paperterm

A terminal emulator for the reMarkable Paper Pro with pixel-wise partial e-ink updates.

Built on alacritty_terminal (alacritty's headless core: VTE parsing, PTY, grid, damage tracking) with a custom e-ink renderer speaking the qtfb shared-memory framebuffer protocol, packaged as an AppLoad (xovi) app.

Architecture

 shell (bash/ash)
   │ pty
   ▼
 alacritty_terminal::Term        ← full xterm/VTE state machine + damage tracking
   │ damaged cells only
   ▼
 renderer (embedded PSF2 bitmap font, no AA)
   │ pixel writes
   ▼
 qtfb shared-memory framebuffer  ← UPDATE_PARTIAL(x, y, w, h) per damage rect
   │ unix SEQPACKET /tmp/qtfb.sock
   ▼
 AppLoad/xochitl compositor → e-ink panel (only touched pixels refresh)

Input (touch / on-screen keyboard / physical keyboards) arrives over the same qtfb channel; the OSK is drawn by us and partial-updated so typing never flashes the screen.

Install

PaperTerm requires a reMarkable Paper Pro with remagic installed. Open the remagic Store on the tablet and tap PaperTerm, or install it from a computer:

remagic install paperterm

The app is installed at /home/root/xovi/exthome/appload/paperterm/. Open it from AppLoad. Run exit or use AppLoad's top-center close gesture to leave.

Building

Install an aarch64 GNU cross-toolchain, then build and stage the AppLoad bundle:

cargo build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
./make-bundle.sh

The device uses glibc 2.39. The staged app is written to dist/paperterm/ and can be installed locally with remagic install ./dist/paperterm.

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The remagic family

Part of remagic — tools to make your reMarkable Paper Pro magical:

• remagic — one-command installer: developer mode → AppLoad → your apps.
• riddle — an enchanted diary that writes back.
• paperterm — this terminal emulator.
• quill — the takeover display host for instant-ink apps.