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

[johnnyb]

Hi folks, I'm new to Koreader (which helped my decision to buy an H2O) but I'm having serious trouble getting it to run reliably which is a pity because the screen is awesome and the PDF features in Koreader are as well... I've a couple of PDFs (some Adbobe ClearScanned, some just plain Text PDFs) and I still have to find a way to not make Koreader crash at some point, which is really annoying because I lose a lot of highlights most of the time... Found Reflow without scrolling to be the best mode for me (in terms of reading) but the crashes just happen regardless, even in completely unchanged PDFs.
Another thing that I found was happening to me very often is that highlights wouldn't appear. Most of the issues are resolved with rebooting but that only gets me going for so long until Koreader randomly crashes again without warning...
I've read that it may have to do with an unreliable internal SD card but I'm reluctant to change it because I think it would mess with the waterproofing... Are there any workarounds or changes I could make to the software to get Koreader to run more reliably for my PDF reading needs?

Edit: this is the fourth time so I'm adding this: I get freezes in Nickel after using Koreader that I didn't have before. Upon reboot I have to re-set my language and all my Pocket account data and Wifi password are deleted (but not the Kobo account).
Another thing I've noticed: after using Koreader and starting Nickel, the five square startup dots are scrambled and all over the place...
I think there's something seriously wrong with my Koreader (and I have the feeling that it's actually getting worse with every crash or failure (is that possible?).

Edit2: right, and I almost forgot: Im running koreader-kobo-arm-linux-gnueabihf-v2014.11 (stable as well as latest nightly) on 1.13.1 (unpatched) on KSM 7 with patch...

Is there actually a reliable way to use Koreader on the H2O, a sort of to do list of what is to be done to avoid crashes? Another really stable release maybe?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Another thing I've noticed: after using Koreader and starting Nickel, the five square startup dots are scrambled and all over the place...
I think there's something seriously wrong with my Koreader (and I have the feeling that it's actually getting worse with every crash or failure (is that possible?).

How exactly is this happening? You start koreader by selecting "start koreader", then you exit koreader back to KSM, the KSM screen is displayed correctly, you select "start nickel", and then the startup dots are scrambled all over the place? Was this always so on your device? Or only after updating koreader or after updating to the new Kobo firmware, or ...?
Do you have crash logs of koreader?

[chrox]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Hi folks, I'm new to Koreader (which helped my decision to buy an H2O) but I'm having serious trouble getting it to run reliably which is a pity because the screen is awesome and the PDF features in Koreader are as well...

Edit2: right, and I almost forgot: Im running koreader-kobo-arm-linux-gnueabihf-v2014.04 on 1.13.1 (unpatched) on KSM 7 with patch...

Is there actually a reliable way to use Koreader on the H2O, a sort of to do list of what is to be done to avoid crashes? Another really stable release maybe?

The koreader-kobo-arm-linux-gnueabihf-v2014.04 release is about one-year-old and was released half-year before Kobo released the Kobo H2O model, how about trying some recent releases like koreader-kobo-arm-linux-gnueabihf-v2014.11 or the nightly builds?

[johnnyb]

@tshering: I can only claim that for my reader, I got it and installed 1.13.1, then KSM, then the patch and then
@chrox the latest nightly from the Wiki. I accidentally mixed them up when testing different builds (sorry to say that even the latest stable release causes these problems). Currently, I have no logs available (re-did the whole process) but I'll post some as soon as I get the next crash (need to get some actual reading done beforehand though )

I guess what I'm really looking for is a sureshot way of setting up Koreader on the H2O, so if someone could point me in the right direction with a working setup (maybe reduce preloading? increase cache?), that would be greatly appreciated.

[johnnyb]

Ok, follow up : it seems that after a complete factory reset and reinstall of everything Koreader works well now (so far). I'm on the 11/2014 stable. Am I correct in assuming that this version has the Evernote bug where the login credentials aren't accepted? One change: this time I copied Koreader into the .kobo directory and not into .adds as KSM suggested (in order to retain the installation after a system update)... Maybe this could have caused problems too...
On another note: highlighting in reflow mode doesn't seem to be 100% reliable and highlights bigger parts of the text than originally selected. This is not caused by unsteady hand as it always selects the same larger area of text in these cases. The mapping to the unreflowed document is fine though...
So far I'm happy and reading, thanks for this great piece of software. Hoping for the next stable to iron out these bugs

Edit: and Nickel froze again, likely this has something to do with saving the file, or with KSM not running properly (memory leak or the like), I have no idea... What's especially annoying about this is that most of my Nickel settings are reset... I think I might return the H2O after all, this whole affair really seems to to improve productivity in the slightest...

[myki]

Hello, I didn't read the whole post, so sorry if it has been already said... but :
- Is there a way to start koreader with with the light on ?
- Is there a way to display the cover of the last open book when the H2O sleeps ?
I found an option in the advanced options, but it doesn't work, maybe because I use .mobi books ?
- And do you know where I can get a copy of the french wiktionnary in the stardict format ?

Thanks in advance for your answers

@johnnyb
I use koreader-kobo-arm-linux-gnueabihf-v2014.11-151-g34377cd on KSM 7 (no patch - what patch to you use ?) and it works fine.
My advice is when you start nickel the first time, pay attention on the build of the thumbnails of the koreder launcher, and the exit nickel pngs files.
Then, I put those 2 pngs in a collection in order to not see them when I access my books. For me it works better now.

[church mouse]

Ebri, did you fix your battery drain issue? If so, how?

I tried Ken's suggestion but I cannot get more than 4 days life, whereas I get 3--4 weeks using Nickel.

I guess something must be still running when sleeping using Koreader started through KSM07 on my Glo. I even uninstalled and reinstalled both KSM and Koreader but without success.

[Ebri]

I copied suspend.sh from vlasofsoftlauncher, it is a bit longer (and also turns off slower), but it seems to live for about a week. It seems quite similar, so probably it is more stable during suspend, so the reader does not remain in a woken up state. Or I don't know .

[Ebri]

One more thing that can help, if you use KSM and have a reader not having tbhe "hanging if not touched" issue, you can disable preventfreeze. (Actually it has not very big consumption, but has some.) And please use it with caution, I am unsure if your reader is a freezing type how can it be revived, so I wouldn't propose to brick your device.

[church mouse]

Thank you for your replies.

I saw the preventfreeze suggestion elsewhere so I have that set to false and the vlasofsoft version of suspend. 2% drain in 24 hours is a promising sign.

EDIT: spoke too soon. 10% drop with 4 hours of suspend. Shame.

[Ebri]

Battery % is not very reliable, so it is better to check during some usage (and only 1-2% drainage per day is always suspicious, after a rebott battery % usually goes down). But I have no other way to improve battery life .

[JFeole]

I'm using KOReader latest nitely. I am also noticing rapid battery drain? Is KOReader causing the drain, or KSM?

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by nook_nerd

I'm using KOReader latest nitely. I am also noticing rapid battery drain? Is KOReader causing the drain, or KSM?

I don't think the nature and extent of any power drain has been established. It appears that not all users are seeing a noticeable effect. It may be that a lot depends on other factors, as well. Which device, which firmware, the version of KSM and/or Koreader, how it is used; suspended or powered off. Or it could be some odd combination of the factors.

For me, it does seem that I end up charging my AuraHD more often than I remember doing it, in the past. Still I seem to get more than a week between charges.

Luck;
Ken

[myki]

In the case that you have missed my question, I ask it again

- Is there a way to display the cover of the last open book when the H2O sleeps, when the last opened book is a .mobi one (kenobi lol) ?

Thank you for your help...

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by myki

In the case that you have missed my question, I ask it again

- Is there a way to display the cover of the last open book when the H2O sleeps, when the last opened book is a .mobi one (kenobi lol) ?

Thank you for your help...

It might be possible, depending on the .mobi file, itself. But it takes only a little time and effort to use calibre to convert it to .epub. You can set an image file to be used when Koreader doesn't find a cover or when there isn't one.

Luck;
Ken