A Strange Animated screensaver like thing appeared on kindle

[anunay]

Today when i was SSHing on my Kindle KT2 a strange thing appeared.
Kindle Kual home was on and then suddenly some kind of screensaver appered which was a kind of two bubble changing shape (Like a amoeba).
As soon as i touched the screen my screen changed to kual back.
Now i am still sitting but the screensaver has not repeated. I think the time at that time was 22:30 IST at that time on FW 5.8.7.0.1.

I just want to know how it happened and why it happened.

[JSWolf]

Should have gotten a video of this so we could have seen.

[anunay]

I Just got a new animation and i have also got a video this time.

Thing to Notice This screensaver appeared after i pressed the power button and the static screensaver disappered.

It goes on touching screen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ThLWZx74I

[anunay]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Should have gotten a video of this so we could have seen.

Got Another https://youtu.be/1B_ERVtIV9k

[knc1]

Originally Posted by anunay

Got Another https://youtu.be/1B_ERVtIV9k

Obvious hardware failure, there is no INTENDED reason why touching the lower case margin would change anything.

Return it to Amazon.

[anunay]

Originally Posted by knc1

Obvious hardware failure, there is no INTENDED reason why touching the lower case margin would change anything.

Return it to Amazon.

Sorry if you thought that i was touching the lower case margin (where Kindle is written). In reality I was clicking on The power button on the bottom (which is really uneasy with one hand)

And I don't think a Hardware failure would do that.
You Know That Those screensaver do change.

Maybe it is an feature (which is Still Experimental) which I enabled by Mistake while I was trying to run Debian and used prevent screensaver in wrong way

[knc1]

Originally Posted by anunay

- - - -
Maybe it is an feature (which is Still Experimental) which I enabled by Mistake while I was trying to run Debian and used prevent screensaver in wrong way

Now that is significant information which you failed to include in your post.

The last video is a broken copy of Tetris (or similar) running.
Kill the process.

Next time - why not start out with the key information?

[badgoodDeb]

Go easy on him, knc1. Until one finds a solution, it's never easy to know which piece of information *IS* the "key information"!

[coplate]

Originally Posted by anunay

Got Another https://youtu.be/1B_ERVtIV9k

That one looks like this screen saver:

https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/
SlideScreen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKNE4xCdlno

[knc1]

Originally Posted by coplate

That one looks like this screen saver:

https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/
SlideScreen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKNE4xCdlno

Now it is clear that someone(s) have been mislead by the Amazon usage of the phrase: "screen saver".
They are not.

e-ink is meta-stable, shut it down completely and it will show what was last written until written again (even years later).
I.E: They do not need to be refreshed.

What Amazon calls a "screen saver" is a static image that can be shown while the device 'sleeps'.
Mostly, a Kindle 'sleeps', that is how they get the advertised long battery run times - because mostly it isn't running.

Don't you love substituting marketing lingo for technical description?

That is: those static images are "battery savers" - they leave behind something to look at while the device is not running.
E-Ink can produce latent images, but it is not damaging, just cycle the screen black->white->black->etc a few times.
(The system does this for you, based on various environmental factors.)

= = = =

Now that we all know what the images that are called "screen savers" both by Amazon and by this site really are ("battery savers");
We can take a look at what happens when you add a (real) 'screen saver' for a non-metastable device (one that requires refresh).

Since the movement that prevents the non-metastable device from producing a latent (burned in) image is computed - -
You have just tossed away the battery run time of the Kindle, since to support the movement, the cpu (and other hardware) has to run.

Then your Kindle is back in the land of under powered devices -
It only has a battery capacity for from 2 hours to 4 hours of run-time.
Normally stretched out over a month of calendar time, but here burned away making the "screen saver" have (un-needed) motion.

= = = =

As one more want-to-be C.S. engineer shoots self in foot . . .
Once upon a time, such non-planning was a requirement of applying for a job with Lab126.

[coplate]

Originally Posted by knc1

Now it is clear that someone(s) have been mislead by the Amazon usage of the phrase: "screen saver".
They are not.

e-ink is meta-stable, shut it down completely and it will show what was last written until written again (even years later).
I.E: They do not need to be refreshed.

What Amazon calls a "screen saver" is a static image that can be shown while the device 'sleeps'.
Mostly, a Kindle 'sleeps', that is how they get the advertised long battery run times - because mostly it isn't running.

Don't you love substituting marketing lingo for technical description?

That is: those static images are "battery savers" - they leave behind something to look at while the device is not running.
E-Ink can produce latent images, but it is not damaging, just cycle the screen black->white->black->etc a few times.
(The system does this for you, based on various environmental factors.)

= = = =

Now that we all know what the images that are called "screen savers" both by Amazon and by this site really are ("battery savers");
We can take a look at what happens when you add a (real) 'screen saver' for a non-metastable device (one that requires refresh).

Since the movement that prevents the non-metastable device from producing a latent (burned in) image is computed - -
You have just tossed away the battery run time of the Kindle, since to support the movement, the cpu (and other hardware) has to run.

Then your Kindle is back in the land of under powered devices -
It only has a battery capacity for from 2 hours to 4 hours of run-time.
Normally stretched out over a month of calendar time, but here burned away making the "screen saver" have (un-needed) motion.

= = = =

As one more want-to-be C.S. engineer shoots self in foot . . .
Once upon a time, such non-planning was a requirement of applying for a job with Lab126.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say?

If you look at his second video, it clearly turns the screen into a grid, and then they slide around like what I linked.

Somehow he has gotten some kind of actual X screensaver running - and it looks awful because it's running on an e-ink display.

I know I have run all sorts of X applications on mine, so accidentally getting a real screensaver somehow seems possible.


Edit: re-read it, yeah, it looks like you are saying "now we see what happens when a real linux screensaver gets installed", and I'm with you on that.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by coplate

Edit: re-read it, yeah, it looks like you are saying "now we see what happens when a real linux screensaver gets installed", and I'm with you on that.

Yes and no -
We haven't heard yet what happens if he lets that thing run for a few hours.

But on the yes side -
the constant motion requires constant cpu involvement, an e-ink "sleep image" does not.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by knc1

Now it is clear that someone(s) have been mislead by the Amazon usage of the phrase: "screen saver".
They are not.

e-ink is meta-stable, shut it down completely and it will show what was last written until written again (even years later).
I.E: They do not need to be refreshed.

What Amazon calls a "screen saver" is a static image that can be shown while the device 'sleeps'.
Mostly, a Kindle 'sleeps', that is how they get the advertised long battery run times - because mostly it isn't running.

Don't you love substituting marketing lingo for technical description?

Finally, someone that says what it really is. I've been saying it's not a screen saver for some time and others were disagreeing. Well done!

[badgoodDeb]

Does Amazon really *call* it a screen saver? Or is it just other people, used to having a screen that needs to be saved (from burn in), who persist in calling it a screen saver? Instead of a "place holder" during battery save time.

I don't recall Amazon calling it that, but I haven't gone to look .....

PS Very good explanaton, knc!

[anunay]

I think that my previous posts were not clear enought so I am going to rewrite the whole thing again:-

1. I was trying to VNC into debian that I have chrooted on my kindle.
2. As everyone knows, Kindle goes into sleep after 10 minutes and disconnects from wifi, which caused my ssh connection to disconnect (I prefer SSHing over wifi).
3. So I made a simple application to stop screensaver (which is attached below) by using the syntax other programs use.(I clicked on DISABLE SCREENSAVER in that Program)
4. But after some time I noticed that my kindle went to sleep, So I clicked on the power button(located at the bottom) to unlock the device.
5. But instead of the screen two bubble like structures moving on the screen appeared, they disappeared as soon as I touched the screen. ( I named them as Screensaver because Windows uses animated Screensaver which go away on any hardware event)
6. I immediately reported this on Mobiread and continued my work.
7. After about 30 minutes (I had already disconnected SSH and left the kindle untouched (which means on the home screen)), I again pressed the power button and was presented with a new animation, in which Bugs were running down the screen ( they were leaving some trail as they were on a eink), I Captured a video and uploaded it.
8. This time I knew I have stumbled upon something new. SO I Waited about another 30 minutes(I thought it would be better to wait 30 rather than 10) and captured the whole event from pressing of power button to touching screen ( in which the 2nd animation occurred).
9. I Think that it is a experimental feature because Those animations cannot appear from between nowhere.
10. After that I force-restarted my Kindle (by pressing the power button for 40 sec), and i have not seen those animations since then.

************************************************** **********************
I completely agree with knc1 that this will consume a lot of battery (as CPU will continuously need to render images and update the eink) so screensaver is not the right word for it, but as I can't get another word so I called it a screensaver.