Font, ScreenSaver & USBNetwork Hacks for Kindle 2.x, 3.x & 4.x

[NiLuJe]

@Huckfu: What geekmaster just said.

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Note for Kindle Special Offers Users:

This doesn't, and won't ever, help you bypass something you agreed to (screensaver ads), so please stop asking.

[psycholoner]

I need a bit of help.

I'm running a DXG and I'm trying to get it to read Japanese .txt files. I've followed the instructions and installed the font hack, which worked since the menu fonts changed, but popping open the .txt files on the kindle just gives me boxes for text. I've tried to put in a few of the fonts on the wiki thinking that it might just be due to not having the right support and rebooting it, but nothing changes. Am I missing something here?

[NiLuJe]

@psycholoner: AFAIK, the .txt/.html reader defaults to the monospace font, which probably doesn't handle CJK, even with the hack. Try a mobi built from a proper UTF-8 source.

You may have to tell the hack to use DroidFallback (or another font with CJK support) as your sans-serif font, though.

[psycholoner]

Thanks. It took a bit of playing around with it to get the right input encode selection right (had to use shift_jis).

I also needed to use DroidFallBack and I was pretty confused because I couldn't find it on the wiki. I've overwritten the regular Mono Sans and Serif fonts, but I'm not sure which one was right. It works now though.

[thatworkshop]

*** USEFUL STUFF: I HOPE THIS CAN HELP YOU AS MUCH AS IT DID FOR ME! ***

Alright folks, I think this will be quite useful for a limited number of people who will be trapped in a similar scenario as I was: I needed to SOMEHOW install usbnet but without going through update bin file (Setting > Update), as it was grayed out and when restarting it gave me Error 3... and without going through debricking... Anyways, here is what you have to do:

Use KindleTool to convert update_usbnetwork_***_install.bin to update_usbnetwork_0.37.N_k3g_install.tar.gz. Open it. From usbnet.tar.gz, extract the usbnet subfolder into your K3's main folder (/mnt/us/) and you're good to go!

This literally took me 5 hours, and I was about to buy a serial cable to do the debricking (ALTHOUGH MY K3 WAS ABSOLUTELY FUNCTIONAL, but I couldn't install any bin files AT ALL, no matter what)

P.S. I don't know how to have SSH access in diag mode. If you know, let me know too. Thanks. That'd have made my life way easier.
Also, NiLuJe, please update the name of this thread to include the words Jailbreak K3 and USBnet. Thanks.

[NiLuJe]

In order for that to work, you had to have it installed at one point. And it's actually the whole point of the auto feature . (Recovering from a framework boot loop without serial access, I mean).

Also, you didn't have to unpack the bin file, the usbnet folder is in the src folder of the zip file.

You'll also notice that there are virtually no docs outside of the package's README, that was by design, too . Granted, I thought I covered this stuff in the README, but I didn't. It's been amended, so it'll be a wee bit more detailed in the next build .

(And the relevant stuff not mentioned in the thread title/first post is still alluded to in the thread tags ).

[NiLuJe]

New releases, yay!

USBnet v0.38.N, ScreenSavers v0.27.N, Fonts v5.1.N.

Basically:

* Updated binaries.
* Update packages built with KindleTool.
* Completely untested K4 support. And I do mean untested, since I don't have a K4. The SS hack is *probably* safe, but you're on your own with USBnet, and the Fonts hack is probably a really bad idea unless you know exactly what you're doing .
* Added mosh-server & kindletool to USBNet.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

New releases, yay!

USBnet v0.38.N, ScreenSavers v0.27.N, Fonts v5.1.N.

Basically:

* Updated binaries.
* Update packages built with KindleTool.
* Completely untested K4 support. And I do mean untested, since I don't have a K4. The SS hack is *probably* safe, but you're on your own with USBnet, and the Fonts hack is probably a really bad idea unless you know exactly what you're doing .
* Added mosh-server & kindletool to USBNet.

I am looking forward to mosh. Persistent connections would be great for using intermittent 3G in a moving vehicle. Of course, being a server, you would need to push a reverse shell to it to access a host PC from it while travelling. Thanks!

[NiLuJe]

@all:

Quick hotfix of the USBNetwork package, it now really has a slight chance of working on a K4. (I forgot to switch from /test/bin to /usr/local/bin ).

@geekmaster: I'd be glad to know if it works over WiFi, I haven't checked, and I haven't punched any new holes in iptables, since I'm not that familiar with it, and mosh uses a (random?) udp port in a 1K range... (FWIW, the client builds okay, but it relies on a small perl wrapper, so unless someone wants to port it to C/Shell, no client... :/)

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@all:

Quick hotfix of the USBNetwork package, it now really has a slight chance of working on a K4. (I forgot to switch from /test/bin to /usr/local/bin ).

@geekmaster: I'd be glad to know if it works over WiFi, I haven't checked, and I haven't punched any new holes in iptables, since I'm not that familiar with it, and mosh uses a (random?) udp port in a 1K range... (FWIW, the client builds okay, but it relies on a small perl wrapper, so unless someone wants to port it to C/Shell, no client... :/)

I wonder if it can use microperl from the optware collection? I had microperl installed in my OpenWRT WRT54GL (with almost no RAM, compared to the kindles with "massive" 256MB RAM).

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

I wonder if it can use microperl from the optware collection? I had microperl installed in my OpenWRT WRT54GL (with almost no RAM, compared to the kindles with "massive" 256MB RAM).

The process of pulling a binary out of a Debian armel package is indexed -

Somebody give it a try for microperl and report back on what happens, someone here will be able to walk you past most problems.

Ah, but then again, if you already have OptWare installed - just do it that way.

[geekmaster]

The goal is to (eventually) be able to port things to native kindle without needing to loop mount an optware image file. The biggest hurdle for not using a loop mount is that vfat does not support symlinks, but you can instead use renamed COPIES of the target file to replace symlinks. There can also be permissions problems with some programs, so not everything can work on vfat. I have tried programs that refused to run as root (for security), but also would not work logged into framework (too restricted). You COULD created a login account just for those finicky programs I suppose...

[NiLuJe]

I'll look into microperl, thanks for the pointer

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

I'll look into microperl, thanks for the pointer

I like the microperl README file. It contains this: "Do not report bugs in microperl; fix the bugs."

If microperl is too "micro", there is also miniperl.

A static build could help prevent missing symlink issues, and damage from naughty OTA updates.

[NiLuJe]

No dice on microperl, it doesn't handle XS modules, and mosh depends on IO:Tty, which is an XS module. (Also, it's a small miracle to get it to build on a native TC, so I can't even imagine how fun it'd be to x-compile ).

EDIT: And, if I understand this stuff, neither does miniperl... (But at least it builds, and seems way more x-tc friendly). But what really bothers me with perl in this context is that the perl interpreter itself isn't enough, we'll need at least a small amount of perl modules, and there's no proper automated dependency checking to determine the minmal amount of stuff we'd need to run mosh...

And even then, x-compiling an XS module seems to be a mightily painful task...

EDIT²: On the bright side, it looks like they are eventually gonna kill the perl wrapper, and replace it with a C++ version. There's even a PR open on github with some code, so, yay!