Touch Kobo Touch Firmware 2.0

[PeterT]

Slow page turn did seem to make it back into 2.0.

[VE7AQ]

I did try this procedure yesterday with Calibre V0862.
No joy. I also reviewed the release notes for Calibre V0863 for an applicable fix. I did not see anything there.

I would like to fall back until Calibre catches up.

Can someone PM me and point me to the location of older Kobo Touch firmware?

...Gary

Originally Posted by PeterT

@VE7AQ; Please... there are not issues with Calibre and v2.0.

The displayed message mentions unsupported database version. This is nothing more than a "COVER MY A..." message from Calibre.

With the device attached and recognized by calibre, click on the arrow next to "Device" in the calibre menu bar at the top, and and select "Configure this device".

Select the option "Attempt to support newer firmware".

Bingo

DONE

Calibre is perfectly happy with Touch 2.x

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by VE7AQ

I did try this procedure yesterday with Calibre V0862.
No joy. I also reviewed the release notes for Calibre V0863 for an applicable fix. I did not see anything there.

The change to calibre was in either 0.8.60. There was a bug fix in 0.8.63 to fix a typo related to this change.

To reiterate what PeterT said: There is no problem with with current calibre versions and the Kobo Touch firmware 2.0.0 or 2.0.2. The changes in the firmware do not affect the interaction between calibre and the Kobo Touch. I have been using the two together since the firmware was released with no issues.

I would like to fall back until Calibre catches up.

Can someone PM me and point me to the location of older Kobo Touch firmware?

There is a list in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660. But, this won't help you. The firmware version that calibre is looking for is a lot older than 0.9.17, which is what I guess you had before. calibre 0.8.60 or later will still complain about this. You will still need to change the configuration of the driver in calibre to get it to talk to the Kobo Touch completely.

So, unless you want to go back to a previous firmware for some other reason, don't bother.

[GvilleBridge]

Originally Posted by davidfor

To reiterate what PeterT said: There is no problem with with current calibre versions and the Kobo Touch firmware 2.0.0 or 2.0.2. The changes in the firmware do not affect the interaction between calibre and the Kobo Touch. I have been using the two together since the firmware was released with no issues.

Well, I can reiterate too: there is a problem with current Calibre versions and the KT firmware 2.0.0. Ever since I installed 2.0.0 (and reinstalled, and reset, and reinstalled, ad nauseam), and connected/sync'ed with the Kobo deskware (just now, still 3.0.0), and updated Calibre (just now, to 0.8.63), and reinstalled the Kobo Reader Device Interface plugin (just now, still 1.0.13), Calibre has refused to recognize my KT.

Here, let me save this msg and reboot my entire machine. Ding! Done. Kobo deskware and, OMG, even Windows Explorer will recognize my KT, but not Calibre. It's been shunning my KT from the very moment it saw Kobo firmware 2.0 and generated the warning I got 7/13 (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=184751). The rest was silence.

Can't be Calibre? How about firmware 2.0?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by GvilleBridge

Well, I can reiterate too: there is a problem with current Calibre versions and the KT firmware 2.0.0. Ever since I installed 2.0.0 (and reinstalled, and reset, and reinstalled, ad nauseam), and connected/sync'ed with the Kobo deskware (just now, still 3.0.0), and updated Calibre (just now, to 0.8.63), and reinstalled the Kobo Reader Device Interface plugin (just now, still 1.0.13), Calibre has refused to recognize my KT.

Here, let me save this msg and reboot my entire machine. Ding! Done. Kobo deskware and, OMG, even Windows Explorer will recognize my KT, but not Calibre. It's been shunning my KT from the very moment it saw Kobo firmware 2.0 and generated the warning I got 7/13 (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=184751). The rest was silence.

Can't be Calibre? How about firmware 2.0?

Sorry, but that is exactly what we are talking about. Let me explain what has happened:

At about the time that Kobo released firmware 2.0.0, Kovid made a change in the Kobo driver in calibre. This checked what version of the firmware was on the Kobo device. The check was actually to check what database version was on the Kobo. Based on the code in the Kobo device driver in claibre, he set a warning if version on the device was higher than 33. This change went into calibre 0.8.60. If you want to find it, it is listed as bug fix.

As well as the check, there is also an override to allow the user to ignore the warning and use the full function of calibre with their Kobo device.

NO OTHER CHANGES where made in calibre for the Kobo ereaders. In fact, no other change has been made since February. And no real function changes since late last year.

What this change meant is that when calibre detected a Kobo device was connected, it check the database version on the device, and warned the user if it was higher than 33. Or in another way, if the database on the Kobo device had a version higher than 33, calibre would warn the user.

Looking at the different versions of the Kobo database that I stored, I found:

- firmware 2.0.0 has database version 53
- firmware 1.9.17 has database version 50
- firmware 1.9.12 has database version 29

I have one other Kobo database. It has database version of 36. It came from either firmware 1.9.14 or 1.9.16.

So, that means that the Kobo database version went past 33, the maximum version that calibre will not warn you about, sometime between firmware 1.9.11 and 1.9.16. So, that means that if you use a calibre version from 0.8.60 with a Kobo device with firmware 1.9.16 or later (and probably 1.9.14), you will get this warning message.

The last thing: I have had a good look at the code in the calibre Kobo driver. It does not touch the Kobo database in any way that is affected by change in the later database versions. The changes in the Kobo database are some extra tables, and extra columns on one of the tables that the calibre Kobo driver looks at. Again, none of these changes affect the function.

Are you still with me?

All the above is to explain that all recent versions of calibre and the Kobo devices happily coexist. There is a sensible warning that maybe the versions don't match. There is an option to ignore this. Use whatever Kobo firmware you want to, but don't worry about going backwards with calibre - use the latest.

[PeterT]

@GvilleBridge; how about trying to help us help you...


Could you follow the steps in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118560 and post the requested logs please.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Back to Bugs of 2.0.x (2.0.2 in my case): earlier in this thread someone mentioned strange paragraph layouts... I too see a lot of "avoiding" of orphaned lines at the bottom of the page. If a new paragraph starts a few lines above the end of the page, the whole paragraph gets moved to the next page. No thanks! I prefer a full page, it's less messy and it doesn't confuse me thinking the chapter is already over...

The default value for the widows and orphans is 2 so if a paragraph would leave 1 or 2 lines at the bottom of a page (orphans) or 1 or two lines at the top of the next page (widows), the entire paragraph will be moved to the next page. I've set this to 1/1 in my default stylesheet used when I edit epubs which reduces the number of times this happens. I've never tried using 0 for both which should in theory disable widow and orphan checking. The sample settings I use for chapters ( <body class="chapter"> ) is included below. Disregard the .webkit lines at they used when reading epubs on an Apple idevice. Also this only works for epub files, Kobo's kepub is a rather different kettle of fish.


.chapter {
display: block;
font-size: 1em;
margin-bottom: 5pt;
margin-left: 5pt;
margin-right: 5pt;
margin-top: 5pt;
padding-left: 0;
padding-right: 0;
text-align: left;
word-wrap: normal;
widows: 1;
orphans: 1;
-webkit-nbsp-mode: space;
-webkit-line-break: after-white-space;
-webkit-hyphens: none;
}

[mXb]

Decided to bite the bullet.

Started by firing up Kobo Desktop..........downloaded the update.......that's different, it ASKS me if I want to install the download and there's even a "Cancel" button just like on Big Boys software !

I click on "Instal" and......................it failed !!!!

Got an error message from the Installer, seems to think some of the download might me missing, even though the download stated it had finished downloading ?

After a few local swear words I try downloading it again.............and left it to it, and went to do something else.

Came back 5 mins later, it should have finished downloading by now ?

Clicked on install and this time it went through !

I like the new layout, with my Library of books seperate from the ones Kobo are trying to sell me.

Now for the bigee, do I have the nerve to synch my Touch to it and download v2 ???!!

No it's too much stress for one day, I leave it until tomorrow...

[John F]

Originally Posted by mXb

Decided to bite the bullet.

Started by firing up Kobo Desktop..........downloaded the update.......that's different, it ASKS me if I want to install the download and there's even a "Cancel" button just like on Big Boys software !

...

I did did the download, hit cancel, and the app exited. The next time I ran, it asked the same question. So I think to use the desktop app, you have to update?

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The default value for the widows and orphans is 2 so if a paragraph would leave 1 or 2 lines at the bottom of a page (orphans) or 1 or two lines at the top of the next page (widows), the entire paragraph will be moved to the next page. I've set this to 1/1 in my default stylesheet used when I edit epubs which reduces the number of times this happens. I've never tried using 0 for both which should in theory disable widow and orphan checking. The sample settings I use for chapters ( <body class="chapter"> ) is included below. Disregard the .webkit lines at they used when reading epubs on an Apple idevice. Also this only works for epub files, Kobo's kepub is a rather different kettle of fish.


.chapter {
display: block;
font-size: 1em;
margin-bottom: 5pt;
margin-left: 5pt;
margin-right: 5pt;
margin-top: 5pt;
padding-left: 0;
padding-right: 0;
text-align: left;
word-wrap: normal;
widows: 1;
orphans: 1;
-webkit-nbsp-mode: space;
-webkit-line-break: after-white-space;
-webkit-hyphens: none;
}

Hah, thank you DNSB. I didn't know orphans and widows were something I could set myself Strange though that KT firmware 2.0.x suddenly treats them differently than before.

[scoobertron]

Is there any way of getting to the default stylesheet in the kobo touch, so you could have a master css file that overrides the individual ones in the epub? While I could use calibre to change the widow/orphan settings for each book individually, it seems like overkill. It would also be nice to have a solution that worked for kepubs as well. I have tried scripting something like this by hand, but it is a real pain as epubs from different places seem to have very different formats.

(as an aside, I believe that offering very fine control over the reading settings like this would be a major selling point for an ereader).

[Peakcrew]

I hope I'm not in the wrong thread here - please let me know if I am. I am about to get a KT (it is somewhere in the postal system at the moment) as a replacement for my broken Jetbook. I will have only a few days to get it working before I go away to my in-laws', so I need a lot of reading material . Whilst I am quite happy to play with my KT (indeed, looking forward to it), I really need it to function as a good ereader for the time I am away, because English-language books are expensive where I am going, if you can get them at all. I am hoping not to have to take my laptop with me to save a bit of weight, so I need the KT to be a stable reader for a week.

With that in mind, I have a few questions after reading this thread over the last couple of days

1. Which firmware is best for simply reading books at this point? I have a library of books already in Calibre, all epubs, most of which have been edited by me using Sigil. I would prefer to keep the books on the 8GB micro-SD card I have (which recent forum-patrolling suggests might be a problem) in case I need to do a factory backup whilst away. I have downloaded the .zips of 1.9.17 and 2.0.2 to my computer already.

2. Of course, I don't know which firmware will be on the KT when I get it, so are there are any previous ones that I should avoid? (Working on the basis that if it comes with an acceptable version, I might as well stick with that).

3. Am I right in thinking that if I connect the KT to the internet via wifi at all it will immediately upgrade to FW2.0.0 if I am using an earlier version? (If so, this would be a minor nuisance because I wanted to play with the browser, but it can wait).

4. I have got the impression that I will not be able to sideload books if I have not registered the KT. Is this correct?

5. Finally, if I did (successfully) use FW2.0.2, is the slow page-turn in sideloaded books restricted to epubs, i.e. if I convert the books I want to take into, say, .mobis, will the problem be reduced?

Sorry for so many questions as a newcomer, but the success of my visit to the other side of the family depends on this working!

[murg]

1) I can't get 2.0.2 to work on my Touch, so I'm using 2.0.0c, which is the current non-Japan firmware.

4) https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=1828566

[Peakcrew]

Thank you, Murg. Is 2.0.0c stable and reliable now?

I found the posting you referred to after I asked my questions. I have downloaded and installed Sqlite3 (I think!), though I could do with a database to practice on, but have no idea where to find one or quite what to search for. Not to worry - I'll work it out. I'm an inveterate fiddler, and I'll get there eventually.

[Peakcrew]

Further to my earlier post, I further downloaded a program called SQLite Expert (http://www.sqliteexpert.com/download.html), as I'd rather have a GUI when I'm playing with stuff I don't fully understand. I then searched on "download koboreader.sqlite" and helpfully found this MR posting from Sameer: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=12. From there I downloaded the KoboReader database, and used SQLite Expert to look for what I need to change. Assuming that the database design hasn't changed all that much since the end of 2010, it all looks very simple - but then things do just before they go horribly wrong!