Kobo Start Menu 09

[tshering]

Development and support for KSM stopped some time ago. Therefore, do not use it!
If you want to install it nonetheless and you are using a more recent firmware, change first of all the Kobo eReader.conf as stated here. Be aware that you are installing KSM at your own risk (as ever), and the newer your Kobo the greater the chance KSM will not work.

If you need help with KSM, please describe your problem in this thread. I visit this forum still once in a while and check also this thread. But I almost never log in and therefore don't see private messages.

Update: Mel-kior prepared a version of KSM for fw v4.25, see the following posts:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=850
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=864
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=868

Spoiler:

KSM 09 is supposed to work under FW 2.6.0 to 4.11.11911 and likely higher. However, avoid FW 3.16.10 and 3.17.0 if you can because of the sickel issue.

Concerning Clara HD and Forma, read the information in the news box below, BEFORE installing KSM.

News

• Clara HD is supported by a special version of KSM 9 (including also the "changed start script for Plato 0.4.1+"), which is available here. Thank you to CH23 for testing and uploading the package. Note: Do not install any of the currently available KSM updates (and also not KBStartMenu_09_restore.zip) over this package, since they are not designed for this version.
• Elim Garak prepared a version of KSM 9 for Forma. You can get it from here. Note: Do not install any of the currently available KSM updates (and also not KBStartMenu_09_restore.zip) over this package, since they are not designed for this version.
• Until update 3 becomes available, please install the changed start script for Plato 0.4.1+ (Edit: I do not think there will every be an update.)

Concering H2O2 version 2
Do not install KSM 09 on your device. Go to this thread and run the test that is described there to help make KSM work on H2O2 version 2.
How do you know whether you H2O2 is version 2? See this thread. However, once there is a firmware update available, the installed firmware version cannot be used as an indicator (but this is only one of several indicators mentioned in this thread). Another way to find out whether yours is version 2, is to install KSM 09. If it is unresponsive to touch, your H2O2 is version 2.

One new feature of KSM 09 is how it behaves at start up (by default):

• It starts a server and provides access to the device via a webinterface. This is an attempt to give the user some control over the device, when difficulties arise, for instance spontaneous screen rotations, unresponsiveness to touch, broken screen.
• It enables USBnet in order to allow sending requests to the server.
• It enables wifi in order to allow sending requests to the server, when USBnet for some reasons cannot be used.
• When there was no request sent to the server during the first minute after start, the server shuts down and USBnet will be disabled. (Note that you have to take care of wifi yourself.)
• There are options to prevent wifi, usbnet, and the server from being enabled at start up. You can also prevent control over the device via wifi, even when the server is running.
• If you are interested have a look at Playing with the KSM 09 webinterface

Prepare your device for installation:

Spoiler:

• Choose a propitious moment for installing KSM. If you have just done other modifications to your device, or loaded some books on it, give it some time to settle down and see whether everything works fine.
• Make sure your reader can connect to your wifi network.
• Configure your pc to use the Kobo reader as an usb network device (at least if there is already an earlier version of KSM running on your device, otherwise it might be to complicated) [...]
• Back up any files that you would desperately miss. (If you are not sure which files you might need, you may consider making a copy of the whole user partition.)
• Deinstall any version of KSM (On KSM 08 select "tools" > "ksm diverse.msh" > "del KSM.sh")
• Make sure there is sufficient free disk space on your device (KSM will need roughly 80 KB on the user partition, in addition to the size of the KoboRoot.tgz).
• Make sure that the battery of your device is sufficiently charged.

With the exception of the last two points, these steps are not absolutely required, but may prevent problems, or might be helpful in case problems arise.

Installation (consists of 2 steps):

Spoiler:

Download the archive KBStartMenu_09_plus_update_001.zip (or higher when available) to your pc and extract the content.

Step 1

1. connect the Kobo to the PC
2. copy the folder kbmenupngs to the root of the device (e.g. K:\)
3. eject safely and disconnect
4. check that all images (exit_nickel.png, switchtokoreader.png, etc.) are listed in the library and their thumbnails are displayed there. Open each of them, so that they appear at least once as tiles on the home screen. Only then proceed to step two.

Step 2

1. connect the Kobo device to the PC
2. copy KoboRoot.tgz to the folder .kobo of the device
3. eject safely and disconnect
4. wait until the update is finished (Do not interrupt it, even if it takes some time. The installation of KSM 09 will certainly need more time than did previous versions. In the last phase you will see a white screen for some time. In case the screen remains in this (white) state for at least several minutes, power the device down by holding the power button in the off position for 25 seconds or so, and then power the device on again.

Note: If from an earlier installation of KSM the folder kbmenupngs with its contents is still there, and the pngs known to nickel, you can skip step 1.

Consult also the helpful guide Adding alternative readers using Kobo Start Menu by Ken Maltby, which however is partly outdated, so be careful.

Recommendations:

Spoiler:

• Prepare your pc for USBNet if you did not do it already before you installed KSM 09.
• Disable wifi on start up by selecting: "tools" > "ksm diverse.msh" > "auto enable wifi off.sh".
• Prevent command over the device via wifi: set with "configure" the value of "[general]allowRmcViaWifi" to false.

Note: enabling wifi on start up may slow starting KSM considerably.

Webinterface:

Spoiler:

With the default configuration, you have about one minute to connect to the reader by webinterface. Note that wifi is switched off as soon as nickel starts. For the moment it might be best to test whether you can connect, but do not yet try the offered commands (I will give some explanations later.)
To connect to your device type http://{The ip of your device}:8087/rmc_test.html into the navigation bar of your browser and press enter.
In the case of USBNet the line is: http://192.168.2.101:8087/rmc_test.html.
In the case of wifi, the line is something like: http://10.0.0.3:8087/rmc_test.html.

For further information cf. the threads to previous versions of KSM:

Spoiler:

Kobo Start Menu 08
Kobo Start Menu 07
Kobo Start Menu (3-6)

Some minor things that have changed:

• KSM 09 does only accept the folders koeader, vlasovsoft, plato, when they are located in .adds (.kobo is not supported any longer).
• "handle update" has changed, read the info in place on the device, and see also Installing files with the help of KoboRoot.tgz.

The voice remote control package that I provided for Ecallan is not compatible with this version of KSM. If there is some need, I can adjust it.

Note: koreader, plato, and vlasovsoft/pbchess/coolreader are not included in this package. You have to install them separately. The installation is the same for all three packages: Copy the main folder of each package, that means the folder koreader, respectively plato, respectively vlasovsoft, into the folder .adds that you will find on your device after KSM has been installed.

• koreader: I would recommend that you install one of the recent builds that you can find here. Choose a package that has "kobo" in its name. H202 is supported since nightly build 1546-gd0130ae (06-Mar-2018, and requires KSM 09, update 2.
• vlasovsoft: see here.
• plato: see here. Currently, you have to install an updated start script for plato version 0.4.1+

Miscellaneous:
alternative set of kbmenupngs icons by DobermanS
alternative set of kbmenupngs icons by sbaguz
uninstall, deactivate, disable, etc. KSM

##

The package contains materials provided by Sergey (Qt libraries), Cecell3000 (modified Qt mouse/touch driver), NiLuJe (FBGrab), KevinShort (Frontlight control), NiLuJe (rsync), Frostschutz (pngshow), Baskerville (fmon)


How to install KSM updates:

• copy the KSM09_updateXXX.zip (as it is, do not unzip) into .adds\kbmenu_user
• safely eject the device, select "usb disable.sh" (of course only, when you connected via usb enable.sh), and disconnect the device from the pc
• (from KSM home) select "handle KSM update"
• check the displayed capacity of the battery and decide whether to continue at this point or charge the device
• select "install KSM update"
• wait (some seconds)
• read the information that appears on the screen, tap on the middle of the screen to open the bottom menu, press "close" and wait until the device has restarted. When pressing "close", you will not see an effect immediately, but only after the device has rebooted, so be patient.

If KBStartMenu_09_plus_update_001.zip is already installed, there is no need to additionally install KSM09_update001.zip, since in this case this update is already included. You can see the update history of your device by selecting

• (KSM home) "tools" > "explore" > "explore kbmenu.msh" > "updatehistory.txt"

I thank boriar, nook_nerd, and taos for helping create update 1.
For changes in update 2, see this post.

When you happen to allow a firmware update to disable KSM, you can restore it again:

• extract KoboRoot.tgz from KBStartMenu_09_restore.zip, and copy it into .kobo.

USE THIS PACKAGE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

[tshering]

I uploaded the KSM 09 package.

[khl]

Installed on Aura One. Seem working fine, at least no longer has to patch the startup menu font size and the menu buttons seem more responsive compared to the previous version.

Big thanks!

[tshering]

Originally Posted by khl

Installed on Aura One. Seem working fine, at least no longer has to patch the startup menu font size and the menu buttons seem more responsive compared to the previous version.

Big thanks!

I appreciate feedback. Thank you for telling!

[JFeole]

i updated my KA1 and 1st gen H20 last nite. Worked fine.

The H20 is still exibiting the upside down menu issue, but other than that, worked fine.

[Alan_S]

Thanks for your continuing support for our devices, it is really greatly appreciated.

One suggestion, in Recommendations section you have this:

Disable wifi on start up by selecting: "tools" > "ksm diverse.msh" > "auto enable wifi off.sh".

The name of script file is a bit confusing. It should disable auto wifi on boot, as I understand it, but sounds like it enables wifi, only off at the end gives its purpose.

Maybe if script would be renamed to something like: disable auto wifi.sh? Don't know what other think?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by nook_nerd

i updated my KA1 and 1st gen H20 last nite. Worked fine.

The H20 is still exibiting the upside down menu issue, but other than that, worked fine.

I am glad it works on the KA1. I hope we can sort things out for the H2O

Originally Posted by Alan_S

One suggestion, in Recommendations section you have this:

The name of script file is a bit confusing. It should disable auto wifi on boot, as I understand it, but sounds like it enables wifi, only off at the end gives its purpose.

Maybe if script would be renamed to something like: disable auto wifi.sh? Don't know what other think?

Thank you for the suggestion. I like to have those commands that I consider as closely related to each other standing close to each other in the (alphabetical) list. My understanding is that we have one function "auto enable wifi", and we can switch it "on" or "off".

[taos]

Using a Kobo Glo HD, KSM 9 seems to mostly work, but:

* after the first start (immediately after installation of KSM) rmc didn't work because my wpa_supplicant.conf was wiped and I couldn't connect to my wifi SSID (resulting in no known networks in koreader and nickel respectively, too - I always have a copy of wpa_supplicant.conf on my user partition so I just copied it to /etc/wpa_supplicant and everything works again)

* wifi is on after reboot but IP is not shown (I can connect via browser because I know that my Kobo Glo HD always gets the same IP address assigned (not one starting with 10.x.x.x), however, even if I'm still connected via the webinterface nickel starts after a few seconds)

* I'm frequently switching between nickel and KSM using the exit_nickel icon in nickel and "start nickel" in KSM, however, from time to time, it seems that nickel is started without fmon because I can't use exit_nickel to switch back

Adding wget is nice (I always had another copy in a separate folder (+ some other useful binaries) to allow my scripts to download from nextcloud/owncloud), however, do you think it would make sense to use a more generic name for the folder such as 'bin' where additional binaries could be added in the future?

BTW, thanks for your awesome work! It makes playing around with a Kobo so much more fun....

[tshering]

Originally Posted by taos

Using a Kobo Glo HD, KSM 9 seems to mostly work, but:

Thank you for your feedback.

Originally Posted by taos

* after the first start (immediately after installation of KSM) rmc didn't work because my wpa_supplicant.conf was wiped and I couldn't connect to my wifi SSID (resulting in no known networks in koreader and nickel respectively, too - I always have a copy of wpa_supplicant.conf on my user partition so I just copied it to /etc/wpa_supplicant and everything works again)

I do not know why wpa_supplicant.conf was wiped out. As for having a backup ready for cases in need, I might mention that KSM does offer some support for important files. With "tools" > "back up and restore" > "back up" > ... (or similar) one can create a compressed back up with timestamp; and with "tools" > "back up and restore" > "restore" > ...{TIMESTAMP} one can restore the file.

Originally Posted by taos

* wifi is on after reboot but IP is not shown (I can connect via browser because I know that my Kobo Glo HD always gets the same IP address assigned (not one starting with 10.x.x.x),

KSM waits a certain time at most for the ip to become available. If the time is over and the ip still not available, KSM shows the home screen without displaying the ip.

Originally Posted by taos

however, even if I'm still connected via the webinterface nickel starts after a few seconds)

This is as expected. (*) I regard usbnet as the primary network for accessing the reader by the webinterface. With usbnet the connection stays on when one starts nickel so that one can do some experiments while nickel is running. However, when nickel starts while wifi is on, nickel becomes unresponsive. Therefore, KSM has to disable wifi, when it starts nickel. If you then connect to wifi from inside of nickel, the webinterface does work again.
(*)One might prevent nickel from starting by selecting something (I would select "toggle between full menu and ... "), or one can "Kill KSM" from the webinterface (But I would like to write another post with some explanations before people play to much with the webinterface).

Originally Posted by taos

* I'm frequently switching between nickel and KSM using the exit_nickel icon in nickel and "start nickel" in KSM, however, from time to time, it seems that nickel is started without fmon because I can't use exit_nickel to switch back

On of the last things I did on this package was that I replaced the old fmon by the new one by Baskerville. I am not sure whether this is related. And I did not note any regularity up to now.

Originally Posted by taos

Adding wget is nice (I always had another copy in a separate folder (+ some other useful binaries) to allow my scripts to download from nextcloud/owncloud), however, do you think it would make sense to use a more generic name for the folder such as 'bin' where additional binaries could be added in the future?

Sounds like a good idea.

[gmadjara]

Thank you for the update of your superb Start Menu!

After upgrade (1st gen H20) first problem I encountered is: Cannot find Koreader on Start Menu list and after clicking on vlasovsoft's reader it says "unsupported version".

Thank you very much for your update and help!

https://ibb.co/hpft6m

Solved, thanks! (The problem was not supported .kobo folder)

[tshering]

Originally Posted by gmadjara

Thank you for the update of your superb Start Menu!

After upgrade (1st gen H20) first problem I encountered is: Cannot find Koreader on Start Menu list and after clicking on vlasovsoft's reader it says "unsupported version".

Thank you very much for your update and help!



Solved, thanks!

I am glad you were able to solve the problems.

[JSWolf]

Whatever the image is, it's not showing up.

[tshering]

JSWolf, your comment sparked my curiosity. The link is https://ibb.co/hpft6m. The picture shows that gmadjara put the koreader and vlasovsoft folders into .kobo (which was still accepted by KSM 08) instead of .adds (as required by KSM 09).

[pokita]

Got it running fine on the KA1, great work! However, I cannot get ssh/Dropbear to run, although I have pbchess installed and usbnet works fine. Any help appreciated.

[ultraboy]

Why wifi connection is essential? I install KSM 09 according to the instructions only without a wifi connection. Now my kobo one can display KSM 09, my nickel still works, but koreader doesn't work, and pngs don't work. How can I fix it? Can I just install KSM 09 again with a wifi connection?