Firmware 5.0.175773

[beedaddy]

So this Kobo help page looks interesting! Might this be the start of the transition from 4.x to 5.x on Kobo devices? The Tolinos currently run fw 5.9.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by beedaddy

So this Kobo help page looks interesting! Might this be the start of the transition from 4.x to 5.x on Kobo devices? The Tolinos currently run fw 5.9.

Do pay heed to the comment that it is for Europe ONLY.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Do pay heed to the comment that it is for Europe ONLY.

It's to do with EU accessibility directives for new products, maybe not all of Europe. And some places outside of EU and outside physical Europe actually deploy EU directives as local laws. UK is in Europe and not EU and no longer applies EU directives unless there is a Northern Ireland, Gibraltar or Trade issue. Switzerland and Norway are not in EU, but apply most directives. Turkey and Israel apply some. See ESA membership if you want to really have confusion and countries not in EU using euro and countries in EU not using euro.

This is not specifically about Kobo-Tolino convergence, though that is likely happening anyway.

[rantanplan]

In Tolino mode, a lot of formatting options are broken in the 5.x firmware. I hope it's different in Kobo mode, if they choose to transition to a new firmware soon.

[S Save]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

In Tolino mode, a lot of formatting options are broken in the 5.x firmware. I hope it's different in Kobo mode, if they choose to transition to a new firmware soon.

I believe that they will finish beta testing on Tolinos before rolling out the new firmware to Kobos worldwide. 5.10 is already more stable than the previous versions, but advanced formatting is still completely broken. The touchscreen sometimes experiences control inversion (i.e. touching upper right corner triggers the lower left), but that may be because I have forced the portrait/landscape toggle on what is essentially a Clara BW. In any case, toggling it to landscape and then back to portrait fixes it (if you can guess what your touches will end up triggering).

[BillGaitas]

This is now available, by the way. Updated my Clara BW, I thought it would delete all of my sideloaded stuff but it kept that during the update, I opened a Kepub book right after the update, it went to a "Opening" screen that never existed in the old firmware, flipped like four pages and the Kobo froze itself with a exclamation mark icon and three dots flashing, with the screen flashing at random intervals. Beta software!

And just I was finishing typing this up the Kobo rebooted itself.

Version 5.10.225420 (820b1e9d1a, 28/07/25)

EDIT: Wow, it takes AGES to flip a page, surely somethings wrong with either my Kepubs or the stock Kepub reader. Also, the Portuguese (Portugal) translation of the OS is still garbage. Yay.

[Falkor]

It's the same version the Tolino just got. Welcome to the Tolino beta experience!

[BillGaitas]

Originally Posted by Falkor

It's the same version the Tolino just got. Welcome to the Tolino beta experience!

I had to revert back to 4.XX, it's just so bad, they really can't be shipping that for the general release, and even doing this sort of beta test in this state is terrible, who is going to test out the accessibility features when the base reading experience is this bad? I tested a regular epub and it's just as awful as the kepubs.

[beedaddy]

Originally Posted by BillGaitas

I had to revert back to 4.XX, it's just so bad, they really can't be shipping that for the general release, and even doing this sort of beta test in this state is terrible, who is going to test out the accessibility features when the base reading experience is this bad? I tested a regular epub and it's just as awful as the kepubs.

Indeed. Still no hyphenation, no justified text. However, I hope that support for NickelMenu/KOReader will gain momentum. If you don't need KOReader here, where else would you need it?

(I know that KOReader already works with KFMon. But there are still a few problems.)

[cerebrollywood]

Originally Posted by BillGaitas

This is now available, by the way. Updated my Clara BW,

Sorry for the dumb question, but is there a Beta Program for Kobo devices? I couldn't find any recent news about it online.
I have a spare Clara BW and I wouldn't mind helping out if that means having a better software in the future.

[BillGaitas]

Originally Posted by cerebrollywood

Sorry for the dumb question, but is there a Beta Program for Kobo devices? I couldn't find any recent news about it online.
I have a spare Clara BW and I wouldn't mind helping out if that means having a better software in the future.

This post explains the situation, they're beta testing the 5.XX branch on Kobos in the EU with the intention to test out new accessibility features like BT screen reading. They don't mention beta testing per se, but since it's so slow at doing what it's supposed to do (reading) I really think it should be treated like such. That and missing essential features from 4.XX.

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by beedaddy

Indeed. Still no hyphenation, no justified text. However, I hope that support for NickelMenu/KOReader will gain momentum. If you don't need KOReader here, where else would you need it?

(I know that KOReader already works with KFMon. But there are still a few problems.)

I wonder if it survives an update, if you already have a working koreader installation. I'll probably see soon when my Kobo Sage inevitable update. Maybe I should put it in airplane mode.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

I wonder if it survives an update, if you already have a working koreader installation. I'll probably see soon when my Kobo Sage inevitable update. Maybe I should put it in airplane mode.

You may have to wait a while since the current 5.10.whatever software is only for the Clara BW, Clara Colour and Libra Colour. From the instructions, the current version seems to be opt in only.

[beedaddy]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

I wonder if it survives an update, if you already have a working koreader installation. I'll probably see soon when my Kobo Sage inevitable update. Maybe I should put it in airplane mode.

KFMon itself does not survive a firmware update. But you can easily reinstall it. The KOReader files and settings are still there, so you can simply continue to use it.

[DNSB]

With the 5.10.225420 firmware, the installer no longer uses the KoboRoot.tgz file so re-installing NickelMenu, KFMon, etc. is not possible using the standard Kobo installer.

The good news for those who do not want the 5.10.225240 firmware is that under Accessibility, you can revert to the old firmware.