K5 [Kindle Touch] xterm & matchbox-keyboard

[baf]

Is there any way I can increase the size of the font that it uses.

Combination of keys <ALT> = (alt and equal sign) increases font size. You may also open font menu by pressing <ALT> 3 and choose larger font from the menu.
If the largest font is still too small for you or you want to change default font size, you may edit /mnt/us/extensions/xterm/layouts/Xresources file. Relevant section is:

XTerm.VT100.font: -*-terminus-medium-r-normal--16-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*
XTerm.VT100.boldFont: -*-terminus-bold-r-normal--16-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*
XTerm.VT100.font1: -*-terminus-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*
XTerm.VT100.font2: -*-terminus-medium-r-normal--16-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*
XTerm.VT100.font3: -*-terminus-medium-r-normal--18-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*
XTerm.VT100.font4: -*-terminus-medium-r-normal--20-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*
XTerm.VT100.font5: -*-terminus-medium-r-normal--22-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*
XTerm.VT100.font6: -*-terminus-medium-r-normal--24-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*

Available sizes are: 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 28 and 32.
Fonts 1 to 6 are described in the font menu, starting from "unreadable" up to "huge".
For example, to change a font size to 32 points, enter:

-*-terminus-medium-r-normal--32-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*

[atordo]

First of all, thanks for making this, together with the extend package it's gonna be very useful to me.

I see you have included in the keyboard letters for other languages (the keys labeled ã/F and Ã/£) for which I'm grateful, but I'm not able to make them work. The keys will blink when pressed, but nothing appears on screen. Those are some relevant environment variables on my kindle:

LANG=es_ES.utf8
LC_ALL=es_ES.utf8
XTERM_LOCALE=C

I've also tried changing XTERM_LOCALE to es_ES.utf8 to no avail. This happens both in local and in a remote host via ssh (also tried changing locales there).

As it is, the app is of great usefulness to me if only to "vi /mnt/us/whatever.txt" and take notes (I'm confortable with vi), but if I could input the needed characters to properly spell my language, it would be, well, more useful

TIA.

[baf]

@atordo
Thanks for using this app and reporting this bug!
I am aware of it, but I need time to dig and properly resolve this issue. For now I made a simple workaround which should satisfy you. Please download new version. To make accented letters work properly, please select "UTF-8 Encoding" from Fonts menu (accessed by pressing <ALT> 3).
This is quick hack and still buggy. You will notice for example that first press of accented letter will fail, but afterwards it should work.
I will not have more time to improve it now, as I will be away from my computer and kindle until september

[atordo]

Thanks baf, it worked for me at the first try

When editing with vi the chars are replaced with "..", but displayed correctly with cat, so that's an issue with the vi bundled with the kindle.

Have a nice computer detox summer

[baf]

Originally Posted by atordo

When editing with vi the chars are replaced with "..", but displayed correctly

Yes, busybox vi is very limited. If you want I have vim built for KT. I put it on my webpage in downloads.

[atordo]

Originally Posted by baf

Yes, busybox vi is very limited. If you want I have vim built for KT. I put it on my webpage in downloads.

Thanks again. Downloaded it, put in /usr/local/bin and happy editing now

[imfede]

very very good work! i found your compiled programs (vim, elinks ...) on your website but how i put them on my kindle?

Second question: how can i write files? every time i try to create/modify files it keep saying "read-only" filesystem; how can i get rid of those message?

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by imfede

very very good work! i found your compiled programs (vim, elinks ...) on your website but how i put them on my kindle?

Second question: how can i write files? every time i try to create/modify files it keep saying "read-only" filesystem; how can i get rid of those message?

You really should not write to the read-only filesystem (i.e. main root partition), unless you REALLY know what you are doing, in which case you would know that you need to do the command that the SSH login banner says is needed to write to root (mntroot rw).

You should keep all your files on /mnt/us (the USB drive partition), and only add tiny symlinks to root that point to the files on /mnt/us. Using space on the main partition can cause OTA firmware updates to fail, possibly bricking your kindle.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by atordo

Thanks again. Downloaded it, put in /usr/local/bin and happy editing now

Better keep a copy, the next OTA update may empty /usr/local/*

[geekmaster]

Like I said, you should put your files on /mnt/us. In my case, I put "nano" and other stuff in /mnt/us/bin. Then in /bin I created symlinks to the files in /mnt/us/bin. It works well and uses almost no space on the root partition. Like knc1 said /usr/local/bin is not a safe place to store stuff (not even symlinks).

[imfede]

ok, thank you for your help, now it's all clear.

Last question: is it possible to have a compiled version of gcc?

(oh, btw, how can i change the PATH permanently so that every time i login my PATH contains also /mnt/us/bin ?)

[knc1]

Originally Posted by imfede

ok, thank you for your help, now it's all clear.

Last question: is it possible to have a compiled version of gcc?

(oh, btw, how can i change the PATH permanently so that every time i login my PATH contains also /mnt/us/bin ?)

See the DIY-KeK thread/project - top post - KeK manual link. Appendix B for a description of what is in the resource pool.
The resource pool contains just about any (x86 or x64_86) tool chain binary you might need.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by imfede

ok, thank you for your help, now it's all clear.

Last question: is it possible to have a compiled version of gcc?

(oh, btw, how can i change the PATH permanently so that every time i login my PATH contains also /mnt/us/bin ?)

You can build gcc from source if you want to, but it is a LOT easier to use a prebuilt toolchain, like those suggested by knc1. Also, check out the tinycc (tcc) thread in the tools index, very handy for on-kindle testing and debugging.

[twobob]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Like I said, you should put your files on /mnt/us. In my case, I put "nano" and other stuff in /mnt/us/bin. Then in /bin I created symlinks to the files in /mnt/us/bin. It works well and uses almost no space on the root partition. Like knc1 said /usr/local/bin is not a safe place to store stuff (not even symlinks).

+1 For this.

Similarly the "home" construct could be managed in this way
(although there are more issues around it so frankly I didn't bother.)

It far less painful to replace a symbolic link than lose your binaries.

: )

[geekmaster]

"Symlinks are the way forward" for new files. But to CHANGE an existing file, it is better to temporarily bind mount to a modified copy on /mnt/us (like I did with the tccmake script to "repair" lib loader scripts not compatible with tcc).