[bitfreak]

Using: FBInk v1.25.0 for Kobo

I figured out my problem, apparently it has multiple causes.
1. Remember that LFs are honored!

When echoing percentages the LFs are detected and the percentage is ignored, so nothing happens on screen. You have to echo without an LF: "echo -n " or use "printf". So command1 2>/tmp/fbink-fifo | command2 > /to/file does not work because the percentage stream has to be made LF free. So with some shell-shenanigans that becomes: { command1 | command2 >/to/file;} 2>&1 | tr -d '\n' >/tmp/fbink-fifo which does work.

2. Otherwise, you may want to ensure that it doesn't already exist *before* launching a daemon mode session.

If you mess up the command line and the process is not running, all data piped will end up in a file /tmp/fbink-fifo. Next time you run fbink, it exits because it detects a file /tmp/fbink-fifo and thus cannot create the pipe. But silently ignores it (going from memory).

BitFreak