Firmware 4.8.10956

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by patrik

Thanks. The 1%-setting works fine for me, so no problem there. And this firmware is much, much better at highlights so I'll keep it until next one comes along.

It sounds like it is just your device. What I would suggest is to manually reinstall the update over your current setup. This shouldn't change anything, but it has been know to solve a few weird issues like this.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

For those who are patching the firmware, the two patches to enable to fix the new problems in 4.8.10956 are:
* `Default ePub serif font (Georgia)` (in librmsdk.so.1.0.0.patch)
* `Default ePub sans-serif font (Avenir)` (in librmsdk.so.1.0.0.patch)

(Edit: The `Force user font-family in ePubs` patch might also solve the problem, because it prevents the publisher from selecting any fonts. But using it means embedded fonts won't work, and the whole book will be displayed in just the one font selected from the Aa menu.)

I went ahead and disabled the "Force user font-family in ePubs" patch and enabled the two Georgia and Avenir default font patches. All working well with ePubs.

However ...

I just discovered that my KePubs are always showing 1% read in the display and in the top status bar. Meanwhile the ePubs are showing reading progress in both places correctly. Weird. Everything else works fine in KePubs, it opens to the last page correctly, shows the correct page number, etc – just not the correct percentage read. I don't know if this worked correctly before the newest firmware, but I think it did. Maybe it's something I did in the patches?

[DrChiper]

I returned from 4.8.10956 back to 4.7.10413 today.

I was curious by all the discussions about the font setting, hence I tried it for myself to select another font on the KA2 for an epub. Promptly, a blank page and the whole book was marked as "completed".
Un-marking the book as "not read" or Re-side-loading did not help to solve that situation, so I decided to go back to my last working version.

I hope that Kobo solves this quickly, as I do amiss the improved text selection capabilities of 4.8.10956. Also it felt "snappier" on usage.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

I returned from 4.8.10956 back to 4.7.10413 today.

I was curious by all the discussions about the font setting, hence I tried it for myself to select another font on the KA2 for an epub. Promptly, a blank page and the whole book was marked as "completed".

I'm baffled by the as that is the described behaviour of the bug.

Un-marking the book as "not read" or Re-side-loading did not help to solve that situation, so I decided to go back to my last working version.

I hope that Kobo solves this quickly, as I do amiss the improved text selection capabilities of 4.8.10956. Also it felt "snappier" on usage.

If you had changed the font back to what you were using before, it would have fixed things when you reopened the book.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'm baffled by the as that is the described behaviour of the bug.

I was baffled that it happened to me

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you had changed the font back to what you were using before, it would have fixed things when you reopened the book.

That did not work as I could not select the font settings either anymore. Oh, and when the bug hit me, the progess % notice showed up centered on the footer location.

All and all, I took no further risks and returned to the previous version.

[mayrain]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

I returned from 4.8.10956 back to 4.7.10413 today.

I was curious by all the discussions about the font setting, hence I tried it for myself to select another font on the KA2 for an epub. Promptly, a blank page and the whole book was marked as "completed".
Un-marking the book as "not read" or Re-side-loading did not help to solve that situation, so I decided to go back to my last working version.

I hope that Kobo solves this quickly, as I do amiss the improved text selection capabilities of 4.8.10956. Also it felt "snappier" on usage.

Ah, worth noting is that I have not experienced KA2 with any other firmware than latest ones. I had Kobo Mini with much older firmware and got a new KA2 last week. So I have had this bug since day one of purchase.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by mayrain

... and got a new KA2 last week. So I have had this bug since day one of purchase.

Strange, was 4.8.10956 installed on your new KA2, or did it automagically upgraded when you used it for the first time? The latter I can understand.

You could try to install 4.7.10413 as that one is very stable enough IMHO. I've used it a long time.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

I was baffled that it happened to me

That did not work as I could not select the font settings either anymore. Oh, and when the bug hit me, the progess % notice showed up centered on the footer location.

When I've seen it I have had no problems bringing up the menus and getting the the font options. But, as you are seeing the progress as a percentage, do you use one of the tap zone option that only the small area in the middle at the bottom to bring up the menu? If so, you have probably hit one of the other not so popular changes. Previously, a long-press on the page number would cycle to a different display. Now, a tap does. That makes it harder to tap in the right place to display the menus. You need to tap a little bit above the page number to bring up the menus.

[DrChiper]

I'm using a full screen setting (set in the config file) without footer. And the very first area option for the reading settings (left/middle/right top to bottom lanes).
So normally, I tap on the middle to get top and bottom menu options, hence top left is the place where the % progress is located (after first the time is visible).

In my case I was much surprised when I saw centered on the bottom the % progress on encountering the bug to appear. Thereafter, the involved book could not be adjusted anymore as the blank page seemed to be none responsive now.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Amazon no longer updates firmware for the Kindle 1,2,3,4 and the original Touch (and maybe the original Paperwhite?). It doesn't seem unreasonable for Kobo to drop firmware updates for some of their older readers (they've already done it for the Mini and Wireless). This would probably make life a lot easier for them.

Not necessarily so. Sometimes companies don't do updates because they want to sell new version. NT4.0 SP7 had excellent USB support. It was never released for fear of "holding back" Win2000. Also DirectX versions.
Apple deliberately forces App developers to drop support for older iOS (hardly any Apps are supporting older than iOS9) and deliberately drops support for "older HW", so many decent iPhone are stuck on iOS7 or iOS8 and can't install extra apps.

Brand new releases of Linux, Mate Desktop and new applications inc Flatpak apps, do work on 16 year old hardware, and indeed even older if you have enough RAM (About 1/16th of what Win10 needs!) and don't mind a little slow.
Amazon uses a custom shell on Android for the Kindle eInk HW (Kernel only is real Linux). Doesn't Kobo use a more stock Linux, so has not the same Google enforced constraints of the Kindle HW?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Amazon uses a custom shell on Android for the Kindle eInk HW (Kernel only is real Linux). Doesn't Kobo use a more stock Linux, so has not the same Google enforced constraints of the Kindle HW?

I was under the impression from looking at the source code downloads that Amazon used Linux not Android as the operating system on their eInk ereaders. I don't see any packages in the open source code or in the downloaded firmware that would allow running Android apps on a Kindle eInk ereader. Check out Source Code Notice for the various downloads for both their Fire tablets and eInk readers.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Brand new releases of Linux, Mate Desktop and new applications inc Flatpak apps, do work on 16 year old hardware, and indeed even older if you have enough RAM (About 1/16th of what Win10 needs!) and don't mind a little slow.

I can vouch for that as I still use modern Linux Mint Mate on a laptop made in 2003 – a Dell D400. (My main computer is a Dell desktop Optiplex 755 from 2007, running Linux Mint Mate 17.1.) But there are whole lot more people working on Linux, Linux Mint, Mate and assorted open source projects then are working on Kobo development (at least I'm guessing there are).

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I was under the impression from looking at the source code downloads that Amazon used Linux not Android as the operating system on their eInk ereaders. I don't see any packages in the open source code or in the downloaded firmware that would allow running Android apps on a Kindle eInk ereader. Check out Source Code Notice for the various downloads for both their Fire tablets and eInk readers.

I don't see anything Android at all in the Kindle firmware (thank goodness). Original Kindle used Linux kernel 2.6.x and the newest (at least on my Kindle Basic) uses 3.10.x. The B&N Nook (on the other hand) was based on Android – at least from the Simple Touch on up. And so were the T1 series Sonys.

Amazon's Fire OS is definitely based on Android.

[JohhnyMix]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I went ahead and disabled the "Force user font-family in ePubs" patch and enabled the two Georgia and Avenir default font patches. All working well with ePubs.

However ...

I just discovered that my KePubs are always showing 1% read in the display and in the top status bar. Meanwhile the ePubs are showing reading progress in both places correctly. Weird. Everything else works fine in KePubs, it opens to the last page correctly, shows the correct page number, etc – just not the correct percentage read. I don't know if this worked correctly before the newest firmware, but I think it did. Maybe it's something I did in the patches?

The reading % works fine here on the latest update on a h2o v2 m1

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JohhnyMix

The reading % works fine here on the latest update on a h2o v2 m1

It's probably something I did with the patches. I'm new to these. I'll have to study that a bit. I'm not that worried about it, as it opens to the correct page and the current page number (once opened) is correctly displayed. Normally I'm reading ePubs anyhow and everything is working right with ePubs.