A true VNC viewer (client) for Kobo

[ananchovy]

Hello,

I wrote a VNC viewer optimised for eInk screens and text workflows.
It achieves 30 fps.

Full screen updates break that framerate slightly, but no matter.

Please see the video and link below.

Read the entire document (github readme) before trying it out, please.
It mentions, among other things, that the only supported server is TightVNC.

Link to the repository (binary available): https://github.com/everydayanchovies/eink-vnc

Demonstration video: https://zmarshall.nl/static/einkvnc_demo_kobo.webm

Cheers,

Max

[NiMa]

Interesting project, interesting video.
I will probably adapt this for InkBox OS as an user app (https://inkbox.ddns.net/wiki/index.p..._GUI_user_apps)
Great work!

[JSWolf]

Can this VNC be used with NickelMenu to launch it? Also, how do you close it once it is launched?

[ananchovy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can this VNC be used with NickelMenu to launch it? Also, how do you close it once it is launched?

Yes, you could make a menu entry. See the github page for instructions on how to use the binary.
And you could make another entry if you wish, to kill it: "pkill einkvnc".

[ananchovy]

Originally Posted by NiMa

Interesting project, interesting video.
I will probably adapt this for InkBox OS as an user app (https://inkbox.ddns.net/wiki/index.p..._GUI_user_apps)
Great work!

Thanks
You're welcome it.
Interesting project you've got going there.

[NiMa]

Originally Posted by ananchovy

Thanks
You're welcome it.
Interesting project you've got going there.

Might even think about replacing the built-in one we provide by this, but extensive testing on other devices (we can help with that) and touch input support would be required.
A question: why and where on earth do you use MuPDF in a VNC viewer? ^^
EDIT: Also, has your binary been stripped? 5.89M is quite huge...

[elinkser]

***UPDATE Dec 4*** NOW WORKING(see later comment)

Anyone manage to get this working on a Kobo Clara HD?
I got a stack overflow error.


The strace (from koreader terminal):

Spoiler:

(redacted)

execve("./einkvnc", ["./einkvnc", "10.171.114.133"], [/* 41 vars */]) = 0
.
.
.

--- SIGSEGV {si_signo=SIGSEGV, si_code=SEGV_MAPERR, si_addr=0x7e4befe8} ---
write(2, "\nthread '", 9
thread ') = 9
write(2, "main", 4main) = 4
write(2, "' has overflowed its stack\n", 27' has overflowed its stack
) = 27
write(2, "fatal runtime error: ", 21fatal runtime error: ) = 21
write(2, "stack overflow", 14stack overflow) = 14
write(2, "\n", 1
) = 1
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, [ABRT], NULL, 8) = 0
tgkill(2265, 2265, SIGABRT) = 0
--- SIGABRT {si_signo=SIGABRT, si_code=SI_TKILL, si_pid=2265, si_uid=0} ---
+++ killed by SIGABRT +++
Aborted#

[NiLuJe]

At a quick glance, don't run this from within KOReader, our LD_LIBRARY_PATH is probably not playing ball.

(Also, you appear to have an old, old, old /mnt/onboard/.adds/koreader/libs/libgcc_s.so.1 in there, for some reason. I don't ever remember when we shipped that, but it's nasty, get rid of it).

[elinkser]

Lol, that was a lib I copied from the Debian Jessie archive when I was trying to reuse old deb binaries for the Kobo.


Unfortunately, after removing that old libgcc_s and running einkvnc from telnet, I get similar strace:

Spoiler:

execve("./einkvnc", ["./einkvnc", "192.168.43.1"], [/* 9 vars */]) = 0
brk(0) = 0x5590f000
uname({sys="Linux", node="kobo", ...}) = 0

.'.
.


open("/proc/self/maps", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fcntl64(3, F_GETFD) = 0x1 (flags FD_CLOEXEC)
getrlimit(RLIMIT_STACK, {rlim_cur=8192*1024, rlim_max=RLIM_INFINITY}) = 0
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0444, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x76f0a000
read(3, "54b51000-54d11000 r-xp 00000000 "..., 1024) = 1024
read(3, "2.11.1.so\n76e58000-76e59000 rw-p"..., 1024) = 1024
read(3, "b/libarmmem-v7l.so\n76ed3000-76ee"..., 1024) = 772
close(3) = 0
munmap(0x76f0a000, 4096) = 0
sched_getaffinity(5656, 32, {1}) = 4
ioctl(2, SNDCTL_TMR_TIMEBASE or SNDRV_TIMER_IOCTL_NEXT_DEVICE or TCGETS, 0x7eb81e84) = -1 ENOTTY (Inappropriate ioctl for device)
syscall_384(0x7eb819f8, 0x10, 0x1, 0, 0, 0) = 0x10
socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM|SOCK_CLOEXEC, IPPROTO_IP) = 3
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(5900), sin_addr=inet_addr("192.168.43.1")}, 16) = 0
recv(3, "RFB 003.008\n", 12, 0) = 12
send(3, "RFB 003.008\n", 12, MSG_NOSIGNAL) = 12
recv(3, "\2", 1, 0) = 1
recv(3, "\2", 1, 0) = 1
recv(3, "\20", 1, 0) = 1
close(3) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, {1666969923, 220886694}) = 0
--- SIGSEGV {si_signo=SIGSEGV, si_code=SEGV_MAPERR, si_addr=0x7e382fd8} ---
write(2, "\nthread '", 9
thread ') = 9
write(2, "main", 4main) = 4
write(2, "' has overflowed its stack\n", 27' has overflowed its stack
) = 27
write(2, "fatal runtime error: ", 21fatal runtime error: ) = 21
write(2, "stack overflow", 14stack overflow) = 14
write(2, "\n", 1
) = 1
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, [ABRT], NULL, 8) = 0
tgkill(5656, 5656, SIGABRT) = 0
--- SIGABRT {si_signo=SIGABRT, si_code=SI_TKILL, si_pid=5656, si_uid=0} ---
+++ killed by SIGABRT +++
Aborted

[DNSB]

@elinkser: Please check out the spoiler function (the eye with the X).

[elinkser]

Maybe because I'm on a cheap phone with tiny screen but I don't see that.
From another post I see the word written as:

Spoiler:

did this work?

If that worked I will try that.

[NiLuJe]

Is the FW up to date?

[elinkser]

I just updated to Software Version 4.34.20097 (cd4e1bb2c2, 9/15/22).
By the way, thanks for replying!I am a big fan of KOReader and install it everywhere including Pinephone!
Question though: Is einkvnc actually working on your Clara HD?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by elinkser

Maybe because I'm on a cheap phone with tiny screen but I don't see that.
From another post I see the word written as:

Spoiler:

did this work?

If that worked I will try that.

It worked. It makes it much easier when scrolling through messages.

[NiLuJe]

Then I'm out of idea .

(Also, I don't have a Clara, and have never tried this. That libgcc_s just jumped at me and seemed like a good candidate for SPF ;p).