TabExtend v0.2.0

Touch, sound and real apps on both sides.

TabExtend turns an Android tablet into a wireless extended monitor for GNOME on Wayland.

New since v0.1.0-alpha.1

• Touch, pen, mouse and keyboard on the tablet now control the computer (through libei) (#1)
• Smooth motion: up to 60 fps; the decoder no longer holds frames back (#3)
• Sound on the tablet: while connected, a "TabExtend: " speaker appears in the computer's sound settings; pick it to hear the computer on the tablet. It is removed when the tablet leaves or TabExtend quits. Needs pactl (pulseaudio-utils); tabextend doctor checks for it
• Desktop app for GNOME (GTK 4 / libadwaita): pair, see connection numbers, manage paired tablets, preferences (#6)
• New tablet app (Material 3) with a splash screen, Material You colours and a two-column layout on landscape tablets (#14)
• Guided first run: the desktop app opens the QR code by itself, and the tablet searches the network by itself
• Pair by code: pick your computer on the tablet, compare a 6-digit code on both screens, allow it on the computer (#5)
• Steadier connection:
  • the tablet waits calmly for the computer and connects within about 5 s of TabExtend starting there;
  • it finds the computer again if its address changes (#5);
  • Wi-Fi stays in low-latency mode while the app is open (#12);
  • after a dropped connection the tablet's screen is kept for 10 s, so a quick reconnect leaves your windows where they were
• How it works: diagrams of the whole program

Install

• Tablet (Android 11+): download tabextend-v0.2.0.apk and open it. It updates the previous alpha in place.
• Laptop, Fedora 40+, Ubuntu 24.04+, Debian 13+: download tabextend-app-v0.2.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz, unpack, run ./install.sh, then open TabExtend from your app list.
• Older distributions: tabextend-v0.2.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz has the command-line host (./tabextend pair, ./tabextend serve).

The Linux archives are attached a few minutes after publishing. Full steps: Install a release. In GNOME's sharing dialog, turn on Allow remote interaction.

Known issues

• Text on the tablet is small: the monitor starts at scale 1 (#4)
• Not every input type has been checked on real hardware yet (#2)
• Some GNOME extensions crash when any monitor is added or removed, which can make the dock disappear. Turning the dock extension off and on brings it back.
  • Blur My Shell 76, dock blur: fixed upstream (aunetx/blur-my-shell#1201), not yet released
  • Dash2Dock Lite 92: reported upstream (icedman/dash2dock-lite#158)

Verify the downloads

• APK SHA-256: 410d2e0c7220527a44919d90a98cd19ab59d3ddd4853f65e333b7a37c273ad0a
• APK signing certificate SHA-256: 5e:26:83:52:9c:4a:16:3b:f4:71:08:de:33:c9:c1:7f:ec:18:93:fd:f6:9d:3f:d2:5f:08:0a:0e:01:70:8c:da
• Linux archives: see their .sha256 files

Bug reports welcome in Issues. Security problems: SECURITY.md.

TabExtend v0.1.0-alpha.1

Pre-release: the extended screen works; touch input does not yet.

TabExtend turns an Android tablet into a wireless extended monitor for GNOME on Wayland. This first alpha is for trying the display side and reporting how it behaves on your hardware.

Works

• Pairing by QR code or pairing link, over TLS 1.3 with both sides' certificates pinned
• GNOME adds the tablet as a second monitor; drag windows onto it over Wi-Fi
• The stream is sized to what the tablet's decoder handles (e.g. 1808×1130 on a Lenovo Idea Tab)
• Hardware H.264 encoding chosen at runtime (Intel/AMD VA-API, NVIDIA NVENC, or software)
• Automatic reconnect; GNOME's permission is remembered

Known issues

• Touch, pen, mouse and keyboard on the tablet do not reach the laptop (#1): GNOME's portal rejects input positions on virtual monitors. A fix through libei is planned.
• Frame rate drops to about 12–16 fps when content moves (#3)
• Text is small: the monitor starts at scale 1 (#4)

Install

• Tablet (Android 11+): download tabextend-v0.1.0-alpha.1.apk and open it.
• Laptop (GNOME on Wayland, x86-64): download the linux-x86_64 archive (attached a few minutes after publishing), install GStreamer and your GPU's video driver, run ./tabextend doctor, then ./tabextend pair.

Full steps: Install a release. In GNOME's sharing dialog, turn on Allow remote interaction.

Verify the downloads

• APK SHA-256: 7b6d1a810ac7cbe542223e20d414c4d1c8f41ce4080f9f78d33e9ae1c3899570
• APK signing certificate SHA-256: 5e:26:83:52:9c:4a:16:3b:f4:71:08:de:33:c9:c1:7f:ec:18:93:fd:f6:9d:3f:d2:5f:08:0a:0e:01:70:8c:da
• Linux archive: see its .sha256 file

Feedback and bug reports welcome in Issues. Security problems: SECURITY.md.