InkBox: a new open-source OS and eBook reader based on Qt5

[NiMa]

I've released v1.3.

InkBox OS and Nickel add-on compatible.

You can find the related Nickel bundle there: https://pkgs.kobox.fermino.me/bundle...ase-1.3.tar.xz
As usual, InkBox OS updates are there: https://pkgs.kobox.fermino.me/bundle...ve/update/1.3/

Changelog:

- Lock screen with passcode unlock
- Improved update process
- Security enhancements
- Option to disable UI scaling

Enjoy!

[Crimson_Raven]

I just registered here to let you know that this thing is awesome, and I look forward to its development. I'll try to flash it on my spare SD card later and let you know how it went.

I don't know why more people don't develop their own distributions and OS's for Kobo devices. Please keep working on yours, it's a breath of fresh air in a development environment in which most mods are from 2012 or earlier.

Do you plan on using a platform like github or gitlab to track issues? It might be easier to report and keep track of them this way.

[NiMa]

Originally Posted by Crimson_Raven

I just registered here to let you know that this thing is awesome, and I look forward to its development. I'll try to flash it on my spare SD card later and let you know how it went.

I don't know why more people don't develop their own distributions and OS's for Kobo devices. Please keep working on yours, it's a breath of fresh air in a development environment in which most mods are from 2012 or earlier.

Do you plan on using a platform like github or gitlab to track issues? It might be easier to report and keep track of them this way.

Yes, there's a GitHub repository here: https://github.com/Kobo-InkBox/inkbox
Thanks

[BlauMond]

I have to say, I am incredibly happy to see that you worked further on this, and it's on bare metal too!
I have wanted to have PostmarketOS (alpine based, mobile oriented Linux) working on my Glo HD for a while and this gives me some motivation to get on it again. It may even be a good idea to make it possible to use this application on an PmOS device, since other mobile devices and hopefully also e-Readers might benefit from it in the long term.

Do you have any documentation on how you managed to boot Alpine on bare metal? It would be great on relative noobs like me who are thinking about porting something too

Thanks a lot for your work!

[NiMa]

Originally Posted by BlauMond

I have to say, I am incredibly happy to see that you worked further on this, and it's on bare metal too!
I have wanted to have PostmarketOS (alpine based, mobile oriented Linux) working on my Glo HD for a while and this gives me some motivation to get on it again. It may even be a good idea to make it possible to use this application on an PmOS device, since other mobile devices and hopefully also e-Readers might benefit from it in the long term.

Do you have any documentation on how you managed to boot Alpine on bare metal? It would be great on relative noobs like me who are thinking about porting something too

Thanks a lot for your work!

It will be pretty hard if PmOS doesn't support 3.0.35 kernel, because since it's not in mainline, you'd have to port all the drivers and such to a newer version.
Though, the next InkBox update will include a full-fledged X11 windowing system with drag'n'drop extensions and KTerm for rooted devices. Maybe it would be more related to what you actually want, without having to port it yourself?
Nevertheless, here's a link of an Alpine 3.13 rootfs I made for my Glo HD. It successfully runs Mediawiki headlessly since I put it on a MicroSD card and let the board hang near the router and a thin client which provides a network bridge via USBNet.
It's a squashFS archive, so you'll have to use 'unsquashfs' to extract it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z6P...ew?usp=sharing

Good luck

[BlauMond]

Originally Posted by NiMa

It will be pretty hard if PmOS doesn't support 3.0.35 kernel, because since it's not in mainline, you'd have to port all the drivers and such to a newer version.
Though, the next InkBox update will include a full-fledged X11 windowing system with drag'n'drop extensions and KTerm for rooted devices. Maybe it would be more related to what you actually want, without having to port it yourself?
Nevertheless, here's a link of an Alpine 3.13 rootfs I made for my Glo HD. It successfully runs Mediawiki headlessly since I put it on a MicroSD card and let the board hang near the router and a thin client which provides a network bridge via USBNet.
It's a squashFS archive, so you'll have to use 'unsquashfs' to extract it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z6P...ew?usp=sharing

Good luck

Acccording to the PmOS porting guide (https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/P...o_a_new_device), 3.0.35 should work:
"The kernel version is also important, as of writing (April 2020), the lowest kernel version number we have packaged is 3.0.x."

To me that means the Kernel will most likely be okay. I will have a look at your example, I have never done anything like this before so I am sure it will help, thanks! I am also excited to see where you will go with InkBox, it sounds very promising

Would it be okay to ask you for help if I need some advice with porting?

[NiMa]

Yeah, no problem. You might want to join the Discord servers though, I find it easier for things like that instead of PMs:
https://discord.com/invite/uSWtWbY23m # KoBox/InkBox server
https://discord.com/invite/FTAMN8wP6d # MobileRead server (unofficial)

[NiMa]

After months of complicated, exhaustive work and about 1700 hours of work, I finally got InkBox 1.5 out.
It features the following:

- Two more devices are supported: Kobo Touch N905C and Glo
- Complete KoBox/X11 seamless integration with the main interface. KTerm is also supported for rooted devices
- New ePUB engine that works *much* better (mutool)
- Greatly improved core system security and filesystem organization (root filesystem is now a squashFS mounted read-only)
- Better update process

and much more... watch the video (it's long, but worth it IMO):
Downloads are available here: http://pkgs.kobox.fermino.me/bundles/inkbox/native/
Important: existing users, you need to flash the entire image again to your device's SD card because too much has changed to be applied as a simple update.
Source code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/Kobo-InkBox
You can take a look at the core init scripts to see how all is started: https://github.com/Kobo-InkBox/kerne.../initrd/common

Enjoy!

[NiMa]

Update 1.6 is out. Includes the following improvements:

- "Go to page" feature
- Search function (at last)
- VNC viewer for rooted devices

It's live here.

[TinfoilSubmarine]

Originally Posted by BlauMond

Acccording to the PmOS porting guide (https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/P...o_a_new_device), 3.0.35 should work:
"The kernel version is also important, as of writing (April 2020), the lowest kernel version number we have packaged is 3.0.x."

To me that means the Kernel will most likely be okay. I will have a look at your example, I have never done anything like this before so I am sure it will help, thanks! I am also excited to see where you will go with InkBox, it sounds very promising

Would it be okay to ask you for help if I need some advice with porting?

Was browsing through this after reading about the work on getting pmOS on Clara HD and realizing that someone has already put together a wiki page and done some work to start mainlining, not sure what the status is but thought it would be useful to connect some dots.

I'd be interested in getting my hands dirty with this, I'm currently running KOReader on the device on top of the stock firmware but would love to have a more hackable underlying system to play with

[Richardterry]

Hello
I have recently bought a second-hand kobo mini and would like to be able to put Inkbox on it.
Unfortunately, I only have an android phone and have no access to any sort of PC (my local library doesn't allow me systems privelages).
Coupled with the fact that I do not know how to use linux.

I would be very happy to buy a 'ready-made' sd card (preferably 8/16gb) that I could just plug and play.

I do hope this is possible somehow.
I can be contacted by my email :
Richardterry@tutamail.com

Thank you
Richard Terry

[NiMa]

New release!
Changelog:

- Wi-Fi support for some devices (N905B and N873)
- New device support: N905B
- OTA updates support (experimental)
- InkBox now can remember your book's page number and reading settings (disable Settings -> Reading -> Global reading settings)
- Enhanced UI/UX

Updates are available through here and N905B image here.

I've also set up a Liberapay account if you want to support this project (https://liberapay.com/tux-linux/)

Enjoy!

[NiMa]

Is there still any interest from anyone in this at all?

--

I mean, it seems that even the Nanoclock thread is receiving more replies daily than this in one month.

[boriar]

Well, I always have interest in software for my ebook but, I have a Aura H2O original. Nor Touch, Glo or Mini, so I can't use it.

[NiMa]

Yeah, I guess that some don't have those old devices.
Would Clara HD support raise more interest?