Kobo Start Menu

[tshering]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I wonder if there might be a benefit to rather than changing rcS, to alter /etc/inittab to have a "custom" file for the ::sysinit: entry?

I wonder too, and especially how this benefit relates to the effort I have to make in order to make it happen.
To tell the truth, I feel I spent already too much time in this project. The start up process is certainly not perfect (neither are the other scripts), but I think it does its main purpose.
And what might be the worst case with a new FW update? That the device gets unresponsive and the user has to factory reset it and, if he still intends to use the start menu, wait for an updated version of it. And that the device will become totally unresponsive will only happen if the changes in the new FW are so heavy that nickel AND the start menu fail to work. And how likely is this?
Therefore, I will keep your solution in mind, but I will not pursue it right now. Thank you!

[Ken Maltby]

As someone who is using tshering's Kobo Start Menu all the time now, and find that it provides both more practical support to the way I use my Kobo device now, and more potential functionality than Nickel provides, I don't see any need for major changes. As it is now it is very quick, so I doubt that messing around with the internals will result in any "improvement" for us grateful users. As to avoiding the machinations of Kobo's attempts to turn perfectly good ereading devices into their ultimate marketing machines, with each "upgrade", most of us who spend time in this forum will be rolling with the punches, like we have been since acquiring "our" Kobos.

What we have now is release quality, for sure.

Luck;
Ken

[xping]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

As someone who is using tshering's Kobo Start Menu all the time now, and find that it provides both more practical support to the way I use my Kobo device now, and more potential functionality than Nickel provides, I don't see any need for major changes. As it is now it is very quick, so I doubt that messing around with the internals will result in any "improvement" for us grateful users. As to avoiding the machinations of Kobo's attempts to turn perfectly good ereading devices into their ultimate marketing machines, with each "upgrade", most of us who spend time in this forum will be rolling with the punches, like we have been since acquiring "our" Kobos.

What we have now is release quality, for sure.

Luck;
Ken

I completely agree with this.
Could you, please, give me any cue about activating kobo device with any firmware, without setting kobo account? I remember something about this but don't remember where it was..
thx

[Ken Maltby]

"
there are several explanations at this forum. I cannot find them myself right now. Anyway,
in order to initialize the reader without registering you can add a new line to the "user" table of the database. Fill in any fitting values. Depending on your reset firmware version, the number of values varies.
Example for FW 1.9.12:

Code:
INSERT INTO user VALUES ("0", "0", "0", "0", "0");Example for FW 2.5.0:

Code:
INSERT INTO user VALUES ("0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0","false")

I think you use the SQLite Database Browser. Right? Open the database file "KoboReader.sqlite". Select "Browse Data" and choose the table "user". Look at line 1 and try to establish whether the values of one of the two examples might fit or whether you have to make some modifications. I guess the second example might be correct for the Mini. Choose Execute SQL, enter the command "INSERT INTO user VALUES ..." and press "Execute query".
I can only confirm that the values work for FW 1.9.12. I did not try it with more recent firmwares. If the reader does not accept your values, you can try replacing them by others (maybe the email address must look like an email address, e.g. name@xmail.com, or something like that).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tshering"

I still keep this explanation handy.

Luck;
Ken

[Lucas Malor]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

As someone who is using tshering's Kobo Start Menu all the time now, and find that it provides both more practical support to the way I use my Kobo device now, and more potential functionality than Nickel provides, I don't see any need for major changes. As it is now it is very quick, so I doubt that messing around with the internals will result in any "improvement" for us grateful users.

Well, I do not suggested nothing about speed improvements or adding functionalities. I'm quite disappointed that someone says to me that I want to "mess" around the code even if he doesn't understand what I was saying.

On the contrary I thank you, tshering, for your patience. You can believe me when I say that I understand and respect your point of view. I think that the Real Life(tm) must have priority above all

[tshering]

It is getting a little difficult if "someone" thinks "someone" refers to him as messing around. If the second someone is Ken, then the first someone's interpretation of the concerned passage might not be the only possible reading. It could refer to Lucas, it could refer to Peter, it could refer to both. Or Ken could simply voice his understanding of my decision not to spend more time in a part of the project that is basically working. This is my preferred reading of it. So maybe you should not get to much upset.

Actually, I do not mind getting suggestions for improvements, and if I don't follow them, it is not meant as a personal refusal or anything like that.

I would also not mind people contributing code. The larger part of the Kobo Start Menu consists of shell scripts. By the very design it is easily extensible. If somebody improves on an already existing script or writes a new one that provides new functionality, why not share it here so that other people can use it too if they like? (I know, I announced that I will say some words about the scripts entry, and I still did not do so.)

[gong]

Hello, thanks for Start Menu, it's working fine so far on mini f/w 2.6.2.

Also, I think I found a typo in the help file for script section, backup is spelled packup (?).

And I have a question: I would like to be able to launch koreader with 2 different readerpaging.lua (I need 2 different values for page overlap). I suppose it should be possible creating a script for this purpose, is that right?

Thanks again,
Gong

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by gong

Hello, thanks for Start Menu, it's working fine so far on mini f/w 2.6.2.

Also, I think I found a typo in the help file for script section, backup is spelled packup (?).

And I have a question: I would like to be able to launch koreader with 2 different readerpaging.lua (I need 2 different values for page overlap). I suppose it should be possible creating a script for this purpose, is that right?

Thanks again,
Gong

You could make two versions of the readerpaging.lua script with a name that tells you that is a version that has a set of the values you want, any name will do. Then you would make a script to set those values by renaming the file you made that has the values you want into readerpaging.lua.

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-rename-file/

You would make two Start Menu scripts that do that the two ways you want it, and run the script before you run KOreader from the Start Menu.

mv -f /the path/ mysettings1.lua readerpaging.lua

for one of them and:

mv -f /the path/ mysettings2.lua readerpaging.lua

for the other one.

Luck;
Ken

[tshering]

Originally Posted by gong

I would like to be able to launch koreader with 2 different readerpaging.lua (I need 2 different values for page overlap).

An alternative way to the one proposed by Ken might be the following. However, be warned: I have no experience with lua, and I did not test what I am proposing. And it is a lot more work than Ken's solution. But (if it works) it could serve as a template for alternative configuration that include several lua-files.

Spoiler:

Step 1
copy readerpaging.lua to readerpaging2.lua; make the appropriate changes in readerpaging2.lua

Step 2
copy koreader\frontend\ui\readerui.lua to koreader\frontend\ui\readerui2.lua

Replace in readerui2.lua

local ReaderPaging = require("ui/reader/readerpaging")

with

local ReaderPaging = require("ui/reader/readerpaging2")

Step 3
copy koreader\reader.lua to koreader\reader2.lua
Replace in reader2.lua

local ReaderUI = require("ui/readerui")

with

local ReaderUI = require("ui/readerui2")

Step 4
copy kbmenu\onstart\koreader_kobo.sh to kbmenu\scripts\koreader_kobo2.sh
replace in koreader_kobo2.sh

./reader.lua /mnt/onboard 2> crash.log

with

./reader2.lua /mnt/onboard 2> crash.log

To start the koreader with this configuration, select "scripts > koreader kobo2.sh." If this works, we can can think about how to automatically include such alternative koreader options to the main menu (home).

Originally Posted by gong

I think I found a typo in the help file for script section, backup is spelled packup (?).

Apart from typos, there are certainly several unclear, if not wrong passages in the Kobo Start Menu. And I happily correct them with the next update, if somebody tells me about it. I will correct this one in the next version. Thank you!

[gong]

Ken, tshering, thanks a lot for your help!

I followed tshering instructions and I'm glad to say it works as expected

[Ken Maltby]

Great, this is another example why building a program with script files can have some advantages, for the user, that compiled programming forestalls.

You might have to make some adjustments after future builds, as there are some plans to move those files around a little. See GitHub and

Luck;
Ken


Luck;
Ken

[tshering]

If you are using the Kobo Start Menu for FW 3.2.0 and want to install FW 3.3.0, it might be a good idea to change the run settings back to test mode (select: scripts > activate > set runmenu settings.msh > alternateMenu), before installing FW 3.3.0. If the menu is somehow incompatible with the new FW, this might give you a chance to go back to normal without doing a factory reset. Edit: It turned out that this is not necessary. The menu works with FW 3.3.0, but it cannot start nickel. I already uploaded a new version of the menu, see post 135.
If you are using an older version of the Kobo Start Menu, uninstall it before updating the FW.

[trekk]

I accidentally upgraded to 3.3.0 without uninstalling the Kobo Start Menu for FW 3.2. The start menu seemed to work, but starting nickel from the menu gave me an endless boot loop. So be careful

[tshering]

Originally Posted by trekk

I accidentally upgraded to 3.3.0 without uninstalling the Kobo Start Menu for FW 3.2. The start menu seemed to work, but starting nickel from the menu gave me an endless boot loop. So be careful

Were you able to stop the boot loop? (Was it really a boot loop? Or just the dancing squares? Hold the slider in the off position for 20 seconds to power the device off, and then power it on again to get back to the menu.) If you can access the menu, you can simply install the new version of the menu (see next post).

[tshering]

This new version is supposed to run from FW 2.6.0 up to 3.8.0.

I have minimally tested it on a Kobo Touch. (Edit: Since then more than three month have past. This version is still running on my device. I would say, it is ok.) Trekk reported that it is working on 6" Aura, and Ken that it works on Aura HD (Thank you both!). Until now, I did not notice any reports concerning other models. I take this as meaning that there are no major problems. (EDIT: Since then I got several hints that it is working on Mini and Glo too; for instance by WS64 and uboot [mini]; by Cyphox [Glo]).

For install and uninstall see post #1.

If you are upgrading from an earlier version of the Kobo Start Menu. Copy the KoboRoot.tgz file to .kobo. Then select "handle update > install update" from the main menu.

After booting, the Kobo Start Menu will be launched alternating with nickel. If you have checked that everything goes fine, you will likely want to change this behaviour, see this post for an explanation.

Be aware that you cannot easily downgrade the Kobo firmware without doing a factory reset. The reason for this is that the Kobo Start Menu tries to work with all FW versions starting with 2.6.0. In order to do this it determines the currently running FW version by looking whether specific files are available on the device. After downgrading (without factory reset), these version specific files are still living on the device, and this fact results in false identification.

Spoiler:

I have disabled (the otherwise automatically enabled) Night Mode for FW 3.3.0. At least at my Touch, the Night Mode works, but after opening a book the device freezes. If you want to try it, set enableNightmodeOn300plus (sic! yes I did this typo) in .kobo/kbmenu/onstart/startreader.sh from false to true.
Edit: I just found that the night mode seems to work on my Touch (and presumably on all other models), if toggled by the home/light button rather than by fmon. For the convenience of those who don't want to edit the startreader.sh by themselves, I upload the modified version here. Extract it from the archive enable_night_mode_andRebootAuraHD.zip and replace .kobo/kbmenu/onstart/startreader.sh with it. If you use this version of the startreader.sh Aura HD will reboot when you select exit_nickle.png from nickel.
This has been replaced by the update package 01

NEW: There is an update package available for this version that provides further functionality. (By the way: no need to install enable_night_mode_andRebootAuraHD.zip anylonger). You can find there also uninstall files for more recent firmwares.
NEW: You can find scripts for changing the time zone in this post.
NEW (2014.08.19): Please use this script for better integration of koreader.

The Kobo Start Menu is not compatible with KoboMultitouch320.

USE THIS PACKAGE AT YOUR OWN RISK!