Broken screen Aura HD, want to use as headless lamp stack

[Thete]

Hi I have spent a while trying to get linux installed on my Kobo aura HD. I want to try to use it as a headless lowpower home LAMP server.
Reason being is that the screen is broken, so its next to useless as a reader.
I have had success USB telnet into it thanks to the hacks posted but the debian images I have tried I failed to get working:
Ive tried the external SD debian/android image and the Debian .ext3 hack but somehow no success.

So has anyone got suggestions of either how to get the wifi connected via telnet, install lamp into the kobo or get debootstrap working so i can install debian or something similar. Im pretty new to linux.

Or if anyone as a KOBO aura HD image that has debian/linux working without need to dealwith busybox?

Playing around with the guides and hack so far has been a great learning experience so far btw folks, thanks for all your efforts!

[frostschutz]

Does the touchscreen still work? Given telnet/ftp access you could fbgrab and view it on another PC and get wifi running the regular way.

[pazos]

for a headless option you should setup usbnet at boot (instead of usb storage), don't start nickel and run desired web stack. If you wish to open your device I can provide you working binaries for lighttpd & php and installation instructions.

You should be able to mount rootfs on SD card on your computer (it's ext2 so you'll need a linux pc/vm)

[Thete]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Does the touchscreen still work? Given telnet/ftp access you could fbgrab and view it on another PC and get wifi running the regular way.

Thanks, frostschutz. I'll give that a go this weekend and see if there is life.

[Thete]

Originally Posted by pazos

for a headless option you should setup usbnet at boot (instead of usb storage), don't start nickel and run desired web stack. If you wish to open your device I can provide you working binaries for lighttpd & php and installation instructions.

You should be able to mount rootfs on SD card on your computer (it's ext2 so you'll need a linux pc/vm)

Binaries and instructions would be great, i think mounting rootfs isnt a problem though

[pazos]

Originally Posted by Thete

Binaries and instructions would be great, i think mounting rootfs isnt a problem though

Great!

I need a copy of your /etc/init.d/rcS (this shouldn't change between firmwares, but anyways...)

This should prove that you are willing to open your device

[Thete]

Originally Posted by pazos

Great!

I need a copy of your /etc/init.d/rcS (this shouldn't change between firmwares, but anyways...)

This should prove that you are willing to open your device

I've mounted the internal SD card in a PC and taken a look at the partitions with Gparted.
I can see:
1. an unallocated 9.5MiB.
2. 256MiB ext4 partition labeled rootfs
3. 256MiB ext4 partition labeled recoveryfs
4. 3.18 GB fat32 partition labeled KOBOeReader

I assume rootfs is the partiton running busybox and is accessible via FTP when I telnet in from USB networking.
So, the recoveryfs partition, is that the one you want me to pull the file from?

Both ext4 partitions have /etc/init.d/rcS file.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by pazos

I need a copy of your /etc/init.d/rcS (this shouldn't change between firmwares, but anyways...)

Just a warning, the rcS can change between firmware versions. It doesn't change with every version, but it has changed often enough that you need to check.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Thete

I've mounted the internal SD card in a PC and taken a look at the partitions with Gparted.
I can see:
1. an unallocated 9.5MiB.
2. 256MiB ext4 partition labeled rootfs
3. 256MiB ext4 partition labeled recoveryfs
4. 3.18 GB fat32 partition labeled KOBOeReader

I assume rootfs is the partiton running busybox and is accessible via FTP when I telnet in from USB networking.
So, the recoveryfs partition, is that the one you want me to pull the file from?

Both ext4 partitions have /etc/init.d/rcS file.

The rootfs partition is what is used in normal operation. The recoveryfs is used when you do a factory reset. The version wanted will be from the rootfs.

[Thete]

the rootsf version:

#!/bin/sh


PRODUCT=`/bin/kobo_config.sh`;
[ $PRODUCT != trilogy ] && PREFIX=$PRODUCT-

mount -o remount,noatime,nodiratime /dev/mmcblk0p1 /

PLATFORM=freescale
if [ `dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=512 skip=1024 count=1 | grep -c "HW CONFIG"` == 1 ]; then
	PLATFORM=ntx508
fi

if [ $PLATFORM == freescale ]; then
	if [ ! -s /lib/firmware/imx/epdc_E60_V220.fw ]; then
		mkdir -p /lib/firmware/imx
		dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=512K skip=10 count=1 | zcat > /lib/firmware/imx/epdc_E60_V220.fw
		sync
	fi
fi

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/lib:
runlevel=S
prevlevel=N
umask 022
export PATH runlevel prevlevel

for i in /proc /dev /root /tmp /sys /mnt/sd /mnt/onboard /mnt/user /var/lib /var/log /var/run /lib/modules/`uname -r`; do
	[ ! -d $i ] && mkdir -p $i
done;

/bin/mount -t proc  none  /proc
/bin/mount -t tmpfs none -o size=16m /tmp
/bin/mount -t tmpfs none /dev
/bin/mount -t tmpfs none -o size=16k /var/lib
/bin/mount -t tmpfs none -o size=16k /var/log
/bin/mount -t tmpfs none -o size=128k /var/run
/bin/mount -t sysfs none -o size=500k /sys

for i in /var/run/dbus /var/lib/dbus; do
	mkdir -p $i
done

mkfifo /tmp/nickel-hardware-status
rm -rf /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

echo -e '\000\000\000\000' > /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug
/sbin/udevd -d
/sbin/udevadm control --env=STARTUP=1
/sbin/udevadm trigger
/sbin/udevadm settle --timeout=2
/sbin/udevadm control --env=STARTUP=

( usleep 400000; /etc/init.d/on-animator.sh ) &

dosfsck -a -w /dev/mmcblk0p3
mount -t vfat -o iocharset=utf8 /dev/mmcblk0p3 /mnt/onboard
rm -rf /mnt/onboard/fsck*
rm -rf /mnt/onboard/FSCK*
rm -rf /usr/local/Kobo/db.tgz

echo -n 8192 > /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes
echo -n 67108864 > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

if [ ! -e /mnt/onboard/.kobo ]; then
	mkdir -p /mnt/onboard/.kobo
	tar zxf /usr/local/Kobo/db.tgz -C /mnt/onboard
	sync
	echo "Decompressed database"
fi

if [ -e /mnt/onboard/.kobo/Kobo.tgz ]; then
	zcat /mnt/onboard/.kobo/Kobo.tgz > /dev/null && tar zxf /mnt/onboard/.kobo/Kobo.tgz -C /usr/local/Kobo/
	rm /mnt/onboard/.kobo/Kobo.tgz
	echo "Done upgrading..."
fi
                               
if [ -e /mnt/onboard/.kobo/KoboRoot.tgz ]; then
	killall on-animator.sh
	zcat /etc/images/$PREFIX\ghostbuster.raw.gz | /usr/local/Kobo/pickel showpic
	/etc/init.d/update-animator.sh &
	zcat /mnt/onboard/.kobo/KoboRoot.tgz > /dev/null && tar zxf /mnt/onboard/.kobo/KoboRoot.tgz -C /
	if [ -e /mnt/onboard/.kobo/upgrade ]; then
		/etc/init.d/upgrade-wifi.sh
		rm -rf /mnt/onboard/.kobo/upgrade
	fi
	rm /mnt/onboard/.kobo/KoboRoot.tgz
	killall update-animator.sh
	echo "Done upgrading..."
	zcat /etc/images/$PREFIX\ghostbuster.raw.gz | /usr/local/Kobo/pickel showpic
	zcat /etc/images/$PREFIX\reboot.raw.gz | /usr/local/Kobo/pickel showpic
	sync
	reboot
fi

(
	/usr/local/Kobo/pickel disable.rtc.alarm

	if [ ! -e /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf ]; then
		cp /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.template /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
	fi

	echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/mxc_dvfs_core.0/enable

	/sbin/hwclock -s -u
) &

INTERFACE=wlan0
WIFI_MODULE=ar6000
if [ $PLATFORM == ntx508 ]; then
	INTERFACE=eth0
	WIFI_MODULE=dhd
fi

export INTERFACE
export WIFI_MODULE

export QWS_MOUSE_PROTO="tslib_nocal:/dev/input/event1"
export QWS_KEYBOARD=imx508kbd:/dev/input/event0
export QWS_DISPLAY=Transformed:imx508:Rot90
export NICKEL_HOME=/mnt/onboard/.kobo
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/Kobo
export WIFI_MODULE_PATH=/drivers/$PLATFORM/wifi/$WIFI_MODULE.ko
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export UBOOT_MMC=/etc/u-boot/$PLATFORM/u-boot.mmc
export UBOOT_RECOVERY=/etc/u-boot/$PLATFORM/u-boot.recovery

/bin/dbus-uuidgen > /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
/bin/dbus-daemon --system &
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=`/bin/dbus-daemon --session --print-address --fork`

/usr/local/Kobo/hindenburg &
/mnt/onboard/run.sh &
mkdir -p /dev/pts
mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
/usr/local/Kobo/nickel -qws &

(
	if [ -e /dev/mmcblk1p1 ]; then
		ACTION=add DEVNAME=/dev/mmcblk1p1 /usr/local/Kobo/udev/sd
	fi
) &

/bin/busybox insmod /drivers/ntx508/usb/gadget/arcotg_udc.ko
/bin/busybox insmod /drivers/ntx508/usb/gadget/g_ether.ko

[Thete]

the recoveryfs file:

#!/bin/sh

PRODUCT=`/bin/kobo_config.sh`;
[ $PRODUCT != trilogy ] && PREFIX=$PRODUCT-

PLATFORM=freescale
if [ `dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=512 skip=1024 count=1 | grep -c "HW CONFIG"` == 1 ]; then
	PLATFORM=ntx508
fi

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/lib:
runlevel=S
prevlevel=N
umask 022
export PATH runlevel prevlevel

for i in /proc /dev /root /tmp /sys /mnt/root /mnt/sd /mnt/onboard /mnt/user /var/lib /var/log /var/run /lib/modules/`uname -r`; do
	[ ! -d $i ] && mkdir -p $i
done;

/bin/mount -t proc  none  /proc
/bin/mount -t tmpfs none /dev
/bin/mount -t sysfs none -o size=500k /sys

echo -e '\000\000\000\000' > /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug
/sbin/udevd -d
/sbin/udevadm control --env=STARTUP=1
/sbin/udevadm trigger
/sbin/udevadm settle --timeout=2
/sbin/udevadm control --env=STARTUP=

( usleep 400000; /etc/init.d/on-animator.sh ) &

echo ch 3 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo cur 1 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo bp 5 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo dc 5 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo ch 4 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo cur 1 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo bp 5 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo dc 5 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo ch 5 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo cur 1 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo dc 5 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo bp 5 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit

echo -n 8192 > /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes

UBOOT=/upgrade/$PLATFORM/u-boot.bin
KERNEL=/upgrade/$PLATFORM/uImage
if [ $PLATFORM == ntx508 ]; then
        PCB=`ntx_hwconfig -s -p /dev/mmcblk0 PCB`
        RAM=`ntx_hwconfig -s -p /dev/mmcblk0 RAMType`
	RAM_SIZE=`ntx_hwconfig -s -p /dev/mmcblk0 RamSize`
	RAM_SIZE=`echo $RAM_SIZE | awk '{print $RAM_SIZE-MB}'`
        NEW_UBOOT=/upgrade/$PLATFORM/u-boot_mddr_$RAM_SIZE-$PCB-$RAM.bin
	[ -e $NEW_UBOOT ] && UBOOT=$NEW_UBOOT

        NEW_KERNEL=/upgrade/$PLATFORM/uImage-$PCB
        [ -e $NEW_KERNEL ] && KERNEL=$NEW_KERNEL
fi

mount /dev/mmcblk0p3 /mnt/user
echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches; sleep 2
[ -e /mnt/user/.kobo/KoboRecovery.tgz ] && ( zcat /mnt/user/.kobo/KoboRecovery.tgz > /dev/null && tar zvxf /mnt/user/.kobo/KoboRecovery.tgz -C /upgrade && rm -rf /mnt/user/.kobo/KoboRecovery.tgz )
umount /mnt/user && sync && sync

/etc/init.d/upgrade-generic.sh $UBOOT TOTALLY_NOT_USED $KERNEL mmcblk0

echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches; sleep 2
mkfs.ext4 -L rootfs -m 0 /dev/mmcblk0p1 && sync && sync
mkfs.vfat -n KOBOeReader /dev/mmcblk0p3 && sync && sync

mount -o norelatime,noatime,nodiratime /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/root
echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches; sleep 2
( zcat /upgrade/fs.tgz > /dev/null && tar zvxf /upgrade/fs.tgz -C /mnt/root) || reboot
umount /mnt/root && sync && sync

mount /dev/mmcblk0p3 /mnt/user
echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches; sleep 2
( zcat /upgrade/db.tgz > /dev/null && tar zvxf /upgrade/db.tgz -C /mnt/user) || reboot
umount /mnt/user && sync && sync

killall on-animator.sh

/usr/local/Kobo/pickel disable.rtc.alarm
zcat /etc/images/$PREFIX\ghostbuster.raw.gz | /usr/local/Kobo/pickel showpic
zcat /etc/images/$PREFIX\ghostbuster.raw.gz | /usr/local/Kobo/pickel showpic
sleep 1
zcat /etc/images/$PREFIX\my_first_time.raw.gz | /usr/local/Kobo/pickel showpic

dd if=/etc/u-boot/$PLATFORM/u-boot.mmc of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=128K seek=6 count=1 && sync && sync

echo ch 3 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo cur 0 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo ch 4 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo cur 0 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo ch 5 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit
echo cur 0 > /sys/devices/platform/pmic_light.1/lit

sleep 1

poweroff

[pazos]

Great!!!!

I'm moving from my house these days, so my dev machine is off right now. However you should consider two things before starting:

1: if you want a -true- headless server maybe you don't need kobo software at all and you can skip the (user) fat32 partition - and maybe the recovery partition - and use ext2 instead (expand it to the size of your sdcard)

2: if you want a -true- server you'll need iptables support (and maybe other things like nfs/smb sharings and so on). For this we need to rebuild the kernel.

1 is easy to achieve using gparted, but for skipping the recovery partition we need to tinker with u-boot. I downloaded sources and look the code for mx50_rdp_mddr_512.h - board config for kobo aura hd (glo and mini seems the same but with other dram initialization (see mx50_rdp_mddr_256.h). All seems pretty standard. People at forum.doozan.com were able to built u-boot for a variety of plug devices. Their bootcmd has a logic that can be reused for kobos:

1. try to load /linux from external source (first partition/ext2)
2. if load then run linux with root pointing to external source
3. else load linux from internal source (unpartitioned 10MB in internal sdcard, offset 1MB, max size 3MB) with root poiting to internal source

Next weekend I'll have serial terminal access to my testing aura hd and I'll check some ideas


2 is easy. We can build kobo kernel from source with any features we want <3MB. source -> https://github.com/pazos/linux-2.6.35.3-kobo


Of course all of this is optional. I run lighttpd & php-cgi on my reader without any other modifications, but keep in mind I do this because I rely on kobo software. Any kobo working without a screen should be a good target for buildroot or, at least, some improvements above the stock firmware.

[Thete]

Originally Posted by pazos

Great!!!!
Loads if awesome advice and guidance

Thanks for taking the time to set this all out Pazos! Very impressed. I look forward to giving this a go on the weekend. Good luck with the move.

[pazos]

Hi!

I made a lot of progress last week!

I'm finishing the rootfs. Right now I have a working uboot and a working kernel. You just need to flash those in your (internal) SD Card. This won't change the boot progress, but you should be able to boot from external SD Card if you hold the light button while booting.

I am trying to make this for both headless & normal operation. So the external SD card must have two partitions (the first fat32, the second: ext2). This is needed if we want to boot from stock OS and avoid nickel trying to reformat our external sdcard.

When I have the rootfs finished I will post some instructions here. You should check if everything worked fine for you. In that case you can flash the rootfs to the internal SD card or modify uboot environment to point to the external SD without pressing a button.

Give me a few days

[Thete]

Originally Posted by pazos

Hi!

I made a lot of progress last week!

I'm finishing the rootfs. Right now I have a working uboot and a working kernel. You just need to flash those in your (internal) SD Card. This won't change the boot progress, but you should be able to boot from external SD Card if you hold the light button while booting.

I am trying to make this for both headless & normal operation. So the external SD card must have two partitions (the first fat32, the second: ext2). This is needed if we want to boot from stock OS and avoid nickel trying to reformat our external sdcard.

When I have the rootfs finished I will post some instructions here. You should check if everything worked fine for you. In that case you can flash the rootfs to the internal SD card or modify uboot environment to point to the external SD without pressing a button.

Give me a few days

Thats very encouraging Pazos, though Im hitting the limits of my current understanding, i havent got a handle on kernels and the making of. I may need to do some homework .
All I can contibute at this stage is good luck and hopefully this will breath new life into some broken screen devices.