Forma Firmware 4.11.11911

[Terisa de morgan]

And, BTW, the patches I use, they work. I'm translating the new strings...

[rogerinnyc]

Swipe to unlock? With no option to turn off? Ugh. I received my Forma on Sunday and it both improves on the Aura One and also doesn't. But I hope they change this particular firmware "feature."

Otherwise, some initial impressions to share:

The Forma is definitely lighter and easier to hold in one hand. Very enjoyable feel. Good grippy back. The lighter weight (while keeping/slightly improving the same screen size) is, I think, almost its best feature.

It is quite a bit wider in order to fit the physical buttons and I don't really like that look. It no longer looks like a book in its dimensions and is that much harder to fit into a pocket/small bag as compared to the Aura One (which had its own limitations, but not as many as this).

It's screen is whiter than the Aura One, but I don't feel that the fonts are quite as sharp. Both are excellent on their own though -- that's just my impression from a side-by-side.

There is no auto-sensor on the Forma for adjusting brightness. One the other hand, I never found that worked well on the Aura One, so I don't miss it.

The auto-rotation lags a bit when switching hands, but not badly. More annoyingly, often when I turn on the device, the text is upside down in terms of the orientation in which I'm holding it and I have to do a turn and back to get it to correct. And also now a swipe.

I actively dislike the power button. It's very hard to press and tell whether you activated it or not. The Aura One's button has a much better feel.

Very unscientifically, I don't notice an appreciably different battery life between the two units at this point. Both continue to seem worse than the H2O.

The sleep cover works well, but holds the unit up at a much lower angle than the Aura One's sleep cover. However, this doesn't bother me and, in terms of construction and firmness of support, I think is an improvement.

I'm going back and forth on whether to use the page turn buttons in their default configuration (toggle down is page forward) or their inverted configuration. Since I hold the unit in different ways, what I really would like is an option to have BOTH toggle up and toggle down translate into a page forward. I rarely page backwards and can do that easily enough with a tap or swipe. But I won't hold my breath, as I've been hoping for better tap zone options for the Aura One's bigger screen forever.

Bottom line: There's a lot to like, but I'm on the fence about whether it's a keeper or not. Interested in how others are liking their units....

[jiminrussell]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Sorry to hear about the freezing. I must have missed this. Did the upgrade help?

The upgrade did not help, it froze on me three times in about 30 minutes of reading this morning. I have called Kobo and opened a ticket. As I have already done a factory reset through the "settings/Device Information/Factory reset your eReader" menu of the device they don't want me to try that again but have asked me to do a manual reset and see if that fixes it, if not they will replace the device.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by jiminrussell

The upgrade did not help, it froze on me three times in about 30 minutes of reading this morning. I have called Kobo and opened a ticket. As I have already done a factory reset through the "settings/Device Information/Factory reset your eReader" menu of the device they don't want me to try that again but have asked me to do a manual reset and see if that fixes it, if not they will replace the device.

Sorry to hear that. I wish Kobo would spend a little more effort with quality control. A couple folks are mentioning a light "streak" issue also.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by jiminrussell

I am seeing "swipe to unlock" when waking my Forma from sleep, can't say I recall ever seeing that on any other Kobo Firmware before.

Curious, it happens only in Forma, not in Clara.

[Michal Jancik]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

New firmware for the Forma is out today. If you sync your kobo you should get it.

Most notable change I’ve seen is you can now enable or disable the header and or the footer in kepubs

I’ve not looked for other features yet. This update did not come to my KA1 just to my Forma.

I install "Firmware 4.11.11911" it on my KOBO H2O 2Gen and for now it works :RÉ

[Reading Setings] :

Spoiler:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/at...1&d=1540324768

[Device Info] :

Spoiler:

PS : I see no problem, but take no unnecessary risk ;-)

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Michal Jancik

PS : I see no problem, but take no unnecessary risk ;-)

Interesting, thank you!



...I see you blanked out your local IP address in the second picture (which would have been useless information to anyone), but you did not blank out your serial number.....?

[Michal Jancik]

Even if I do not think that the local IP address and serial number can serve anyone, but it's true, we're never careful enough. Thank you ;-)

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

And, BTW, the patches I use, they work. I'm translating the new strings...

I haven't had much time recently, so I haven't got around to updating all the patches, but here are some of the updated patches (these are the main ones I use). I've sent a PM to GeoffR about him updating the patches this time, but if he doesn't (or I find time to do it), I might update the rest of the patches later. I'll release an official patch zip when the majority are updated.

Note that as you found, all the zlib and string ones shouldn't need updating.

Freedom to advanced fonts control:
  - Enabled: no
  - Description: |
      This patch allows the advanced font options (weight/sharpness adjustments)
      to work with sideloaded fonts too. (KEPUB: OTF and TTF. EPUB: TTF only.)
    #
    # The following passes a junk pointer to N3FontTypeUtil::setupDropdown, but it
    # seems the pointer is only passed on to ReadingSettings::getDefaultFontFamily
    # where it is discarded without being dereferenced, so it should be safe?
    # BEWARE: check whether this still holds in future firmware versions.
    #
    # N3FontTypeUtil.setupMonotypeDropdown(b,c)
    # --> N3FontTypeUtil.setupDropdown(UNDEFINED,b,c)
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0x843834, FindH: 59 46 50 46, ReplaceH: 5A 46 51 46}
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0x843838, FindH: C1 F7 DA E4, ReplaceH: D9 F7 7A E6}
    # N3FontTypeController.setupAdvancedOption(...) --> NOP
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0x9F8456, FindH: 28 F6 10 E2, ReplaceH: 00 46 00 46}
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0x9F9A3C, FindH: 26 F6 1C E7, ReplaceH: 00 46 00 46}

Custom Sleep/Power-off timeouts:
  - Enabled: no
  - Description: |
      Changes the Sleep/Power-off timeout menu options from 5,10,15,30,45,60
      minutes to 10,20,30,60,120,240 minutes.
    # Values displayed on both menus
  - ReplaceString: {Offset: 0xD303C0, Find: "5 mins\0", Replace: "10 mins"}
  - ReplaceString: {Offset: 0xD303C8, Find: "10 mins", Replace: "20 mins"}
  - ReplaceString: {Offset: 0xD303D0, Find: "15 mins", Replace: "30 mins"}
  - ReplaceString: {Offset: 0xD303D8, Find: "30 mins", Replace: "1 hour"}
  - ReplaceString: {Offset: 0xD303E0, Find: "45 mins", Replace: "2 hours"}
  - ReplaceString: {Offset: 0xD303E8, Find: "60 mins", Replace: "4 hours"}
    # Actual values used for sleep menu
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FB18, Find: 5,  Replace: 10}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FB70, Find: 10, Replace: 20}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FBAC, Find: 15, Replace: 30}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FBE8, Find: 30, Replace: 60}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FC24, Find: 45, Replace: 120}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FC60, Find: 60, Replace: 240}
    # Actual values used for power menu
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FCDE, Find: 5,  Replace: 10}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FD1A, Find: 10, Replace: 20}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FD54, Find: 15, Replace: 30}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FD8E, Find: 30, Replace: 60}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FDC8, Find: 45, Replace: 120}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0xA8FE00, Find: 60, Replace: 240}

Always display chapter name on navigation menu:
  - Enabled: no
  - Description: |
      Normally the <-> navigation menu only displays the current chapter name if
      [Reading settings > Display progress for:] is set to 'Current Chapter'.
      This patch causes the current chapter name to be displayed if 'Entire book'
      progress is selected as well. Works for both ePub and KePub books.
    # in ReadingMenuScrubberController::setChapterAndProgressText(...)
    #  progressTypeIsBookBased(...) --> False
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0xA01FA4, FindH: 1D F6 0A E4, ReplaceH: 00 20 00 20}

Clock display duration:
  - Enabled: no
  - Description: |
      When the reading footer menu is opened a clock is displayed at the top left
      for 3 seconds before being replaced with the reading progress percentage.
      This patch changes the length of time the clock is displayed to 5 seconds.
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0x9E7B28, FindH: 40 F6 B8 31, ReplaceH: 03 21 89 02}
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 0x9E7B28, Find: 3, Replace: 5} # Replacement value: Clock display duration in seconds

[geek1011]

I have now ported, tested, and released all the patches, except for the line spacing, adjustable top margins, and custom font sizes patches.

[Terisa de morgan]

BTW, thank you for your method again. I've been able to use this method to include the miniclock too.

[geek1011]

No problem! I'm planning on fixing the PDF map widget patch sometime soon, and making another patch to decrease the top and bottom margins when the headers/footers are disabled.

GeoffR should have the 4 missing patches updated sometime soon. He's already sent me 2 of them.

[forster01]

is it possible with this new forma firmware to download books from dropbox or mail or some other method?
or this option is completely blocked by kobo?
something i would look forward in future firmware for KA1.

[jiminrussell]

Originally Posted by forster01

is it possible with this new forma firmware to download books from dropbox or mail or some other method?
or this option is completely blocked by kobo?
something i would look forward in future firmware for KA1.

You can use the browser (settings / Beta Features) on the Forma to download books from Dropbox I haven't tested this on my KA1 but don't see why it wouldn't work on it as well. It isn't a very smooth experience to say the least but it does work.

Simply go to your dropbox folder with the browser and download the files you want, you will get a message that dropbox doesn't support your browser but it still lets me download files, it seems to work best if you have the files in your root folder of dropbox, the browser doesn't seem to see anything in my sub folders.

I tested with both a pdf and epub file, both downloaded fine and I was able to open and read both files on the Forma.

[ma678]

Can I install it on my Clara HD? Thanks.