Native Abiword 2.8.6 for the Kindle Scribe (and possibly other Kindles) - Page 6

kaspar · 10-06-2026, 09:14 AM

It does build for soft float, but unfortunately it's a keyboard problem. I don't have a Kindle Voyage anymore, so I can't make USB keyboard work on one. I did build a version for the 2015 Paperwhite because I have one around.

Solitaire1 · 10-10-2026, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

What a weird choice of software. Abiword is long-abandoned, very buggy, very primitive piece of software, which uses a proprietary pseudo-XML file format. There is a ton of better text editors today.

I tried AbiWord a long time ago (back in the days of Windows XP) when I was searching for alternative word processors. I ended up giving it a pass for two reasons: (1) the documents are extremely large (related to the second reason), and (2) I checked the format and it seems like every paragraph begins with all of the formatting for that paragraph. Due to this, changing the formatting was slow because when you made a change it had to update every single paragraph in the document. While it might not be an issue with short documents like a letter, it becomes an issue when you have a document that is many pages long.

sky · 10-16-2026, 11:12 PM

@kaspar I sent you a DM about some problems that resulted from trying the USB keyboard. I hope you can help me.

Frogm4n · 10-20-2026, 01:35 PM

I can confirm that v1.5 Alpha runs on the Scribe 2022 with firmware 5.20.1, however because Amazon broke the BlueTooth tooling it doesn't recognize the keyboard any more. KTerm doesn't see it either. KOReader does, but I have no way to manage the connection or pairing.

kaspar · 10-20-2026, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

I can confirm that v1.5 Alpha runs on the Scribe 2022 with firmware 5.20.1, however because Amazon broke the BlueTooth tooling it doesn't recognize the keyboard any more. KTerm doesn't see it either. KOReader does, but I have no way to manage the connection or pairing.

Thanks for letting me know. Might want to raise the issue with the authors of Kindle HID Passthrough:

https://github.com/zampierilucas/kindle-hid-passthrough

Frogm4n · Yesterday, 10:01 AM

D-Oh! I'd been using the manual connection from a commandline. I installed kindle-hid-passthrough with KPM and what do you know? It works. Thanks for reminding me to set up the tool. Abiword is working with the keyboard again.

I do have a UI bug I just found. There are issues with second level dialog windows.

In Edit->Preferences->Choose Screen Color the next dialog window pops under the prefs window. It has focus, as I can tap Esc to dismiss it but I can't find a way to see it.

In Format->Create and Modify Styles...->Modify... pops under, but I can see the buttons on the bottom and tap them.

In Format->Paragraph->Tabs... the dialog does show in front, but interacting with it seems broken. Tapping Esc here also will dismiss it. If I arrive at the same dialog as a first level window via Format->Tabs... it appears to work as expected.

I'm sure there are other dialogs but those were a few I found with a quick look around.

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10-06-2026, 09:14 AM	#76
kaspar Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 17902 Join Date: Dec 2024 Device: Kindle Scribe	It does build for soft float, but unfortunately it's a keyboard problem. I don't have a Kindle Voyage anymore, so I can't make USB keyboard work on one. I did build a version for the 2015 Paperwhite because I have one around.

10-16-2026, 11:12 PM	#78
sky Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2026 Device: 2022 Kindle Scribe	@kaspar I sent you a DM about some problems that resulted from trying the USB keyboard. I hope you can help me.

10-20-2026, 01:35 PM	#79
Frogm4n Guru Posts: 726 Karma: 4500001 Join Date: Jul 2023 Device: Scribe 2022, OA2, PRS-350	I can confirm that v1.5 Alpha runs on the Scribe 2022 with firmware 5.20.1, however because Amazon broke the BlueTooth tooling it doesn't recognize the keyboard any more. KTerm doesn't see it either. KOReader does, but I have no way to manage the connection or pairing.

Yesterday, 10:01 AM	#81
Frogm4n Guru Posts: 726 Karma: 4500001 Join Date: Jul 2023 Device: Scribe 2022, OA2, PRS-350	D-Oh! I'd been using the manual connection from a commandline. I installed kindle-hid-passthrough with KPM and what do you know? It works. Thanks for reminding me to set up the tool. Abiword is working with the keyboard again. I do have a UI bug I just found. There are issues with second level dialog windows. In Edit->Preferences->Choose Screen Color the next dialog window pops under the prefs window. It has focus, as I can tap Esc to dismiss it but I can't find a way to see it. In Format->Create and Modify Styles...->Modify... pops under, but I can see the buttons on the bottom and tap them. In Format->Paragraph->Tabs... the dialog does show in front, but interacting with it seems broken. Tapping Esc here also will dismiss it. If I arrive at the same dialog as a first level window via Format->Tabs... it appears to work as expected. I'm sure there are other dialogs but those were a few I found with a quick look around.