Touch kobo firmware - best one?

[booklover6]

The Touch I have is really, really old, so I don't expect good battery life. I got it used in 2014, it was from 2011 I think. I don't use the SD card slot since there are only like 5 books on it.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by christopher22

Yeah, version 3.11.0 seems to be a good one for the kobo touch - I think I will eventually roll it back and then test out v 3.19 for a while after I finish testing working with the latest firmware (since it's already loaded) for a couple of months. Are there any issues with books on the sd card with 3.11.0 or 3.19 versions? Has anyone noticed any sd card issues with the latest firmware? With the latest firmware available for the touch (I'm going to test drive it for a while) I'm noticing lines from menu boxes not getting cleaned up when they close - probably why the lines appear in sketch.

I completely forgot about that, but as of about 4.6, there has been some issues with the Touch and extra blocks of black being drawn. It is inconsistent. It doesn't seem to affect all the Touches, and it doesn't happen all the time. But, it is there.

I can't think of any SD card issues with 3.19. About the only one that has happened in the last couple of years was a problem if the card didn't have a label. That only lasted one firmware version and was easily worked around.

As for the battery issue, I turned it on the other day and it was at 57%, as I kept it on while playing Sudoku the battery power rose all the way up to 69%. I think the batteries like to be fully charged? Or should I wait till it drains all the way down before doing a recharge on it.

They are Li-Ion batteries. There is no issue with partial charges. Just plug it in and charge and disconnect when you need to. But, It can be a good idea to do a couple of full discharge/recharge cycles occasionally to try and recalibrate the power meter.

[christopher22]

I'm on the discharge cycle now. Funnily, it was at 39% when I last turned it on and so I left it on and it jumped up to 51% - today it is 34% when I turned it on. Hopefully it will work better when I charge it next. However I don't think any battery is good to be left uncharged for a while - from what I know, crystals grow within the battery and if you let that happen long enough they puncture adjacent cells reducing the full potential of the battery even rendering it useless. Sometimes a higher voltage jolt will break up the crystals in the battery bringing it back to life. However that's only if the crystals haven't grown large enough to puncture adjacent cells within the battery.
In my case, my battery is not holding it's charge very well, but I'll have to see after a couple of discharge cycles if it gets better or stays the same and warrants a battery replacement.


Also I didn't realize on my wife and daughters Aura, they are running version 3.19 without issues (as far as I know).

[koboy]

Originally Posted by christopher22

I'm on the discharge cycle now. Funnily, it was at 39% when I last turned it on and so I left it on and it jumped up to 51% - today it is 34% when I turned it on. Hopefully it will work better when I charge it next. However I don't think any battery is good to be left uncharged for a while - from what I know, crystals grow within the battery and if you let that happen long enough they puncture adjacent cells reducing the full potential of the battery even rendering it useless. Sometimes a higher voltage jolt will break up the crystals in the battery bringing it back to life. However that's only if the crystals haven't grown large enough to puncture adjacent cells within the battery.
In my case, my battery is not holding it's charge very well, but I'll have to see after a couple of discharge cycles if it gets better or stays the same and warrants a battery replacement.


Also I didn't realize on my wife and daughters Aura, they are running version 3.19 without issues (as far as I know).

i have Firmware Version 3.16.0 on my original Aura which is my main ereader of choice. i have installed the latest Firmware 4.12.12111 on my Touch and i do like a lot of the new features that it as compared to 3.16.0, but my extremely strong disdain for the relatively new home screen will always prevent me from installing it on my Aura.

best wishes koboy

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by christopher22

I'm on the discharge cycle now. Funnily, it was at 39% when I last turned it on and so I left it on and it jumped up to 51% - today it is 34% when I turned it on. Hopefully it will work better when I charge it next. However I don't think any battery is good to be left uncharged for a while - from what I know, crystals grow within the battery and if you let that happen long enough they puncture adjacent cells reducing the full potential of the battery even rendering it useless. Sometimes a higher voltage jolt will break up the crystals in the battery bringing it back to life. However that's only if the crystals haven't grown large enough to puncture adjacent cells within the battery.
In my case, my battery is not holding it's charge very well, but I'll have to see after a couple of discharge cycles if it gets better or stays the same and warrants a battery replacement.

Li-Ion batteries age and lose capacity with time. That starts the moment they are manufactured. Heavy use speeds this up, as does exposure to high temperatures. Not charging a battery is mainly a risk if the charge level drops to low. That makes the battery dangerous and the charging circuit should prevent the battery from being charged again.

The batteries in your Touch and Aura are at least four years old. Most will be holding less than half of their original capacity. A lot will be completely dead by this time. For my Touch's one is completely dead, the other lasts about a week in sleep. The Glo is better, but nowhere near the life when I got it.

[christopher22]

The failing battery kobo I have was at 25% when I got home from work today. I decided to charge it. When I plugged it in the charge jumped to 45 then to 60 then to 80, then 96% all basically within the time it took me to write this current sentence. Within less than 5 minutes, maybe 3 or 4 before the kobo was reading 100% fully charged.
I don't think they charge that fast, how long is a charge supposed to take?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by christopher22

The failing battery kobo I have was at 25% when I got home from work today. I decided to charge it. When I plugged it in the charge jumped to 45 then to 60 then to 80, then 96% all basically within the time it took me to write this current sentence. Within less than 5 minutes, maybe 3 or 4 before the kobo was reading 100% fully charged.
I don't think they charge that fast, how long is a charge supposed to take?

From empty, a good battery will probably take a couple for hours. But, I've never actually paid attention to it. Just plugged in and some time later noticed it was charged.

But, what you describe is symptom of a aging battery. Some will take time to charge, but, unplug the device, and the charge drops immediately. Some will do what you describe and appear to charge quickly, but won't actually hold the charge. I've never looked into why there is a difference. If could be something in the particular battery, or it could be something in the fuel gauge circuit. Basically, when a Li-Ion battery reaches this point, I know it is time to replace it. Or use it as an excuse to replace the device that uses it

[christopher22]

Or use it as an excuse to replace the device that uses it

I like what you say here, but the problem is getting the wife to agree with that. Perhaps it's almost time to permanently hook up to a powerbank - at least that's less risky than taking it apart and attempting to solder in a new battery - although I would be up for the challenge (I've successfully re-soldered permanent RAM chips in a laptop before)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by christopher22

I like what you say here, but the problem is getting the wife to agree with that.

I face the problem of, "Don't you have enough ereaders?" The last time that was asked, I showed her the Kobo Forma and the response was, "Thanks for the new ereader." It was expected.

Perhaps it's almost time to permanently hook up to a powerbank - at least that's less risky than taking it apart and attempting to solder in a new battery - although I would be up for the challenge (I've successfully re-soldered permanent RAM chips in a laptop before)

All the Kobo ereaders I've opened, the battery connection isn't soldered. It is a plug of some sort. I can't remember if the people who have sourced replacement batteries got them with the correct plug, or had to do some splicing.

[christopher22]

So, been a while. Here's an update. Hadn't logged in with one of my old kobo's in a while and it was at 1.9. Side loaded the 3.11 tgz file .. I think David mentioned that if you didn't like the 4. releases to go with 3.19. I suppose I should have done that. Regardless I went with 3.11 but then of course it asked me to register which required a wifi connection. So I went ahead and connected and watched helplessly as it updated automatically to 4.24 (might have been 4.23 but pretty sure it was 4.24).
First thoughts of 4.24 - don't like it. The start up screen is rid of the happy kobo - kind of like that and it's got 3 increasing dots 1,2,3 1,2,3 as it loads - I'll have to say takes much longer to load, and of course I don't like the home screen. Of course there is no zoom magnifier for epubs (one epub I had was the wrong size so the only way around that was to convert the epub to pdf format so I could view the entire page, not ideal but it worked. Or I guess could have just renamed the .epub to .kepub.epub and that may have worked (I'll experiment later).

So now that's it's registered you can easily roll back the firmware by dropping in an older firmware KoboRoot.tgz file into the .kobo directory as mentioned earlier. It automatically updates to the older firmware, but you don't have to register again during a rollback. Couple of issues I ran into, which I fixed and will detail in a moment, it took much longer to load and some previous info from 4.24 still existed which froze the kobo when I checked it, also clicking details of a book it froze. So I fixed that by connecting to the computer and deleting some folders that didn't exist in 3.11, mainly the folder `custom-dict`, `dropbox`, and `guide` but they were empty deleted them anyways. The main reason was a second sqlite file called Bookreader.sqlite, so I deleted that file and all was good again, actually I'm pretty sure that second sqlite file was the reason for all the freezing and timing issues (I probably could have left the empty folders and it would have been fine).

I do like the 3.11 - just use it for pure sideloading. Not sure if I'd notice a difference with 3.19 - might give it a shot but 3.11 has been good for me. Lots of new users out there but I wonder if any of them wish the new kobos had a micro sd card slot?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by christopher22

So, been a while. Here's an update. Hadn't logged in with one of my old kobo's in a while and it was at 1.9. Side loaded the 3.11 tgz file .. I think David mentioned that if you didn't like the 4. releases to go with 3.19. I suppose I should have done that. Regardless I went with 3.11 but then of course it asked me to register which required a wifi connection. So I went ahead and connected and watched helplessly as it updated automatically to 4.24 (might have been 4.23 but pretty sure it was 4.24).
First thoughts of 4.24 - don't like it. The start up screen is rid of the happy kobo - kind of like that and it's got 3 increasing dots 1,2,3 1,2,3 as it loads - I'll have to say takes much longer to load, and of course I don't like the home screen. Of course there is no zoom magnifier for epubs (one epub I had was the wrong size so the only way around that was to convert the epub to pdf format so I could view the entire page, not ideal but it worked. Or I guess could have just renamed the .epub to .kepub.epub and that may have worked (I'll experiment later).

So now that's it's registered you can easily roll back the firmware by dropping in an older firmware KoboRoot.tgz file into the .kobo directory as mentioned earlier. It automatically updates to the older firmware, but you don't have to register again during a rollback. Couple of issues I ran into, which I fixed and will detail in a moment, it took much longer to load and some previous info from 4.24 still existed which froze the kobo when I checked it, also clicking details of a book it froze. So I fixed that by connecting to the computer and deleting some folders that didn't exist in 3.11, mainly the folder `custom-dict`, `dropbox`, and `guide` but they were empty deleted them anyways. The main reason was a second sqlite file called Bookreader.sqlite, so I deleted that file and all was good again, actually I'm pretty sure that second sqlite file was the reason for all the freezing and timing issues (I probably could have left the empty folders and it would have been fine).

I do like the 3.11 - just use it for pure sideloading. Not sure if I'd notice a difference with 3.19 - might give it a shot but 3.11 has been good for me. Lots of new users out there but I wonder if any of them wish the new kobos had a micro sd card slot?

You don't like 4.24 because of the way it boots? You won't be booting much. You just use sleep mode most of the time.

As for any version 3 firmware, forget it. The reading experience is not nearly as good as it is with 4.23 (I've not yet installed 4.24 as I've been too busy testing plugins for Calibre 5/4.23).. A lot of the complaints with ePub have been fixed. And eBook management is better then ever and there will be new improved dictionaries (no idea if they'll work with version 3 firmware).

So really, it's a good idea to go with the latest firmware since it's the best yet (overall). I've run 3.19 and while I was good for a version 3 firmware, it's not as good as the current version 4.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by christopher22

So, been a while. Here's an update. Hadn't logged in with one of my old kobo's in a while and it was at 1.9. Side loaded the 3.11 tgz file .. I think David mentioned that if you didn't like the 4. releases to go with 3.19. I suppose I should have done that. Regardless I went with 3.11 but then of course it asked me to register which required a wifi connection. So I went ahead and connected and watched helplessly as it updated automatically to 4.24 (might have been 4.23 but pretty sure it was 4.24).
First thoughts of 4.24 - don't like it. The start up screen is rid of the happy kobo - kind of like that and it's got 3 increasing dots 1,2,3 1,2,3 as it loads - I'll have to say takes much longer to load, and of course I don't like the home screen. Of course there is no zoom magnifier for epubs (one epub I had was the wrong size so the only way around that was to convert the epub to pdf format so I could view the entire page, not ideal but it worked. Or I guess could have just renamed the .epub to .kepub.epub and that may have worked (I'll experiment later).

So now that's it's registered you can easily roll back the firmware by dropping in an older firmware KoboRoot.tgz file into the .kobo directory as mentioned earlier. It automatically updates to the older firmware, but you don't have to register again during a rollback. Couple of issues I ran into, which I fixed and will detail in a moment, it took much longer to load and some previous info from 4.24 still existed which froze the kobo when I checked it, also clicking details of a book it froze. So I fixed that by connecting to the computer and deleting some folders that didn't exist in 3.11, mainly the folder `custom-dict`, `dropbox`, and `guide` but they were empty deleted them anyways. The main reason was a second sqlite file called Bookreader.sqlite, so I deleted that file and all was good again, actually I'm pretty sure that second sqlite file was the reason for all the freezing and timing issues (I probably could have left the empty folders and it would have been fine).

I do like the 3.11 - just use it for pure sideloading. Not sure if I'd notice a difference with 3.19 - might give it a shot but 3.11 has been good for me. Lots of new users out there but I wonder if any of them wish the new kobos had a micro sd card slot?

BookReader.sqlite is for OverDrive, and will be recreated automatically. custom-dict is the new location for sideloaded dictionaries, and putting dictionaries in the main folder will actually make sync slower. If you want the old boot animation, you can extract it from the images directory in KoboRoot.tgz and install it over the new ones. Instead of renaming epub to kepub, use kepubify or calibre to convert it. If you don't do that, you'll cause a lot more bugs than you fix. And, if you want to test the speed of the new firmware, you should recreate the database again (i.e. soft reset), since the database is usually the cause of performance issues

Finally, if you do want to downgrade by so much, I'd suggest you include the "upgrade" directory so the kernel/uboot is downgraded too. You may also want to revert to an older database too.

Also, I personally believe 15676 is the best version so far. Although the new scrollbar will still take me some time to get used to, everything else is quite good, and the main bugs which affected my use have been fixed.

[NiLuJe]

If you don't like the boot progress bar...

From KFMon's FAQ:

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

You can optionally replace the boot progress bar with a faster custom alternative, in order to shave a few seconds off of Nickel's boot time. This is not done by default, because it might break older FW versions (say, < 4.8), and it will break some custom apps (e.g., Sergey's launcher, KSM) if you bypass Nickel entirely. If you know you're safe (i.e., you're running a current FW release, and you always boot straight into Nickel), you can enable this by simply dropping a blank BAR file in the config folder, i.e., touch /mnt/onboard/.adds/kfmon/config/BAR. Current versions of KOReader and Plato will have no issue with this new behavior.