#+title: plato on the kobo libra 2
#+title_extra: I caught the reading bug again
#+post_type: post
#+filetags:
#+rss_title:
#+pubdate: <2023-06-11>

For almost a year now I've been using [[https://github.com/baskerville/plato][plato]] on the [[https://us.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-libra-2][kobo libra 2]], an e-ink reader
that includes a backlight and a red light scale. The user experience has been
very good (fast, portable, decent battery), here's some howto's.

Quicklinks:

- [[https://github.com/baskerville/plato/blob/master/doc/GUIDE.md][plato guide]]
- [[https://github.com/baskerville/plato/blob/master/doc/MANUAL.md][plato manual]]

** Install

When you first get the device, you can plug it into your computer and mount it
directly, everything is just owned by root:

#+begin_src sh
$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda      8:48   0 232.9G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:49   0   550M  0 part /boot
├─sda2   8:50   0   225G  0 part /nix/store
│                                /
└─sdd3   8:51   0     4G  0 part [SWAP]
sdb      8:144  1  28.5G  0 disk

$ sudo mount /dev/sdj ~/kobo
#+end_src

To bypass the kobo account setup, you can exit the database on the device:

#+begin_src console
$ sudo sqlite3 ~/kobo/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite
sqlite> INSERT INTO user(UserID,UserKey) VALUES('1','');
sqlite> .quit
#+end_src

Now let's install plato. Current releases can be found at the OP of [[https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314220][this kobo
forum post]]. The release is just a zip file that we will extract to ~~/kobo~.
"installing" just means coping the contents of the release onto the reader:

#+begin_src console
sudo unzip OCP-Plato-0.9.38.zip -d ~/kobo
#+end_src

After you unmount, there will be a Plato launch icon at the bottom of the
screen - but you'll likely want to do some setup (see below)

** Settings

Reader settings I have that differ from the default (the Georgia font
just looks "right" to me for reading):

#+begin_src toml
[reader]
south-strip = "next-page"
font-path = "/mnt/onboard/.adds/plato/fonts"
font-family = "Georgia"
margin-width = 10
max-margin-width = 20
line-height = 1.1
ignore-document-css = true

[reader.paragraph-breaker]
stretch-tolerance = 1.5
#+end_src

The most opinionated setting in here is setting ~ignore-document-css~ to true.
This means I have a consistent reading experience for books that are simply
plain text, but if epubs rely on something more fancy for effect (or for example
if I am reading a screenplay) I will turn this off. Overall though, having this
setting on and crushing the exceptions has been worth the consistent experience
for me.

** Dictionary

To install a dictionary, grab a zip from [[https://tuxor1337.frama.io/firedict/dictionaries.html][here]] and unzip it to
~~/kobo/.adds/plato/dictionaries~. You can long tap a word while reading to look
it up while reading.

** Fonts

I add font files to the ~~/kobo/.adds/plato/fonts~ dir, and then make them
accessible with this option in ~Settings.toml~:

#+begin_src toml
font-path = "/mnt/onboard/.adds/plato/fonts"
#+end_src

** CSS

Create ~~/kobo/.adds/plato/css/epub-user.css~, and add:

#+begin_src css
p {
    text-align: justify;
    margin: 1em 0 0 0 !important;
}

p + p {
    text-indent: 1em;
    margin: 0 !important;
}

img { /* for centering */
    margin: auto;
}
#+end_src

** Library

For a db located in  ~~/kobo/library~, set path like so:

#+begin_src toml
[[libraries]]
path = "/mnt/onboard/library"
# ...
#+end_src

** Debugging

If there are any issues with ~Settings.toml~, the default settings are used and
the config error is logged to an ~info.log~ file in the same directory.

** ❗Caution: firmware updates

Note that even if you have firmware updates turned off, if you are connected to
the wifi, kobo can still auto-update and break plato for you. Your files will
still be there, you'll just have to copy the plato release over to then device again.