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

[darthjoey]

Thanks. Now to flood my screensavers folder so that I can get very one picture coming up more often than others.

[NiLuJe]

Woops.

Quick fix for the 10 or so people who downloaded and potentially installed the v3.2.N (fonts) and v0.5.N (ss). (I forgot a single 0 in a variable >_<")

I messed up the code to make it possible to install official updates without removing the hack. -_-"

The rest is working fine though, so, nothing's weird gonna happen to your Kindle, no worry .

So, if you're updating from v3.2.N and/or v0.5.N, you can safely directly use the new installers (v3.3.N & v0.6.N) without running the uninstall first. You won't even have to do a full restart afterwards. (That only concerns the < 10 people who downloaded and installed the update in these 4H since the v3.2.N / v0.5.N release!).

For everyone else, follow the v3.2.N & v0.5.N update instruction! (ie. uninstall first, and reboot before installing the new versions).

@Pushka: Yeah, only the jailbreak is compatible with clarknova's. But if you're doing an update, you don't have to do anything with the jailbreak anyway.

As for the Windows new file thingy, I don't have a windows box on hand, but I seem to remember that by default, when you ask Windows to create a new text file (ie. Right Click > Nex Text File or whatever), it ends up with an invisible .txt extension. That won't work here. We need a file with no extension, like the other trigger files. That's why I talked about copying one of the other extension-less files and renaming it. Maybe this way the default Windows config won't add any weird file extension.

Another (way clearer) way, would be to enable showing the common file extensions in Windows Explorer's config .

I'll check that on a Windows box tomorrow.

(And sorry if that's a bit confusing, it's 4:45AM here, I forgot a single character in a script, I'm not at my best .)

[Pushka]

Sometimes I wish I never meddled. I was able to get the original screensavers to work but decided to be fully compatiable with NiLuJe and uninstalled it. So, I have now installed NiLuJe screen savers, and cant get rid of the dead authors, and reading the post above I dont know where in the process I am. ooley dooley. It is the middle of the day here, guess I am one of the 10. Now I dont know where I am.

[NiLuJe]

@Pushka:

Even if you do happen to be running the v0.5.N instead of the v0.6.N, the basic functionnality (ie. custom screensavers) works. So, you just have to follow the instructions of the first post, and put your custom sreensavers in the linkss/screensavers folder .

If you still have the default dead authors screensavers after a reboot, you missed something during the install of this hack, or the uninstall of your old SS hack, because by default the hack setups the old Kindle 1 screensaver (cf. attached image), so you should be at least seeing this one instead of the dead authors.

[Pushka]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@Pushka:

Even if you do happen to be running the v0.5.N instead of the v0.6.N, the basic functionnality (ie. custom screensavers) works. So, you just have to follow the instructions of the first post, and put your custom sreensavers in the linkss/screensavers folder .

If you still have the default dead authors screensavers after a reboot, you missed something during the install of this hack, or the uninstall of your old SS hack, because by default the hack setups the old Kindle 1 screensaver (cf. attached image), so you should be at least seeing this one instead of the dead authors.

Hi again NiLuJe - yes I saw that screensaver and thought it was an Amazon original! You remember me asking about your update as I had done the ss hack months ago and had to create a screensaver folder. Your process creates its own screensaver folder, so I poked around in the kindle directory and saw your folder called screensavers, and that was when it all clicked! The other folder I created from the original hack last year isnt used anymore with your hack (but it was with clarknovas! - which is why people automatically got their screensavers up and running). All good now, and my new kindle just arrived!

[NiLuJe]

Cool, glad we got it working then

That reminds me, one of the things I added in this version is a simple info.txt text file in each of the folder (linkss for the ss hack, and linkfonts for the fonts hack) with a link to this post, and the version actually installed. (Which I actually forgot to update in the v0.6.N / v3.3.N quickfixes... That's done now, first post updated ^^). That should help people to remember what is installed on their Kindles, and where it came from .

[al3bsi]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@al3bsi: I can't really test that, since I have no idea how arabic is supposed to look like . But if you say that the font used by the reader supports Arabic and it works, then a crude workaround would be to *copy* the four Serif_*.ttf fonts over the four Sans_*.ttf fonts, in order to use the Serif fonts nearly everywhere (and especially in the book list ^^). AFAIK, Arabic doesn't really have the same notion of Sans/Serif as latin languages anyway...

Where can I find these Fonts ?

What is the path of the fonts in my device ??

I did not find anything

[NiLuJe]

In the linkfonts/fonts folder if you're running this particular font hack.

If you're running another font hack, I'm gonna need a link to it to extract the fonts .

[Pushka]

I am really pleased to say that putting NiLuJe's hacks onto a Vanilla Kindle is WAY EASIER than a prehacked one! Took me all of five minutes. Didnt need to do the font hack, as the new kindle's display is SO much clearer than mine.

[katzenstreik]

I updated your hacks to the new versions and everything works like a charm on my K2i. The posibility to randomize the SS and automatize the rebooting process after putting in new fonts is very neat - thank you.

I noticed that I run into trouble every time I put in the helvetica2 fonts. However, being able to automate the rebooting process avoids to breathe anxiously heavy for 3 seconds

Looking forward to test the possibility to update the firmware with your hacks installed - we'll see!

[yecam]

This is just a general comment to affirm that the latest font and screen saver hacks are working on my US Kindle 2.

Also, just an interesting feature (still working) that I have been using for sanity purposes for some time now:

Normally, ebooks are stored in the Documents sub directory. I have been creating sub directories under the Documents directory and storing my ebooks in there under the various author names. This is transparent to the user as the Kindle software traverses these sub directories without complaint or comment. However, it does allow me to find a particular book quite quickly by the author's name if I want to delete it manually via Windows Explorer.

This is not a big deal but I thought it was interesting that sub sub directories are supported but not used by the Kindle software to organize books. The collections feature is nice since it supports cataloging books under multiple categories but I personally like my additional system of keeping things stored under author name as well.

[NiLuJe]

Speaking of the ss randomizing, if a math nerd comes around, please do fix my very lame way to fake a rng with two sticks a piece of yarn .

For now, I'm looping on all the ss, and using the string length of the last 3 as a variable (with a static seed for two of those var on the first file), and then a very lame operation:

ss_frng_prev * ss_frng_pprev + ss_strlen - ss_frng_pprev * 7

(Where ss_frng_prev is the previous strlen, ss_frng_pprev the strlen even before the previous one, and ss_strlen the string lenght of the current file).

I also would like to avoid using a chunk a /dev/urandom fed through md5sum of something like that, and do it all with shell builtins, in order to avoid forking like crazy. (And, of course, the Kindle's shell doesn't support Bash's $RANDOM -_-").

Well, it's better than nothing, but it's far from perfect, so if you experience weird 'non-randomness', that's why ^^.

@yecam: That's what calibre does by default, btw. (unless I changed it somewhere along the ligne, but I don't think so ) (${kindle}/documents/${author_sort}/${title} or something like that, too lazy to fire up calibre to check :P. But it's configurable anyway ).

[masterebotzki]

ok i downloaded it in that 4h time frame what do i need to do just put the new updates on it and update or do i have to uninstall the old one. i have the ss from before the 4 hours the font is from during the 4h. i am not that tech savy so use small words please thank you

[NiLuJe]

Originally Posted by masterebotzki

ok i downloaded it in that 4h time frame what do i need to do just put the new updates on it and update or do i have to uninstall the old one. i have the ss from before the 4 hours the font is from during the 4h. i am not that tech savy so use small words please thank you

If you just *downloaded* it in that time frame, and didn't install it, you can just forget about it, and download the new version from the first post and follow the usual update instructions. (ie. uninstall, reboot, and update)

If you *installed* the v3.2.N/v0.5.N in that time frame, you can safely just install the v3.3.N/v0.6.N right over it without uninstalling anything, and you won't even need to do a full reboot afterwards.

[masterebotzki]

ok same thing with the ss witch is older