inkshelf

Native PocketBook OPDS browser + WiFi book drop — no KOReader, no jailbreak.

inkshelf is a single .app built against the official PocketBook InkView SDK. It runs on stock firmware: copy inkshelf.app onto the SD card and launch it from the device's application menu.

Contents

• Screenshots
• Install
• Which file do I need?
• Features
• Using the app
• Updating
• Troubleshooting
• Building from source

Screenshots

Install

You do not need to build anything. Every release ships a ready-to-run inkshelf.app; the source build is only for people who want to change the code (see BUILDING.md).

1. Download the zip for your reader from the latest release — inkshelf-<version>-b288.zip for most PocketBooks, or inkshelf-<version>-rk3566.zip for the InkPad One and other RK3566 models (see Which file do I need?). Unzip it: inside is a single file, inkshelf.app. (It ships zipped because GitHub refuses release assets with an .app extension.)
2. Connect the reader over USB (or pull its SD card) and copy inkshelf.app into the applications/ folder of the storage the reader exposes.
3. Eject the reader and launch inkshelf from its Applications menu.

That is the whole install. A PocketBook .app is a plain ARM executable that the launcher runs — there is no signing, no store, no firmware change, and uninstalling is deleting the file.

Optionally verify the download against the SHA256SUMS.txt published with the release. It lists both zips, so tell sha256sum to skip the one you did not download:

sha256sum -c --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS.txt

The same file carries, as a comment, the hash of the inkshelf.app inside each zip — if you also want to check the file that lands on the reader.

Every release binary is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, so the build log for the exact file you downloaded is public under the repo's Actions tab.

Which file do I need?

PocketBook readers come in two userland ABIs, and a binary built for one cannot even be loaded on the other — the launcher simply does nothing.

Reader	Download
InkPad One (PB1030) and other models on the Rockchip RK3566 platform	inkshelf-<version>-rk3566.zip
Every other PocketBook on stock firmware	inkshelf-<version>-b288.zip

Why: the RK3566 readers pair a 64-bit kernel with a 32-bit ARM hard-float userland that only ships /lib/ld-linux-armhf.so.3. The classic build is soft-float and asks for /lib/ld-linux.so.3, which is not there. So it is not a 64-bit problem, and the RK3566 build is still a 32-bit ARM binary.

Not sure which one you have? Try b288 first; if inkshelf does not start, delete it and copy the rk3566 one instead. Nothing gets installed either way, so picking the wrong one is harmless. Releases up to v1.1.2 contain only the B288 build.

Status of the RK3566 build: confirmed on an InkPad One with firmware 6.11 — the app starts, WiFi Book Drop receives uploads, and OPDS catalogs work (tested against a Calibre content server). If you run it on another RK3566 model, please open an issue naming the model and firmware version.

Features

• OPDS catalog browser — point it at any OPDS feed, browse, filter and download books straight into the native PocketBook library. Ships with presets for Project Gutenberg and Flibusta (Russian-language), plus a custom-URL entry via the on-screen keyboard; a custom catalog is saved once it has opened, so its address is typed only once. Every list has a tap-to-filter bar (by title/author); long catalogs page with the hardware page-turn keys.
• WiFi book drop — starts a tiny HTTP server on the reader; from a PC or phone on the same WiFi you open the shown URL and upload epub/fb2 files that then appear in the native PocketBook library.
• Minimal e-ink UI drawn directly with the InkView API — a nav-stack of screens with a reusable list widget, mapped onto the PocketBook key matrix.

Using the app

Launch inkshelf from the device's Applications menu. The home screen shows an about block (name, version, repo) above two large buttons — pick one with the hardware up/down keys and OK, or tap it.

OPDS catalog

Pick a preset (Project Gutenberg, Flibusta) or Custom URL... and type a feed address. A custom catalog that opens is saved automatically and listed in the picker under its feed title from then on (up to 16); Remove a saved catalog... forgets one. If the address fails to open, the keyboard comes back with it filled in so a typo can be fixed. The list is a plain text file, /mnt/ext1/system/config/inkshelf-catalogs.txt (one URL<TAB>title per line), so long addresses can also be pasted in over USB. Browse the catalog, tap the filter bar to narrow a list, or press Menu to search. Open a book and confirm to download it straight into the native PocketBook library.

WiFi Book Drop

1. Make sure the reader is on WiFi, then open WiFi Book Drop. inkshelf starts an HTTP upload server (default port 8080) and shows the URL, e.g. http://192.168.1.42:8080.
2. On a PC or phone on the same network, open that URL in a browser and upload one or more epub/fb2 files.
3. Uploaded books are written to the device library and appear in the native PocketBook library. Leave the screen to stop the server.

PIN protection

Every upload and over-the-air deploy requires a 4-digit PIN.

• First visit — if no PIN has been saved yet, the screen prompts you to set one via the numeric keyboard before the server starts. The PIN is shown on the screen next to the URL so you can type it into the browser.
• Change PIN — tap Change PIN (or press OK) while the server is running.
• Storage — saved in /mnt/ext1/system/config/inkshelf.conf, reloaded on each visit.
• Protocol — all POST /drop and POST /deploy requests must include the header X-Inkshelf-PIN: <pin>. The browser upload page sends it automatically; scripts pass --pin <PIN>. A missing or wrong PIN returns 403 Forbidden.

Updating

Over USB, the update is the install: copy the new inkshelf.app over the old one in applications/.

Without a cable, a running inkshelf can install its own replacement. Open the WiFi Book Drop screen on the reader (so its server is listening), then from a machine on the same network:

curl -X POST -H "X-Inkshelf-PIN: 1234" \
  -F "file=@inkshelf.app;type=application/octet-stream" \
  http://<reader-ip>:8080/deploy

The swap is atomic and the device restarts the app itself. This only updates a reader that already runs inkshelf — the first install has to go over USB. (Working from a clone, ./inkshelf-build-wifi.sh --find --pin 1234 does the same thing plus device discovery; see BUILDING.md.)

Troubleshooting

New books do not appear until a reboot

On firmware older than 6.11, after a successful OPDS download or WiFi upload, inkshelf requests a firmware library scan (6.11 and newer list new books without it, so no scan runs there). Nearby uploads are grouped into one pass after a short delay. The scanner may briefly show its own progress screen and continues if inkshelf is closed. This addresses readers where BookReady() alone does not index a newly saved file. Library refresh after exiting inkshelf has been confirmed on a PocketBook 740 running firmware U740.6.8.4473. The scan relies on the firmware's scanner.app and its Scan finished output; other models and firmware versions still need verification.

If the book remains missing, check inkshelf-library-scan.log in the root of the reader's internal storage. It records scanner output, launch failures and timeouts. Failed indexing does not delete or invalidate the saved book.

WiFi drops while the app is open

PocketBook firmware powers the WiFi radio down on an idle timer to save battery, so the connection can silently drop after you sit on a screen or read for a while — not a bug in inkshelf itself.

inkshelf works around this automatically: it re-asserts the WiFi link before each OPDS fetch / download (retrying once the radio is back) and before starting the WiFi Book Drop server, so an idle drop usually recovers on its own with at most a short pause.

If a request still fails with a connect/DNS/timeout error (shown as curl <n>: …), the radio was likely mid-reconnect — just retry the action; it normally succeeds on the second try. If it keeps failing:

• leave and re-enter the screen (or re-open inkshelf) to force a fresh connect;
• toggle WiFi off/on in the reader's status bar;
• in the reader's Settings → Connectivity, raise or disable the "disconnect when idle" timeout so the firmware stops powering the radio down.

The app does not appear in the Applications menu

The file has to be named inkshelf.app and sit directly in applications/ (not in a subfolder). Some firmware versions only rescan the menu after the reader is ejected and the USB cable unplugged.

Contributing

Build instructions, the host test gate, the project layout and the release process live in BUILDING.md.

License

MIT.