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.
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/
It’s not exactly what you are looking for, because the pen is not battery free, but the star lite is a surface style convertible that ships with Linux out of the box. And it supports MPP pens
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.
