Pocketbook Annotations Viewer and Tools (AVATeR), need testing

[wold]

Originally Posted by Mr Groch

Here is debug log after connecting PocketBook Era Color:

18:26:49 Debug: "AVATeR v0.18.0 Build: 33d5fee (x86_64, Qt v6.8.3) OS: 'Windows 11 Version 24H2' (x86_64) Qt: v6.8.3, style: fusion "
(...)
18:26:49 Debug: Device scan completed
18:27:17 Debug: Monitor received arrival of device interface: "\\\\?\\USB#VID_1D6B&PID_0104#20080411#{a5dcbf10-6530-11d2-901f-00c04fb951ed}"
18:27:17 Debug: Ignoring unsupported USB device with VID/PID/REV (hex): 1d6b 104 0
18:28:09 Debug: Opening debug log viewer...
18:28:32 Debug: Opening debug log viewer...

Thanks for manual fiolder mode - it works for all my annotations on device!

Thanks! This helped fixing it.

Attached is a fixed Windows 0.18.1 Qt6 executable. It goes into the /bin/ directory of the AVATeR install dir. An official release will follow soon.

Its git hash is #ecf9ab4, with 2 minor changes (accepting VID 0x1d6b in hex... and decimal). The Windows machine wasn’t yet updated with the Linux fixes, so the binaries are comparable.

[Mr Groch]

Unfortunately it is not working

Here is new debug log:

20:21:06 Debug: "AVATeR v0.18.1 Build: ecf9ab4 (x86_64, Qt v6.8.3) OS: 'Windows 11 Version 24H2' (x86_64) Qt: v6.8.3, style: fusion "
20:21:06 Debug: - Device monitor active? true
20:21:06 Debug: - Portablemode?  true
20:21:06 Debug: - App dir:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64"
20:21:06 Debug: - Datadir via CLI? false
20:21:06 Debug: - Datadir path:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\data"
20:21:06 Debug: - Settings devices:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\data\\devices.conf"
20:21:06 Debug: - Settings general via CLI? false
20:21:06 Debug: - Settings general:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\avater.conf"
20:21:06 Debug: - Help path:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\manual\\manual_en.html"
20:21:06 Debug: - Temp dir path: "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\tmp"
20:21:06 Debug: - Debug: console? / logmode / globals logmode: false 2 2
20:21:06 Debug: - Logfile: "C:\\Users\\groch\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\avater_debug.log"
20:21:06 Debug: ---
20:21:06 Debug: Setting up core
20:21:06 Debug: Setting up main window
20:21:06 Debug: Building MW menus
20:21:06 Debug: Restoring MW settings from: "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\avater.conf"
20:21:06 Debug: Setting image cache size to (KB): 100000
20:21:06 Debug: Restoring MW settings finished
20:21:06 Debug: Constructing search widget
20:21:06 Debug: Trying to restore viewer settings from "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\avater.conf"
20:21:06 Debug: Finished restoring viewer settings
20:21:06 Debug: No cbox items yet. Not showing annotations
20:21:06 Debug: Setup connections
20:21:06 Debug: Starting update routine (may be user-disabled)
20:21:06 Debug: Starting automatic check
20:21:06 Debug: No updatecheck necessary. Elapsed time: 93377
20:21:06 Debug: Starting device monitor. Minimal waiting threshold set to 6
20:21:06 Debug: Performing startup scan
20:21:06 Debug: Starting scan_devices
20:21:06 Debug: Getting local mirrors from: "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\data\\devices.conf"
20:21:06 Debug: Ignoring local mirror with serial/mirrortype/vendor:  "1746721893" -1 65534
20:21:06 Debug: Getting USB interfaces
20:21:06 Debug: Ignoring unsupported USB device with vendorID (hex): 13d3
20:21:06 Debug: Ignoring unsupported USB device with vendorID (hex): 4f2
20:21:06 Warning: No first child found. Ignoring device.
20:21:06 Debug: Processing storage events...
20:21:06 Debug: Updated readers count: 0
20:21:06 Debug: Done
20:21:06 Debug: Device scan completed
20:21:09 Debug: ---------scan---------
20:21:09 Debug: Closed viewer menus
20:21:09 Debug: Closed MW menus
20:21:09 Debug: Starting scan_devices
20:21:09 Debug: Getting local mirrors from: "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\data\\devices.conf"
20:21:09 Debug: Ignoring local mirror with serial/mirrortype/vendor:  "1746721893" -1 65534
20:21:09 Debug: Getting USB interfaces
20:21:09 Debug: Ignoring unsupported USB device with vendorID (hex): 13d3
20:21:09 Debug: Ignoring unsupported USB device with vendorID (hex): 4f2
20:21:09 Warning: No first child found. Ignoring device.
20:21:09 Debug: Processing storage events...
20:21:09 Debug: Updated readers count: 0
20:21:09 Debug: Device scan completed
20:21:12 Debug: Opening debug log viewer...

Maybe this is my fault - this time I run AVATeR after connecting my PocketBook Era Color - so it is fully initialized as mass storage device, earlier it could detect it before chosing PC mode on device after connecting USB cable...

[wold]

20:21:06 Warning: No first child found. Ignoring device.

This part doesn't sound good... one guess is these newer android devices operate their USB system differently. Though it could be a different device with the same VID (Linux Foundation), which is used by more devices

Any chance this is running in a VM like VirtualBox? There some things just behave differently, requiring adding delays in different places.

[Mr Groch]

No - just bare Windows 11 PC (laptop).

PocketBook Era Color is not an Android reader. Classic PocketBook Linux device.
PocketBook Improved Driver for Calibre is detecting it fine - maybe there you can find a solution:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=345618

[wold]

Originally Posted by Mr Groch

No - just bare Windows 11 PC (laptop).

That's good to know. This warning made me think of that first. Early development was done in a VM on Linux.

PocketBook Era Color is not an Android reader. Classic PocketBook Linux device.
PocketBook Improved Driver for Calibre is detecting it fine - maybe there you can find a solution:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=345618

Earlier they shared the Inkpad Color 3 VID, matching your log. That was added to AVATeR way back, but not to a 2nd white/acceptlist. Fixing that ought to have solved this. I'll read up there ASAP.

Maybe this is my fault - this time I run AVATeR after connecting my PocketBook Era Color - so it is fully initialized as mass storage device, earlier it could detect it before chosing PC mode on device after connecting USB cable...

Ensure the reader runs in PC mode, and the drives are mounted/visible to Windows. Then start AVATeR or do a rescan.

If the drives aren't mounted, AVATeR can't see/reach them. It might detect the reader if connected without PC mode, as you noted, and as clued by this debug line:

18:27:17 Debug: Monitor received arrival of device interface: "\\\\?\\USB#VID_1D6B&PID_0104#20080411#{a5dcbf 10-6530-11d2-901f-00c04fb951ed}"

Note the #20080411# part usually shows the serial. This is however not a classical PB serial (something like YTFA0300014~), and suggests this being the USB 'stub device' that temporarily shows up when connecting a PB reader like the Lux5. For the Lux5 this stub uses the Google VID - and hides itself. Perhaps they changed that, and the device is now always visible. Without PC mode, it would hide its drives, explaining the "no child" error.

I'll need to walk through the USB code, and add more debug output. Like logging the error code, and when a compatible device was found, with its credentials Perhaps that can tell us more.

20:21:06 Debug: Ignoring local mirror with serial/mirrortype/vendor: "1746721893" -1 65534

This needs fixing too, a 'random' serial (read: epoch date) used by the new localpath (device from path) feature, has stored data in devices.conf.

[Mr Groch]

Second debug log I've attached is in PC mode for sure, and I ran 2 rescans

[wold]

Attached is an .exe with more debug output around that warning. Could you post a new log using it?

Originally Posted by Mr Groch

Second debug log I've attached is in PC mode for sure, and I ran 2 rescans

OK, just checking we're on the same page.

[Mr Groch]

Debug log:

22:26:09 Debug: "AVATeR v0.18.2 Build: ecf9ab4 (x86_64, Qt v6.8.3) OS: 'Windows 11 Version 24H2' (x86_64) Qt: v6.8.3, style: fusion "
22:26:09 Debug: - Device monitor active? true
22:26:09 Debug: - Portablemode?  true
22:26:09 Debug: - App dir:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64"
22:26:09 Debug: - Datadir via CLI? false
22:26:09 Debug: - Datadir path:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\data"
22:26:09 Debug: - Settings devices:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\data\\devices.conf"
22:26:09 Debug: - Settings general via CLI? false
22:26:09 Debug: - Settings general:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\avater.conf"
22:26:09 Debug: - Help path:  "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\manual\\manual_en.html"
22:26:09 Debug: - Temp dir path: "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\tmp"
22:26:09 Debug: - Debug: console? / logmode / globals logmode: false 2 2
22:26:09 Debug: - Logfile: "C:\\Users\\groch\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\avater_debug.log"
22:26:09 Debug: ---
22:26:09 Debug: Setting up core
22:26:09 Debug: Setting up main window
22:26:09 Debug: Building MW menus
22:26:09 Debug: Restoring MW settings from: "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\avater.conf"
22:26:09 Debug: Setting image cache size to (KB): 100000
22:26:09 Debug: Restoring MW settings finished
22:26:09 Debug: Constructing search widget
22:26:09 Debug: Trying to restore viewer settings from "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\avater.conf"
22:26:09 Debug: Finished restoring viewer settings
22:26:09 Debug: No cbox items yet. Not showing annotations
22:26:09 Debug: Setup connections
22:26:09 Debug: Starting update routine (may be user-disabled)
22:26:09 Debug: Starting automatic check
22:26:09 Debug: No updatecheck necessary. Elapsed time: 273680
22:26:10 Debug: Starting device monitor. Minimal waiting threshold set to 6
22:26:10 Debug: Performing startup scan
22:26:10 Debug: Starting scan_devices
22:26:10 Debug: Getting local mirrors from: "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\data\\devices.conf"
22:26:10 Debug: Ignoring local mirror with serial/mirrortype/vendor:  "1746721893" -1 65534
22:26:10 Debug: Getting USB interfaces
22:26:10 Debug: Ignoring unsupported USB device with vendorID (hex): 13d3
22:26:10 Debug: Ignoring unsupported USB device with vendorID (hex): 4f2
22:26:10 Debug: Processing storage events...
22:26:10 Debug: Updated readers count: 0
22:26:10 Debug: Done
22:26:10 Debug: Device scan completed
22:27:01 Debug: Monitor received arrival of device interface: "\\\\?\\USB#VID_1D6B&PID_0104#20080411#{a5dcbf10-6530-11d2-901f-00c04fb951ed}"
22:27:01 Debug: Processing supported USB device with serial, IDs (hex): "20080411" 1d6b 104 100
22:27:01 Debug: Found no interfaces, waiting and retrying - attempts left: 4
22:27:04 Debug: Found no interfaces, waiting and retrying - attempts left: 3
22:27:07 Debug: Found no interfaces, waiting and retrying - attempts left: 2
22:27:10 Debug: Found no interfaces, waiting and retrying - attempts left: 1
22:27:13 Debug: Found no interfaces, waiting and retrying - attempts left: 0
22:27:16 Warning: No child block devices found. Ignoring device.
22:27:21 Debug: ---------scan---------
22:27:21 Debug: Closed viewer menus
22:27:21 Debug: Closed MW menus
22:27:21 Debug: Starting scan_devices
22:27:21 Debug: Getting local mirrors from: "C:/Users/groch/SynologyDrive/Roboczy/eBook Readers/Pocketbook/avater_windows_amd64\\data\\devices.conf"
22:27:21 Debug: Ignoring local mirror with serial/mirrortype/vendor:  "1746721893" -1 65534
22:27:21 Debug: Getting USB interfaces
22:27:21 Debug: Ignoring unsupported USB device with vendorID (hex): 13d3
22:27:21 Debug: Ignoring unsupported USB device with vendorID (hex): 4f2
22:27:21 Debug: Processing supported USB device with serial, IDs (hex): "20080411" 1d6b 104 100
22:27:21 Warning: No child block devices found. Ignoring device.
22:27:21 Debug: Processing storage events...
22:27:21 Debug: Updated readers count: 0
22:27:21 Debug: Device scan completed
22:27:25 Debug: Opening debug log viewer...

Steps:
1. Started AVATeR with debug on
2. Connected PocketBook Era Color to USB
3. Clicked "PC mode" button on reader screen
4. Waited for mass storage device drive appears on my PC
5. Clicked Rescan on AVATeR

[wold]

Unfortunately, this doesn't tell us more. I was hoping for an error, but there's just no child devices to this unit. The other (ignored) VIDs suggest being regular USB devices, like webcams or keyboards.

Best step is getting my hands on one temporarily, which was just arranged. To be continued...

[wold]

Confirmed the issue. The Color Era shows up using the same generic 200801411 'serial'. Uses the latest FW (6.8.3687).

I'll work towards to a fix in the coming weeks. There surfaced a serious medical condition in my near family, but so far that has turned out manageable.

Small recap:
- Windows: drive detection fails. This may need some digging.
- Linux: Color shows up in AVATeR (USB is handled differently there). The generic serial will cause issues down the road.
- Mac (beta): same as Linux. The storage drive is detectable, meaning little extra work.

The generic serial impacts the Local Mirror and backup folder structure. Not bad but it needs fixing. IIRC Calibre stores a UUID on the reader, but then they have a longer history with all kinds of (weird) e-readers, so KISS.

From a privacy standpoint, it's positive the USB serial is hidden now. Intentional or not.

One last curiosity is that the library database (explorer.db) now only stores metadata for opened books. This should prevent the broken metadata issues reported in the past.

[ArmadilloPilot]

I am trying to use Avater to extract highlighted text from books read to windows so I can use for research.

Problem is that my pocketbook has a pretty 'squirrely' highlighting system. Sometimes it highlighted several pages instead of a couple of lines of text. I deleted those erroneous highlights. Now I look at avater and those deleted highlights are shown there. Although they are greyed out. I can only imagine how much space these things are taking up.

How can I 'clean up' aveter data. Better still, how can I configure Avater to just do it by itself. Another words, when I erase a highlight, then it is also erased from the Avater data file.

[wold]

Originally Posted by ArmadilloPilot

I am trying to use Avater to extract highlighted text from books read to windows so I can use for research.

Problem is that my pocketbook has a pretty 'squirrely' highlighting system. Sometimes it highlighted several pages instead of a couple of lines of text. I deleted those erroneous highlights. Now I look at avater and those deleted highlights are shown there. Although they are greyed out. I can only imagine how much space these things are taking up.

How can I 'clean up' aveter data. Better still, how can I configure Avater to just do it by itself. Another words, when I erase a highlight, then it is also erased from the Avater data file.

Recognizable PocketBooks indeed keep all deleted annotations in the database. That's a good design decision, at the cost of some disk space.

By default AVATeR displays these deleted annotations. They can be hidden via the filter popup, by deselecting the "deleted" button, as shown below. That should remove the clutter. I'll make this default in a next release. This is the best we can do for now.



Currently, AVATeR can't edit the annotations database (DB). It uses the original device database, and doesn't (yet) have its own custom DB. The intent was to first add support for multiple devices, before moving to some central DB. So for now, any changes would need to be made to the device DB.

Editing the device DB annotations has some caveats (location markers mainly). Deleting entries is easier, but I'm not that keen on that. The reclaimed space will likely be in the order of kBs. And SQLite databases are pretty fast, so it might not provide any tangible benefits. It's also difficult to measure those. BTW, how large is your books.db currently?