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Android tablet? Scrcpy: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
It’s not an anything tablet it’s x86 CPU architecture can run pretty much anything. Originally had a sluggish Win10 but I managed to install a Linux distro. But the idea is to do it without any software on the tablet to run, like even to bring up the BIOS.
Scrcpy does this. If you delve deep into the options you can even set up keyboard input only, but the default is screen mirroring the tablet to the computer. As to whether or not it works before running your OS I'm not sure, because it works via ADB.
KDE Connect can probably do this.
I want <device 1> to interact with <device 2> as if it was native
"KDE connect can probably do it"
I'm always shocked how fast accessing the filesystem and copying files between phone and PC is via KDE Connect compared to doing it via USB. At work, I often have to take pictures with my phone and copy them to PC, and it's always a tedious affair. Loading a folder in Windows takes forever when it has tons of pictures in it. At home, my phone automatically connects to my PC when it's on wifi, and accessing a folder on my phone is the same as accessing a local folder.
Vnc is tried and true
If this needs to be "hardware" level, I saw https://openterface.com/ recently. The PiKVM-style projects are also a bit adjacent to this.
Thanks this is what I am looking for because everyone else misunderstood that I could run software on the tablet to “host” it. I think there’s some limitation of the USB architecture that makes what I want not really possible except with some very specific computers. I understand it but at the same time I don’t understand why. You can’t output raw signals to USB in a way that something on the other end will just hear that data as pure data. There needs to be some kind of mutual agreement on protocol at the fundamental level, if that’s a sloppy way to phrase it.
Thanks I’m gonna look into this because it might be worth a small investment to be able to do this going forward with other devices.
I appreciate your reply. You got what I was asking for. I realize I was not explicit about the unique nature of my needs but you got it.
Hah, no worries. I think it's just an unusual use case and... well, I recognized it because I'm obsessed with PiKVM lately and those things!
I'm not superknowledgeable on USB, but Linux has features to do this; they are called "gadgets" in this list:
https://docs.kernel.org/usb/index.html
I have used this to turn a RPI Zero into a virtual USB drive with these scripts: https://github.com/alexpdp7/rpi-zero-usb-iso/
Likely by searching the Internet for USB gadgets you might find good explanations about requirements. I know there are unexpected difficulties- I'm using a Pi Zero instead of a nicer Pi because... nicer Pis can draw too much power over USB and bork what they're connected to. So be careful.
Thank you, again, for the info. I’ll check out those links. I appreciate it.
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
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