NanoClock: Yet another persistent clock

[NiLuJe]

Following a recent unrelated discussion on Discord, I finally bit the bullet and did what I may have vaguely mentioned before, and basically rewrote MiniClock from scratch, this time in Lua, mostly to experiment with a fancy new toy. Oops .

I'm posting this in the Dev forum because it *does* employ a rather low-level trick (as we *are* basically monkey-patching a kernel function), one that has only seen minimal testing on the Kobo side of things, but was originally successfully implemented on the reMarkable to develop an efficient VNC server.

Anyway, I'll leave the floor to myself, further details and documentation available on the GitHub project page.

Make *very* sure to read this to the end, because there are know caveats on the latest Kobo devices, some of which may be fairly severe.

[frostschutz]

Thanks, I installed it on my H2O. The nanoclock does show up, once, during boot. And then, it's just not there anymore. lsmod shows the module is being loaded, and I see nanoclock.lua running in pstree.

Enabling debug gives me these:

Jun 16 09:51:42 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1429+0+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:43 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1020x1166+60+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:43 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 950x120+130+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:43 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 400x120+130+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:43 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 71x120+714+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:44 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 71x120+714+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:45 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 71x120+884+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:46 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 71x120+884+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:47 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 238x342+544+689 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:47 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 71x120+884+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:48 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 71x120+884+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:49 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 71x120+884+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:50 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 980x1166+50+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:51:50 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 824x315+196+716 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:52:00 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 245x488+50+181 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:52:06 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1440+0+0 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:52:06 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1440+0+0 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:52:25 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1440+0+0 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:53:15 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1440+0+0 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:53:19 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1440+0+0 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:53:20 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1440+0+0 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:53:38 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1440+0+0 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:53:40 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1440+0+0 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:00 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1429+0+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:03 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 380x879+30+41 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:03 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 400x120+130+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:04 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 300x70+70+729 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:05 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1429+0+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:06 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 903x83+88+917 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:07 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1429+0+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:07 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 145x74+846+179 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:08 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 113x70+878+441 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:08 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1429+0+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:09 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 643x34+234+704 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:09 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 21x20+202+710 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:09 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 21x20+202+710 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:10 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 21x20+202+710 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:10 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 21x20+202+710 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:10 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 21x20+202+710 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:11 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 21x20+202+710 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:11 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 21x20+202+710 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:11 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 21x20+202+710 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:12 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 21x20+202+710 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:13 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1429+0+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:15 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 1080x1310+0+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0
Jun 16 09:54:15 nanoclock[707]: No clock update necessary: damage rectangle 400x120+130+11 does not intersect with the clock's 24x384+1398+0

Does that mean it just thinks it never has to update?

PS: changed the intersection function to always return true ;-) now it works great

[jamalau]

Thank you, great work, always works fine!

[Carmelocotonto]

Thanks MiLuJe, I have tried it. One question: the clock is not updated when time goes, isn't it? Only when I touch the screen the clock updates

[NiLuJe]

@frostschutz: Well, that's... interesting . I'll take a look at it, thanks.

@Carmelocotonto: Yup. Doing that would be sort of trivial (assuming every minute on the dot), though, but I'm not sure there's much interest in it?

[NiLuJe]

@frostschutz: Given the debug, I assume your clock is on the first row, but is it genuinely almost halfway behind the top-bezel?

(This seems related to the H2O's top 11 pixels offset).

EDIT: Oh, wait, no, it's related to the boot anim rotation >_<".

[NiLuJe]

Released v0.9.2 .

It should fix the rotation related issue encountered by @frostschutz, and also implements an automatic refresh on every minute change, as proposed by @Carmelocotonto (configurable, enabled by default. Enabling backgroundless or overlay display modes silently disable it, as the combination would lead to overlapping text ).

EDIT: Updated to v0.9.4. No user visible changes, just minor code tweaks related to the changes above .

[Carmelocotonto]

very thankful. I am going to try it immediately. 8)

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Released v0.9.2 .

It should fix the rotation related issue encountered by @frostschutz, and also implements an automatic refresh on every minute change, as proposed by @Carmelocotonto (configurable, enabled by default. Enabling backgroundless or overlay display modes silently disable it, as the combination would lead to overlapping text ).

[frostschutz]

Tested v0.9.4, and it works great now. Thanks again!

[NiLuJe]

Released v0.9.5.

Some more minor code tweaks related to the autorefresh feature (the actual timer is now toggled dynamically, instead of just the clock refresh).

[NiLuJe]

And now v0.9.6.

More low-level code tweaks (switched to inotify to handle config file modification tracking, which saves us a stat call before every clock update).

[Phil_C]

This is working great, except for the auto update. The time does auto update on the home screen and other main screens, but not while in a book. This is on a Clara HD with the battery charge % also displayed.

Looking at it another way, the NanoClock auto updates only on screens where the regular Kobo clock is also visible.

Of course, pages will be getting turned while in a book.

[NiLuJe]

@Phil_C: You wouldn't happen to have backgroundless or overlay enabled, would you?

(c.f., https://github.com/NiLuJe/NanoClock/...oclock.ini#L85)

[Phil_C]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@Phil_C: You wouldn't happen to have backgroundless or overlay enabled, would you?

(c.f., https://github.com/NiLuJe/NanoClock/...oclock.ini#L85)

No, both are set to 0.

[Phil_C]

Here is my .ini file, if it helps.