Koreader running on Kobos (all of them, hopefully!)

[jshzh]

I know I am getting greedy and pushy but this cool feature may bring the experience of reading in a library to users of Koreader: opening multiple books at the same time and switching back and forth. This function is useful for people who need to consult other related books without closing the current one. It will be helpful also for comparing different editions of one book or the same book in different languages. It doesn't seem to drain system resources. This was realized in Pocketbook a while ago and doesn't slow down old Pocketbooks which are inferior in processor speed and ram size to the new models of Kobo and Kindle.

[hawhill]

Yep, technically, this is just bookmarks. Feasible.

[jshzh]

Originally Posted by hawhill

Yep, technically, this is just bookmarks. Feasible.

I am sure it is as easy as a breeze for people who know.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by jshzh

1) How can I run Koreader directly when I power on the device? I don't need to use the Kobo software. I wonder if there is a way to avoid seeing its interface.

Originally Posted by giorgio130

This one would be simple, but you would lose the ability of adding/ modifiying files on the reader. So I really don't recommend this right now, at least until USB functionality is not implemented.

I would like to mention that - apart from my "kobo menu" - it is now (FW 2.10.0) possible to build a simple menu, e.g., in order to select kobo reader or koreader at start up, without external tools. Look at the usage of "pickel wait-for-hit" in the rcS file.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by tshering

I would like to mention that - apart from my "kobo menu" - it is now (FW 2.10.0) possible to build a simple menu, e.g., in order to select kobo reader or koreader at start up, without external tools. Look at the usage of "pickel wait-for-hit" in the rcS file.

If you can also reliably turn on Sergey's Usbnet in the process, adding and removing files becomes quite easy.

Luck;
Ken

[louden]

Does anyone have any issues with battery drain and koreader in standby mode?

I have my aura hd in a magnetic case, and can tell the lights not on, but if I leave my kobo in standby with koreader, I'll use 20% of my battery over 8 hours. That's a ton compared to battery usage in standby with the stock kobo software.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by louden

Does anyone have any issues with battery drain and koreader in standby mode?

I have my aura hd in a magnetic case, and can tell the lights not on, but if I leave my kobo in standby with koreader, I'll use 20% of my battery over 8 hours. That's a ton compared to battery usage in standby with the stock kobo software.

Is it really "in standby"? Is there no response to poking the screen? A working suspend for Koreader has been somewhat elusive.

Luck;
Ken

[serdar0020]

new kobo aura, FW 2.10, I've got the pbchess launcher 1.2.6 installed and running, the koreader png symbol is showing as well, but I can't get beyond that (having followed Ken's tutorial at post #751 to the letter, several times - with nightly build 2013.03.633 and with the stable build 2013.03). I'm using windows.

[giorgio130]

Originally Posted by serdar0020

new kobo aura, FW 2.10, I've got the pbchess launcher 1.2.6 installed and running, the koreader png symbol is showing as well, but I can't get beyond that (having followed Ken's tutorial at post #751 to the letter, several times - with nightly build 2013.03.633 and with the stable build 2013.03)

I have no idea if koreader would work on the new Aura! I'm interested in feedback, however many pieces surely are missing... I don't know how the new regal technology would behave with it.

[serdar0020]

thanks giorgio, I'll wait and check this other thread too

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...=226456&page=2

[gong]

Is it normal that the koreader png (koreader-kobo-nightly-20131109) gets back to "99%" instead of "READ" status after a reboot ?

[Ken Maltby]

@gong; I've seen Nickel (the Kobo user interface/software) handle the launching icons in several ways. I suspect that it would be the same for other image files supported. I find the "status" comments useless for books, and nonsense for images.

@serdar0020; Giorgio is the Kobo-Koreader guy. He is the one who made the initial port of the Kindle based project into the Kobo world. We are at a difficult point in regards to the compatibility of all 3rd party software with the new "Mark 5" hardware. So far we know that all the "Mark 4" hardware can run Koreader fine (mine is now running under FW 3.0, as well) The new "Aura" is the only Kobo "Mark 5" device, at this time. The reports from you early users could be a great help in establishing what works and what needs changes to be able to work with the Mark 5 device(s). It looks like I need to add a warning to my install post/guide.

Luck;
Ken

[sergeyvl12]

giorgio130

Currently I tried to launch koreader from KoboLauncher. I got success but koreader
changes some framebuffer parameters and doesn't restore them at exit:

        if (fb->vinfo.bits_per_pixel == 16) {
                /* Only (known) platform using this is Kobo;
                 * since we can change the mode to 8bpp, at this time
                 * driving directly the screen at 16bpp is not supported.
                 * */
                fb->vinfo.bits_per_pixel = 8;
                fb->vinfo.grayscale = 1;
                fb->vinfo.rotate = 3; // 0 is landscape right handed, 3 is portrait
                if (ioctl(fb->fd, FBIOPUT_VSCREENINFO, &fb->vinfo)) {
                        return luaL_error(L, "cannot change screen

So, the only option we have after exit from koreader is reboot.

Is there any chance to get it fixed?

[giorgio130]

Originally Posted by sergeyvl12

giorgio130

Currently I tried to launch koreader from KoboLauncher. I got success but koreader changes some framebuffer parameters and doesn't restore them at exit:

        if (fb->vinfo.bits_per_pixel == 16) {
                /* Only (known) platform using this is Kobo;
                 * since we can change the mode to 8bpp, at this time
                 * driving directly the screen at 16bpp is not supported.
                 * */
                fb->vinfo.bits_per_pixel = 8;
                fb->vinfo.grayscale = 1;
                fb->vinfo.rotate = 3; // 0 is landscape right handed, 3 is portrait
                if (ioctl(fb->fd, FBIOPUT_VSCREENINFO, &fb->vinfo)) {
                        return luaL_error(L, "cannot change screen

So, the only option we have after exit from koreader is reboot.

Is there any chance to get it fixed?

Hmm, I know that code
I've tried to fix that, but just putting back the original values seems not to be enough. Probably there's some other field that gets changed automatically and doesn't get changed back when the original values are written.
I'd say that your results are already an improvement!

[sergeyvl12]

Originally Posted by giorgio130

Hmm, I know that code
I've tried to fix that, but just putting back the original values seems not to be enough. Probably there's some other field that gets changed automatically and doesn't get changed back when the original values are written.
I'd say that your results are already an improvement!

Better of all would be to implement normal blit function for 16 bpp. In this case we don't need to reboot. We can run koreader from KoboLauncher or standalone.

Originally Posted by hawhill

I think we should not reset the framebuffer upon starting, so that would get done with the problem. We don't use fbset in koreader but are using the Kernel API directly. But I have a modification in the works that would allow Koreader to handle the 16bpp framebuffer directly (in addition to 8bpp and 4bpp framebuffers, even RGB24/32 framebuffers will be possible). I guess it needs about a week to get polished.

Nice idea. Any results?