kvncviewer - a VNC viewer (not only) for Kobos

[evanrmurphy]

This is what happens when I try to build kvncviewer from source:

evan@Evans-MacBook-Pro:~/src/kindlevncviewer$ make ARCH=arm-linux-gnueabihf
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/make -C luajit-2.0 HOST_CC="gcc -m32" CROSS=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
make[1]: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.
make: *** [luajit-2.0/src/luajit] Error 2

This is on Mac OS X with GNU Make 3.81.

It case it was a file permissions issue, I tested temporarily chmoding the Makefile to 777, got the same result.

Sorry to flood this thread with posts, and thanks for all the help so far - I'm excited that my Kindle is already jailbroken and has usb networking up and running thanks to folks on this forum.

[eReader fan]

Hey guys. I am stucked at the beginning of the process. Hope some can point me something. In the kobo touch hacking wiki page, where it says:

The most interesting file is etc/init.d/rcS. This script is called by the init process every time the Touch boots. We can easily add our own shell commands to this script. To be flexible, we'll add the following line right before the line "/usr/local/Kobo/nickel -qws": add "/mnt/onboard/run.sh &

I can't find that line!! I downloaded 3 diferent Roms.THe newest, the 3.19 which is one another user said he used, and another in the middle of previous mentioned. The file is found, but that line not.

Maybe happen this cause I am trying to do in a Kobo aura HD, and the wiki was made for a Kobo touch. Any ways, that doesn't solve the problem

Can some one please help me with this dumb problem? @nomeata , @kenoi or someone else who achieved it?

Thanks

[tshering]

Originally Posted by eReader fan

Hey guys. I am stucked at the beginning of the process. Hope some can point me something. In the kobo touch hacking wiki page, where it says:

I can't find that line!! I downloaded 3 diferent Roms.THe newest, the 3.19 which is one another user said he used, and another in the middle of previous mentioned. The file is found, but that line not.

Maybe happen this cause I am trying to do in a Kobo aura HD, and the wiki was made for a Kobo touch. Any ways, that doesn't solve the problem

Can some one please help me with this dumb problem? @nomeata , @kenoi or someone else who achieved it?

Thanks

The line has been changed once or twice since then. Search for "nickel" and you should be able to identify the line in your version of the rcS.

[grizzly666]

Ok i give up for today after only 18 hours of bashing head against a kobo
(16 of them on kvnc)
What i have done is installed pbchess_2017.06.13_kobo and gotten usbnetwork working fine.
Then downloaded the zip file from the first post unzipped it and moved the kvncviewer folder to my kobo H2O.
Now comes the problem WHERE are that folder supposed to go?
I have tried it in /mnt/onboard (which is where it lands when copying from windows to the root of the drive folder) also tried it at .kobo.
Also moved it using the pbchess filemanager to / (yes root).

When i then try to run kvnc using usbnetwork and putty using ssh (telnet does not work only getting a refused connection error) i get the same error msg (regardless where the kvnc folder is).
The error is

[root@(none) kvncviewer]# ./luajit vncviewer.lua 192.168.2.1:1
./luajit: ./ffi/framebuffer_linux.lua:122: unknown bpp value for the mxc eink driver
stack traceback:
        [C]: in function 'error'
        ./ffi/framebuffer_linux.lua:122: in function 'open'
        vncviewer.lua:3: in main chunk
        [C]: at 0x0000bd31

Do i need to change any of the bits_per_pixel lines around the 122 line?
Or is it something with this?
-- it seems that fb.finfo.smem_len is unreliable on kobo
-- Figure out the size of the screen in bytes

Or something completely else?

And yes i´m 99,9% lost when it comes to programing and linux terminal but can copy/paste, and research (google) for hours before asking stupid questions (unlike most people).

[grizzly666]

Ok got a little furter.
I downgraded the FW from 4,5,9587 to 3.19.5761.

And now i get this error instead.

[root@(none) ~]# ./luajit vncviewer.lua 192.168.2.101:1
could not open input device /dev/input/event2 (possibly harmless)
02/08/2017 05:54:47 ConnectToTcpAddr: connect
02/08/2017 05:54:47 Unable to connect to VNC server
./luajit: vncviewer.lua:152: cannot initialize client
stack traceback:
        [C]: in function 'assert'
        vncviewer.lua:152: in function 'connect'
        vncviewer.lua:278: in main chunk
        [C]: at 0x0000bd31

I assume that "ConnectToTcpAddr: connect" means that i get a connection to the 192.168.2.101 ip (my win8,1 that i connect kobo with usbnetwork to).
But then the vnc server rejects to connection.
And the input device error i assume is for input devices/touchscreen on the kobo (so you can controll the vnc server os).
Is that right?

I have tried ultravnc/tightvnc/realvnc (not at the same time and with or without password) but get the same error.

I have opened ip/ports in firewall, also tried to disable windows firewall (after disable wifi card) but no go.
Also tried with -password <mypass> added in the startup string and with -debug added (with or without -password) but gets the same error again.
And -debug gives no more info.
Perhaps debug creates/write a log file?
But if so where and what name, i looked around but could not find any.


So anyone got any other ideás?

[grizzly666]

Ok got it working now even on the 4,5,9587 FW and usbnetwork works in both pbchess and KSM menu.
The problem was that i did not change the port from 5900 to 5901 on the vnc server/s.
I guess i assumed that a vncviewer that you can´t choose port with command line arguments would use the standard vnc port 5900.
Grrr!

Now the problem is it looks really really bad and is hard too read.
If you for example scroll one line the text becomes almost impossible too read scroll one more line and you can´t even see that it is supposed to be text.
Pictures are even worse.
And i have setup the kobo resulution on windows (so the kobo screen is used all the way).

If i try running kvnc with the no dithering mode it gets a bit better the text is then readable (as long as the text is black or white on a black or white background) but anything that have any greyscale or color is really still really bad.
Have tried with medium and fast mode too (and combined with dithering) but it only gets ALOT worse.



I assume this has something too do with it.

[root@(none) ~]# cd /mnt/onboard/kvncviewer
[root@(none) kvncviewer]# ./luajit vncviewer.lua -password bulldozer 192.168.2.1
00:1
could not open input device /dev/input/event2 (possibly harmless)
04/08/2017 09:14:54 VNC server supports protocol version 3.8 (viewer 3.8)
04/08/2017 09:14:54 We have 2 security types to read
04/08/2017 09:14:54 0) Received security type 17
04/08/2017 09:14:54 1) Received security type 2
04/08/2017 09:14:54 Selecting security type 2 (1/2 in the list)
04/08/2017 09:14:54 Selected Security Scheme 2
04/08/2017 09:14:54 VNC authentication succeeded
04/08/2017 09:14:54 Desktop name "nuckan ( 192.168.2.100, 192.168.1.103 ) - application mode"
04/08/2017 09:14:54 Connected to VNC server, using protocol version 3.8
04/08/2017 09:14:54 VNC server default format:
04/08/2017 09:14:54   32 bits per pixel.
04/08/2017 09:14:54   Least significant byte first in each pixel.
04/08/2017 09:14:54   TRUE colour: max red 255 green 255 blue 255, shift red 16 green 8 blue 0

And then specifically the 32bit and true color crap.
I do get the same 32bit/true color on on ultravnc/thightvnc/realvnc (on windows).
And from what i have learned there is no arguments that can set the resulotion/bit/color/etc on windows like there is on x11vnc/xvnc.
Is that right?

I do want too run windows on my nuc that is the machine i would use the kobo as a screen for.
But i guess i could do linux if there is no fix for the crap looking graphics on win.
But it would probably take days or even weeks to get linux setup the way i need it, and that does not include xvnc if that decide to not wanna play ball.

So i assume i have too change something (or a bunch) in the kvnc lua files.
Have not tried that yet and probably do not have time for 1-3 days.
So if anyone now what/where too change and in what file(s) that would be appreciated.

[_darch]

@grizzly666, my Glo is also at FM 4.5.9587 (i just reset and updated it), but i still get the error about line 122 in framebuffer_linux.lua. And I am using the pre-compiled app from post #1

Did you solve this error somehow or did you compile the whole thing yourself and that was how you made it work?

I had kvncviewer working (partly) before my device was forcefully "upgrade" to FM 4.5.xxxx

[grizzly666]

I got it to work with the zip from post#1.
The line 122 error seems to be the general fail code for if not everything at least many things.
Like wrong port set on the vnc server (not kvncviewer but the server on windows/linux/etc) or that you forgot or typed the wrong password in the kvncviewer line.

Also got that error when trying different arguments in the kvnc line (that kvnc simple did not support or typed something wrong/forgot a space or -).

So make sure the vncserver use the 5901 port NOT port 5900 that is the standard default setting for most vncservers, and if password is used on the vncserver that kvnc use the right one, and the line is correct.

For example use this kvnc line with your password/ip adress and also the right "display" which in this line is the :1 at the end (can´t remember if the wrong display gave the same error or not).
./luajit vncviewer.lua -reconnecting -rotateFB 90 -password YOURPASS 192.168.2.102:1


The really bad picture issue i have not solved though as in if there are anything not black or white it becomes almost impossible to read.
And i tried fro days with settings/different vnc servers like x11vnc/xvnc/ and so on on both linux and windows and also a raspberry pi 3.
Basically the only settings that does anything for the picture is adding -dithering in the kvnc line (which give a better overall look but B&W looks worse) and setting resolution in the vncserver startup line.
Things like -dpi or different encodings/color options does nothing at all (atleast to my eye).

So after one and a half week off thinkering with this for 8+ hours a day i have given up!
I almost got it so i could use the kobo as a screen for a commandline browser like w3m/elinks/links/links2 and have them set to white background black text then links to black underlined and visited links to white (and yes they where invisible then, not 100% ideal but better then not knowing what you have visited).
The problem was after 5-10 "pages" (as in page up/down) the tex became harder and harder too read.
Tried different screen update settings but when i got it to be good text after a couple of "pages" the screen did a full refresh 5-10 times before you had a chance too finish reading it.
And that was the last straw i gave up, mostly because i did not want a kobo in 10000 small pieces.

[Elektron]

I'm interested. How do I install this?

[NiMa]

But.... is it me, or there is no makefile in the .zip?

EDIT: it's me. I've not seen that it was the precompiled version.

[Elektron]

How to use?

[grizzly666]

Originally Posted by Elektron

How to use?

Read the tread all info on how too use is in it!

I gave up after over 100 hours of trying, i made it work quite quick but the screen/picture quality was really/really bad.
Do not remember exactly what and how but it´s in my post in the tread.

[Elektron]

Can I use this with KFMon?

[NiMa]

Originally Posted by grizzly666

I gave up after over 100 hours of trying, i made it work quite quick but the screen/picture quality was really/really bad.
Do not remember exactly what and how but it´s in my post in the tread.

@grizzly666
If you are still interested in that, I coded a little bash script to display your computer screen on your Kobo. Images should be clear, because it's screenshots of your screen taken and sent to your Kobo, then 'printed' on the screen.
Here it is: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=332585
Good luck

[NiMa]

Originally Posted by Elektron

Can I use this with KFMon?

Probably, just create a .png file with wathever you want in it, then create a new 'watch' an link it to a shell script.