Kobo Glo - Error communicating with device

[Alisendre]

Hello everyone,
I just hope you can offer some help.

I'm currently running Calibre 1.1.0 on my desktop (OS Win XP 32bit SP3) and a Kobo Glo (firmware 2.6.1) AND the same but on my other PC, a laptop. (OS Win 7)

On my laptop all is working like charm.

On my desktop, when I connect Kobo, Calibre gets Information from Device (on bottom left correctly displayed "...connected Kobo Glo"), gets List of Book from Device (green flags in Library for books on device) but when Calibre tries to Send Metadata to Device the job always fails and this is what I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 85, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 506, in _sync_booklists
File "calibre_plugins.kobotouch_extended.driver", line 408, in sync_booklists
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 888, in sync_booklists
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 2154, in update_device_database_collections
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 2599, in check_for_bookshelf
OperationalError: unable to open database file

I also cannot send books from device to Library or install KoboTouchExtended plug-in

It is true that I might as well quit using my desktop and happily go on with the one actually working, but aside from the former being the one I use most, I cannot fathom what the problem might be, since I'm quite sure I have configured the two in the same way...(or at least, that was my intention :P)

Any hint?

Thank you for your help

PS: I've also got kobo plug-in to try to use a newer firmware

[PeterT]

Frankly we do see lots of people having issues with calibre / kobo and older XP machines.

Some feelings are that the USB drivers on the older XP machines have problems with Kobo.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Frankly we do see lots of people having issues with calibre / kobo and older XP machines.

Some feelings are that the USB drivers on the older XP machines have problems with Kobo.

Yep, I'm one of them.

My Aura HD drops off the USB bus as soon as Calibre closes the database, so automatic metadata management doesn't work at all. When I set metadata management to 'Manual' it works until I send a book, after which it drops off again. The database is OK at that point, and the new book is recognized by the Kobo, but to get it to work again I have to eject and reconnect it.

It seems to have gotten worse with firmware 2.8.1.

[davidfor]

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to fathom what this problem is either. A problem like this has been reported a few people. Calibre seems to connect to the Kobo device OK, but after a while, the device disappears and an error like you are seeing is shown. This can happen during the first "Send Metadata to Device" job, or it can happen after sending some books to the device.

I think, but am not sure, that all reports of the problem have been with Windows XP SP3. That makes me think there might be a problem with the USB driver in XP. I have just dug out an old laptop with XP on it, so I'll see if I can reproduce the problem here.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to fathom what this problem is either. A problem like this has been reported a few people. Calibre seems to connect to the Kobo device OK, but after a while, the device disappears and an error like you are seeing is shown. This can happen during the first "Send Metadata to Device" job, or it can happen after sending some books to the device.

I think, but am not sure, that all reports of the problem have been with Windows XP SP3. That makes me think there might be a problem with the USB driver in XP. I have just dug out an old laptop with XP on it, so I'll see if I can reproduce the problem here.

David
You might request that those user supply which USB chipset is being used.
My first PEz would not function properly with Intel's 82801series (same problem with multiple PC's) USB2 Enhanced driver enabled. I had to run in USB1 mode . My later build PEz runs fine on Intel USB2 .

They can find the device info in the Device Manager (Control Panel: Systemevice Manager button: Universal Serial... at the bottom of the list)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by theducks

David
You might request that those user supply which USB chipset is being used.
My first PEz would not function properly with Intel's 82801series (same problem with multiple PC's) USB2 Enhanced driver enabled. I had to run in USB1 mode . My later build PEz runs fine on Intel USB2 .

They can find the device info in the Device Manager (Control Panel: Systemevice Manager button: Universal Serial... at the bottom of the list)

Good idea. A few of the reports were on AMD based machines. I don't remember if anyone mentioned an Intel machine.

[PeterT]

I'd almost love it if a brave soul could try updating the libusb0.dll used by Kobo from version 1.1.4 to the current 1.2.6 nad see if that makes any difference (I've always been a big believer in current drivers).

The project is hosted here --> http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/libusb-win32/wiki and in theory one should be able to download the libusb-win32-bin-x.x.x.x.zip package, and then follow the instructions in Device Driver Installation on creating the custom INF file for Kobo, and then the instructions in Updating the Device Driver to install the new driver.

I caution though in that I'm not sure on how to revert back!

[Alisendre]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Good idea. A few of the reports were on AMD based machines. I don't remember if anyone mentioned an Intel machine.

WOW how fast you guys are, I didn't expect such a very prompt reply only problem is that I use the computer with Win XP for work and I won't be there till Monday (TGIF and so on ) ... will it be ok if I check this USB thing then?

Meanwhile, I'm beginning to suspect this will be heading to waaaay-out-of-my-league-zipcode (I won't even try to understand what PeterT said in his last post ) so I would beg you to keep it as simply as humanly possible...

Thanks for all

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by theducks

David
You might request that those user supply which USB chipset is being used.
My first PEz would not function properly with Intel's 82801series (same problem with multiple PC's) USB2 Enhanced driver enabled. I had to run in USB1 mode . My later build PEz runs fine on Intel USB2 .

They can find the device info in the Device Manager (Control Panel: Systemevice Manager button: Universal Serial... at the bottom of the list)

Hm. That's interesting. I'm using an Intel 82801G.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I'd almost love it if a brave soul could try updating the libusb0.dll used by Kobo from version 1.1.4 to the current 1.2.6 nad see if that makes any difference (I've always been a big believer in current drivers).

The project is hosted here --> http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/libusb-win32/wiki and in theory one should be able to download the libusb-win32-bin-x.x.x.x.zip package, and then follow the instructions in Device Driver Installation on creating the custom INF file for Kobo, and then the instructions in Updating the Device Driver to install the new driver.

I caution though in that I'm not sure on how to revert back!

Well, that doesn't do what I (and you too, probably) thought it did. I tried it, and what I got was a 'libusb device' in Device Manager. A Mass Storage one, but no drive letter, and Calibre doesn't recognize it.

Getting back is easy; just remove te libusb decice, and on next connect XP will see new hardware and reinstall the standard driver.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Well, that doesn't do what I (and you too, probably) thought it did. I tried it, and what I got was a 'libusb device' in Device Manager. A Mass Storage one, but no drive letter, and Calibre doesn't recognize it.

Getting back is easy; just remove te libusb decice, and on next connect XP will see new hardware and reinstall the standard driver.

You did create the customized Inf file for the kobo?

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by PeterT

You did create the customized Inf file for the kobo?

Yes, I did. 'testlibusb-win' does find it too. I just don't get a drive letter; windows doesn't do anything with it other than creating the libusb mass storage device in Device Manager.

Output from testlibusb-win:

Spoiler:

DLL version: 1.2.6.0
Driver version: 1.2.6.0

bus/device idVendor/idProduct
bus-0/\\.\libusb0-0001--0x2237-0x4193 2237/4193
- Manufacturer : Kobo
- Product : eReader-2.8.1
- Serial Number: N204B34104344
bLength: 18
bDescriptorType: 01h
bcdUSB: 0200h
bDeviceClass: 00h
bDeviceSubClass: 00h
bDeviceProtocol: 00h
bMaxPacketSize0: 40h
idVendor: 2237h
idProduct: 4193h
bcdDevice: 0110h
iManufacturer: 1
iProduct: 2
iSerialNumber: 3
bNumConfigurations: 1
wTotalLength: 32
bNumInterfaces: 1
bConfigurationValue: 1
iConfiguration: 4
bmAttributes: c0h
MaxPower: 1
bInterfaceNumber: 0
bAlternateSetting: 0
bNumEndpoints: 2
bInterfaceClass: 8
bInterfaceSubClass: 6
bInterfaceProtocol: 80
iInterface: 5
bEndpointAddress: 81h
bmAttributes: 02h
wMaxPacketSize: 512
bInterval: 0
bRefresh: 0
bSynchAddress: 0
bEndpointAddress: 01h
bmAttributes: 02h
wMaxPacketSize: 512
bInterval: 1
bRefresh: 0
bSynchAddress: 0

[BobC]

I'm pretty sure this isn't hardware related though I can't say why it only seems to happen on XP machines. The Windows-Glo connection remains rock solid unless you connect via the Calibre driver. This would not be the case if hardware was the source of the problem. At times when I have been unable to remain connected via the driver, if I disable it and connect Calibre to my Glo as a folder device there are no problems.

It appears to me that the problem is being triggered when Calibre's driver tries to manipulate the Kobo SQL database. On a couple of occasions when I haven't been able to retain a connection via Calibre I have been able to sort things out by using a SQL database browser to vacuum the Kobo's database. Once the database has been compressed Calibre will connect via the driver until I do something else to upset it (typically deleting or updating a book via Calibre).

I have mentioned in other threads that the problem seems to have similarities with that noted in http://www.linux-usb.org/gadget/file_storage.html :

AN IMPORTANT WARNING! While MSG (Mass Storage Gadget) is running and the gadget is connected to a USB host, that USB host will use the backing storage as a private disk drive. It will not expect to see any changes in the backing storage other than the ones it makes. Extraneous changes are liable to corrupt the filesystem and may even crash the host. Only one system (normally, the USB host) may write to the backing storage, and if one system is writing that data, no other should be reading it. The only safe way to share the backing storage between the host and the gadget's operating system at the same time is to make it read-only on both sides.

(my emphasis)

It occurs to me that if Calibre is making changes to the Kobo's SQL database and some process is still running on the Glo which is also doing housekeeping the above conditions might apply. This is just a theory - I don't have the tools or skills to investigate further.

BobC

[davidfor]

BobC, I could see that as a problem, but it doesn't explain why so few people are seeing this problem. It also doesn't explain why so many of them are running XP. It would also make more sense if it was the first interaction with the database rather than one several minutes later.

Your suggestion that you can defer the problem by vacuuming the database suggests that it isn't a conflict with something still running on the device. As the vacuum is a complete read and write of the database, then that should contend with anything happening on the device.

The difference with how calibre hits the database and a vacuum is the smaller updates. Each change made by calibre will cause a write to the database file. It also creates a journal file that disappears quickly. Maybe the issue is the flood of small writes to a large file and the small journal files at the same time.

Experiments I can think of:

- Connect the device without calibre running. Wait ten minutes or more and start calibre. If there was a process still running on the device, hopefully it will have finished by this time.

- Run a set of database updates from some other application than calibre and see what happens. Doing a select from the ShelfContent table followed by an insert into it followed by a commit and repeating a lot of times would match what has been reported as a common timing of the problem.

[tempest@de]

I also have this problem, doing as suggested by theducks this is what I see, I don’t know much about informatics, so I don’t always understand what’s being said when the talk becomes technical

Universal serial bus controllers
Standard enhanced PCI USB Host controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host controller
USB Root Hub

I have an AMD Athlon64 processor 3200+ with XP service pack 2, not sure if this information helps.

Originally Posted by davidfor

- Connect the device without calibre running. Wait ten minutes or more and start calibre. If there was a process still running on the device, hopefully it will have finished by this time.

I tried this before, I connected the glo to charge and when it’s done (more the one hour later) I connect calibre to send some books, and the error appeared after sending the books.