Kobo Start Menu

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Markismus

@Tshering On github pazos asked whether we could use Start Menu for fast switching between koreader and Nickel.

Would it be possible to make a script which exits koreader and enters Nickel and a script which exits Nickel and enters koreader? Together with the normal exit script from Nickel to break the loop, we would have a real fast switcher.

• merge the content of the archive with the kbmenu folder of the menu
• reboot the device
• select "scripts" > "koreadernickelloop.sh"
• exit koreader in order to start nickle
• open exit_nickel.png to start koreader
• and so on
• open run_test_script.png to go back to the start menu

"scripts" > "koreadernickelloop.sh" does the same, but starts with koreader.

I did not much testing, but it seems to work on the Touch at least. If after testing you tell me it is ok, I will include these two items optionally into the main menu. I am planning to release an update in some days anyway.

Originally Posted by Markismus

As a point of interest. We had to reboot the device in the past after killing Nickel to reenter Nickel. Did you do rather smart scripting to alleviate that problem or does it also depend on the compiled code that is installed as part of Start Menu?

I don't know exactly what your problem was. Therefore, I don't know why I didn't have it.

Edit: Don't use these scripts on an Aura HD, if you have enable_night_mode_andRebootAuraHD.zip installed, since they will not work. I will provide an update package including the option to switch between nickel and koreader soon.

[Markismus]

@tshering Thanks!!

EDIT: It works great.
The only improvement I can think of for your next release is to use the koreader icon for Nickel to koreader and the exit icon for return to Start Menu. This way the png-files point to the same action whether you installed this modification or not, whether you go via the now obsolete fmon route or via Start Menu

[Markismus]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I wonder if you could:

From nickel to koreader :

killall -STOP nickel
...

Ken you've been using Start Menu for a while now.
However, if you would have been using the fmon route then you would have found that the power and light events don't work anymore with the newer firmware. The events are accumulated, they don't reach koreader and are processed as soon as you killall -CONT nickel. This typically results in your reader switching in and out of standby for 10 times or more depending on the amount of pulls on the power switch or the times the sleep cover was closed and opened.

Therefore, for now we have to use Start Menu to keep normal functions going. See the github issue.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by Markismus

Ken you've been using Start Menu for a while now.
However, if you would have been using the fmon route then you would have found that the power and light events don't work anymore with the newer firmware. The events are accumulated, they don't reach koreader and are processed as soon as you killall -CONT nickel. This typically results in your reader switching in and out of standby for 10 times or more depending on the amount of pulls on the power switch or the times the sleep cover was closed and opened.

Therefore, for now we have to use Start Menu to keep normal functions going. See the github issue.

Ah.. I knew I was becoming a little removed from some problems that people are having, because I am still using the 3.2.0 firmware. Having enjoyed tshering's Kobo Start Menu's snappy performance over the way Nickel functions, I guess I lost track of those issues, as well. I guess I could be getting out of touch with some of the adventure that is Kobo ownership. Things have been very good for me with FW 3.2.0, and the Kobo Start Menu.
My suspend is still working just as I like it, in koreader. The new "Start with last opened file" option works fine (on my AuraHD). Tshering has been turning out neat scripts left and right, I like his new charging monitor script, especially. My mostly unofficial software powered AuraHD beats anything running corporate software, that I have seen yet.

Luck;
Ken

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Markismus

@tshering Thanks!!

EDIT: It works great.

Thank you for the feed back.

Originally Posted by Markismus

The only improvement I can think of for your next release is to use the koreader icon for Nickel to koreader and the exit icon for return to Start Menu. This way the png-files point to the same action whether you installed this modification or not, whether you go via the now obsolete fmon route or via Start Menu

Sure. This was only meant for test purposes.

I read the github threat you linked to only now. If you use the nickelkoreaderloop.sh or the koreadernickelloop.sh, are the #448, #592 and #580 problems still eliminated? At that point no executable of the Kobo Start Menu is running. Therefore, if the problems are eliminated with this setting too, you should be able to switch between nickel and koreader without having the Kobo Start Menu installed, I guess.

Edit: I am glad you did not install enable_night_mode_andRebootAuraHD.zip, see here. Because if you did, nickelkoreaderloop.sh or koreadernickelloop.sh would not work on Aura HD.


Edit 2: If you return to the Kobo Start Menu, can you select several menu items in a row (for instance, going form the scripts menu to the main menu and back), without having the display changing orientation? This was the reason why I reboot the Aura HD when exiting nickel. If this is working now with the switching setting, it should be possible to make it work with "normal" setting too.

[Markismus]

Originally Posted by tshering

If you use the nickelkoreaderloop.sh or the koreadernickelloop.sh, are the #448, #592 and #580 problems still eliminated?

Yes.

Edit: I am glad you did not install enable_night_mode_andRebootAuraHD.zip, see here. Because if you did, nickelkoreaderloop.sh or koreadernickelloop.sh would not work on Aura HD.

The latest release of koreader should include nightmode. So that's another way to get it working without bother.

Edit 2: If you return to the Kobo Start Menu, can you select several menu items in a row (for instance, going form the scripts menu to the main menu and back), without having the display changing orientation?

My Kobo Aura never had any screen rotation problems. So I didn't install the Aura HD workaround, nor did I get into trouble with the new scripts.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Markismus

The latest release of koreader should include nightmode. So that's another way to get it working without bother.

I meant to put emphasis in this way: enable_night_mode_andRebootAuraHD.zip. I wrongly supposed that you were testing on Aura HD. Thank you for clarification!

[WS64]

I have an issue with Start Menu. Whenever i don't use my Kobo Mini for a minute or two Start Menu freezes. First I blamed KoReader for this, since I mostly use Start Menu to start Koreader, and it happened there all the time. But it also happens in Start Menu itself, although funny enough NOT when I am in the USB menu of Start Menu. But I did not really make any tests to see when exactly it happens.
Any ideas why this might be?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by WS64

I have an issue with Start Menu. Whenever i don't use my Kobo Mini for a minute or two Start Menu freezes. First I blamed KoReader for this, since I mostly use Start Menu to start Koreader, and it happened there all the time. But it also happens in Start Menu itself, although funny enough NOT when I am in the USB menu of Start Menu. But I did not really make any tests to see when exactly it happens.
Any ideas why this might be?

Cyphox reported also having this problem, cf. the posts starting with # 179. His Glow freezes, if he leaves it alone for about 2 two 3 minutes. I then left alone my Touch several periods of time on purpose, once for 90 minutes, but it did not freeze. However on the same day, when I charged it, it froze. I also saw my Touch freezing in the past too, but not very often, maybe four of five times altogether since I use the start menu.

Of course, I don't know how many other people are having the problem that the device freezes after a short time. Apart form Cyphox' amd your report, there are no other reports. Therefore, I guess not many people are seeing the freezes, or at least only occasionally. Actually, I don't know where to start searching for a solution.

Since your devices freeze also when running koreader or coolreader (note: at that time the start menu executable is not running), I would think that it does not depend on whether this executable is running or not. There is still the possibility that this executable puts the system somehow in a unstable state, or that I am doing already something wrong when initializing the OS. But why are only some devices concerned, or at least in this noticable manner?

I am releasing an update for the current version today or tomorrow. Among other things, this update improves the initializing process. Maybe it has also a possitiv effect on the freezing problem. That is all I can say for the moment.

You said that your Mini does not seem to freeze when it is in the usb menu. Is this only with usb support enabled, or independent of it?

Cyphox noted some improvment after activating the watch, cf. this and this post. I guess however, that as soon as you enter koreader or any other application, the problem returns,

[WS64]

Originally Posted by tshering

You said that your Mini does not seem to freeze when it is in the usb menu. Is this only with usb support enabled, or independent of it?

Just tested it, went to Start Menu/USB. I did not connect the reader to my computer and did not activate USB. Then I pput the reader away for 2 minutes and after that... Crash.

New test, Start Menu/USB, no computer but USB activated => hmmm... that one was strange, I could "return", but the device rebooted (not just crashed) after the next tap. Retry of the same test => "normal" crash

So I guess it has something to do with the reader being busy or not (too bad, I hoped that it might help to just turn USB on before starting Koreader)

Next test, turning on the watch you mentioned...
USB (disabled, no computer): no crash!
Koreader (were the clock does not show up) through Start Menu: crash


Btw, I am not sure if Coolreader also crashes, havn't tested it since Coolreader lacks some of the features I want. (text markers I think were it). Update, just tested it, Coolreader does NOT crash! Nor does the Vlasovsoftlauncher.

Not sure if it's important or not since Nickel should not be running at crash-time, but mine is on 3.41.

After these tests I also changed all settings to English (both Nickel and Koreader), they were both on German before. I know that these (especially different time settings) are a good reason for crashes. But it did not help either, the device crashed.

[pazos]

@WS64: When you said "USB activated" you meant usbnet, shared storage or just connected to a power adaptor?

AFAIK usb attach/deattach are handled by udev rules. If you are on Start Menu, or koreader or any other program started from /mnt/onboard and you start usb storage mode this location becomes invalid cause the system umounts it to share via usb

@tshering: first of all, nice work . I want to say you two things:

1- last commit > https://github.com/koreader/koreader...05153fec132f20 change default starting script from koreader_kobo.sh to koreader.sh

2- I was thinking to make koreader.sh for kobos more dynamic (being able to start koreader with a custom file or dirpath or even with last document opened). Are you interested in those options? If we make this kindle like we'll get something like this:

start koreader with filemanager in /mnt/onboard: /mnt/onboard/.kobo/koreader/koreader.sh /mnt/onboard
start koreader with example content: /mnt/onboard/koreader/koreader.sh /mnt/onboard/pdf/test.pdf
start koreader with filemanager in custom folder: /mnt/onboard/.kobo/koreader/koreader.sh /mnt/onboard/pdf/custom
start koreader with last opened document: /mnt/onboard/,kobo/koreader/koreader.sh

Any thoughts?

[WS64]

Originally Posted by pazos

@WS64: When you said "USB activated" you meant usbnet, shared storage or just connected to a power adaptor?

I ment "USB" in Start menu, and "enable USB" activated (not sure about the exact wording, don't have the kobo here right now)

To your point 2, the latest builds have even an option to start Koreader with the last opened document.

Btw, with some of these crashes described in my last post this "last opened document" info got lost, although the last opened document was still visible in the history. I wonder why koreader does not start the last file from that list if on some reasons the info got lost which file was last...

[pazos]

Originally Posted by WS64

I ment "USB" in Start menu, and "enable USB" activated (not sure about the exact wording, don't have the kobo here right now)

So you have usbnet enabled, not usbms. If you don't attach the kobo to your computer this means just loading some modules and set usb0 ip. But maybe it prevents the udev rule to fire up (cause we just unloaded usbms module)

This is NOT an explanation for your case, because things should work OK if you don't plug your kobo to your computer during the test

To your point 2, the latest builds have even an option to start Koreader with the last opened document.

This is because Start Menu uses its own koreader_kobo.sh to start koreader, instead of using /mnt/onboard/.kobo/koreader/koreader.sh for the same task

Anyways is good to have a shared base of work

[tshering]

Originally Posted by pazos

I want to say you two things:

1- last commit > https://github.com/koreader/koreader...05153fec132f20 change default starting script from koreader_kobo.sh to koreader.sh

Thank you for this information. However, I am not quite sure how to use this information. The content of the koreader.sh is the same as it was in koreader_kobo.sh, isn't it.

Originally Posted by pazos

2- I was thinking to make koreader.sh for kobos more dynamic (being able to start koreader with a custom file or dirpath or even with last document opened). Are you interested in those options? If we make this kindle like we'll get something like this:

start koreader with filemanager in /mnt/onboard: /mnt/onboard/.kobo/koreader/koreader.sh /mnt/onboard
start koreader with example content: /mnt/onboard/koreader/koreader.sh /mnt/onboard/pdf/test.pdf
start koreader with filemanager in custom folder: /mnt/onboard/.kobo/koreader/koreader.sh /mnt/onboard/pdf/custom
start koreader with last opened document: /mnt/onboard/,kobo/koreader/koreader.sh

Any thoughts?

Looks great to me. I could make some good use of it. Another thing I would welcome is, if input.lua could check the Kobo Touch model, if this is the decisive information, and handle the reversal of the x/y coordinates.

Originally Posted by pazos

This is because Start Menu uses its own koreader_kobo.sh to start koreader, instead of using /mnt/onboard/.kobo/koreader/koreader.sh for the same task

I cannot see how this effects whether koreader is or is not reopening the last read book, if settings.reader.lua got lost? Or did you refer to some other point?

[tshering]

@WS64
Thank you for testing and reporting. It would be interesting how many people had this problem and did not report.
Let us hope that I did by chance something in the update that solves the problem.