OpenInkPot supporting WiFi

[JobAccommodation]

Hi everyone,
We are very interested in working with OpenInkpot + ereader with WiFi, and even Bluetooth connectivity. In an old thread, someone asked whether OpenInkpot supports WiFi and was replied as possible (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...highlight=wifi).

Is there any progress on this?

Thanks for your answer

[lunohod]

Originally Posted by JobAccommodation

Hi everyone,
We are very interested in working with OpenInkpot + ereader with WiFi, and even Bluetooth connectivity. In an old thread, someone asked whether OpenInkpot supports WiFi and was replied as possible (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...highlight=wifi).

Is there any progress on this?

Thanks for your answer

Currently OI doesn't run on any device with wifi or bluetooth. It's an interesting task to implement network support in OI, but first you need to port OI to such device.

[JobAccommodation]

Originally Posted by lunohod

Currently OI doesn't run on any device with wifi or bluetooth. It's an interesting task to implement network support in OI, but first you need to port OI to such device.

Thank you so much for your answer lunohod...
guess we'll have to wait for it..

Regards

[lunohod]

Originally Posted by JobAccommodation

Thank you so much for your answer lunohod...
guess we'll have to wait for it..

Regards

Do you have any special device in mind or do you just search for a hackable device with wireless networking support?

[JobAccommodation]

Originally Posted by lunohod

Do you have any special device in mind or do you just search for a hackable device with wireless networking support?

Well, that's the point...
We are newbies in terms of ereaders... and we only have clear our main requirements. We need an ereader that has:

- Open source firmware.
- Short range connectivity. WiFi could be the first option, but in terms of power consumption we'd rather prefer some other technology llike Bluetooth.

We have found some ereaders that could be interesting, like the QuokkaPad, the PocketBookPro 903 or the Alex, but we understand these ones are so new models. We have contact with their distributors to get more information and so far we have got answer from the QuokkaPad one, telling us that they "provide all our code which includes the boot loader (U-boot), Linux kernel (currently 2.6.24), the libraries and the applications."

We consider as best advantage of OpenInkPot (apart from the obvious one of offering an open and free firmware for ereaders), the great development community being behind. That's why we instantly wanted to work with it.

Thanks for your interest and excuse for my poor english (we write you from Spain)

Regards

[JobAccommodation]

Originally Posted by lunohod

Do you have any special device in mind or do you just search for a hackable device with wireless networking support?

By the way, although i haven't mentioned before, it would be great hearing recommendations from your side, as experts

Thanks a lot!

[lunohod]

Take a look at kobo reader. The device has got wifi. The sources are published on github.com. It is possible to port OI to that device.

[JobAccommodation]

Originally Posted by lunohod

Take a look at kobo reader. The device has got wifi. The sources are published on github.com. It is possible to port OI to that device.

Hi lunohod!

Thanks for your recommendation.. we´ll take a look at this device.. we already know it but as usually happens, in its website there was no mention to open firmware or something and we didn't pay too much attention to it anymore.

By the way, if we port OpenInkPot to it, will wifi continue working?

[lunohod]

Originally Posted by JobAccommodation

Hi lunohod!

Thanks for your recommendation.. we´ll take a look at this device.. we already know it but as usually happens, in its website there was no mention to open firmware or something and we didn't pay too much attention to it anymore.

By the way, if we port OpenInkPot to it, will wifi continue working?

If you enable the corresponding wifi driver in kernel, it will work. You can find the Kobo sources here: https://github.com/kobolabs/Kobo-Reader

In order to run OI you should build a proper kernel with standard interfaces enabled. For example, most vendors use some kind of non-standard framebuffer ioctl's to drive e-ink controller from the userspace. Our software doesn't use such hacks. Therefore the fb driver should be adapted to work with e-ink controller. There are drivers available for most widely used e-ink controllers like apollo, metronome and broadsheet. The same shit with keyboard control and power management.

Usually you take (obsolete and ugly) vendor kernel sources as reference and start implementing clean board support from scratch on top of the latest stable kernel.

Once your shiny new kernel works fine, the base OpenInkpot system will work almost out of box.

BTW, if you need help with porting OI or implementing new features, I can recommend some developers you could contract if you wish.

[JobAccommodation]

Originally Posted by lunohod

If you enable the corresponding wifi driver in kernel, it will work. You can find the Kobo sources here: https://github.com/kobolabs/Kobo-Reader

In order to run OI you should build a proper kernel with standard interfaces enabled. For example, most vendors use some kind of non-standard framebuffer ioctl's to drive e-ink controller from the userspace. Our software doesn't use such hacks. Therefore the fb driver should be adapted to work with e-ink controller. There are drivers available for most widely used e-ink controllers like apollo, metronome and broadsheet. The same shit with keyboard control and power management.

Usually you take (obsolete and ugly) vendor kernel sources as reference and start implementing clean board support from scratch on top of the latest stable kernel.

Once your shiny new kernel works fine, the base OpenInkpot system will work almost out of box.

BTW, if you need help with porting OI or implementing new features, I can recommend some developers you could contract if you wish.

Glad to hear there is such an option like the one you mention We are currently at the very beginning of the project and we still have to decide on wich ereader we'll work. In fact, the main limitation will be the short range connectivity. we'd like to discard all the ereaders that include bluetooth before deciding on working with wifi.

We'll keep in contact.

Have a great weekend and thank you again for your good advices!!

[JobAccommodation]

Hello again!

After probably discarding the option of working with a device that includes bluetooth because we are still thinking of working with OpenInkpot and we have found that devices like the ones from Pocketbook, wich on one side have very interesting features, on the other side, don't seem to offer enough technical support, we have other question for you.

Anybody know any ereader compatible with OpenInkpot whose Linux kernel supports BlueZ? We are thinking of connecting a bluetooth module to the USB port of the ereader to establish wireless connectivity. Do you think it is possible to do that?

Thanks for any suggestions

[lunohod]

Originally Posted by JobAccommodation

Hello again!

After probably discarding the option of working with a device that includes bluetooth because we are still thinking of working with OpenInkpot and we have found that devices like the ones from Pocketbook, wich on one side have very interesting features, on the other side, don't seem to offer enough technical support, we have other question for you.

Anybody know any ereader compatible with OpenInkpot whose Linux kernel supports BlueZ? We are thinking of connecting a bluetooth module to the USB port of the ereader to establish wireless connectivity. Do you think it is possible to do that?

Thanks for any suggestions

According to the wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobo_eReader) the old Kobo had bluetooth. You could try to negotiate with Kobo,

[lunohod]

For you information: PocketBook violates GPL. They do not publish the sources of their modifications to the GPL-licensed software components, which are being used in their firmware,

[JobAccommodation]

Originally Posted by lunohod

According to the wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobo_eReader) the old Kobo had bluetooth. You could try to negotiate with Kobo,

That's weird.. because the new model doesn't seem to include bluetooth.. anyway, i've just started dealing with them... i'll tell you when i get an answer.

On the other hand, i've discovered that the option of connecting a Bluetooth module to the USB port of an ereader would only be possible in the case of the pocketbook 302.. what a coincidence! unfortunately, our command of Russian is certainly worse than English... and yes, i guess they are violating the gpl license

[lunohod]

Originally Posted by JobAccommodation

On the other hand, i've discovered that the option of connecting a Bluetooth module to the USB port of an ereader would only be possible in the case of the pocketbook 302.. what a coincidence! unfortunately, our command of Russian is certainly worse than English... and yes, i guess they are violating the gpl license

there is already bluetooth in pocketbook 302, but as far as i know, you cannot use it you cannot add new drivers for bt keyboard or something like that. and you won't get any source code from pb to fix it.

it's a very bad choice anyway, just because this model was abandoned by pocketbook.