The absolute n00b guide to installing applications

Adam B. · 12-14-2007, 04:27 PM

So you just got your brand new iLiad, or maybe you've had it for a while but have grown comfortable enough that you'd like to install one of the community applications. Below, I'll detail a step by step guide on how to setup your iLiad to install a new application to it.

First, a few notes: You've paid a lot for your iLiad and you don't want to break it. This fact alone prevents a lot of people from trying out new programs. There is good news though. If something should happen while installing or running an application. You should be able to restore your iLiad. You will need a compact flash (CF) card. I recommend anyone who's planning to install community applications to buy a CF card. You can pick up a 1 Gigabyte card at any electronics store for under $30 US. You should place all of your applications, along with the files needed to do a reflash should anything go wrong.

This guide is extremely detailed. It's actually a lot easier than it looks.

With that out of the way, lets get started:

The first thing you will need to do is connect to IDS. To do this, you will need either a wired, or wireless network connection.
1. Create an IDS profile here: https://myirex.irexnet.com/user.php/createuser
2. Fill in your e-mail address in the field and click on 'Send'.
3. You will receive an automatic e-mail with a password in your e-mail inbox.
4. Take your iLiad and enter your e-mail address and the password you received into the 'iLiad Settings'.
5. Create a (wired or wireless) network profile on your iLiad using the Wizard.
6. You can now connect to the iDS by pressing the connect key on your iLiad for 2 seconds.
Once you see your iLiad connect, it should tell you that there's either nothing to download, or it will install any updates it finds.
Now you will need to sign up for the developer package. This will give you the ability to run programs, and will also program your iLiad with what you need to reflash it from a CF card in case something goes wrong.
1. To sign up for the developer package visit this page: https://myirex.irexnet.com/user.php/developer
  - If you've successfully connected to IDS in the past, your MAC address should appear in the "Select MAC Address" drop down box.
  - If it does not appear, verify your email address and password in the settings screen on your iLiad, and connect to the IDS again.
2. After you have selected your MAC address, click "Send Developer Package".
  - This link does not work in Safari! If you are on a Mac, you will need to use Firefox or IE
3. Now, connect to the IDS on your iLiad. You should see a message saying "Downloading Developer Package".
4. After it installs, your iLiad should automatically reboot.
Now that your iLiad has rebooted, it should start up like normal, but you won't see anything different. You'll need to try to install an application to make sure it worked.
1. The first program you should try to install is mrxvt.
  - This is a terminal application. Simlar to a DOS prompt on a windows computer.
  - I like to test with this program because it doesn't require anything special other than the developer package to run.
2. Download mrxvt in this thread.
3. You will need to unzip the download on your computer. Windows XP and up has zip functionality built in. If you need an unzipping program, I suggest 7zip.
4. Once you have unzipped the program, you should see a folder called "mrxvt".
5. Simply copy this folder to the internal memory or CF card on your iLiad.
6. Browse to the correct directory from your iLiad, and select the line that says "mrxvt: Command Shell".
7. If all went well, it should open up a terminal along with your keyboard. If you don't know anything about linux, I suggest you click the "X" to close it, or type "exit" and hit enter.

So now you have shell access, and you've run your first application. Many apps use the unzip and run process of installing. However, others are more complicated and include an installer. This is the case with a popular 3rd party viewer I've ported called FBReader. I will walk you through the installation of this.

Download FBReader from this thread.
Unzip it, and copy the folder called "fbreaderinst" to the Compact Flash (or other flash memory) card on your iLiad.
- For FBReader, and other installers, it's important to use a CF card, USB key, or MMC card. If you install it to the main memory of the iLiad, you may run into problems with the screen refresh.
On your iLiad, browse to where you have copied the installer. You should see an item called "Install FBReader". Select it.
It will take a little bit of time to install. At that time, you will see the green light flash, and the bars moving across the bottom. After it is installed it will tell you "FBReader has been installed".
You can safely delete the "fbreaderinst" folder on your iLiad.
Now, to run FBReader, browse to the "Programs" directory that the installer created on your memory card. Inside there, you will see a launcher for FBReader. Simply select it, and it will start.
Here, you can use the FBReader library to add books, or if your prefer, install the FBReader Registry Modifications to open books directly from the contentlister (aka the way you open PDF's and Mobipocket books).

Hopefully you now understand how to install 3rd party programs on your iLiad. You can read this post where I cover reflashing your iLiad in case something goes wrong and your iLiad won't boot.

Feel free to comment, and let me know if there are any confusing areas or things that need to be improved upon.

There have been reports of constant reboot problems after installing. If that should happen take a look at this guide. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17343

You might need to use the format option if your registry is corrupt.

TallMomof2 · 12-14-2007, 08:12 PM

Thanks again!

MicheleC · 12-14-2007, 09:52 PM

Great work Adam,

Just what I needed to give it a try.

dusanmal · 12-16-2007, 12:35 AM

Very timely post for me (just got an iLiad...). Very helpful for the n00bs like me who worry about their new gadget yet want it hacked...

One additional question: I assume that the installed content is "blind" to the CF card on which it is. Ie. if I install a number of applications on my current CF card, all what I need is an exact copy of that content on another CF card (ex. newer, bigger and faster one) and everything will work properly when I use that card instead... Am I correct?

Thanks!

Adam B. · 12-16-2007, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dusanmal

One additional question: I assume that the installed content is "blind" to the CF card on which it is. Ie. if I install a number of applications on my current CF card, all what I need is an exact copy of that content on another CF card (ex. newer, bigger and faster one) and everything will work properly when I use that card instead... Am I correct?

That's exactly correct. As long as you copy the contents over to another card with the same file structure, all should work.

MicheleC · 12-16-2007, 02:49 PM

I've followed your instructions and loaded FBReader and the registry modifications. mrxvt didn't work but I went ahead anyway. Now I'd like to tell FBreader that it is to open .html documents and not Mobipocket. How do I do that?
Also, can I delete the entry notification that FBReader Registry has been installed?
I'm happy with FBReader and I wouldn't have loaded it without your step by step so thanks again.

dusanmal · 12-16-2007, 05:02 PM

Another interesting question is er_registry.txt file. I came to need to change it in order to be able to read DJVU files. However, I can't even find it (no such file in /etc or in /mnt/settings).

Adam B. · 12-16-2007, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dusanmal

Another interesting question is er_registry.txt file. I came to need to change it in order to be able to read DJVU files. However, I can't even find it (no such file in /etc or in /mnt/settings).

er_registry.txt doesn't exist in firmware 2.11. The registry now exists in /mnt/settings/registry/registry.xml

dusanmal · 12-16-2007, 11:05 PM

Thanks, I have working DJVU reader now! (Configured as advised on another thread and adapting their er_registry.txt changes to registry.xml. I'll post my changes to registry.xml on that thread).

MicheleC · 12-18-2007, 04:18 PM

When I click on an html document it opens with Mobipocket. How do I tell FBreader that it is to open .html documents and not Mobipocket?

Adam B. · 12-18-2007, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MicheleC

When I click on an html document it opens with Mobipocket. How do I tell FBreader that it is to open .html documents and not Mobipocket?

You'll have to manually edit the registry to get it to do that. Unless you have SSH access, there's not really an easy way to do it. You could copy /mnt/settings/registry/registry.xml to a user accessable area, edit it, and replace it.

buuduong · 12-25-2007, 01:21 PM

I just received my iliad. I need help. I tried to install some third party programs, and I am now at a dead end in my now unusable device. If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. Here is what I did: I successfully created an account, and requested developer access. I created a reflash CF card. I then successfully installed mvrxt and fbreader. Then, I installed fbreader registry for running from content lister. Everything was going great. Then I installed abiword and that is when things completely went wrong. After installing abiword, it said that I must restart my device. I did this, and when it restarted, I got a black screen and a constant blinking green light. Nothing would make the green light go off except for the reset or power button. After pushing that, the device was still unresponsive. When I pressed the reset button followed by the power button, the device would restart, booting back up to the same black screen. So I decided it was time to reflash. I followed instructions to reflash, and I was able to start iliad back up normally. I noticed that internal memory was unchanged when I started back up (including abiword still saying that I needed to restart). Anyway, everything else seemed to working. I could not uninstall abiword- I assume this is because I need to request shell access again with the developer package. So, when I go the request, my MAC address is no longer present. So, I go back to my iliad to confirm connection, user name, password, etc. and it is correct. It is, so I go ahead and connect to iDS, in hopes of re-establishing my mac address online for the purposes of requesting shell access for the purpose of uninstalling abiword- the program that seemed to start this whole mess. Anyway, I connect to iDS, and it downloads "software updates-" I am not sure what because I have not yet re-requested the development package. So it downloads, installs itself, and the iliad reboots on its own. When it starts up, it comes back to the same black screen that I started with. I don't know what to do now. In summary, I can reflash. If I do not connect to iDS, I can work without shell access and turn off and on just fine, and I cannot use FBreader or uninstall Abiword. If I connect to iDS, I get my black screen. I would appreciate any advice.

Adam B. · 12-25-2007, 07:45 PM

Backup all of the files on your internal memory.

Edit your config.txt with notepad. Delete everything in it, and type "format" (without quotes). Now reflash. It will reset everything to factory settings, and you should be able to update without problems.

buuduong · 12-26-2007, 12:59 PM

Thanks so much for that easy fix. I was so worried that I had fried my Christmas present, but everything was reset just like you said. I think I'll steer clear of Abiword for now and use alternate file formats.

iQQ · 01-04-2008, 09:28 PM

I have tried many times, but the iLiad always says thare are nothing for download. Why?

I am in China and using Chinese interface, is this matter?

12-14-2007, 04:27 PM	#1
Adam B. Addicted to Porting Posts: 1,697 Karma: 7194 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Device: iRex iLiad, Nokia 770, Samsung i760	The absolute n00b guide to installing applications So you just got your brand new iLiad, or maybe you've had it for a while but have grown comfortable enough that you'd like to install one of the community applications. Below, I'll detail a step by step guide on how to setup your iLiad to install a new application to it. First, a few notes: You've paid a lot for your iLiad and you don't want to break it. This fact alone prevents a lot of people from trying out new programs. There is good news though. If something should happen while installing or running an application. You should be able to restore your iLiad. You will need a compact flash (CF) card. I recommend anyone who's planning to install community applications to buy a CF card. You can pick up a 1 Gigabyte card at any electronics store for under $30 US. You should place all of your applications, along with the files needed to do a reflash should anything go wrong. This guide is extremely detailed. It's actually a lot easier than it looks. With that out of the way, lets get started: The first thing you will need to do is connect to IDS. To do this, you will need either a wired, or wireless network connection. Create an IDS profile here: https://myirex.irexnet.com/user.php/createuser Fill in your e-mail address in the field and click on 'Send'. You will receive an automatic e-mail with a password in your e-mail inbox. Take your iLiad and enter your e-mail address and the password you received into the 'iLiad Settings'. Create a (wired or wireless) network profile on your iLiad using the Wizard. You can now connect to the iDS by pressing the connect key on your iLiad for 2 seconds. Once you see your iLiad connect, it should tell you that there's either nothing to download, or it will install any updates it finds. Now you will need to sign up for the developer package. This will give you the ability to run programs, and will also program your iLiad with what you need to reflash it from a CF card in case something goes wrong. To sign up for the developer package visit this page: https://myirex.irexnet.com/user.php/developer If you've successfully connected to IDS in the past, your MAC address should appear in the "Select MAC Address" drop down box. If it does not appear, verify your email address and password in the settings screen on your iLiad, and connect to the IDS again. After you have selected your MAC address, click "Send Developer Package". This link does not work in Safari! If you are on a Mac, you will need to use Firefox or IE Now, connect to the IDS on your iLiad. You should see a message saying "Downloading Developer Package". After it installs, your iLiad should automatically reboot. Now that your iLiad has rebooted, it should start up like normal, but you won't see anything different. You'll need to try to install an application to make sure it worked. The first program you should try to install is mrxvt. This is a terminal application. Simlar to a DOS prompt on a windows computer. I like to test with this program because it doesn't require anything special other than the developer package to run. Download mrxvt in this thread. You will need to unzip the download on your computer. Windows XP and up has zip functionality built in. If you need an unzipping program, I suggest 7zip. Once you have unzipped the program, you should see a folder called "mrxvt". Simply copy this folder to the internal memory or CF card on your iLiad. Browse to the correct directory from your iLiad, and select the line that says "mrxvt: Command Shell". If all went well, it should open up a terminal along with your keyboard. If you don't know anything about linux, I suggest you click the "X" to close it, or type "exit" and hit enter. So now you have shell access, and you've run your first application. Many apps use the unzip and run process of installing. However, others are more complicated and include an installer. This is the case with a popular 3rd party viewer I've ported called FBReader. I will walk you through the installation of this. Download FBReader from this thread. Unzip it, and copy the folder called "fbreaderinst" to the Compact Flash (or other flash memory) card on your iLiad. For FBReader, and other installers, it's important to use a CF card, USB key, or MMC card. If you install it to the main memory of the iLiad, you may run into problems with the screen refresh. On your iLiad, browse to where you have copied the installer. You should see an item called "Install FBReader". Select it. It will take a little bit of time to install. At that time, you will see the green light flash, and the bars moving across the bottom. After it is installed it will tell you "FBReader has been installed". You can safely delete the "fbreaderinst" folder on your iLiad. Now, to run FBReader, browse to the "Programs" directory that the installer created on your memory card. Inside there, you will see a launcher for FBReader. Simply select it, and it will start. Here, you can use the FBReader library to add books, or if your prefer, install the FBReader Registry Modifications to open books directly from the contentlister (aka the way you open PDF's and Mobipocket books). Hopefully you now understand how to install 3rd party programs on your iLiad. You can read this post where I cover reflashing your iLiad in case something goes wrong and your iLiad won't boot. Feel free to comment, and let me know if there are any confusing areas or things that need to be improved upon. There have been reports of constant reboot problems after installing. If that should happen take a look at this guide. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17343 You might need to use the format option if your registry is corrupt.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
A Noobs Guide to Borrowing E-Library Books and Installing non Kobo Bookstore Books	bamelin	Kobo Reader	17	01-07-2012 05:11 PM
Absolute best eBook reader?	Xtt	Which one should I buy?	46	04-22-2010 02:48 AM
iLiad jharker:would you please write a guide on installing iLiadPowerManagement	tudou331100	iRex Developer's Corner	10	01-23-2009 12:19 AM
iLiad First HelloWorld tutorial, a n00b primer First Hello World Tutorial, a n00b primer	mind	iRex Developer's Corner	13	09-19-2008 10:43 AM
iLiad Installing community developed applications with 2.7.1	jæd	iRex Developer's Corner	15	03-21-2007 04:56 PM

12-14-2007, 08:12 PM	#2
TallMomof2 Kindlephilia Posts: 2,017 Karma: 1139255 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Snowpacolypse 2010 Device: Too many to count	Thanks again!

12-14-2007, 09:52 PM	#3
MicheleC Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 12644 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Davie, Fl. Device: PalmTX/Illiad v2/PB 360/Nexus 7/Kobo Clara/Boox Nova Pro	Great work Adam, Just what I needed to give it a try.

12-16-2007, 12:35 AM	#4
dusanmal Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Babylon, NY Device: iRex iLiad	Very timely post for me (just got an iLiad...). Very helpful for the n00bs like me who worry about their new gadget yet want it hacked... One additional question: I assume that the installed content is "blind" to the CF card on which it is. Ie. if I install a number of applications on my current CF card, all what I need is an exact copy of that content on another CF card (ex. newer, bigger and faster one) and everything will work properly when I use that card instead... Am I correct? Thanks!

12-16-2007, 02:49 PM	#6
MicheleC Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 12644 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Davie, Fl. Device: PalmTX/Illiad v2/PB 360/Nexus 7/Kobo Clara/Boox Nova Pro	I've followed your instructions and loaded FBReader and the registry modifications. mrxvt didn't work but I went ahead anyway. Now I'd like to tell FBreader that it is to open .html documents and not Mobipocket. How do I do that? Also, can I delete the entry notification that FBReader Registry has been installed? I'm happy with FBReader and I wouldn't have loaded it without your step by step so thanks again.

12-16-2007, 05:02 PM	#7
dusanmal Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Babylon, NY Device: iRex iLiad	Another interesting question is er_registry.txt file. I came to need to change it in order to be able to read DJVU files. However, I can't even find it (no such file in /etc or in /mnt/settings).

12-16-2007, 11:05 PM	#9
dusanmal Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Babylon, NY Device: iRex iLiad	Thanks, I have working DJVU reader now! (Configured as advised on another thread and adapting their er_registry.txt changes to registry.xml. I'll post my changes to registry.xml on that thread).

12-18-2007, 04:18 PM	#10
MicheleC Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 12644 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Davie, Fl. Device: PalmTX/Illiad v2/PB 360/Nexus 7/Kobo Clara/Boox Nova Pro	When I click on an html document it opens with Mobipocket. How do I tell FBreader that it is to open .html documents and not Mobipocket?

12-25-2007, 01:21 PM	#12
buuduong Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: irex iliad	I just received my iliad. I need help. I tried to install some third party programs, and I am now at a dead end in my now unusable device. If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. Here is what I did: I successfully created an account, and requested developer access. I created a reflash CF card. I then successfully installed mvrxt and fbreader. Then, I installed fbreader registry for running from content lister. Everything was going great. Then I installed abiword and that is when things completely went wrong. After installing abiword, it said that I must restart my device. I did this, and when it restarted, I got a black screen and a constant blinking green light. Nothing would make the green light go off except for the reset or power button. After pushing that, the device was still unresponsive. When I pressed the reset button followed by the power button, the device would restart, booting back up to the same black screen. So I decided it was time to reflash. I followed instructions to reflash, and I was able to start iliad back up normally. I noticed that internal memory was unchanged when I started back up (including abiword still saying that I needed to restart). Anyway, everything else seemed to working. I could not uninstall abiword- I assume this is because I need to request shell access again with the developer package. So, when I go the request, my MAC address is no longer present. So, I go back to my iliad to confirm connection, user name, password, etc. and it is correct. It is, so I go ahead and connect to iDS, in hopes of re-establishing my mac address online for the purposes of requesting shell access for the purpose of uninstalling abiword- the program that seemed to start this whole mess. Anyway, I connect to iDS, and it downloads "software updates-" I am not sure what because I have not yet re-requested the development package. So it downloads, installs itself, and the iliad reboots on its own. When it starts up, it comes back to the same black screen that I started with. I don't know what to do now. In summary, I can reflash. If I do not connect to iDS, I can work without shell access and turn off and on just fine, and I cannot use FBreader or uninstall Abiword. If I connect to iDS, I get my black screen. I would appreciate any advice.

12-25-2007, 07:45 PM	#13
Adam B. Addicted to Porting Posts: 1,697 Karma: 7194 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Device: iRex iLiad, Nokia 770, Samsung i760	Backup all of the files on your internal memory. Edit your config.txt with notepad. Delete everything in it, and type "format" (without quotes). Now reflash. It will reset everything to factory settings, and you should be able to update without problems.

12-26-2007, 12:59 PM	#14
buuduong Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: irex iliad	Thanks so much for that easy fix. I was so worried that I had fried my Christmas present, but everything was reset just like you said. I think I'll steer clear of Abiword for now and use alternate file formats.

Advert

Advert

01-04-2008, 09:28 PM	#15
iQQ Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2006	I have tried many times, but the iLiad always says thare are nothing for download. Why? I am in China and using Chinese interface, is this matter?