Kobo future firmware feature request thread

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by headlight

Please give an option to go back to the old format for the Annotations view.

The latest firmware update on my Kobo Glo HD has changed the way highlights display in the Annotation view. Longer highlights are not fully displayed anymore. They are only partially displayed (with an ellipsis at the end), and now you need to tap and hold to bring up the pop-up menu, and then choose "View Details," in order to see the full highlight.

This slows down reading the highlights a lot. An option/setting to display the highlights in full in the Annotations view, like it was before, would be very helpful.

The other lists are still in the firmware. It is discussed in the 4.28.18220 thread. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...35#post4146135.

But, if you want it changed, tell Kobo. This is not a Kobo support forum and they don't monitor it.

[headlight]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The other lists are still in the firmware. It is discussed in the 4.28.18220 thread. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...35#post4146135.

But, if you want it changed, tell Kobo. This is not a Kobo support forum and they don't monitor it.

Thank you for the link! That information helps.

[tschucha]

Here is a feature request - allow an entry in the config file to disable highlighting. Add another one to disable Dictionary lookups.

Simple stuff.

[Nightyume]

Originally Posted by alehel

Just got my Elipsa. Maybe a bit of a niche request, but I would really like to be able to play the Sudoku game using the pen.

I agree with this. Using handwriting recognition so we can just write in the number.

[Nightyume]

One feature I know that I and at least some others with the Elipsa would like is a more granular controls of document (PDF) annotation.

For example, the ability to choose a finer line for the pen. Right now annotating a PDF feels like I am annotating it with a sharpie. It works, but it's not as detailed as it could be or as many of us would like. Even having 3 width options would be good.

Another thing that would be nice would be "colour" options for both the pen and highlighter. Yes, the device only displays grays, but when you export it a gray highlight doesn't look as good. But even if you didn't give colour options, having a choice between shades of gray in PDFs like in the notebooks would still be better.

[koboy]

can you please fix/help me understand the problem in the firmware which bricks the device once the database gets to just over 1GB. if i put the ereader to sleep and turn it back on it works fine, but if i power it off or it resets itself for whatever reason it doesn't come back on.

i have three original Aura's 6" and they all have the same issue/problem once the database goes over 1GB. i (was) using Firmware 4.25.15875 on all three of them but i decided to upgrade to Firmware 4.26.16704 on one of the Aura's to see if it made any difference.

using Firmware 4.25.15875 if i plug the USB cable into the computer just after turning the device on it brings up the connect screen and i can connect to the computer and copy the user partition which is what i did.

i checked the database with SQLite Database Browser and it was ok. once i safely disconnect from the PC the ereader stays on the black charging screen until i do the pinhole reset. if i don't plug the USB cable into the PC the reader constantly cycles through the three black dots and won't come on.

as i mentioned i upgraded to Firmware 4.26.16704 on one of my Aura's. the outcome of having a database that's just over 1 GB running on this firmware was that the device turned on from being powered off (good start)

using Firmware 4.26.16704 i can open a book from the home screen and i can turn the pages forwards and backwards fine, but as soon as i try to go back to the home screen/collection or any other function the Aura locks up until sickle kicks in and turns it back on again. unlike Firmware 4.25.15875 if i put the USB cable into the PC and try to connect the device just locks until sickle restarts it.

in summary. using Firmware 4.25.15875 (with a database just over 1GB) from being powered off the device won't turn back on. but if i plug the USB cable into the PC just after i've turned the Aura on i can connect and copy all the user partition to the computer. checking the database as i said with SQLite Database Browser it comes back as ok finished without any errors.

using Firmware 4.26.16704 the Aura (always) turns on, but unfortunately after opening a book once i try and do anything else it locks up as stated above.

if i restore the user partition (using Firmware 4.25.15875) with a database that is slightly smaller in size than 1GB i can turn the device on and off fine.

the only other long standing issue/problem i've had for awhile is after i safely disconnect the USB cable from the computer it (always) stays on the black charging screen until i do a soft reset via the pinhole. once it resets it works as it should until i connect to the computer again.

all my books on all three of my original Aura's 6" are on the external micro SD card (4897) in total. 99% are kepubs.

sorry for the long post. i would be interested to know if anyone else as come across similar issues/problems once the database gets to over 1GB.

best wishes koboy

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by koboy

can you please fix/help me understand the problem in the firmware which bricks the device once the database gets to just over 1GB. if i put the ereader to sleep and turn it back on it works fine, but if i power it off or it resets itself for whatever reason it doesn't come back on.

Have you tried compacting the databases to get rid of any excess unused space?

[koboy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Have you tried compacting the databases to get rid of any excess unused space?

thanks. i should have mentioned that. yes i have. it only makes the database smaller by at most 1MB. sadly it doesn't make any difference to the issue/problem.

best wishes koboy

[PeterT]

Just curious as to how many books you have loaded to have a 1Gb database? Also have you changed the internal SD card or use an external SD card?

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[milady133]

Originally Posted by koboy

can you please fix/help me understand the problem in the firmware which bricks the device once the database gets to just over 1GB. if i put the ereader to sleep and turn it back on it works fine, but if i power it off or it resets itself for whatever reason it doesn't come back on.

I'm just guessing, I've no idea how Kobo manages the information, but you might be running against a hardware limitation, and overflowing the RAM available with such a big database.
If Kobo needs to load the database partially or totally in memory to show the list of books/collections/etc, there's going to be a point when the DB is going to be too big, and you seem to have found that limit for your device.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by milady133

I'm just guessing, I've no idea how Kobo manages the information, but you might be running against a hardware limitation, and overflowing the RAM available with such a big database.
If Kobo needs to load the database partially or totally in memory to show the list of books/collections/etc, there's going to be a point when the DB is going to be too big, and you seem to have found that limit for your device.

agreed. it could definitely be a hardware limitation of my older ereader. it's a shame because the database isn't corrupt. the black charging screen staying on after i've safely removed the device from the computer as been like that for a long time well before the database got to the 1GB size that it is now.

edit. remember if i only put the device to sleep and wake it up it works 100% fine. but like you said from being powered off and then turned on the Firmware will probably be loading the database into the limited hardware memory and can't do it because the database is so large.

it would be nice to know if anyone with a newer Kobo ereader which will have much better spec hardware are having the same problems with a large database over 1GB.

best wishes koboy

[koboy]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Just curious as to how many books you have loaded to have a 1Gb database? Also have you changed the internal SD card or use an external SD card?

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

i did mention it in my first post. (4897) 99% of which are kepubs and a few epubs no pdfs. i also mentioned all my books are on the external micro SD card. there isn't a internal SD card in the original Aura 6"

best wishes koboy

[Semwize]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Just curious as to how many books you have loaded to have a 1Gb database?

It's not because of the number of books that he has such a huge size. I have ~2000 books and the database size is less than 200 megabytes. Such a large size makes me think of a database littered with something....

[graphgear1000]

I'd like to be able to sort by percent read.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by koboy

i did mention it in my first post. (4897) 99% of which are kepubs and a few epubs no pdfs. i also mentioned all my books are on the external micro SD card. there isn't a internal SD card in the original Aura 6"

Firstly, I'm honestly surprised that your Aura stopped working with a 1GB databases. Considering it only has 256MB of RAM and no swap space, I'm surprised it didn't stop working a lot earlier. The database is read when the device starts and at least the structure for the book details is loaded. If that doesn't fit into the RAM, then the device is either continuously opening the database or just won't work properly.

But, are you sure about the number of books? 4897 books taking more than 1GB of database seems wrong. On my Clara HD I have about 9000 books and the database is about 180MB. The books are a mix of ePubs and kepubs with less than 100 books of other formats. But, the bulk of the database will be the entries for the books plus the ToC entries.

The bulk of the database will be the content table. This has one entry per book, plus entires for navigation. In general, the navigation entries are the ToC entries for the for format. But, there is always at least on. And for kepubs, there is one per manifest entry and one per ToC entry.

With that, the bigger the ToCs, the longer the descriptions, titles and author names, then the bigger the database. But, as I said, your database size to number of books seems off. The stats for my Clara HD are probably lower than average as it has a lot of short stories. The average number of ToC entries is 16 whereas the Libra H2O has about 900 books with an average of 82 ToC entries. That database is 87MB.

The other places that could take space in the database are the Bookmark and Event tables. You would need to have made a lot of annotation for the former to take much space. The Event table can have several rows per book that you have opened. So the space taken depends on how much you have actually read. And, to a certain extent, how you read.