Installing KOReader on Remarkable 2

KOReader-on-rm2.md

My note below is based on https://gist.github.com/readywater/49a9fbc415141aeb02d2f1e15e643f70 but modifed it to make it work for me in 15th Aug 2021, Remarkable 2 version 2.8.0.98.

Install package manager via Toltec

the official installation instruction is here, https://toltec-dev.org/#install-toltec

# SSH into the remarkable
ssh root@<ip>
# add pass

# Installing teltec - BELOW IS JUST AN EXAMPLE SO FOLLOW THE LATEST INSTRUCTION INSTEAD AT https://toltec-dev.org/#install-toltec
wget http://toltec-dev.org/bootstrap
echo "04a28483286f88c5c7f39e352afb62adc57f6162a29fd7e124d832205bb0980e bootstrap" | sha256sum -c && bash bootstrap

# Refresh bash
exec bash -l # or exit ssh and reconnect

Shim for Remarkable 2

# rm2fb
opkg install rm2fb-client

It used to be rm2fb and now it's rm2fb-client, you can read about it here, toltec-dev/toltec#390 (comment)

Remux

opkg install remux
systemctl enable --now remux

# Test Remux - swipe up (at least to the middle of the screen) either side of screen

I couldn't make this work at once (keep reading for more)

But this command echo show > /run/remux.api from a Reddit post at least allowed me to run it (via ssh).

After an hour of trying this and that (in ssh) and searching more information and taking a break and retrying, I stumbled upon the correct way(?) of doing it!

swiping up very high (to the middle of the screen!) at the both side edges. And it finally worked. (You are welcome 😉)

I wanted to comment this happy news on the reddit post but it was already archived.

KoReader

opkg install koreader

Exiting KOReader via KOReader seems not to work for me but swiping up (high) again and selecting Remarkable to exit works.

Please replace the instructions for installing toltec with a link to toltec-dev.org. At least one person has already soft-bricked their reMarkable 2 with these instructions because they didn't see the warning on the website about what OS versions are supported.

Hi @Eeems, thanks for your comment. I made a slight change after your comment. Does it look good to you or more things need to be changed? (Keep that in mind that I haven't made any activity to my Remarkable 2 device related to this gist since it's written in 2021. So I'm not up to date with anything regarding that so I might have not clearly understand what should be changed here.)

Hi @Eeems, thanks for your comment. I made a slight change after your comment. Does it look good to you or more things need to be changed? (Keep that in mind that I haven't made any activity to my Remarkable 2 device related to this gist since it's written in 2021. So I'm not up to date with anything regarding that so I might have not clearly understand what should be changed here.)

While that is better, it might be a good idea to have the warning outside the code block so that users are less likely to ignore it. Similar to how I did it here? https://eeems.website/toltec/#3-install-toltec

@Eeems gotcha and I made it more pronounced.

After installing KOReader on my RM2 to get to the ebooks I already have in Remarkable 2 I have to go to the xochitl directory (/home/root/.local/share/remarkable/xochitl). Even there KOReader doesn't recognize the RM2 virtual folder structure and doesn't filter any files, making it very cumbersome to access the RM2 existing ebooks.

Is it possible to access the ebooks on RM2 using the same virtual directory structure of the RM2 instead of only the filesystem structure?

Not currently, but someone could create a fuse module for the device to expose it as a normal filesystem, that or write a plugin for koreader.

Thanks for your quick response, Eeems!

I've just added a feature request to KOReader #10907
Comments and votes there would be very appreciated. Thanks!
Maybe later I can find the inspiration and will to implement it myself. ;)