Community firmware for the Xteink X4 e-paper reader | Hacker News Reader

Community firmware for the Xteink X4 e-paper reader

github.com

156 pointsdmos6267 comments

Be aware that Xteink is locking down devices sold for the Chinese market (which includes those being sold on e.g. Taobao). If you want to run crosspoint, you should probably order your reader direct from Xteink.

https://liliputing.com/xteink-blocks-installation-of-custom-...

There's already an OTA unlocker https://crosspointreader.com/#unlock-tool

Whoa that's a surprise. They even call out support for CrossPoint by name, too.

Moreover, it's a bit of a crazy looking hack too, by doing a MITM attack.

I'm curious to see what exactly is the seam between the Xteink brand and its upstream supplier(s).

It's like the brand company was against the firmware lockdown in the first place. It would be neat to better understand the Chinese consumer devices ecosystem.

Isn't that because it's the CrossPoint website?

Ha well, that's because I made it for the crosspoint community and bought the domain to make things look a bit more official and less like a hacky side project. trying to get the community here more organized overall

The one I was looking for is https://github.com/yattsu/biscuit

Interesting - I ordered mine from AliExpress in February and it was really easy to flash. Shane if they start blocking it.

I guess they don't like people buying their product.

I bought one yesterday from AliExpress. I hope I'm able to install new firmwares on it.

There is a much more advanced fork of this project: https://github.com/jpirnay/crosspoint-reader

In actuality there are several forks, and the original Crosspoint Reader really got the ball rolling, but now seems to get stuck in discussions. The forks (especially the one I linked) has progressed much further and has better KOReader sync (as in actually syncs to the correct XPath position instead of some close-enough position), bionic reading, streamlined UI, etc. Give that one a shot!

Its not "endless discussion" that's keeping it from improving it's actually a lack of reviewers for the PRs that are already there.

The discussions are pretty sane, but I've seen how once there's a PR that's ready to go and everyone agrees is ready to go it won't be merged because there's not enough people to review the code.

Maybe a lot of people who would be reviewers have decided instead to maintain their own forks. But yeah, the discussion is fine.

Ah I just switched to using https://github.com/uxjulia/crossink-reader

Not sure what KOReader is but the fonts included in this one and the overall reading experience is solid.

KOReader is the defacto Android ereader app for eink screens, and many consider it the best Android ereader for regular screens too.

Worth mentioning it's not limited to Android! It also runs on Kobos, Kindles, Pocketbooks, etc.

How does it runs in Kindles? Which ones are supported? I'm interested

Not personally familiar with the details, as I don't have any Amazon devices. Sounds like it involves jailbreaking and per-model differences: https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/Installation-on-Ki...

Make sense now thanks

Ah, didn't know that.

agreed and they support non android devices too!

CrossInk is much more popular than this fork AFAICT from the Reddit discussions.

For those unfamiliar with these devices I stumbled upon this cool write-up:

https://aftermath.site/xteink-x4-cheap-hackable-ereader-cros...

These things are teeny-tiny.

50-70 dollars? A Kobo Clara is about 100 and has a bigger screen, an adjustable front light and you can easily load DRM free ebooks via USB mass storage or custom firmware like koreader. If you just want to read books you should probably just get a Kobo.

Yeah, but can you affix a Kobo device to the back of your phone as a signal of your superior taste in how you consume your digital literature?

I have a bunch of e-readers and this X4 is probably my favorite precisely because how small and pocketable it is.

I comfortably fit around half a page of a real paperback book on the screen. Its not the biggest compromise ever and for the size its great.

You know how they say "the best camera is the one you have with you" well the same goes for an ereader. I do have my bigger e-reader but it doesn't fit in my pocket, it fits in my bag and that's believe it or not a big difference.

I also have a more expensive "phone sized" ereader, and its fine. The size is really good and I've read many books in it. The issue is that it feels like carrying two phones, its the size and weight of a modern phone. The X4 is like 80gr. Its significantly smaller.

The Kobo Clara doesn't fit in my pocket while the X4 does. An e-reader that I actually have on-hand beats one that I leave in a drawer at home so it was an instant purchase for me the moment I saw one.

For me how cheap it is makes it much more comfortable for me to just take it with me whenever I travel. My other e-reader is a Kobo Sage but it is so expensive that I'm way more careful with it. And I feel like the weight is seriously underrated as a selling point. It barely feels like a piece of tech.

You could say this about endless devices. Ricoh GR: Why buy this camera that fits in your pocket when a bigger more expensive one with more features that doesn’t fit in your pocket exists?

Well because people like it better!

$45 on ali. I've been looking for an affordable open phone-sized e-reader for years, but unfortunately this one doesn't have a backlight which is a hard requirement for me.

(I do have a kobo, it's too big.)

yeah but it's way bigger no? you mention the screen size yourself

I ordered the Xteink X4 not knowing about CrossPoint and I was so disappointed with the included firmware:

- Almost no formatting on the ebooks you upload (no bold text, missing glyphs, no images/cover art) - The book had to be rendered before being uploaded. I suspect they were uploading series of bitmaps. - This meant if you wanted to change portrait/landscape or change font size/type you had to re-render the book - Bitmap fonts were very ugly.

Overall it was barely workable. More of a proof of concept. The CrossPoint firmware on the other hand:

- Actually renders books as you would expect, in a pleasing manner, formatting and all - Much more reader configuration on device: font settings, margin, spacing, alignment, progress display - Update via USB or OTA - Multiple ways to get your books: Connect to your Calibre library to push or pull books (thanks for introducing me to Calibre!), USB, Wireless file transfer - Sync progress via KOReader

It's the best gift the community could give to the manufacturer. With only the default firmware my X4 would have been in the junk drawer within a week, but now I carry it every day, I've shown it to so many people. It's a marvel. With the news about them attempting to lock it down I can't recommend it anymore. Why would they do that?

Some mixed reports on this, but supposedly they are only putting an (easily-bypassed) firmware on the devices sold to the Chinese domestic market.

I'm quite frustrated to hear that Xteink have decided to block firmwware being changed on some devices. I can only imagine the reason would be consumers who look for support after something went wrong but it's frustrating for those of us who just want an open eink device.

Supposedly already bypassed. But yes, moving entirely out of step with what seems to be making these devices popular! https://www.reddit.com/r/xteinkereader/comments/1t1wtya/dont...

I contributed to this a little bit! The copyparty fileserver with opds enabled is a great companion to easily move books to the device.

In the next release I will fix a bug to enable file search for the copyparty opds as well.

I wish there was a framework style open e-ink device.

PINE64 were trying with the PineNote[0], sort of. It's quite a large device (10.3"), in the same size class as reMarkable/Boox devices. It's cost-competitive with those products, but it's way too big and too expensive to compare to traditional ~7" e-readers.

0: https://pine64.org/devices/pinenote/

https://github.com/iandchasse/de-link

Someone is working on a more DIY device that can run this firmware.

Seed studio sells some. reTerminal is the more polished one, it has a metal case, nice buttons, and a 2Ah battery. The Xiao screen is more diy, but also has more potential options

I used a reTerminal as a bedside weather station UI recently, works rather nice

Not exactly reading devices, yes, but they are open hardware

TRMNL are kinda.

https://trmnl.com/

supernote's tablets are designed to have replaceable motherboards/batteries although it's still to be seen whether they will actually be able to support that long-term.

Unfortunately it seems Supernote has given up on it becoming an actually open platform: https://www.reddit.com/r/Supernote/comments/1ooyn25/is_linux...

Repairable, sure; hackable, not really.

What would that look like? A first thought would be a controller with storage that would 'dock' into various screen sizes and case molds?

What I mean is like the framework laptop - an open device that you can modify and buy parts for, but is actually well built.

Someone already said it, but what about TRMNL? https://trmnl.com/

I'd buy that in a second.

There is also https://github.com/franssjz/cpr-vcodex which I use, which is one of the many forks of this project.

I’m running Crosspoint on the X3, and am quite pleased with both the software and hardware. It even supports reading progress via Koreader sync, which I use on my main eInk devices.

There is a community build for the M5Stack Paper S3, which costs the same but has a touchscreen and a microSD card reader (theoretically limited to 32GB but my 128GB card with my entire eBook collection seems to work fine).

Only drawback, the magnets are not in the right position to piggyback on an iPhone's MagSafe.

Really nice device, I'm just waiting for a version with front light.

Front light would make it the perfect device. I use it on the go everywhere now, to limit the distractions inherent with trying to read from my phone. But in bed having to pull out a book light or a headlight is an annoying step that risks disturbing my partner.

I bought the book lights that they sell along with the device and they're perfect for it. They include an adapter so they magnetically attach to the back, or they can clip to the folio.

Meh I used those with my old Kindle 2nd edition. It had a really nice leather case with a solder slide out light.

But it wasn't nearly as good as the front light ones that came later.

Oh it was the 3rd gen actually

The S4 is the new version coming soon with a front light.

Ah yes but that one is probably going to be much more expensive as it runs android and more powerful hardware. It won't support crosspoint-reader then either :'( Though you could install KOReader then, which is a good alternative. It also seems to lack page turn buttons.

But I read there's also an "X4 v2 pro" coming with frontlight: https://www.joshualowcock.com/xteink/xteink-x4-v2-pro-xteink...

So I'm waiting to see which one will be the best price/quality in this regard.

It would be nice to get a backlight and no touchscreen.

That's what I'm hoping for as well

Crosspoint and KOReader are fascinating to me.

The lack of consensus on what features are essential in an e-reader must be hard to manage. Surprisingly exotic features sometimes.

- No deal, this e-reader doesn't let me play chess.

- No deal, this e-reader doesn't support bluetooth page-turning.

- No deal, I don't actually look at the screen I use text-to-speech.

If you wanna play chess you can use the crosspet fork, it does have a few games.

You're right though, the crosspoint firmware is supposedly exclusively for reading.

I wonder, how difficult would it be to do something similar for "Onyx Boox Tab X C 13.3" ?

Btw, did Onyx publish sources as required by GPLv3 for that device? AFAIK there are no sources in the open (if I am not mistaken ) and I have no idea what can push them toward publishing them.

I love this device and the firmware. It has increased the amount I read now, just because it's convenient to have all the time and use it instead of doom scrolling.

P.S: Shameless plug, I also built an OSS iOS/Android app to help syncing files and clipping web articles/blog and sending to X4 on the go https://crosspointsync.com/

Cool app! Have you considered integrating with Readwise Reader? I would love something like that.

I'd like to use this as a multiplayer chess game on the fridge with my dad who lives 100KM away.

Anyone know if there is remote chess for this?

Oh this is very cool. I've bought one and plan to use it to show some kind of status around the house.

This device would be an instant buy if it were backlit, replacing my kobo mini

I wonder if there's a way to get offline Wikipedia on this

The X3 and X4 both have an SD card slot, so it's theoretically possible to store it at least. Actually searching and browsing it is another question.

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