86 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
86 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
# Low-power Kindle dashboard
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Turns out old Kindle devices make great, energy efficient dashboards :-)
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## What this repo is
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This repo only contains the code that runs on the Kindle. It periodically fetches an image to be displayed on the screen and suspends the device to RAM (which is very power efficient) until the next screen update.
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This code _does not_ render the dashboard itself. It's expected that what to display on the screen is rendered elsewhere and can be fetched via HTTP(s). This is both more power efficient and allows you to use any tool you like to produce the dashboard image.
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In the current Voyage layered-clock setup, the Kindle only fetches a low-frequency `kindlebg.png` background. The clock region itself is re-rendered on-device once per minute with a local Lua script and FBInk, without network access.
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In my case I use a [dashbling](https://github.com/pascalw/dashbling) dashboard that I render into a PNG screenshot on a server. See [here](https://github.com/pascalw/kindle-dash/blob/main/docs/tipstricks.md#producing-dashboard-images-from-a-webpage) for information on how these PNGs should be produced, including some sample code.
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## Prerequisites
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* A jailbroken Kindle, with Wi-Fi configured.
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* An SSH server on the Kindle (via [USBNetwork](https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/USBNetwork))
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* Tested only on a Kindle 4 NT. Should work on other Kindle devices as well with minor modifications.
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## Installation
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1. Download the [latest release](https://github.com/pascalw/kindle-dash/releases) on your computer and extract it.
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2. Modify `local/fetch-dashboard.sh` and optionally `local/env.sh`.
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3. Copy the files to the Kindle, for example: `rsync -vr ./ kindle:/mnt/us/dashboard`.
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4. Start dashboard with `/mnt/us/dashboard/start.sh`.
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Note that the device will go into suspend about 10-15 seconds after you start the dashboard.
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5. To leave dashboard mode and get back to the normal Kindle UI/KUAL, run `/mnt/us/dashboard/stop.sh`.
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On Voyage 5.13.6 this intentionally uses a conservative UI-stack restore instead of a fast handoff, because the faster paths were not stable.
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## Upgrading
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If you're running kindle-dash already and want to update to the latest version follow the following steps.
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1. Download the [latest release](https://github.com/pascalw/kindle-dash/releases) on your computer and extract it.
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2. Review the release notes. Some releases might require changes to files in `local/`.
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3. Copy the files to the Kindle, excluding the `local` directory. For example: `rsync -vur --exclude=local ./ kindle:/mnt/us/dashboard`.
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4. Modify files in `/mnt/us/dashboard/local` if applicable.
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5. Start dashboard with `/mnt/us/dashboard/start.sh`.
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Note that the device will go into suspend about 10-15 seconds after you start the dashboard.
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6. Run `/mnt/us/dashboard/stop.sh` when you want to restore the normal Kindle UI/KUAL.
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This uses the same conservative restore path on Voyage 5.13.6.
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## KUAL
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If you're using KUAL you can use simple extension to start this Dashboard
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1. Copy folder `kindle-dash` from `KUAL` folder to the kual `extensions` folder. (located in `/mnt/us/extensions`)
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2. The `Kindle Dashboard` entry is now a theme submenu in KUAL.
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3. Each theme item calls `/mnt/us/dashboard/launch-theme-from-kual.sh`, which switches the theme first and then delegates to `/mnt/us/dashboard/launch-from-kual.sh`.
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4. `launch-from-kual.sh` still quits KUAL first and uses a detached session, but by default it no longer inserts an extra visible handoff delay before starting the dashboard.
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5. The runtime page-key menu and the bottom-right touch hotspot are now disabled by default; theme entry is intentionally kept only in KUAL.
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6. On Kindle Voyage 5.13.6, this wrapper chain is in place but the KUAL/native-UI handoff is still not considered fully stable. For debugging, prefer `ssh kindle 'cd /mnt/us/dashboard && DEBUG=true ./start.sh'`.
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## Debugging
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For on-device debugging without suspending the Kindle, set `DISABLE_SYSTEM_SUSPEND=true` in `local/env.sh`.
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The dashboard loop will keep running, skip the `sleeping.png` branch, and use a normal `sleep` between refreshes instead of writing to `/sys/power/state`.
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If you're connected over SSH you can also run `DEBUG=true ./start.sh` to keep the process in the foreground with shell tracing enabled.
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If you're launching from KUAL, `Dashboard Debug On` now persists `DISABLE_SYSTEM_SUSPEND=true` and immediately restarts the dashboard in one tap. `Dashboard Debug Off` restores the normal low-power behavior and also restarts the dashboard immediately.
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If you're connected over SSH and only want a one-off foreground session, you can still run `/mnt/us/dashboard/start-debug.sh`.
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Each dashboard loop now also writes `isCharging` and `battStateInfo` from `com.lab126.powerd` into `logs/dash.log`, which makes it easier to confirm whether the Kindle actually detected external power while debugging.
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On Voyage 5.13.6, if `stop.sh` finishes but the home UI is still missing, the current fallback is still to start `webreader` manually with `/sbin/start webreader`.
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## How this works
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* This code periodically downloads a dashboard background image from an HTTP(s) endpoint.
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* The interval can be configured in `dist/local/env.sh` using a cron expression.
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* When the layered clock renderer is enabled, the Kindle re-renders the clock region locally every minute.
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* During the update intervals the device is suspended to RAM to save power.
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## Notes
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* The releases contain a pre-compiled binary of the [ht](https://github.com/ducaale/ht) command-line HTTP client. This fully supports modern HTTPS crypto, wheras the built-in `curl` and `wget` commands don't (because they rely on a very old `openssl` library).
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* For a detailed Kindle Voyage 5.13.6 jailbreak and deployment walkthrough, see [docs/kindle-voyage-5.13.6-watchthis-zh.md](./docs/kindle-voyage-5.13.6-watchthis-zh.md).
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* For a detailed same-device dashboard/SSH troubleshooting playbook based on the 2026-03-15 session, see [docs/kindle-voyage-5.13.6-dual-ssh-playbook-zh.md](./docs/kindle-voyage-5.13.6-dual-ssh-playbook-zh.md).
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* For the current white-screen/KUAL/SSH blocked-state handoff, see [docs/kindle-voyage-5.13.6-white-screen-handoff-zh.md](./docs/kindle-voyage-5.13.6-white-screen-handoff-zh.md).
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* For the layered clock split and runtime model, see [docs/layered-clock-plan.zh.md](./docs/layered-clock-plan.zh.md).
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## Credits
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Thanks to [davidhampgonsalves/life-dashboard](https://github.com/davidhampgonsalves/life-dashboard) for the inspiration!
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