Aura HD current screen in suspend/off mode

[rem736]

is there hack that allows the current screen, whatever you are looking at right now on the aura hd (text, image, whatever), to remain the screen image when you put the kobo aura hd in suspend mode or power off mode?

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by rem736

is there hack that allows the current screen, whatever you are looking at right now on the aura hd (text, image, whatever), to remain the screen image when you put the kobo aura hd in suspend mode or power off mode?

You can do that with KOReader, as far as the suspend mode.

Luck;
Ken

[rem736]

thanks. got it done. but the "Suspended" message is splashed into the middle of the screen when i actually suspend the reader. my goal was to use a reader for signage purposes, so this hampers the goal a bit. basically, set the image, power off and have the image shown in perpetuity (or until the next time i decide to change it).

[davidfor]

If that's what you want, you can do that with the Kobo software. In the "Sleep and power" page of the setting, uncheck the "Show info panel..." option. Then, put an image on the device and open it. When the device sleeps, it will just show the image.

[frostschutz]

If you can provide the image, my random screensaver hack might help. It displays images on sleep/poweroff.

If you wish to preserve actual screen content, you'd need to adapt this hack a little (take a screenshot and then display the screenshot you took).

If you're looking for unconventional solutions, open up the device and disconnect the battery and whatever is on screen will stay there until you put the battery back in. Note I actually managed to break apart a battery connector this way...

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

If you can provide the image, my random screensaver hack might help. It displays images on sleep/poweroff.

If you wish to preserve actual screen content, you'd need to adapt this hack a little (take a screenshot and then display the screenshot you took).

If you're looking for unconventional solutions, open up the device and disconnect the battery and whatever is on screen will stay there until you put the battery back in. Note I actually managed to break apart a battery connector this way...

You could tap into one of the battery leads and add a switch. (Leaving the connector alone.)

Also; The Kobo Start Menu (KSM) has a Power Off function and you can define what is displayed, including a full screen image. (You can add KSM by itself, without adding KOReader, or the other alternative readers.)


Luck;
Ken

[PeterT]

Just realize that adding a power switch will probably lead to massive corruption issues; using it would mean that there is no hope at all of the underlying operating system doing a clean shutdown which will probably lead to file system corruption add some point.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by PeterT

there is no hope at all of the underlying operating system doing a clean shutdown which will probably lead to file system corruption add some point.

On the other hand, an ebook reader most of the time, operates in read-only mode. Reading books does not change them, there are no open documents that need saving, there are no processes that create new files that have yet to be written - well, unless you shut it off during a database update.

Even reading progress which is constantly recorded, should just update an entry in a database, storage space for which is already allocated so it's not a problem when viewing from the filesystem layer.

Compared to a desktop PC where there are always dozens of things running (like Thunderbird regularly grabbing your new [spam] mails in the background) there is just not that much risk of corruption on an eBook reader.

If you were really worried about it, you could mod it to mount all filesystems in sync mode. This is slow but does not corrupt easily/at all.

If you want a clean shutdown, you could do it via telnet shell. I have not tested it right now but if I remember correctly, if you just kill nickel it will also no longer update the screen when you shut it down / poweroff. That would work w/o opening the device..

[rem736]

thanks all. i didn't know that KSM alone would be able to do this. i'll give it a go.
@frostschutz, does your screensaver hack work standalone? or does it require KSM?

[rem736]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If that's what you want, you can do that with the Kobo software. In the "Sleep and power" page of the setting, uncheck the "Show info panel..." option. Then, put an image on the device and open it. When the device sleeps, it will just show the image.

i did not know that the default software could already do this. i'll try it out. thanks.

i tried this out and it did not go quite as expected. what it does is show the cover of the current book you are reading. and it works in both suspend and off modes. however, with a picture (pictures are 1-page books, according to kobo software), because viewing it means finishing the "book", turning it off shows the cover of the previously viewed book. it does work in suspend mode, however.

[MGlitch]

the screensaver hack of frostschutz is stand alone, might be a better fit than KSM in terms of ease of use. Though as others have mentioned if you don't want the image to change unless you make it change the default software can do it.

[Ken Maltby]

The KSM Power Off function displays a simplified HTML page. (Like a single web page) It can contain text and images, but what I found easiest was to have it display a full screen image file produced using Gimp2.

My "poweroff_info.html":
<html>
<head>
<title>kobo menu info</title>
<style type="image/png">
p {
margin-top: 0.5em; }
</style>
</head>

<body>
<img src="/mnt/onboard/.adds/kbmenu/txt/poweroff.png">
</body>
</html>

The poweroff.png I created was sized to 1040x1387 to fit my Aura HD. Notice that I have the "body" contain only the image file, you could build a page with smaller images and text, but I find it easy to create a single image in an image manipulation program. For your use, you could make up a number of signage image files, with descriptive names, and use KOReader's File Manager "Rename" function to change the current named poweroff.png - right on the device.

Luck;
Ken

[rem736]

hi ken,

thanks. i think that this will be my path. i'm curious as to why you truncated your image to 1040x1387 when the H2O's screen resolution is 1080x1430, though.

i have the aura hd. will an image cut to the exact resolution of 1080x1440 work, since that is the aura hd's screen resolution?

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by rem736

hi ken,

thanks. i think that this will be my path. i'm curious as to why you truncated your image to 1040x1387 when the H2O's screen resolution is 1080x1430, though.

i have the aura hd. will an image cut to the exact resolution of 1080x1440 work, since that is the aura hd's screen resolution?

I have the Aura HD, not the H2O. The method Tshering used for the display of the html page produces a frame around the image that this sizing eliminates.

Luck;
Ken

[tshering]

This is an example that I used in KSM 6 on a Touch (600x800).

<html>
<body>
<img src="/mnt/onboard/.kobo/kbmenu/images/test01.png" width="566">
</body>
</html>

I did not bother to cut the image, but its ratio was already approximately fitting (actually it was 540x720).

You can find some other examples with images in .adds\kbmenu_user\mynotes\pofftest of KSM 08.