Firmware 3.16.0 Discussion

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Chocky

Where is the KoboUtilities plugin, searched in plugins, can't find it?

It has to be installed. It is in the plugin list from the "Get new plugins" button. Or the thread for it is here. That has the plugin in the first post.

[Chocky]

Originally Posted by davidfor

It has to be installed. It is in the plugin list from the "Get new plugins" button. Or the thread for it is here. That has the plugin in the first post.

Doh, was looking under "change Calibre behaviour"

Thanks David,

Steve

[Chocky]

Just installed plugin and run check for Kobo Updates, but it said no update available.

As mine is still on 3.15 it must depend on region.

Steve

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Chocky

Just installed plugin and run check for Kobo Updates, but it said no update available.

As mine is still on 3.15 it must depend on region.

Yes, it depends on region and affiliate.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by cramoisi

@davidfor : what do you think of updating a glo HD with KoboRoot.tgz 3.16.0 only ?

It won't harm, but what happens does depends on what firmware you are coming from.

The other files in the package are the uBoot and uImage. The latter is the kernel. These don't get updated for each firmware. They were updated in 3.15.0 but not in 3.16.0. If you do a factory reset, intercept the update and remove these files, it will probably work, but there might be issues. If the application code depends on a change in the kernel, there will be a problem. It might be obvious, or something subtle.

If you simply apply this over 3.15.0 or 3.16.0, then strictly, there should be no change. But, there have been reports of manually installing firmware over the same version fixing things. That probably means there was an problem during the upgrade and a file wasn't replaced. That shouldn't happen, but it seems to. A factory reset also seems to fix problems. That probably removes some detritus from the upgrades and resets some configuration files.

I think about that for two reasons :
1. I did that on my H2O and the hyphenation are all correct but I had issues last week when testing the same book on a glo HD full 3.16.0 (see the post hyphen... dutch rules)

There really shouldn't be a difference unless it is somehow related to the difference in font sizes used. I have read through the thread as it went. I know there were some things found, but I don't remember that there was a good test case. If I'm wrong, point it out to me so I can check on my devices.

2. The glo HD gull 3.16.0 asks for wifi connexion when searching library, when going to pocket and going to a book’s more info (summary, etc). My H2O didn’t and you told me before it couldn’t be device related so I’m wondering why the devices have different behaviors.

The devices access the WiFi at different times. Except when you explicitly do something that needs WiFi, it should be silent and only use the WiFi if it is configured and available. The two explicit actions I can think of are doing a sync and opening the browser. In both cases, if there is a known connection available, it will be used. If there isn't, you will be prompted.

Most access is done in the background and fails quietly if WiFi is off or there isn't a recognised connection available. Opening a purchased kepub or Pocket should do this. Searching the library in 3.15.0 and before did this as well. Anytime you searched the library, it would also search the bookstore. But, I don't see this happening in 3.16.0.

There shouldn't be a difference between the devices. And I don't see any with my devices. They all do what I say above. I do occasionally get a network error with them. Usually, that means it has been left alone for a few days. There also seems an occasional problem related to using different networks. It seems that changing between my home and work network can cause problems. Usually, the second attempt works, but sometimes I have to do a restart. It doesn't happen enough that I have a full pattern or that it concerns me.

In your case, I don't know. The only thing I can think of is that there is a problem with the WiFi configuration on the Glo HD means it is prompting more often than it needs. A restart might solve it. Or, I'd delete the connection, restart and try again. Or, PeterT has a way to reset the WiFi connections completely. I it is the WiFi settings, that might solve it. Other than that, reapplying the firmware update or a factory reset might solve it.

[cramoisi]

Originally Posted by davidfor

It won't harm, but what happens does depends on what firmware you are coming from.

The other files in the package are the uBoot and uImage. The latter is the kernel. These don't get updated for each firmware. They were updated in 3.15.0 but not in 3.16.0. If you do a factory reset, intercept the update and remove these files, it will probably work, but there might be issues. If the application code depends on a change in the kernel, there will be a problem. It might be obvious, or something subtle.

If you simply apply this over 3.15.0 or 3.16.0, then strictly, there should be no change. But, there have been reports of manually installing firmware over the same version fixing things. That probably means there was an problem during the upgrade and a file wasn't replaced. That shouldn't happen, but it seems to. A factory reset also seems to fix problems. That probably removes some detritus from the upgrades and resets some configuration files.


There really shouldn't be a difference unless it is somehow related to the difference in font sizes used. I have read through the thread as it went. I know there were some things found, but I don't remember that there was a good test case. If I'm wrong, point it out to me so I can check on my devices.


The devices access the WiFi at different times. Except when you explicitly do something that needs WiFi, it should be silent and only use the WiFi if it is configured and available. The two explicit actions I can think of are doing a sync and opening the browser. In both cases, if there is a known connection available, it will be used. If there isn't, you will be prompted.

Most access is done in the background and fails quietly if WiFi is off or there isn't a recognised connection available. Opening a purchased kepub or Pocket should do this. Searching the library in 3.15.0 and before did this as well. Anytime you searched the library, it would also search the bookstore. But, I don't see this happening in 3.16.0.

There shouldn't be a difference between the devices. And I don't see any with my devices. They all do what I say above. I do occasionally get a network error with them. Usually, that means it has been left alone for a few days. There also seems an occasional problem related to using different networks. It seems that changing between my home and work network can cause problems. Usually, the second attempt works, but sometimes I have to do a restart. It doesn't happen enough that I have a full pattern or that it concerns me.

In your case, I don't know. The only thing I can think of is that there is a problem with the WiFi configuration on the Glo HD means it is prompting more often than it needs. A restart might solve it. Or, I'd delete the connection, restart and try again. Or, PeterT has a way to reset the WiFi connections completely. I it is the WiFi settings, that might solve it. Other than that, reapplying the firmware update or a factory reset might solve it.

Thanks ! Yup, about the problem i saw in dutch hyphenation, I tested a lot, but since I tested on two separate devices, I couldn’t get exactly the same config - as pointed out by GeoffR - on the h2o and the gloHD thus not a case for stating once for all that there is a problem. But I’m 100% sure (and it’s the one thing that saved the day) that the problem is not dictionary related for the plugin ‘hyphenate this’ solved the problem by following the same dic rules as kobo’s included. Therefore, I ran for this solution and all seems ok till now for the readers (the man and the device ) (as long as the first doesn’t want to thoroughly search the book for one word on the second).

For the gloHD and its wifi prompting, I’ll look into that next time I get my hand on the device – I haven’t decided yet to trade the h2o for the gHD [EDIT : I got my hands on it and reboot the device : theses annoying popups are gone]

[kaito]

Is there a reason Kobo doesn't add a native night mode option? (a toggle button in the Brightness popup window to invert white-on-black / black-on-white) It is so helpful at night and I don't see a downside to it?

Is there a place to make feature requests to Kobo?

[filmo]

Here is the Kobo Touch future firmware request thread.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=105210

[msmelo]

On a Glo HD, does this version fix the "highlight/annotate only work occasionally" problem? What about the pinch to change font feature? And the erratic slide left of screen to change back light?

I bought a Kobo a couple of days ago and, coming from a Kindle, I find all the quirks and kinks surprising. Like the bugs above or having to setup calibre to produce kepubs (instead of epubs) so that footnotes work... kobo really needs to look into a better QA process

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by msmelo

On a Glo HD, does this version fix the "highlight/annotate only work occasionally" problem?

This is a problem some people see but not everyone. I do not see it on any of my Kobo ereaders. But, I do not believe it was fixed for those who did see it.

What about the pinch to change font feature?

Only the Aura supports any features that use multiple touch.

And the erratic slide left of screen to change back light?

Again, not something I have seen and I don't really know if I have seen reported

I bought a Kobo a couple of days ago and, coming from a Kindle, I find all the quirks and kinks surprising. Like the bugs above or having to setup calibre to produce kepubs (instead of epubs) so that footnotes work... kobo really needs to look into a better QA process

In what way do footnotes not work in epubs? I have used plenty with few issues. I do like they way that footnotes are handled in kepubs, but that is not in any way related to QA issue. And from your above "problems", only one might be a QA issue.

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by msmelo

Like the bugs above or having to setup calibre to produce kepubs (instead of epubs) so that footnotes work... kobo really needs to look into a better QA process

But isn't that a Calibre issue, and nothing to do with Kobo?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Desdinova

But isn't that a Calibre issue, and nothing to do with Kobo?

Not quite. Kepubs pop up the footnote while epubs go the location in the ebook the footnote is located at. With the rather small area to tap to return to the original location, those of us with larger fingers often find hitting the right spot to be a PITA.

A difference between the two renderers and not a Calibre issue.

As for the highlighting/annotation issue, I've found 3.16.0 to be a bit better than earlier firmware but I still have occasional issues trying to select text.

[msmelo]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Only the Aura supports any features that use multiple touch.

That may be it then but I'm sure I saw that tip in one of the quickstart pop-ups in the reader. I certainly didn't read about it in advance to buying.

Originally Posted by davidfor

In what way do footnotes not work in epubs? I have used plenty with few issues. I do like they way that footnotes are handled in kepubs, but that is not in any way related to QA issues.

None of my kobo purchased books (only a couple) have footnotes to be honest. The ones that do were sideloaded after I converted them from Amazon purchases using calibre. So, as another board member was saying this may be a calibre limitation. Having moved to kepub conversion when I click on the footnote I get the nice pop-up while on epubs clicking only jumps to the footnote about once every 20 clicks.

As for the slide to set backlight, it does seem a lot more responsive on kobo purchased books, but very unresponsive on the converted books.

[Chi Cygni]

Just wanted to say, since I was posting here about my H2O and hesitating to upgrade, I decided to go for 3.15 (copying upfront everything as davidfor said) and everything works fine. I don't seem to have any issues with speed or highlighting. Pleased.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by msmelo

That may be it then but I'm sure I saw that tip in one of the quickstart pop-ups in the reader. I certainly didn't read about it in advance to buying.

OK, remember seeing that message on one of my Kobos. Yes, it was shown when it shouldn't have been.

None of my kobo purchased books (only a couple) have footnotes to be honest. The ones that do were sideloaded after I converted them from Amazon purchases using calibre. So, as another board member was saying this may be a calibre limitation. Having moved to kepub conversion when I click on the footnote I get the nice pop-up while on epubs clicking only jumps to the footnote about once every 20 clicks.

I suspect that was your problem. And this is why I said I preferred the way footnotes are handled in kepubs to epubs.

The thing is that a different renderer is used for the two formats. For footnotes, this means two things. Firstly, the popup is used for kepubs. If you press on a link that looks like it is for a footnote, the popup will be displayed with text that is at the destination. This is not done for epubs, they always navigate to the location the link points to.

The second difference is how easy it is to select the link. For an epub, you have to be precise with your tap. If the footnote link is a single superscript number and you use a small font, you will probably miss it. Increase the font size, and the link gets easier to press. For kepubs, the renderer appears to allow a larger area for any link and that makes it easier to press.

Both of the above are at least partly design choices by Kobo. Some of the kepub handling of footnotes is because the renderer also supports epub3 and the behaviour is used for the epub2 based kepubs as well. Some of the epub behaviour is because they have to use the Adobe RMSDK to handle epubs (because of DRM) and that puts some limits on what they can do. The link selection problem with epubs actually demonstrates they are respecting the design of the epub (size of the link as specified by the epub creator).

As for the slide to set backlight, it does seem a lot more responsive on kobo purchased books, but very unresponsive on the converted books.

I bet you have the margins on the device set to the minimum. If you have and you look at an epub, there is almost no space between the text on the left and the bezel. But for a kepub, there is some. If you increase the size of the margin when reading epubs, you will find that the light control works as well as for kepubs.

The issue here is that when you have text in the area that triggers the light adjustment, the device has to work what you are doing; are you adjusting the light or selecting text? Or are you turning the page. Exactly how it decides, I don't know, but time is part of it. Unfortunately, I have seen it decide to both select text and adjust the light. When that happens, the light adjustment is not responsive as the highlights are being drawn.