yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
The 32 GB Class 10 cost me less than $5.

I was hardly going to use 32 GB, but smaller SD cards weren't much cheaper.

I also didn't want to solder to a more expensive card that I wasn't going to use.

So the Glow2 and the Glow3 got a soldered in 32 GB, the Glow4 got 128 GB in a socket, which I later swapped to a socketed 32 GB.

Not, that I'd use it, but the Boox Poke software has you swipe to turn the page.

I find that crazy. It makes me apprehensive of how they've skinned the system software.

My own reader just uses a single touch on the left or right side for PU/PD.

I use my Glow2 exclusively for reading, no browsing, no other apps.

Sure, partioning is possible.

I just think that the NST is getting too old to be worth the effort.

With a refurbished Glow3 direct from B&N at $90 wouldn't that make more sense?
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
I was almost going to bite the bullet and buy a Poke3, but they're currently sold out in the US.

I noticed a new offering though, their Bluetooth page turner foot pedal https://shop.boox.com/products/boox-blue-page-pedal

A bit pricey, but nice looking.

Although for $100 you can get an iRig BlueBoard 4 button pedal https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigblueboard

For $70 you can get an iRig BlueTurn 2 button pedal https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigblueturn

Those IK Multimedia folks are firmly stuck in iPhone land but with an app (not from them) you can use it on Android/Nook/Glow.

I never understand this one. Why does guitar stuff have stupid steel pushbuttons?

You need army boots to press them. You want to try this barefoot? https://www.airturn.com/products/airturn-bt200s-6-controller
[Nook Touch General] SJT75:
I guess that I am still to much fond to the NST to let it go. Strangely enough like Renate I yesterday looked upon some presenter / air mouse in the shop and wondered could it work as page turner or something like that. And before that I have seen some wired oddly shaped pen like mouse that spurred same thought but I think that USB might not be up to the task. I find that in old Android device USB isn't always best implemented. Either mouse work but not the keyboard or if they work then USB flash drive won't etc. So for the time being for an old device that I have buying gadget for it that is more expensive than device beats the purpose IMHO but for newer Glow why not?
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Well, the Glow3 has a better resolution screen and the old Android 4.4.2 which is better than the ancient 2.1

With the NST you could always hardware buttons in parallel to the normal buttons.

That was even available on a connector.

On my Glow2/3/4 I have a connector mounted on the back that is the hardware UART console.

It's easy enough to spit out a shell command into that.

I don't use the "input" command because that is a Java command and it takes too long to Zygote up a JVM just to do a few chars.

I have injectd, which is a daemon that listens on /dev/inject and is an input device. That takes no time.

I made up a little box (which is documented somewhere?) to issue "echo 1 > /dev/inject".
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
This is another weird, niche use-case but does dropbox-sync or similar still work on the NST? How about usb keyboards? Some of us used to use NSTs as electronic typewriters back in the day. I'd take notes on it and save documents to my dropbox for syncing later. I'm not somewhere with the old keyboard I used to use because of pandemic related reasons, so I can't test myself, but if there's an app that can still run on the ancient android version and authenticate with the server, that could be something.
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
The last time I checked Dropbox it was still working, but it's been awhile. For a time they were sending out messages saying it would stop working at such-and-such a time, but that time passed and it was still working.
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Yes, you can get a USB keyboard to work with the NST.

You need an OTG adapter and UsbMode.apk (in the sig).

It's easy to get working with a back powering USB hub and possible (and problematic) without one.
[Nook Touch General] SJT75:
I have seen before here on forum Renate hack directly into NST to add page turner. I especially like avoiding Java/Android level and inputs at lower level.

Also jptiger is correct that some way to enable easier input to device by user would largely enhance NST use. Keyboard had been already demonstrated to work and may be good enough for most users if needs arise for such input.

Sadly NST is not powerful enough to support written notes using stylus with or without OCR and such stuff. It might work with cloud support but its old OS is hamper on that road. Another way would be if we could leave voice notes on NST using it as dictaphone. That is probably possible to do but less handy. That also could be converted to notes using voice recognition in cloud but that will hit same bump on the road.

I have a pet project of mine to make using some old earphones and its parts. I hope to make it into a micro USB enabled "dongle" with push buttons and 3.5mm earphone jack. I hope that by adding those buttons maybe Android can be persuaded to use some of those buttons like volume up/down inside browser/reader and as "dongle" has microphone on board it should work at the same time as dictation enabler using play/pause. Its more convoluted way then what Renate did but it just might work.

Cloud drive is neat and can be more user friendly but I agree with Renate that something in line of devices synchronization is better especially for old device such as NST. If you sync notes from it to your presumably very much recent mobile phone that should be enough for most of us.
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Oh, there's also just paralleling the regular buttons on the NST.

There's even a connector for that already. (That's not true of the Glows.)

There's two accessible UARTs on the NST, one 1.8 V, one 3.3 V

You could use a console UART (more versatile for other things) or a raw UART.
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
This discussion has gotten me digging around to see what the old thing can and can't do. The main thing I used to use t for was checking public library books out via Overdrive websites on Opera and opening the files with Aldiko (I also found an old Overdrive app that might've worked at some point), but I can't seem to do that anymore. I updated cacerts thanks to nmyshkin's excellent how-to on the subject, including adding a certificate I saw being used by Overdrive.com. Still no dice. Error I'm getting in an old version of the Overdrive App is "Error downloading (book name) - EPUB File. (error code 1060)" and in Aldiko it's "Import failed [E_STREAM_ERROR: CURL returned I (I)]".

I even tried the old clunky way of checking out the overdrive epub onto my laptop with Adobe Digital Editions and loading it on via USB, but that doesn't even seem to work (I forget the error message but can post if people are especially curious- I'm not that interested in running things this way if I can help it).

Has anyone else had any luck getting Overdrive books to work recently?
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Recently? As in today? Yes.

Unfortunately, you probably don't like how I do it.

I just use Adobe ADE 4 on my desktop.

I then sync my Glow2.

What's the error? Is it on the transfer or the opening?
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
Neither Overdrive nor Aldiko will work. They lack the required SSL chops. The only way is downloading on a PC and using ADE to transfer to the NST. Then you can use the stock reader until the book expires. This presumes you have paired your NST with the ADE installation. Alas, there is simply no fix for this. You can do the whole routine on the device using the CM 11 ROM, but the book is trapped in that universe. I've not been able to share it with the stock ROM, even using the same Adobe ID. But that's just my feeble brain at work on the problem. Someone else might be able to figure it out.

Of course, when I say the "only" way I am omitting a Calibre-based solution.

Edit: I neglected to mention Kindle books. Many libraries offer books in both formats (epub and mobi). It is possible to complete the entire checkout/delivery process for Kindle books on the NST. So far.
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
The NST has two UARTs, /dev/ttyS0 (1.8 V) & /dev/ttyS1 (3.3 V because it goes through the TI TXB0104 level shifter).

/dev/ttyS0 is a console UART because it is used:

As a console for u-boot including boot messages

As a console for Linux including dmesg

/dev/ttyS1 is unused, you can use it for whatever.

If you wanted to use this as your console you would have to modify both u-boot and the command line to the kernel.

Yes, it's been done somewhere.

I just think that the NST is a bit too balky with USB and audio is too much of a hack that I would only bother if this were some hard wired setup built into a wall.

Portable operation and powering a standard USB audio headphone adapter is not something I'd recommend.

If you were really trying to make audio work you could put in an I²S codec.

You probably couldn't find the pins from the OMAP3621.

But this is seriously too much effort for a device designed in 2008.
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
Opening. I checked out a book successfully into ADE 4.5, copy it to my device fine, but when I try opening the book in my NST with the stock reader app I get "Error Dialog: Loan Token Not Found."

FWIW this is a NST 1st gen with software 1.1.0. I have some vague memory of downgrading after finding that 1.2.1 broke something I cared about at the time, probably root access or NoRefresh, which I'm sure is no longer an issue. Not seeing an obvious way to upgrade, but haven't actually tried very hard yet.

The irony is strong in this one :p. What's the process? I've never bothered installing a Kindle app to the NST before, but would do it if it works.

Also an interesting point. I never spent any time with Calibre, maybe it's worth investigating...
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Does your book appear in /media/Digital\ Editions ?

Do you have /media/.adobe-digital-editions/activation.xml that is brand new (updated when the book was copied)?

If not, then you know that Adobe makes crummy software.

Copy over another library book (PDF books seem to work better) and see if the xml file gets updated.

Then you can open your first book or the last book.
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
Well...during one of my waking moments in the middle of night I realized that you and I and someone else had this conversation some time ago. Search is so bolluxed up now that I can't find the thread. At that time, neither Opera Mobile nor Opera Mini would negotiate the Overdrive library sign-in. Someone located a pitiable version of UC Browser that would.

So this morning I tried it again because I was afraid that I was garbling my experience with the CM 11 ROM and the stock ROM.

First, you can't really continue with FW 1.1.0. There is no reason to do so. There are kernals to support NoRefresh (I use one), USBHost, Fastmode, etc. You just need to decide what you want and use that kernal. Despite the fact that the FW 1.2.2 update is majorly about B&N server communication, there do seem to be subtle differences with regard to things SSL. So....update.

As to Kindle books, this is what I did this morning, using Opera Mini 7.6.40125 (the last version to run on the NST):

1. Navigate to your library Overdrive site.

2. Sign in. For my libraries this is about entering my library card number. Yours may be different.

3. Browse or search to find a book to check out. For my libraries the checkout dialog is in a floating overlay and can be missed (it seems to favor the top of the page) if you are way down at the bottom of the page, so scroll up if you don't see any response.

4. If the book is available in Kindle format one of the options after you select "checkout" will be "read in Kindle" or something like that. It sounds like it's going to open the app and operate on-line, but at least for my libraries it instead takes you to the Amazon.com fulfillment center. There you must sign in with your account. When I tried that this morning I had to do a two-step verification (they send an email which I saw almost immediately in the notifications and I opened it and clicked on the response which took me back to Opera Mini for a confirmation dialog. Once I had done that, I was deposited back at the page where I could choose which of my devices to deliver the book to.

5. Exit Opera Mini.

6. Open the Kindle app and watch the book magically appear!

I was actually surprised by the fluidity of Opera Mini and it's cooperation with my email app (K9 mail). Everything went without a hitch :-)

As for Calibre, I started out building up a library, blah, blah, blah. I grew tired of that after awhile as my inventory of "to reads" started to diminish. Now I just keep perhaps ten to 20 books on my NST. Some are "complete works" tomes and last a good long time as I read parts and then go back to something else for a break. However, someone has written a plugin for Calibre which [censored] the DRM from epubs when they are added to the Calibre library. Such books can be read with any reader. Just information.
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
In defense of the aging NST/G, I have to say that I have three devices (two NSTs and one with the Glowlight) and each behaves flawlessly with USB Host and Audio. Now it may be that I am just very lucky. If so, I wish I could transfer some of that luck to other areas of my life!

I have no data to back up my suspicion but I wonder if some of the trouble people experience is owing to a poor OTG adapter. My first one was hopeless and nearly made me give up on USB Host. The slightly non-standard (if there actually is a standard) USB jack on the NST is cranky even with the power cord for charging. Not a smooth connection in general. It may be that over time the jack becomes distorted as people try to get the plug in and out or even that microfractures start in the solder connections. In any case, the OTG adapter I have now fits smoothly into the socket, almost as if it had been oiled first. I think your USB Host app is valuable for troubleshooting but I confess that I don't use it. I just blindly use my one-touch apps and follow the screen prompts. And it works all the time.

I think it's important to keep things on a flat surface and not let the dongle dangle :) and I have reached the point where I don't use the USB jack for anything but Host and charging. All file transfers and ADB are done via WiFi. Once the jack is malfunctioning, you are dead in the water. I looked at the jack connections on the board once and decided that those connections were not meant to be done by human hands (barring a "Honey, I shrunk the kids!" scenario).

Yes, it drains the battery. I regularly listen to a time-shifted radio program on Sunday mornings, so not only am I running USB Audio but also WiFi. I just plug a cable from my bookshelf stereo system into the headphone jack of the USB audio adapter. After 90 min. the battery is down to 75% from a full charge. That's more than enough for the rest of the week reading and I just charge every Saturday.

As Mark Twain noted, my habits agree with me but they might well assassinate you.
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Search is currently? being reindexed and until then it can't find its own shoes.

I'd really like to see if @jptiger is hitting the same bug as I often do, even if they aren't interested in using this method regularly.
[Nook Touch General] SJT75:
Renate thanks for clarification. I remember vaguely that someone on forum had problems with ttyS0 being broken and tried to replace it with ttyS1. I will search there for more insight.

I have seen that some odd Android device have on outer shell copper contacts that could be mirrors of some of these connectors for diagnostic/reprogramming purposes. Do you think something like that could be done on NST? Now would that be console connectors or 4 pole 3.5mm jack is matter of preference I guess.
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
I own a Nexus 7 2013 and that uses the headphone jack also for 1.8 V console.

The NST uses little JST SH 1.0 mm pitch horizontal male headers. You'd need to put in a header, get a cable and wire that to some other connector.

The Glows are easy to install a JST XH 2.5 mm pitch vertical male header directly on the board that can go through a hole in the back of the case.

To make a hole in the back of a Glow:

Take off the front panel.

Using a 0.9 mm drill, carefully, by hand (so as not to take off the PCB hole plating) twirl the drill in the four holes in the PCB just enough to make a mark.

Remove the PCB.

Drill from the inside the four tiny marks on the case.

Stuff the connector from the outside into the four holes.

With the connector aligned perpendicular, write or scribe the rectangular hole.

Drill and file the hole.

If necessary, clean any conformal coating on the PCB where you need to solder.

Install the PCB.

Stuff the connector in.

Solder the connector.

But seriously, the NST has had it's day.

Just out of ornery-ness I'm trying to get some Glow software to work on the NST.

It's a losing battle.

Once you start getting into libraries, the NST doesn't have libandroid.so and libc.so is missing things.

And no, the libraries aren't compatible.

You want something black with four buttons? Get a Glow3. That's already ancient too.
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
@jptiger, regarding ADE. For you especially with the outdated firmware, you might want to try downgrading your ADE to version 3. When you are trying to make nice with the NST it's not always a good idea to go with the newest anything. I tried transferring a library book via ADE 3.0 this morning and had no problems, no error messages of any kind (and, yes, the book opened just fine).
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Fine, whatever.

Just please do me a favor and first see if the problem was that activation.xml never got updated.
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
This seems to be exactly the problem I'm having. However I'm not having luck finding library pdf books. I tried copying over the "quick start" book that came with ADE, but /media/.adobe-digital-editions/activation.xml doesn't update. Any suggestions for other books/sources to try?

Will do! I just have to figure out how. It's been so long since I did anything with the device that I don't actually remember what customizations I've got on the thing that kept it at 1.1.0 (nonstandrad kernel maybe?). At least it's already a US-region device, so that shouldn't be an issue. I've downloaded the 1.2.1 zip and put it in /Media... I guess just wait and see if that does it or if I need to reset the thing?
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
I hope you mean the 1.2.2 zip. And...you do not place it in /media. So let's back up a bit. Since your device was rooted you will not be able to update without a factory reset. You can try the 8-failed-boot trick to get there or you can prepare a NookManager card (which you will need anyway) and use it to trigger the re-imaging (doesn't use the upper left button!). That will probably leave you at some old version, maybe even 1.10.

When the device finishes the factory image process it will display the "Welcome" screen. At this point attach it via USB to your PC and drag the 1.2.2 update zip to the "Nook" drive. Let it go to sleep. Come back after awhile and see if the update zip has disappeared from the "Nook" drive. If it's gone the update has been done. At that point you can continue with setup and registration.

The NookManager card will need to be updated to work with FW 1.2.2: https://xdaforums.com/t/nst-g-updating-nookmanager.3873048/

As for the Kindle app: https://xdaforums.com/t/app-eink-friendly-amazon-kindle-3-2-0-35.2024062/post-84192235
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
For the record, when I follow the click and drag instructions to the "Nook" drive, where the update zip goes is /media. Windows doesn't mount the root folder of the drive.

That said, you're clearly right about needing to reset. I'll follow your instructions accordingly.

Also, I did mean 1.2.1. My impression from an earlier post of yours was that the 1.2.2 was more trouble than it's worth - is that no longer the case?
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
If your device was running fine and you didn't have any reason to contact B&N, blah, blah, blah, then there would be very little reason to update--especially since you have to do a factory reset. That is not your situation. Since you are going to do a factory reset it makes sense to update to 1.2.2.

You are right about /media, but coming from a reset my instructions are just a little more direct. Never quite sure what people know or don't know :)
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
It will only change if you add a DRM book to your device.

If you have DRM books on your device you can try taking them off and putting them back on.

Sometimes I've even had a script watching activation.xml for when it gets updated.
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
Sorry, maybe I'm not understanding properly- when I tried transferring a Overdrive book, I'd assume that would be adding a DRM book to the device. I've tried that a couple times and it doesn't seem to work. Is there a different kind of DRM book you have in mind, and if so, where might I get one?

Maybe I'm just dense, but I'm not seeing an option in NookManager to trigger re-imaging (at least that doesn't use that upper left button). I've got:

-Root

----Create Backup (busted on mine)

----Root my device

-More

----About NookManager (busted)

----B&N Apps

-------Disable all B&N apps

-Rescue (busted)

If it's something under rescue, you mentioned that maybe there's a way to do something with a custom script? I can look up the 8-failed-boot-trick in the meantime...
[Nook Touch General] Renate:
Yes, if it's a borrowed book, that's ok.

I though that you mentioned "Getting Started" or some such open EPUB.

An open EPUB isn't part of activation.xml
[Nook Touch General] nmyshkin:
No, I'm talking about an Overdrive book. When I have ADE open and I plug in my NST, it shows up as "Nook" in the left pane.I can then just drag the book from ADE to the "Nook" and it's done. Now that's with ver. 3.0. Might be different in other versions. But I did have to pair up the NST with my ADE installation for this to work. Don't even remember how that all worked.

Oh crap. I misremembered the location of the "Rescue" button. That's where the factory reset option hides. Doing the 8-failed-boot thing manually is a pain in the posterior (and fingers).
[Nook Touch General] jptiger:
Okay, so I've factory reset and restored stuff. Things generally look promising but I'm hitting a couple walls again.

@Renate NST I'm afraid I can't continue to help bug hunting with ADE 4.5 - for some reason it now refuses to launch properly on my PC even after uninstalling and reinstalling. The application will show up in taskbar, but no window will open. Mousing over the taskbar icon shows a thumbnail of a blank white window that I can sort of get to "minimize" from offscreen right. If I use win+arrow keys to snap it elsewhere on screen, it doesn't respond. As you said, Adobe makes some quality stuff.

Which brings me to @nmyshkin and ADE 3.0. I've uninstalled 4.5 and installed 3.0, but for some reason I'm getting errors when I try to open .acsm files with it. I had one overdrive title already in there from my time with 4.5, but it's giving me an error when I try to copy it to the NST, saying I don't have permission.

Meanwhile, I've updated cacerts.bks again, but the re-signed Opera Mobile can't connect to remote server when I point to any Overdrive.com domains. This wasn't an issue before resetting, not sure why it would start being an issue now.

While I'm thinking about it, what's the latest way to enable norefresh and usbhosts these days?