation was as easy as copying a folder onto the device.

I also wrote a short write-up about my experience with PocketBook devices and KOReader, for anyone who's interested: https://tc3.eu/posts/pocketbook-era-with-koreader/

Here's people installing Tailscale binaries and gracefully working around a missing kernel module and the missing iptables binary on the Kobo Sage / Kobo Libra 2:

https://blog.videah.net/my-e-reader-setup/#tailscale-vpn

https://dstaley.com/posts/tailscale-on-kobo-sage/

If you don't require an e-ink display, the least effort route might be the MS Surface Go 3 tablet running Windows or Linux (https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installa...).

The Remarkable 2 has an e-ink display but is rather underpowered as an e-reader. It does have an SDK for building apps: https://developer.remarkable.com/documentation/sdk

Love my Remarkable 2, but my main use case for an e-reader is reading in bed at night, and it just doesn't work for that (form factor and lack of backlight, though the newer ones do have a backlight).

However, for reading technical docs or workshop docs in daylight, it's great.

You must check out the Supernote line

https://supernote.com/

The important thing to know here is that Supernote nowadays allows sideloading apps, like any other Android device.

The Kobo Libra Color is within your size range and has pen support. You can run Koreader on it and some other things, it's not like, a linux device though. I do think you can run arbitrary scripts through the program that manages alternative readers like Koreader or Plato.

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