BooxUltimatum 0.7.0-test.2 (test build)

Hub 0.7.0-test.2 — live sleep: 1-minute step and a sturdier alarm chain

Needs Offer test builds on to see this. Built on the uncommitted overnight pile (penlab-measured Nib pens, ink SDK rebuild) plus the live-sleep fix below, so expect rough edges elsewhere.

What to check on the tablet (Note Air6 C, FW 4.3)

1. Sleep › While asleep › Update every now offers 1 minute. Pick it.
2. Sleep a few minutes from Mihon (the stale-clock case). The face should redraw each minute instead of freezing.
3. Sleep › While asleep status line should show update counts and times, not the missed warning. If it says no updates arrived, use Register with Boox or toggle Allow background usage off and on once, then sleep again.
4. Longer sleeps on the old 5-minute step should behave as before (no regress).

Notes

• The 1-minute step wakes the tablet every minute; its battery cost hasn’t been measured, so switch back to 5 minutes after checking.
• Fix inside: the alarm receiver re-arms the next tick before handing it to the service, so one tick that finds the service unbound no longer ends the whole sleep’s chain.

BooxUltimatum 0.6.0

BooxUltimatum becomes a suite: this hub, a first app of its own (Nib 0.2.0, for drawing), and a kit of libraries they share.

Tested on a BOOX Note Air6 C with firmware 4.3 (Android 16).

New

• A Suite page (Suite › Apps and modules) installs, opens, updates and uninstalls the suite's apps, including Nib. Built-in modules (Home screen, Sleep screen, Instant ink, Battery log) can be removed and added back; removing one undoes what it changed.
• Five sections instead of eleven pages: Overview, Suite, Battery, System and Device.
• A font manager (System › Fonts › Installed): turn fonts off and on, delete them, and see where each is used.
• Storage (Device › Storage) shows what each suite app keeps and clears temporary files or logs. Every suite app keeps its cache, downloads, exports and logs bounded by itself.
• Logs in every build (Device › Logs), with one zip for every suite app. Nothing leaves the tablet unless you share it.

Fixed

• System › Tweaks and System › Apps could load forever once Shizuku was in use.
• A faded, shifted copy of the home screen could show under it, and the wallpaper sometimes didn't show.
• Pen ink left drawing over every app after a drawing app was stopped mid-stroke: home now ends such a session a moment after it appears.
• Fonts › Use for the home screen now switches the home screen's font.

Known limits

• Everything is verified on one tablet and firmware (Note Air6 C, FW 4.3).
• Shizuku stops on every restart, and starting it again needs a computer.
• Instant ink for other apps is still experimental and tested in Sketchbook only.
• The battery cost of the sleep screen's updates while asleep isn't measured yet.

The full list is in CHANGELOG.md. Installs over 0.5.x in place (same signing key).

Nib 0.1.0-test.1 (test build)

A first test build of Nib, the BooxUltimatum suite's drawing app. It's unfinished, and published so it can be checked on the Note Air6 C (firmware 4.3, Android 16). It passes its unit tests and emulator tests, but the emulator has no Boox firmware. So nothing about the instant pen preview has been seen on the tablet yet, and that's what this build is for.

Installing it. Install the hub's test build (test-BooxUltimatum-0.6.0-test.1.apk) first; both are signed with the release key, and suite apps must share a key. Then either:

• download test-Nib-0.1.0-test.1.apk here and open it, or
• in BooxUltimatum, turn on Device › Offer test builds, then Suite › Apps and modules › Nib › Install.

Please check:

1. Draw in a new drawing. Does the ink appear under the nib at once, like in Boox Notes? When you lift, is it replaced cleanly by Nib's own stroke, without a flash, a gap or a doubled line?
2. Try several brushes and widths (tap the selected pen slot), including the thinnest, and a colour.
3. Zoom with two fingers, then draw again. Does the preview's thickness match the final line?
4. Layers. Add a few, hide one, change the opacity, undo and redo.
5. Rotate the tablet mid-drawing.
6. Diagnostics (the ••• menu): go through Styles, both Widths pages, Colour and Swap delay. Draw one stroke per band and tap Looks right, Broken or Nothing drawn.
7. Send me the logs. In BooxUltimatum, open Device › Logs › Share logs (it includes Nib's), or use Nib's About › Share logs.

Known limits: see docs/08-nib.md › Known limits. If the screen is left with stray ink, use ••• › Recover screen.

BooxUltimatum 0.6.0-test.1 (test build)

A test build of BooxUltimatum 0.6: the suite. It's unfinished, and published so it can be checked on the Note Air6 C (firmware 4.3, Android 16). It's been tested with unit tests and on an emulator shaped like the tablet, not yet on the tablet.

Installing it. Hubs from 0.5 don't see test builds, so this first one has to be installed by hand. On the tablet, open this release page, download test-BooxUltimatum-0.6.0-test.1.apk and open it. It's signed with the release key, so it updates 0.5.1 in place and keeps your settings. Afterwards, Device › Offer test builds lets the hub find the next ones by itself.

What's new:

• The menu has five sections (Overview, Suite, Battery, System, Device), with tabs inside a section.
• Suite › Apps and modules installs Nib, and removes or adds back the home screen, sleep screen, Instant ink and battery log.
• Device › Logs keeps a logbook for every suite app and shares it as one zip.

Please check:

1. Your settings survived. The home screen still works as home, the sleep screen still updates, and Instant ink still arms over Sketchbook.
2. Every page opens, in portrait and in landscape.
3. Remove the Battery log, then add it back. Only try the Home screen or Sleep screen modules if you're happy to set them up again.
4. Device › Logs: turn on detailed logging, use the tablet for a while, then Share logs and send me the zip.

Known limits: the same as 0.5.1, plus this build's new pages are unchecked on the tablet.

Nib 0.2.0

Nib's first release: a drawing app for BOOX tablets that uses the display's own instant pen preview, like Boox Notes does, with many more brushes, very fine widths and unlimited layers. It works on its own, and BooxUltimatum's Suite page installs and updates it.

Tested on a BOOX Note Air6 C with firmware 4.3 (Android 16), with a real pen.

What's in it

• Tools that float over a full-screen page like cut cards: pinnable, movable Brushes, Colour and Layers panels, a tool rail with six pen slots, and size and opacity sliders.
• Pens, pencils, markers, brushes and textured charcoal, each shown by its own sample stroke, with sliders, − and + keys and typed values for every property.
• Unlimited layers with opacity, blend modes and thumbnails; undo for everything; crash-safe autosave.
• A lasso that moves, scales, turns, recolours and duplicates strokes; a page that turns with two fingers; paper colours and guides; exports as PNG (with or without the paper) or one PNG per layer.
• A Diagnostics page that asks what the panel shows and records your answers.

Verified on the tablet

• The instant preview, the first stroke after opening kept whole, and the preview matching the stroke's width in Diagnostics › Match preview.
• The floating cards stay clear of the preview, and strokes next to them start at once.
• Marker and highlighter previews show in colour (the display drops translucent colours, so they're solid until you lift; Settings › Display preview offers a see-through grey instead).

Known limits

• The preview can still look a little wider than the stroke in everyday drawing; Diagnostics › Match preview tunes it per style.
• The display's preview styles 3 to 7 aren't verified yet, so those brushes preview in the closest verified style. The thinnest clean preview width isn't measured.
• In the preview, blue looks grey.
• Only tried on the Note Air6 C with firmware 4.3.

BooxUltimatum 0.5.1

A steadier Instant ink, rebuilt from measurements with a real pen: the first stroke is previewed, the preview never sticks, and it can be switched from Quick Settings.

Tested on a BOOX Note Air6 C, firmware 4.3 (Android 16), with a real pen in Sketchbook and alongside Boox Notes.

What's new

• A session kept ready. Instant ink now opens its display session as soon as it's on and waits, paused, whenever the pen is away or another app is in front. The first stroke gets the preview after unlocking, after tapping into your app with the pen, and on quick strokes.
• A Quick Settings switch for Instant ink, and Turn off and Recover screen buttons on its notification.
• "While drawing" is gone. The display holds the app's own drawing back while the pen touches, and letting it through mid-stroke ended the preview, so "Show both" could never show both. The app's brush and colour take over after the lift.
• Boox's own apps are left alone: Instant ink pauses over them and never ends a session there.

Fixed

• With "Show both", the black preview stayed on screen for good.
• The first stroke after unlocking, and a quick first stroke, had no preview.
• Recover screen, a crash or an update could leave the app's frames held.
• The pen reader now restarts itself if its input goes away.

Known limits

• The preview is Boox's black pen; a coloured brush or the eraser shows once the app's stroke takes over.
• After Boox Notes has been used, the first stroke in a chosen app can miss the preview once.
• Instant ink is tested in Sketchbook only, and everything on one Note Air6 C with firmware 4.3. The sleep screen's updates while asleep still have an unmeasured battery cost.

Install

Download BooxUltimatum-0.5.1.apk below. If you have 0.5.0 from this page, the app offers this update itself (Device › This app); it updates in place. Development builds signed with another key must be uninstalled first.

SHA-256: 60A5139862D1BCC0AB7FDDC8353E922DAF9844142A6D0824BF3641B387ACDC85

See the changelog for details. BooxUltimatum is independent and not affiliated with Onyx or BOOX.

BooxUltimatum 0.5.0

BooxUltimatum 0.5.0, a public preview. Tested on a BOOX Note Air6 C with firmware 4.3 (Android 16).

The sleep screen, while the tablet sleeps

• Updates while asleep. The face can be redrawn every 5 to 60 minutes while the tablet is locked, and it covers Boox's charging bar. It's verified on battery with no computer attached. It's off by default, with options for charging only and no updates at night. It needs three things you allow on the tablet, each shown on the Sleep page with a lamp and a key: an accessibility service (it only holds the picture, can't read the screen and does nothing while the screen is on), background use, and exact alarms. Each update wakes the tablet for about 1.4 s; the battery cost isn't measured yet.

• Twenty-one faces, twelve of them live.

  • Dial, Clock, Monitor, Cube (a 3D cube clock), Split-flap, Dashboard, Word clock, Day ring, Timeline, LCD, Sky and Broadsheet keep time while the tablet sleeps.
  • Year joins the still faces.
  • Many faces have options of their own: Dial styles, 12- or 24-hour time, the Dashboard's tiles, Cube shading and more.

• Faces only show what the tablet knows:

  • Calendar events, if you allow access.
  • The home screen's weather, with its age.
  • Sunrise and sunset for its weather city, never from GPS.
  • The moon, worked out on the tablet.

  Without updates while asleep, a clock face shows when the tablet was put down and says so.

Instant ink on other Boox models

• It checks for Android's usage access and offers a key to allow it. Without it, 0.4 said "Ready" and never switched on.
• It finds the pen by how it behaves, instead of assuming the input the Note Air6 C uses.
• The Ink page has a This tablet section and a pen test, so a report from another model says what's missing.

Updates and reports

• The Device page's This app plate checks this page at most once a day. It downloads the next release, checks its SHA-256 and signing key, and installs it through Android's installer.
• Report a problem or idea fills in a GitHub issue with only the parts you tick, each one previewable. There's no server and no token.

Fixes

• On tablets other than Boox: the Sleep and Ink pages and the Boox shelf are hidden, and the Apps page no longer opens empty.
• With large system fonts: the side menu scrolls, the clock widget's time no longer overlaps its dial, and calendar days aren't clipped.
• Background restriction: a note when Boox's restriction could stop the app's background work while it isn't your home screen.
• Battery percentage: the Appearance page now explains that the status bar's percentage hides together with the battery icon.

Known limits

• Verified only on a Note Air6 C with firmware 4.3. Instant ink had no effect on a Note Air 2 Plus, a Go 10.3 Gen II Lumi, a Tab Mini C and a Note X2 in 0.4. This version shows why, but they aren't confirmed working.
• The battery cost of updates while asleep isn't measured yet.
• Boox's charge limit stays at 80 %: other levels need root, even with Shizuku.
• Shizuku still stops on every restart, and firmware 4.3 needs a computer to start it again.
• If you installed a test build from GitHub Actions, uninstall it first: those builds use a different key from releases.

SHA-256 of BooxUltimatum-0.5.0.apk: F42C67446E1158A70CD104247B02A46F583412CC1211B1D44849FFF18203640E

BooxUltimatum 0.4.1

0.4.1 makes Boox's hidden App Freeze page always one tap away: in the Settings hub (search "freeze") and on every app's page, with or without Shizuku. If you installed 0.4.0, this updates it in place.

The first public preview of BooxUltimatum: a home screen, sleep-screen designer, Instant ink layer, battery doctor and tweak hub for the BOOX Note Air6 C, in one app, without root.

Tested on: one Note Air6 C, firmware 4.3 (2026-08-17), Android 16. The Note Air4 C and Air5 C run very similar software, so much of it may work there, but it hasn't been tested on them yet. If you try it on another model, please file a Device finding: it helps more than anything else right now.

Install

1. Download BooxUltimatum-0.4.1.apk below.
2. Allow your browser or file manager to install apps, and open the file.
3. Open BooxUltimatum. Most of it works straight away. The Access page shows what the optional adb grants and Shizuku add, and the README explains how to set them up.

This release is signed with the project's own key, and later releases will update it in place. If you installed a test build from GitHub Actions, uninstall it first: the keys differ, so Android won't install one over the other.

SHA-256: 3A8BD17E12BD3B69F2B2A10F3BE29259EE87C870683B43BAA35EB5A10525A1A3

What's new since the launch post

This release folds in the research and feedback from the Reddit thread:

• Instant ink is more reliable. App frames are now held from the moment the pen hovers, not when it touches, so strokes no longer lose their first millimetres. The width setting works now: the style has to be set before the width, which Onyx's own demo does. The pen path is credited to Onyx's public pen SDK. What BooxUltimatum adds is using that path for apps that don't include the SDK, and handing the stroke back afterwards.
• More works without Shizuku: the whole tablet's font, making BooxUltimatum your home screen, and one-tap links to Android's per-app "Allow background usage" switch and Boox's hidden App Freeze page. Firmware 4.3 keeps that page but hides it from the menus.
• Power-off screen: your sleep face can also be what the tablet shows when it's switched off.
• Sleep screen fixes: no more cropped faces after rotating, and no style switch while asleep.
• Clearer docs: what Shizuku is, what each access level adds, setup scripts for Windows and macOS/Linux, and an honest note that the status bar icons can be shown or hidden tablet-wide, while replacing their artwork needs root.

The full list is in the changelog.

Known limits

• Instant ink is experimental. It's only been checked with a real pen in Sketchbook. The preview is Boox's own black pen, so colours and the eraser show after the swap.
• The sleep screen can't update while asleep. Boox reads the picture as the tablet goes to sleep, and again only after it wakes. While charging, Boox always draws its battery bar on it.
• The power-off screen is saved by Boox, but hasn't yet been checked on a real power-off.
• Shizuku stops on every restart, and starting it again needs a computer on firmware 4.3.
• Firmware updates can change things. The sleep screen, font and pen features rely on Onyx interfaces that aren't a stable public API, so an update may change them. When something stops working, the app says so rather than guessing.

BooxUltimatum is not affiliated with Onyx or BOOX, and comes with no warranty (GPL-3.0-or-later). Every change it makes is recorded and can be undone.

BooxUltimatum 0.4.0: first public preview

The first public preview of BooxUltimatum: a home screen, sleep-screen designer, Instant ink layer, battery doctor and tweak hub for the BOOX Note Air6 C, in one app, without root.

Tested on: one Note Air6 C, firmware 4.3 (2026-08-17), Android 16. The Note Air4 C and Air5 C run very similar software, so much of it may work there, but it hasn't been tested on them yet. If you try it on another model, please file a Device finding: it helps more than anything else right now.

Install

1. Download BooxUltimatum-0.4.0.apk below.
2. Allow your browser or file manager to install apps, and open the file.
3. Open BooxUltimatum. Most of it works straight away. The Access page shows what the optional adb grants and Shizuku add, and the README explains how to set them up.

This release is signed with the project's own key, and later releases will update it in place. If you installed a test build from GitHub Actions, uninstall it first: the keys differ, so Android won't install one over the other.

SHA-256: 51246761E3B6E87E1A4B1A1A01C3073A27D1D01D55729CD97BD5AF1E87F3060B

What's new since the launch post

This release folds in the research and feedback from the Reddit thread:

• Instant ink is more reliable. App frames are now held from the moment the pen hovers, not when it touches, so strokes no longer lose their first millimetres. The width setting works now: the style has to be set before the width, which Onyx's own demo does. The pen path is credited to Onyx's public pen SDK. What BooxUltimatum adds is using that path for apps that don't include the SDK, and handing the stroke back afterwards.
• More works without Shizuku: the whole tablet's font, making BooxUltimatum your home screen, and one-tap links to Android's per-app "Allow background usage" switch and Boox's hidden App Freeze page. Firmware 4.3 keeps that page but hides it from the menus.
• Power-off screen: your sleep face can also be what the tablet shows when it's switched off.
• Sleep screen fixes: no more cropped faces after rotating, and no style switch while asleep.
• Clearer docs: what Shizuku is, what each access level adds, setup scripts for Windows and macOS/Linux, and an honest note that the status bar icons can be shown or hidden tablet-wide, while replacing their artwork needs root.

The full list is in the changelog.

Known limits

• Instant ink is experimental. It's only been checked with a real pen in Sketchbook. The preview is Boox's own black pen, so colours and the eraser show after the swap.
• The sleep screen can't update while asleep. Boox reads the picture as the tablet goes to sleep, and again only after it wakes. While charging, Boox always draws its battery bar on it.
• The power-off screen is saved by Boox, but hasn't yet been checked on a real power-off.
• Shizuku stops on every restart, and starting it again needs a computer on firmware 4.3.
• Firmware updates can change things. The sleep screen, font and pen features rely on Onyx interfaces that aren't a stable public API, so an update may change them. When something stops working, the app says so rather than guessing.

BooxUltimatum is not affiliated with Onyx or BOOX, and comes with no warranty (GPL-3.0-or-later). Every change it makes is recorded and can be undone.