`whiteboard` doesn't do anything apart from drawing first screen

[Myridium]

Running whiteboard on the reMarkable, the whiteboard app draws itself on the reMarkable screen. Then, nothing.

So, when I touch the screen, all the menus etc behave as if whiteboard wasn't running. Any updates made to the screen by the vanilla firmware draw over whatever whiteboard initiall drew.

[fenollp]

Hi! Thanks for your interest.

Any updates made to the screen by the vanilla firmware draw over whatever whiteboard initiall drew.

Can you please rephrase this? I'm not sure what you are referring to here.

So yeah buttons are not implemented yet: touch won't do anything. Drawing with the pen is the only action that's supported right now. And a QR code and user count should show on the top right when connected to a whiteboard server.

If that didn't answer your questions please make your expectations a bit more explicit.

[Myridium]

Well, the app just doesn't work on my reMarkable I'm afraid. As I say, it draws the initial screen, with the slooow animation that draws the title and line rule at the top, and the icons. That's everything that the app appears to do.

The remarkable screen doesn't update until events happen. Tapping on the screen with finger or stylus just interacts with the reMarkable's standard UI, it's like whiteboard is not even running. I tap on a folder for example, and it will open that folder and draw whatever screen updates it decides. Stylus or finger.

As for my expectations: there are no instructions on how to use this software at all (or its features). Of course I would assume that a button is interactable!

There is also an unexplained QR code in the top right. I tried navigating there but but the page doesn't load properly and I just see an empty grey box.

Really I just wanted to give this a try. Sounds useful. Would love to have a whiteboard that is shared across a web browser. So I started up the server and ran the command on the reMarkable... now what? Admire the terminal output on the computer? See what I mean? No instructions, and interacting with the screen just triggers the reMarkable UI. It seems like the software is fundamentally broken.

I tried navigating to the port 10000 on local host via the web browser. That doesn't work. Neither does port 80.

[Eeems]

Sounds like you didn't stop xochitl before running whiteboard.

[fenollp]

As @Eeems kindly remarks it sounds like you are using an rM2 device and are not starting the app with the rm2fb trick. No homebrew reMarkable apps can run on that device without rm2fb today. I suggest you take a look at https://toltec-dev.org/ and install whiteboard-hypercard from https://toltec-dev.org/stable/

There is also an unexplained QR code in the top right. I tried navigating there but but the page doesn't load properly and I just see an empty grey box.

The page loads correctly. It shows you what is drawn on the canvas of the default worldwide-open room. It is blank because xochitl is still running and capturing input.

I understand you are frustrated and having trouble solving your issues. This project does not exist in a void: you'll find plenty of tutorials to install and run apps on rM2 by doing a little research. I don't owe you anything and your tone is not helping. A kind stranger and I were kind enough to be polite and give you pointers but I do not condone such tone and I won't have it here any further. So please let's have a respectful and sensible discussion.

[Myridium]

As @Eeems kindly remarks it sounds like you are using an rM2 device and are not starting the app with the rm2fb trick. No homebrew reMarkable apps can run on that device without rm2fb today. I suggest you take a look at https://toltec-dev.org/ and install whiteboard-hypercard from https://toltec-dev.org/stable/

There is also an unexplained QR code in the top right. I tried navigating there but but the page doesn't load properly and I just see an empty grey box.

The page loads correctly. It shows you what is drawn on the canvas of the default worldwide-open room. It is blank because xochitl is still running and capturing input.

I understand you are frustrated and having trouble solving your issues. This project does not exist in a void: you'll find plenty of tutorials to install and run apps on rM2 by doing a little research. I don't owe you anything and your tone is not helping. A kind stranger and I were kind enough to be polite and give you pointers but I do not condone such tone and I won't have it here any further. So please let's have a respectful and sensible discussion.

Sorry if it appears over internet text that I have a rude tone, that's not a reflection of my actual attitude. Of course I'm appreciative that you've made your code public. Your app has a problem and I'm reporting it. This is for your benefit also. Whether that's a problem with the code or the documentation, there is a problem of some kind. What affects me almost certainly affects other users who don't bother to file a report. Actually, I didn't file a report until now, though I tried this software a couple of weeks ago with the same problem.

I installed whiteboard-hypercard via toltec as per the readme instruction. My version of reMarkable firmware is compatible with Toltec, it's the current 2.11. The rm2fb-client and display packages were installed by toltec as dependencies. Running reStream with whiteboard, I see the whiteboard screen, even though the reMarkable itself is showing something different on the screen. Stylus input just interacts with the reMarkable menus

I think I'm going to have to send a video

[Myridium]

Sounds like you didn't stop xochitl before running whiteboard.

Stopping xochitl seems to improve the situation. If this is necessary, then it's missing from the README.md documentation.

Stopping xochitl seems to give me a canvas on the device. But still no clear way to access said canvas from a web browser. The QR code on the device still links to that default public room, even after connecting successfully to the host PC on my LAN. The docker-compose logs show that pen strokes are being registered, but do not illuminate how to access the whiteboard via a web browser. It says there's an HTTP server on port 18888, and says it that it selects IP 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces) but it's not accessible via localhost:18888 (404 error). I also tried localhost:80, localhost:10000 and localhost:10001. Running nmap on local IP which the reMarkable uses for access, ports 18888 and 10000 are open (10001 and 80 are closed).

Also, every time I stop the docker-compose containers, I get an issue like this where the process freezes. I end up having to terminate the terminal session:

[+] Running 0/2
[+] Running 4/4pc-server  Stopping                                                                                                                                                                                                                      0.2s
 ⠿ Container grpc-server               Stopped                                                                                                                                                                                                         10.3s
 ⠿ Container http-server               Stopped                                                                                                                                                                                                          0.3s
 ⠿ Container remarkable-tools-redis-1  Stopped                                                                                                                                                                                                          0.5s
 ⠿ Container remarkable-tools-nats-1   Stopped                                                                                                                                                                                                          0.4s
[+] Running 0/0
 ⠿ Container remarkable-tools-redis-1  Error while Killing                                                                                                                                                                                              0.0s
 ⠿ Container grpc-server               Error while Killing                                                                                                                                                                                              0.0s
 ⠿ Container remarkable-tools-nats-1   Error while Killing                                                                                                                                                                                              0.0s
 ⠿ Container http-server               Error while Killing                                                                                                                                                                                              0.0s
^C

I don't get this with other docker containers, (except sometimes rarely when the whole server locks up and I have to force reset; that's a separate issue).

Since you are advertising a PayPal address for this project, I assume it is supposed to be publicly usable, yes?? It's not some private project that you host on GitHub publicly for convenience? It is also linked to on the awesome-remarkable page. If so, I think you need to approach the documentation from a new user's perspective. I.e.

• Uninstall all custom software from the reMarkable.
• Give the reMarkable and this repo to a friend who've never used either before.
• Give them the ssh password and hostname of the remarkable.
• Do not communicate anything else to them about anything reMarkable-related until they have sent you a PM link to their public whiteboard which says "Hello!"
• See what happens.

If the documentation is up to scratch, this process should go smoothly.