Firmware 3.17.3 Discussion

[IanD]

Originally Posted by outlandos

It says Kobo.

Well that is strange - I would automatically assume that Kobo would keep their direct-sale customers up to date.

[filmo]

Newest version for one Kobo product is often different for a different Kobo product. Different countries also often get different updates. Bugs sometimes only affect one country or one Kobo model / version. I'm never first to update nor last to update my Kobo readers. Can't wait months for auto update so use update link after a few weeks for one of my Kobo readers then update another a week later.

[melovesflying]

Just updated my Aura and it seems like putting it on sleep mode using the slider/switch while hooked to the computer (but not connected to it to manage files, i.e. rejected the connect to the computer request) isn't working for me. Power off does, though.

[namenick]

Originally Posted by IanD

Well that is strange - I would automatically assume that Kobo would keep their direct-sale customers up to date.

Well, no. I have Kobo as affiliate and my glo hd received the 3.17.3 update only yesterday... from 3.15 firmware. Here in Italy neither 3.16 nor 3.17 ever arrived for kobo's affiliates. I had to update manually or change affiliate.conf to BestBuyCa to obtain those updates.
(then I returned to 3.15 because of the sleep bug when wall-charging)

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by namenick

Here in Italy neither 3.16 nor 3.17 ever arrived for kobo's affiliates.

The reboot issues bit some people; although they did not affect some people at all, it may be a good thing (tm) that they don't roll out new firmwares world-wide but start with a smaller group.

Basically everyone who downloads them directly from here is a beta-tester of a sort

[bearymore]

Originally Posted by Angemon

Maybe it's just me, but 3.17.0 and 3.17.3 made light control via left bezel much slower.

I found that true for 3.17.0. For me (Aura HD), it seems to have been fixed on 3.17.3.

[anacreon]

I've just gone back to 3.15.0 for the glo HD. I've been using the H2O again, for poetry, and it was still at 3.15.0.

Such a pleasure to access the dictionaries directly again, without having to define the language again and again in the same book, and to be able to search them - which is absolutely necessary since the non-English dictionaries are so terrible that they don't recognise usual flexed versions of names or verbs.

And the bug with black pictures seems solved (I'll see how it goes for more than one sample book).

I regret that I won't be able to upgrade anymore since apparently kobo decided to forbid in the future what they allowed up to 3.15.0, and again, deeply deplore that kobo should treat so poorly its client base outside the former British empire. I wonder which percentage they represent since kobo gave up on the US market.

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I regret that I won't be able to upgrade anymore since apparently kobo decided to forbid in the future what they allowed up to 3.15.0, and again, deeply deplore that kobo should treat so poorly its client base outside the former British empire. I wonder which percentage they represent since kobo gave up on the US market.

Staggering releases isn't down to some national prejudice, but often a way of watching out for issues being a big problem. 3.17.0 was pulled, so 3.15 is one version old. 3.17.3 is probably being released area by area to watch out for any new bugs that may not have shown up through testing.

No matter how many beta testers you have, once you release globally you're looking at millions of users. Each may have slightly different configs of books etc and thats where a previously unknown bug may cause chaos.

[RangoX]

Well, my Kobo Touch updated to 3.16 about a week ago and yesterday to 3.17.3 and I gotta say I'm pretty happy with these versions, everything is working smoother and faster and highlighting is easier now. I still have to test it more because I've only done it in my current book (a sideloaded epub), but so far I recommend it for Kobo Touch users.

[Jarrett]

What are the changes? I thought it would be in the first post.

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by Jarrett

What are the changes? I thought it would be in the first post.

Even with my dyslection it was easy to find
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...9&postcount=17

[tschucha]

This has to be the worst update in a long while.

You cannot put the device to sleep if it is plugged into a charger. In order to turn off the wifi you have to wait an indeterminable amount of time for the sync to actually complete after going through two extra menus.

Really crappy job on this one Kobo. Absolutely nothing is better and several things are worse. And to add insult to injury you can't even go back to 3.15 by doing a factory reset - it insists upon updating not once but twice! Leaving you back with 3.17.3

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by tschucha

This has to be the worst update in a long while.

You cannot put the device to sleep if it is plugged into a charger. In order to turn off the wifi you have to wait an indeterminable amount of time for the sync to actually complete after going through two extra menus.

Really crappy job on this one Kobo. Absolutely nothing is better and several things are worse. And to add insult to injury you can't even go back to 3.15 by doing a factory reset - it insists upon updating not once but twice! Leaving you back with 3.17.3

You can go back to 3.15 by download that firmware by : https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660
It that topic you can find the right software, the way how to do it, and a link to the patch for that software.
In that patch is the possibility to shut of the upgrade so you stay on 3.15.
No need to reset the factory settings, the downgrade keeps the current ones including the books.

[isaacbh]

Will the device automatically update itself on the next sync? I too don't see any reason for upgrading beyond 3.15, at least not right now. But soon I'll have to sync - I'm running out of Pocket articles. Is there a way to prevent a firmware upgrade on sync?

Edit: sorry, I just read Nick's reply. I'll try the patch to prevent upgrades.

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by isaacbh

Will the device automatically update itself on the next sync? I too don't see any reason for upgrading beyond 3.15, at least not right now. But soon I'll have to sync - I'm running out of Pocket articles. Is there a way to prevent a firmware upgrade on sync?

Edit: sorry, I just read Nick's reply. I'll try the patch to prevent upgrades.

The patch prevent it.
If you download the patch file from the 3.15 firmware and unzip it, look in the included patch file libnickel.so.1.0.0.patch for this lines, change no to yes.

<Patch>
patch_name = `Block WiFi firmware upgrade`
patch_enable = `yes`
# Multi-version patch: 3.3.0 - 3.16.0+
Etc. etc..

Read the warning, but after that you can sync, it will not update (also handy for the future) it can be undone by changing it again to no and rerun the patch and apply it, or by manually upgrade it with a new unpatched file if there is enough space on the device.

I do find a choice in the software that enables you to choose if you want to upgrade yes or no,a very important option, now you have no choice.

Patch file for 3.15 can be found here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=259758