Kobo Start Menu 07

[sashimimi]

I'm new to all the kobo tweaking thing, and no offense, I am sure KSM is great at doing stuff I haven't yet figured out, but.. herm, what the hell is this UI ? It looks like a 80ies bios setup screen ?
Isn't there a way to get something a tiny bit more suited to touch input and nice looking ?

thank you in advance for your advice

[xor_]

Originally Posted by sashimimi

I'm new to all the kobo tweaking thing, and no offense, I am sure KSM is great at doing stuff I haven't yet figured out, but.. herm, what the hell is this UI ? It looks like a 80ies bios setup screen ?
Isn't there a way to get something a tiny bit more suited to touch input and nice looking ?

thank you in advance for your advice

You're welcome to code a shiny, glitzy GUI. Most of us are thankful to tshering for providing us with a very useful tool that does what it's supposed to do.

[trekk]

Minimalism has it's own beauty!

[boriar]

Originally Posted by tshering

I hope this script does what you want. Use it at your own risk. Edit the values in the first block of the script and copy the script to .adds\kbmenu\scripts_intern\kobo_diverse.

All go perfect!!!! I think you should include it with a little utility to extract data an inject it with that sh.
Also, as a side effect, i have discovered that a device can store more than one account. At least I don't knew it.

[norbusan]

Originally Posted by tshering

No, nothing else is necessary.

Thanks, all confirmed, works nicely.

[Alan_S]

Originally Posted by sashimimi

Isn't there a way to get something a tiny bit more suited to touch input and nice looking ?

Well, there certainly is a way to make different UI, but, there's also a question, is it really needed?

As probably you know, almost anything in sense of (G)UI can be programed, it only takes time, money and need. But, KSM is basically software to control software on Kobo ebook readers. KSM from that point of view just doesn't need elaborate UI, at least not for simple day to day tasks, e.g. starting your favorite ebook reading software (nickel, koreader, cool reader).

As far as I know, you still could start koreader and cool reader without KSM. Or, just stick with nickel and avoid installing any of additional software.

[Ken Maltby]

Much of the additional functionality tshering's Menus provide is often only available with a Command Line UI, for most, the menu approach is already "more suited to touch input".

Luck;
Ken

[tshering]

Some weeks ago in this forum, I promised to show how to back up the internal sd to the pc with KSM and netcat. This can be done via wifi or usbnet. For this example I use the usbnet version, and windows as OS on the pc. With linux it is almost the same. As for making usbnet and telnet work, see the first post of this thread (in the spoiler under "enable USBNet").

I downloaded "Netcat for Windows (without -e)" from there. In order to have short path names, let us suppose that I copied the program files to C:\nc111nt_rodneybeede\ (so that there is now for instance C:\nc111nt_rodneybeede\nc.exe). Do yourself a favour and use only a short path, and file and folder names without spaces or any suspect characters. See for the remaining steps the spoiler.

Spoiler:

On the Kobo remove the external sd if there is one, then

• select "usb" > "usbnet toggle.sh" (I suppose it was disabled at this point)
• select "return" in order to go back to the home

On the pc run "cmd" and open a telnet session:

telnet 192.168.2.101

then log in as "root".
First we have to kill every process that was started from /mnt/onboard. Therefore, we execute ps to see the running processes. (Still on the PC, in telnet window)

ps

In my case the relevant lines look like this
519 root 0:00 {ksmhome.sh} /bin/sh /mnt/onboard/.adds/kbmenu/onstart/ks
525 root 0:00 /sbin/getty -L ttymxc0 115200 vt100
527 root 0:00 /usr/sbin/inetd -f /etc/inetd.conf.user
849 root 0:00 [flush-179:0]
1088 root 0:00 /mnt/onboard/.adds/vlasovsoft/usbnet/dropbear -E -r /mnt/
1119 root 0:00 {kobomenu.sh} /bin/sh /mnt/onboard/.adds/kbmenu/kobomenu.
1120 root 0:00 /mnt/onboard/.adds/kbmenu/kobomenu info:help toggle_rotat
Next we kill these processes (I include preventfreeze.sh, even though it is not running in this case).

killall ksmhome.sh; killall kobomenu.sh; killall preventfreeze.sh; killall kobomenu; killall dropbear

List again the running processes with "ps" and check that none process including /mnt/onboard is still running.

Next we umount the user partion, and remount /dev/mmcblk0p1 and / as read-only. (Still on the PC, in telnet window

umount /mnt/onboard
mount -o remount,noatime,nodiratime,ro /dev/mmcblk0p1 /

If there is no error message, we continue

nc -l -p 1234 < /dev/mmcblk0

On the PC, open a new cmd window, change to the folder to which you want to save the sd image, and start transferring the data (KT02_20150613.dat is the file name that I chose):

cd C:\data\kobo_backups
C:\nc111nt_rodneybeede\nc.exe 192.168.2.101 1234 > KT02_20150613.dat

Wait until the transfer is finished (the cursors in the two terminal windows will re-appear).
On the PC, in the telnet window, restore the original mount states:

mount -o remount,noatime,nodiratime,rw /dev/mmcblk0p1 /
mount -t vfat -o iocharset=utf8 /dev/mmcblk0p3 /mnt/onboard

Now (still from the telnet window) we could restart KSM, but I prefer to reboot:

reboot

[chipro12]

Hi. I am using Kobo Aura H20 and recently just installed KSM7 with koreader and coolreader. But I have a problem with power off screen test. When I used and closed, it went back to an upside down menu and touching didn't work. I don't know how to reset it back to the main menu list :/. Now the screen is upside down with the message "checked:/mnt/onboard/.adds/kbmenu/scripts/tests/poweroff_test.sh". I touched in the middle and try to close it but it didn't work. The screen just stays like that.
EDIT: I try to hold the power button and it works! Kobo reboots and seems ok. I dont know what was wrong

[Markismus]

Question:
Should I just reinstall everything or is there an easy fix?

Problem situation:
All of a sudden koreader won't start from KSM7. No crash-logs whatsover in koreader. So I looked around and saw that an Nickel update was present. I did a partial update, but still koreader doesn't start.

I installed patch 4 for KSM7. No joy. When I press koreader the screen rotates upside-down. When I tap it again, it rotates back.

I installed the newest release of koreader next to the non-starting one. When I select a koreader version, the screen rotates. I tap and it rotates back.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by chipro12

Hi. I am using Kobo Aura H20 and recently just installed KSM7 with koreader and coolreader. But I have a problem with power off screen test. When I used and closed, it went back to an upside down menu and touching didn't work.

It seems that currently KSM has on some models the rotation problem at several points. For the time being it might be safer only to use those menu entries that you have already tested and know that they are working.

Originally Posted by chipro12

I don't know how to reset it back to the main menu list :/. Now the screen is upside down with the message "checked:/mnt/onboard/.adds/kbmenu/scripts/tests/poweroff_test.sh". I touched in the middle and try to close it but it didn't work. The screen just stays like that.

While trying to select some entry (I guess "return" or "return home") on the rotated screen you actually pressed on "execute/check/read", which enabled the "check" mode, and then you happened to press on "poweroff test.sh". This triggered a syntax check of the script, and you were informed about it. Fortunately, there were no dangerous menu entries on that screen!

Originally Posted by chipro12

EDIT: I try to hold the power button and it works! Kobo reboots and seems ok. I dont know what was wrong

I am glad you found that solution. If the rotation problem happens again at this point, please considered to force a power-off immediately, since poking at the wrong entry might have a bad result depending on what menu entries are present in the current menu level.
I try to fix this. Please be aware of the problem and be careful.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Markismus

Question:
Should I just reinstall everything or is there an easy fix?

I do not know!

Originally Posted by Markismus

Problem situation:
All of a sudden koreader won't start from KSM7.

Does "All of a sudden" mean that no changes have been made to KSM and you were trying to run the same koreader version that worked up to that point?

Originally Posted by Markismus

No crash-logs whatsover in koreader.

Was an empty crash.log file written at all (see the timestamp)? If yes, we know for sure that the line

./reader.lua "${args}" 2> crash.log

has been executed. But then, why did koreader not run? If no crash log file was written we can assume that reader.lua has not been called, or that for some reason crash.log has not been written to disk.

Originally Posted by Markismus

So I looked around and saw that an Nickel update was present. I did a partial update, but still koreader doesn't start.

The presence of a nickel update file should only have an effect if you call Koreader in a koreader-nickel/nickel-koreader loop. Otherwise it should not have any consequences.

Originally Posted by Markismus

I installed patch 4 for KSM7. No joy.

You tried running the same koreader version as before. Right?

Originally Posted by Markismus

When I press koreader the screen rotates upside-down. When I tap it again, it rotates back.

Which menu are you talking about now? Was it the main menu, and you pressed "start koreader"? Or was it in the "select koreader version" menu and you pressed "koreader.sh"? From your next statements I see that starting from "select koreader version" results in a rotation? Is it the same when starting from the main menu?

Originally Posted by Markismus

I installed the newest release of koreader next to the non-starting one. When I select a koreader version, the screen rotates. I tap and it rotates back.

If I understood it correctly up to this point, you cannot start any of the present koreader versions successfully? (I just suppose that you tried starting the main version from the main menu too.)

Frankly, I do not know why koreader does not start on your device. I installed today the most recent nightly build. I have now three versions on this device and all of them run without issues.

As for the rotation issue, I do not have a model with this problem and therefore cannot do any testing myself. I definitely got the rotation script wrong at some points in the latest update (and possibly also in previous updates). It might be that I restore the rotation incorrectly in the script that starts koreader, and that all H2O users with the current KSM version encouter this problem but only you reported it. Or maybe they are all running an older version of koreader that reboots the device after exiting koreader.
If however the script restores the rotation generally correctly, your experience might indicate that in your case the script is not running up to that point, and exits without restoring the rotation. Considering that on your device both koreader versions refuse to run, might indicate that the script is even not running up to the point of calling koreader. Maybe you could to some testing in order to see which parts of the scripts get actually executed.

[chipro12]

Thanks, tshering, for your reply. Also, does koreader or any reader automatically go to sleep/poweroff mode when the device is untouched/unused for a certain amount of time? btw, the default mechanic to force a power off is pressing and holding the power button right?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by chipro12

Thanks, tshering, for your reply. Also, does koreader or any reader automatically go to sleep/poweroff mode when the device is untouched/unused for a certain amount of time?

I only know for sure that you can configure nickel (the original Kobo GUI) to do this. As for koreader or the coolreader verseion by vlasovsoft, you might get better information in the specific threads.

Originally Posted by chipro12

btw, the default mechanic to force a power off is pressing and holding the power button right?

Yes it is. Just to emphasize, this is not KSM specific, but belongs to the functionality of the device. To hold the power button for 15 to 20 secs, should usually power the device off. You will not see any changes on the screen, you only know that the device has powered off, if you can afterwards power it on. Sometimes it needs longer to power off, 25 secs should suffice however.

Sometimes it happens that you cannot power off in this way. Then you have to try the reset button. On some models this button is somehow difficult to access. Maybe some models even do not have this button, I do no know.

[tshering]

I would like to better understand the screen rotation issue on some models. Concerned models seem to be Glo HD, H2O, Aura HD, and maybe Aura. Since I do not have any of these models, I would like to ask for your cooperation.

For conducting this test you need to have KSM 7 (preferable with the latest updates installed)

Spoiler:

• copy pickel_showimage_log.sh and start_nickel_rotation_log.sh (which are contained in the uploaded archive) to .adds\kbmenu\scripts\tests
• eject the device and disable usb
• on the device, in KSM
  • select "scripts" > "tests" > "start nickel rotation log.sh"
  • after nickel has started, exit nickel by opening exit_nickel.png
  • select "scripts" > "tests" > "pickel_showimage_log.sh"
  • # you should for some seconds see the first image of the running squares animation, then the KSM menu should appear again.
• Please post the two logfiles that you will find in .adds\kbmenu\log. The names will be something like ksmdebug_20150615_090228_start_nickel_rotation_log .sh.log and ksmdebug_20150615_091305_start_nickel_rotation_log .sh.log

If there is any problem during this test, hold the power button for 25 secs in the off position (you will not see any changes on the screen), release the button, wait some seconds, and then power on again.

Here are the results of this test perfomed on a Kobo Touch, which does not have the rotation problem:

log of start_nickel_rotation_log.sh

Spoiler:

product: trilogy
### ------------------ ###
rotation before pickel/nickel: 0

mode "800x600-0"
# D: 0.033 MHz, H: 0.034 kHz, V: 0.055 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 1280 16
timings 30000000 8 164 4 18 4 1
accel false
rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode

### ------------------ ###
rotation after nickel: 3
NtxHwCfg_GetCfgFldStrVal:[WARNING]Config version too old !! Please update config file !!
NtxHwCfg_GetCfgFldStrVal:[WARNING]Config version too old !! Please update config file !!

mode "600x800-0"
# D: 0.033 MHz, H: 0.043 kHz, V: 0.052 Hz
geometry 600 800 608 1792 16
timings 30000000 8 164 4 18 4 1
accel false
rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode

### ------------------ ###
rotation after first restore: 0
NtxHwCfg_GetCfgFldStrVal:[WARNING]Config version too old !! Please update config file !!
NtxHwCfg_GetCfgFldStrVal:[WARNING]Config version too old !! Please update config file !!

mode "800x600-0"
# D: 0.033 MHz, H: 0.034 kHz, V: 0.055 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 1280 16
timings 30000000 8 164 4 18 4 1
accel false
rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode

### ------------------ ###
rotation after second restore: 0
NtxHwCfg_GetCfgFldStrVal:[WARNING]Config version too old !! Please update config file !!
NtxHwCfg_GetCfgFldStrVal:[WARNING]Config version too old !! Please update config file !!

mode "800x600-0"
# D: 0.033 MHz, H: 0.034 kHz, V: 0.055 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 1280 16
timings 30000000 8 164 4 18 4 1
accel false
rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode

log of pickel_showimage_log.sh

Spoiler:

product: trilogy
### ------------------ ###
rotation before pickel: 0

mode "800x600-0"
# D: 0.033 MHz, H: 0.034 kHz, V: 0.055 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 1280 16
timings 30000000 8 164 4 18 4 1
accel false
rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode

### ------------------ ###
rotation after nickel: 0

mode "800x600-0"
# D: 0.033 MHz, H: 0.034 kHz, V: 0.055 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 1280 16
timings 30000000 8 164 4 18 4 1
accel false
rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode

### ------------------ ###
rotation after first restore: 0

mode "800x600-0"
# D: 0.033 MHz, H: 0.034 kHz, V: 0.055 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 1280 16
timings 30000000 8 164 4 18 4 1
accel false
rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode

### ------------------ ###
rotation after second restore: 0

mode "800x600-0"
# D: 0.033 MHz, H: 0.034 kHz, V: 0.055 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 1280 16
timings 30000000 8 164 4 18 4 1
accel false
rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0
endmode