GUI Launcher for Kindle Touch

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by Akirainblack

Thank you for the helpful response ixtab.
I'm new to this and have followed the available instructions I have found to the letter.
If my information isn't enough, possibly asking for more would be an idea rather than a facetious remark.

silver18 if your response was to me, would you please elaborate. Thank you.

To elaborate futher..
Start USBnetwork
Orientation
Launch Sudoku

have added whilst:
jbpatch
collections manager
haven't

You're getting something wrong here. It's not up to us to try to find out what your problem is, but it's up to you to give as detailed information as you can, so that we can try to help you. Look, I'm not trying to be an asshole, I just tried to tell you in a humorous way that you are providing *WAY* too little information. EDIT and yes, this may seem a little "grumpy" (and it actually is, at least a bit... we keep getting this kind of questions over and over, and we keep explaining to people that they need to provide details... again and again and again and again and... At some point it's just tiring.)/EDIT

Which Kindle Firmware version, which launcher version, and which extensions are you talking about? What *exactly* have you done? What *exactly* did you expect to be the outcome? (Well, I suppose this one is clear: there should have been launcher entries, but there aren't). Can you provide any other information? For example, is there anything suspicious in the logs?

You see, we can only try to help you if you provide enough information to start with. "It doesn't work" simply isn't enough information.

[Akirainblack]

Hello ixtab, my apologies, I deal with "error messages" every day, from the "it's not working" to someone supplying the actual error. Oh and yes I know what you're doing is for free/donation. I've done alot of free support in my time on various forums EDIT as well as over the phone or via email 1/2 way around the world /EDIT so I know how frustrating it is. Not knowing much about this I didn't know what was pertinent and what was just fluff.

Kindle: Touch (obviously)
Firmware: 5.1.2
Jailbroken obviously
Using simple screensaver hack
KindKalc,
JBPatch
Kindlet hack
EDIT. Everything is latest version as of Friday /EDIT

unsure as to where to find the logs as I'm new.

Anything else I can proffer to help?

[silver18]

Here's the complete description of what happened to me and how I solved it.

I was testing the newly created .bin installation file for my Komic.
As I'm mindless, I created a wrong .bin and this led to unzipping a bin folder plus config.xml and menu.json directly in extensions folder.
I don't know what happened next. All I know is that the launcher showed only 3 extensions (HUR, orientation and usbnetwork) and nothing else (though all other extensions were there!).

I tried to uninstall the launcher using the .bin provided and install it again: nothing changed.

Finally, I decided to manually install the launcher.
I extracted KindleLauncher.jar and launcher.conf from launcher_1.2.2.zip (you can find them in src/install).
Then I copied them to my Kindle using WinSCP:
- KindleLauncher.jar in /opt/amazon/ebook/lib/
- launcher.conf in /etc/upstart/
I restarted my Kindle and now everything is working!

Spoiler:

BTW I can't understand what happened: I didn't overwrite anything in extension folder!
Moreover, the uninstall process worked, but the install process didn't work (though I didn't get any error). I had to manually move the files as they were missing in those folders even after installing the launcher twice.
I have my launcher back now (and working), but this still seems strange to me!

[knc1]

Sounds like a name clash.
Isn't the practice to install each ap in a sub-directory of extensions?

Either the sub-directory name was missing or an option was passed to the un-packer to suppress the directory creation.

[silver18]

The problem was I forgot to pack the folder in the zip (I packed only bin folder, config.xml and menu.json). That's why there wasn't a subfolder!
Anyway, I can't understand the problem!

[knc1]

Originally Posted by silver18

The problem was I forgot to pack the folder in the zip (I packed only bin folder, config.xml and menu.json). That's why there wasn't a subfolder!
Anyway, I can't understand the problem!

All extensions use the same name(s).
So if one extension puts, say config.xml in the top level directory, the next one that does the same will overwrite the first.

I.E: Only the last installed (that doesn't us its own sub-directory) will win out in the over-write process and run as expected.

[silver18]

The point is: there weren't such files, so I didn't overwrite anything.
Moreover, I always install extensions with their folders, so that's not the problem!
Anyway, now it works...

[knc1]

My point was you are not the only person writing extensions and that even if zip'd with the sub-directory name the archive can by un-zip'd without the sub-directory name.

So it is not possible to rule out a name clash without inspecting the file structure of the machine of the **other people** who have posted problems.

[silver18]

Mmmm...
Attached you can see what I unzip with the bin update.
And here's the relevant part of the script:

unzip komic.zip -d /mnt/us/extensions/

I take care of present komic folder before sending that command (backup important files!).
So, unless others create an extensions with the same folder name komic, it should be impossible to mess up anything.

What I did wrong when I had that problem is to forget packing up in the zip the whole komic folder. I packed only what's in it, and this led to having files unzipped directly in extensions.

Hope I managed to explain myself!

[Akirainblack]

Right, got it fixed. Had to uninstall and then reinstall launcher 1.2.2 before it would see the added extensions. Thanks to those who offered help.

[yiming]

Could someone pls tell me how the order of display of items is determined in the launcher. Can the order be customized? thanks.

[Titano]

Originally Posted by yiming

Could someone pls tell me how the order of display of items is determined in the launcher. Can the order be customized? thanks.

There is a menu.json in each programs dirrectory. There should be a part in that file that says "priority" like in the example below.

{"name": "Bla", "priority": 0, "action": "/bla/bla/bla.sh"}

Edit the number to the priority you want and save the file. So if you want the program "Bla" to be number 10 on the list then change the priority to 10 like below.

{"name": "Bla", "priority": 10, "action": "/bla/bla/bla.sh"}

[knc1]

Quick question:
Isn't that field named: "priority" actually implementing "priority groups"?

I.E: More that one item could be set as: "priority":5 and will all of those be grouped together for display (between "priority":4 and "priority":6 items).

Translation: The end-user does not have to be concerned about duplicating an existing priority number?

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by knc1

Quick question:
Isn't that field named: "priority" actually implementing "priority groups"?

I.E: More that one item could be set as: "priority":5 and will all of those be grouped together for display (between "priority":4 and "priority":6 items).

Translation: The end-user does not have to be concerned about duplicating an existing priority number?

Yes, and no.

It's a very simple system: every extension can declare their own priority. The sorting is done once all extensions are loaded. If everybody declares a different priority, then all is fine, and entries are sorted in ascending order of their (numerical) declared priority.

If two or more extensions declare the same priority, then they are sorted according to the internal rules of the sort algorithm that is internally employed. There are no guarantees about the sort order though, so don't rely on any.

[yiming]

@Titano, @ixtab

thanks for the answers. managed to change the order of items in my launcher using the method, except HackedUpReader, which had been added to the launcher using the HackedUpReaderExtension. HackedUpReader has no menu.json and ends up as the 1st item on the list.