Hi there,

Just wondering what the status is currently of this nice project and all your hard work. I noticed the target deadline for the last release was silently passed and it has been a while since the last snapshot was released for download.
Can we expect a new version to test so we can admire the current state of affairs?

Cheers,

M

Latest is http://users.openinkpot.org/~lunohod/20090508/. It's unofficial (available only installable version). Been using it, works great. Even Windows http://openinkpot.org/wiki/SSHAccess works.

Cool! A splash screen with a progress bar at boot!

And an EPUB that didn't display cover art on the previous snapshot is displaying the cover art now.

Latest is http://users.openinkpot.org/~lunohod/20090508/. It's unofficial (available only installable version). Been using it, works great. Even Windows http://openinkpot.org/wiki/SSHAccess works.

The first thing that I noticed is that OI has a startup logo now, and that shutdown results in a clean screen instead of the Linux log screen. :)

THanks MikusR!
Looks promising, can't test right now but might when I get back home.
What are still the current limitations compared to the stock firmware?

I really like that it shows both the used & free space on the SD card. :thumbsup:

I really like that it shows both the used & free space on the SD card. :thumbsup:

I wonder if it will have another use. If not and if it is a waste of time and resources, I do not need it. I already have that info when I really need it: when I plug it into my PC.

What would be great is the internationalization of the virtual keyboard during the freedict search (maybe still only available in Lbook firmware). The English keyboard could keep the 26 basic English letters, get rid of the signs/numbers, and instead put the letters specific to German, French, Italian. They would fit in the 50 signs/letters virtual keyboard.
Also that would be great if those letters specific to those important European languages were recognized during a T9 keyboard search.
The cherry on the cake would be the possibility to search more than one dictionary (like on the Irex readers), or at least the capability to toggle between several dictionaries. For example now we have to choose to have on the Lbook either a translation language from English to French or French to English, but not both.
Anyway, I am glad OpenInkpot exists!

Is the OI trac up to date, when it comes to tickets that hasn't been fixed? Its been ages since someone has fixed anything, according to trac, and it is usually a good way of meassuring activity in the project.. :)

OI developers said (I do not remember if here or on the Russian -or Ukrainian- forum) that what they need is not money, but other developers to jump on board and help them expand OI with lines of fresh code.
They have daily jobs, so they program on their limited free time.
If we cannot program, maybe we could put down some money to collectively offer a Hanlin to Linux Torvalds. He reads a lot of paper books (he talks about his readings on his blog regularly).

Is the OI trac up to date, when it comes to tickets that hasn't been fixed? Its been ages since someone has fixed anything, according to trac, and it is usually a good way of meassuring activity in the project.. :)

Not if new functionality is being written.

BTW, I hope to close most of the madshelf tickets soon.

If we cannot program, maybe we could put down some money to collectively offer a Hanlin to Linux Torvalds. He reads a lot of paper books (he talks about his readings on his blog regularly).

Nice idea :) At worst he will call us names, but bad PR better than no PR :)

You just have to start a new call for donations in a new thread, I think! ;) Maybe Vladimir Levchenko would be willing to participate in the donation?
About OpenInkpot: could you activate the option to choose between FBReader and CoolReader for prc/mobi files as well? Some big prc files work wonderfully in the April Lbook firmware, but not in OpenInkpot. For example the German version of Wikipedia 1.6 of March 2005 (the biggest one that works because it comes in a single file) available there:
http://www.axelschaefermdb.de/service/wikipedia.html

Please open tickets (one issue per ticket), this is not a bugtracker.

Sure! :)

Thank you very much for such a quick enhancement! :)

ssh is indeed working now - great! Works like a charm. :)

I've also installed the latest OI version (20090508) on my Hanlin V3-ext, installed the driver Linux USB/Ethernet driver for Windows/XP but as soon as I connect the USB cable, a red light starts flashing in the upper left hand corner, the Hanlin gets completely blocked (hard-reset necessary) and just after a few minutes I see a new network connection in Windows/XP but that cannot be enabled. Anybody any ideas?

Thanks..Dick

PS. Without the driver installed, the light becomes steady red when I connect the USB cable and I can normally use the Hanlin.

I've also installed the latest OI version (20090508) on my Hanlin V3-ext, installed the driver Linux USB/Ethernet driver for Windows/XP but as soon as I connect the USB cable, a red light starts flashing in the upper left hand corner, the Hanlin gets completely blocked (hard-reset necessary) and just after a few minutes I see a new network connection in Windows/XP but that cannot be enabled. Anybody any ideas?

What is it that you are trying to do?
If you are refering to using the Linux.inf file in Windows, the instructions are located in the last paragraph here:
http://openinkpot.org/wiki/SSHAccess

BTW, the SSH connection does not work correctly in Windows XP when I have tried it. It works great from Linux.


PS. Without the driver installed, the light becomes steady red when I connect the USB cable and I can normally use the Hanlin.

That is just as it should be. You can charge the battery while reading.

as soon as I connect the USB cable, a red light starts flashing in the upper left hand corner, the Hanlin gets completely blocked (hard-reset necessary)

Definitely kernel panic, though it's hard to figure out what went wrong exactly. jekhor will make a specialized firmware a bit later, with debugging information enabled and special scripts to capture and save error message.

@dave_S: I followed the instructions as described on that page and believe I me, I doubled checked it several times before I posted my problem...;-)

@dottedmag: How will I be notified about this special firmware version? I'm more than happy to install it.
I've also discovered that I could only delete some files from the main memory as long as they do not have the .prc extension.. If I specify to delete such a file and confirm it with option 2...nothing happens. Is file deletion limited to particular extensions or is this a bug?

Thanks...Dick

@dave_S: I followed the instructions as described on that page and believe I me, I doubled checked it several times before I posted my problem...;-)


If you need SSH into OI, you will have a lot better experience doing it from a Linux machine. I have not heard of anyone having much luck with SSH into OI with a Windows machine, as I mentioned previously.

..unfortunately, I have not a Linux system available...:smack:

With snapshot 20090508 and linux.inf from http://openinkpot.org/wiki/SSHAccess it works great in Windows using http://winscp.net/eng/index.php to transfer files.

@dottedmag: How will I be notified about this special firmware version?


Open a ticket describing your bug, and you'll be notified when comment is posted to this ticket.


I've also discovered that I could only delete some files from the main memory as long as they do not have the .prc extension.. If I specify to delete such a file and confirm it with option 2...nothing happens. Is file deletion limited to particular extensions or is this a bug?


Bug. I'm sure it is already fixed - bookshelf has been rewritten from scratch recently, and will be available in next snapshot.

With snapshot 20090508 and linux.inf from http://openinkpot.org/wiki/SSHAccess it works great in Windows using http://winscp.net/eng/index.php to transfer files.


Thank you for that information. I gave up on the Windows/OI combination a few snapshots back, so now I am going to give your suggestion a try.:thumbsup:

EDIT:

Way cool!!! WinSCP works GREAT with OpenInkpot!!!!!!

Re-installed the driver using these descriptions (http://docwiki.gumstix.org/index.php/Windows_XP_usbnet) and the problem is exactly the same. As requested by dottedmag, I've opened a ticket (#381).

Regards...Dick

I'm using snapshot 20090508..are there any plans to have a more recent version available shortly?

regards....Dick

BTW..the latest Hanlin firmware (2.10.20090803) is still light-years behind OI..

I'm also using snapshot 20090508, I can't help noticing there is still no key lock. Key lock is literally the only additional thing I could possibly want with Open Inkpot. Pretty much every other firmware for every other reader has it so it's somewhat of a glaring omission.

It's very impressive though, that the only issue I have with the firmware is that sometimes some buttons get pushed while I'm carrying it about. It is a niggling annoyance to find my place again when it happens, though. I hope this issue can be addressed for the next snapshot, but it's been absent so long I'm not really keeping my hopes up.

I'm also using snapshot 20090508, I can't help noticing there is still no key lock. Key lock is literally the only additional thing I could possibly want with Open Inkpot. Pretty much every other firmware for every other reader has it so it's somewhat of a glaring omission.

It's very impressive though, that the only issue I have with the firmware is that sometimes some buttons get pushed while I'm carrying it about. It is a niggling annoyance to find my place again when it happens, though. I hope this issue can be addressed for the next snapshot, but it's been absent so long I'm not really keeping my hopes up.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there new snapshots at this link?

http://openinkpot.org/pub/snapshots/

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there new snapshots at this link?

http://openinkpot.org/pub/snapshots/

I didn't know anything about them, thanks. I may try the latest then.

Hi, many thanks for the snapshots links!! Much appreciated.

The newest (August) snapshots have not been officially announced yet. They feature a new-look Madshelf, among other things. There are no numbers on Madshelf, so you have to count to figure out what number to press, but that's not too hard. That's probably Madshelf for the Hanvon N516, which has hardware number buttons on the left side. Also, the fonts in my "Fonts" folder on the SD card aren't available. I'm not sure if the new snapshots are ready for "prime-time" yet (Slayda's words). One of the OI guys will announce when they're ready.

That said, I'm using 20090809 now and love it. It seems much faster to me.

Oh, and the much-anticipated, eagerly awaited "Recent Files" is now available.

And, I just discovered, there is a new Madshelf "home" screen, with numbers. For some reason, my BeBook booted to a Madshelf screen without numbers. But, a quick press on the "back" key (next to the "OK" key), brought up a new lovely-looking home screen.

I'm just trying the new version too and it seems to me that there is no CoolReader there - all books allow only opening in FBReader.
Also, navigating with "go to page" function is terribly slow, at least in the one file I've tried so far. I'll try it more when I'm back from work.

where do they officially announce snapshots? last entry in their blog is dated march 09 :S

I think there wasn't an "official snapshot" since march, so it't quite likely that they'll announce the next one there as well.

I think there wasn't an "official snapshot" since march, so it't quite likely that they'll announce the next one there as well.

dottedmag has also used this forum in the past to announce snapshots along with a summary of what to expect in the new snapshot.

I'm just trying the new version too and it seems to me that there is no CoolReader there - all books allow only opening in FBReader.
Also, navigating with "go to page" function is terribly slow, at least in the one file I've tried so far. I'll try it more when I'm back from work.

I tried it, with the full understanding that it is essentially pre-beta code.

Found a few things to like.
Found a few things that *appear* to step away from the strengths of the may snapshot. :eek: Not panicking; I know its unofficial and all that.

First boot was absurdly slow--had me thinking I had a corrupt install. Just as I was about to give up waiting, it came up. At that point I remembered the question about using onboard storage for OI and the mystery of the slow boot was clear; it had partitioned and formatted the storage space. Nothing lost there I cared about--all backed up--but that's what curiosity buys you. :)

The lack of numbers on the menu bars is disconcerting; hadn't realized how much I depended on those in the "classic" UI. Also disconcerting was seeing more than 8 bars. Took a bit to realize that, "Hey, we have ten number buttons! And its okay to navigate the UI solely with the side arrow buttons." As long as the 9-0 buttons still page inside the books its a good design decision to maximize resources; I like.

The home screen is... interesting... It suggests OI developers have ambitions into the webpad space. (A CrunchPad type device with an SD card slot would be killer. Too bad the real CrunchPad apparently won't have any local user storage.)

Only FBReader available; hopefully not a final design decision. I've grown mildly fond of the coolreader two page landscape mode.

FBReader itself?
The good: more font sizes, a full spread from 6 to 24 points. Yay! An 18point cap was a tad low on the may release. I was sorta hoping for a 20 point option for my mother's future Hanlin. :thumbsup:

The...not-so-good: I rather liked the compact dialog-box and fine-grained typographical controls in FBReader in the may snapshot. The new list-based approach feels... spawled... I felt my eyeballs drawn all over the place. And the fine-grain settings for the Indicator are gone? No margin settings? I know, work-in-progress. Just... a worrisome direction... :chinscratch:

I'm hoping the new UI is merely experimental; there are some good ideas there but one that just isn't quite to my liking. I *liked* the compactness of the older UI. Just because you have a six-inch screen to play with doesn't mean you have to use *all* of it. :)
There is a lot to be said compact, understated UI design.
But that is a matter of taste, I suppose.

It *was* an interesting experiment.
I'm back to the May snapshot.

Oh, on my way back to the May OI snapshot I stopped by the current Hanlin firmware to confirm that ADE on Hanlin *still* sucks rivets. (But I was curious and I needed to reformat the onboard storage to FAT, which took forever.)

I'm going to make sure I have copies of the May snapshot safely stashed all over. Just in case.;)

An educational experience, all-in-all.

Thanks for the review, sounds like the new release has some pros and cons.

I like the use of the 9 and 0 keys to select books in Madshelf, but beyond that it seems to be a small departure from what I want. They seem to be trying to fix some things that arnt broken. I just want a keylock (and the 9-0 buttons available to select books in madshelf now) on the May snapshot and itll be perfect.

Ill hold off on updating to the unofficial firmware.

No margin settings?

I found margin settings. Open a book in FBReader, press the "Menu/OK" key and it's the third or fourth item down the list (I don't have my BeBook in front of me right now.)

Agreed, the boot up was slow, but that's a one time thing. Notice that the power button quick-press brings you back to the new "home" screen (your "Crunchpad" screen). Button 1 then takes you back to your opened book.

Also, the fonts in my "Fonts" folder on the SD card aren't available.


AFAIK, the new name for the fonts directory should be ".fonts".

Has anybody noticed that the file management functions seem to be gone?
Or, am I just doing something wrong?
I load new books with WinSCP, but I have been using the file management functions to delete a book once I have finished reading it.

Has anybody noticed that the file management functions seem to be gone?


Not implemented yet.

Not implemented yet.

GREAT! Thank you!!:)

AFAIK, the new name for the fonts directory should be ".fonts".

My fonts all showed up fine from the original SD card folder: /fonts
Just lucky, I guess. ;)

One very positive aspect of these unofficial snapshots: the future OpenInkpot release will make my reader much faster and nicer to use! I am very impressed!

I have to admit...it was quite a surprise to see this latest Augusts version compared to the 20090508 snapshot I had installed. The first boot indeed took so much time that I thought that something was wrong...

Furthermore, the font size for the UI is pretty big and book titles are now truncated. I have no idea yet how to change these font settings. With regards to the FBReader, there is not much difference from the 20090508 snapshot.

Went back to snapshot 20090508..UI fonts too large (and to be honest, I don't like the new UI at all) and only FBReader.. will wait for the next snapshot. Also, I've hiden a file, but haven't been able to unhide it again..

I found margin settings. Open a book in FBReader, press the "Menu/OK" key and it's the third or fourth item down the list (I don't have my BeBook in front of me right now.)

Correction: I've got my BeBook now and for the margin settings, press the "Menu/OK" key, then "1" for ""Format", then "6" for "Margins".

AFAIK, the new name for the fonts directory should be ".fonts".

Yes, that worked. Adding the "dot" in front of the word "fonts" allows me to use my custom fonts now.

Thanks, Lunohod. I'm lovin' 20090809!

what's up with those rotation settings in latest snapshot? how to use them?

Guys, you're trying the stuff which is not ready for release. Please wait a bit until necessary support in place.

Rotation works. On Hanvon N516 :)

Can't help curiosity :)

Hi all,
first post from me. I just wanted to congratulate the team on their achievement and ask a question.

I'm intending to buy a hanlin V3 as my girlfriend likes to read a lot and we go lightweight backpacking, so it's a good way to carry a lot of reading matter without the weight, and good battery life means not too much weight in spare batteries too.

But then I wondered about the potential for extending the use of the device. It would be great to display gif images of maps on it, and maybe pass GPS information to it to display current position.

Can anyone on the team tell me if the development of such an idea would be possible with the openinkpot operating system? I assume that because it is linux, anything is possible! ;)

I guess my question is really about the degree to which you already have control and access to the graphics rendering systems and the capability to display Gif images, and update just those parts of the screen affected by changes, which is the attractive part of using visplex for such an application. You could have the GPS data move the "you are here" cursor across the map as you walk, and then refresh the whole screen with redrawn map tiles when you get near the edge.

If this would be difficult to run on your O/S, would it be possible to use a gps device linked to a linux pda, and use that to pass the raster information to the OpenInkpot O/S to complete the screen rendering?

Thanks and good luck with your development.

I wondered about using it for maps too - it could be really useful, because the display is a lot bigger than that of a GPS module, and clearly visible in sunshine. I don't know how the maps would look on 4 shades of grey though, it would have to be a simple map.

Well the easiest way to find out is taking a portion of map as a picture and trying it on the device. I might actually get around to do it :)

Well the easiest way to find out is taking a portion of map as a picture and trying it on the device. I might actually get around to do it :)

Hi idle. If you find the time, I'd be really grateful if you'd try out a section of ordnance survey map for me and post your impression of the result. It might save a lot of effort for nothing if it's no good.

here's an example:

http://www.fovanthistory.org/map11.jpg

Guys, you're trying the stuff which is not ready for release. Please wait a bit until necessary support in place.



Oh, its generally understood that messing with those snapshots is unsupported. But, as pointed out, we're a curious, impatient bunch.

Plus, we were spoiled by the May snapshot, which has never seen actual release but is way better than anything else out for the Hanlins.

Hi idle. If you find the time, I'd be really grateful if you'd try out a section of ordnance survey map for me and post your impression of the result. It might save a lot of effort for nothing if it's no good.

here's an example:

http://www.fovanthistory.org/map11.jpg

Here is a scan of my reader with that JPEG.

34081


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
And after some simple preprocessing

34099

Here is a scan of my reader with that JPEG.


Thanks for that slayda. It doesn't seem too bad from your scan. How does it look to your eyes compared to the example? The roads and names seem pretty clear. Can you see the contour lines?

Thanks for that slayda. It doesn't seem too bad from your scan. How does it look to your eyes compared to the example? The roads and names seem pretty clear. Can you see the contour lines?

It actually has just a bit better contrast in real life and the scan is slightly out of focus because of the raised edges of the reader. E.g. getting rid of those "area" features that you might not want.

That said, were I planning to use maps on my reader (with only 4 shades of gray), I would try to develop some preprocessing to help make it better (what ever better means to me). I think that the V5 (with 8 shades of gray) will be much better than the V3 (with only 4 shades of gray). I have one of the EZ Reader Pocket Pro's ordered and will try to show a comparison of the same map image when it gets here. Should be near the end of August (or maybe into early September) before I get it.

Edit: See second image above. At first it may look worse but it is more clear as to detail.

Slayda, thanks again, most helpful. The image looks much better. Will OpenInkpot port easily to the new hardware? The more contrast the better.

I'm realising I should have started a new thread for this rather than clog up the project status thread. Sorry guys.

Oh, its generally understood that messing with those snapshots is unsupported. But, as pointed out, we're a curious, impatient bunch.

Plus, we were spoiled by the May snapshot, which has never seen actual release but is way better than anything else out for the Hanlins.

I wholeheartedly agree with you... after "playing" a few hours with the latest 20090809 snapshot, I went back to the May snapshot. This one is so far the best version and lightyears ahead of any other Hanlin firmware or clone of it. Still wonder why this version was never released..

I must have missed the May snapshot. The latest one I have is March. Can someone PM it to me? Or point me in the right direction.
Thanks,


Edit: OK, I found it.

I wholeheartedly agree with you... after "playing" a few hours with the latest 20090809 snapshot, I went back to the May snapshot. This one is so far the best version and lightyears ahead of any other Hanlin firmware or clone of it. Still wonder why this version was never released..

If I knew the May snapshot would run on a V5, I'd be ordering up an Astak 5-incher right now. As is, I'll be grudgingly waiting until OI comes out for V5 or they do something about that awful ADE implementation.

If I knew the May snapshot would run on a V5, I'd be ordering up an Astak 5-incher right now. As is, I'll be grudgingly waiting until OI comes out for V5 or they do something about that awful ADE implementation.

Hardware and kernel hacker time are required, second is in much more demand nowadays.

Hardware and kernel hacker time are required, second is in much more demand nowadays.

Understood.
Not pressuring anybody. ;)
(As if!)

Just dreaming.
(Plus I'm majorly ticked at the giant leap backwards that is ADE-on-Hanlin.
If I'd wanted Sony 505 firmware I woulda bought a Sony.<sheesh>)

Peace, dudes!