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Old 01-10-2013, 05:15 AM   #1
giorgio130
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[WIP] Port of Kindle Paperwhite OS

Hi everyone!
I'm posting this to see if there's enough interest, and to find someone wanting to help me out.
I'm currently working on porting the Kindle Paperwhite firmware to the Kobo Glo. This should be fairly doable since the hardware is very, very similar.
Since the software is proprietary and under copyright, everyone interested to run it will have to download the 5.3.1 update from amazon and extract it from there.

Currently I've written some scripts that mount the firmware image extracted from the update in /mnt/kindle, and then chroot there. The software should then start calling the file "/etc/upstart/framework". It still doesn't display anything.

I will provide more detailed instructions if there's anyone willing to help.
The next steps I'm facing are:
- enabling logging. I've created a /var directory but still it stays empty.
- The framebuffer on Kobos has a depth of 16 bpp, while on Kindles it is 8 or 4 (still unclear to me). I have to find a way to change the mode of the display; I've tried fbset but it does nothing. -> SOLVED

I hope that someone else will be interested in this effort
to the next update!

EDIT: I'm adding the supporting files I've already created.
framebuffer_configure sets the eink panel to be driven at 8bpp, like the paperwhite does.
Attached Files
File Type: gz kobo_kindle.tar.gz (6.6 KB, 343 views)

Last edited by giorgio130; 01-29-2013 at 03:50 AM.
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Old 01-10-2013, 05:16 AM   #2
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reserved (hopefully) for future use!
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Old 01-10-2013, 07:45 AM   #3
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Are then any advantages for the Kindle paperwhite OS?
Is it better then Kobo?
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Old 01-10-2013, 11:38 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by koenieee View Post
Are then any advantages for the Kindle paperwhite OS?
Is it better then Kobo?
As the time being, I'd say so. The firmware is much more mature and has far less bugs. However it would not substitute the original one, it would be a sort of dual boot.
Later I'll publish what I already have, maybe it can spark some interest...
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Old 01-10-2013, 12:40 PM   #5
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Interesting hack, but not sure what the Amazon firmware does better than Kobo's. A port of the Kobo firmware to the Kindle would have a lot more takers I think.

If you're looking for a project for the Glo, a way to set the backlighting to an arbitrary (lower) level would be hugely welcome. Or perhaps an inverse colour mode: a sorely needed feature imo.
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Old 01-10-2013, 01:59 PM   #6
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So you would give up the ability to read epubs? Why on earth would you want to do that?
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Old 01-10-2013, 02:28 PM   #7
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So you would give up the ability to read epubs? Why on earth would you want to do that?
Yes, I'm wondering the same...
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Old 01-10-2013, 02:48 PM   #8
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Not only that; while the Kindle code MIGHT be stable on it's hardware, who knows HOW stable it would be in a hacked format on different hardware.
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Old 01-10-2013, 02:58 PM   #9
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While you are at it, can you fix the line height bug in the KF8 portion of the Kindle firmware? If you could do that and get it running on a Kobo, it would make the Glo a lot nicer then the PW.
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Old 01-10-2013, 05:00 PM   #10
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Nice to see that the thread doesn't get ignored Thanks for the suggestions...
It seems though that this forum lacks a little of technical people? I'll need some directions on the problem of different bpp...
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Old 01-11-2013, 04:47 AM   #11
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It is a good project
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Old 01-11-2013, 08:02 AM   #12
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another suggestion: maybe could be also useful (and possibly easier, too) to work on the port of the application KindlePDFViewer on Kobo platform.
In case you don't know it: despite its name, it's a complete reader application, not limited to PDF (using mupdf engine), but it can also handle DJVU (based on djvulibre), EPUB, MOBI, TXT, etc.. (all other formats supported by crreader engine).
It's open souce, written in C and lua (for the interface part). It includes a file manager and has several advanced features like: pdf zoom and pan, 2-column mode, pdf reflow, and many many other.
At the moment kindles with keyboard are supported, but a W.I.P. version that will be shortly released will include support for Kindle Paperwhite.
It's actively developed so in case of needs, you may ask support to the developers for help.
It makes use of framebuffer for the display, so I think it could be adapted to kobo platform.

For further info:
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Old 01-11-2013, 08:42 AM   #13
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@traycold, I'm already working on that
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Old 01-13-2013, 09:53 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by koenieee View Post
Are then any advantages for the Kindle paperwhite OS?
Is it better then Kobo?
I have recently bought a Kobo Glo since the screen of my Kindle keyboard has some problems.

There is one feature of Kindle is very handy indeed. One could easily send long articles from web pages to Kindle via the "send to kindle" extension of chrome. Then the Kindle would get the article with proper format via wifi automatically.
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Old 01-14-2013, 01:00 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by windspeedo View Post
I have recently bought a Kobo Glo since the screen of my Kindle keyboard has some problems.

There is one feature of Kindle is very handy indeed. One could easily send long articles from web pages to Kindle via the "send to kindle" extension of chrome. Then the Kindle would get the article with proper format via wifi automatically.
You could try Instapaper, using the Glo's browser to grab the .epub.
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