Thanks raisjn!
drawing_demo and sharenote seem to be doing the same thing as before.
No visible response to drawing, but sharenote responds to buttons being clicked.
When the apps are started from SSH Nickel and the app seem to be fighting for input and priority to draw on screen.
For example, clearing the screen in sharenote is possible, but results in Nickel showing.
Spoiler:
[root@kobo apps]# ./drawing_demo
COULDNT OPEN machine id FILE 2
[FBInk] Detected a Kobo Aura One (373 => Daylight @ Mark 6)
[FBInk] Clock tick frequency appears to be 100 Hz
[FBInk] Screen density set to 300 dpi
[FBInk] Variable fb info: 1404x1872, 32bpp @ rotation: 3 (Counter Clockwise, 270°)
[FBInk] Fixed fb info: ID is "mxc_epdc_fb", length of fb mem: 10813440 bytes & line length: 5632 bytes
[FBInk] Canonical rotation: 0 (Upright, 0°)
[FBInk] Fontsize set to 32x32 (IBM base glyph size: 8x8)
[FBInk] Line length: 43 cols, Page size: 58 rows
[FBInk] Vertical fit isn't perfect, shifting rows down by 8 pixels
[FBInk] Pen colors set to #000000 for the foreground and #FFFFFF for the background
W: 1404 H: 1872 S: 1408
SETTING SCREEN DEPTH 32
OPENING /dev/input/event0 AS BUTTONS
OPENING /dev/input/event1 AS TOUCH
OPENING /dev/input/event2 : UNKNOWN EVENT DEVICE
OPENING /dev/input/event3 : UNKNOWN EVENT DEVICE
ERROR OPENING INPUT DEVICE /dev/input/event4
^CCLEANING UP FB
received SIGINT, exiting
[root@kobo apps]# ./sharenote
COULDNT OPEN machine id FILE 2
[FBInk] Detected a Kobo Aura One (373 => Daylight @ Mark 6)
[FBInk] Clock tick frequency appears to be 100 Hz
[FBInk] Screen density set to 300 dpi
[FBInk] Variable fb info: 1404x1872, 32bpp @ rotation: 3 (Counter Clockwise, 270°)
[FBInk] Fixed fb info: ID is "mxc_epdc_fb", length of fb mem: 10813440 bytes & line length: 5632 bytes
[FBInk] Canonical rotation: 0 (Upright, 0°)
[FBInk] Fontsize set to 32x32 (IBM base glyph size: 8x8)
[FBInk] Line length: 43 cols, Page size: 58 rows
[FBInk] Vertical fit isn't perfect, shifting rows down by 8 pixels
[FBInk] Pen colors set to #000000 for the foreground and #FFFFFF for the background
W: 1404 H: 1872 S: 1408
SETTING SCREEN DEPTH 32
OPENING /dev/input/event0 AS BUTTONS
OPENING /dev/input/event1 AS TOUCH
OPENING /dev/input/event2 : UNKNOWN EVENT DEVICE
OPENING /dev/input/event3 : UNKNOWN EVENT DEVICE
ERROR OPENING INPUT DEVICE /dev/input/event4
(re)connected
TASK JOINING ROOM
SETTING ROOM TO DEFAULT
JOINING ROOM default
SENT JOIN SOCKET MESSAGE default
RECEIVED CLEAR SCREEN
SENT CLEAR ROOM
RECEIVED CLEAR SCREEN
And the great news: puzzles....works!!! Which is beyond awesome to me

:
Tiny tiny thingy is that the puzzles main screen is so wide it blocks the slide gesture to launch remux menu; this is easily solved by selecting one of the puzzles and slide up/down there.