Firmware updates, dictionaries, fonts and third-party software for M92

[Stefanauss]

Originally Posted by Stefanauss

I have a problem on 1.7 beta, build 26032012
Basically, annotations in epub doesn't work.

I select Add Annotation, Select the text with the pen, the keyboard pops up, i write "test" or something else, click on "Ok", and the screen turns back to normal, without text being highlighted anymore.
Then, i click on "All annotation" to display the annotation i just made but it's all empty.
I tried that on 3 different epubs.

Am I doing something wrong? Does epub annotation works for you?
Because the same exact steps works in PDFs for me.

Follow up: downgrading to 1.6 "improved", annotations works as expected in EPUBs.

[Stefanauss]

Originally Posted by Stefanauss

Hi guys,

just starting playing with the M92.
After a couple of days exploring, I flashed 1.7 20120326 and formatted external SD Card with the PC and internal memory through the M92 interface.

Somehow, now the M92 tells me that the internal memory amounts to 2.1 GB instead of 4 GB! (in the About screen).
This can be easily seen on my PC. MYBOOKS is the SDCard and boox is the internal flash.

stefanauss@barney:~$ mount
[...]
/dev/sdd on /media/MYBOOKS type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdc on /media/boox type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks)

stefanauss@barney:~$ df -h
File system            Dim. Usati Disp. Uso% Montato su
[...]
/dev/sdd               15G  689M   15G   5% /media/MYBOOKS
/dev/sdc              2,0G   68M  2,0G   4% /media/boox

The other strange things is that in the about panel the amount of used space is completely wrong. It reports 1976/2043 MB used, but instead I have just about 68MB of books there.

Anyone experiencing the same. What can I try?

With my out-of-the-box firmware (201112<something>), that seemed to be very old, the internal flash was correctly recognized as 4GB in the about panel.

Followup: downgrading to 1.6 "improved" resulted in no change in Internal Storage size.
However, re-formatting the flash memory when running 1.6 fw restored the avaible size from 2043 to 3297 MB, which is what I had when i received my Onyx Boox M92.
So, it's very much likely there is a bug when formatting internal storage when running 1.7 20120326. Anyone already on that fw willing to try if that's the case?

[Mono]

Not me, in any version of firmware.

As, I already have explained, (IMO) reformating the device should be one of the last resorts if something really does not work (corrupted files, frequent crasches, hangups and generally unexpected behaviour). Not a routine operation just for fun.

I would recomend to 'hide' the option to reformat M92 somewhere deeper in the menu structure of M92. The current possition makes a general user feel, that reformatting is sort of normal and needed operation, which is not right. The best might be to allow the user to do reformating only when installing the new firmware.

[CJY]

Originally Posted by E-readers Fan

In the next update please add:


1. A feature that allows us to delete websites , including the websites that are included in the firmware such as German wiki and German google, because they are of no use to non-German speakers, and just take up space.


2. A features in the web browser that allows us to copy text from websites, and paste on the web (i.e. in an email or a forum .. etc.) or in the Note.


Thank you

+1

... although you can delete sites from your start pages, just not the pre-installed German ones you refer to.
My guess is that they are there to provide a minimum access to the browser as it could not be started otherwise (ok, adding a page manually would work, but...).
One way around this, I would suggest, would be to add one non-deletable 'about:blank' page to the default start-pages.

Cheers!
CJ

[Stefanauss]

Originally Posted by Mono

Not me, in any version of firmware.

As, I already have explained, (IMO) reformating the device should be one of the last resorts if something really does not work (corrupted files, frequent crasches, hangups and generally unexpected behaviour). Not a routine operation just for fun.

I would recomend to 'hide' the option to reformat M92 somewhere deeper in the menu structure of M92. The current possition makes a general user feel, that reformatting is sort of normal and needed operation, which is not right. The best might be to allow the user to do reformating only when installing the new firmware.

You are confusing "factory-resetting" with reformatting. There is NO option whatsoever to factory-reset the M92, the system partitions are left untouched by the user and are only modified when upgrading/downgrading the firmware. And that is when reformatting gets dangerous, but as I said, you cannot operate on system partition(s) through the interface of the M92.

The reformatting option exposed in the M92 interface is only for the STORAGE partition of the internal memory which doesn't contain any file that's vital to the device. In fact, it only contains your files. So it is a normal operation to simply reset the filesystem on it (aka reformatting) and it is a needed operation if you want to easily erase all the files at once.

If I'm right (then again, this can't be confirmed by just me) the 1.7 20120326 is not only reformatting but also repartitioning the internal storage, which is far more dangerous than simply reformatting and also takes you away 33% of internal storage for apparently no reason. It should be corrected ASAP.

That said, absolutely no blame for playing it safe

[Mono]

I didnt't try to reformat, so I do not know what exactly it does. But your assumption that there is different partition for user data and for firmware is wrong (AFAIK). The user data are in one tree-branch (/media/flash, which is the "internal storage") of M92 "firmware" folder structure. Maybe there is also another partition for bootloader or whatever, but most of things ('firmware' + user data) are in one partition.

Maybe that what Onyx calls 'formating' just erases the tree-branch exposed to the user and creates default folder structure (visible to user) maybe it does something more...

As you experienced in 1.7 RC 20120326 it did something more and you didn't like it.

EDIT:
As I do not understand Linux, there might be also possibility that physical partition where are user data is somehow "mounted" to OS ("firmware") file structure. And so it seems like being in one common partition. Linux geeks would have to say the final testament.

[Stefanauss]

Originally Posted by Mono

EDIT:
As I do not understand Linux, there might be also possibility that physical partition where are user data is somehow "mounted" to OS ("firmware") file structure. And so it seems like being in one common partition. Linux geeks would have to say the final testament.

That is the case. (I'm a 7 years Linux user)
The folder structure is meaningless in terms of partitioning. All the 0 bytes folders you see in the zip are populated at runtime. And every folder can be mounted to basically any physical partition(s) available in the system (actually, it's the viceversa). Each of the folders can be a physical partition or all the folders could belong to just one partition. It depends on the system, really.

The fact that you never see the entire root filesystem ("folder structure" as you call it) containing firmware files once you connect the Onyx to the PC tells (not an assumption at all) that they are on physical partition other than "internal storage" (aka user data). And that one is never touched by anything other than fw upgrade.

What Onyx call "Format Memory" corresponds to resetting the filesystem on the user data partition, as every device in the world that provides an "Erase Memory" function does.
When 1.7 carries over the partitions set-up by an 1.6 fw, everything's fine.
When 1.7 makes the partitioning itself, it just seems to provide the plain wrong size to the command parameter...
Given that the sizes of the partitions are respectively 3.2 (created on 1.6, correct) and 2.1 GB (on 1.7, wrong), that could be down to a simple typo in the fw update scripts...

[kodomo]

Originally Posted by E-readers Fan

In the next update please add:


1. A feature that allows us to delete websites , including the websites that are included in the firmware such as German wiki and German google, because they are of no use to non-German speakers, and just take up space.


2. A features in the web browser that allows us to copy text from websites, and paste on the web (i.e. in an email or a forum .. etc.) or in the Note.


Thank you

Are you aware of the M92 Wiki Wishlist? *hinthint*

[E-readers Fan]

Originally Posted by kodomo

Are you aware of the M92 Wiki Wishlist? *hinthint* ;)

Just added it to the wishlist !

Thanks for the hint

[Mono]

Originally Posted by Stefanauss

That is the case. (I'm a 7 years Linux user)

The fact that you never see the entire root filesystem ("folder structure" as you call it) containing firmware files once you connect the Onyx to the PC tells (not an assumption at all) that they are on physical partition other than "internal storage" (aka user data).

OK, as non-Linux user, I expected there is used some kind of mechanism like assigning a drive letter to a folder (in Win). Any folder may serve as a 'disk' (and you cannot get to the actual 'partition-root' on that 'disk').

I guess, something like that would be possible also in Linux (or it could be done by USB driver or some other driver...). But dividing memory into two partitions makes things simpler and also maintainance of system and user parts becomes easier. So, you will be right.

[Mono]

@Booxtor

1) When might we expect a final release of 1.7 firmware?

2) I'll meet researchers (from German university) in the field of speache synthesis next week. What is needed to have more languages and better English in M92? In which format? Is it only to add specific files for languages or to install additional software?

[Booxtor]

Originally Posted by Mono

@Booxtor

1) When might we expect a final release of 1.7 firmware?

2) I'll meet researchers (from German university) in the field of speache synthesis next week. What is needed to have more languages and better English in M92? In which format? Is it only to add specific files for languages or to install additional software?

Hi, Mono.

1) about final release. We expect it to be ready in May.
2) The problem is actually not in TTS synthese (we have tested very nice plugins for TTS from SVOX and IVONA). The problem is IMHO in the controll of the function in a book, which is currently not as good as we expect it to be. It is too slow and inconvenient. Unfortunatelly Onyx developers currently simply move this feature in their schedule to the later positions, since it is a rather seldom used feature. Moreover they are thinking to remove audio parts from their new devices to lower the prices (6" devices).. which is not good for development of TTS in onyx devices

[Mono]

OK, I understand it. To say the truth I have never even tried TTS in M92, not speaking about using it...

Polishing the user interface, removing bugs and adding new features for reading is the main goal. Something for organizing hundreds to thousands' of books/articles/documents would be really fine!

[kodomo]

Originally Posted by Booxtor

Hi, Mono.

1) about final release. We expect it to be ready in May.

That is great news!

Any news about the kernel? 1.5 months should be sufficient time to upload some existing files to the git repository, I think.

[E-readers Fan]

Is it possible to add a feature in the next update that would allow us to click on a certain day in the calender application and add an entry ?