Phil ErbLeave a comment on SSH to your reMarkable tabletUncategorized

SSH to your reMarkable tablet

Paper tablets by reMarkable run Linux and you are able to SSH into them.

I use this to upload custom templates and make backups of my notebooks. I’ll go into details about how to do this in future posts.

Warnings:

You are doing this at your own risk. While this has worked for me, you are assuming the responsibility, if something should go wrong with this on your tablet.

While reMarkable is required under the GPLv3 license to allow you to access your device in this fashion, this procedure is unsupported by the company. As far as I am aware, this does not void any warranties (note that I am not a lawyer). However, if you are seeking support from reMarkable, I would assume that they would want to have the device reset to a non-modified state before providing support.

Assumptions:

  • You have a basic understanding of SSH.
    • Note that you can use the root username and password, as mentioned below, or you can setup SSH keys to simplify the login process. I will not go into detail about SSH keys.
  • While a basic understanding of Linux will help, it’s not particularly necessary, as I’ll walk through the steps that I used.

Other notes:

I have done this on a reMarkable 2 tablet, but I understand that this should work on the original reMarkable, as well.

How to SSH to your reMarkable tablet

  1. Connect your reMarkable via USB to your computer.
    • I find this to be generally more reliable for these operations than accessing the reMarkable via WiFi – and you may be on a WiFi network that doesn’t allow devices to talk to each other.
  2. Find the password for your reMarkable:
    1. Tap the menu in the upper-left corner.
    2. Tap Settings.
    3. Tap Help.
    4. Tap Copyrights and licenses.
    5. Under the GPLv3 Compliance section, you’ll find the password for the device’s root account. Make a note of this.
    6. If you want to connect to your tablet over WiFi, make note of the IP address listed here, as well.
  3. SSH to your reMarkable using the root password
    • When connected via USB, the IP address of your reMarkable is 10.11.99.1. Otherwise, substitute the WiFi IP address that you noted above.
ssh root@10.11.99.1
  1. You will be prompted for the password that you noted above.

You’re now at a shell prompt on your reMarkable tablet.

Phil ErbLeave a comment on Microsoft Teams for the Online ClassroomArticles

Microsoft Teams for the Online Classroom

A few months ago, I had the chance to collaborate with my wife, Theresa Black, on a presentation for the Microsoft HiEd conference about Microsoft Teams for the Online Classroom.

Theresa is a Lecturer in Biology and Chemistry at Penn State Scranton. During the pandemic, she has used Teams in a few different ways for her classes.

The recording of our presentation is available:
Microsoft Teams for the Online Classroom

Materials for all of the 2020 Microsoft HiEd sessions are available at http://microsoft-hied.org/agenda/agenda2020.

Phil ErbLeave a comment on Improve performance of Windows Remote DesktopArticles

Improve performance of Windows Remote Desktop

While I’ve typically done a fair amount of remote work, we’ve all been doing even more this year. One thing that I find myself doing more and more often is remoting into a Windows 10 desktop in the office from home using Remote Desktop (RDP). While servers are tuned by default for RDP to be fairly performant, the extra visual stuff of Windows 10 tends to make this laggy, to the point of being frustrating – even with a fairly decent connection.

However, a simple tweak on the remote system makes this much more tolerable. This is an old trick, from the days when we really had to worry about bandwidth, but it really helps with Windows 10’s extras which don’t translate well remotely.

On the remote system (you can do this via RDP, you don’t need to be physically at the system):

  1. Launch the Run dialog box by pressing the Window key + R or by right-clicking on the Start menu and clicking Run.
  2. In the Run dialog box, type “sysdm.cpl” and click Ok. The System Properties window will open.
    There are other ways to get to the System Properties window, but this is probably the quickest in current versions of Windows 10.
  3. Depending on your system configuration, you may receive a prompt to elevate to admin privileges – accept this prompt.
  4. Click the Advanced tab.
  5. Under Performance, click the Settings button.
  6. Click Adjust for best performance (this quickly unchecks all of the settings below).
  7. In the list of settings, check Smooth edges of screen fonts and click Ok.
    Trust me, this is one setting you’ll want enabled.
  8. Click Ok to close the System Properties window.

With the settings tuned to “best performance,” the visual niceties will be dialed down, which will make things like switching between apps, moving and resizing windows, and other tasks noticeably quicker.