Aura E2 Aura 2 slow/unable to connect to *nix PCs - file system/permissions issue?

[Thorned Rose]

I got a second hand Aura 2 for my kid and we use Calibre to manage our ebooks. However, connecting the Aura 2 to my PC (Artix Linux w/ KDE) is either incredibly slow or it refuses to connect at all causing my system to softlock.

What happens is, I connect the Aura 2 (the exact same way I connect my H2O 2 which connects perfectly fine and without issue) to my PC. It almost immediately pops up with USB device connected (there's a slightly slower delay as compared to my H2O).

Mounting then takes several minutes to do it's thing - first it shows up in the file browser (Dolphin) but is not mountable - it shows a red icon and if I try to mount it at this point, it will error and lock up Dolphin. If I wait a bit longer, it will eventually become mountable. But navigating the file system is incredibly slow - sometimes taking minutes to open a single folder.

Calibre then takes several minutes to connect to the Aura 2, if at all. It more often fails with the following error:

calibre, version 9.14.0
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

Failed to access files in the main memory of your device. 
You should contact the device manufacturer for support. 
Common fixes are: try a different USB cable/USB port on your computer. 
If you device has a "Reset to factory defaults" type of setting somewhere, 
use it. Underlying error: [Errno 30] Read-only file system: 
'/run/media/rose/KOBOeReader/driveinfo.calibre'...

I also can't shutdown Calibre without disconnecting the Aura 2 first because trying to eject it softlocks Calibre. If I have the Aura 2 plugged in (not mounted) before starting Calibre, it won't even load, just instantly crashing with an error.

If I am really patient, I can disconnect and then reconnect the Aura 2 over and over till eventually I get lucky and the file system is browsable almost like normal (still a delay in mounting though) and Calibre works albeit slow compared to my H2O.

I have tried multiple USB cables, no difference. I tried factory resetting it (menu option) I tried it on my spouse's PC with the same issue (he also has Artix Linux). We tried it on a laptop running GhostBSD and it came up with this error:

The folder contents could not be displayed.
Sorry, could not display all the contents of "KOBOeReader": Error when getting information for file "/media/KOBOeReader/.kobo-images": Device not configured

So then we tried connecting it to a Windows PC (Win11 I think) and it worked without any issues. But since we only have Linux PCs, this isn't a practical solution for us. Nor is using wi-fi because we don't normally have it turned on.

After searching the net, we came across a Kindle and a Kobo Glo coming up with the same problem on Linux machines. But the solution (running the fsck.vfat command) didn't make any difference for us. So far, as we've been able to glean, it's that the Aura 2 has a corrupted file system or incorrect permissions set?

Does anyone know if there's an easy fix for this? Or will it require reformatting the Aura 2's storage? If so, how do we do that? (I haven't been able to find how to do that or how to do a full factory reset to remove all updates and take it back to the original settings). Thanks!

[geek1011]

Try a different USB cable/port, and a USB 2.0 hub if you have one, or even a different computer.

This is a somewhat known issue with the Aura 2.

[Thorned Rose]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Try a different USB cable/port, and a USB 2.0 hub if you have one, or even a different computer.

This is a somewhat known issue with the Aura 2.

As I said in my post, we already tried that - we tried several different cables (all of which work fine with my H2O 2, my spouse's Clara and 2 Kindles) and four different computers - 2 with the same OS (Artix Linux), a laptop with GhostBSD and a Windows PC. Only the Windows PC worked normally. On the *Nix based systems, we get the slowness, softlocks and crashes, regardless of cable, regardless of port, regardless of different computers.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by Thorned Rose

As I said in my post, we already tried that

Oops, I was short on sleep and missed that.

Only the Windows PC worked normally. On the *Nix based systems, we get the slowness, softlocks and crashes, regardless of cable, regardless of port, regardless of different computers.

Does booting linux from a USB on the Windows machine break too?

Also, what's the output of `lspci -nn | grep -i usb` on your linux machines?

[Apollyon202]

Have you tried to put the Aura's UUID in /etc/fstab? And mount it and browse its filesystem with something else than Dolphin? Just to check if that would make a change...

[Thorned Rose]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Oops, I was short on sleep and missed that.

No worries! Been pretty sleep deprived myself lately :/ Hope you've gotten more sleep

Originally Posted by geek1011

Does booting linux from a USB on the Windows machine break too?

Also, what's the output of `lspci -nn | grep -i usb` on your linux machines?

Not much. If I run lsusb, it shows up as:

Bus 001 Device 010: ID 2237:4226 Kobo Inc. eReader-4.38.23684

But that shows up even if it doesn't show up as a mountable device. So I can see it there as a USB device, but I can't do anything with it unless I get lucky plugging it in over and over to finally get it to the mountable stage.

Running lspci -nn | grep -i usb just shows 2 USB controllers (even if I get lucky and get it to be mountable):

lspci -nn | grep -i usb                                          
02:00.0 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] 500 Series Chipset USB 3.1 XHCI Controller [1022:43ee]
0c:00.3 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller [1022:149c]

[Thorned Rose]

Originally Posted by Apollyon202

Have you tried to put the Aura's UUID in /etc/fstab? And mount it and browse its filesystem with something else than Dolphin? Just to check if that would make a change...

Most of the time I can't even get it to the stage of being mountable to get the UUID. Most of the time, it shows as a USB device and that's it. I have to unplug it and replug it over and over before it finally works and even then it's incredibly slow. Not sure adding it in fstab would make any difference if it can't mount to start with.

I'll try anyway but so far in trying to do that, after finally managing to get it to be mountable and appear in lsblk

sdc           8:32   1   3.2G  0 disk /run/media/<user>/KOBOeReader

running the blkid command, it's still sitting there thinking about it after several minutes with no output. :/

And trying all this has also now reset the Kobo and wiped everything on it No idea, how that happened. Unplugged it from my computer, waited for the connected screen to go away, and all my kids books on it are gone.

[Hasdrubal_Lector]

Your problems sounds like something I have had with MTP from time to time, but Kobo's don't use MTP.

You say it worked fine on a Win11 OS. Consider trying another Linux distro as suggested above? Boot the distro up via USB and see how it handles the Kobo. I would consider something basic like Mint. I'm curious to see if it is something about Artix, given that Artix is not a widely used distro ( Arch based and systemd free, no?)

[Thorned Rose]

Originally Posted by Hasdrubal_Lector

Your problems sounds like something I have had with MTP from time to time, but Kobo's don't use MTP.

You say it worked fine on a Win11 OS. Consider trying another Linux distro as suggested above? Boot the distro up via USB and see how it handles the Kobo. I would consider something basic like Mint. I'm curious to see if it is something about Artix, given that Artix is not a widely used distro

Ok, have now tried it on:
1. Artix Linux (Asus mobo, AMD GPU) PC
2. Artix Linux (Gigabyte mobo, Nvidia GPU) PC
3. GhostBSD laptop
4. Windows 11 PC
5. Linux Mint (Zena via live USB) on the first PC
6. EndeavourOS (Arch based Linux distro) on a different PC (probably hasn't been updated in some months)
7. Fedora Workstation (via live USB) on the first PC

1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 all had the same result - shows up almost straight away (very slight delay) as a USB device. As a mountable device takes several minutes, if at all. Getting impatient with trying to mount it before it's ready will throw an error (e.g. "Unable to access "KOBOeReader An operation is already pending"). On Fedora, it completely locked up the Files file browser and I had to unplug the Aura 2. On all of these computers, my H2O 2 works perfectly fine and shows up instantly - I can mount and browse the files fine (my spouse's Clara HD also mounted fine but I didn't test on every single device - ditto the Kindle I tried on some devices). It's just the Aura 2 that's having this issue.

On Windows 11 and EndeavourOS, the Aura 2 works completely fine, albeit very slightly slower than my H2O 2. I have no idea why either of those works just fine, especially Endeavour when all these others have issues mounting and incredibly (and I mean 10 minutes+) slow file browsing, assuming I get it to mount at all.

Originally Posted by Hasdrubal_Lector

( Arch based and systemd free, no?)

Correct, Artix is Arch without Systemd (in me and my spouse's case, we both use Dinit instead). But doesn't seem to be a Systemd-less issue because both Mint and Fedora display the same behaviour too. Even GhostBSD has the same problem. I honestly thought Endeavour would too but to everyone's surprise it's completely fine. Endeavour is Systemd based but uses dracut instead of mkinitcpio but I don't see how that would make any difference to this.

Also found that all the books are still there but the Aura 2 isn't 'seeing' them any more.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Thorned Rose

Also found that all the books are still there but the Aura 2 isn't 'seeing' them any more.

That sounds like the SQLight database is corrupt.

[Hasdrubal_Lector]

We know that DB corruption can happen if Kobo's are unplugged before they are ready.

It begins to sound like a hardware fault with the Aura. You may want to consider replacing the SD card.

[Thorned Rose]

I have now tried a manual reset. With that all fresh, I tried to connect it to my computer again. Nope, exact same problem.

I wondered if the last owner had maybe accidentally updated it with the wrong firmware so I downloaded the correct latest firmware and flashed it. No difference.

I then got the equivalent Aura 2 firmware version as I have on my H2O 2 (it's the previous version, not the latest). Welp, it picked it up straight away and even offered the option to mount it. But it was still extremely slow to mount. Browsing the files is still extremely slow. Apparently this was just one of those times I got extremely and it just connected without multiple replugs. Because it's back to being finicky about whether it will mount or not.

There's also weirdly now a bunch of free/downloadable books? Mix of languages - English, Espanõl and Deutsch that I can see. I have no idea where these came from, have never had this happen before lol. I assume one of the firmware updates installed a bunch of free books?

Originally Posted by Quoth

That sounds like the SQLight database is corrupt.

Sounds like it to me too but kinda irrelevant since taking the nuclear option 'fixed' that issue.