PineNote Development/Apps

2023-04-23T12:06:07Z

Scott VYuCAbn3k1NFK:

This page lists applications and tweaks for the [https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PineNote PineNote].

== Development ==

Here are some resources you may find helpful in learning to develop on embedded Linux devices:
* Great YouTube series introducing you to the kernel and lower-level components of Linux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZ05pnHZqM
* https://embetronicx.com/
* https://bootlin.com/training/
* https://www.nand2tetris.org

Emulator recommendation for developing and testing PineNote apps: https://github.com/michaelshiel/picom-epaper

The PineNote is a specialized device, mainly due to the eink display having unique display and refresh characteristics.
Finding and configuring apps that work well sometimes requires a lot of tweaking and a lot exploring, especially for
applications containing fast screen updates and animations, as well as depend on a lot of colors.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCLyJfbzbrU Here is a video] showing the performance of a few applications.

== Desktop Environments ==

=== Sway ===

* [https://github.com/hmpthcs/WinkShell WinkShell] "Collected applications, configurations and scripts for using a wlroots-based compositor with an EPD (aka e-ink display). Currently supports Sway only."

* [https://github.com/0cc4m/pinenote-misc/blob/main/sway/config/sway/config 0cc4m's config]

==== Getting touch + pen working on sway ====

If you notice that touching the screen works, but when you use the pen the mouse coordinates are inverted, don't worry! We can fix it! Set <code>rockchip_ebc.panel_reflection=0</code> on boot (see [https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PineNote_Development/Building_Kernel#Configuring_the_driver this page] for more info). Add the following line to your sway config:

# This line rotates the mouse input by 180 degrees. See https://wayland.freedesktop.org/libinput/doc/1.11.3/absolute_axes.html
input "type:table_tool" calibration_matrix -1 0 1 0 -1 1

=== Gnome ===

Gnome on wayland runs nicely on the PineNote. However, a slightly patched version of mutter is required at the moment.

* See this repository for .deb packages and patch/compile files: [https://github.com/m-weigand/pinenote_debian_mutter Patched Debian Mutter for Bookworm]
* The ready-to-use [https://github.com/m-weigand/pinenote-debian-recipes/releases Debian image] provides a pre-configured GNOME environment], with specific GNOME configurations found [https://github.com/m-weigand/pinenote-debian-recipes/blob/main/overlays/gnome_config/01-pinenote-settings here]
* A GNOME extension is being [https://github.com/m-weigand/mw_pinenote_misc/tree/main/gnome_extension developed] that provides access to some of the ebc-specific driver options.
* [https://github.com/MichiMolle/PNEink PNEink] is a GNOME Theme for use with the PineNote

==== GTK3 ====
High contrast style for eink-devices can be found [https://github.com/MichiMolle/gtk3-eink here].

==== GTK4 ====
High contrast style for eink-devices can be found [https://github.com/MichiMolle/gtk4-eink here].

== Application support on the PineNote ==

=== System-Control ===

A rust-based dbus service is being [https://github.com/m-weigand/pinenote_dbus_service developed] to enable easy, system-wide control over some of the PineNote-specific settings by users and programs (e.g., triggering global screen refreshes, changing waveforms, enabling/disabling dithering). Requires [https://github.com/m-weigand/linux/releases this kernel].

=== Notetaking ===

==== Xournal++ ====
Works well. The development version and unrelease 1.2 version offers repainting-related optimisations and supports PDF highlighting as well as links. To remove artefacts from the eraser set the eraser cursor's visibility to Never via Preferences -> Stylus -> Eraser Visibility.

Xournal++ uses anti-aliasing and interpolation, which do not work well for the A1 waveform. Mitigations include using either dithering or black-and-white mode in the ebc driver. https://gitlab.com/hrdl/pinenote-shared/-/blob/main/patches/xournalpp/0001-Disable-anti-aliasing-and-use-NEAREST-interpolation-.patch is an outdated patch that used to work well without changing the bw mode.

Pre-compiled Debian packages with some of the PineNote-related modifications and support for triggering global refreshes after scrolling using the dbus service (see above) can be found [https://github.com/m-weigand/xournalpp_pn/releases here]

==== Obsidian ====
Works well, EInk-Theme can be found [https://github.com/MichiMolle/obsidian-eink here].

=== Web Browsing ===

==== Firefox ====
Pretty good experience! Enabling GPU acceleration is helpful.

===== GPU Acceleration in Firefox =====
See [https://github.com/0cc4m/pinenote-misc#firefox-hardware-acceleration 0ccam's notes here].

=== Cloud ===
==== syncthing ====
High contrast theme can be found [https://github.com/MichiMolle/syncthing-eink here].

=== Content Creation ===
==== Generating crosswords ====
There are some scripts [https://git.sr.ht/~scott__/pinenote_crossword_utilities here] for generating crosswords for the Pinenote from IPUZ files.

[[Category:PineNote]]

PINE64 - User contributions [en]

PineNote Development/Apps