Strange page change behavior in 1.8

[talios]

Given I didn't want to wait for a Whitcoulls update I went and downloaded the new Kobodesktop from kobobooks.com and upgraded my gen1 kobo to the new firmware.

Everything seems to be fine apart from....

1) VERY weird page turn semantics on the Kobo format book I'm reading, i.e. page turns from 5->6->7->8->5->6->4. Or something along those lines, it looks more like the the Kobo is reading the book database wrong as I also had "CHAPTER 46" in regular fonts in the middle of the screen

2) A LOT of dowloaded ePubs ( generated via Calibre ) are unable to be opened. Other epubs seem to open. When I try to open the Kobo just does't respond, it doesn't even LOOK like its trying to open ( and no "your device is not registered" messages for DRMd ePubs either ).

3) I see the blue light flashing when pages turn, I don't remember the kobo doing this before so I'm not sure if this is an indication of a problem, or just additional processing?

[taming]

There was a brief period of time, when the Calibre driver and Kobo changes did some odd things--including messing with the database. I believe there were two Calibre versions in the past month that were problematic. Corrupted databases (and their are reasons other than Calibre that can result in a Db can become corrupted) create all sorts of havoc with 1.8. The solution seems to be to replace the Db and various other things. Please see the installation post for more on that.

The flashing blue light does seem to be a processing thing. For some reason, after a few days, most of the flashing (except on page turns) went away on my reader. Initially, the light would flash repeatedly for chapter changes. I'm not seeing that happening any more.

[talios]

Originally Posted by taming

There was a brief period of time, when the Calibre driver and Kobo changes did some odd things--including messing with the database. I believe there were two Calibre versions in the past month that were problematic. Corrupted databases (and their are reasons other than Calibre that can result in a Db can become corrupted) create all sorts of havoc with 1.8. The solution seems to be to replace the Db and various other things.

I did this just last week actually, replaced the corrupted database ( why oh why doesn't Kobo's software have this built in - would be handy, but then - there's much more I'd rather that app do than this ) and am using the newest Calibre, which now works with 1.8.

Will try another reset tho. I really should have waited for the Whitcoulls desktop app to upgrade ( tho I don't see that happening in the next month or two history follows suite ) as I can also no longer sync the locally purchased books ( why they're all separate apps I don't know, branded purposes just seems counter-productive ).

[Greenmantle]

Hi talios,

I had similar problems when I upgraded to 1.8 from the Kobo desktop when I had previously used the Aussie Borders desktop.

I think I have fixed it by using the SD card upgrade method which has also replaced the database.
I have reloaded some of my books, using either calibre or ADE. I am going to stay away from the Kobo or Borders desktop until the Aussie Borders one comes out.
Switching between different desktops corrupts your database so I think you may be better off waiting for the Whitcoulls desktop and then replace your datbase also.

Cheers

[talios]

Originally Posted by Greenmantle

Switching between different desktops corrupts your database so I think you may be better off waiting for the Whitcoulls desktop and then replace your datbase also.

Given the device is now effectively a brick ( joy of joys just before christmas! ) I don't think I have a choice do I

[kiwipippa]

Talios, I'm in NZ as well. I updated from the kobo desktop, but when I open the Whitcoulls desktop I get told there is an upgrade available. I'm not sure that it is 1.8 because I don't want to run it and stuff up my kobo, but could be worth looking at.

[EDinNB]

My post is on topic as per weird or different things happening with page turns, but totally unrelated to the OP...

What I have noticed on1.8.1 on page turns... normal page turns occur about the same speed as before, however, when you reach the end of a chapter, it takes an enormous amount of time to move ahead to the next chapter, almost like the unit is loading the entire chapter in memory instead of 1 page at a time.

EDinNB

[3d0g]

Originally Posted by EDinNB

My post is on topic as per weird or different things happening with page turns, but totally unrelated to the OP...

What I have noticed on1.8.1 on page turns... normal page turns occur about the same speed as before, however, when you reach the end of a chapter, it takes an enormous amount of time to move ahead to the next chapter, almost like the unit is loading the entire chapter in memory instead of 1 page at a time.

EDinNB

Yup. Books are rendered for display chapter by chapter so there's a bit of a lag as the kobo processes the next one. If the book has really large chapters the delay can indeed be quite noticeable. This is also why font re-sizes take a while.

[taming]

This is also an area in which the difference between the WiFi and original Kobo really is quite evident. WiFi Kobo is much faster. It's a hardware thing .

[jimr]

Originally Posted by taming

This is also an area in which the difference between the WiFi and original Kobo really is quite evident. WiFi Kobo is much faster. It's a hardware thing .

I'm guessing we won't see a lot of future updates for the original Kobo simply because there's a limit to what the hardware can do compared to the WiFi. I'm glad at least they got the basic features working well (such as syncing, deleting, newspapers, etc.). It finally does everything they initially promised it would do...and does it well. Too bad about the slow chapter load though, as it highlights the sluggishness of the device. But I'm not complainig...mine seems to be working perfectly now!

[3d0g]

Originally Posted by jimr

I'm guessing we won't see a lot of future updates for the original Kobo simply because there's a limit to what the hardware can do compared to the WiFi. I'm glad at least they got the basic features working well (such as syncing, deleting, newspapers, etc.). It finally does everything they initially promised it would do...and does it well. Too bad about the slow chapter load though, as it highlights the sluggishness of the device. But I'm not complainig...mine seems to be working perfectly now!

Outside of minor tweaks you may very well be right. As the devs explained to us, they're using every last byte of the 64MB they have to work with in the USB upgrade path.

FWIW, the chapter load is much better now than it was in the early betas.

[talios]

You may find that this is the 1.7.5 desktop upgrade which came out about a month ago. I was so happy see an automated upgrade come down, then saddened it was only the desktop client ( which frankly, beyond being able to shop, is kinda horrible to use and pointless, tho the reader is handy ).

Actually - I take most of that back, the client is certainly acceptable - it's the store thats actually quite horrible, with limited (and broken) search, and a rather limited book selection.

I tend to buy my books via other outlets ( http://www.booksamillion.com/ being one of the better so far ).

Really hopeing 1.8.2 comes out here soon. I ended up bringing the kobo AND print copies of my books to read on holiday

Originally Posted by kiwipippa

Talios, I'm in NZ as well. I updated from the kobo desktop, but when I open the Whitcoulls desktop I get told there is an upgrade available. I'm not sure that it is 1.8 because I don't want to run it and stuff up my kobo, but could be worth looking at.

[taming]

The one advantage to Kobo holding the updates for you guys is that you will not have to go through the 1.8.1 mess we did in Canada.When the firmware and desktop are released you will get the "fixed" version.