Kobo Firmware 3.5.0

[Lucas Malor]

Alleluja, I can see the bookmarks alone, and the Lord's army.

[GeoffR]

I've been reading a sideloaded epub with very long chapters on my Glo with 3.5.0, and found that turning the page with a tap is extremely slow: after I tap it waits about 3 seconds before the page turns. Luckily swiping is still fast, although not quite as fast as earlier 3.x.x versions.

Also I have had a couple of unexpected page breaks once I got well into the chapter, though they were not associated with long paragraphs. This is actually the same behaviour I had in earlier firmware version with the `fix page breaks bug` patch applied.

[arspr]

Well, I've been playing for a while with the new RMSDK renderer and the issues I knew about it and the results are somehow mixed:

Strange image rendering of certain png images -- Fixed

This issue (which also happened in my old PRS-650) seems fixed.


Lack of "font-variant: small-caps" support -- Not fixed

(As sadly expected )
In this case ACCESS supports SmallCaps...


"white-space: nowrap" broken -- Not fixed

As I explained in the Kobo bug thread, this trick I always use around Spanish dialogue dashes (usage detailed in this Calibre thread) has stopped working in RMSDK. And it works in either my old Sony PRS-650 or in ACCESS kepub renderer!!!

A pity because it is a stopper error for me.

(OTOH ACCESS has a horrible space added around dashes and other punctuation marks... Kindle maybe the solution for me?)



Widows and orphans -- Buggy

Yes, the long paragraph bug has been vanquished (at last), but the widows and orphans settings are somehow buggy.

Look at the three pictures I upload (three consecutive page-turns). I can assure you that the book has no CSS settings about them, so the default value 2 should be applied.

Within the first and the second picture you can see how a fully filled page looks (the first one), and how 2 seems to be working in the first paragraph of the second picture.

But then look at the incredible big space at the bottom of that second picture, while on the third picture that paragraph has THREE trailing lines!!!

Why didn't RMSDK put the first one of those last three lines at the end of the second page?

(A pity ACCESS doesn't support widows and orphans in any way... Again, is Kindle the solution for me?)


So considering all things together I will continue in ACCESS with sideloaded kepubs through KoboTouch Extended...

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by arspr

But then look at the incredible big space at the bottom of that second picture, while on the third picture that paragraph has THREE trailing lines!!!

Actually your pictures show widows:2;orphans:2 working correctly. You say the first page is full and it has 25 lines of text, the second page has 23 lines of text, so there are two blank lines at the bottom of the second page, not three.

Edit: (we might be talking about different pages, so just to be clear: Your first picture has 25 lines of text, the second has 23 lines + 2 blank lines, and the third 24 lines + 1 blank line.)

[jackastor]

The firmware is still adding a random book mark with no encouragement of mine to do so.

Also noticed in prior firmware and still in this that some books open to Book Cover and then proceed to regular page turns after touching the cover. This occurs as such, Aura HD goes to sleep/or sleep cover is shut and when the unit is awakened any method the book cover is shown and one can access all the regular menu features via touch, but you can not read until you swipe a page turn forward or back to "open the book" now I don't know if this is a bug or a feature found embedded in some ebooks and it is not an unpleasant thing to happen if it is a bug. It does not occur on all books. Currently reading Harry Hole Series.

regards

Jack

[arspr]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Actually your pictures show widows:2;orphans:2 working correctly. You say the first page is full and it has 25 lines of text, the second page has 23 lines of text, so there are two blank lines at the bottom of the second page, not three.

Edit: (we might be talking about different pages, so just to be clear: Your first picture has 25 lines of text, the second has 23 lines + 2 blank lines, and the third 24 lines + 1 blank line.)

Nope, GeoffR, you are wrong.

I re-explain:

IMG_1835.jpg is the first.
IMG_1836.jpg is the second.
IMG_1837.jpg is the third.
(Remember they are consecutive page turns).

At the end/bottom of 1836 (the 2nd one) you have at least space for two blank lines as you correctly say. And at the beginning/top of 1837 you have three trailing lines. The paragraph between 1836 and 1837 has a total number of 5 lines.

So widows=2 is not working in any way. It could be like widows=3 working (but orphans=2 at most because of the ending in 1836). With widows=2, the very first line in 1837 should have been rendered at the bottom of 1836 where there's a lot of room for it.

But OTOH we can also assure that widows=3 is not the used setting because 1836 with its just TWO starting trailing lines should be impossible...

So no matter how you look at it, widows and orphans are buggy.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by arspr

So widows=2 is not working in any way. It could be like widows=3 working (but orphans=2 at most because of the ending in 1836). With widows=2, the very first line in 1837 should have been rendered at the bottom of 1836 where there's a lot of room for it.

But OTOH we can also assure that widows=3 is not the used setting because 1836 with its just TWO starting trailing lines should be impossible...

I don't think that is exactly what widows:2;orphans:2; means.

widows:2; means that at least two lines of the paragraph remain at the top of a page.
orphans:2 means that at least two lines of the paragraph remain at the bottom.

So if a paragraph has five lines, then widows:2;orphans:2; allows it to be split either as 2+3, 3+2. Your pictures show it being split as 2+3, which is correct.

[pgaunt]

Any way to sideload the update onto my Aura given that Kobo Desktop does not work on my Mac? I've downloaded the zip for the Aura update but don't know what to do with it. Do I just copy it to the .kobo folder on the Aura or what?

[JSWolf]

Do widows and orphans go away if they are both set to 0? Thanks.

[robko]

Originally Posted by pgaunt

I've downloaded the zip for the Aura update but don't know what to do with it. Do I just copy it to the .kobo folder on the Aura or what?

Yes. Dump the file in the .kobo folder and properly disconnect and it should start to update.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by robko

Yes. Dump the file in the .kobo folder and properly disconnect and it should start to update.

That should be "dump the contents of the file". Don't forget, the downloaded zip file needs to be unpacked first.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Do widows and orphans go away if they are both set to 0? Thanks.

Yes, even though 0 is an invalid value for the widows and orphans.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That should be "dump the contents of the file". Don't forget, the downloaded zip file needs to be unpacked first.

This is something that causes some confusion, probably in part do to how the phrases used get translated. The .zip files downloaded are often opened in compression programs like WinRAR and the resulting window shows the files and folders. In Windows you can drag the files and folders, in that window, to the .kobo directory on your device, when it is connected. They then do not need a separate unpacking step.

Luck;
Ken

[Rev. Bob]

Annotations bug with respect to sideloaded EPUBs:

Instead of being correctly labeled as "chapter name - x% into chapter", the annotations are labeled as "first chapter name - y% into chapter" where first chapter name is the name of the first item in the NCX and y% is the percentage of the book, not of the current chapter.

In other words, the whole book is being treated as a single chapter.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Annotations bug with respect to sideloaded EPUBs:

Instead of being correctly labeled as "chapter name - x% into chapter", the annotations are labeled as "first chapter name - y% into chapter" where first chapter name is the name of the first item in the NCX and y% is the percentage of the book, not of the current chapter.

In other words, the whole book is being treated as a single chapter.

No, that isn't quite what is happening. When you make an annotation/bookmark/highlight, it is put under the last chapter that you navigated to. So, if you select a chapter from the ToC, or use the next arrow in the navigation bar, annotations will be put into that chapter. And reopening the book will automatically select the chapter. This bug has been around for so long that I automatically bring the navigation bar up and press the next arrow when I reach the end of the chapter. And I do it without thinking when I read a kepub.

Kobo definitely know about it. This, plus the chapters position being lost when you close and reopen an epub that is in the main memory, where the two things I really hoped would get fixed when they rewrote the annotations list.