Best way to detect touch for python app

[sheep_wizard]

Hello, I have started working on making a small game for my kobo device using python and FBInk. This has worked out fine but I am now looking for the best way to detect touch input.

I tried using this python module which allowed me to det touch coords, but it still registers touch input from behind my game screen, e.g. clicking on a book.

Is there anyway to disable the default touch behaviour, or a different way I can be detecting touch inputs within a python app?

[Mavireck]

Yes it is possible and quite easy actually. You need to make an IOCTL call to grab the touch input. Then Nickel (the default software) won't register any input, although it will keep running. Which brings the question: do you really want to keep Nickel in the background? If you do not need it, I highly recommend killing everything to avoid conflicts. For instance, Nickel may keep updating the clock above your app, or go to sleep.

To do that, you should run the following bash commands:

# Stop kobo software when it's running
killall nickel hindenburg sickel fickel fmon > /dev/null 2>&1

If you do want to keep everything running (as I did in my Bing Maps proof of concept), you can use the following:

Short version since you use KIP:

t = KIP.inputObject(touchPath, 1080, 1440, grabInput=True)

Should work (note the grabInput argument... It was made for that purpose )

Long version for those who do not use my module (KIP):

Spoiler:

from fcntl import ioctl
import grabInput as grabber

devFile = open("/dev/input/event1", "rb")

ioctl(devFile, grabber.EVIOCGRAB(1), True) # To grab the input
ioctl(devFile, grabber.EVIOCGRAB(1), False) # To release it

How I integrated it in KIP's updated version which is shipped with PSSM.

The grabInput module is not a default Python module, but you can find it here:
The module I used
The module I (largely) based my work on (GNU license)

That code was used within PSSM. It was a tool I made to create Python apps on the Kobo, it helped a lot with creating interfaces. But I completely stopped developping this tool because Python was not really appropriate on such a low-performance device. However, you can run the example files. They do work! And I do think it makes life much easier...

[sheep_wizard]

Originally Posted by Mavireck

Yes it is possible and quite easy actually. You need to make an IOCTL call to grab the touch input. Then Nickel (the default software) won't register any input, although it will keep running. Which brings the question: do you really want to keep Nickel in the background? If you do not need it, I highly recommend killing everything to avoid conflicts. For instance, Nickel may keep updating the clock above your app, or go to sleep.

To do that, you should run the following bash commands:

# Stop kobo software when it's running
killall nickel hindenburg sickel fickel fmon > /dev/null 2>&1

If you do want to keep everything running (as I did in my Bing Maps proof of concept), you can use the following:

Short version since you use KIP:

t = KIP.inputObject(touchPath, 1080, 1440, grabInput=True)

Should work (note the grabInput argument... It was made for that purpose )

Long version for those who do not use my module (KIP):

Spoiler:

from fcntl import ioctl
import grabInput as grabber

devFile = open("/dev/input/event1", "rb")

ioctl(devFile, grabber.EVIOCGRAB(1), True) # To grab the input
ioctl(devFile, grabber.EVIOCGRAB(1), False) # To release it

How I integrated it in KIP's updated version which is shipped with PSSM.

The grabInput module is not a default Python module, but you can find it here:
The module I used
The module I (largely) based my work on (GNU license)

That code was used within PSSM. It was a tool I made to create Python apps on the Kobo, it helped a lot with creating interfaces. But I completely stopped developping this tool because Python was not really appropriate on such a low-performance device. However, you can run the example files. They do work! And I do think it makes life much easier...

Thanks for the reply, I have been using your repos for help already 😄

The killall solution does seem like the best, but is there a way to restart the services so I can close the game the continue using my device without restarting?

[Mavireck]

Originally Posted by sheep_wizard

Thanks for the reply, I have been using your repos for help already 😄

The killall solution does seem like the best, but is there a way to restart the services so I can close the game the continue using my device without restarting?

I always got away with a reboot personally. However, Plato manages to restart Nickel without rebooting, you should check its scripts:

https://github.com/baskerville/plato...trib/nickel.sh
And https://github.com/baskerville/plato...ntrib/plato.sh

[NiLuJe]

Prior art is from KOReader, actually ;p.

(I should know, it took a lot of pain and cursing to make it all behave somewhat properly).

Meaning I wouldn't necessarily encourage anybody to go that route unless you like stuff randomly breaking if you don't commit to keeping up to date on this stuff .

[sherman]

Once upon a time, I was dabbling with using NickelDBus to create a blank widget which sole purpose was to "eat" touch inputs in Nickel. Problem was, you plugging the device into USB would exit that widget, so I deemed it rather fragile, and didn't investigate further.

Another idea was to use that widget to generate "sane" touch events. Ideally those would be sent to a "uinput" device. But older Kobo's don't have uinput included in their kernel's, so I didn't get any further than that either.

[sheep_wizard]

Hmm ok that does seem like a hassle. So if instead of killing nickel I instead just wanted to stop the top status bar from updating (clock, battery), is there an easy way to achieve that?

[Mavireck]

Originally Posted by sheep_wizard

Hmm ok that does seem like a hassle. So if instead of killing nickel I instead just wanted to stop the top status bar from updating (clock, battery), is there an easy way to achieve that?

I don't know any way do to that. I would recommend killing Nickel, and when you want to quit your app you can use the 'reboot' command to reboot the kobo without having to long press the power button. It only takes a few more seconds than restarting nickel with the script mentioned above!

[NiLuJe]

And, FWIW, it takes a fraction of that time on devices running on newer SoCs (ELipsa, Sage; I assume Elipsa 2E too).