I have a 2nd generation XP Pen Artist 13. It’s a great tablet and I’ve managed to make it work with my Steam Deck too.
But…
It’s basically an external monitor with pressure sensitive surface, so still less portable than an actual stand alone table. So I’m wondering if there is a tablet with a pressure sensitive screen and battery free pen that either comes with Linux or can install Linux on.
The programs I use for making art are Krita, Gimp, and Blender 3D.
I’ve used Linux on various used Surface devices and it’s worked pretty well. You can see what’s working and what’s not here.
Huh… Yeah, you know what? I never thought of looking at second hand Surface tablets…
I’m using a second hand Surface 6 Pro (bought for €300 or so incl. keyboard cover), now running Arch (with linux-surface kernel) with KDE.
Everything works great! :) Doubles as a handy little vacation laptop too, and makes me want a touchscreen on my next laptop!
Please feel free to ask ahead if you have any questions about experiences or whatnot.
How is your drawing experience?
Your best bet is anything Wacom as they have their own driver in Linux. Alternatively OpenTabletDriver supports some other tablets as well https://opentabletdriver.net/Tablets.
Or the DIGImend kernel driver http://digimend.github.io/drivers/digimend/tablets/The Lenovo Yoga 6 works surprisingly well. I got it to replace a surface book for my daughter and wasn’t really sure what parts of the hardware would be supported, but literally everything I tested works (the only thing I haven’t tried is the fingerprint reader) and the included stylus is amazing in krita as well as just generally. The tablet mode works well, and tent mode is more convenient when it’s on a desk (screen rotation requires the iio-sensor-proxy package). Battery life is decent; it gets around 6-7 hours with moderate use. I’d recommend using it with KDE.
I can report that the HP ENVY X360 15-eu0013ca has a Wacom display and pen and it works perfectly under Linux.
Good list if I were looking for just any tablet, but I’m specifically looking one with artist capabilities, such as a pressure sensitive surface and a battery free pen. This list doesn’t mention much about such capabilities.
