PRS-T1 Hack: App-dependent Left/Right button mapping

[altruizine]

Buttonmap: Use the Left / Right keys in all reader apps

Various reader apps recognize different buttons for turning to the next or previous page. The wiki offers various static button mappings for the Left / Right keys, but none of the static mappings is sufficient for all reader apps.

Inspired by this hack on the XDA forum, I've modified the pgdn program provided there to work for the PRS-T1. With this hack, it's possible to remap the Left / Right keys dynamically, depending on which app is currently running, to Dpad Left/Right, Volume Up/Down, nothing (needed for Sony's built-in reader app), or whichever other key is needed.

The Buttonmap app wraps the pgdn daemon and the default configuration file into an easily installable package.

The default configuration file allows using the Left / Right keys for the following apps (tested): Reader (built-in), Browser (built-in), Aldiko Reader, Amazon Kindle for Android, FBReader, InstaFetch Pro, Google Reader, Google Books (old 1.x versions), CoolReader.

Installation:

1. Download the Buttonmap.apk file and install it on the Reader.
2. Reboot. If your “su” uses the Superuser app, grant Buttonmap permanent root privileges when the superuser request pops up. This occurs shortly after reboot; don’t let the request time out, or you will have to reboot again.

Configuration:

The pgdn configuration file is /sdcard/.pgdn. Buttonmap creates an example configuration file as /sdcard/.pgdn.dist. It also creates a new /sdcard/.pgdn file if it does not yet exist, but it does not overwrite an existing one. When you upgrade, you can copy the contents of .pgdn.dist to .pgdn or simply delete your the old .pgdn.

When you change the .pgdn config file, you need to restart the pgdn daemon as root (“killall pgdn && /data/data/com.github.altruizine.Buttonmap/files/pgdn”), or just reboot the system.

Please find the source code of this program at https://github.com/altruizine/pgdn. Bug reports / enhancements welcome!

Edits (in reverse order):

• 2012-09-03: Updated configuration file with user-contributed settings
• 2012-08-23: Released wrapper app Buttonmap.apk.
• 2012-08-20: Updated zip file: Added exception for CoolReader, which has native support for the PRS-T1; added a configuration for the Terminal Emulator. Added mention of the Autostart app.
• 2012-08-06: Updated zip file: Added exception for built-in browser, which can interpret the Left/Right keys without a keyboard mapping.

Archived: Installation notes for pgdn daemon without Buttonmap app:

Spoiler:

1. Make sure you're rooted and have root adb access.
2. Copy the provided pgdn binary to /data/local/bin/pgdn and make sure it's executable.
   

           adb push pgdn /data/local/bin/pgdn
           adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/bin/pgdn

3. Copy the attached dot.pgdn config file to /sdcard/.pgdn (mind the dot). Customize this file to add keyboard mappings for other reader apps.
   

           adb push dot.pgdn /sdcard/.pgdn

4. Make sure pgdn is run as root at boot. I'm using the SManager app to do this. Reportedly, the Autostart app works as well (see comments below).

[dennisMe]

Thank you! This is really nice, a must have in fact! I just installed it without using ADB by just copying everything over using root explorer. I'm on a lInux host which preserves flags. I didn't know SManager before but it works well!
Now at least I can use the hardware keys and don't need to swipe in most apps.
Great little add on, it should be incorporated in the root hacks as standard.

[graboluk]

How does it affect the battery?

[altruizine]

Originally Posted by graboluk

How does it affect the battery?

The pgdn daemon shouldn't affect battery life much, if at all. I've verified using strace that it sits idle doing nothing unless you press a button.

I haven't profiled the SManager app I'm using to run the daemon at boot, but I can imagine more lightweight methods of running a program at boot. Nonetheless, I haven't observed a difference in battery life.

@dennisMe, I'm glad you like it!

[uboot]

Great work, altruizine!

There's no need for SManager.

As we did with the fixpermissions script (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...48&postcount=9), you can invoke the daemon via /etc/install-recovery.sh

Just make sure that install-recovery.sh is executable.

If existent, install-recovery.sh is called on every boot by /init.rc

I don't know how to create an apk package, but as an alternative one could modify one of the existing flash packages and put all necessary commands like creating/modifying install_recovery.sh into do_update.sh.


But let's wait for rupor to discover this thread! I'm pretty sure he'll integrate it into his root package

[altruizine]

Thanks four your comments, uboot!

I know about the install-recovery.sh method, but I'm afraid it does not work in this case: Presently, the pgdn daemon reads a configuration file from the (internal) SD card, which (I think) has not been mounted yet when the install-recovery.sh script runs.

The idea of an APK would be not only to ease installation, but also to run the pgdn daemon once boot has been completed and the SD card has been mounted.

[uboot]

hm... you're right... only data, system, preload, dic, ... partitions are mounted before install_recovery.sh

but maybe you can modify the daemon to look in several places for the cfg file: /etc, /data/etc, /mnt/sdcard, ...

[uboot]

This seems to be a lighter alternative to run scripts at boot time:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...roid.autostart

[uboot]

Update: I definitely works via install_recovery.sh - I just tried it - and internal sdcard is already mounted.

But the Autostart app I mentioned does not work...

[tartanpion]

Autostart app works for me with

su -c "/data/local/bin/pgdn"

in autostart.sh. (tested with moonreader and fbreader)

Need to add

profile org.coolreader 0 0

in ".pgdn" for compatibility with coolreader.

[altruizine]

Thanks for your follow-ups, uboot and tartanpion!

I've added the CoolReader configuration to the dot.pgdn file and will release an updated .zip soon. (It's already on Github.)

The Autostart author has sent me (an updated version of) his app's source code and has given me permission to modify and redistribute it. With it, I may be able to build an all-in-one APK that installs and runs the pgdn daemon automatically.

[fairworld]

some apps support T1's left right key

So when pgdn is running, left and right key are acting like double click...

can i fix it ?

of course [dot.pgdn] file is modified...

[altruizine]

Originally Posted by fairworld

some apps support T1's left right key

So when pgdn is running, left and right key are acting like double click...

can i fix it ?

Yes, you can fix it in the same manner as tartanpion did for CoolReader: Find out the package name of the app in question (directory name under /data/data/) and add a directive to the /sdcard/.pgdn file that maps the keys to 0 for that app.

Once your app works correctly, be sure to share your config directives here so that I can include them in the default config file.

[altruizine]

OK, building a simple app that installs and runs the pgdn daemon at boot time wasn't so difficult after all.

I ended up not using the Autostart source code, but rolling my own (with a bit of googling around for inspiration). The source is already up on Github. I'll also update the first post with an APK package and installation instructions shortly.

[fairworld]

Pgdn is very useful to me...

so I added this function into my app(T1Mizer)

Helping Optimization for T1(but not english...)

when T1 is booted completed, this app run 'pgdn' via shell command

and This app have a function that can configure 'dot.pgdn' profile...

hahaha...