Custom Screensaver

[cosmo666]

yes davidfor, i saw the options for using book covers as screensavers. however, i was thinking of swapping the affiliate screensaver with something else, which is not a book cover but a personal pic, and which is shown every time regardless of which book is read(the device would thing, for all intents and purposes, that it is showing the affiliate screensaver). i believe this would, in essence, become a true custom saver, which was what the OP wanted (and i myself as well).

this is what i aim to do, but i lack the programming knowledge to dig through this, hence here i am, trying to see if there are any ideea of how to find the affiliate picture stored on the device.


(p.s.- sorry to everyone for the triple post regarding the screensaver affiliates)

[davidfor]

Sorry, I didn't reread the thread and missed that part.

The images for each affiliate are probably compiled into the libraries somewhere. They aren't in the visible part of the drive and they don't seem to be separate images in the firmware files.

From looking at the libraries on the device, there is a string ":/images/dialogs/mondadori_%2_%1.png" plus one for some of the other affiliates. Creating a file with the correct name and type in the correct place might do it.

From something PeterT posted, I think "%2" will be either "black" or "white". And "%1" is the codename that Kobo use for the device. This is "trilogy" for the Touch, "pixie" - Mini, "kraken" - Glo, "dragon" - Aura HD and "phoenix" - Aura.

The problem then is where. I ".kobo/images/dialogs". It didn't work, but, the sleep screen wasn't displayed properly. That might mean that the resolution or dimensions of the image wasn't correct. Or maybe I had the file name wrong. Or I have drawn a completely wrong conclusion.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by davidfor

From looking at the libraries on the device, there is a string ":/images/dialogs/mondadori_%2_%1.png" plus one for some of the other affiliates. Creating a file with the correct name and type in the correct place might do it.

It seems ":/images/dialogs/mondadori_%2_%1.png" points rather to the compiled-in resource and does therefore not correspond to any location of the file system of the device, cf. this description. But then it becomes difficult to explain why your putting an image file in .kobo/images/dialogs did have an effect.

[cosmo666]

but if the pointer is ":/images/dialogs/mondadori_%2_%1.png" , that means the file should be a png file, most likely called mondadori_%2_%1.png. also, for the aura there is no "dialogs" folder... where did you find that line? (i even deleted the whole images folder, and it still showed the affiliate screen)

also, there is 1 mb of data that i can't find (between drive properties->used space, and all file properties). this could be partition data, or probably the elusive pngs? the only script-like files that i see are a 238kb file in kepub, and a 352kb koboreader.sqlite in root. all the others are confs, or dictionaries, and a xml that has device info on it. it feels like it's way too small. could there be a hidden system partition or something?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by cosmo666

but if the pointer is ":/images/dialogs/mondadori_%2_%1.png" , that means the file should be a png file, most likely called mondadori_%2_%1.png.

As David suggested %1 and %2 are variables.

Originally Posted by cosmo666

also, for the aura there is no "dialogs" folder... where did you find that line? (i even deleted the whole images folder, and it still showed the affiliate screen)

David found it presumably in nickel or libnickel.so.1.0.0. In libnickel.so.1.0.0 of FW 2.6.1, you can find for instance :/images/dialogs/mondadori_sleep_%1.png.

Originally Posted by cosmo666

also, there is 1 mb of data that i can't find (between drive properties->used space, and all file properties). this could be partition data, or probably the elusive pngs? the only script-like files that i see are a 238kb file in kepub, and a 352kb koboreader.sqlite in root. all the others are confs, or dictionaries, and a xml that has device info on it. it feels like it's way too small. could there be a hidden system partition or something?

The path :/images/dialogs/ refers to the file system of the developer's machine, not on the kobo device. The image files were there at the time of compilation. On the kobo device the image files are inside of a file, probably libnickel.so.1.0.0 or nickel (in any case, it should be in the same file as the :/images/dialogs/... string).

[cosmo666]

the alias thing tshering linked at is pretty interesting. perhaps there is a function that calls ":/images/dialogs/mondadori_%2_%1.png" and is supposed to return NULL, and a file with that name messes it up? though that would be sloppy coding...
also, i wonder if aliases can change the name/extension of the file as well, like declaring strings.

[Ken Maltby]

It wouldn't matter where the image is if you can avoid asking for it in the suspend and poweroff routines. If someone were to patch in code just before the call image to display that was something like: If exists Root /myscreen.png then use that and skip the image selection code. Then all you would need to do is add your own .png in the root.
Or something like that.

Luck;
Ken

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

It wouldn't matter where the image is if you can avoid asking for it in the suspend and poweroff routines. If someone were to patch in code just before the call image to display that was something like: If exists Root /myscreen.png then use that and skip the image selection code. Then all you would need to do is add your own .png in the root.
Or something like that.

Luck;
Ken

For poweroff this can be done. KevinShort explained it somewhere. I have it done on my reader and it works fine.

[PeterT]

If you want a slightly convoluted approach that should be independent of changes by Lobo try writing a program based on the fmon add-on that monitors for a call to open the image to be used as the default screensaver and overwrite that file by the desired image.

[cosmo666]

Originally Posted by tshering

As David suggested %1 and %2 are variables.

ofc, but they would point to files with a name according to the variable. i didn't expect it to be writen the same in code.

David found it presumably in nickel or libnickel.so.1.0.0. In libnickel.so.1.0.0 of FW 2.6.1, you can find for instance :/images/dialogs/mondadori_sleep_%1.png.

and where exactly can i find these nickel files? i suspect i'm not seing everything. is there a separate system partition that is not fat32? also, any way to make it visible on windows? the only thing i see on my device is a fat 32 partition with 32mb (atm) used, 18 of which are book covers. hardly enough for an os or libraries.

The path :/images/dialogs/ refers to the file system of the developer's machine, not on the kobo device. The image files were there at the time of compilation. On the kobo device the image files are inside of a file, probably libnickel.so.1.0.0 or nickel

i see.... hmm, if that's the file source they used to compile from, should the destination not be close by, giving us the information the png was put under? some line of code should call this location or the function it's declared under. damn, i'd love to look into these files...

[cosmo666]

Originally Posted by PeterT

If you want a slightly convoluted approach that should be independent of changes by Lobo try writing a program based on the fmon add-on that monitors for a call to open the image to be used as the default screensaver and overwrite that file by the desired image.

exactly what i am trying to do, although without the code. at least at first.
would still require de/recompilaition though...

[tshering]

Originally Posted by cosmo666

and where exactly can i find these nickel files? i suspect i'm not seing everything. is there a separate system partition that is not fat32? also, any way to make it visible on windows? the only thing i see on my device is a fat 32 partition with 32mb (atm) used, 18 of which are book covers. hardly enough for an os or libraries.

Yes, there is a system partition. You can find nickel and so on in the FW update files.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by PeterT

If you want a slightly convoluted approach that should be independent of changes by Lobo try writing a program based on the fmon add-on that monitors for a call to open the image to be used as the default screensaver and overwrite that file by the desired image.

Do you think it would be possible to overwrite the lines

echo %1 > /sys/power/state-extended
echo mem > /sys/power/state

of libnickel by a call to a user script which prints the picture and then executes these two lines ("1" instead of "%1")?

[PeterT]

Not sure but I will admit to being semi baffled. I've been using strace to monitor nicket and see no sign of it reading an image to display the screen saver. I must be missing something!

[tshering]

In older FWs the PNG streams are in libnickel.so.1.0.0, in newer FWs (I have only 2.8.1b), they are in nickel. The streams start with \x89PNG (full signature is 89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A) and end with IEND.