Terminal emulator for Touch (and Paperwhite?)

[baf]

Originally Posted by knc1

I just didn't see any reference to matchbox-keyboard your using at the github repo you posted.
Other than the matchbox-keyboard patch in your tree.

In order to clean up the mess a bit I added my Kindle matchbox-keyboard tree to github.

[knc1]

Super!
Both parts of the puzzle application can now be found:
https://github.com/bfabiszewski?tab=repositories

[nasser]

I installed kterm on my jailbroken PW3. I got an error when trying the top command:
Unknown HZ value! (43) Assume 100
'xterm': unknown terminal type.

...and no list of processes, etc.

Other commands seem fine.
top runs correctly on PW1.

Any easy way to fix this?

[NiLuJe]

Use htop as bundled with USBNet? ^^

[eschwartz]

IIRC the terminfo on the Kindle is rather incompetent. The htop binary that NiLuJe provides is much nicer about that.

Also, ever since I learned about htop I have never, ever, ever used top again.

[NiLuJe]

Yeah, the default terminfo db is either old or too severely stripped down.

I ship a (stripped down, but up to date) copy of it with USBNet, and its htop build is hard-coded to use it over the system's.

(meaning if you really have masochistic tendencies, you could probably make the default top build usable by playing with the TERMINFO env var if you have USBNet installed).

[nasser]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Use htop as bundled with USBNet? ^^

Thanks! That works... in PW1 too!
Didn't know that there was a bundled htop with USBnet.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by nasser

Thanks! That works... in PW1 too!
Didn't know that there was a bundled htop with USBnet.

Yeah, probably another thing we hide in the directions.

[baf]

New kterm version is ready for testing.
I found some time and did what I wanted to do long time ago. The new version removes dependency on matchbox keyboard. It introduces native embedded widget. This may not be so important for end users but it brings some benefits in terms of development, maintenance and stability. Matchbox keyboard didn't receive any updates from the authors and above all it was very unstable on kindles.
The new native keyboard works with old matchbox keyboard xml config files, but some adjustments may be necessary. The old configs for kindles had many hacks because matchbox keyboard didn't work properly. We had to use images instead of text labels and we had to specify precise sizes of buttons.
In the bundled config that I tested on Kindle Touch I left only few image labels. For most keys I use normal text labels. I have no idea how it will look on Paperwhite (or if it will start at all as there were some problems with different libraries). I will be glad to hear any feedback on that.
If there is a need for separate layout for different Kindles I suggest to start customizations with the bundled one, not any of the old hacked layouts.
The new kterm at last supports screen rotation. I couldn't make this work reliably with matchbox keyboard.
I also added a command line option to set env variables.
It should also fix the problems with missing TERMINFO. Now bundled.

More info, source and packages for kindle on kterm's github page: https://github.com/bfabiszewski/kterm

[zxczxc]

The new version, 2.1 works fine for me on PW3
Thanks for the work!

(Although, I can see the keyboard 'resize' to fit the screen when it first opens, but it is not a big problem. I assume you know about it, but I just want to make sure)

Thanks!

[baf]

Originally Posted by zxczxc

The new version, 2.1 works fine for me on PW3
Thanks for the work!

(Although, I can see the keyboard 'resize' to fit the screen when it first opens, but it is not a big problem. I assume you know about it, but I just want to make sure)

Thanks!

Great! Thanks for the quick feedback.

Yes I noticed that on Kindle there is an ugly keyboard resize visible on launch like slow refresh (not visible on a pc). I am not a gtk guru, so I will have to dig more. Not a top priority though.

[nasser]

Welcome back, Baf!
Great work to update this essential application for jailbroken Kindles!

New kterm version works OK on my PW1.
Some slight differences in the way the keyboard looks. Screenshots attached.

Originally Posted by baf

...
The new kterm at last supports screen rotation. I could make this work reliably with matchbox keyboard.
...
[/url]

You mean, of course, that you COULDN'T make it work reliably with matchbox..

The images sub folder seems to contain all the images of the keys? Which are the ones really used?

[nasser]

Interesting side effect of new kterm version:
Midnight Commander now works from KUAL - without the initial screen distortion!
See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...0&postcount=22

[nasser]

The rotation setting is persistent across sessions. Where is it being stored? There's no entry in 'kterm.conf'.

[baf]

Hi nasser!

Originally Posted by nasser

The images sub folder seems to contain all the images of the keys? Which are the ones really used?

[root@kindle layouts]# grep 'image:' keyboard.xml
        <default display="image:img/esc.png" action="escape" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f1.png" action="f1" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f2.png" action="f2" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f3.png" action="f3" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f4.png" action="f4" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f5.png" action="f5" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f6.png" action="f6" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f7.png" action="f7" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f8.png" action="f8" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f9.png" action="f9" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f10.png" action="f10" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f11.png" action="f11" />
        <mod1 display="image:img/f12.png" action="f12" />
        <default display="image:img/back.png" action="backspace" />
        <shifted display="image:img/del.png" action="delete" />
        <default display="image:img/tab.png" action="tab" />
        <default display="image:img/capslk.png" action="modifier:caps" />
        <default display="image:img/return.png" action="return" />
        <default display="image:img/shift.png" action="modifier:shift" />
        <default display="image:img/up.png" action="up" />
        <shifted display="image:img/pgup.png" action="pageup" />
        <default display="image:img/shift.png" action="modifier:shift" />
        <default display="image:img/ctrl.png" action="modifier:ctrl" />
        <default display="image:img/alt.png" action="modifier:alt" />
        <default display="image:img/sym1.png" action="modifier:mod1" />
        <default display="image:img/sym2.png" action="modifier:mod2" />
        <default display="image:img/left.png" action="left" />
        <shifted display="image:img/home.png" action="home" />
        <default display="image:img/down.png" action="down" />
        <shifted display="image:img/pgdn.png" action="pagedown" />
        <default display="image:img/right.png" action="right" />
        <shifted display="image:img/end.png" action="end" />

Originally Posted by nasser

Midnight Commander now works from KUAL - without the initial screen distortion!

The problem was probably with proper terminfo missing on Paperwhites. Now I provide bundled copy with kterm 2.

Originally Posted by nasser

The rotation setting is persistent across sessions. Where is it being stored? There's no entry in 'kterm.conf'.

The rotation is stored in kindle framework, not in kterm. I just call /usr/bin/lipc-set-prop com.lab126.winmgr orientationLock from kterm. So if you set kterm to landscape mode and quit, your books will open in landscape too.

I just discovered a bug. Kterm ignores option to start with hidden keyboard. I will have to provide a bugfix for that.