Kindle DX monitor keeps disconnecting/freezing

[hawhill]

Originally Posted by EinkMonitor

i tried using ssh but when i open putty it does not auto connect to the kindle to allow for the commands to make it connect

What do you mean with "auto connect"?

Specifically, I'm talking about the step under the headline "Establish a Telnet Connection". Just skip the part where it talks about setting Telnet and Post 23. SSH and port 22 is just fine there.

First, take this hurdle.

If done, and if the problem persist, we can do port forwarding. A fast rundown of the needed steps for the scenario of the "How To" you linked: Configure Putty for SSH access (see above). Before clicking "Open", select "Connection/SSH/Tunnels". Enter source port 5901, destination "localhost:5901", select "Remote" and click "Add". A line "R5901 localhost:5901" should be added to the list under "Forwarded ports". You then possibly want to save the connection settings in PuTTYs start page under a canonical name. The kvncviewer start command would then have to be modified to try to connect to "localhost:1" instead of "192.168.2.1:1".

[EinkMonitor]

i took the first hurdle. i used port 22 and selected SSH. when i click the "open" button to connect it asks me for username and password. i tried leaving blank but doesnt work, says access denied. what is the username and password?


thank you!

[hawhill]

if you didn't configure anything - "root" and simply nothing, i.e. <Enter> for the password. You can also pre-configure the username in PuTTY's session settings.

[EinkMonitor]

it worked via ssh following your instructions. i used root and enter for password and logged in and issued commands. the screen showed on my DX but the mouse was very laggy, and then the mouse would disappear altogether. it isnt usable like that unfortunatley

[hawhill]

Without tunneling? I.e. it got laggy just by switching from telnet to SSH? There's just no good reason for this. If this is with tunneling, that might be due to SSH hogging the (mediocre) CPU resources. Switching to faster crypto would be one option, though Putty doesn't support a lot of options and neither does dropbear running on the KDX (a recompiled version of dropbear allowing "none" crypto could help, but that's a lot of work if you never did this). Another option is to hand kindlevncviewer the "-encodings" flag and experiment with various settings.

That said, I would have considered this the most promising approach.

Other than a close investigation on why it actually fails using the telnet solution, especially when the netwatchd is not running, I'm out of ideas. You could try various other tunneling solutions, but there is no ready-made software yet. It takes real dedication, knowledge and work to bring this further.

[EinkMonitor]

I am still having problems with this. I really heavily on my kindle dx to use my pc. But it freezes at random intervals without any pattern.

I know php, mysql etc so have basic programming ability. What do i need to learn to start hacking the kindle so i can stop this freezing from happening and have a workable eink monitor?

If you can't help, could you please let me know where to go to learn? What technologies do i need to know?

[hawhill]

I don't have any idea where the actual problem might be. For the record, I have no DX anymore, so I can't test that myself. (As a related note, I don't have enough spare time, either.)

Well, it all boils down to plain logic thinking. #1: Find the problem, #2: solve it. #1 is the hardest, except when you tend towards perfectionism, then you can make #2 arbitrary hard, too.

As for finding the problem, you could make friends with tcpdump (and finding one for the KDX...), strace, ...

Don't fool yourself. It might be hard. You need a trained eye and brain to find some kind of programming errors. I wouldn't even consider my eyes to be fully trained yet. Such a thing takes a live of active training.

I would suggest some kind of a band-aid (AKA dirty patch) here, but I have a hard time thinking of one. Constantly restarting in, say, 1-minute intervals, is probably annoying when everything is well and is probably a too long interval for when it breaks (with a medium of 30secs to remedy). Well, so it has to be a tad bit more sophisticated.

First, find out if it's the SSH tunnel that is broken. Does the terminal window still react? If not - make use of that. Detect that situation and break the connection. You would need to script the connection on the Windows side for that. Thousands of ways to do so (OK, exaggerating a bit), but maybe start with using a command line SSH client rather than PuTTY, see if it has options to error out and quit for when the connection breaks (some of them do!). Put it in a loop for reconnection.

And so on. I just can't give a simple recipe, sorry.

[EinkMonitor]

Originally Posted by hawhill

I don't have any idea where the actual problem might be. For the record, I have no DX anymore, so I can't test that myself. (As a related note, I don't have enough spare time, either.)

Well, it all boils down to plain logic thinking. #1: Find the problem, #2: solve it. #1 is the hardest, except when you tend towards perfectionism, then you can make #2 arbitrary hard, too.

As for finding the problem, you could make friends with tcpdump (and finding one for the KDX...), strace, ...

Don't fool yourself. It might be hard. You need a trained eye and brain to find some kind of programming errors. I wouldn't even consider my eyes to be fully trained yet. Such a thing takes a live of active training.

I would suggest some kind of a band-aid (AKA dirty patch) here, but I have a hard time thinking of one. Constantly restarting in, say, 1-minute intervals, is probably annoying when everything is well and is probably a too long interval for when it breaks (with a medium of 30secs to remedy). Well, so it has to be a tad bit more sophisticated.

First, find out if it's the SSH tunnel that is broken. Does the terminal window still react? If not - make use of that. Detect that situation and break the connection. You would need to script the connection on the Windows side for that. Thousands of ways to do so (OK, exaggerating a bit), but maybe start with using a command line SSH client rather than PuTTY, see if it has options to error out and quit for when the connection breaks (some of them do!). Put it in a loop for reconnection.

And so on. I just can't give a simple recipe, sorry.

The putty command window freezes and stops printing the "partially updating eink display" message. I then disconnect usb and rotate the kindle screen then plug in again and it sometimes works again for 5 min. Then i usually reset and start all over again which takes 3-4 minutes. Sometimes ill do this 20 times in a hour then give up. Othertimes it will stay connected for an hour or two and it isnt so bad.

It just didonnect while i was typing this message, 3 minutes after i had just done a full reset: typed ;debugOn etc then typed all the commands in putty etc. So frustrating it doesnt work properly it would be an awesome solution. I will literally pay you $1000 to get it fixed and send you a kindle dx, if youre interested?

[hawhill]

As much as I understand your frustration and as much as I should be honored by your offer, I still lack the time to make such promises. I'm very sorry.

Is USB disconnection and screen rotation really needed? Isn't it possible to immediately reconnect using PuTTY? Did you try with a different PC? A different USB cable? It might not even be the Kindle's fault...

[knc1]

Originally Posted by hawhill

As much as I understand your frustration and as much as I should be honored by your offer, I still lack the time to make such promises. I'm very sorry.

If you really need it, then possibly other people really need it.

Set the project up as a kickstarter.com project with the goal to raise the price of hiring a commercial firmware development firm.

Originally Posted by hawhill

Is USB disconnection and screen rotation really needed? Isn't it possible to immediately reconnect using PuTTY? Did you try with a different PC? A different USB cable? It might not even be the Kindle's fault...

Call me win-ophobic, but have you done all things possible to eliminate the Windows end of the connection?

That includes everything from hardware (a loose cable, cable socket, bad PC, etc.) to software settings (such as an activity detector in Putty, using Windows-anything in the first place, etc.).

Don't forget to include PEBCAK at both ends in your search for the problem.

[EinkMonitor]

I may be wrong but ive been studying the kindle closely and when its' battery charge reaches full that is when it starts freezing up.

I cut the power cable in the usb cord to stop the charging, thinking i might get 3-4hours use on the battery using it as a monitor, then could switch to another usb cable and repeat the cycle. But without power in the usb cord it doesnt work at all (i thought maybe it would run off the battery).

Does anyone know if you can disable charging in the kindle so i can test this theory? Would it be hard to hack it and turn off the charging?

[knc1]

Did you cut the ground lead also?
Or just the +5v dc power lead?

[EinkMonitor]

Originally Posted by knc1

Did you cut the ground lead also?
Or just the +5v dc power lead?

I only cut the red voltage lead. No other leads were cut whatsoever.