Kindle DX Homebrew - It works with Java!!

[DairyKnight]

A lot of people have successfully built binary code to run on Amazon Kindle DX. But the hard part has always been how to work with the e-ink framebuffer driver, to correctly refresh the screen.


I have spent some time digging/reverse engineering the Amazon Java library
and have just found a solution with Java code. So you will just need to know some basic Java/Awt stuff to program for your kindle

A sample program has been attached. The key lies in the JNI adapter 'FrameBufferJNI.java', for which the binary file is /usr/java/lib/libjniframebuffer.so It supports partial, fully and black-white out screen refreshing, which is basically all what you can do with the device.

To run the program -
1. Download JDK/Java ME SDK/NetBeans from Sun
2. Build the program, scp the whole directory to your Kindle DX.
3. Run: /usr/java/bin/cvm cdcapplication1.Main

Have fun! I'm looking forward to some programs ported to Kindle DX, e.g. FBReader for Java.

[dr_g100k]

Cool!!!
Can you show me how to handle key (and 5 way controller) events?

[vessenes]

Okay, this got me to crack open my kindle 2 and start poking around. I'm working on compiling your sample app now.

Thanks for the work! I can't believe you're not getting more kudos here -- to me a working framework for java apps seems like the key to getting the kindle 2 whipped into shape and submitting to its masters.

[dr_g100k]

package com.lab126.util.framebuffer;

public class FrameBufferException extends RuntimeException{
    
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private int errorCode = 0;

    public FrameBufferException() {
        super();
   }

    public FrameBufferException(String msg) {
        super(msg);
    }

    public FrameBufferException(Throwable t) {
        super(t);
    }

    public FrameBufferException(String msg, Throwable t) {
        super(msg, t);
    }

    public int getErrorCode() {
        return this.errorCode;
    }
}

I think this version is more readable