blog/content/posts/syncthing-on-pocketbook.adoc
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title: "Install syncthing on PocketBook" slug: syncthing-on-pocketbook description: "Install syncthing on your PocketBook e-reader." date: 2020-11-17T22:57:28+01:00 type: posts draft: false tags: - Syncthing - PocketBook comtodon: A1J4iIO2gJhoLjICoK ---

Installing syncthing on a PocketBook is fairly easy, but it requires a bit more setup than on PCs. Ive tested this with a PB632 (PocketBook Touch HD 3), but it should work on any PocketBook device.

Connect your e-reader via USB in “PC link” mode. Create the directory applications/syncthing in the storage device that shows up. Get the latest ARM 32 bit version of syncthing from https://syncthing.net/downloads/ and extract the binary “syncthing” to the directory you just created. Now create the following files:

applications/syncthing.app
#!/bin/sh

SYNCTHING_DIR="/mnt/ext1/applications/syncthing"
${SYNCTHING_DIR}/syncthing -home="${SYNCTHING_DIR}"
applications/syncthing/config.xml
<configuration version="32">
    <gui enabled="true" tls="false" debugging="false">
        <address>0.0.0.0:8384</address>
    </gui>
    <options>
        <startBrowser>false</startBrowser>
    </options>
</configuration>
Note
PocketBooks dont seem to have an address assigned to the loopback interface. If you try to listen on 127.0.0.1 syncthing will exit with an error message.
Tip
If you want to see the output of syncthing, download “pbterm.zip” from http://users.physik.fu-berlin.de/~jtt/PB/, install it and start syncthing.app from there.

Disconnect the e-reader, enable wireless LAN and start syncthing. It should show up in “Apps” as “@syncthing”. Open a browser on your PC and connect to the IP of your PocketBook (see below if you dont know it) on port 8384. Now configure syncthing as normal. There is no window showing up if you start syncthing, the screen appears to freeze. You can get back to your start screen with the home key. syncthing will continue to run in the background. You can close syncthing with the “Task Manager”.

Tip
PocketBooks use FAT as file system, which cant store permissions. Make sure to check “Ignore Permissions” in the advanced tab for each shared folder or set ignorePerms="true" in config.xml.
Caution
We configured syncthing to accept connections from everywhere without a password and we disabled encryption. Make sure to disable the GUI or set a password and enable TLS if you want to use it in insecure networks.

How to find the IP address of your PocketBook

Connect the e-reader to your wireless LAN. If youve installed pbterm, open it and type ifconfig. The IP address comes after “inet addr:” in the output. Alternatively, If you have a computer with Linux, BSD or a similar OS on your network, open a terminal on it and type arp. In the “HWaddress” column look for an address starting with 94:99:01. The IP address is on the left.

Note
Different PocketBook models may use network chipsets from other vendors with different hardware addresses.