Sony PRS-T1 in Calibre

[Kolenka]

The "metadata/no info" thing can be a red herring. It is possible it is just a symptom of the same problem, and may be nothing more than a distraction. Not when I have an actual problem right here. Please help me focus on the right things (that I am asking about) so I can actually help, please.

[enriquep]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

If you don't know the answer, this can clear it up:

- Add a couple books to the SD card, and let the T1 load them.
- Open a book, make sure it works.
- Connect the T1 to the PC, and add a couple more books via Calibre.
- Unplug and see if the new books work or don't.

Kolenka, sorry for driving you off focus, perhaps I am too talkative. And you are being very helpful and very generous. Also, I have good news: your last suggestion worked.

Here's what I did:

• I reformatted the card (using the T1's built-in function)
• Manually added a <books> folder under <Sony_Reader><media> (perhaps this was unnecessary, after all).
• Dropped an ePub file there.
• Unplugged the T1 and waited for a few seconds for the device to recognise the new book. It did, with no problems, and everything worked OK.
• Plugged the T1 again, this time with Calibre on. Calibre identified the device (and the existing book in the card). Using Calibre I added two more books to the card.
• Unplugged again to check: now the three books are in the card, and all three of them work as expected.

Great! - Thanks, Kolenka.

Was I doing something wrong? What comes next?

[Kolenka]

So it confirms there is something is wrong with how the books.db file is getting created by the T1. I'd call it a Sony bug, but they might disagree.

The work around without a fix is to add a book onto the SD card manually before using Calibre to get the T1 to "fix" the books.db itself. Calibre will continue to work fine as long as you don't delete books.db off the card from that point on.

The long-term work around for the bug is have Calibre set the starting id # in books.db if it is an invalid value. Calibre shouldn't have to do this, but developers don't always build their devices in a sane way.

I just have one last question: What firmware do you have on your T1?

[enriquep]

Thanks, Kolenka. You've been really patient with me and I personally appreciate your time and your efforts (... and your knowledge, of course).

I feel much better now, not only because "my T1 works" (... somehow) but also because my intellectual curiosity has been satisfied: I hate not knowing why things that should not happen do happen.

Originally Posted by Kolenka

I just have one last question: What firmware do you have on your T1?

Version 1.0.00.09010

It seems to be quite standard, because I remember taking part in a thread about firmware versions.

Thank you again and greetings from sunny Spain,
-Enrique

[kovidgoyal]

The number of device bugs I've had to code around in my years of calibre development is not funny. I dont know why companies are not motivated enough to fix the bugs in their products. I guess not enough of their customers complain about small bugs like these.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The number of device bugs I've had to code around in my years of calibre development is not funny.

We are all thankful to have you on the coding front line.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I don't know why companies are not motivated enough to fix the bugs in their products. I guess not enough of their customers complain about small bugs like these.

It is perplexing. In this case the company may shrug, since "in theory" their device works fine with their software.

[enriquep]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I guess not enough of their customers complain about small bugs like these.

I complained over a week ago in Sony's eSupport forum, and am still waiting for an answer. At that point I didn't have all the details (but had identified the main symptoms) and believed that the bug was 100% Sony related (as it is), 0% Calibre related (I didn't even consider or mention it) and related it with some missing metadata blah, blah... In any case: no answer.

I admit that at moments I have felt uneasy thinking that I was "the only one" with corrupted SD card data, that perhaps I was wrong after all.

In Sony's discharge I also admit that I provided a wrong reproducibility clue (that mising metadata "suspicion"), but at first I didn't provide any solid clues here, and Kolenka (and Kovid, and others) showed an interest that Sony eSupport lacked, guiding me through the right steps: That is a shocking difference!

So congratulations to everyone. You are all great.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by enriquep

I complained over a week ago in Sony's eSupport forum, and am still waiting for an answer.

In Sony's discharge I also admit that I provided a wrong reproducibility clue

Not only was it not reproducible, but if you weren't using third party software (calibre) it never would have come up.

I can see how they may have done a better job coding the creation and error handling of the books.db file. I guess some odd glitch could have corrupted the file in a similar manner and when it found number out of range it should have scanned the card and built a fresh books.db file. If they had done this your problem would have been different, either way I'm sure Kolenka will sort out the needed numbering required for the SD card.

[Tuttle]

Originally Posted by Tuttle

I'm new to both Calibre and my T1, so I'm still tinkering with things and learning my way around, but I get an error from Calibre every time I connect my device if I have the "Refresh separate covers when using automatic management" option enabled in the device plugin settings. I also have "Upload separate cover thumbnails for books" enabled and I'm using automatic metadata management. Not sure if it's a real bug or just something that hasn't been implemented for the T1 yet.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That is a bug, I've committed a fix, but I have no way to tet the fix, so it may or may not work.

Unfortunately, the fix for "Refresh separate covers when using automatic management" on the T1 doesn't seem to work -- I get the same behaviour in 0.8.25.

calibre, version 0.8.25
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

'ImageWrapper' object does not support indexing

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 81, in run
  File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 354, in _sync_booklists
  File "site-packages\calibre\devices\prst1\driver.py", line 239, in sync_booklists
  File "site-packages\calibre\devices\prst1\driver.py", line 267, in update_device_database
  File "site-packages\calibre\devices\prst1\driver.py", line 348, in update_device_books
  File "site-packages\calibre\devices\prst1\driver.py", line 506, in upload_book_cover
TypeError: 'ImageWrapper' object does not support indexing

[kovidgoyal]

@Tuttle: That's the best I can do without a device, you will have to wait until Kolenka looks at it.

[Tuttle]

So I had a quick look through the code just to see if I could figure it out, and I think I've narrowed it down more -- the error only occurs if there's a book on the device which isn't in the Calibre library.

I started looking through the lines mentioned in the traceback, and line 239 was weird, because it's the call to update_device_database for the main memory. The only book left on the main memory in my reader is the user manual; all my other books are on the MicroSD card. And sure enough, when I deleted that book and uploaded a copy of the manual through Calibre instead, the error went away (and the covers for my other books got updated as I was hoping).

If I copy the original manual back into place without using Calibre, it brings up the error again on the next connection. And if I copy the original manual back onto the MicroSD card instead of main memory, the error comes back and refers to line 241, which is the update_device_database call for the MicroSD card. So I think it's actually choking on that non-Calibre book when it sees it. The same behaviour occurs with other EPUB files that aren't in Calibre, so it's not just the manual file.

Hopefully that helps to narrow it down. In any case, I have a perfectly good workaround for my usage -- I'll just leave the Calibre'd version of the user manual on the T1 instead of the original.

[kovidgoyal]

OK, fix committed.

[salines]

Same problem here with "Image Wrapper". Just downloaded 0.8.26

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by salines

Same problem here with "Image Wrapper". Just downloaded 0.8.26

Your sentence is unclear. Do you have the same "Image Wrapper" problem with 0.8.26?

[Tuttle]

Originally Posted by salines

Same problem here with "Image Wrapper". Just downloaded 0.8.26

Kovid's last post was a couple of hours after 0.8.26 was built, so I think we'll have to wait a week to see if it worked.