NickelMenu: An integrated launcher for Kobo eReaders

[Kreaded]

Originally Posted by abanks

Is there a way to make nickelmenu execute something without tapping a menu item?

Hello. Have you found a solution? I use NickelMenu only to run Koread, I set it up using this method. That is, after turning on the device and loading Nickel, I press the bottom-right button "Nickel Menu" and select "Koreader" (only one item in the menu). So I'm looking for a way to simplify the process, I found information that Koread autorun is a bad idea, but is it possible to at least remove the menu in "Nickel Menu"? Let Koread be launched immediately when I press "Nickel Menu"?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Kreaded

I found information that Koread autorun is a bad idea, but is it possible to at least remove the menu in "Nickel Menu"? Let Koread be launched immediately when I press "Nickel Menu"?

The source for NickelMenu is available on GitHub. Feel free to fork it.

As for the current release of NickelMenu, it is designed to run commands from the displayed menu so running a single command such as launching KOReader by tapping on the NickelMenu icon is not an option I would want to see.

[traxlerd]

Looking to stylise my contact details a little bit behind a 'Whose is this?' menu item. Is there a way to put line breaks in the dbg_msg?

menu_item :main     : Whose is this? :dbg_msg :Name mobile - Number email - email address

I'd like Name to be on the first line, with mobile on the second line, and email on the third.

Like this:
FName Name
mobile - Phone Number
email - email address

[Aleron Ives]

One way to do it would be to use a shell script. Change your NickelMenu entry to:

menu_item :main :Whose is this? :cmd_output :500 :/mnt/onboard/.adds/owner.sh

The contents of owner.sh would be:

echo FirstName LastName
echo Mobile: 800-555-1234
echo E-mail: me@address.com

[h_nara]

I have a Kobo Libra 2 with 4.35.20400 firmware that couldn't install NickelMenu. There is no extra menu item added to the main menu after Kobo rebooted itself. But when I connect it to my computer, I can see the .adds/nm/doc executable in my Kobo directory. Is there any log that I can get to debug the installation?

[DNSB]

The doc file is not an executable, it's a documentation file. Have you added a configuration file for NickelMenu which would be placed in the .adds/nm directory?

[h_nara]

I didn't add the config file before you response as I didn't see a new menu item at step 4 so I stopped there. Then I created a duplicate of 'doc' and renamed it to 'config' but that doesn't seem to help. I see in the main post mentioning posting syslog for debugging. I turned on developer options and saved the log but the log seems to be encrypted? How am I supposed to open the log?

[Aleron Ives]

NickelMenu doesn't do anything on its own. You need to create your own configuration file containing all the items you want to be in the menu.

https://github.com/pgaskin/NickelMen...v0.5.4/res/doc

You have to read the documentation, decide which menu items you want to go where, and then create your own configuration file to populate the menus.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by h_nara

I didn't add the config file before you response as I didn't see a new menu item at step 4 so I stopped there. Then I created a duplicate of 'doc' and renamed it to 'config' but that doesn't seem to help. I see in the main post mentioning posting syslog for debugging. I turned on developer options and saved the log but the log seems to be encrypted? How am I supposed to open the log?

It's not the file name, it's having content that is not commented out. I've attached a sample config file to this message and pasted it's content into the code box in this message.

#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
menu_item : main    : Dark Mode           : nickel_setting : toggle : dark_mode
menu_item : main    : Invert Screen       : nickel_setting : toggle : invert
menu_item : main    : Screenshots         : nickel_setting : toggle : screenshots
menu_item : main    : Import books        : nickel_misc    : rescan_books_full
menu_item : main    : USB Connect         : nickel_misc    : force_usb_connection
menu_item : main    : Reboot              : power          : reboot
menu_item : main    : Shutdown            : power          : shutdown
#
menu_item : main : Toggle screensaver : cmd_output : 500: quiet: test -e /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver_old
    chain_failure : skip : 3
        chain_success : cmd_spawn : quiet: mv /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver_old /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver
        chain_success : dbg_toast : Screensaver on
        chain_always : skip : -1
    chain_failure : cmd_spawn : quiet: mv /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver_old
    chain_success : dbg_toast : Screensaver off
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
menu_item : reader  : Dark Mode       : nickel_setting : toggle : dark_mode
menu_item : reader  : Invert Screen       : nickel_setting : toggle : invert
menu_item : reader  : Screenshots         : nickel_setting : toggle : screenshots
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
menu_item : browser : Invert Screen       : nickel_setting : toggle : invert
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
menu_item : library :Dark Mode          : nickel_setting : toggle :dark_mode
menu_item : library :Invert Screen      : nickel_setting : toggle :invert
menu_item : library :Screenshots        : nickel_setting : toggle :screenshots
menu_item : library : Import books      : nickel_misc    : rescan_books_full
menu_item : library : USB Connect       : nickel_misc    : force_usb_connection
menu_item : library : Reboot            : power          : reboot
menu_item : library : Shutdown          : power          : shutdown
#

[traxlerd]

Awesome thanks, I'll give that a try.

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

One way to do it would be to use a shell script. Change your NickelMenu entry to:

menu_item :main :Whose is this? :cmd_output :500 :/mnt/onboard/.adds/owner.sh

The contents of owner.sh would be:

echo FirstName LastName
echo Mobile: 800-555-1234
echo E-mail: me@address.com

[h_nara]

Thanks David. I copy-pasted your sample config into the config file under .adds/nm/ and loaded KoboRoot.tgz again and still, no new menu item appear in the main menu. What's funny is that the config ended up appearing in my book lists which I can open and see the content.

[Alan_S]

Originally Posted by h_nara

What's funny is that the config ended up appearing in my book lists which I can open and see the content.

To me, it looks like you have extension .txt in that file you now see as a text (ebook).

According to instructions in first post:

Connect you Kobo eReader to your computer again and create a new file (of any type) named KOBOeReader/.adds/nm/config, and follow the instructions in KOBOeReader/.adds/nm/doc to configure NickelMenu.

So, file should have no extension.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Alan_S

To me, it looks like you have extension .txt in that file you now see as a text (ebook).

According to instructions in first post:
So, file should have no extension.

The extension doesn't matter and what h_nara needs to do is to add a line to the Kobo eReader.conf file under the [FeatureSettings] header. NM will read any files in that directory and add any uncommented menu items to the menu.

[FeatureSettings]
ExcludeSyncFolders=\\.(?!kobo|adobe).*?

[allanahk]

Hi all, I've added this to my nickelmenu config file:

menu_item : main : Toggle screensaver : cmd_output : 500: quiet: test -e /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver_old
    chain_failure : skip : 3
        chain_success : cmd_spawn : quiet: mv /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver_old /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver
        chain_success : dbg_toast : Screensaver on
        chain_always : skip : -1
    chain_failure : cmd_spawn : quiet: mv /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver /mnt/onboard/.kobo/screensaver_old
    chain_success : dbg_toast : Screensaver off

And it works great, except when I connect to Calibre to import new books it then imports the screensavers from .kobo/screensaver_old into the library.

If I wanted to exclude only this particular folder from syncing to my kobo library using the ExcludeSyncFolders in the Kobo eReader.conf file, how exactly would I do so?

[isarl]

Originally Posted by allanahk

If I wanted to exclude only [.kobo/screensaver_old] from syncing to my kobo library using the ExcludeSyncFolders in the Kobo eReader.conf file, how exactly would I do so?

Cribbing from David's answer above, I would expect this to work, but am not currently able to test:

[FeatureSettings]
ExcludeSyncFolders=\\.kobo/screensaver_old

The only real magic here is using a backslash to escape the dot to make it a literal period and not any character, and a second backslash to escape the first one so it reaches the regex engine intact.