Touch Problems with KT firmware and downgrading *pulling my hair out*

[TechniSol]

1. You should think of Davidfor as you do your Priest or OB/GYN... whichever you're least attracted by.(I may owe David an apology for that... I need to read it again.)

2. Relax, he already has a wife of his own that won't let him buy more e-readers!

3. He just wants to see a copy of the file. That's probably less invasive than asking for a polaroid.(Has the forum been renamed KoboHookups yet?)

Sorry, couldn't resist. The Devil made me... uh, do it.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

1. You should think of Davidfor as you do your Priest or OB/GYN... whichever you're least attracted by.(I may owe David an apology for that... I need to read it again.)

Um, I can't work out whether you owe me one or not. Maybe it depends on which VirgoGirl chooses.

2. Relax, he already has a wife of his own that won't let him buy more e-readers!

Well, I did buy three Glo's just before Christmas. One was for her and she is very happy.

3. He just wants to see a copy of the file. That's probably less invasive than asking for a polaroid.(Has the forum been renamed KoboHookups yet?)

I don't think I should comment on that. I'm already in enough trouble.

Sorry, couldn't resist. The Devil made me... uh, do it.

Yep, blame the

[TechniSol]

Yep, blame the

Some have suggested there is a certain resemblance... personally, I feel it's just that slightest whiff of brimstone released into the air when I appear. Probably need to rethink the aftershave.

I suppose the pointy tail doesn't help, but the horns help keep my hat in place on windy days.

Now that I think about it, I've been blaming the economy, but it has been getting harder and harder to get prospects to sign contracts... You think the pen with the really sharp nib, and really bright red "ink", is putting them off?

[Francois_C]

The latest firmwares are horrible, and their only aim seems to be to force us to buy books. During the few minutes I had firmware 3.1 (unwillingly: I did only want to activate my Kobo!) I did not find even a possibility to disable Reading Life. They want us to be connected to Facebook, and have our readings checked by Google Analytics; they want us to depend upon them and the social networks.

As for me, with my KT Mark 3, I'm back to 2.4.0b, with sqlite activation too. Davidfor explains perfectly what you must do.
You must:
- Reset the machine to its primitive software
- copy the 2.4.0 firmware (select the right one!) to the .kobo directory. This is easy, even for a drag and drop girl. Just open the right window.
- eject the kobo, it will upgrade and restart.
- connect it to a Linux machine.
with an Ubuntu machine and the 2.4.0 firmware, type:
______________________
sudo apt-get install sqlite3
echo "insert into user values('foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'foo');" | sqlite3 /media/KOBOeReader/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite
______________________
There are seven fields to fill with fake values if you use 2.4.0.
Eject the Kobo. That's all.

But you can no longer use the Kobo Desktop, neither purchase Kobo books through wifi. But I suppose this was all they wanted.

I wonder whether they are legally allowed to impose us their updates. The result is that I purchased a good that fitted my needs and they modified it so that it no longer worked for me. I think they should be obliged to give me back the good I purchased, in its original state. And the time I wasted because of their arbitrary changes deserves a compensation. We should sue them.

[VirgoGirl]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

The latest firmwares are horrible, and their only aim seems to be to force us to buy books. During the few minutes I had firmware 3.1 (unwillingly: I did only want to activate my Kobo!) I did not find even a possibility to disable Reading Life. They want us to be connected to Facebook, and have our readings checked by Google Analytics; they want us to depend upon them and the social networks.

As for me, with my KT Mark 3, I'm back to 2.4.0b, with sqlite activation too. Davidfor explains perfectly what you must do.
You must:
- Reset the machine to its primitive software
- copy the 2.4.0 firmware (select the right one!) to the .kobo directory. This is easy, even for a drag and drop girl. Just open the right window.
- eject the kobo, it will upgrade and restart.
- connect it to a Linux machine.
with an Ubuntu machine and the 2.4.0 firmware, type:
______________________
sudo apt-get install sqlite3
echo "insert into user values('foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'foo');" | sqlite3 /media/KOBOeReader/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite
______________________
There are seven fields to fill with fake values if you use 2.4.0.
Eject the Kobo. That's all.

But you can no longer use the Kobo Desktop, neither purchase Kobo books through wifi. But I suppose this was all they wanted.

I wonder whether they are legally allowed to impose us their updates. The result is that I purchased a good that fitted my needs and they modified it so that it no longer worked for me. I think they should be obliged to give me back the good I purchased, in its original state. And the time I wasted because of their arbitrary changes deserves a compensation. We should sue them.

Um, I'm on a Windows 7 laptop, no linux. I'm assuming I can still do the database modification.

There IS a way to deactivate Reading Life, I think under one of the settings there is a "keep track of my reading somethings" (sorry, Kobo is not in my area right now for me to check).

I don't like the new firmware, I don't like the way it's displaying fonts (some are heavier than they were on 2.4.0), but I can't be arsed to change back until it crashes and burns again.

Apathy, thy name is VirgoGirl.

Good luck with getting any compensation Kobo, you'd be lucky to get a free book. One of my friends bought a book that wouldn't download into his desktop ADE (he has a Nook), Kobo refused to refund his money despite nothing being mentioned on the website that it was only available to download onto his (nonexistant) Kobo. Apparently "all sales final". Idiots.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by VirgoGirl

Um, I'm on a Windows 7 laptop, no linux. I'm assuming I can still do the database modification.

There IS a way to deactivate Reading Life, I think under one of the settings there is a "keep track of my reading somethings" (sorry, Kobo is not in my area right now for me to check).

I don't like the new firmware, I don't like the way it's displaying fonts (some are heavier than they were on 2.4.0), but I can't be arsed to change back until it crashes and burns again.

Apathy, thy name is VirgoGirl.

Good luck with getting any compensation Kobo, you'd be lucky to get a free book. One of my friends bought a book that wouldn't download into his desktop ADE (he has a Nook), Kobo refused to refund his money despite nothing being mentioned on the website that it was only available to download onto his (nonexistant) Kobo. Apparently "all sales final". Idiots.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/

It works in Windows 7, as well as Linux. It is as simple as connecting to your PC/laptop and running the program using it to find and open the "KoboReader.sqlite" file, in your .kobo folder. Selecting the "Browse Data" tab, then "user" from the dropdown "Table:" gives you a look at how many fields and the type of data in them. (You should be able to replace the data in each field with a zero "0", except the last one with "false"). You enter the
INSERT INTO user VALUES ("0", "0", "0", "0", "0", "0","false") in the "SQL string: box of the Execute SQL tab. Then select the "Execute query" button. You may have more or less "0" entries depending on the number of fields your "user" table has.

Luck;
Ken

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

The latest firmwares are horrible, and their only aim seems to be to force us to buy books. During the few minutes I had firmware 3.1 (unwillingly: I did only want to activate my Kobo!) I did not find even a possibility to disable Reading Life. They want us to be connected to Facebook, and have our readings checked by Google Analytics; they want us to depend upon them and the social networks.

I'm sorry, but I don't agree. There are no real changes in how they sell the books through the device. The bookstore link is still on the home screen just like in 2.4.0. For a new device, there are probably more tiles shown for selling books. But, once you start sideloading and reading books, they disappear. If you are buying books from Kobo, it does give recommendations. But, that is one tile that can be dismissed and only turns up after a sync. And how good is 2.4.0 for this? Right now my 3.1.1 home screen has one link for selling books. If my memory serves me right, 2.4.0 has at least two.

Reading life can still be turned off. It's the option at the bottom of the "Reading settings" page. There is also an option to turn of notifications from Kobo on the "Syncing and updates" page.

Kobo do not force you to use Facebook. I've been using Kobo ereaders for two years now and I do not have Facebook account. It hasn't affected any actions I use the ereader for.

As to Google analytics, I have always assumed it is only used for the browser. But, I did a little looking here, and there is something else being reported. The best discussion on it I can quickly find is from December 2011. That pre-dates FW2.4.0 by a long time. I am pretty sure you will find that there is no real difference.

To avoid all this turn the WiFi off. The device can't communicate any of this stuff if the WiFi is off.

[VirgoGirl]

Originally Posted by virgogirl

Well, at least it doesn't take over an hour to power on with an SD card, but it refuses to recognize the SD card when I power it back on - I have to remove it and reinsert it and hit the screen a few times to get it to "wake up" the card. That's not so bad, it'll just be annoying if I have 1,300 ebooks on the card. They seem to be still pushing people away from the sd cards and over to putting books directly on the internal memory.

Originally Posted by davidfor

Yes, that is a problem in the recent firmware on the Touch. Eject the card and insert it again and all the books will be seen.

Noticing something this morning - the Kobo powered itself off and then on after I added new books (I have no idea why, nor do I care anymore), but when it rebooted and I did the card removal/reinsertion thing, it said I added 197 new books, which is the total number of books on my card. If I add 1,000 more books to the card, is it going to have to go through and "re-add" each #%@&^ book? I'm asking as that can take a long time, and kill the UI (it happened when I upgraded the first time and just reinstered the card. The UI kept blanking out.)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by VirgoGirl

Noticing something this morning - the Kobo powered itself off and then on after I added new books (I have no idea why, nor do I care anymore), but when it rebooted and I did the card removal/reinsertion thing, it said I added 197 new books, which is the total number of books on my card. If I add 1,000 more books to the card, is it going to have to go through and "re-add" each #%@&^ book? I'm asking as that can take a long time, and kill the UI (it happened when I upgraded the first time and just reinstered the card. The UI kept blanking out.)

If you eject and reinsert the card, it checks for changes in the books. It doesn't re-add the existing books unless they have changed. Unfortunately, the tile gives a count of all the books on the card rather than just new ones it found.

[Francois_C]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you eject and reinsert the card, it checks for changes in the books. It doesn't re-add the existing books unless they have changed. Unfortunately, the tile gives a count of all the books on the card rather than just new ones it found.

But after some eject/insert card cycles, the card (or the Kobo database) happens to be corrupt. This is one of the many reasons that made me revert to 2.4.0. The card is checked once, it needs a long time (more than one hour on my Kobo with some very large ebooks like the complete works of Maupassant, Zola, Balzac, each in one volume), but it is done only once.
You told you are not forced to join Facebook. I agree. But you are strongly encouraged to do this. And to accept those ridiculous rewards that treat you like a kindergarten kid.
Books should make people free. Not gregarize them.
The last user values in the database (at least if you have to enter seven values when you activate with sqlite3) are:
"FaceBookAuthToken" and "HasMadePurchase".
Does it mean that Facebook is not important in their mind? isn't it symbolic? It can be read like "Infantilize customers in order to make more money".

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

You told you are not forced to join Facebook. I agree. But you are strongly encouraged to do this. And to accept those ridiculous rewards that treat you like a kindergarten kid.

"Strongly encouraged" how? You can completely ignore those settings. There are no nagging popups or reminders.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

But after some eject/insert card cycles, the card (or the Kobo database) happens to be corrupt. This is one of the many reasons that made me revert to 2.4.0. The card is checked once, it needs a long time (more than one hour on my Kobo with some very large ebooks like the complete works of Maupassant, Zola, Balzac, each in one volume), but it is done only once.

For most of the last six or so months I have had an SD card in my Glo or Touch with at least 1000 books on it. Those cards were ejected and inserted frequently. Some of those ejects were followed by inserting a different card that had only a few books on it. And then swapping them again. If there are going to be problems it is when the different cards are swapped. That results in removing all the rows for the books on the first card and processing the new books.

I never had a corrupt database that I could blame on that on the SD card. Any corruptions I have had I could point to errors I made while the device was connected to a PC.

You told you are not forced to join Facebook. I agree. But you are strongly encouraged to do this. And to accept those ridiculous rewards that treat you like a kindergarten kid.

There are only two times that the login to Facebook gets presented. The first is when you are setting up the device. It asks if you want to login to Facebook and presents an easy to see and select option to skip it. The other time is if you press one of the Facebook options. Yes, that is treating us like a "kindergarten kid".

And as Kobo have removed at least one of the Facebook options from the interface since 2.4.0, that really does show how much they are shoving it down our throats.

Books should make people free. Not gregarize them.

Haven't you ever noticed how much people want to discuss their books? It is why book clubs and sites like GoodReads exist. Hell, it's part of the reason why this site exists. And why there are so many reviews on Amazon. Giving people ways to do this easily while making sure they have the choice is not gregarizing them.

The last user values in the database (at least if you have to enter seven values when you activate with sqlite3) are:
"FaceBookAuthToken" and "HasMadePurchase".
Does it mean that Facebook is not important in their mind? isn't it symbolic? It can be read like "Infantilize customers in order to make more money".

So they shouldn't store the Facebook info somewhere on the device? They should make people who want to use Facebook enter it each time? As it is information that is related to the current user, storing it with the user makes at least a little sense.

If you look at the configuration file, you will find lots of options to show if the user has done something. This allows the firmware to decide on options to show the user. The "HasMadePurchase" is probably the same sort of thing. It probably affect options presented when visiting the store on the device. Would storing the Facebook option in the configuration file have proved it wasn't important to Kobo?

[Francois_C]

Originally Posted by davidfor

For most of the last six or so months I have had an SD card in my Glo or Touch with at least 1000 books on it. Those cards were ejected and inserted frequently.

So you are lucky. Why me?
I wonder how you can approve such manipulation tools like Facebook and other mass social networks.
The whole system is aimed to make us dependent and wants to treat us like kindergarten kids, as I told.
I suppose you are working for Kobo or at least you are a strong supporter of wild liberalism and we cannot have any discussion about these questions: I never wanted to buy stock shares because pecunia pecunim non parit and I didn't want to make money at the expense of workers.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

So you are lucky. Why me?

Unfortunately I don't know. And I can't think of a way to test what is happening to try and find out why.

I wonder how you can approve such manipulation tools like Facebook and other mass social networks.
The whole system is aimed to make us dependent and wants to treat us like kindergarten kids, as I told.

Sorry, but in this case, they seem to be giving the people what they want. There are plenty of people here that want Facebook integration. Hell, there are probably as many complaints about the lack of integration to other social media sites as the inclusion of Facebook.

Personally, I don't care. I don't use Facebook. The only time I see Twitter is when someone points to a funny quote. I would care if they gave me no choice. But, they do. Actually, I still wouldn't care. I'd simply use a different ereader.

I suppose you are working for Kobo

I don't know if I have ever actually stated it here, but I do not work for Kobo.

or at least you are a strong supporter of wild liberalism and we cannot have any discussion about these questions: I never wanted to buy stock shares because pecunia pecunim non parit and I didn't want to make money at the expense of workers.

I'm pretty sure I am being insulted, but I'm not sure how. It probably depends on what your definition of "wild liberalism" is. As to discussing this, to be honest, I'm just not interested in the discussion the political, social or other implications of the social networks and offering them like Kobo does. Whether you think that's because I am a "wild liberalist" or just have my head stuck in the sand, I don't care. The technical aspects of this, are a different matter.

[filmo]

davidfor and some others here are beta testers of Kobo firmware as it is being developed. This is a voluntary unpaid position. Seems that anyone can volunteer for this with no programing experience required. Kobo beta testers have stated they do not know when new firmware version will be released and don't test final version prior to release. He also does some volunteer programing on Calibre. One of many that helps program that open source project building on others work. His Kobo beta testing helps insure that new Kobo firmware works well with Calibre and Calibre plugins for Kobo readers.

When I bought the new Kobo Wifi and joined this forum there was a Calibre bug related to Kobo external SD card. The programmer then maintaining Calibre compatibility with Kobo readers didn't have a SD card for his Kobo wifi until someone gave him a SD card. Donations for free programs are appreciated.

I have only done programing long enough to realize typing that gjbiberish improved my typing accuracy.