Patching firmware 4.0.7523

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by erikssenmar867

GeoffR, first of all the "Refresh pages every" menu in the Reading settings looks like the photo you have posted (in the Kobo Aura One).
Talking about the line spacing patch, i'll try to explain but i am afraid that my English is poor. However, the Kobo Aura One has 15 line spacing values by default; I activated the 10 line spacing values patch, and only a few values worked, while other values were the same before the patch.
I hope i was clear; however i think that the only way to have this patch is to create it for 15 line spacing values

Thanks, I think I've found the problem and have updated the `My 10 line spacing values` patch in the attachment in post #7`.

This is the fixed patch:

Spoiler:

<Patch>
patch_name = `My 10 line spacing values` 
patch_enable = `yes`
#
## This patch changes the line spacing set by the line spacing adjustment
## slider, allowing much narrower line spacing to be set. It is recommended to
## select your own custom spacings by editing the replace_float lines at the
## bottom of this patch, as the defaults will not suit everyone.
#
# Bypass code-constructed values 1.0, 1.2, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0
replace_bytes = 5DD24E, D2 F6 B8 EE, 00 46 00 46
replace_bytes = 5DD29E, D2 F6 90 EE, 00 46 00 46
replace_bytes = 5DD2C4, D2 F6 7C EE, 00 46 00 46
replace_bytes = 5DD300, D2 F6 5E EE, 00 46 00 46
replace_bytes = 5DD362, D2 F6 2E EE, 00 46 00 46
#
# 10 values for replacement, change these to suit.
replace_float = 5DD3C0, 1.05, 0.8
replace_float = 5DD3C8, 1.07, 0.85
replace_float = 5DD3D0, 1.1, 0.875
replace_float = 5DD3D8, 1.35, 0.9
replace_float = 5DD3E0, 1.7, 0.925
replace_float = 5DD3E8, 1.8, 0.95
replace_float = 5DD3F0, 2.2, 0.975
replace_float = 5DD3F8, 2.4, 1.0
replace_float = 5DD400, 2.6, 1.05
replace_float = 5DD408, 2.8, 1.1
</Patch>

[erikssenmar867]

Thanks!
Now are also working "10 line spacing values" (i'd like to have 15 values, but i can't complain ), "refresh values", and "custom reading footer style".

Thank you very much again

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Could someone with an Aura One open this test epub: margintest.epub and take a screenshot of the first page with the margin slider set to minimum? Use normal reading mode, not full-screen.

That should allow us to see the exact size of the footer and built-in epub top margin.

Here's the results. I've also attached the refresh settings.

[cerem0ny]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

We're still working on the patches, I'll create a new thread with instructions for patching once it is done, but it is a bit more difficult this time because it was so long since the last firmware update there have been more changes than usual and I am out of practice, and also because I don't have the firmware on my Glo to test and there is a completely new device to learn about.

If you haven't used the patches previously you are better to wait until those familiar with the process have tested them and we figure out what is going to work and what won't.

Yes I have used the patches previously, with every iteration of the Kobo i've owned. They are a game-changer, thank you!

What motivates one to engage in such a hobby, may I ask? Either way, lucky us! :P What is your profession?

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by cerem0ny

What motivates one to engage in such a hobby, may I ask? Either way, lucky us! :P What is your profession?

I've wondered that, too. I don't think I'd be able to stand reading on an unpatched Kobo with that huge bottom margin. I was seriously not happy when I saw that patch might not work. When I read that you had figured it out after all, I let out a "hallelujah" that disturbed several fellow coffee drinkers in my vicinity. So, thank you to all who contribute to these patches, especially GeoffR. With the patches, I expect the Aura One (when I finally receive it and get it set up) to be damn near my own personal perfect ereader.

[cerem0ny]

Originally Posted by icallaci

With the patches, I expect the Aura One (when I finally receive it and get it set up) to be damn near my own personal perfect ereader.

It's certainly the closest it's ever been! I think once I can get rid of those enormous footers then itll be the holy grail. For now that full screen config edit works very nicely. Having no idea when a book ends does add a certain mysterious edge to the reading experience I must say.

All hail the patch elves!

[rtiangha]

Originally Posted by cerem0ny

It's certainly the closest it's ever been! I think once I can get rid of those enormous footers then itll be the holy grail. For now that full screen config edit works very nicely. Having no idea when a book ends does add a certain mysterious edge to the reading experience I must say.

All hail the patch elves!

You can still check your reading status by tapping on the screen and then on the two arrow icon on the bottom right of the screen. And as long as it's highlighted, you can always check your book progress by pulling it up again with a single tap. Although I know what you mean. For me, I prefer the extra real estate being used; means less page turns. Having to tap to bring up the menu to see how far to go every so often is an okay trade off (plus I have my screen refresh set to a really high number (64) rather than 6 so it has the added benefit of forcing a manual screen refresh every so often to get rid of the ghosting).

[MGlitch]

I agree, I prefer the full screen mode. Many thanks to the user who pointed out that the line 10 patch needed some tweaking and provided insight on why. With the revised patch I got my One to display an extra line of text. I know that doesn't sound like much, but when you're reading a 10,000+ page ebook that extra line per page adds up to a lot less page turns.

[GeoffR]

I've added these patches to the attachment in post #7:

`Always display chapter name on navigation menu`
`Allow download all in Browser`
`ePub fixed top/bottom margins`

I've split the `ePub fixed/adjustable top/bottom margins` patch into `ePub fixed top/bottom margins` and `ePub adjustable top/bottom margins`, I'm still working on the adjustable version which is more complicated.

Originally Posted by DNSB

Here's the results. I've also attached the refresh settings.

Thanks, that looks like a 15px top margin (same as other devives) and a 156px footer.

Originally Posted by cerem0ny

What motivates one to engage in such a hobby, may I ask? Either way, lucky us! :P What is your profession?

Reading is my hobby, I see time spent on patching the ereader in the same way as time spend fixing problems in ebooks: up to a certain point it is worthwhile because it increases my reading enjoyment, but I'd much rather I didn't have to do it, and if it became too difficult (the device gets locked down, DRM can't be removed from ebooks, etc.) then I would reluctantly return to reading paper books.

I didn't have any experience with modifying executable code before I got my ereader, but I had done quite a bit of programming in C and x86 assembly languages (I did my degree in mathematics and later spent a lot of time writing programs for distributed computing projects as a hobby, but I am not a professional programmer.)

[Jappy]

Hello. First of all congratulations , my reading experience would not be as beautiful if it were not for your work . I have my One with some active patch: 10 line spacing, custom margins and I have enabled the Full Screen Reading Mode but I noticed that the bottom margin is always greater than the upper one and it gets worse when you change line spacing , or the left / right margins . Any advice on how to solve? the files are Kepub.

[jackastor]

GeoffR, is the patch created the same way as usual? As in selecting what one wants and creating TGZ file and dropping it into the correct location on the reader?

Regards

Jack

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Jappy

Hello. First of all congratulations , my reading experience would not be as beautiful if it were not for your work . I have my One with some active patch: 10 line spacing, custom margins and I have enabled the Full Screen Reading Mode but I noticed that the bottom margin is always greater than the upper one and it gets worse when you change line spacing , or the left / right margins . Any advice on how to solve? the files are Kepub.

First thing to check: the `My 10 line spacings` patch was broken, and I updated it with a new one. Do you have the new version? To check, in the new version the fifth replace_bytes line is:

replace_bytes = 5DD362, D2 F6 2E EE, 00 46 00 46

Have you used Full Screen mode with KePubs before this firmware? I just need to check if this is something different, or only the usual KePub problems that occur in full-screen mode or with narrow line spacings, so sorry if some of these questions seem obvious:

How much bigger is the space at the bottom compared to the top? In full-screen mode the KePub reader adjusts the top and bottom margin as you change the margin slider, but the total space at the bottom will usually be a bit more than the top by as much as the height of one line of text, and that will vary as you change line spacing and the margin slider. This is completely normal. The space at the bottom of the screen is a combination of the margin set by the KePub reader plus the gap that results from the last line of text not quite reaching the bottom margin.

The KePub reader has always had problems with narrow line spacings, does the problem eventually go away when you increase the line spacing?

The KePub reader has always had problems in full-screen mode with books that have a non-zero body margin, but it usually results in the left margin being bigger than the right or the text at the right being pushed off the screen, so it doesn't sound quite like your problem. But you could try to enable the `Fix three KePub fullScreenReading bugs` patch to see if that has an effect.

If none of that works: I take it you only have the `Custom left & right margins` and `My 10 line spacing values` patches enabled. Could you try enabling just one of the patches at a time to see which is causing the problem?

Edit: One more thing: Did you try full-screen mode before you patched? If not, could you check whether the problem still occurs when no patches are enabled?

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by jackastor

GeoffR, is the patch created the same way as usual? As in selecting what one wants and creating TGZ file and dropping it into the correct location on the reader?

Yes, if you have patched recent versions of the firmware then the procedure is the same, except that none of the patches are enabled by default.

[MGlitch]

These are my settings for the 4.x patch on the One. I have a margin which is very thin and roughly equal on all four sides using the Literata font. The bottom margin is clearly bigger, but I think it could hold, at best 1/5 of a line of text.

Font size/line spacing/margin settings as follows

Font Size - approximately 14 ticks from the lowest setting (this is going to be the option that needs playing with)

Line Spacing - set to minimum

Margin - set one tick above minimum

Spoiler:

# nickel in firmware 4.0.7523 (c213e8a341)
# For use by patch32lsb v0.10 or later.

#
# Lines beginning with '#' (such as this one) are treated as comments (ignored.)
# To 'comment out' a line means to insert a '#' character at the beginning.
# To 'uncomment' a line means to remove the '#' character from the beginning.
# Some patch options are commented out, and can be enabled by uncommenting.
#


#
# The following two patches are alternatives, don't enable both at once.
#
# `Disable reading footer`
# `Custom reading footer style`
#

<Patch>
patch_name = `Disable reading footer`
patch_enable = `no`
# Multi-version patch: 4.0.7523 - 4.0.7523+
# patch_group = `Reading footer alternatives`
#
## Removes the reading footer for both ePub and KePub books, leaving a 15px
## bottom margin which matches the 15px built-in top margin of ePub books.
#
find_base_address = `ReadingFooter {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 105;\n}\n`
replace_string = 0000, `ReadingFooter {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 105;\n}\n`, `ReadingFooter {min-height:15px;max-height:15px;}\n`
#
find_base_address = `#caption {\n  font-size: 16px;\n}\n`
Replace_string = 0000, `#caption {\n  font-size: 16px;\n}\n#caption[qApp_deviceIsPhoenix="true"] {\n  font-size: 20px;\n}`, `#caption {font-size:1px;color:transparent;}\n\0`
</Patch>


<Patch>
patch_name = `Custom reading footer style`
patch_enable = `no`
# Multi-version patch: 4.0.7523 - 4.0.7523+
# patch_group = `Reading footer alternatives`
#
## This patch customises the following properties of the reading footer:
##
##  * Footer height (the amount of the screen reserved for the footer.)
##  * Caption font size (Caption = page number or other progress indicator)
##  * Caption top margin, which changes its vertical position within the footer.
##  * Caption font family.
#
# When editing the replacement values below, BE CAREFUL NOT TO CHANGE THE LENGTH
# OF THE REPLACEMENT STRING! If a replacement string is too long you will get
# an error when making the patch, but if one is too short then there will be no
# error, but strange things will happen to the reading footer.
#
find_base_address = `ReadingFooter {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 105;\n}\n`
replace_string = 0000, `ReadingFooter {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 105;\n}\nReadingFooter[qApp_deviceIsDragon="true"] {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 170;\n}\nReadingFooter[qApp_deviceIsDaylight="true"] {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 221;\n}\n#caption {\n  font-size: 16px;\n}\n#caption[qApp_deviceIsPhoenix="true"] {\n  font-size: 20px;\n}\n#caption[qApp_deviceIsDragon="true"] {\n  font-size: 26px;\n}\n#caption[qApp_deviceIsDaylight="true"] {\n  font-size: 34px;\n}\n#caption[qApp_deviceIsAlyssum="true"] {\n  font-size: 30px;\n}\n#caption[qApp_localeName="ja_JP"] {\n  font-family: Sans-SerifJP, sans-serif;\n  font-style: normal;\n}\n`, `ReadingFooter {qproperty-footerMargin:105;min-height:70px;max-height:70px}\nReadingFooter[qApp_deviceIsDragon="true"] {min-height:80px;max-height:80px}\nReadingFooter[qApp_deviceIsDaylight="true"] {min-height:90px;max-height:90px}\n#caption {font-size:16px;margin-top:+00px}\n#caption[qApp_deviceIsPhoenix="true"] {font-size:20px}\n#caption[qApp_deviceIsDragon="true"] {font-size:26px}\n#caption[qApp_deviceIsDaylight="true"] {font-size:34px}\n#caption[qApp_deviceIsAlyssum="true"] {font-size:30px}\n#caption[qApp_localeName="ja_JP"] {font-family:Sans-SerifJP,sans-serif;font-style:normal}\n`
#
# Replacement footer height values: Touch/Mini/Glo/Aura/Aura2E
replace_string = 002A, `min-height:70px`, `min-height:40px`
replace_string = 003A, `max-height:70px`, `max-height:40px`
# Replacement footer height values: AuraHD/H2O/GloHD
replace_string = 0076, `min-height:80px`, `min-height:52px`
replace_string = 0086, `max-height:80px`, `max-height:52px`
# Replacement footer height values: AuraOne
replace_string = 00C4, `min-height:90px`, `min-height:68px`
replace_string = 00D4, `max-height:90px`, `max-height:68px`
#
#
# Replacement caption font size value for Touch/Mini:
replace_string = 00EF, `font-size:16px`, `font-size:16px`
# Replacement caption font size value for Glo/Aura/Aura2E:
replace_string = 0137, `font-size:20px`, `font-size:20px`
# Replacement caption font size value for AuraHD/H2O:
replace_string = 016D, `font-size:26px`, `font-size:26px`
# Replacement caption font size value for GloHD:
replace_string = 01DC, `font-size:30px`, `font-size:30px`
# Replacement caption font size value for AuraOne:
replace_string = 01A5, `font-size:34px`, `font-size:34px`
#
#
# Optional Replacement caption top margin value for all devices:
# (A negative top margin moves the caption text upwards,
# further from the bezel and closer to the page content.)
#
#replace_string = 00FE, `margin-top:+00px`, `margin-top:-10px`
#replace_string = 00FE, `margin-top:+00px`, `margin-top:-05px`
#
#
# Uncomment the replace_string line below to use a fixed replacement caption
# font family, for all devices: You can change Georgia to another font name of
# your choice, but Avenir or Georgia are recommended because other fonts might
# not be loaded when the book is first opened and so might cause problems.
# Unlike other strings it is OK if this replacement string is a bit longer or
# shorter than the original.
#
#replace_string = 01EC, `#caption[qApp_localeName="ja_JP"] {font-family:Sans-SerifJP,sans-serif;font-style:normal}\n`, `#caption {font-family:Georgia}\n\0`
</Patch>

[GeoffR]

The font size adjustment on the Aura One is not as fine-grained as on other devices, this is because while Kobo have increased the minimum and maximim pixel font sizes for the Aura One, they haven't changed the crossover points where the adjustments switch from one-pixel to two-pixel steps and from two-pixel to four-pixel steps.

It is possible to improve this by using the `Custom font sizes` patch, but it might need tweaking if you want to be able to adjust the font size on the Aura One in one-pixel steps, depending on your normal reading font size.

To put this exactly, here are the 55 font sizes that are available on the unpatched Aura One:

1-px steps: 18,19,20,21,22,
2-px steps: 24,26,28,30,32,34,36,38,40,42,44,46,48,50,
4-px steps: 54,58,62,66,70,74,78,82,86,90,94,98,102,106,110,114,118,122,126,130,134,138,142,146,150,154,158,162,166,170,174,178,182,186,190,194.

and here are the sizes with the `Custom font sizes` patch default settings:

1-px steps: 18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44
2-px steps: 46,48,50,52,54,56,58,60,62,64,66,68
4-px steps: 72,76,80,84,88,92,96,100,104,108,112,116,120,124,128,132,

(These are the base font sizes selected by the font slider, the actual final size on the screen is also affected by the book's stylesheet.)