Unicode Font support without flashing

[alanine]

WARNING: MAY RESULT in WIPING OUT 505's INTERNAL MEM (equal to a Hard Reset, won't damage the firmware), BACKUP FIRST, AND TRY IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!

STEPS:

1. connect 505 to PC, create a directory called FONT (note all upper case) under its root directory.

2. put your customized Unicode font files in FONT directory (three files tt0003m_.ttf,tt0011m_.ttf,tt0419m_.ttf, with the font family name "Swis721 BT", "Dutch801 Rm BT", and "Courier10 BT" respectively, basically the same as you would do with a prs-500).

3. get my fontmapper-070218.zip, unzip it onto the root directory of a SD card formatted as FAT16.

4. insert SD card into 505, wait until it display the message, press 1 to activate.

5. wait 10 seconds or so and then the screen flashes a few times, until it displays the "already activated" message, hit MENU to exit. DONE!

NOTES:

1. Though this method is based on igorsk's flashing package, it doesn't actually do the flashing. Instead it mounts /Data/FONT over existing /opt/sony/ebook/FONT. So the effect will be lost if you reset (cold reboot) the reader. Then you only need to insert the SD card to activate it again to get back the font support. This method is based on the discussion thread led by obelix on the-ebooks.org Russian forum.

2. If you use Sony Connect software to upload LRFs to the reader, make sure you update the fonts used by the Connect software to your customized fonts too, otherwise the reader will attempt to reformat those LRF books again due to different set of fonts used. They are usually in the directory called \CONNECT Reader\Data\fonts. Make sure you back up those original fonts before you do so.

All credits go to igorsk, obelix and those who contributed their works towards hacking the sony reader!

(For Chinese Unicode font support, see this thread over hi-pda forum for details)

Known Problem (this may be a bit technical):

1. the method is essentially just "mount --bind /Data/FONT /opt/sony/ebook/FONT", trivial! But the real problem is how to restart tinyhttp in order for reload the new fonts.

2. Directly killing tinyhttp.sh and tinyhttp, and then restart tinyhttp.sh works. But the reader will no longer be able to load books from SD card, and the system time is messed up.

3. In the hack given above, I used another solution to do it

ebook.setExitCode(3);
this.container.getWindow().doQuit();

This will get tinyhttp to do a natural quit, and let tinyhttp.sh to restart it. But then there is something very strange in tinyhttp.sh, it does the following

NUM=`grep Data /proc/mtd | awk -F: '{print $1}' | awk -Fd '{print$2}'`
/usr/local/sony/bin/mkdosfs /dev/mtdblock$NUM
/bin/grep Data /etc/mtab > /dev/null

Essentially this is formatting /Data partition! But indeed if /Data/FONT is already mounted, the mkdosfs will not format /Data. This also relates to gwynevans' report. In gwynevans' case /Data is formatted, but I suspect it's because /Data/FONT wasn't successfully mounted since everyone who tried this over the Chinese forum have enabled Chinese Unicode font successfully.

So if things were done properly, tinyhttp gets restarted and new fonts are loaded. Only problem is that the mkdosfs thing may have done some damage to the partition table of /Data, so if you use Connect software to transfer LRF files to the reader's internal memory AFTER using this hack, you may end up corrupting the cache, and the reader will attempt to re-format the LRF files before displaying them for the first time.

The temporary solution is to either transfer LRFs to SD card, or to do the transfer before this hack is applied (i.e., do a reset, then transfer files before using this hack).

Help is need to further investigate this problem and find a real solution!

[diablo9]

strange, 137 reads with no reply? Isn't this something big for 505 community?

[kacir]

Does it work for PRS500?

[gwynevans]

My understanding is that for the 500, there's no reason not to flash it, as there's an updater to recover if it doesn't work (but it's been done by quite a few people now).

As for this hack, it looks very interesting. I've not had a chance to play yet, but while I originally thought I'd have no direct use of it, I'm now wondering if I could try something like replacing the default font with MS's Calibri one (I think that's the one I thought looked nice but didn't want to slow down the page-turns by embedding it).

As for the general thing itself, even if you're not after the unicode fonts it's interesting - I've not had a chance to try & see what info about the internals have been found, but it does make me wonder what other options this might open up in terms of adding functionality?

[gwynevans]

Any pointers to how I can get a copy of the original font files, so I can just change one at a time?

[alanine]

Originally Posted by gwynevans

Any pointers to how I can get a copy of the original font files, so I can just change one at a time?

The originals are in the Connect software on your PC if you use Windows, something like \CONNECT Reader\Data\fonts

[Acutesound]

Originally Posted by alanine

STEPS:

1. connect 505 to PC, create a directory called FONT (note all upper case) under its root directory.

2. put your customized Unicode font files in FONT directory (three files tt0003m_.ttf,tt0011m_.ttf,tt0419m_.ttf, with the font family name "Swis721 BT", "Dutch801 Rm BT", and "Courier10 BT" respectively, basically the same as you would do with a prs-500).

3. get my fontmapper-070218.zip, unzip it onto the root directory of a SD card formatted as FAT16.

4. insert SD card into 505, wait until it display the message, press 1 to activate.

5. wait 10 seconds or so and then the screen flashes a few times, until it displays the "already activated" message, hit MENU to exit. DONE!

NOTE:

1. Though this method is based on igorsk's flashing package, it doesn't actually do the flashing. Instead it mounts /Data/FONT over existing /opt/sony/ebook/FONT. So the effect will be lost if you reset (cold reboot) the reader. Then you only need to insert the SD card to activate it again to get back the font support. This method is based on the discussion thread led by obelix on the-ebooks.org Russian forum.

All credits go to igorsk, obelix and those who contributed their works towards hacking the sony reader!

(For Chinese Unicode font support, see this thread over hi-pda forum for details)

Thanks. Where can you find the download for these customized fonts ?

[gwynevans]

Hmm - tried it & it seems to have done a full reset, completely clearing the internal memory!

[alanine]

Originally Posted by gwynevans

Hmm - tried it & it seems to have done a full reset, completely clearing the internal memory!

I'm sorry to hear that. But this didn't happen to all the people who tried the Chinese Unicode font solution. I'll investigate further!

[alanine]

Originally Posted by Acutesound

Thanks. Where can you find the download for these customized fonts ?

You can try the Chinese Unicode font pack here, extract the two ttf files tt0003m_.ttf and tt0011m_.ttf from it, and get the 3rd font file tt0419m_.ttf from your own PC Connect software's font directory (something like \CONNECT Reader\Data\fonts).

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by alanine

I'm sorry to hear that. But this didn't happen to all the people who tried the Chinese Unicode font solution. I'll investigate further!

I'd not be surprised if it was due to it finding something odd about the font I was trying & restarting as a result.

[alanine]

Originally Posted by gwynevans

I'd not be surprised if it was due to it finding something odd about the font I was trying & restarting as a result.

Please re-download the package, I've done something to prevent the formatting of internal mem. It now shows an error message "mounting FONT directory failed" instead. So if you see this message, it's because you didn't create the FONT directory on the root of 505's internal mem.

If it were due to a wrong font file, it'll just hang and a usual reset will get back to normal, but won't format the mem.

[SurgE]

tested using chinese unicode and working very fine

[vrf]

POST EDITED:

Never mind about it resetting the device. I made a little boo-boo on renaming the font file (internal name, that is.) Once you do that, it works fine.

Nice job! It even preserves everything in memory.

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by alanine

Please re-download the package, I've done something to prevent the formatting of internal mem. It now shows an error message "mounting FONT directory failed" instead.

Done so & working now, thanks! Turns out the reason was me calling it FONTS, not FONT!