VirtScreen VS PaperTTY

The question should've been "can a vnc server serves as a virtual display?".

On that, I found https://github.com/kbumsik/VirtScreen

If you have Linux on your main PC, use this. It works good on with my iMac G3

This also worked for me and allows you to use it as a secondary screen, but I haven't used it for a long time: https://github.com/kbumsik/VirtScreen

Look into virtscreen to do what you want. https://github.com/kbumsik/VirtScreen

Funnily enough I’ve build a command line only e-ink laptop and it works great. The Waveshare HDMI boards actually don’t work in displaying with Linux terminals. Instead you need the IT8951 board, which they still sell, and PaperTTY (https://github.com/joukos/PaperTTY)

Here is pretty much the go-to for eink with a raspberry pi. I have yet to get it to work, but there have been others who have posted here with a working project. This will give you an eink screen that can easily handle text interface, but I don't think the color ones are supported. In general, color eink has a slower refresh rate than just 2-color, so I would start there. I have the waveshare 2.13 screen, so once I get that working, I'll probably guy a larger screen for a build

I'm currently working on an IT-8951 7" version to be more portable and affordable. If you're comfortable with Python and/or C, there are a lot of resources on Github and Waveshare's own wiki page. PaperTTY is one of the more popular repos with good discussion in issues about how to work with Waveshare's e-ink panels.

The screen is a 10.3 inch Waveshare panel, running the PaperTTY project (https://github.com/joukos/PaperTTY/) in VNC mode, protected from the sun by a pair of 3mm UV blocking matte acrylic sheets.

I have any extra Waveshare 9.7" with display HAT laying around if you're (or anyone else is) interested in buying. I bought it for a build and got it working with PaperTTY and a raspi zero w. I probably have under 15 hours on it. I ended up just swallowing the cost and purchased a 10.3" with HDMI input since I wanted a fully fleshed out eink laptop instead of just one locked to a single terminal. But it's a great option if you're open to using it with PaperTTY as a distraction free writing or coding environment. PaperTTY also has VNC functionality.

I use a 9.7 e-ink panel, a Raspberry Pi 4 (TBH, overkill for this build when a Zero W would have worked fine), and a 60% mechanical keyboard. I'm currently getting a laptop case 3D printed to house it all in. I configured the raspi 4 to boot up to command line and run PaperTTY https://github.com/joukos/PaperTTY automatically. The e-ink panel mirrors tty1 and PaperTTY runs on another terminal (e.g., tty3).

Thanks for sharing your solution and code! I don't have experience with Rust, but I was able to get a Waveshare 9.7" e-ink screen with the IT8951 driver to work with PaperTTY, which is Python-based. PaperTTY has reported compatibility up to the Waveshare's 13.3" screen if you ever want to expand into other sizes.