Touch Problems with KT firmware and downgrading *pulling my hair out*

[VirgoGirl]

Well, I just did the upgrade and there are NO "update" folders or "manifest.md5sum" file in the .kobo folder. I let it play out until it said I could eject, then let it finish whatever synching it was doing in the lower left hand corner of the Kobo desktop. This is what is in the folder:



I have no idea what to do now.

[VirgoGirl]

Well, I went through with the update - it's updated to 3.0.1. I'll "walk it" and see what happens.


Hold me.

UPDATE:

Well, at least it doesn't take over an hour to power on with an SD card, but it refuses to recognize the SD card when I power it back on - I have to remove it and reinsert it and hit the screen a few times to get it to "wake up" the card. That's not so bad, it'll just be annoying if I have 1,300 ebooks on the card. They seem to be still pushing people away from the sd cards and over to putting books directly on the internal memory.

And the UI is weird.

If ANYONE knows how I can roll back the update with the overlay of the old firmware, based on the files I showed above, please share. Other than that I'll have to look into editing the database in order to roll back.

[VirgoGirl]

I almost forgot - it STILL will not show the proper book cover when I either put it to sleep or power off when the book is on the SD card. My husband - bless- says that's not important. *rolleyes*

[TechniSol]

Not to be impolitic, but if you're expecting a Kobo reader to work as you'd expect on the minor points you are in for a world of hurt based on past performance. You end up trading one broken thing for another firmware to firmware, but for me it's been best to just stay current and put up with the latest set of bugaboos. At least you can sync the reader without tearing your hair out. Usually. For the most part, mostly... Uh, you know what I mean.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by VirgoGirl

Well, I just did the upgrade and there are NO "update" folders or "manifest.md5sum" file in the .kobo folder. I let it play out until it said I could eject, then let it finish whatever synching it was doing in the lower left hand corner of the Kobo desktop. This is what is in the folder:



I have no idea what to do now.

Looking at the image, there is a "KoboRoot.tgz". That is the application side of the firmware. I stated before that the latest firmware versions for the Touch do not have all the files. If you want to go back to 2.4.0, at the point where you took that image, you remove that "KoboRoot.tgz" and put all the files and folders from the 2.4.0 Touch firmware package.

Originally Posted by VirgoGirl

Well, I went through with the update - it's updated to 3.0.1. I'll "walk it" and see what happens.


Hold me.

UPDATE:

Well, at least it doesn't take over an hour to power on with an SD card, but it refuses to recognize the SD card when I power it back on - I have to remove it and reinsert it and hit the screen a few times to get it to "wake up" the card. That's not so bad, it'll just be annoying if I have 1,300 ebooks on the card. They seem to be still pushing people away from the sd cards and over to putting books directly on the internal memory.

Yes, that is a problem in the recent firmware on the Touch. Eject the card and insert it again and all the books will be seen.

And the UI is weird.

Personally, I like it.

If ANYONE knows how I can roll back the update with the overlay of the old firmware, based on the files I showed above, please share. Other than that I'll have to look into editing the database in order to roll back.

Originally Posted by VirgoGirl

I almost forgot - it STILL will not show the proper book cover when I either put it to sleep or power off when the book is on the SD card. My husband - bless- says that's not important. *rolleyes*

I don't remember there being a problem with covers in 3.0.1. What is being displayed?

[jackastor]

VirgoGirl you may have to signout of your kobo account on the reader to rebuild the database, My stepmother had a similar issue with wrong covers and it was due to a corrupt database. Funny thing was Calibre said the data base was fine, it wasn't, after rebuilding it everything was fine. But she did loose her stats. I did not back them up because I am unsure if we would be backing up corrupt info or good info. Not knowing I chose to not backup.

regards

Jack

[VirgoGirl]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

Not to be impolitic, but if you're expecting a Kobo reader to work as you'd expect on the minor points you are in for a world of hurt based on past performance. You end up trading one broken thing for another firmware to firmware, but for me it's been best to just stay current and put up with the latest set of bugaboos. At least you can sync the reader without tearing your hair out. Usually. For the most part, mostly... Uh, you know what I mean.

Yeah, my husband says the same thing. At least you're not yelling it at me, lol!

Originally Posted by davidfor

Looking at the image, there is a "KoboRoot.tgz". That is the application side of the firmware. I stated before that the latest firmware versions for the Touch do not have all the files. If you want to go back to 2.4.0, at the point where you took that image, you remove that "KoboRoot.tgz" and put all the files and folders from the 2.4.0 Touch firmware package.

Yes, but when I did that before - adding the "Update" folder and the "manifest.md5sum", overwriting the "KoboRoot.tgz" file- it went into a perpetual powering on loop and never went anywhere else. After 20 minutes of trying the paperclip/home button restore it *finally* responded to that and rolled back to 1.9.6. So I'm hesitant to try that again. Unless you mean to roll back to 1.9.6, overlay 2.4.0, let it update the reader (I have no idea how for that will get as I'd have to log into my account and then it would shove the new firmware on anyway), extract those files, roll back again to 1.9.6, install newest firmware, then replace ALL the files with 2.4.0?

Originally Posted by davidfor

Yes, that is a problem in the recent firmware on the Touch. Eject the card and insert it again and all the books will be seen.

Okay, so it's not just me then.

Originally Posted by davidfor

I don't remember there being a problem with covers in 3.0.1. What is being displayed?

When I put the reader to sleep, or power it off, the cover is a blank space with the title and the author written on it - like it couldn't create the image with the book cover picture. I noticed that on the previous version of the firmware I had before rolling back to 2.4.0. It's not a huge deal, but it's annoying.

Originally Posted by jackastor

VirgoGirl you may have to signout of your kobo account on the reader to rebuild the database, My stepmother had a similar issue with wrong covers and it was due to a corrupt database. Funny thing was Calibre said the data base was fine, it wasn't, after rebuilding it everything was fine. But she did loose her stats. I did not back them up because I am unsure if we would be backing up corrupt info or good info. Not knowing I chose to not backup.

It's not so much the WRONG cover as the image is just not being built properly.


I've toyed with the idea of using the direct internal memory, the only 2 reasons I have for NOT doing that are 1) I have a the books safe on a separate card in case I have to reformat or the Kobo eats them (happened once before, they just disappeared off the internal memory) and 2) if there is a problem with a book not being formatted properly and the Kobo gets stuck in a processing loop. Also happened ("Snow White and the Huntsman" ), so I removed the card, removed the book, reinserted the card and it was fine.

I'm looking harder into the SQLlite database editor, that may just solve my issue if I can go from 1.9.6 directly to 2.4.0. I can re add my 4 pages of collections, no problem.


Still dragging my feet regarding the Kindle.... My husband doesn't think it'll solve my problems as I like to have around 1300 ebooks on my reader.

[jackastor]

@VirgoGirl: You could try using caliber to upload the covers. That might help. I have done that in the past. And that's assuming the covers are the size you wanted. Also (you probably have already) make sure show covers full screen is checked.

good luck

Jack

[VirgoGirl]

The covers are there, they show up when I look in the book list, they just won't display when I put the reader to sleep. I think it has something to do with the firmware/sd card relationship. I'm not going to sweat it, it's just annoying.

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by VirgoGirl

The covers are there, they show up when I look in the book list, they just won't display when I put the reader to sleep. I think it has something to do with the firmware/sd card relationship. I'm not going to sweat it, it's just annoying.

have you turned on the covers then?
make sure the settings under light,sleep, power are under screen saver are all checked on. if they are then your data base is corrupt and you will have to log out of kobo account and log back in to re build it.

regards

Jack

[VirgoGirl]

Originally Posted by jackastor

have you turned on the covers then?
make sure the settings under light,sleep, power are under screen saver are all checked on. if they are then your data base is corrupt and you will have to log out of kobo account and log back in to re build it.

regards

Jack

Hi!

I had all those things checked. I then did as you suggested, I logged out of my account and them back in. While it completely wiped the database of ANY of the books I had (so I will not be doing that again), once I got all my books back on and "shelved" I still have the same problem. Books on my micro SD card do not show up on the sleep power screen, just a blank book cover with the name of the book, e.g "Daisy Dalrymple 09 To Davy Jones Below" and the format underneath "epub". Maybe no one else has this issue, but it's nothing that I have set up or done or not done, it just seems to be the way the card interacts with the reader in this firmware. I had the same thing happen with an earlier version of the firmware, maybe 2.8 or 2.6, which is one reason I liked 2.4.0.

[PeterT]

Any chance you could detail how you xfer material to the Kobo and it's SD card, and also a directory listing (including directories) of the SD card ?

[jackastor]

@VirgoGirl: I am at a complete loss. I wonder if you can manually edit the Kobo configuration file, maybe its not being coded there correctly? Also this thread here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=230566 seems to mirror your issues perhaps?


Any one any suggestions?


regards

Jack

[Thane1]

Originally Posted by VirgoGirl

Maybe no one else has this issue, but it's nothing that I have set up or done or not done, it just seems to be the way the card interacts with the reader in this firmware. I had the same thing happen with an earlier version of the firmware, maybe 2.8 or 2.6, which is one reason I liked 2.4.0.

I found that after kobo pushed 3.0.1 onto my mark3 Touch the cover images (seen in sleep and off) vanished after the first time I powered off the device and turned it back on. After hard resetting, formatting my uSD card and reloading everything twice over and still not getting sleep/off images I just enabled the feature for Calibre to load cover images. In my case that seems to have done the trick for me, hopefully PeterT's suggestion will work for you.

[Danger]

Originally Posted by VirgoGirl

... Books on my micro SD card do not show up on the sleep power screen, just a blank book cover with the name of the book, e.g "Daisy Dalrymple 09 To Davy Jones Below" and the format underneath "epub"...

Here's a thought but do you need your books on the SD card? I used to carry all my books on the SD card until I came to the realization that A) if my Kobo cocks up while I am out and about and I need to reset it then I will have to access my home computer anyway to do the set up and since I am at home I have access to my books that are on the computer, and B) see A because I am tired and forgot where I was going with this

If it's an issue with space, too many books to fit on the KT's internal memory there is a way to upgrade the KT's internal mem IF it's a micro SD card. I've done this with my Glo which now has 16G internal mem and combined with Calibre I never use the external Micro SD card slot anymore. With Calibre's easy Shelf (now Collections) creation all my past reasons for sticking my books all on the SD card are moot.

Just some additional and I make note that I might have missed something in previous posts but to get to v2.4:

KT = Kobo Touch

1) downgrade to 1.9.6 (factory reset the KT)

2) do the setup via the Kobo Desktop software

3) Once the Kobo Desktop software is finished doing all it needs to do...

• do NOT unplug/eject the KT
• Browse to the .kobo folder and delete the "KoboRoot.tgz" file
• unplug the KT and make sure it is set up and working, check the firmware version, you should still be on 1.9.6
• If you are indeed on 1.9.6, plug it back in and place the firmware for 2.4 in the .kobo folder
• eject & unplug the KT
• let it update

If all has gone well you should now be on 2.4

It might also be a good idea to make sure you have a fresh copy of the 2.4.0 firmware to try this with.