MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - [HOWTO][WIP] Run Xorg on your Kobo + full-blown Firefox

NiMa · 01-04-2021, 01:25 PM

This is meant to be a continuation of the previous thread, "Create your own native development environment for your Kobo". I decided to separate Xorg from it because the title was not reflective of the contents of the post. I'll post more tips on here, and all my new Xorg-on-Kobo updates will be there instead.

Hi,
So after a little bit of tinkering with Alpine Linux on my Kobo (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=336175), I really wanted to get Xorg up and running. So I got down the rabbit hole of Xorg config and video drivers, and came up with a working solution. I ended up with a working Xorg display on the eInk screen of the Kobo, with Openbox or Fluxbox and a full-blown Firefox (which worked really well) + an x11vnc session that you can access with common VNC software on your main computer. Touch input is supported! If you don't want to use that, you could opt for these methods instead:
1. Use xdotool to control mouse/keyboard from Linux CLI
2. Control the system from a VNC client.
I also tried to watch YouTube from a VNC client and it was kind of... well ugly (0.5 fps in fact).
Here's a video with the new speed improvement (instructions below): https://youtu.be/qOQt6Fxew2s
Tested devices : Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Libra H2O
*If this works on your device, please let me know, and I'll add it on the list!*
Kobo Libra H2O Overall experience very good, Firefox is able to (slowly) play mobile YouTube videos! Tested Reddit, Old Reddit, Mobileread, all pretty good! Touch experience fairly reliable, albeit very limited.
Kobo Glo HD Overall experience pretty good, Firefox is slower comparatively to the Libra H2O. You may find useful installing Midori or Falkon instead. Touch tested, reliable and working.

How do I do this?

First, head over there and make your steps through, but don't install GCC/G++/Clang if you don't want to.
TL;DR: stop at step 13, then come back here again.
Note: You may want to enable Landscape mode system-wide for a better experience:

Code:

.kobo/Kobo/Kobo eReader.conf
----
[DeveloperSettings]
ForceAllowLandscape=true

Then, download the .py file at the end of this post (attachments).

Dumping the script (xorg-kobo-touch.py) to root storage via SSH/SCP
Do this on your host machine:

Code:

scp <path of script> root@<kobo ip>:/mnt/user/home

In my case, this would be:

Code:

scp xorg-kobo-touch.py root@192.168.2.2:/mnt/user/home

Main setup
0. Kill nickel, fickel, etc. with this (ensuring you're still connected to Wi-Fi):

Code:

export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS NICKEL_HOME WIFI_MODULE LANG WIFI_MODULE_PATH INTERFACE
sync
killall -TERM nickel hindenburg sickel fickel fmon 2>/dev/null

1. You have likely already opened an SSH/Telnet session in the chroot. Add a repository to /etc/apk/repositories:

Code:

echo "http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/" >> /etc/apk/repositories

Update the packages list:

Code:

apk update

Install the necessary packages:

Code:

apk add alpine-sdk xorg-server-dev libx11-dev libxdamage-dev libxfixes-dev xorg-server git xf86-video-dummy xvfb font-noto openbox fluxbox xterm firefox-esr matchbox-keyboard onboard scrot imagemagick xdotool geany tint2 python3 evtest bash pcmanfm x11vnc xf86-video-fbdev

Firefox is not mandatory, but very useful for browsing the Web. Geany & PCManFM are not required if you don't want to install them. Do a little thing for convenience :

Code:

mv /usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoSansMono*.ttf /usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoSerif*.ttf /home

2. Here we'll start by compiling a program which will allow us to see the Xorg display on the eInk screen. Start by creating a directory:

Code:

mkdir /home/root && cd /home/root

and clone the repository:

Code:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/schuhumi/fbink-xdamage

then, change directory to the cloned repo:

Code:

cd fbink-xdamage

Important: We have to modify the Makefile to allow building for Kobos, because this program was originally designed for Kindles. I'll probably fork it soon to avoid this. Open 'nano' and you'll see this somewhere :

Code:

KINDLE=1

Change it to

Code:

KOBO=1

5. Compile the program with

Code:

make

It may take a while depending on your Kobo model.

6. When all is finished and it did not exit with an error code:

Code:

X -dpi 150 &

This will start an X server with xf86-video-fbdev with a DPI set to 150. You'll *not* see anything on your Kobo's screen yet.

7. Launch fbink-xdamage (this displays X's screen updates on your eInk display with FBInk:

Code:

cd /home/root/fbink-xdamage && export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/home/root/fbink-xdamage/FBInk/Release/; env DISPLAY=:0 ./fbink_xdamage &

Note: if you have a Kobo Nia, currently it is not supported due to FBInk version being too old (Sep. 2019). I'm going to be testing new FBInk releases soon and will (probably) update this note.

7. Export the DISPLAY environment variable:

Code:

export DISPLAY=:0

7.1 Export a temporary HOME environment variable:

Code:

export HOME=/home/root

It will allow us to store persistent settings accross reboots.

8. Launch openbox:

Code:

openbox &

tint2 (dock)

Code:

tint2 &

9. Create a file which will scale windows to a proper "resolution":

Code:

cat > /home/root/dpi.sh << EOF
#!/bin/bash

XFT_SETTINGS="
Xft.antialias:  1
Xft.autohint:   0
Xft.dpi:        175
Xft.hinting:    1
Xft.hintstyle:  hintfull
Xft.lcdfilter:  lcddefault
Xft.rgba:       rgb
"

echo "$XFT_SETTINGS" | xrdb -merge > /dev/null 2>&1
EOF

You can change the "Xft.dpi" value to another number, but I think that 175 is ideal.

10. Launch xterm and run a command:

Code:

xterm -e "/home/root/dpi.sh;sh" &

11. Launch onboard:

Code:

onboard &

Note: you can append a -s argument to the command line (before the ampersand) to choose the size of the keyboard, e.g. "onboard -s <x>x<y> &"

12. Enable touch support:

Code:

cd /home

Code:

cd /home && evtest --grab /dev/input/event1 > evtest-log &

Code:

while true; do python3 xorg-kobo-touch.py ; done &

Note: it may throw a "ValueError: could not convert string to float: '(ABS_MT_POSITION_X)'" error, don't pay attention to it, it should disappear when you'll tap on the screen.

13. You're done! You may want to first fire up x11vnc (see below) to set up some things like the position & theme of onboard keyboard with a computer where you can properly drag things. Those settings will stay accross reboots.

Want to start this automatically with NickelMenu? Here are my launch scripts. They *may* not work. Just look at them and adjust the scripts depending on your needs.

Spoiler:

x11vnc
To start the VNC server, open a new prompt/window, SSH your Kobo again, *don't* close the other SSH sessions, then type:

Code:

x11vnc -display :0

After that, you'll want to install a VNC client on your main PC; I use https://tigervnc.org/ , cross-platform Windows/Mac/Linux, and it works very well.
Then ... experiment

Here are some screenshots...
Cheers!

Searching the old method? I archived it below. Note that I'll probably no longer provide support for it.

Spoiler:

Special thanks to @NiLuJe and schuhumi (GitHub) for providing tips and tools during the making of this project. Now all that's left is to develop a multi-touch driver for capacitive touchscreens!
Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you brick your Kobo with this technique, or if you lose files.