Koreader running on Kobos (all of them, hopefully!)

[JimMcLaren]

Originally Posted by danicca

I apologize if it has already been answered, I tried searching without success. Can I read ADE books on koreader? Kobo is authorized.

Your best bet is to remove the DRM. Calibre and Aprentice Alf can help you. We don't normally talk about DRM removal although I did notice a thread on the General Discussions board.

[JimMcLaren]

Originally Posted by WS64

I don't think OTA is working at all on Kobos right now (it never did for me).
There is an open issue about it at GitHub: https://github.com/koreader/koreader/issues/803

That's good to know. I can quit trying. But now I have another problem. There hasn't been a nightly on the releases page since 8/13. I'd like to get some of the newer features but don't know where to download. If I just have to be patient and wait until a new version is available, I'm ok with that but would like to download it if there is another option.

Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and learn lua programming on Linux.

[gontofe]

Originally Posted by JimMcLaren

I'd like to get some of the newer features but don't know where to download.

Look at the sites listed under the OTA server in the UI for more recent nightly if you just want to download. You might be able to telnet in to Kobo to run zsync commands manually too (see Github issue).

Originally Posted by JimMcLaren

Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and learn lua programming on Linux.

I think the more devs the better, I think there aren't many simple tasks left to get started though!

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by JimMcLaren

That's good to know. I can quit trying. But now I have another problem. There hasn't been a nightly on the releases page since 8/13. I'd like to get some of the newer features but don't know where to download. If I just have to be patient and wait until a new version is available, I'm ok with that but would like to download it if there is another option.

Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and learn lua programming on Linux.

The link in this post will get you there. This is the OTA server that I have used, it is in China. You might want to try one of the others listed in the OTA Settings.

Luck;
Ken

[donoharm]

Hello, can someone explain it me whether koreader is just a reader that works on a kobo or is it an actual "jailbreak" that can stop the kobo from "phoning home" with data on what I'm reading?

[JimMcLaren]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

The link in this post will get you there. This is the OTA server that I have used, it is in China. You might want to try one of the others listed in the OTA Settings.

Luck;
Ken

Thanks. That did it.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by donoharm

Hello, can someone explain it me whether koreader is just a reader that works on a kobo or is it an actual "jailbreak" that can stop the kobo from "phoning home" with data on what I'm reading?

Koreader is becoming a very advanced reading program, with some impressive features.

One way to prevent the phoning home of the Kobo reader, is to not turn it on. With tshering's Kobo Start Menu you can start Koreader or Coolreader, without having the Kobo software running at all.

Another thing you can do is not use WiFi, with Nickel (the Kobo UI) running. A third way is to alter the database to remove the address to phone home to. (There is a sticky with tweaks and mods listed) There is also one to disable the Google Analytcs, also.

Luck;
Ken

[embryo]

I've installed 2014.04-568 and I'm really impressed.
The Search with the Browse Tag and Series options are really great!
Congratulations to WS64 and all the other contributors here, for the fast implementations of everything.

And since I'm here I can wish for something more (as always hehehe ;o)

Is it possible to display more (or all) of the calibre's custom columns values in the 'Info window' you get when you long press a search result.
There could be very useful informations there like Reading status, Number of pages, etc. and there are already in the metadata.calibre file.

This is just for the icing on the cake, not a really important missing feature.

[WS64]

Originally Posted by embryo

I've installed 2014.04-568 and I'm really impressed.
The Search with the Browse Tag and Series options are really great!
Congratulations to WS64 and all the other contributors here, for the fast implementations of everything.

And since I'm here I can wish for something more (as always hehehe ;o)

Is it possible to display more (or all) of the calibre's custom columns values in the 'Info window' you get when you long press a search result.
There could be very useful informations there like Reading status, Number of pages, etc. and there are already in the metadata.calibre file.

This is just for the icing on the cake, not a really important missing feature.

Thanks!

For the custom calibre columns, this is pretty unlikely to hapen, for at least two reasons.

First, Koreader now supports two calibre files. And these two files can have different custom fields in it, so at least I had to think of something.

Second, with the latest nightly (577, not sure if this is already in 568) Koreader writes the metadata in its own file which makes searching WAY faster (from the second search on), in my case it is more than factor 10 faster. If I have to consider custom fields here I again have to think how to make it still fast.

[embryo]

Originally Posted by WS64

First, Koreader now supports two calibre files. And these two files can have different custom fields in it, so at least I had to think of something.

AFAIK Calibre saves the same custom columns in both files because you're only have one set of them. The ones in your library.

Second, with the latest nightly (577, not sure if this is already in 568) Koreader writes the metadata in its own file which makes searching WAY faster (from the second search on), in my case it is more than factor 10 faster. If I have to consider custom fields here I again have to think how to make it still fast.

You can try a 'Calibre Companion'-like approach.
Let the user choose (and define for you) the columns that s/he wants to copy over to the Koreader's metadata file.

[WS64]

Originally Posted by embryo

AFAIK Calibre saves the same custom columns in both files because you're only have one set of them. The ones in your library.

Yes, of course.
But I still don't know if both are up to date.
If #1 is from last week and you added a new custom column yesterday and sync #2 now then they will have different fields. Until you also sync #1.
And #1 and #2 might even come from different computers/Calibre and might be completely different.

Originally Posted by embryo

You can try a 'Calibre Companion'-like approach.
Let the user choose (and define for you) the columns that s/he wants to copy over to the Koreader's metadata file.

I'm not even sure that is possible. You can tell Calibre to not send some metadata? Does this also mean that Calibre might not even send some of those over that I use? I don't think Koreader will crash in that case, but of course the search results will not be very helpful in case of e.g. an empty title...

[embryo]

Originally Posted by WS64

Yes, of course.
But I still don't know if both are up to date.
If #1 is from last week and you added a new custom column yesterday and sync #2 now then they will have different fields. Until you also sync #1.
And #1 and #2 might even come from different computers/Calibre and might be completely different.

I think that the all metadata files are updated whenever Calibre is accessing the device, so there are always current.

I'm not even sure that is possible. You can tell Calibre to not send some metadata? Does this also mean that Calibre might not even send some of those over that I use? I don't think Koreader will crash in that case, but of course the search results will not be very helpful in case of e.g. an empty title...

No, Calibre always writes all of its data.
What I was suggesting was to 'copy' (and so check on search) only the columns that you like or need.
If there is user input, Koreader does not has to search the metadata.calibre for 'all' the columns, and it will copy to its own metadata file only the ones needed.
This could keep the file smaller and the search fast.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by embryo

I think that the all metadata files are updated whenever Calibre is accessing the device, so there are always current.

No, Calibre always writes all of its data.
What I was suggesting was to 'copy' (and so check on search) only the columns that you like or need.
If there is user input, Koreader does not has to search the metadata.calibre for 'all' the columns, and it will copy to its own metadata file only the ones needed.
This could keep the file smaller and the search fast.

Yes, calibre updates the metadata.calibre files each time it accesses the device. But, if someone took the external card out and accessed that separately, or used the folder device for different folders on the device or card, they could be out of sync.

As the to data in the files, calibre does write all the metadata for each book it knows about. That means anything that is on the device and in the calibre library will have the full metadata from the library. But, if the book is only on the device and not in the library, it will only have the metadata from the device. This will probably be a much smaller set of metadata. Using different libraries with different custom columns, can also mean different sets of metadata for each book.

[gontofe]

How do I get the search db rebuilt if I move the location my books are stored in?

[WS64]

By deleting temp/metadata.koreader the calibre file. And ff Koreader finds a newer calibre file it will rebuild its own. There might be a time issue since both timestamps are set by different computers (Kobo versus your computer), not sure how to handle this, but I guess it means that latest after 12 hours Koreader will rebuild the database automatically.

Oh, but if you mean to rebuild the calbre DB you need to make Calibre do it!