---
title: Kindle Office Dashboard
status: active
created: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
tags: [kindle, office, dashboard, e-ink, ssh]
---

# Kindle Office Dashboard

## Purpose

The jailbroken Kindle is assigned as a permanent office e-ink display. Hermes can send text, grayscale PNG images, dashboards, and experimental typing/animation frames to it over SSH on the trusted home LAN.

## Verified device

- Kindle firmware: 5.18.1
- Architecture: ARMv7 / armv7l
- LAN address used: 192.168.68.125
- Access: root SSH currently works interactively; credentials are intentionally not recorded here.
- Existing Kindle software: KOReader, KUAL, KTerm, BusyBox, `eips`.
- Root filesystem: read-only; work is kept under `/mnt/us`.

## Verified display methods

- `eips -c` clears the screen.
- `eips X Y "text"` draws text; the observed coordinate behavior is pixel-like, with increasing Y moving downward.
- Small direct text updates use partial refreshes and produce useful terminal-like ghosting/typing animation.
- `eips -g IMAGE -f -W` displays a PNG with a full refresh.
- A 600x800 grayscale PNG is the reliable native portrait image format.
- Landscape content requires rendering an 800x600 page, rotating it into a 600x800 PNG, displaying it, and physically turning the Kindle sideways.

## Reusable local scripts

Located in `/Users/adolforeyna/bin/`:

- `kindle-show` — send text using the local renderer.
- `kindle-send-image` — send a PNG and display it with `eips`.
- `kindle-render.py` — render text to a grayscale PNG.
- `kindle-ui` / `kindle-ui.py` — render/send a bordered dashboard UI.
- `kindle-keep-awake` — toggle or inspect the Kindle screensaver prevention state.
- `kindle-type-landscape` — render a rotated landscape text page.
- `kindle-png-type-landscape` — experimental cumulative rotated-PNG animation; not yet end-to-end verified because the Kindle's unusual empty-password SSH prompt interferes with binary streaming.

## SSH key status

The Mac public key was written to `/mnt/us/ssh/authorized_keys`, but passwordless authentication was not accepted. The SSH daemon's configured authorized-key path still needs discovery. Do not change the read-only root filesystem or record the Kindle password. Until fixed, use the existing interactive SSH path for sending.

## Current direction

Keep the Kindle permanently in the office and use it as a quiet family/household task dashboard. Prefer simple scripts over a new MCP server. Use grayscale, high contrast, modest refresh frequency, and full refreshes between substantially different dashboard pages to manage ghosting. Direct partial updates remain best for typing-style experiments.

## Progress log — 2026-08-12

- Confirmed portrait text updates and vertical coordinates.
- Confirmed direct partial-refresh typing animation.
- Confirmed rotated landscape bitmap rendering.
- Confirmed image transfer/display through `kindle-send-image` with a live `eips -g` full refresh.
- Attempted individual cumulative PNG animation; blocked only by SSH authentication/stream ordering, not PNG rendering.