Kobo Start Menu

[Mellobob]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

The default setting is for it to alternate starting in the Kobo home page and in the Start Menu. If that is it, you should use the slide switch to power off and then start it back up. Once you have the Start Menu up you can go: Scripts>Activate>"set runmenu settings.msh" and set it as you want.

Luck;
Ken

First thing the unit did was to update. So, yes, I'm using 3.8.0 firmware.

I'm getting more confused Oh ... figured it out. Seems I never installed the KoboRoot.tgz file. Okay, now it works ... now I'm on to figuring out why Koreader is pretty much non-functional. More reading

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Mellobob

First thing the unit did was to update. So, yes, I'm using 3.8.0 firmware.

I'm getting more confused Oh ... figured it out. Seems I never installed the KoboRoot.tgz file. Okay, now it works ... now I'm on to figuring out why Koreader is pretty much non-functional. More reading

Maybe try using an older version of Koreader. From the Koreader thread it seems the more recent builds have some problems.

[tigran]

I would like to thank the author for the excellent software --- now I don't need to boot into nickel at all!

However, as an "icing on the cake" it would be very useful if StartMenu could also sleep properly. Granted, it shuts down and boots up so quickly that it makes sleep (suspend) almost superfluous, but... "almost" is the keyword here.

No, I am not blind and I can see "sleep" option on the menu, of course. But it appears useless as if I press it and then close magnetic cover then it wakes up instead of continuing to sleep. Also, if I do NOT press it and just close the cover then it remains awake instead of going to sleep.

So, at present, the only way to pause using StartMenu is to enter either Koreader or CoolReader and then close magnetic cover. These two programs seem to do suspend on closing and wake up on opening the cover correctly.

Now, the author might ask: how do you know that it doesn't sleep with the cover on, since you can't see or touch the screen while it is closed? Well, it is easy to ascertain by opening the cover very quickly while looking at the appropriate side of the screen (the one where the "sleep" button is located). If the device was asleep then there would be dark ribbon (sign of "button depressed") over the "sleep" option, disappearing after half a second or so. Just like the screensaver picture in CoolReader/Koreader disappears but leaving the user enough time to see that the device was actually sleeping.

Now, if I am wrong (secretly, I really hope I am and the author will tell me this) and the device DOES actually sleep when the cover is on, then the program MUST not be so quick as to make it impossible to discern that it was asleep, i.e. it should introduce a slight (say, half a second) delay before getting rid of the black ribbon over "sleep" option, to simulate the slow disappearance of a fullscreen screensaver picture.

[WS64]

Originally Posted by tigran

Also, if I do NOT press it and just close the cover then it remains awake instead of going to sleep.

Happened to me yesterday.
Now I know that about 9 hours light at 55% will put the power down from 100% to 75%.

[tigran]

Also, I should add that the setting (in Nickel/Settings/Sleep etc) which controls the use of magnetic cover is honoured only within Nickel, i.e. it is ignored in both Koreader and CoolReader. Even if I disable magnetic cover in Nickel and close the cover while in CoolReader or Koreader, the device is suspended.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by tigran

Now, if I am wrong (secretly, I really hope I am and the author will tell me this) and the device DOES actually sleep when the cover is on, then the program MUST not be so quick as to make it impossible to discern that it was asleep, i.e. it should introduce a slight (say, half a second) delay before getting rid of the black ribbon over "sleep" option, to simulate the slow disappearance of a fullscreen screensaver picture.

Up to now, I did not even think of the sleep cover. The reason, I guess, is because I do not have one.

[tigran]

Of the two ways to use magnetic/sleep cover with Kobo Start Menu (namely: CoolReader vs Koreader) I would recommend CoolReader, because Koreader often crashes on suspend (happened with two different djvu files for me) and so it would return back to main menu of Kobo Start Menu and remain awake, but you will only discover it when you next open the cover and there is a good chance that you will be in some other menu because the touchscreen would interpret the pressure on the edges of the cover as touches. Ok, it is extremely unlikely that you will end up in the terminal with the command "rm -rf /" typed and followed by ENTER, but still it is dangerous. (btw, I noticed that / is mounted rw on Kobo --- amazing, how it didn't get corrupted yet ...)

But CoolReader so far never crashed for me on suspend, so when I pause reading with Koreader I just touch Home button and return to Kobo Start Menu and then start CoolReader and close the cover. This is quite stable and takes only a couple of seconds.

The alternative is to Power Down and then boot up the device again, but this takes slightly longer.

[tshering]

I will try to look into the sleep cover problem when I come back from my current trip, that means roughly in one month.
If somebody knows already how to disable/enable the sleep cover and could provide information on it that would be helpful.

[jlynton]

I have tried KSM on the H2O, but it shows the menu upside-down, and it is completely unresposive to touch (I tried touching all over the screen, not just on the menu entries). It was also not possible to turn off using the power button, reset was the only way.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by jlynton

I have tried KSM on the H2O, but it shows the menu upside-down, and it is completely unresposive to touch (I tried touching all over the screen, not just on the menu entries). It was also not possible to turn off using the power button, reset was the only way.

The upside-down menu reminds me on the problem we had with the Aura HD. Therefore, we could try to do the same trick we did then. If you or somebody else would like to test it, I describe it. In my current situation (I am at a foreign country and can use only a borrowed and extremly weak wifi connection), I cannot upload the necessary packages. So you would have to make them yourself.

I would start with KBStartMenu_04. If you unpack the content there is the file etc\init.d\rcS. There you find the block

if [ "$PRODUCT" == "dragon" ]; then
    sh $kbmenudir/kobomenu.sh -autoselectafter=0
fi

Modify it to

if [ "$PRODUCT" == "dahlia" ]; then
    sh $kbmenudir/kobomenu.sh -autoselectafter=0
fi

Then compress the content again to KoboRoot.tgz and install it.

If it works the same way as with the Aura HD, this should solve the upside-down problem. I don't know about the responsiveness. If we are lucky you might have missed the exact touch positions (180 degrees turned), when you tried it the first time.

[jlynton]

Originally Posted by tshering

If it works the same way as with the Aura HD, this should solve the upside-down problem. I don't know about the responsiveness. If we are lucky you might have missed the exact touch positions (180 degrees turned), when you tried it the first time.

Thanks for taking the trouble to respond while away.

I followed your suggestion, but the result was the same, upside-down, and no response.

[Frenzie]

Originally Posted by tshering

Then compress the content again to KoboRoot.tgz and install it.

Using the minimal Vi-clone that comes with busybox seems easier.

My H2O is on firmware 3.7. That change does solve the upside down problem, but it still doesn't respond to any touches.

Is any of this helpful?

# env
USER=root
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/qte/lib:lib:
HOME=/
QTDIR=/qte
BOOTLOADER=1.1.4 (build Aug 01)
PS1=[\u@\h \W]\$ 
KERNEL=2.6.18 (build Aug 01)
QWS_KEYBOARD=EbrKeyboard:/dev/button
LOGNAME=root
TERM=vt102
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
SHELL=/bin/sh
QWS_DISPLAY=EINK
PWD=/
QWS_MOUSE_PROTO=TPanel:/dev/ts0

[jlynton]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

Using the minimal Vi-clone that comes with busybox seems easier.

My H2O is on firmware 3.7. That change does solve the upside down problem, but it still doesn't respond to any touches.

Is any of this helpful?

# env
USER=root
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/qte/lib:lib:
HOME=/
QTDIR=/qte
BOOTLOADER=1.1.4 (build Aug 01)
PS1=[\u@\h \W]\$ 
KERNEL=2.6.18 (build Aug 01)
QWS_KEYBOARD=EbrKeyboard:/dev/button
LOGNAME=root
TERM=vt102
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
SHELL=/bin/sh
QWS_DISPLAY=EINK
PWD=/
QWS_MOUSE_PROTO=TPanel:/dev/ts0

I should add that my H2O is on firmware 3.8

[tshering]

@Frenzie

Thank you for the env values, they are exactly the same as on my touch.

How did you call env without first doing some changes via KoboRoot.tgz?

[tshering]

From the reports I take it that there is no response to touch input at all. Is this correct? Or do at least the menu entries get (sometimes) highlighted?

I am asking because, this case reminds me somehow on a problem we had earlier, cf. the posts starting with #79.