DR800 ANN: DR800+. Port of some DR1000 features to the DR800

Iñigo · 08-06-2010, 05:27 AM

EDIT 20110704: new version 4

DR800+ is an enhanced firmware for DR800 ereaders.

Please, read README.dr800+ file in the package if you are new to DR800+.

IMPORTANT:
- before installing or uninstalling DR800+ be sure you have 5x the size of global.db of free space in your SD card. If not it could make your device unusable
- installation takes over 3 minutes in my DR800 with a 30 MB global.db 4000 books and 2000 covers. Uninstallation takes 5 minutes approximately
- to upgrade, and before copying the new files to the SD, run the old dr800+ script to restore original fimware, then remove previous version from the device, copy the new package contents, and finally run the installation script included here
- remember to copy DR1000's uds binary as "uds.dr1000" in "new/progs" folder before installing

Changes in v4

Spoiler:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction:
It's based on IREX last code, version 2.0RC3. It includes some features ported from DR1000 and also new exciting features that improve the overall usability of the DR800.

The sources are on https://bitbucket.org/inigoserna/dr800
Consult README.dr800+ if you want to play with the code.

Complete list of features:

Spoiler:

Code:

+ general
  - nice installer [v3]
  - faster: compiled with optimizations for the CPU of the DR800
    "-mcpu=arm1136jf-s -mtune=arm1136jf-s -O3 -funroll-loops" [v3]
  - modify IREX default gtk+ theme style: make scrollbars narrower [v3]

+ popupmenu
  - taskbar
    . open several docs/apps simultaneously (ported from DR1000) [v1]
    . add active task-list in menu, to allow natigation without stylus
      [from Mackx's work] [v3]
    . add a menu item to toggle taskbar visibility [v3]
    . make taskbar visibility at start configurable in System/dr.ini,
      default: /apps/er/dr800plus/show_taskbar=false [v3]
  - statusbar
    . page bar, document pages thumbnails, fullscreen, continuous mode, and
      some great usability shortcuts in the statusbar (ported from DR1000) [v1]
    . statusbar: show a clock instead of "Menu" text [v2]
  - new "System Information" menu item: program that shows hardware information,
    monitor resources, list running process and even can kill them [v3]
  - add toolbar icons for FBReader [v3]
  - allow to add/remove icons from external apps, using new ipc calls:
    "addToolbarItem", "clearToolbarItem" [Mackx's patch] [v3]

+ ctb
  - books thumbnails are stored in file system instead of in global.db
    database as the other metadata. This makes database smaller and much
    faster browsing. Read `Thumbnails`_ section for more information [v4]
  - shortcuts
    . for docs, apps, folders... (ported from DR1000) [v1]
    . show books cover in shortcuts [v3]
    . use nicer "shortcuts view" icons [v3]
  - extra sorts: add Sort by Type and Sort by Size (ported from DR1000) [v1]
  - view details: additional listview for files (modified date column
                  has been removed to fit on the screen) (ported from DR1000)
                  [v1]
  - add a Recently Opened view [v3]
  - make number of items in recents views configurable in System/dr.ini,
    default: /apps/er/dr800plus/num_recent_items=15 [v3]
  - move Help view at end [v3]
  - mdbindex
    . indexing can be optionally disabled by an option in System/dr.ini,
      default: /apps/er/dr800plus/disable_indexing=false [v3]
    . configurable option in System/dr.ini to log indexing,
      logs go to file SD_card/mdbindex_(timestamp).log,
      default: /apps/er/dr800plus/log_indexing=false [v3]

+ uds
  - 12 pages in thumbnails view for pdf files [v3]

+ erbrowser
  - don't quit erbrowser when selecting another application or document
    in the taskbar (ported from DR1000) [v2]
  - fullscreen (ported from DR1000) [v2]

+ notepad
  - don't quit notepad when selecting another application or document
    in the taskbar. This allows us to have several notes open or to take
    notes while reading other documents (ported from DR1000) [v2]

Installing
Installation instructions and some methods to get the required DR1000 UDS binary can be found on the documentation

Final thoughts
Of course, feedback is welcome.

I'm due to thank many people like Mackx, CoolDragon, Yuri, Gertjan and all the persons in IREX/IRX that built this marvellous device and made it open.
Thanks also to all the guys at MobileRead.

Hope you enjoy,
Iñigo

catharsis · 08-06-2010, 09:06 AM

Thanks a lot. I already have on my device something modified by CoolDragon, I will also try yours. Is there any possibility to extract the DR1000 uds binary on a Windows environment?

Iñigo · 08-06-2010, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catharsis

Thanks a lot. I already have on my device something modified by CoolDragon, I will also try yours. Is there any possibility to extract the DR1000 uds binary on a Windows environment?

I don't know if it is really possible.
One way for windows users is to use a pre-bundled linux virtual machines on top of a virtualization program such VMware Player (free) Workstation (not free) or Oracle VirtualBox (free).

You can find some ready-to-use linux images from:
- VirtualBox: http://virtualboximages.com/
- VMware Player or Workstation: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/
F.e. http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/661133

Choose a not vey old image of Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE, Mandriva or Ubuntu desktop.
There are free and not-free, download a free version.

Regards,
Iñigo

catharsis · 08-06-2010, 11:12 AM

What about a live-cd distribution. What would you recommend?

Iñigo · 08-06-2010, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catharsis

What about a live-cd distribution. What would you recommend?

I use Fedora and ArchLinux, other prefer OpenSUSE, Mandriva, Debian or Ubuntu.
Use the one with the brightest colours ;-)
The only important thing is to use a not much old distribution.

Iñigo

bran · 08-06-2010, 02:20 PM

Thank you for making this available. The full screen option is very pleasent. The tabbed books is good, but the hack to get the uds from the dr1000 is really necessary as that gives the statusbar the close tab option. Rebooting to get rid of tabs is a no go, takes too long and uses alot of juice from the battery.

I ran into some problems with the mtdblock device. Many distributions limit the amount of memory allocatable to mtdram. That means out of the box your hack with the modprobe mtdram total_size=90000 erase_size=256 will simply not work.

I used the loopback mount method.

A short description follows:

# modprobe loop
# modprobe mtdblock
# modprobe block2mtd
# losetup /dev/loop0 /path/to/rootfs.bin
# echo "/dev/loop0,256KiB" > /sys/module/block2mtd/parameters/block2mtd
# modprobe jffs2
# mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock0 /mnt

You have now mounted the rootfs.bin on /mnt via loopback. Obviously the mountpoint /mnt must exist and the /mtdblock device number can be found with:

# ls /dev/mtdblock*

If you are using udev. Most modern kernels do!

Hope this helps

Regards

Iñigo · 08-06-2010, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bran

Thank you for making this available. The full screen option is very pleasent. The tabbed books is good, but the hack to get the uds from the dr1000 is really necessary as that gives the statusbar the close tab option. Rebooting to get rid of tabs is a no go, takes too long and uses alot of juice from the battery.

Well, we don't live in a perfect world...

Quote:

Originally Posted by bran

I ran into some problems with the mtdblock device. Many distributions limit the amount of memory allocatable to mtdram. That means out of the box your hack with the modprobe mtdram total_size=90000 erase_size=256 will simply not work.
[...]

The method is not mine, Mr. X wrote that message and instructions.
They worked ok for me on my Fedora 13 though.

Anyway I'll copy your method and will add to the documentation in next version.

Thanks,
Iñigo

DeReader · 08-06-2010, 05:08 PM

What a cool hack, thanks Iñigo!

At first I installed the "lite" version, no problem.

After that I wanted more and extracted the UDS from the firmware of the DR1000. But at first I could not install the "full" version on the reader, there where never any files copied in the _backup folder (and so I assumed there where also no new files in the /usr/bin directory).

Then I removed this check in the shellscript dr800+.sh:

Code:

if [ -s uds.dr1000 ]; then ... fi

After the removal of that part it worked, but I can not recommend this method because you MUST be 100% sure that you have the correct uds.dr1000!

Iñigo, do you have an idea what the problem could be? I'm not that shellscript guru

CoolDragon · 08-06-2010, 05:43 PM

When you installed the lite version, the script created a file called _backup/dr800+.installed. When you later try to install the full version, the script assumes that you want to "toggle" back to the DR800's original stuff.

Iñigo · 08-06-2010, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeReader

What a cool hack, thanks Iñigo!

At first I installed the "lite" version, no problem.

After that I wanted more and extracted the UDS from the firmware of the DR1000. But at first I could not install the "full" version on the reader, there where never any files copied in the _backup folder (and so I assumed there where also no new files in the /usr/bin directory).

Then I removed this check in the shellscript dr800+.sh:

Code:

if [ -s uds.dr1000 ]; then ... fi

After the removal of that part it worked, but I can not recommend this method because you MUST be 100% sure that you have the correct uds.dr1000!

Iñigo, do you have an idea what the problem could be? I'm not that shellscript guru

Have you copied DR1000 uds binary to <SD card>/Programs/_dr800+ folder as "uds.dr1000"?

The -s part tries to verify if there is a non-zero file called uds.dr1000, to avoid breaking the device.

bigshell · 08-06-2010, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeReader

After that I wanted more and extracted the UDS from the firmware of the DR1000. But at first I could not install the "full" version on the reader, there where never any files copied in the _backup folder (and so I assumed there where also no new files in the /usr/bin directory).

Then I removed this check in the shellscript dr800+.sh:

Code:

if [ -s uds.dr1000 ]; then ... fi

After the removal of that part it worked, but I can not recommend this method because you MUST be 100% sure that you have the correct uds.dr1000!

I had some issue, but finally I figured out I just need to add one line:

Code:

cd /media/mmcblk0p1/Programs/_dr800+

Iñigo · 08-06-2010, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshell

I had some issue, but finally I figured out I just need to add one line:

Code:

cd /media/mmcblk0p1/Programs/_dr800+

Ouch, my sorry. It was wrong.
In fact the line should be "if [ -s $THISDIR/uds.dr1000 ]; then # install only if nonzero uds.dr1000 file", note the "$THISDIR/", like the other tests in the script.

I've updated the package with the installer fixed, and also some minor problems where battery is not shown in folders.

Thanks for pointing me to it.

bokjeid · 08-07-2010, 02:35 AM

It seems so great one!! But isn't there a simpler way to get the uds file of DR1000S? Isn't it possible with rxvt or so? Because I know nothing about linux including installing it...

Iñigo · 08-07-2010, 04:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bokjeid

It seems so great one!! But isn't there a simpler way to get the uds file of DR1000S? Isn't it possible with rxvt or so?

Sure, but you'll need access to a DR1000 device.
Install rxvt on the DR1000 and type "cp /usr/bin/uds /media/mmcblk0p1/uds.dr1000"
and then copy this "uds.dr1000" file on the root of your SD card to "_dr800+" folder on the DR800.

Quote:

Because I know nothing about linux including installing it...

Try a ready-to-use virtual image (message #3) or a live-cd (message #4).

Iñigo

bokjeid · 08-07-2010, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iñigo

Sure, but you'll need access to a DR1000 device.
Install rxvt on the DR1000 and type "cp /usr/bin/uds /media/mmcblk0p1/uds.dr1000"
and then copy this "uds.dr1000" file on the root of your SD card to "_dr800+" folder on the DR800.

Iñigo

Thank you very much for your answer. Then couldn't we access rootfs.bin on DR800SG with mount command in rxvt? If we could not, I'm going to try it in PC as you mentioned..

08-06-2010, 02:20 PM	#6
bran Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: IREX DR800S	Thank you for making this available. The full screen option is very pleasent. The tabbed books is good, but the hack to get the uds from the dr1000 is really necessary as that gives the statusbar the close tab option. Rebooting to get rid of tabs is a no go, takes too long and uses alot of juice from the battery. I ran into some problems with the mtdblock device. Many distributions limit the amount of memory allocatable to mtdram. That means out of the box your hack with the modprobe mtdram total_size=90000 erase_size=256 will simply not work. I used the loopback mount method. A short description follows: # modprobe loop # modprobe mtdblock # modprobe block2mtd # losetup /dev/loop0 /path/to/rootfs.bin # echo "/dev/loop0,256KiB" > /sys/module/block2mtd/parameters/block2mtd # modprobe jffs2 # mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock0 /mnt You have now mounted the rootfs.bin on /mnt via loopback. Obviously the mountpoint /mnt must exist and the /mtdblock device number can be found with: # ls /dev/mtdblock* If you are using udev. Most modern kernels do! Hope this helps Regards Last edited by bran; 08-06-2010 at 02:27 PM. Reason: Typos and formatting

08-06-2010, 05:08 PM	#8
DeReader Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 126 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Germany Device: Sony PRS-T1, iRex DR1000S, Kindle DXG, Jetbook Color	What a cool hack, thanks Iñigo! At first I installed the "lite" version, no problem. After that I wanted more and extracted the UDS from the firmware of the DR1000. But at first I could not install the "full" version on the reader, there where never any files copied in the _backup folder (and so I assumed there where also no new files in the /usr/bin directory). Then I removed this check in the shellscript dr800+.sh: Code: if [ -s uds.dr1000 ]; then ... fi After the removal of that part it worked, but I can not recommend this method because you MUST be 100% sure that you have the correct uds.dr1000! Iñigo, do you have an idea what the problem could be? I'm not that shellscript guru

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08-06-2010, 09:06 AM	#2
catharsis Addict Posts: 206 Karma: 14 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: iRex DR800SG, Onyx Boox M92	Thanks a lot. I already have on my device something modified by CoolDragon, I will also try yours. Is there any possibility to extract the DR1000 uds binary on a Windows environment?

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catharsis Addict Posts: 206 Karma: 14 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: iRex DR800SG, Onyx Boox M92	What about a live-cd distribution. What would you recommend?

08-06-2010, 05:43 PM	#9
CoolDragon Addict Posts: 244 Karma: 124 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: none	When you installed the lite version, the script created a file called _backup/dr800+.installed. When you later try to install the full version, the script assumes that you want to "toggle" back to the DR800's original stuff.

08-07-2010, 02:35 AM	#13
bokjeid Addict Posts: 217 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: DR1000S	It seems so great one!! But isn't there a simpler way to get the uds file of DR1000S? Isn't it possible with rxvt or so? Because I know nothing about linux including installing it...

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