How to install the LAMY Al-Star Pen Button Eraser Hack on the Remarkable 2

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This guide provides easy instructions on how to get the button on the LAMY Al-Star EMR pen to work as an eraser on the Remarkable 2. This also works on the Kindle Scribe Premium pen.

Yes, this hack works on all software versions up to v3.8.2 of the Remarkable software. I am successfully using this on my Remarkable.

This hack is simple to install and has become less complex than it was in the past. It’s almost impossible to make a mistake if you just cut and paste the below.

I don’t take responsibility if you break something and can’t provide support. That said, I have done this (multiple times), and it worked for me, so sharing it with others. I am not associated with the hack, Remarkable, or LAMY.

If you’re trying to make a decision about using the LAMY EMR pen with your Remarkable 2, I can absolutely say it’s worth it. It’s a better experience than the standard Remarkable 2 Marker, using the button as the eraser is life-changing, and overall I prefer the feel of the LAMY pen. The best LAMY Al-Star pen for the Remarkable 2 is this one on Amazon.

For the best writing feel, you need to swap the tips on the LAMY for those used in the Remarkable Marker. Remarkable’s Marker tips (also available separately) just have the right friction, but the LAMY tips do work “as is” if you want.

If you’re interested, I wrote up a review of all Remarkable 2 Marker alternatives here. If you don’t want to hack, there are after-market pens, like this Staedtler Noris Jumbo model, that has a built-in eraser and work like the Remarkable Marker Plus. If you have some other EMR pen with a button (Kindle Scribe or Samsung Pen) they will also work with this Remarkable marker hack.

Why you should want to install the Remarkable Pen hack

The main reason is you can use the button as an eraser, but there is also another great benefit which is the double-click to undo. What’s this? If you have the Remarkable Pen hack installed, if you hover just above the Remarkable screen, you can double-click the button, which will undo what you just wrote/drew. This is super awesome, and I use this more frequently than erasing something. Just remember, every Remarkable software update breaks the hack and will require you to reinstall it.

Before you begin…

I would encourage you to turn off automatic updates on your Remarkable 2. This is because software updates will disable the Remarkable 2 LAMY Eraser hack, and you will need to reinstall it. It’s always a little frustrating when an update happens when you’re at work and don’t have time to reinstall the hack. I have successfully tethered my Remarkable 2 to my iPhone (this iOS SSH app) and run the SSH commands – so it can be done anywhere if it’s urgent. But it’s 10x easier to do on a computer.

To disable Remarkable 2 automatic software updates.

Settings > General > Software > tap the Version number > Switch Automatic Updates to “Off.”

You can always manually check for updates in the same menu setting if you want to update the Remarkable 2 software. Just remember that updates erase the hack. But don’t worry; you can always reinstall the hack and continue with a working LAMY eraser button on your Remarkable 2.

Once all of this is done, you’re ready to begin!

Step 1. Get the IP Address and Root Password of your Remarkable 2

First, you need to get the IP address and root password for your Remarkable 2, you can find these details in. this menu:

Settings > Help > Copyright & Licenses

At the bottom of the screen, under “GPLv3 Compliance” you will find your Remarkable 2 password in bold. Remember, passwords are CaSe SeNsItIvE. The password will also change if you ever reset your Remarkable 2. It’s safe to leave your Remarkable on the GPL screen during the process so you can read and copy the password.

The IP address of your Remarkable 2 will be the last thing you see on this screen. If you see two IP addresses listed, it’s because you have your Remarkable 2 connected to your computer via USB C the second IP address will be one you use to connect via WiFi to install the LAMY Al-Star Button Remarkable 2 Eraser Hack.

Tip: The IP address *may* change every time you do this if your Remarkable is getting a dynamic IP address. So the IP address. The first time you do this may not be the same as the second time.

Step 2. SSH into your Remarkable 2

You now need to SSH into your Remarkable 2. Your Remarkable 2 and computer will need to be on the same WiFi network. This means this is typically something you will need to do at home as the Remarkable 2 will not authenticate on networks that require a browser window to open e.g., offices, hotels, cafes, and airports. See this Remarkable WiFi FAQ. If you can’t get on the same WiFi network, then you can do the update via a USB C cable connected directly between your Computer and the Remarkable.

I recommend turning your Remarkable 2 off/on before starting the below. If your Remarkable 2 goes into sleep mode halfway, it may fail mid-way through the process. Which means having to start it all again, etc.

Tip: On both Windows and macOS you will be prompted to confirm you trust the authenticity of the host and the RSA fingerprint when you first SSH into your Remarkable; make sure you say yes. If you get an error message, you will need to delete SSH keys (see the end of this post for details).

Windows and macOS Users

On Windows 11, you can start a Terminal/Command Prompt in Admin mode, on macOS you can start Terminal. On both Windows and Mac, you connect to the Remarkable 2 using:

ssh root@<IP Address>

where IP Address is the IP Address of your Remarkable 2.

You will be prompted for your password (remember it from Step 1). If it’s your first ssh into your Remarkable you will need to confirm and accept the ssh key (say yes!).

If you entered your password correctly, you will get the Remarkable Zero Sugar login confirmation as per below. This is from my Mac, but it looks pretty much the same on Windows.

Reminder, if you don’t get the above and instead get an error message about SSH keys, you will need to delete the old SSH key (scroll to the end of this post for details on how to do that).

Step 3 Install the LAMY Al-Star Remarkable 2 Button Eraser Hack

There are a few LAMY Al-Star EMR pen Remarkable button hacks available, I use this GitHub repository as it only installs the LAMY eraser hack and nothing else. It’s also very easy to uninstall should you change your mind.

These instructions are a major rewrite in 2023 to support Remarkable OS 3.5.x, as now you can install with just one SSH command.

Copy and paste this command into your SSH Terminal.

sh -c "$(wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/slotThe/RemarkableLamyEraser/main/scripts/LamyInstall.sh -O-)"

Note: If the above gives you a certificate error, please try this as an alternative.

sh -c "$(wget --no-check-certificate https://www.joshualowcock.com/scripts/noCertLamyInstall.sh -O-)"

When prompted with “Would you like to edit your configuration now? [y/n]”, select Y for Yes.
In the nano (file editor) window that opens, press Ctrl+X to exit and if prompted save the new file, with Y to overwrite.
When prompted with “Would you like RemarkableLamyEraser to start automatically on boot [y/n]?”, select Y for Yes.
Type “exit” and you’re done!

Now enjoy using your LAMY button as an eraser!

Tip: If you’re reinstalling, you might get an initial prompt to overwrite the LamyEraser.conf file, just select Yes. You should also restart the Lamy eraser service. Details below.

Step 4 Using the LAMY Al-Star Button Hack on your Remarkable 2

The Remarkable 2 LAMY Al-Star button hack has two default behaviors, as follows:

Erase: press and hold the button to erase and release to use as a normal pen.
Undo: double-click the button to undo

You can customize the buttons, but I haven’t found any need to do this. Customizing the buttons requires additional commands, starting and stopping the LamyEraser.service, etc., which is more trouble than it’s worth (for me).

Advanced Remarkable Hack Options: Customizing the Button Presses

This is only for advanced users, as making a mistake may break the hack and the only real way to undo is to uninstall and reinstall the hack. The latest version of the Remarkable Pen Hack lets you customize the buttons by editing the LamyEraser.conf file. You can do this during the initial install, but my recommendation is to do the clean install, test it works, and then modify the button presses only if you feel it’s absolutely necessary.

To modify the way the button works on the LAMY (or other EMR pen) SSH into your Remarkable, then run this command.

nano .config/LamyEraser/LamyEraser.conf

If you scroll down in the LamyEraser.conf file, you will see the default options, these are:

double-click undo
press&hold eraser-erase
doublepress&hold select

Other options include:

toolbar: Presses the toolbar panel button.
writing: Presses the writing utensil button.
undo: Presses the undo button.
redo: Presses the redo button

Tip: It’s not fully intuitive, but doublepress&hold is actually, a 1x press and 1x press and hold, that’s a hold on the second press, not 2x press and hold on the 3rd. For these commands to work, you need to keep your pen nib close to the Remarkable 2 screen. I haven’t really found a need to go beyond the default options. You can set up custom options for triple, quadruple, and even quintuple click and holds but you would need to be a power user to really need this.

Restart LamyEraser.service

If you make any changes or reinstall after a Remarkable Software update, make sure you save the LamyEraser.conf file and also restart the LAMY Hack service, to restart, run this command.

systemctl restart LamyEraser.service

Removing the LAMY Al-Star Eraser Hack from your Remarkable 2

If you change your mind and want to uninstall everything, just SSH back into your Remarkable 2 and run this command. This stops the service, erases it, and deletes all the associated LAMY hack binaries.

sh -c "$(wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/slotThe/RemarkableLamyEraser/main/scripts/LamyUninstall.sh -O-)"

Troubleshooting

If it’s not working or you want to confirm the Remarkable button hack is running, paste this command into Terminal. This will stop and restart the service.

systemctl stop LamyEraser.service
RemarkableLamyEraser

General Remarkable 2 Hacks Advice

If you want to create your own templates and do some other useful stuff (without hacks) on your Remarkable, this tool is great. If you’re intrigued about Remarkable Hacks, check out the reHackable thread on Github.

General SSH Tip / Error Messages

If you get an error message when installing the pen hack, something like:

@ WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! @

This means your SSH key has changed and you will need to update or delete it. For most users, deleting the SSH key is the easiest.

Windows 11

You can do this via notepad if you need to edit the .ssh keys on your Windows PC. It is a little long to explain how to do it on Windows, this external article describes the process. I don’t have a Windows 11 PC at the moment, so you may also need to check for a \users\<username>\.ssh folder for a known_hosts file. The location of the hosts file really depends on what software you are using to SSH. If you are using Notepad, you MUST be in Administrator mode in Notepad to edit the hosts file, and don’t forget to put a # in front of the line that is the IP address of your Remarkable to comment it out.

macOS

If you are comfortable in nano, you can comment out just the remarkable ssh record with this command:

nano ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Just put a “#” in front of the IP address you use for your Remarkable.

Or, if you don’t need your SSH keys, you can delete them all with this via Terminal using this command, it will delete all current ssh keys, and there is no recovery, so be careful as it’s the brute force option.

rm -rf ~/.ssh/*

I hope this helps someone else!

Want More Remarkable Advice?

Want to get more out of your Remarkable tablet?

Looking for a replacement or alternative Remarkable Pen, reviews and comparison here.
If you’re after a guide on the best Remarkable 2 case alternative, click here. It’s what I use.
Want to be able to use the button on the LAMY or Kindle Scribe pen on your Remarkable, learn how here.
Want a free Remarkable 2024 calendar, get it here! 100% free and easy to use!
Want to read a comparison of the Remarkable 2 vs. Kindle Scribe, I wrote one here.

I have even more Remarkable tips and advice here.