Koreader running on Kobos (all of them, hopefully!)

[jshzh]

I am looking for tips on how to make Koreader work better for me. Maybe someone else has already asked/answered these questions but I didn't find them.

1) How can I run Koreader directly when I power on the device? I don't need to use the Kobo software. I wonder if there is a way to avoid seeing its interface.

2) How can I turn off the device while using Koreader? Right now it seems I can only turn it to "standby". If I want to power off the device, I need to go back to Kobo software first. Did I do anything wrong?

Thank you for your help.

[Ken Maltby]

"fmon" includes an "on_start.sh" that is before Nickel (the Kobo user interface) I'll try just adding a call to koreader_kobo.sh, and see how that works. No not quite that easy.
I should have taken a few more precautions, it went directly into Koreader (the frontlight
came on) but didn't make it to the file manager. I should have made sure USBnet was starting but it didn't. So now I am loading a backup image onto my internal uSD.

I haven't tried to add Koreader to Sergey's KoboLauncher in a long time, if that works now, there is a power off on that menu.

Luck;
Ken

[tshering]

Originally Posted by jshzh

1) How can I run Koreader directly when I power on the device? I don't need to use the Kobo software. I wonder if there is a way to avoid seeing its interface.

I don't want to talk you into something, but maybe you are interested in this thread, especially post #2. The tools provided there, let you start Koreader without running the kobo interface (the pictures are of an earlier version and don't show this in the main menu). Be aware that two people reported of having had serious troubles by using the example package provided there. I, however, am running it since then (this means roughly 2 months) without any troubles.
Note: I am running a rather old (at least 2 months old) version of Koreader. Powering off from this version of the Koreader does not go very smooth, but it works. I did not try any newer versions of Koreader, maybe its better now. In order to connect the reader to the pc, you still need to see the Kobo interface.

[giorgio130]

Originally Posted by jshzh

I am looking for tips on how to make Koreader work better for me. Maybe someone else has already asked/answered these questions but I didn't find them.

1) How can I run Koreader directly when I power on the device? I don't need to use the Kobo software. I wonder if there is a way to avoid seeing its interface.

This one would be simple, but you would lose the ability of adding/ modifiying files on the reader. So I really don't recommend this right now, at least until USB functionality is not implemented.

2) How can I turn off the device while using Koreader? Right now it seems I can only turn it to "standby". If I want to power off the device, I need to go back to Kobo software first. Did I do anything wrong?

That is missing, you're right! It would even be simple to implement. I think I'll get to do it in the next days.

[jshzh]

Thanks, Giorgio.

1) You are right. I just had Pocket installed and found it rather useful for reading some webpages. Koreader doesn't support wifi/google/wikipedia now and in Koboreader I can't find articles saved by Pocket under Kobo interface either. Maybe Tshering's menu is what I am looking for as it gives options for two systems.

2) That is very kind of you. Right now I hardly turn off the reader - just standby - because it takes 4 steps to come back Koreader instead of two.

3) Do you have any thought about the "????" in non-English book titles in "history" under Koreader? All titles appear fine under FileManager but one has to go through layers of folders to find the last read book there.

[jshzh]

Thanks, Ken,
I will wait for Giorgio to add something Koreader itself before delve into the Launcher, which I am sure is cool too.

[jshzh]

Thanks, Tshering,
I will cross my fingers when I install your lovely menu tool. I don't use the night mode and I am not using a mini but I have the newest firmware on an HD. Hopefully it won't be a huge problem. BTW, I suppose it takes less time to get to Koreader via the menu tool than Kobo interface, right?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by jshzh

Thanks, Tshering,
I will cross my fingers when I install your lovely menu tool.

Please, make a backup of your internal sd first!

Originally Posted by jshzh

BTW, I suppose it takes less time to get to Koreader via the menu tool than Kobo interface, right?

You suppose rightly.

[giorgio130]

Originally Posted by jshzh

3) Do you have any thought about the "????" in non-English book titles in "history" under Koreader? All titles appear fine under FileManager but one has to go through layers of folders to find the last read book there.

Could you share an example of a file with "non-english title"? Do you mean non-latin script?

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by jshzh

1) You are right. I just had Pocket installed and found it rather useful for reading some webpages. Koreader doesn't support wifi/google/wikipedia now and in Koboreader I can't find articles saved by Pocket under Kobo interface either. Maybe Tshering's menu is what I am looking for as it gives options for two systems.

Pocket articles appear to be stored in .kobo\articles\<xxxxx> where the <xxxxx> I expect is based on some data from the Pocket API.

Within each directory is an index.html and a series of apparently randomly numbered files.

[Ken Maltby]

As to tips for how to make koreader work better, I find that making it so that Nickel has the least possible function and giving it no files to manage (except the launching .pngs), to avoid a lot of hassles and its excessive processing delays. I have my ebook files in folders inside a hidden folder. Nickel will not process them at all. Both Giorgio's port of Koreader and Sergey's port of CoolReader allow you to select and read the ebooks in hidden folders. I have both on my AuraHD but almost exclusively use Koreader. The main reason may be that I have already worked out how to tweak Koreader better.

Play with the options in both top and bottom menus, rendering styles, fonts, ect...
You will be surprised how much is already there.

Luck;
Ken

[jshzh]

Originally Posted by tshering

Please, make a backup of your internal sd first!


You suppose rightly.

Do you mean backup the firmware? I don't have important material on the reader. So the worst scenario is to bring back the factory setting, right? If I may not able to do that (my last resource), I am not going to install the menu tool because it will be beyond my capabilities

[jshzh]

Originally Posted by giorgio130

Could you share an example of a file with "non-english title"? Do you mean non-latin script?

Yes, Sir. There are three attachments to this post: the first title is in Cyrillic, second traditional Chinese, last simplified Chinese. They all appear as "????" in "History" but completely normal in "FileManager".

One more thing for your reference: if I click a correctly displayed title in "History", I can open the book while if I click the ???? titles, I am taken back to the Kobo interface.

The books are in public domain.

[jshzh]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Pocket articles appear to be stored in .kobo\articles\<xxxxx> where the <xxxxx> I expect is based on some data from the Pocket API.

Within each directory is an index.html and a series of apparently randomly numbered files.

Thank you, Peter.
I know little about computer so in my FileManager I clicked "toggle hidden files" and got the following:
.cache/
.stardict/
bin/
dev/
drivers/
etc/
lib/
libexec/
lost+found/
mnt/
proc/
root/
sbin/
sys/
tmp/
usr/
var/

I opened each of these directories and didn't find .kobo\articles..... Did I miss anything?

There is another question: sometimes I click the "FileManager" and get into this page:

"The light icon" "Home Icon"
History
Toggle hidden files
Frontlight settings
Help
^ page 1/1 "time"

How can I return to the actual book folders from this page? If I click "Home", I am back to the Kobo software. It seems to be a one-way situation.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by jshzh

Thank you, Peter.
I know little about computer so in my FileManager I clicked "toggle hidden files" and got the following:
.cache/
.stardict/
bin/
dev/
drivers/
etc/
lib/
libexec/
lost+found/
mnt/
proc/
root/
sbin/
sys/
tmp/
usr/
var/

I opened each of these directories and didn't find .kobo\articles..... Did I miss anything?

There is another question: sometimes I click the "FileManager" and get into this page:

"The light icon" "Home Icon"
History
Toggle hidden files
Frontlight settings
Help
^ page 1/1 "time"

How can I return to the actual book folders from this page? If I click "Home", I am back to the Kobo software. It seems to be a one-way situation.

You just poke the screen outside the menu.

You can navigate to the whole internal uSD, but File Manager is only setup to view certain files (ebooks and .txt for the most part). It is possible to add file types but it is a reader program not a real file manager.

It looks like PeterT is saying they are in mnt/onboard/.kobo/articles. mnt/onboard is the FAT partition of the internal uSD card that you see when you use the USB cable,. mnt/sd gets you to the external uSD card, if you have one pluged in.


Luck;
Ken