Font, ScreenSaver & USBNetwork Hacks for Kindle 2.x, 3.x & 4.x

[rumblpak]

@NiLuJe
If I'm doing this wrong, which at this point I'm willing to accept that I am, what am I doing wrong?
K3_WIFI="true"
K3_WIFI_SSHD_ONLY="false"

since I have it disabled by default I run ;debugOn then ~usbNetwork
when I do that I can access via usb but wifi does not work. Is there something else that I have to do?

[NiLuJe]

@rumblpak:

Where were you editing the K3_WIFI var? In usbnet/etc/config or directly in the usbnet/bin/usbnetwork script?

(Because the vars in bin/usbnetwork are the defaults, only used as a fallback if for whatever reason the config file is missing).

UPDATE: And, if you are properly editing the etc/config config file, it absolutely *has* to stay with UNIX line endings, and without any file extension.

cat /mnt/us/usbnet/etc/config while connected over USB to check.

[rumblpak]

I editted it in the /mnt/us/usbnet/etc/config file in windows but the line endings are there when I use vi via ssh over usb. and by line endings i mean ^M at the end of the lines.

I can try manually editting the usbnetwork script but I haven't done that yet.

[edit]
deleted the config file and remade it via vi and it works now. I'm thinking those pesky ^M characters at the end of the lines were messing with it but manually creating it seemed to fix it.

[edit2]
spoke too soon, ssh over wifi working, disabling the usb connection however, isn't. Also, now that I got it on, it doesn't want to turn off (restarting did the trick though)

[Tvangeste]

@NiLuJe

Awesome work on the hacks, much, much appreciated! Now that I can use SSH over Wi-Fi, which is what I was long wanted, I have a small issue that you might know the answer for.

Essentially, when I copy ebooks to the Kindle via SSH over Wi-Fi, the device doesn't notice the changes. So I have to plug the Kindle via USB and disconnect. Which defies the whole idea of syncing the books without USB....

Is there any other simpler way to "refresh" files on Kindle so that new books are found by the Kindle software?

Turning the Kindle on and off doesn't help.

[911jason]

A system restart should. (Home>Menu>Settings>Menu>Restart)

[Tvangeste]

Originally Posted by 911jason

A system restart should. (Home>Menu>Settings>Menu>Restart)

Well, yeah. But this is *WAY* too heavyweight for the purpose. All I want is for Kindle to refresh its list of books. Restarting after every book upload is a major, major overkill.

Obviously, Kindle's software can refresh without restart and without USB cycle. It does that every time a new book arrives via Whispernet, it seems.

[911jason]

Yeah, I guess if you were adding files often, that could be a problem...

I only add downloaded books once a month or so, if even that. I have several hundred already on my Kindle and of course the books that I order from Amazon transfer via 3G. So I didn't consider the 2 minutes or so for a restart as a big deal.

[nubreader]

hi NiLuJe i tried using each font pack from the following link.

http://charles-reace.com/Kindle_Hacks/fonts/

after the auto reboot
i get blank pages. just my taskbar and i only get menu when i pressed it.
in short, it doesn't display anything on my front page.

can u help?


ps. could it be, on the initial install, i swapped the fonts b4 i did the install rather than after the install like
what is described in the wiki. anycase, i am going to try uninstall the font hack. do a hard rest. and redo your font hack with the above helvetica hack..

u think its ok ?

[NiLuJe]

@rumblpak: Yep, ^M is a CR. That's why it didn't work, non UNIX line endings. And, yeah, switching ssh only while in usbnet mode probably doesn't work either ^^. Best way to edit the config file is in usbms mode, with a proper text editor that doesn't mangle line endings type .

@Tvangeste: You already got your answer, but for everyone else: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=11

@nubreader: A simple full restart *should* help. Apparently, the K3 framework is way more finicky regarding font files access, and fuse sometimes does weird stuff on top of that...

[gargoyle67]

Bit of a newbish question I know I've just installed the jailbreak plus screen saver hack And I've just installed the font hack, But can't see any difference How do I change my fonts to the custom ones ? Do I go into the Aa menu and change typeface or something else ? Does the font hack work by being the same name as the default fonts and you simply overwrite them with custom fonts named the same as the default fonts ?
Thanks

[Tvangeste]

@NiLuJe

Thanks for the response. Amazing how you manage to create those hacks and *also* to support all the users!

One more question, if you don't mind. I'm using the latest usbNetworks hack, and enable wi-fi and sshd-only over wi-fi. All good and well. *BUT*, after every reboot I have to manually enter ;debugOn and ~usbNetworks, which is a bit inconvenient. I tried to rename DISABLE_auto to auto, but that doesn't change a thing: no access until I do the ~usbNetworks. Is that how it is supposed to work or is there a bug in the latest usbNetwork hack?

[NiLuJe]

@gargoyle67: The hack switches the fonts by default, if you don't see anything new after a full restart, something went wrong.

@Tvangeste: AFAICT, the auto feature should still work. (As usual, make sure it's properly named "auto", without any extension). Make sure you got the latest version, the fw 3.x usbnetd issue *might* have prevented that to work at boot, too. It's started very early at boot (rcS), so you'll have to do a real full restart. If it's still not working, PM me your system logs .

Speaking of latest version...

Bump USBNetwork to v0.20.N

* Enable htop's pretty colors by default :}.
* Make it clear that the config file must stay with UNIX line endings.

NOTE: You might need a proper terminal emulator for the colors to work. Can't vouch for Windows terminal emulators, but any decent Linux term, PuTTY, and the OS X Terminal should do fine. Here's a snapshot of how it's supposed to look like (and the keyboard input should work too).

Originally Posted by nubreader

hi NiLuJe i tried using each font pack from the following link.

http://charles-reace.com/Kindle_Hacks/fonts/

after the auto reboot
i get blank pages. just my taskbar and i only get menu when i pressed it.
in short, it doesn't display anything on my front page.

can u help?


ps. could it be, on the initial install, i swapped the fonts b4 i did the install rather than after the install like
what is described in the wiki. anycase, i am going to try uninstall the font hack. do a hard rest. and redo your font hack with the above helvetica hack..

u think its ok ?

I could get the fonts replaced and working for serif but I never could get the same fonts to work for sans serif. I too got the blank pages and weird reactions. Even when I got the substituted serif fonts to work they looked terrible. The hack worked wonderfully on my DXG but I gave up on it on my K3. The Kindle fonts look better than any substituted fonts I tried. I uninstalled the fonts hack on the K3.

[nubreader]

@NiLuJe by full restart u mean a hard restart yah?

@jswinden meaning u never been able to get any fonts SETS working fully for the K3? how about the full restarts NiLuJe talked about?

[NiLuJe]

@nubreader: Yeah, a restart, soft or hard, whatever you can do .

UPDATE: Infos/Files added to first post.

But, okay, because this is starting to bug me, to everyone having difficulty with the grubby hands of the fw 3.x framework that doesn't want to let the font files go (and add fuse doing its best not to break anything on top of that, and, bingo, weirdness ensue!), let's try this:

This is the Fontin set, but as an update file. That should ensure that:

1/ The framework is down when we switch the files
2/ The hack is down when we switch the files

That *should* eliminate the weird behaviour that some of you have seen... If it does help, I'll repackage some of the fonts like that, and add another post on how to package fonts yourself... And on the plus side, you shouldn't need to do any kind of restart after that, because the update process will have taken care of it .

But, still, without resorting to this, a full restart *should* fix the issue...

(And, FYI, I never exactly encountered this myself... I did encounter weird framework+fuse behaviour, but that was before the fonts hack (ie. double/ghost book entries because I moved a book file at the wrong time, the framework failing to open the *default* fonts when switching font families in the [Aa] menu...) Fun times!).

Also, to those of you having issues switching fonts, what fw version are you using? 3.0? 3.0.1? 3.0.2?