Kobo Firmware 2.4.0

[mapline]

Hi
Have Kobo blocked .kepub.epub books in 2.4?

[Terisa de morgan]

No, it's something messed in my Glo, but it works well in my Mini.

[Tzar]

Originally Posted by Marbles

Wondering when these updates will be coming to Albert Canada??????????????

Check post from Sameer earlier in the thread. The release is limited to a few subsets of units currently. The full global rollout may happen next week.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

I wholeheartedly agree. This bothers me *much* more than any (other) bug. Even if I set widows/orphans to 0, there are still problems with empty page bottoms at the end of chapters.

Do you mean the chapter starts at the top of the next screen? If so, that is almost definitely not a bug. It is in the design of the book. This happens for two reasons.

The epub text is split into multiple files. Each file will always start at the top of the screen. The most common way to split the files is at chapter.

It can also be due to styles within the epub. The styles on any element can be set to force a page break. Setting this for chapter headings isn't unexpected.

As to Kobo's settings for widows and orphans. The default in the spec is either 2 or 3. To me, Kobo should respect this.

[mapline]

Thanks Terisa de morgan for the re assurance as I only use Kepub.epub (apart from books purchased from Kobo)
I'm using jgoguen's plugin in calibre which is really good and makes it easier.

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Do you mean the chapter starts at the top of the next screen?

No, that is normal. The situation that is a bug is that a paragraph stops in the middle of the screen, then there is a sentence on the top of the next page (the bug) and then the new chapter starts on the following page (normal behaviour). I will try to find where this last happened in my current book and post a photo.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

No, that is normal. The situation that is a bug is that a paragraph stops in the middle of the screen, then there is a sentence on the top of the next page (the bug) and then the new chapter starts on the following page (normal behaviour). I will try to find where this last happened in my current book and post a photo.

OK, I did not get that from you original post. That is a bug that I have heard of but rarely seen. But, I did see it recently a couple of times and meant to have a look at the book.

[AliciaNunz]

Here's a question regarding the upgrade - how long did it take for your reader to download the upgrade? I have a Kobo Mini and I am syncing through Wi-Fi. It has been going for over an hour already!!!Is this normal or am I in trouble here?

Thanks!
Alicia

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by AliciaNunz

Here's a question regarding the upgrade - how long did it take for your reader to download the upgrade? I have a Kobo Mini and I am syncing through Wi-Fi. It has been going for over an hour already!!!Is this normal or am I in trouble here?

Has it finished? If so ignore the rest of this.

It depends on the speed of your internet link and what else is happening on it. The firmware file is nearly 90MB. That has to be downloaded before the install can continue. In the evening on my link at home, I expect about 30 minutes. But it has taken close to an hour. This link is about 4Mbps and others in the house are using it.

[Book Monkey]

So glad 2.4.0 fixed the bookmarking problem for side-loaded books. Also seems to have made page turns a tad more brisk.

However, it seems 2.4.0 has created a new problem for my Kobo Mini. Ever since I got the update, syncing seems to take forever and simply does not complete.

At first I didn't think much of it as syncing can normally take a little while to finish up. However, after 2.4.0 was installed it just never finishes. It gets stuck "loading content". The first time I noticed it had been syncing for about 15 minutes which is longer than normal but I just stopped it and tried again and left it a bit longer but it was not getting any further.

It had, however, loaded all the previews I'd added from kobobooks.com so that much was working but it was starting to drain the battery life. I stopped the sync and restared with same result.
Then I took the back cover off and reset it but when it powered up again and I tried to sync it was the same exact story again. I added another preview from kobo's website, synced again, and it was added almost immediately but the sync just kept on going with "loading content" and this time I let it run for 25-30 minutes.

Anyone else experience similar symptoms?

[PeterT]

Nod; best thing is just to bite the bullet and let it continue to the bitter end.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

I wholeheartedly agree. This bothers me *much* more than any (other) bug. Even if I set widows/orphans to 0, there are still problems with empty page bottoms at the end of chapters.

Do you mean where a chapter ends and then you get a blank page before the next chapter? The primary cause for that issue I've seen is code at the end of the chapter file adding blank lines or similar odd coding.

In one book I recently purchased which was a conversion by Calibre from what appears from the start of chapter file headings to have been a Microsoft Word document, the end of chapter files looked like the sample below:

<p class="calibre39">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="calibre38">&nbsp;</p>
<div class="mbppagebreak" id="calibre_pb_27"></div>
</body>
</html>

If the end of the chapter text is near enough the end of screen, the two blank lines plus whatever is added within the <div> will give you a blank page. The stylesheet for this book shows calibre38 and calibre39 setting the text height to 1.25em and 1.33em respectively. The real question is why force 2.75 lines worth of blank space when the next chapter will be forced to start on a new page anyways?

Regards,
David

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by AliciaNunz

Here's a question regarding the upgrade - how long did it take for your reader to download the upgrade? I have a Kobo Mini and I am syncing through Wi-Fi. It has been going for over an hour already!!!Is this normal or am I in trouble here?

Thanks!
Alicia

It took my Glo about 3 minutes to download the upgrade. Home internet connection is 50Mbps inbound with a Wi-Fi connection that should be well over that speed. I'm going to have to load DD-WRT or one of it's cousins on the router so I can check the wireless connection speed for devices that don't show it.

Regards,
David

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Do you mean where a chapter ends and then you get a blank page before the next chapter? The primary cause for that issue I've seen is code at the end of the chapter file adding blank lines or similar odd coding.

It isn't that. There is a bug where the last line of text in a chapter goes to the next page. I haven't seen it enough to see a pattern.

In one book I recently purchased which was a conversion by Calibre from what appears from the start of chapter file headings to have been a Microsoft Word document, the end of chapter files looked like the sample below:

<p class="calibre39">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="calibre38">&nbsp;</p>
<div class="mbppagebreak" id="calibre_pb_27"></div>
</body>
</html>

If the end of the chapter text is near enough the end of screen, the two blank lines plus whatever is added within the <div> will give you a blank page. The stylesheet for this book shows calibre38 and calibre39 setting the text height to 1.25em and 1.33em respectively. The real question is why force 2.75 lines worth of blank space when the next chapter will be forced to start on a new page anyways?

I haven't really investigated these as I normally just delete them. But, I think this is an artefact of a calibre conversion. The original probably didn't split on chapters. The code there is something to put a space between the end of a chapter and the beginning of the next. When calibre converted and split the files, it split at the tag for the chapter which was the next line after that div.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by davidfor

As to Kobo's settings for widows and orphans. The default in the spec is either 2 or 3. To me, Kobo should respect this.

What spec? As I interpret your post: there's something somewhere that says widows and orphans should be set to 2 or 3... and Kobo decided to respect that?

What I believe is: Kobo has set their widows and orphans to 2 or 3, and of course should respect their own settings.

However, I don't understand (disagree with) the setting in the first place. What exactly is the advantage of a paragraph starting on the next page so that the first or last 2 or 3 lines don't end up "alone" on the previous or next page respectively? Have you ever seen a novel do that?

Originally Posted by Book Monkey

However, it seems 2.4.0 has created a new problem for my Kobo Mini. Ever since I got the update, syncing seems to take forever and simply does not complete.
[...]
Anyone else experience similar symptoms?

Yes I think I have. And I've even experienced some time-outs.

I think the server just must be extremely busy with everyone syncing seventeen times a day to see if they'll get their new firmware yet.

(Or of course it could be a 2.4.0 thing, who knows.)

Originally Posted by davidfor

I haven't really investigated these as I normally just delete them. But, I think this is an artefact of a calibre conversion. The original probably didn't split on chapters. The code there is something to put a space between the end of a chapter and the beginning of the next. When calibre converted and split the files, it split at the tag for the chapter which was the next line after that div.

If you find yourself restlessly wanting to investigate this the two books that I sent you in the testing-battery thread were originally not split. I think they contained about 7 chapters per file. I did let Calibre split them for me so if what you say is correct those books should have those nothingness lines as well. (Actually, I'm beginning to doubt whether I did actually send you the converted versions... I might have given you the un-converted for extra badness... hmm)