Kobo Firmware 3.11.0

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by cybmole

that bit I knew; what I was asking is where is it on the device, is it within the firmware or in some other read only partition ?

and am I right in thinking that is is used only for interpreting epub, there's other code used only for handling kepub which does belong to Kobo ?

It's in the firmware. If you look in the /usr/local/Kobo directory,you'll find the librmsdk.so.1.0.0 file. The kepub renderer is not Kobo's either. It was developed by ACCESS. That renderer is epub3 compliant but can also be used with epub2 documents. The only reason to continue including both is the Adobe ADEPT DRM ecosystem which is used by libraries and ebook vendors. Though it is fun comparing the bugs in both renderers (valid for some values of fun ).

[arspr]

Hey guys here you have a list of already known and confirmed issues with renderers in Kobo:

• EPUBs - Adobe RMSDK in Kobo flavour. (I don't know if they are present or not in other new readers from other brands):
  • Widows and orphans are somehow buggy. Sometimes you get some extra blank space at the bottom of the page where one or two lines from the trailing ones in the next page could have been perfectly moved to that space. (But already said: the long paragraph bug is gone).
  • font-variant: small-caps doesn't still work.
  • white-space: nowrap doesn't work at least applied to <span> tags. I use it a lot in dialogues in Spanish books (link to Calibre Editor thread). And I can assure you that it perfectly worked (works) in my old Sony PRS-650.
  
  
• KEPUBs - ACCESS:
  • Widows and orphans DO NOT WORK at all. It doesn't matter what you set, you always get a 1 (off) behaviour.
  • @page, page-break-before/after CCS settings do not work.
  • The aforementioned problem with trimmed letters in the right margin when that margin (both in book and GUI) is set to 0 and the text is justified. Italic ending fs are the perfect candidates for this issue.
  • The renderer adds extra space around certain punctuation marks when the text is justified. I mean the punctuation marks are "separated" from their partner words. Examples IIRC:
    • (I'm fully sure of this one) Long/Medium dashes:

      This—code

      is justified as

      This—  code

      (Awful in Spanish dialogues).
    • Ellipsis or quotes which also get separated from following punctuation marks as in

      (“Bla,   bla”  )

  • Books with embedded fonts tend to get white/blank screen when changing "chapters" (I mean when a new html file is loaded). I mean that sometimes when you turn page and the new chapter should be rendered, you just get a blank screen. You have to tap/swipe one, two or three extra times till the new chapter is correctly rendered. But it doesn't ALWAYS happen. Sideloaded kepubs and embedded fonts don't work fine together...

(And possibly some other ones I don't remember right now... )

[norbusan]

Originally Posted by anavin

I'd had this situation on my Glo once, too, when I upgraded from 3.2.0 to 3.11.0.
And then I tried factory-reset before upgrading; the situation didn't happen this time. So resetting the device might help.

Indeed, that helped. Although it is a pain to go through factory reset ...

Originally Posted by zztush

My Kobo Touch has no problem with Japanese fonts. I attached a screen shot.

After the factory reset it is working again for me, but the second problem with the icons and text overlapping is still present. How is it on your side?

[zztush]

Originally Posted by norbusan

After the factory reset it is working again for me, but the second problem with the icons and text overlapping is still present. How is it on your side?

It happens to me too. I am not sure but it might not be the problem of fw3.11.0. I think I have seen this before on earlier versions of firmware. The font of this area is Aveir on English interface. It should be Gothic on Japanese one.

[norbusan]

Originally Posted by zztush

It happens to me too. I am not sure but it might not be the problem of fw3.11.0. I think I have seen this before on earlier versions of firmware. The font of this area is Aveir on English interface. It should be Gothic on Japanese one.

I have not seen this on any firmware since .... since 1.something. And yes, it is Gothic.

[norbusan]

Hi David,

I have updated my Kobo GLO after a factory reset to 3.11.0, and all the things you listed are actually there, but one:

Originally Posted by davidfor

• Page number display options in reading settings
  • Display per book or chapter. Per chapter only works for kepubs.
  • Display as page number, percent read or time remaining (kepubs only) in footer.
  • Affects slider in navigation bar for kepubs. If per chapter, slider is for the chapter. If per book, slider is for the complete book and chapter title is not displayed.

My UI is in Japanese, but this should not change anything.

Are there any settings in Kobo eReader.conf necessary to activate these additional settings?

Thanks

Norbert

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by shalym

I don't understand how Nooks and Sonys were ever able to read borrowed epubs, since they were somehow able to fix some of these issues. Or am I wrong about that? JSWolf, did your Sony have these same issues with epubs that are being reported here?

I'm not JSWolf, but each of the devices and reader applications that use the RMSDK have problems.

They all use the RMSDK, but they use different versions or builds within the version. Each has different bugs in it. Earlier this year, Kobo updated to RMSDK 10. I think they were using RMSDK 8 before that. I suspect that Sony uses RMSDK 9. Unless you know exactly what version and build is used on each device, it is hard to compare the bugs. Some might not be visible because the device doesn't use a function. And there might be some workarounds in the device to handle a bug differently.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'm not JSWolf, but each of the devices and reader applications that use the RMSDK have problems.

They all use the RMSDK, but they use different versions or builds within the version. Each has different bugs in it. Earlier this year, Kobo updated to RMSDK 10. I think they were using RMSDK 8 before that. I suspect that Sony uses RMSDK 9. Unless you know exactly what version and build is used on each device, it is hard to compare the bugs. Some might not be visible because the device doesn't use a function. And there might be some workarounds in the device to handle a bug differently.

also, Sony had many over-rides / simplifications compared with Kobo
e.g. Sony chose the margins, the line height, the 6 or 7 preset font sizes, the font weights... so things like the right hand characters + zero margin bug were maybe just simplified out of existence ?
I no longer have any Sony readers so I cannot check RMSDK versions therein. I know that T3 was different to previous models though as it had hyphenation support.

all somewhat speculative, I think that if you tried going back to an old sony now - the fonts/screen would seem so lo-rez / fuzzy compared with HD / H2O...

[shalym]

Originally Posted by cybmole

also, Sony had many over-rides / simplifications compared with Kobo
e.g. Sony chose the margins, the line height, the 6 or 7 preset font sizes, the font weights... so things like the right hand characters + zero margin bug were maybe just simplified out of existence ?
I no longer have any Sony readers so I cannot check RMSDK versions therein. I know that T3 was different to previous models though as it had hyphenation support.

all somewhat speculative, I think that if you tried going back to an old sony now - the fonts/screen would seem so lo-rez / fuzzy compared with HD / H2O...

So...if Sony (and others) can do these over-rides, why can't Kobo? I think that's why people are so frustrated.

Shari

[bernard.ryefield]

It's the first time an update breaks my preferred sideloaded font EB Garamond .
Titles and footers have the correct font but the (at least) kepub books haven't (probably downgraded to Georgia). I use Calibre>Kobo Utilities, Kobo Glo, no patches. It seems Kobo has modified their font management (to prevent sideloaded fonts use?).

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by shalym

So...if Sony (and others) can do these over-rides, why can't Kobo? I think that's why people are so frustrated.

Shari

but then you'd say - why can't I adjust the margins, or the line heights, or the justification, or sharpen the font....

you can fix a lot of bugs by removing the bugged feature!

to be fair to Kobo, I think they have tried to give the user a lot of control over the end display - via sliders and options..... but then some extreme combinations of those lead to unwanted results....

if you compare with say the Kindle UI, some of the things that Kobo lets you tweak are preset/locked on Kindle - take it or leave it.

I do agree that kobo shoudl put more effort into bug fixing,
& they should have proper change logs, & the ability to open & track fault tickets so that we can see what is going on & contribute...

I worry that they are focused only on adding "features" that might increase books sales - like " hey lets have a pop-up that tells people what to buy next" - or "lets keep changing the home screen layout so that customers will have to see our newest offers"...& they don't see how that can actually lead to less sales because it's annoying ( if they did focus groups they could find out beforehand....)

[shalym]

Originally Posted by cybmole

but then you'd say - why can't I adjust the margins, or the line heights, or the justification, or sharpen the font....

you can fix a lot of bugs by removing the bugged feature!

to be fair to Kobo, I think they have tried to give the user a lot of control over the end display - via sliders and options..... but then some extreme combinations of those lead to unwanted results....

if you compare with say the Kindle UI, some of the things that Kobo lets you tweak are preset/locked on Kindle - take it or leave it.

I do agree that kobo shoudl put more effort into bug fixing,
& they should have proper change logs, & the ability to open & track fault tickets so that we can see what is going on & contribute...

I worry that they are focused only on adding "features" that might increase books sales - like " hey lets have a pop-up that tells people what to buy next" - or "lets keep changing the home screen layout so that customers will have to see our newest offers"...& they don't see how that can actually lead to less sales because it's annoying ( if they did focus groups they could find out beforehand....)

So margins and line height couldn't be adjusted on the Sony readers?? I didn't realize that.

Shari

[Nick_1964]

"After ejecting the device from the PC, it starts up without disconnecting the cable."
Maybe I understand wrong, but on Glo and Aura HD, when I eject the device using the known button on windows 7 the computer say it is safe to unplug the cable,but the readers still display the laptop and reader picture with the cable connected, showing "connected and charging"or "connected and charged" until I actually unplug the cable.
They don't starting without disconnecting the cable.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by Nick_1964

"After ejecting the device from the PC, it starts up without disconnecting the cable."
Maybe I understand wrong, but on Glo and Aura HD, when I eject the device using the known button on windows 7 the computer say it is safe to unplug the cable,but the readers still display the laptop and reader picture with the cable connected, showing "connected and charging"or "connected and charged" until I actually unplug the cable.
They don't starting without disconnecting the cable.

Interesting. With my Glo as soon as I do the disconnect via calibre the device displays the processing new content screen, even while the USB cable is still connected.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by bernard.ryefield

It's the first time an update breaks my preferred sideloaded font EB Garamond .
Titles and footers have the correct font but the (at least) kepub books haven't (probably downgraded to Georgia). I use Calibre>Kobo Utilities, Kobo Glo, no patches. It seems Kobo has modified their font management (to prevent sideloaded fonts use?).

A couple of my sideloaded fonts broke upgrading v3.5 to v3.8 which I managed to fix. The same ones broke again upgrading v3.8 to v3.11 which I also managed to fix. The fix each time involved making sure the internal font names and external font names matched and were consistent across the 4 ttfs. I do agree that Kobo changed something. I'm thinking maybe they changed where they are extracting the internal font name from ??? - but I don't really know because looking at the fonts in FontCreator shows the internal font name being stored in multiple places. I freely admit to not being very knowledgeable about the innards of font files.

A casual glance at your EB Garamond example looks like the bold variants are EB Garamond 08 and non-bold EB Garamond 12. Could the fact that all 4 aren't the same internal name be causing your problem?