ideas for Kindle Touch

[thatworkshop]

This is a thread for small practical ideas (+ their implementation when possible).

* I hope this is not irritating to the community, as this would be mostly a scrapbook of ideas and someday me or someone else will implement them. *

Note: Please follow the sample template (like post #2), and give numbers to your idea.

Index:
1. Bookmarklet as launchers in menu
2. Katie Terminal
3. Alert BEFORE reboot
4. A notepad for KT
5. Purge cache memory
6. Universal Orientation (Landscape home screen)
7. Enable inetd
7 Goddamn. Indexing improvements
8. Landscape mode using the already-existed motion sensor
8 Goddamn. Keyboard
9. Enhanced Tapping Dialog
10. Fast Dictionary Changer
11. Some PDF viewer improvements
12. Listener for an event
13. Flash plugin for WebKit
14. KinGo
15. Support for DRMed ePub
16. Sleep mode timeout options
17. Change font size in article mode
18. Alarm clock using crontab
19. Kindle as External Monitor
20. A batch delete tool" similar to "add to collections tools
21. A method of showing launcher options in the same was as Collections Manager and JBPatch
22. JNLP (Java Web Start) for ARM
23. fastboot flashing right from within Kindle
24. Wikipedia instead of dictionary
25. Sindbad2Kindle (Send2Kindle with KF8 Support)
26. Disable restriction on download of specific file extension in browser
27.1. VNC/RDP over USB
27.2. VNC/RDP over WiFi done
28. IP Forward TCP <-> USB
29. Lock most touch events for intense reading: (I like K3 because you can treat it like a real book, touch screen without worrying it'll do anything, so I want to have this in KT when I WANT! <--- Activate when idle for 30 seconds, deactivate by a single tap).
30. Kindle Read Later that converts comments made on a page or blog as well.
31. Ordered Dithered Render Target for X(ephyr)
32. WebRTC for WebKit

[thatworkshop]

UPDATE: This is done, look here.

1. Bookmarklet as launchers in menu:
I was thinking if running a javascript code as a bookmarklet in webkit browser is possible in Kindle Touch. You know, then services for "Send To Kindle" like tinderizer can be used. With a menu (with launcher) in browser is this a possibility?

[thatworkshop]

3. Alert BEFORE reboot if space in /var is limited:

I wish I had this feature before, as my KT was most probably bricked because it was filled with junk... so the idea is if KT is about to be rebooted and if the space in /var (any where other than /mnt/us/) is limited then alert (play a custom wav file, show a dialog, ...) and prevent from rebooting untill user removes some files.

I'll implement this in future.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by cscat

Alert BEFORE reboot if space in /var is limited:
- - snip - -
I'll implement this in future.

That is something which "should never happen" (famous last words) on Linux or any *nix system.

The system should "boot" under any conditions because the file systems used in *nix reserve a percentage of the storage area for the use of root.
Then the initialization process (init, pid 1) runs as user "root".

Just because init will run and boot the system, that does not mean that some of the userland programs which it starts will not run out of room.

It might be of more use to find out why the system behaves the way you describe and fix the cause.
One of the first things to check would be what value has been set for the root file system reserved area. It is possible that it is set too small or has been even reduced to nothing.

[JustAMan]

AFAIK almost everything runs as root on KT. That may be the case here...

[knc1]

Originally Posted by JustAMan

AFAIK almost everything runs as root on KT. That may be the case here...

Good point.

That would in effect defeat the policy of setting aside "root only" file system space to recover from "space exhusted" errors.

OR If the O.P. was signed on as 'root' rather than some other normal user - It may be exactly the situation the O.P. described - he did it himself.
Known in the trade as: "shooting yourself in the foot"

Maybe next time, after learning "useradd" ....

[knc1]

Originally Posted by knc1

Good point.

That would in effect defeat the policy of setting aside "root only" file system space to recover from "space exhusted" errors.

That point (that everything runs as 'root', eating up the reserved area) remains as one possible cause of the common 'bricking' troubles.

The following is not from the Kindle Touch, the following is the file system image that is posted as an 'Upgrade' to v-3.2.1 for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX.
That post sort of died when the U.S. Department of Justice siezed megaupload.com - no need to go looking for it, it isn't there any longer. Their new site banner tells why.

It can not show what settings where done by the re-packager and what where done by Amazon when the image was created, it does show an example of what to look for.

knoppix:k321$ tune2fs -l /dev/loop1
tune2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
Filesystem volume name:   <none>
Last mounted on:          <not available>
Filesystem UUID:          96b81823-9626-43b1-a98b-a8085e28e614
Filesystem magic number:  0xEF53
Filesystem revision #:    1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features:      has_journal needs_recovery
Filesystem flags:         signed_directory_hash 
Default mount options:    (none)
Filesystem state:         clean
Errors behavior:          Unknown (continue)
Filesystem OS type:       Linux
Inode count:              13464
Block count:              409600
Reserved block count:     16384
Free blocks:              40056
Free inodes:              9287
First block:              1
Block size:               1024
Fragment size:            1024
Blocks per group:         8112
Fragments per group:      8112
Inodes per group:         264
Inode blocks per group:   33
Last mount time:          Mon Feb 20 17:19:00 2012
Last write time:          Mon Feb 20 17:19:00 2012
Mount count:              392
Maximum mount count:      -1
Last checked:             Thu Jan  1 00:00:33 1970
Check interval:           0 (<none>)
Reserved blocks uid:      0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid:      0 (group root)
First inode:              11
Inode size:	          128
Journal inode:            8
Journal backup:           inode blocks

The file system is externally named "ext2" - but it is not, it is "ext3" with a dirty journal that needs to be recovered.

It has never been file checked nor the journal recovered.

The automatic checking triggers by number of mounts or elapased time are both disabled.

The reserved area for user id 'root' is disabled.

The reserved area for group id 'root' is disabled.

My own, personal opinion -
I would clean up that file system and re-set the reserved areas before I used it to "upgrade" anything I own. But that is just myself thinking out loud.

Note: I had to make two, one line, changes to my copy of the "Kindle Update Tool" python script to open that posted package, the changes should be obvious to anyone else who has a copy that does not support this package code.

The main subject of this thread was about the Kindle Touch problems -
So if some one with access to the KT file system image would do the same check and look for the same sort of problems....

[knc1]

And while dreaming of changing things, the basic file system image as ext3 and as squashfs:

knoppix:k3sfs$ df .
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/loop2              223232    223232         0 100% /mnt/k3sfs
knoppix:k3sfs$ cd ../k321
knoppix:k321$ df .
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/loop1              407661    367605     23672  94% /mnt/k321

At the moment, can only dream - serial cable not due here until first week of next month.

[thatworkshop]

4. A notepad for KT:
Use case: create shell scripts directly on KT... Run that script using a GUI launcher menu.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by cscat

* A notepad for KT
Use case: create shell scripts directly on KT... Run that script using a GUI launcher menu.

Just add a terminal application.
You already have a small implementation of VI in the Busybox build on the machine.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Learnin...tor/BusyBox_vi

[JustAMan]

Using vi with such a keyboard as is built in KTouch?.. Well, I'm not such a masochistic person... Just imagine pressing Esc on it!

[thatworkshop]

Originally Posted by knc1

Just add a terminal application.
You already have a small implementation of VI in the Busybox build on the machine.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Learnin...tor/BusyBox_vi

come on! I mean without any need to attach Katie to a laptop and running vi through ssh!

[knc1]

Originally Posted by cscat

come on! I mean without any need to attach Katie to a laptop and running vi through ssh!

Not what I meant.

Hasn't anyone made a terminal application for the Touch yet?

That "early version" I read described here that only takes up half the screen which might leave you room for an on-screen keyboard.

But once you have a terminal application running on your Touch with an on-screen keyboard, then there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of *nix applications you can run.

Just because *nix pre-dates GUI displays by a few decades.

[thatworkshop]

Originally Posted by knc1

Hasn't anyone made a terminal application for the Touch yet?

I believe not.

Originally Posted by knc1

That "early version" I read described here that only takes up half the screen which might leave you room for an on-screen keyboard.

You mean like I said in my 2nd post as "Or a KT java app that simulates a terminal."?

Originally Posted by knc1

But once you have a terminal application running on your Touch with an on-screen keyboard, then there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of *nix applications you can run.

Absolutely... this can be an invaluable application indeed.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by JustAMan

Using vi with such a keyboard as is built in KTouch?.. Well, I'm not such a masochistic person... Just imagine pressing Esc on it!

I haven't seen or used a Kindle Touch myself, but I can imagine the fun it is for text entry.

I do have a Kindle Keyboard model -
When I received it I went through the "create an Amazon account" and "Register your Kindle" using the built-it web browser and keyboard.

I didn't think it was any fun at all. Doing the same on a Kindle Touch? Life is too short.

Note: I did not read the thread topic as: "practical ideas for the Kindle Touch".