Instructions for patching firmware 4.24.15676

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

I have the Kobo Clara HD settings set to Sleep after 34 minutes (never tested as I have a sleep cover) and Power-off set to after 148h32m. I haven't properly tested it because I usually read every day... but, I've noticed that if I skip one or two days of reading, I find my Kobo Clara HD off when I want to read again on day three. As if it switches off after 48 hours instead of after 148 hours (more than 6 days). I changed the power-off time to 97h52m (four days), but after skipping only one day of reading (24-48 hours), I still find my Clara in off mode...

Any idea what's going on?

Presumably, it's something to do with the timers. I'll have a look at this when I have a chance. I might rewrite this patch with a slightly different approach later. Do you know which FW version this last worked for you on?

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Presumably, it's something to do with the timers. I'll have a look at this when I have a chance. I might rewrite this patch with a slightly different approach later. Do you know which FW version this last worked for you on?

Thank you!

I only just updated from FW 4.9.x (without the patch) to this FW, so unfortunately I don’t know in which FW the patch last worked...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Presumably, it's something to do with the timers. I'll have a look at this when I have a chance. I might rewrite this patch with a slightly different approach later. Do you know which FW version this last worked for you on?

For me, it never worked.

[johnnydarko]

Hello! First of all, THANK YOU to the developers who have made all of these patches possible. I personally use 15 patches and can't imagine my Kobo without these tweaks!

My issue: for some reason, I can't get the font of the footer / header to change. The weird thing is, I can change the "color" in the same line of code, but I CANNOT change the font. I even tried to use a built-in font (Georgia) to rule out this being an issue with my preferred sideloaded font (Bookerly).

I attached a screenshot of the lines of code that I altered in the "Custom new header/footer font" section of nickel.yaml if anyone would be kind enough to look for obvious errors.

I also attached an image of my reading screen, showing that the color change went into effect, making the numbers gray, but the font continues to be Avenir. Help!

Thank you!

[Ripplinger]

If you're mostly reading epubs, then you need to first open a kepub book on the reader. The Georgia font should show in the kepub and then in the epubs after that. If you shut off your reader between reading, you'll need to repeat that each time you start the reader. My reader only ever sleeps and it works perfectly on epubs once it's triggered by opening 1 kepub.

I also had to put a copy of the Georgia font onto the reader with my other custom fonts, otherwise it wouldn't change for me until I did that. I don't think that's normally required though.

[johnnydarko]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

If you're mostly reading epubs, then you need to first open a kepub book on the reader.

I use kepubs exclusively, so i don't think that's the issue in this case.

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I also had to put a copy of the Georgia font onto the reader with my other custom fonts, otherwise it wouldn't change for me until I did that. I don't think that's normally required though.

This problem seems to be happening regardless of the font that I insert into the code. It can be a built in Kobo font, or a sideloaded font -- none of them seem to be replacing Avenir as the footer font.

Thanks for your ideas, though!

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by johnnydarko

My issue: for some reason, I can't get the font of the footer / header to change. The weird thing is, I can change the "color" in the same line of code, but I CANNOT change the font. I even tried to use a built-in font (Georgia) to rule out this being an issue with my preferred sideloaded font (Bookerly).

This is a known issue. You probably have not made any errors.

The nickel.yaml patch you're talking about, Custom new header/footer font, can change the header/footer font and almost certainly has. The problem is that, unfortunately, it can only change the font-family for the left-hand side of the header & footer, i.e. chapter name & book title - not the right-hand side 'page x of y' text which is hard-coded to Avenir somewhere in the firmware that isn't accessible to a nickel.yaml patch.

It appears you have also enabled the libnickel.so.1.0.0.yaml patch Remove title from reading header/footer, i.e. don't display chapter name and book title. Consequently, the font-family change you made in the first patch is "invisible" to you.

Hopefully that explains the 'Why' of your issue?

If anything can be done to change the current patch situation it would need to come from @geek1011.

[Ripplinger]

I have my page setup exactly like johnnydarko's sample... no header, and only the page number shown exactly as he has it. It sounds like it shouldn't be working for me either, but it does? Here's a sample of my epub page (Firmware 4.24.15676 on the GloHD).

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I have my page setup exactly like johnnydarko's sample... no header, and only the page number shown exactly as he has it. It sounds like it shouldn't be working for me either, but it does? Here's a sample of my epub page (Firmware 4.24.15676 on the GloHD).

You could get the whole header/footer to display in a custom font by either

1. Completely replacing the firmware's installed Avenir font with a font of your own renamed, internally and externally, to 'Avenir Next'.
2. Sideloading a "shadow" copy of your custom font to the /fonts directory, renamed similarly, internally and externally, to 'Avenir Next'.

It sounds like you're using option 2.

Both require use of a font editor and will affect parts of the GUI you may or may not have wanted to affect. In other words, more involved than simple patch enabling. So I wouldn't normally suggest them as options to new users until it's obvious that they're very comfortable with hacking/patching.

If anyone wants to do this GUI font hacking, they should read this thread then decide how they want to proceed.

[Ripplinger]

Ah, so that's why it wouldn't work before for me unless I put a copy of Georgia font into my fonts directory on the reader where all my custom fonts were. I could never figure that one out.

Thanks for the explanation. I'm just glad it's working for me.

[johnnydarko]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

This is a known issue. You probably have not made any errors.

The nickel.yaml patch you're talking about, Custom new header/footer font, can change the header/footer font and almost certainly has. The problem is that, unfortunately, it can only change the font-family for the left-hand side of the header & footer, i.e. chapter name & book title - not the right-hand side 'page x of y' text which is hard-coded to Avenir somewhere in the firmware that isn't accessible to a nickel.yaml patch.

Thank you so much for that explanation! I had been using 4.15 until just a few days ago, and I know that a LOT has changed under the hood regarding headers and footers since that release. (I was definitely able to make the page numbers any font of my choosing in 4.15 -- with the help of the patches, of course!)

I will consider if it's important enough for me to have my page numbers "match" my book text, and in the process sacrificing the Avenir used throughout the system. I HAVE worked with FontForge on my Mac before, so I think I could jump through the hoops to get it done. I will mull this over. And thank you, again, for your valuable input!

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Ah, so that's why it wouldn't work before for me unless I put a copy of Georgia font into my fonts directory on the reader where all my custom fonts were. I could never figure that one out.

Thanks for the explanation. I'm just glad it's working for me.

Yes, when I saw your screenshot, I literally said "HOW?" out loud. I guess we now know, thanks to jackie_w.

[Ripplinger]

One odd (and I'll admit really picky) thing my screenshot above pointed out to me was that this firmware has the page number located one pixel lower. I always keep the battery and time on the same line and I could see the difference in the screenshot. I made sure it wasn't just a fluke of the current book, and had to lower the placement of the battery and time by one pixel. But my other reader on 4.20.14622 did not need that adjustment.

[johnnydarko]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

One odd (and I'll admit really picky) thing my screenshot above pointed out to me was that this firmware has the page number located one pixel lower. I always keep the battery and time on the same line and I could see the difference in the screenshot. I made sure it wasn't just a fluke of the current book, and had to lower the placement of the battery and time by one pixel. But my other reader on 4.20.14622 did not need that adjustment.

Those are the sorts of things that can bug me, too -- I get it!

By the way, you can adjust the vertical placement of the page number (without pushing the text of the book up) by adjusting line 334 in nickel.yaml, under "Custom new header/footer font":

Replace: "#caption[newFooter=true] {\n font-size: 14px; margin-top: -1px;}"

Making margin-top "-1px" will move the page number up by 1 pixel.

[Ripplinger]

Yeah, those little misalignments drive me nuts.

I know it could be fixed there, but it's generally easier (for me at least) to keep all the patches default. And it was actually a simpler fix to just change the position in the config file for the clock on the reader, no rebooting or loading a patch then at all.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Presumably, it's something to do with the timers. I'll have a look at this when I have a chance. I might rewrite this patch with a slightly different approach later. Do you know which FW version this last worked for you on?

If you do rewrite the patch, would it be possible to have the option to select a larger difference between the smallest time and the largest time? I currently have a smallest time of 34m and a largest of 148h32m, because the customisation tool wouldn't let me select anything further apart. Is that a tool-limitation, or is it not possible in the patch/firmware? I would prefer to have approximately 5 or 10 minutes smallest and 168h largest time.