Anyone want to run the Logos Android app on an E-Ink tablet or e-reader?

Sadly, that hack doesn't work on the Aura, because (correct me if I'm wrong) the Aura lacks a microSD slot. Someone else figured out how to do something similar for the Aura, I believe, but you'd have to open your device and play with the internal SD card. That's pretty chancy.  

NYSERVANT said:

  Another way I've done it is by running team viewer and project from my computer screen to my nook so I can read from my desktop version.

I didn't think you could run the team viewer app on a Nook Simple Touch. Can you? How well does it work? I have an NST, and that would be a good solution.  

Well, I can now scratch one itch. My new Kobo Aura HD arrived yesterday. Today, I was able to set up Android (Gingerbread, 2.3.4) on an external microSD card and get it to run. The Logos and Verbum apps work! I downloaded a couple of resources and did a Passage Guide. It's a bit slower than a Nexus 7 would be, there is the occasional E-Ink screen refresh, and some of the color schemes don't look as nice on a "black-and-white" E-Ink display, but the app is definitely usable. Yes, reading resources works best of all, as you would expect. You can find the needed files and instructions on mobileread.com (look for the Android on Kobo thread) or look for Angor's blog. Yes, this will work on the Kobo Glo and Touch as well (different image files, of course). They don't seem to have it working on the Aura (non-HD) yet.  

Non-Logos observations: Some apps work better than others. YMMV. Text in the Nook app looks uneven, like the page was a window with several cracks in it. The Kindle app from XDA, tweaked to look better on E-Ink, works well. The Gingerbread image includes some e-reader apps that were tweaked a bit for E-Ink. Play Store works reasonably well, with an occasional bug. These things aren't a big deal to me, as my main point in this was to see if I can get Logos and some other text-intensive apps on an E-Ink display - and here it is. With Calibre, I can easily take my Nook or Kindle books and put them on the Kobo stock reader. I can report again after a week or so. For now, though, it is promising.  

I've never done a video like that. I'll see what I can do. No promises! 

I like the the way that Logos runs in general. Even though everything is in grayscale and not color, that isn't generally an issue. A passage guide runs well, especially when your resources have been downloaded. It's a little slower than a Nexus 7 would be, but not by much. You may want to adjust text settings to optimize your display for the Aura HD. 

Installation of the Android image on the microSD card is a three step process. You'll find it on Angor's blog or the mobileread site. You'll need something like WinImage (free) (assuming you have a Windows system) to restore the image to the card. Then you need partitioning software (I use MiniTool, also free) to set the partitions correctly. Make sure you have at least 30 mb of unallocated space in the front of the card, or you won't be able to boot into Android! Then there are two files to download and place on the Aura HD itself. If all goes well, you'll be in Android in 5-10 minutes. Then you may want to change the language in Settings (Angor is Russian), but a post on the blog shows you whee and how. Play Store is a bit glitchy, but that isn't an issue for me. I was able to download and run Logos, and that was all I wanted! 

Have you ever worked with image or partition software before? If not, then you may need a step-by-step guide for the whole process. The ideal thing is if you know someone who is the local "computer geek" and who could walk you through it all in person. If not, I can write up something for you, though it may be a fairly long post. I could email it to you directly. If all goes well, i could do it later today. If not, it may be a couple of days before I get to it.  

There is an easier solution, if all you want to do is read your Logos resources on your Aura HD. On your home page, touch the little icon with three horizontal lines that's next to your battery indicator. Touch Settings, then Beta Features, then find Web Browser at the bottom, and touch Start. Then, go to Biblia.com, and log into your account. You can zoom in with the buttons at the bottom of the page. Then you can find and read any of your resources. It can't do passage guides or word studies, though. 

Makes sense to me. It's been a busy day, but I'll put something together when I get a chance. Since it's on this board, I won't presume anything, but just do it step-by-step so that anyone who would be using a forum like this should be able to follow it easily. (Well, at least I hope it will be clear!)

Did you get it working with Disk Utility? I actually just bought a Mac (my very first) a few months ago, but I couldn't get the process to work through Disk Utility. I have access to a Windows PC occasionally, and the instructions I had were for Windows. That occasional access is one thing that slows down the process of me doing up "translated" directions. Another is the time of year, with Holy Week upon us. But I'll get there. 

1) Do you remember what the error was? It may or may not be significant.  

2) Yes, that is exactly right. In Mini Tool, what you'll want to do is move partition 4 to the back of the card, and then partition 3 right next to it. Then you'll want to use extend partition to lengthen partition 2 to cover all the unallocated space between it and 3. Don't use resize partition for that, because it will expand your partition 2 in BOTH directions! You need that 30 mb unallocated in the front, or you'll never be able to boot from the card. Why that is, I don't know, but that was what happened to me.

3) Yes. Put the sd card in before you drag or unzip those two other files you downloaded. When you first put the card in, your Aura may take a moment or two to check it out. That's normal. Wait for that to finish and then do the fix file and then the dual boot one. The fix file will do its thing quickly. The dual boot file will create a backup on the sd card. That will take fifteen minutes. Once that is done, you should be able to boot into Android the next time you restart your Aura HD. 

Feel free to ask more questions, and I'll get back to you when possible!

You're probably better off doing it all in Windows from start to finish. Chances are, it can be done on a Mac, but I haven't figured that out yet. 

Here's hoping that it all works the second time around. I thought I had it all done right, and I could not get my Aura HD to boot into Android. I even thought that there might be something wrong with my Aura HD. Turns out, my mistake was filling in that 30 mb in the front. 

If you ever opened up your Aura HD (not recommended, by the way), you would find that your "hard drive" is, in fact, a microSD card! Not unusual for small tablets and e-readers. In fact, you can replace the internal SD card with Android, but I don't think it would be that much better. And you'd lose the Kobo e-reader capabilities. 

It is true that Logos will not rum smoothly like you would find on a tablet designed to run Android. But, look at it this way. Your Aura HD is an e-reader. It was not sold with Android in mind. We are trying to run an Android image from a German tablet off an sd card. It's not unlike trying to teach a bear to hop like a rabbit. Bear hops will look less impressive than bunny hops! Considering that the Aura HD is basically an e-reader, albeit an excellent one, the fact that we have what we have in this sd image is pretty amazing. We also are dealing with the assets and the limitations of E-Ink technology. 

That being said, here are a few suggestions to help you get as much as possible out of this setup. Firstly, the microSD card. People who have run ROMs off sd cards in other devices will tell you that the best card for performance is a SanDisk class 4 card. Not a class 10 card. Counterintuitive, but often true. I have found it to be the best as well. Secondly, install Zeam launcher (not easy to find these days, but free) and choose it instead of the launcher that's already there. Zeam takes up less RAM and so you can squeeze out a little more performance there. Besides this, it's possible that Angor and/or the folks at mobileread will continue to tweak the setup and have revised versions that run better overall. 

I felt some disappointment at first, but became more impressed as I used Logos on the Aura HD. Page turns are a bit of a nuisance, but I see this as a glass that's at least half-full, not half empty! I can read any of my Logos resources on an E-Ink display, and do passage guides and word searches to boot. Life is good.  God is even better!

That reminds me - Logos (and Android in general) on the card seem to take a little while to get fully up to speed. Yes, you can scroll. As you use it, you'll find a few quirks or bugs, but also how to adapt to them. It will grow on you in time.

Hi,

I have not run into that specific bug, but the settings in this version of Android are limited. You won't find much for account settings, and it's hard, if not impossible, to change the date. That probably reflects the limitations of the original Tolino setup. Someone more skilled than I would need to do a few hacks to restore some of those things. 

I haven't run into any Logos bugs yet, though. The app seems to work well. I don't really know why it's giving you those invalid password errors. Here's one thought. I have noticed that sometimes wifi will simply turn itself off for no apparent reason. (That doesn't happen in Kobo's operating system.) Check to see if wifi is actually on when those errors start up. It may be a wifi issue. 

This isn't Part 2 yet, but I wonder if WinZip is the problem. Can it unzip 7z files? That, I don't know.

Oh yes - one more very important detail. When you've done all your work in MiniTool, be sure to click Apply. You'll find it on the left of the menu bar. Nothing really changes till you click Apply.