How to get your Kobo to use non-US dates

[GeoffR]

Just one thing to watch out for: If you change the language from the Settings-->Language menu and later change back to English, then CurrentLocale gets reset back to en_US.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by davidfor

But, your statement about not being changed by the device is wrong.

Well that was before I realised it was being used for the language setting, which makes sense.

Not they didn't. It is on the partition that is visible when connected to a PC. The base directory stars with a dot, so that is not as visible to a unix based machine. But it is a directory that Kobo people have told us to look in. And I have even been told by Kobo to make changes to the conf file in the past.

I don't think it's visible on a Windows PC either unless you have "show system folders" enabled but I couldn't swear to that as I mostly use my Kobo with Linux.

It doesn't surprise me that Kobo may have told specific people to change things in the conf file in a tech support setting to resolve or investigate a specific issue - that's not the same as saying this is generally a setting they expect most people to change by editting the file. I'm not even saying people shouldn't experiment with it and see what happens - as long as they're ultimately prepared for the consequences which may be a factory reset.

All I'm saying is that calling the developers stupid for a possible side-effect of a change that they reasonably don't expect anyone to make manually is not fair. Even if there was a "change timezone setting" menu item and it caused problems with the sync then that would be a bug but even then I personally wouldn't call the developers stupid.

I think I'm done on this thread. I apologise for the diversion. This is a useful discovery of a helpful tweak - kudos to the OP for finding it.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by latepaul

All I'm saying is that calling the developers stupid for a possible side-effect of a change that they reasonably don't expect anyone to make manually is not fair. Even if there was a "change timezone setting" menu item and it caused problems with the sync then that would be a bug but even then I personally wouldn't call the developers stupid.

To be fair I didn't read murg's post as calling them stupid - changing the locale (a presentation setting in Linux) doesn't alter the internal representation of the date so shouldn't cause a problem with synchronisation.

If it did then the developers must have gone to extreme lengths to change the internal date representation into a non-standard form which they used for synchronisation. I would agree that that would have been a odd step to take as it would need much unnecessary coding but as as they didn't then I don't see an issue. I can think of many examples of what would have been a stupid decision by the developers that they haven't taken, that doesn't mean I think they ARE stupid, just the opposite.

BobC

[tshering]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Just one thing to watch out for: If you change the language from the Settings-->Language menu and later change back to English, then CurrentLocale gets reset back to en_US.

To make the change permanent (until the next FW update) you can modify the file usr/local/Kobo/libnickel.so.1.0.0. Find the string "English en_US" and replace "en_US" by "en_GB". Note: The space printed here between "English" and "en_US" is the character with the value 0.

Warning: This is a binary file, so don't edit it with a simple text editor.

[murg]

Originally Posted by BobC

To be fair I didn't read murg's post as calling them stupid -

Maybe you should read my post, I didn't call them stupid.

[murg]

Originally Posted by latepaul

All I'm saying is that calling the developers stupid for a possible side-effect of a change that they reasonably don't expect anyone to make manually is not fair. Even if there was a "change timezone setting" menu item and it caused problems with the sync then that would be a bug but even then I personally wouldn't call the developers stupid.

I didn't call the developers stupid.

Basically what I said was that if they didn't use a locale independent format for sending dates back to their servers, on an international device, then yes, they would then be stupid.

As it is, it looks like this setting in the .conf file is changed by Kobo's user interface, when you select a language. So the device and sync process should be able to deal with the locale changing.

I will grant that the device may have a problem with locales that are not automatically set by the user interface, so I wouldn't have a problem if en_AU or en_NZ or en_GB didn't work in all particulars. Except that if you are going to have locales at all, then at least make sure the major ones work.

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Not they didn't. It is on the partition that is visible when connected to a PC. The base directory stars with a dot, so that is not as visible to a unix based machine. But it is a directory that Kobo people have told us to look in. And I have even been told by Kobo to make changes to the conf file in the past.

Exactly right. They put it where it was easy to access. I thought I read somewhere that Kobo's was supposed to be an open platform anyway.

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by latepaul

I don't think it's visible on a Windows PC either unless you have "show system folders" enabled but I couldn't swear to that as I mostly use my Kobo with Linux.

Doesn't matter, as "dot" files are hidden in linux as well unless you tell it to show them. It doesn't change their purpose - which is to allow user configuration of the program that uses them. They are only hidden to avoid the clutter when you list files.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by jusmee

Doesn't matter, as "dot" files are hidden in linux as well unless you tell it to show them. It doesn't change their purpose - which is to allow user configuration of the program that uses them. They are only hidden to avoid the clutter when you list files.

and to stop silly people from deleting them, thinking "i don't have a book called .kobo"

[DomesticExtremis]

Well, the good news is that the locale setting appears
to have been preserved across the upgrade to 2.4.0
On the downside, my koboified epubs (.kepub.epub)
now show up in the library with a 'Buy Now' button
next to them. Pressing it leads to a server error (tee hee),
but the books can be opened and read anyways.

So it goes...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DomesticExtremis

On the downside, my koboified epubs (.kepub.epub)
now show up in the library with a 'Buy Now' button
next to them. Pressing it leads to a server error (tee hee),
but the books can be opened and read anyways.

Have you tired putting a new kepub.epub on with the new firmware? This worked for my test, but I don't think I had one on the device when I upgraded.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by murg

Maybe you should read my post, I didn't call them stupid.

I thought that was what I said - I agree with you.

BobC

[DomesticExtremis]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Have you tired putting a new kepub.epub on with the new firmware? This worked for my test, but I don't think I had one on the device when I upgraded.

Not yet - will let you know.

[DomesticExtremis]

Yes, reloading it fixes the issue, though it's a bit of a faff since the 'BuyNow' button
means they cannot be deleted on the reader. I have to connect to a pc, delete, then
resideload and rename on the device.
It's a bit of a pain as I have half a dozen or so - it would be nice if there was some
other way than using the .kepub.epub extension to persuade the reader to treat
the book as epub3.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DomesticExtremis

Yes, reloading it fixes the issue, though it's a bit of a faff since the 'BuyNow' button
means they cannot be deleted on the reader. I have to connect to a pc, delete, then
resideload and rename on the device.
It's a bit of a pain as I have half a dozen or so - it would be nice if there was some
other way than using the .kepub.epub extension to persuade the reader to treat
the book as epub3.

You might want to have a read of https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=193294 and use the plugin discussed in it. This will allow you to do it all from calibre.