Touch Kobo Touch Firmware 2.0

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Corpsegoddess

As for the shelves causing my wifi freeze--I think it's more OCD than patience. But I'm almost positive it has something to do with the shelves, because both times this has happened, they are the only variable to have changed.

The first time, it was

--Load new Kobo update, have problems, factory reset
--Load all my books back on (about 800 or so)
--Do a wifi update with no problems
--Start filling up shelves, try to wifi update, update and device freeze

And this time it is

--Device freezes because of wifi update, do factory reset
--Load all my books back on
--Do a wifi update with no problems
--Start filling up shelves, try to wifi update, update and device freeze

Both times, it was after I had either

1. Filled a certain number of shelves

or

2. Filled a certain number of shelves with a certain number of books

I'm at work now and I can use the fast connection plus if I need to reset it just happens while I do other things.

I can't reproduce this. Last night I created a shelf with 334 books on it. The WiFi sync just now went OK. So, I created a shelf for each of the series in the library. That gave me about 40 shelves with up to 15 books on them plus the 334 book shelf. WiFi sync went OK. So, for all the books that have series, I added them to another shelf. That gave me a shelf with 334 books, a shelf with about 120 books and about 40 shelves with between 1 and 15 books. Again, the WiFi sync was OK. It did seem to be a lot slower.

When it hung for you, did you notice what phase it was in? With the extra shelves, the "Checking for updates" phase is taking a lot longer. Actually, I just tried again, and it timed out. While it was waiting, I knew it hadn't hung because when I pressed the clock icon, it showed the time.

Just so I know, what firmware version are you using?

So yeah. I'm married to a software engineer, so I'm a big believer in providing as much data as I can.

I wish I could get my wife to do the same. Usually all I hear is "It doesn't work".

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Who? Me? Polite?

I came to that sequence of steps when I found that after simply copying over an updated copy of a book, it sometimes disappeared from the library. I never noticed the file being deleted from the Kobo as others have reported with later firmware versions but being unable to see/open it was just as annoying. I think I started it around 1.9.14.

I noticed the reboot on 1.9.17 rather often since I tend to copy the book to the KT when I first obtain it and then start reading to check formatting, TOC, etc. I then use Sigil to do things like changing the stylesheet, adding modifying a TOC, modifying the chapter structure to a file per chapter if needed, adding a cover image if needed, changing the cover image formatting since I like the following as my cover page code:

<div>
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" height="100%" preserveAspectRatio="xMidYMid meet" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 540 720" width="100%" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
<image height="720" transform="translate(0 0)" width="540" xlink:href="../Images/cover.jpg"></image>
</svg>
</div>

This probably does qualify as fairly major changes. When I tried deleting the book from the KT before copying the new copy over, it worked some of the time. When I added the power cycle, it -- so far -- has worked every time regardless of the firmware version in use.

Strangely enough, the 1.9.17 firmware would not have had a problem with the cover change. But, it would have had a problem with the Sigil edit.

With FW 1.9.17 and earlier, if you put a book on the Touch, it processes it. This meant added an entry into the database for the book and each entry in the and generated five different size cover images. If you replaced the book with a new copy, it didn't care. It didn't reprocess the book. So, any changes to the metadata or TOC weren't picked and it used the original cover images.

The problems came when you read the book. If the file stucture changed, it could reboot the Touch. If the TOC changed, it would allow you to open the book and read it, but it would open at the start and any navigation with the TOC would always go to the first page. Opening and editing a book in Sigil could be enough to make this change in structure. Sigil moves the different types of files into a separate directories. If they weren't there before, then this cause the crash. Changing the text, style sheet and metadata was probably OK. Another change that tended to be OK was extending the book. I downloaded some epubs from sites as the authors write them. The changes just add an extra chapter or two. FW 1.9.17 was OK with this but, the extra chapters were not in the TOC.

With your work flow, you probably need to delete the book from the Touch after that first edit. After that, your are probably fixing spelling, grammar and style, so you should be able to replace it without deleting it.

Now, with FW 2.0.0, this changed. Basically any change to the book caused it to be deleted. FW 2.0.2 is better. It still deletes the book unders some circumstances, but fixing spelling and grammar seems to be OK. I'm disappointed to hear that FW 2.1.1 is a back step for this. Hopefully that will get sorted when we get an official firmware update.

I haven't been using Calibre much lately as anything other than the first pass for converting ebooks. What I was seeing with Calibre was not all of the books on my SD card showed in Calibre which makes me more than a little nervous about adding a book. When I look at the Calibre metadata file stored in the root of the SD card, it listed only 5 of the 1400 books on the card and one was a .CBR format file. Actually, haven't tried this since I updated to Calibre 0.8.66 so will connect with that and see what happens --- hmmm, 17 seconds and get list of books on device reaches 100%, 5 minutes later, the task is still running. 5 minutes, 30 seconds finally stops. Clicking on the Card A icon shows 6 books on the card. 5 1/2 minutes to lose 1400 books....

I wanted to use Calibre since it does clean up the database when it deletes a book but the behaviour above makes it a non-starter here.

Do you only have the one CBR file? If so, delete it using the Touch. Then the rest of the books will magically reapper in calibre. Maybe I better say "should magically reappear". I think there is another issue with SD cards that sometimes happens and books will not appear.

The problem that you are seeing is a date issue. Calibre is reading the database on the Touch. One of the columns it looks at is the date the book was created. The format for this is inconsistent. But, specifically, for books such as CBR, the date is not stored in the format that calibre expects. This causes the calibre job that reads the device to crash and hence not populate the device list. From my testing, the comic book formats and PDF's have this problem.

If after removing the "offending" books, it doesn't show all the books, restart calibre in debug mode. This is done by clicking on the menu next to Preferences button and choosing "Restart in debug mode". Let it start and when it finishes getting the books from the device, close calibre. After this, an editor will be opend with a debug log in it. That should have an error in it, so post that so I can look at it.

I'll send you a private message with something else, but I would like to hear the results of the above.

And thanks for checking the database version. 55 is OK with calibre.

[Chocky]

As I have upgraded to 2.1.1 if I now connect my Kobo and start the Kobo desktop, will it downgrade it back to 2.0.0?

I use Calibre so it's a bit of a rhetorical question really.

Thanks,

Steve

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Chocky

As I have upgraded to 2.1.1 if I now connect my Kobo and start the Kobo desktop, will it downgrade it back to 2.0.0?

I use Calibre so it's a bit of a rhetorical question really.

Thanks,

Steve

It hasn't happened to me yet. The ereader tab shows the version as 2.1.1 and software seems smart enough not to install a lower version of the software.

[wondergirl]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'm curious, did you follow the instructions I pointed you to yesterday, or did you just read the warning message you posted above and follow the instructions in it? Or did you do a search and find one of the many other posts about the same thing?

Ohhh, i read the warning message

[Chocky]

Originally Posted by wondergirl

Ohhh, i read the warning message

OK thanks, nice to know just in case I do use the Kobo desktop.

Steve

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Do you only have the one CBR file? If so, delete it using the Touch. Then the rest of the books will magically reapper in calibre. Maybe I better say "should magically reappear". I think there is another issue with SD cards that sometimes happens and books will not appear.

The problem that you are seeing is a date issue. Calibre is reading the database on the Touch. One of the columns it looks at is the date the book was created. The format for this is inconsistent. But, specifically, for books such as CBR, the date is not stored in the format that calibre expects. This causes the calibre job that reads the device to crash and hence not populate the device list. From my testing, the comic book formats and PDF's have this problem.

If after removing the "offending" books, it doesn't show all the books, restart calibre in debug mode. This is done by clicking on the menu next to Preferences button and choosing "Restart in debug mode". Let it start and when it finishes getting the books from the device, close calibre. After this, an editor will be opend with a debug log in it. That should have an error in it, so post that so I can look at it.

I'll send you a private message with something else, but I would like to hear the results of the above.

And thanks for checking the database version. 55 is OK with calibre.

I've just deleted the book and will try Calibre again. I did open the details for the book before deleting it and noted the publisher was 2/4/12.

Before running Calibre, I deleted the Calibre files from the KT and then let Calibre 0.8.67. scan the ereader. Calibre now shows 1407 files on the SD card. Oddly, the books that showed with the CBZ file present are the ones are either flagged as read or I'm reading.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by antxc

I have found this to be the case too. However, the dead taps are not consistent so I am unsure if it is just me or the device that is to blame. One day I was tapping two or three times for every page turn but the next day was fine. I might have just been tired but cannot be sure yet.

Yep, exactly my problem: inconsistent and day-dependent for some reason. My reading last night got me this far: real taps on the right of the screen work. Swipes to page forward however, very often do not. I'm not quite sure yet if my swipe was too long (in time -- so too slow) or if it was too short (in length) for the screen to understand... Also, swipes near the bottom on the right were more troublesome than swipes slightly higher up.

Backward swipes on the left of the screen (...hey, strange that I would do that, but anyway) work fine.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I've just deleted the book and will try Calibre again. I did open the details for the book before deleting it and noted the publisher was 2/4/12.

I love it when I'm right. Not, that my wife will believe me if I tell her

Before running Calibre, I deleted the Calibre files from the KT and then let Calibre 0.8.67. scan the ereader. Calibre now shows 1407 files on the SD card. Oddly, the books that showed with the CBZ file present are the ones are either flagged as read or I'm reading.

That is interesting. It almost makes sense from the query that is run and the database structure, but not quite.

[Splicer]

Hey Guys,

Just joined the forum after buying my Kobo 3 days ago. After the 'automated' update to 2.0.0, I manually upgraded to 2.1.1 yesterday and here's my problem: When I put the reader into sleep-mode and 'wake-up' after an hour or so, its no constantly NOT responsive to the touch-screen. The 'hardware-buttons' all work (i.e. going to the home screen) but the touch-screen remains unresponsive. The only way to get-back-to-normal is to power-off/power-on.

Also, I noticed that my battery drains quickly while asleep .. after 1 night ( 7hrs), the power-indicator already went to something like 75% which is quite a lot (I don't have the device long-enough to really check how long the battery lasts as I regularly had it on USB to load books on it etc.)

I was wondering if this behavior is something others also experienced ?

Thanks!

[Splicer]

Hey Guys,

Just joined the forum after buying my Kobo 3 days ago. After the 'automated' update to 2.0.0, I manually upgraded to 2.1.1 yesterday and here's my problem: When I put the reader into sleep-mode and 'wake-up' after an hour or so, its no constantly NOT responsive to the touch-screen. The 'hardware-buttons' all work (i.e. going to the home screen) but the touch-screen remains unresponsive. The only way to get-back-to-normal is to power-off/power-on.

Also, I noticed that my battery drains quickly while asleep .. after 1 night ( 7hrs), the power-indicator already went to something like 75% which is quite a lot (I don't have the device long-enough to really check how long the battery lasts as I regularly had it on USB to load books on it etc.)

I was wondering if this behavior is something others also experienced ?

Thanks!

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by Splicer

Hey Guys,

Also, I noticed that my battery drains quickly while asleep .. after 1 night ( 7hrs), the power-indicator already went to something like 75% which is quite a lot (I don't have the device long-enough to really check how long the battery lasts as I regularly had it on USB to load books on it etc.)

I was wondering if this behavior is something others also experienced ?

Thanks!

Hi, Splicer. Welcome to the very lively Kobo boards!

Regarding the battery issue - is your wifi on or off, and if it is on, does your KT see a strong signal to the network you are logged-in to? The wifi does tend to drain the battery quite hard, but even more so if it is having to work hard to keep the network connection open.

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Yep, exactly my problem: inconsistent and day-dependent for some reason. My reading last night got me this far: real taps on the right of the screen work. Swipes to page forward however, very often do not. I'm not quite sure yet if my swipe was too long (in time -- so too slow) or if it was too short (in length) for the screen to understand... Also, swipes near the bottom on the right were more troublesome than swipes slightly higher up.

Backward swipes on the left of the screen (...hey, strange that I would do that, but anyway) work fine.

Similar but different here. I'm finding the swipes are more accurate than the taps. I am also seeing a difference depending on where on the screen I'm touching, though the bottom quarter and left third seem to be more sensitive on mine (based also on highlighting for annotations).

[Splicer]

Originally Posted by Peakcrew

Hi, Splicer. Welcome to the very lively Kobo boards!

Regarding the battery issue - is your wifi on or off, and if it is on, does your KT see a strong signal to the network you are logged-in to? The wifi does tend to drain the battery quite hard, but even more so if it is having to work hard to keep the network connection open.

hi Peakcrew,

My wireless is typically off as I realize that can indeed 'eat-up' quite a lot of energy especially in case of bad connection .. so that isn't the problem.
I'm wondering if there's some other activity going on in the background that not only drains the battery but also renders the touchscreen unresponsive after a while. Note that as the home-button still reacts and actually takes me to the home-screen, the device isn't locking up during the sleep, its just the touchscreen that doesn't respond to touching after a >30 min. or so sleep.

Cheers,
Hans

[rjcroy]

Originally Posted by Splicer

Hey Guys,
...
Also, I noticed that my battery drains quickly while asleep .. after 1 night ( 7hrs), the power-indicator already went to something like 75% which is quite a lot (I don't have the device long-enough to really check how long the battery lasts as I regularly had it on USB to load books on it etc.)

I was wondering if this behavior is something others also experienced ?
...

Yes, I have been suspicious lately that the battery has been draining while asleep. Four days ago I charged my Kobo for 4.5 hours to be sure that it was fully charged. Today, after only reading for about 40 minutes since then the battery was indicating about 60%.

Time to sleep: 10 mins
Time to Power Off: 30 mins
Wireless: Off
Firmware: 2.0.0 (r41166)