u/ObsoleteUtopia

I'm debating whether to purchase a PocketBook Era Lite or a Boox GO.

My question is about the Boox Android. I've tried using a couple of Android phones (cheaper ones) and I thought the OS was incredibly difficult to navigate and use. Because I know Linux and Windows, my father always thought I should know everything, and I almost threw his phone through a wall a couple of times trying to find settings or make them do what I thought they should.

So my basic general question is: if I hated Android on cheap phones, might I hate it on a Boox? How much contact do I actually have with the OS on an e-reader? (I know I would use Libby and a couple of other apps, but I wouldn't use it as a tablet.) I

My use case would be: I love my Kobo Libra, but as many of you probably know, Libby doesn't work properly on it; the Libra can't access certain books that are in the Libby system but not in Kobo's inventory, and switching between accounts (I have 4 library cards) is a frustrating time sink. So I'd keep the Kobo and have a Books GO - or an Era - for libraries, whatever Kobo doesn't handle well, or as an in-house replacement if the Libra explodes or something.

I don't read much manga or graphic novels, etc., so I don't need color, and I understand that print is usually clearer on a B&W reader, so I'd prefer that - does that difference in print quality apply to Boox products like it seems to do with most brands?

Thanks.

Mornin', everybody, and thanks for joining us today! Here's the discussion thread for the second half of City of Glass, the first book in Paul Auster's New York Trilogy.

Here are a few random thoughts to get you started....

• The second imaginary Paul Auster is busy preparing an article (Ch. 10) to prove that Sancho Panza wrote Don Quixote. Do you think this is:
  • The luscious metafictional equivalent to a bulging pastrami and rye in an East Side deli.
  • Over the top and off the rails.
  • In between, both, or other.
• How did you respond to Quinn's essay about New York?
• How did you interpret Quinn's reasoning to stay on the Stillman case (end of Ch. 11)? Was it credible? Could you empathize? Did the real Auster, you should forgive the expression, leave something out (intentionally or otherwise)?
• How did you do with the ending? Did everything get wrapped up to your satisfaction?
• Speaking of the ending, a narrator who has been invisible since about page 3 comes back, loudly, in the last couple of pages. Any ideas on who that guy is?
• If you started reading City of Glass without looking at the copyright date, when would you think it was written or published?

Or anything else that's on your mind. I hope you'll enjoy this week's discussion and next week's dissection of Ghosts.

I know this is long, and I apologize, but here goes.

I just purchased a Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1, 16ILL10, a 16-inch laptop. Of course, it came with Windows 11, but I want to at least partition the disc and put Debian on half of it. I've done that before but that was on older machines. Windows 11 seems to make it more complicated. And this computer is too new and too expensive for me to want to fake my way through.

Debian did happily with the first few minutes of the install, but it flashed an error message that said I was missing four proprietary utilities, and did I want to try to proceed? I never got a message quite like this before, not on any installation. I said no and quit the install.

The four utilities in question are:

• ish_lnlm_53c4ffad.bin
• ish_lnlm_53c4ffad_546666f9.bin
• ish_lnlm_53c4ffad_546666f9_f9feabc5.bin
• ish_lnlm_53c4ffad_f9feabc5.bin

These are apparently files for Lenovo's Integrated Sensor Hub. I read a few paragraphs on kernel.org but I'll cop to most of it being way over my head.

I did find out how to install these utilities during the installation. The problem is that I can't find them anywhere.

• Debian doesn't have them in its separate non-free repository.
• I could find no trace of them in Intel's directories.
• Lenovo shut me off by saying that the Yoga 7 didn't come under their Linux-support services, which I suppose are reserved for servers and whatnot. (I intend to contact them again, but I'm hoping I can get answers more quickly here.)
• I searched for searchers who had searched for them; every one I found ran into dead ends themselves.
• I even prowled around Github trying to find a match for "53c4ffad".

So: like I said, I don't want to brick a brand-new laptop and void the warranty in five easy steps. What should I do?

• Could I try to run Debian's stop sign and keep the installation going? What's the worst that could happen?
• Would I have safer results with a more beginner-oriented/general-purpose distribution like Linux Mint? I'm not a distro snob; I love Debian but I'm fine with whatever works.
• Are there other places to look for these utilities?

My usage case is pretty modest. I do manage my family's finances and some medical situations, most of which I do either in LibreOffice or on the web. I do some freelance writing. No gaming worthy of the name.