Koreader running on Kobos (all of them, hopefully!)

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by tshering

I am not sure whether I understand your problem. Maybe there is also a problem of terminology on my side. It is enough to put a dot at the beginning of the directory name, no need to set a hidden attribute. Nickel does see such directories, for instance .kobo, but it does not scan them for books.

That would be great, and there would be no need to hide the folder or the SD card. Nickel would not be dealing with a hidden folder at all, just with where it looks for books. I will try this first.

First I guess I should see how Koreader reacts to folders with a leading dot, in a FAT file system. It should have no special meaning, unless Koreader is doing something similar, which it appears it is not.

Thanks,
Ken

[Ken Maltby]

Well the dot foldername does keep nickel from Processing the files in the folder (it did put
a KoboExternalStorage folder in the SD root though) But Koreader doesn't show the dotfolders either. I was able to insert the SD card while in Koreader and see the folders with the leading dot removed. I also could remove the card and reboot back to Nickel with no problems. So, my "last resort" works, although I am concerned what effect using that procedure will have over time. (The external card reading hardware was a little flakey from the start.)

Well for this approach to work, Koreader needs to be made able to see .folders. I don't see why Koreader is ignoring the files, unless it is because it is not a valid FAT 32 folder naming.

Luck;
Ken

Corrected idea:

You can try adding a line between lines 20 and 21 of frontend/ui/widget/filechooser.lua. These lines are:

	for f in lfs.dir(self.path) do
		if self.show_hidden or not string.match(f, "^%.[^.]") then

It should be changed to:

	for f in lfs.dir(self.path) do
		self.show_hidden = true
		if self.show_hidden or not string.match(f, "^%.[^.]") then

It's a bit of a kludge, but it should work.

I haven't had a chance to test it since I haven't managed to get koreader to work after a factory reset (!), but there is no reason why it shouldn't work. (Just keep a backup of the original file to be safe.)

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Corrected idea:

You can try adding a line between lines 20 and 21 of frontend/ui/widget/filechooser.lua. These lines are:

	for f in lfs.dir(self.path) do
		if self.show_hidden or not string.match(f, "^%.[^.]") then

It should be changed to:

	for f in lfs.dir(self.path) do
		self.show_hidden = true
		if self.show_hidden or not string.match(f, "^%.[^.]") then

It's a bit of a kludge, but it should work.

I haven't had a chance to test it since I haven't managed to get koreader to work after a factory reset (!), but there is no reason why it shouldn't work. (Just keep a backup of the original file to be safe.)

Thanks, I'll give it a try. It looks to be not only addressing the .file issue but actual hidden file display as well.

Wondering why not change the earlier "show_hidden = false" to true?

Luck;
Ken

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Thanks, I'll give it a try. It looks to be not only addressing the .file issue but actual hidden file display as well.

Wondering why not change the earlier "show_hidden = false" to true?

Do you have text entry in the file browser? If so, you should be able to enter the name of the hidden folder and open it.

As to nickel, it isn't mounting the SD card. That is done in scripts at startup and when the card is detected. If you removed the mount commands from the scripts, it should solve it. The thread that PeterT pointed to should have everything. I think removing the mount commands where that thread was changing them to allow mounting ext3 file system cards.

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Wondering why not change the earlier "show_hidden = false" to true?

Because I searched for self.show_hidden, so it didn't catch that occurrence.

I'm guessing that your observation is valid and is a better solution than mine. It's just a guess because I don't know much about Lua and I'm using my knowledge of other programming languages here. On the other hand, I only received two results (both in filechooser.lua) when I searched the entire directory tree for "show_hidden". I don't see how changing it in the constructor will be overridden by anything else.

Thanks, I'll give it a try. It looks to be not only addressing the .file issue but actual hidden file display as well.

On most of the Unix systems I've dealt with, there isn't a hidden file attribute. The software uses the convention that any file starting with a dot is hidden. (This isn't true of OS X so there are exceptions. Then again, the traditional Unix utilities ignore the hidden attribute.)

Actually, the following line alludes to that:

if self.show_hidden or not string.match(f, "^%.[^.]") then

If the variable show_hidden is true, the condition is always true, so it ignores everything after the "or". However, if the variable is false it tries to match the regular expression. The regular expression matches any filename that starts with exactly one dot and is followed by a non-dot character (more characters can follow, but the regex doesn't care). If it matches the file is hidden so it won't show it. If it doesn't match, it isn't a hidden file so it will show it.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

On most of the Unix systems I've dealt with, there isn't a hidden file attribute. The software uses the convention that any file starting with a dot is hidden.

And of course a directory entry is just another type of file, so .... it's just being consistent in treating all entries that start with a period as hidden.

Originally Posted by PeterT

And of course a directory entry is just another type of file, so .... it's just being consistent in treating all entries that start with a period as hidden.

I remember using an older version of Unix where you could read a directory like a file, which was kinda fun. (I just tried under OS X, Linux, and NetBSD. Alas, it doesn't work on those systems.)

It also sort-of explains why you can do something like this:

$ mkdir -p 1/2/3
$ chmod 100 1
$ ls 1
ls: 1: Permission denied
$ cd 1
$ ls
ls: .: Permission denied
$ ls 2
3

Weird stuff.

[Ken Maltby]

Well that change does let Koreader's File Manager see hidden files/folders and those with .Filename format. Nickel doesn't try to process the files on the test SD card that are in a .folder. So, it works! Now I will have to try and make a full sized uSD card with the folders behind/under a .folder.

We may finally have an AuraHD that can have a truly large collection of ebooks in defined category folders, that can contain files in a larger number of formats, all readable with Koreader. At the same time we can use calibre to load the internal uSD card with files easily processed by Nickel. The best of both worlds and with your hack their will be no conflicts.

Thanks;
Ken

OK, it is working fine with a larger file structure. All good to go. If only the File Manager had larger text and larger easier to select active points. It would be just right, for me.

[Ken Maltby]

I had to Google around to find out how to get win7 "Rename" to allow me to create a folder with a leading dot. It turns out that if you put a dot in front and one in back of your folder name, it will accept it and the dot in back will be removed, leaving you with a ".folder".

Luck;
Ken

Try changing line 96 of frontend/ui/widget/menu.lua from:

face = Font:getFace("cfont", 22),

To:

face = Font:getFace("cfont", 28),

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Try changing line 96 of frontend/ui/widget/menu.lua from:

face = Font:getFace("cfont", 22),

To:

face = Font:getFace("cfont", 28),

I tried 28 but that was a little too big and too much of the titles were pushed off screen, so I changed them back to 24 which is about as big as I find practical.

Thanks, again;
Ken

[Markismus]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Try changing line 96 of frontend/ui/widget/menu.lua from:

face = Font:getFace("cfont", 22),

To:

face = Font:getFace("cfont", 28),

It works. On line 70 is the fontface for the exit -[ X ]-. And on line 210 there is amongst others the fontface for the menu title.

It works, but you get the same empty line through your letters as you would get when you change the return dpi for the Aura to 265 (in screen.lua, line 101).

Even after changing the menutitle to 35( menu.lua, after line 210) I seldom get the filemanager dropdown menu. Even after changing the -[X]- font to 32 (menu.lua, after 70) it does not exit reader.lua.

Anyone have an idea how to get rid of the inverse strikeout? Any idea how to get the Aura more responsive to tapping the text?

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by Markismus

It works. On line 70 is the fontface for the exit -[ X ]-. And on line 210 there is amongst others the fontface for the menu title.

It works, but you get the same empty line through your letters as you would get when you change the return dpi for the Aura to 265 (in screen.lua, line 101).

Even after changing the menutitle to 35( menu.lua, after line 210) I seldom get the filemanager dropdown menu. Even after changing the -[X]- font to 32 (menu.lua, after 70) it does not exit reader.lua.

Anyone have an idea how to get rid of the inverse strikeout? Any idea how to get the Aura more responsive to tapping the text?

I'm not sure there is a connection between the font size and the active selection area on the touchscreen. The "empty line" may be an artifact of some such relationship, (just a supposition) but it should not be there, there must be a way to present the text without it.

I tried a larger -[X]- too and it didn't change how I had to poke the screen to get it to work. I still had to roll my digit off the edge of the Bezel and push up into the bezel, to shape my fingertip or edge of my thumb into what was needed to activate that selection. I have to do much the same between "File" and "Manager" of the title to some times get the dropdown menu.

I think I remember Giorgio saying that he had changed dpi in his latest port, posted in the first post of this thread. I have that one running now and it is functioning very well. I used the koreader_kobo.sh that Giorgio posted to Koreader Github, before he went on holiday.

Luck;
Ken

[paola]

Originally Posted by Markismus

The dictionary is working in the 273 version on the Aura!! Even better the german dictionary is working using the Duden files from Stardict.

great, any one tried it on other devices? I am interested in the Mini, and of course I hear you say I could try myself, but as I am lost in the technical talk, I can't keep track of which is the latest version, whether it includes all mods (I think it does not), and in which order the various things should be installed.
Yes, there is a post which explains this, but it is older than subsequent modifications (I think..)