Libra 2 Very unstable Libra 2 with 4.33.19611

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by Rkob

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

I tried 4.30.18838 yesterday evening and read for about one hour. It crashed "only" 2 times, when reading a Pocket article. Reading an Overdrive book seemed OK. It was way, way better than 4.33 (but not perfect).

I will try 4.32 tonight and see how it goes. Then 4.33 again tomorrow.

⇒ Question to those of you who run without crashes on 4.32 and 4.33: do you use the Pocket integration? Overdrive?
I've only tried the Libra 2 with those two integrations enabled, and only read documents from there. Not sure how / what people usually read, so I wonder if it could explain why it crashes so much for me (apart from a HW fault?).
I could probably return the Overdrive book, not activate Pocket and try a sideloaded EPUB book instead, to see how it behaves on 4.33.

Although the Sage is my primary ereader, I have not experienced crashes/freezes on my Libra 2 (v4.32). No problems reading Pocket articles, both with and without embedded photos.

[Tawn]

I use both Pocket and Overdrive. Read mostly epub (a few kepub). My Libra 2 (v4.32; haven't been offered 4.33, but don't see any need anyway) freezes occasionally, but it's on the order of once a month max. And recently realized that just closing/reopening the sleep cover will often unfreeze it.

[Lykke]

Originally Posted by Rkob

⇒ Question to those of you who run without crashes on 4.32 and 4.33: do you use the Pocket integration? Overdrive?

I read most of my books with the Overdrive integration, and read the occassional Pocket article, and have only experienced a couple of freezes with 4.32 and 4.33. One of them occured after I synced a lot of Pocket articles (I think 20+) at once. Only used 4.33 for a few hours so far (been reading mostly pbooks and abooks lately) but to me it has seemed fine.

[Rkob]

I did more tests yesterday:

• Upgraded to 4.32 and tried to read a Pocket article as well as an OverDrive book. It was unstable.
• Disabled the Pocket integration, and restarted the device (still on 4.32). I then sideloaded a couple of E-Books (news websites converted to EPUB with Calibre, and transfered as KEPUB with the Kobo extended driver).
  It was also very unstable, and I got multiple freezes and crashes. Those happened with both the OverDrive book and with the sideloaded KEPUBs (~200 kB and ~2MB, both mostly text).
  It also crashed a couple of times without direct user interaction, while the Libra 2 was connected to my PC (device startup → home screen → connect to PC → wait a little → crash.

I checked the database several times with Kobo Utilities (PRAGMA integrity_check) and it was OK.

It has actually crashed / frozen with everything I have read so far (sideloaded, OverDrive, Pocket), and also without interaction. With 2.33, 2.32 and 2.30 (to a lesser degree). 😕
Most of you seem to not have those issues, so I'm beginning to think that my device may have some HW problem and am very tempted to exchange it.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by Rkob

Most of you seem to not have those issues, so I'm beginning to think that my device may have some HW problem and am very tempted to exchange it.

Do it, after all it should not be your / our job to figure out what the fritz is going on with these devices. If you already tried everything including factory reset then there is not much else that you can do.

My Libra 2 is also wonky but I voided warranty on day 1 (by opening and trying to replace the microsd card) so return was never an option for me. If I had known about the stability issues then I would not have bought the device even though it ticks all the right boxes for me (great frontlight, page buttons, white shell, "replaceable" microsd card).

I never had such issues on the H2O no matter how you mistreated it but Libra 2 just reboots randomly for no discernible reasons at all.

In my case the firmware update (and a factory reset) helped some, I can use it as a plain epub reader and it only reboots rarely. But it's too unstable for any kind of modding, can't work with a device that just wantonly up and reboots

[npr]

If using patches, try without any.
I removed 3 patches from my Libra 2 and it made a big difference, more responsive and no obvious freezes.
The three patches removes were:
Custom kepub default margins
Force user line spacing in KePubs
Can't remember the third other than it was a kepub specific.

Never did get round to testing but I assumed one of more of the above conflicted with other patches I was using.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by npr

If using patches, try without any.
I removed 3 patches from my Libra 2 and it made a big difference, more responsive and no obvious freezes.
The three patches removes were:
Custom kepub default margins
Force user line spacing in KePubs
Can't remember the third other than it was a kepub specific.

Never did get round to testing but I assumed one of more of the above conflicted with other patches I was using.

On a Libra 2 that's not locking or crashing, I don't use the two listed patches.

[Sirtel]

I use more than 20 patches and on 4.32 my Libra 2 has been very stable with both sideloaded epubs and kepubs (via the extended driver). It had freezing and crashing issues on 4.30, but not constantly.

I would exchange my device, if it had constant unstability issues on 4.32.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

On a Libra 2 that's not locking or crashing, I don't use the two listed patches.

I do use the forced line-spacing patches, because I have sometimes forgotten to remove the embedded line-height in some older ebooks I have. No crashing on 4.32 so far.

[Rkob]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

My Libra 2 is also wonky but I voided warranty on day 1 (by opening and trying to replace the microsd card) so return was never an option for me.

It made for a very interesting post on this forum, at least. Thanks for sacrificing your device. 😊

Originally Posted by npr

If using patches, try without any.

I am using only the "Always show confirmation dialog before upgrading" patch.
I did not find another way to stop the upgrades to 4.33. Even though I chose "skip", it upgraded silently soon after anyway.

[readologist]

Is it generally agreed that Firmware 4.32 is crash-free? Or is that unrealistic?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by readologist

Is it generally agreed that Firmware 4.32 is crash-free? Or is that unrealistic?

For some it has been, for others not. It seems to depend on a specific device, and/or perhaps on how you use it.

[readologist]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

For some it has been, for others not. It seems to depend on a specific device, and/or perhaps on how you use it.

I was thinking of the Libra 2 (my current reader) and thanks for the quick reply.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by readologist

I was thinking of the Libra 2 (my current reader) and thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, that's what I meant as well. Some people with the Libra 2 don't have crashes on 4.32, others do.

[Ashjuk]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Some people with the Libra 2 don't have crashes on 4.32...

Is that because those people don't modify their Libra 2?

Only asking as I am looking at options for if and when my Aura One finally needs replacing, and I am a little concerned about the reports of crashes on the Libra 2.

I don't think my current Aura has ever crashed. I always keep my devices as they came from new and don't install any add-ons or patches. I just side-load books using the file browser on my PC. That seems to work fine for me without the need to use any other software.