How to determine Kindle orienation?

[handyguy]

Hi, wondering if there is a simple way to determine the actual current orientation (landscape/portrait) of a Kindle PW? Maybe lab126? Or at least how do put it into landscape/portrait mode...

[Tarana]

There is a mode selection in your settings.

[NiLuJe]

There's a lipc prop that I don't recall right now, check KOReader's orientation code.

That was back in the Oasis day, I assume it hasn't changed too much.

[handyguy]

Doesn't seem to do anything on a PW4. All orientations return a 'U' from:
lipc-get-prop com.lab126.winmgr accelerometer. Also, could not find any orientation mode in settings, although it is alluded to when within a book, which is not the case here.

[Deskisamess]

On a Paperwhite, the landscape orientation is in the Aa menu, only when a book is open. The Home Screen doesn't rotate.

[NiLuJe]

Some of those props are RO, IIRC.

Some might be RW but contextual (i.e., won't work outside of a reader Booklet).

But, if you don't actually rely on the UI at all, it's a standard Linux fb ioctl away . (Actual mapping will be device-specific, to a potentially large extent, though [i.e., don't expect 0 to mean UR, on your device or any other]).

(Otherwise, doing that behind the UI/Xorg's back is a great way to shoot oneself in the foot (as in, soft-locking pillow and/or awesome). There's another recent-ish thread about that somewhere around here).

[handyguy]

I looked at the github code, but was not smart enough to translate to a standard fbink command. Would like to use fbink to write in landscape mode.

[NiLuJe]

┌─(ROOT@kindle:pts/0)──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────(~)─┐
└─(0.46:57%:00:51:98%:#)── fbink -Mmp "Portrait"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       ──(Wed, Jun 10)─┘
[FBInk] Detected a Kindle PaperWhite 2 (0x17 => Pinot on Wario)
[FBInk] Clock tick frequency appears to be 100 Hz
[FBInk] Screen density set to 212 dpi
[FBInk] Variable fb info: 758x1024, 8bpp @ rotation: 3 (Counter Clockwise, 270°)
[FBInk] Fontsize set to 16x16 (IBM base glyph size: 8x8)
[FBInk] Line length: 47 cols, Page size: 64 rows
[FBInk] Fixed fb info: ID is "mxc_epdc_fb", length of fb mem: 3145728 bytes & line length: 768 bytes
[FBInk] Pen colors set to #000000 for the foreground and #FFFFFF for the background
Printing string 'Portrait' @ column 0 + 0px, row 0 + 0px (overlay: N, no BG: N, no FG: N, inverted: N, flashing: N, centered: Y, halfway: Y, left padded: Y, right padded: N, clear screen: N, waveform: AUTO, dithering: PASSTHROUGH, nightmode: N, skip refresh: N, font: 0, font scaling: x0)
Next line should start @ row 1

┌─(ROOT@kindle:pts/0)──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────(~)─┐
└─(0.50:57%:00:51:98%:#)── fbdepth -r $(( ($(fbdepth -o) + 1) & 3 ))                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ──(Wed, Jun 10)─┘
[FBInk] Detected a Kindle PaperWhite 2 (0x17 => Pinot on Wario)
Variable fb info: 758x1024 (768x4096), 8bpp @ rotation: 3 (Counter Clockwise, 270°)
Fixed fb info: ID is "mxc_epdc_fb", length of fb mem: 3145728 bytes & line length: 768 bytes

Current grayscale flag is already 1!

Current bitdepth is already 8bpp!

Switching fb to 8bpp (current bitdepth) @ rotation 0 . . .
Setting bitdepth to 8bpp
Setting grayscale to 1
Setting rotate to 0 (Upright, 0°)
Bitdepth is now 8bpp (grayscale: 1) @ rotate: 0 (Upright, 0°)

Variable fb info: 1024x758 (1024x3072), 8bpp @ rotation: 0 (Upright, 0°)
Fixed fb info: ID is "mxc_epdc_fb", length of fb mem: 3145728 bytes & line length: 1024 bytes

┌─(ROOT@kindle:pts/0)──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────(~)─┐
└─(0.58:57%:00:51:98%:#)── fbink -Mmp "Landscape"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ──(Wed, Jun 10)─┘
[FBInk] Detected a Kindle PaperWhite 2 (0x17 => Pinot on Wario)
[FBInk] Clock tick frequency appears to be 100 Hz
[FBInk] Screen density set to 212 dpi
[FBInk] Variable fb info: 1024x758, 8bpp @ rotation: 0 (Upright, 0°)
[FBInk] Fontsize set to 16x16 (IBM base glyph size: 8x8)
[FBInk] Line length: 64 cols, Page size: 47 rows
[FBInk] Horizontal fit is perfect!
[FBInk] Vertical fit isn't perfect, shifting rows down by 3 pixels
[FBInk] Fixed fb info: ID is "mxc_epdc_fb", length of fb mem: 3145728 bytes & line length: 1024 bytes
[FBInk] Pen colors set to #000000 for the foreground and #FFFFFF for the background
Printing string 'Landscape' @ column 0 + 0px, row 0 + 0px (overlay: N, no BG: N, no FG: N, inverted: N, flashing: N, centered: Y, halfway: Y, left padded: Y, right padded: N, clear screen: N, waveform: AUTO, dithering: PASSTHROUGH, nightmode: N, skip refresh: N, font: 0, font scaling: x0)
Next line should start @ row 1

(Or -1 for Inverted Landscape. (Or the reverse, here, actually, because) The PW2 EPDC appears to be mirroring, which is a known quirk of some versions of the EPDC).

[NiLuJe]

Linux FB rotation is expressed in terms of 90° clockwise turns. So +1 or -1 from Portrait is always going to be Landscape.

Don't trust the actual absolute values, as eInk panels are only extremely rarely mounted Upright/Portrait, and some of them respond in weird ways to rotation events (see mirroring, which may not apply to every rotation state).

fbdepth -o returns the current rotation (as would reading /sys/class/graphics/fb0/rotate), and the actual range of valid constants is 0 to 3, so the & 3 gets us a wraparound at 3 (as would % 4, if you're more comfortable with divisions).

[handyguy]

I'm running FBInk v1.20.3 - is that gonna make a difference?

[NiLuJe]

I don't recall when I started shipping fbdepth on Kindle, but it was recent-ish.

EDIT: Ah, more recent than -ish, actually ;D. 1.22.1 .

[handyguy]

i guess i should install the new version!

[NiLuJe]

Ah. Just realized that I actually only ship it with USBNet, not the standalone package ^^.