Kobo Wifi (circa 2010), Calibre and Mac

NormZ · 05-16-2013, 11:44 PM

Hello All!

This is more an observation, though an inquiry to find out if anyone else has experienced the same.

Just started using Kobo Wifi and calibre, the Kobo was a Mother's Day gift for my wife that she NEVER used.

Anyway, I really enjoy using this little device for reading and downloaded calibre to manage a growing collection of ebooks. Almost gave up using calibre for two main reasons. First, not all the books transferred showed up in my Kobo WiFi even though viewing via Finder showed that they were there on the Kobo internal memory. Second, book covers were sometimes there, sometimes not. So using calibre (to me) was futile and I gave it up. Almost.

I reset my Kobo, cleared the internal memory, popped in an SD card and used calibre to sync all my books to the external SD card. Voila! I am able to use calibre to manage all my ebooks the way calibre is meant to be used.

So my observation is that if you use a Kobo WiFi that is discontinued, does not seem to be supported anymore and seems to not play very well with calibre. Then all is not lost, use an external SD card as your main memory and calibre will provide all of the nifty features you have come to love.

NormZ

PeterT · 05-16-2013, 11:48 PM

Can't say I've used the WiFi of late but can do.... It would be on a PC though not Mac.

theinfamousj · 05-17-2013, 01:12 AM

My only - and much used - eInk device is my Kobo WiFi. I have to use Calibre to manage it because I am running a non - mainstream distribution of Linux.

I haven't had any of the problems you are detailing (perhaps I should add "yet" to this statement). I have not found support to be lacking.

davidfor · 05-17-2013, 01:18 AM

I don't have a Kobo WiFi to test with, so anything I say is based on reading the driver code, discussions here and in the Kobo forum and how the newer devices work. The processing to sideload books doesn't seem to have changed, so hopefully what I say is correct.

I'm a surprised by the difference in the SD card and internal memory behaviour. The Kobo devices can stop adding books to the internal library if they find one that is bad in some way. I would expect that this affected both types of memory. So, if the driver puts a valid book in the correct place, it should be loaded. One thing is the order the books are processed. If you have one that is stopping the processing, any book sideloaded afterwards will not be processed until the bad book is removed.

The covers are generated from the books by the device. It simply renders the first page and stores that in a few different sizes. The only issue I can think of is if you have 2000 or more books. The files system used is FAT32 and because of the length of the file names, the images directory can only handle about 8000 files. The 1.9.x firmware for the Touch had four covers sizes, so it hit this error around the 2000 book mark. This should include the books on SD card, as the covers for both internal and SD card books are stored in one directory on the internal memory.

There was actually a fix put in for the older devices in calibre 0.9.30. This would have prevented you seeing any books that were on the device that calibre hadn't put there. Your clean-up and resend from calibre would have sidestepped this problem if you were using an older version of calibre.

While I can't easily test the changes, I am interested in fixing the driver for the older Kobo devices. If I know what is not working, then I can look at how to fix it or get more information to help. And there is a good chance that it will be copying changes from the Touch driver.

NormZ · 05-24-2013, 01:56 AM

Wow! I am impressed by the type of responses I have received so far. Given that I am not more than an enthusiastic techie I will provide some responses to the responses I have received so far (for which I am grateful).

To "PeterT": It may be a Mac thing and not a PC thing. Since I have Bootcamp and Windows 7 I will see if I have the same issues when I reboot my iMac via Bootcamp into Windows 7.

To "theinfamousj": It may be a Mac thing and not a 'non-mainstream distribution of Linux' thing, since I don't play with Linux I won't be able to check. :-(

To "davidfor": Wow! What a response! Definitely learned something there. I only have 54 books loaded onto the 4GB SD card, plus 104 which were the ones pre-loaded by Kobo on the internal memory.

Thanks to all three of you for your comments, insight and responses! Let's see if anything else pops up in the future.

NormZ

05-16-2013, 11:44 PM	#1
NormZ Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2013 Device: Kobo WiFi	Kobo Wifi (circa 2010), Calibre and Mac Hello All! This is more an observation, though an inquiry to find out if anyone else has experienced the same. Just started using Kobo Wifi and calibre, the Kobo was a Mother's Day gift for my wife that she NEVER used. Anyway, I really enjoy using this little device for reading and downloaded calibre to manage a growing collection of ebooks. Almost gave up using calibre for two main reasons. First, not all the books transferred showed up in my Kobo WiFi even though viewing via Finder showed that they were there on the Kobo internal memory. Second, book covers were sometimes there, sometimes not. So using calibre (to me) was futile and I gave it up. Almost. I reset my Kobo, cleared the internal memory, popped in an SD card and used calibre to sync all my books to the external SD card. Voila! I am able to use calibre to manage all my ebooks the way calibre is meant to be used. So my observation is that if you use a Kobo WiFi that is discontinued, does not seem to be supported anymore and seems to not play very well with calibre. Then all is not lost, use an external SD card as your main memory and calibre will provide all of the nifty features you have come to love. NormZ

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05-16-2013, 11:48 PM	#2
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,168 Karma: 73448616 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Nexus 7, Clara, Touch, Tolino EPOS	Can't say I've used the WiFi of late but can do.... It would be on a PC though not Mac.

05-17-2013, 01:12 AM	#3
theinfamousj Groupie Posts: 154 Karma: 2030000 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Kobo Glo (pink back)	My only - and much used - eInk device is my Kobo WiFi. I have to use Calibre to manage it because I am running a non - mainstream distribution of Linux. I haven't had any of the problems you are detailing (perhaps I should add "yet" to this statement). I have not found support to be lacking.

05-17-2013, 01:18 AM	#4
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	I don't have a Kobo WiFi to test with, so anything I say is based on reading the driver code, discussions here and in the Kobo forum and how the newer devices work. The processing to sideload books doesn't seem to have changed, so hopefully what I say is correct. I'm a surprised by the difference in the SD card and internal memory behaviour. The Kobo devices can stop adding books to the internal library if they find one that is bad in some way. I would expect that this affected both types of memory. So, if the driver puts a valid book in the correct place, it should be loaded. One thing is the order the books are processed. If you have one that is stopping the processing, any book sideloaded afterwards will not be processed until the bad book is removed. The covers are generated from the books by the device. It simply renders the first page and stores that in a few different sizes. The only issue I can think of is if you have 2000 or more books. The files system used is FAT32 and because of the length of the file names, the images directory can only handle about 8000 files. The 1.9.x firmware for the Touch had four covers sizes, so it hit this error around the 2000 book mark. This should include the books on SD card, as the covers for both internal and SD card books are stored in one directory on the internal memory. There was actually a fix put in for the older devices in calibre 0.9.30. This would have prevented you seeing any books that were on the device that calibre hadn't put there. Your clean-up and resend from calibre would have sidestepped this problem if you were using an older version of calibre. While I can't easily test the changes, I am interested in fixing the driver for the older Kobo devices. If I know what is not working, then I can look at how to fix it or get more information to help. And there is a good chance that it will be copying changes from the Touch driver.

05-24-2013, 01:56 AM	#5
NormZ Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2013 Device: Kobo WiFi	Wow! I am impressed by the type of responses I have received so far. Given that I am not more than an enthusiastic techie I will provide some responses to the responses I have received so far (for which I am grateful). To "PeterT": It may be a Mac thing and not a PC thing. Since I have Bootcamp and Windows 7 I will see if I have the same issues when I reboot my iMac via Bootcamp into Windows 7. To "theinfamousj": It may be a Mac thing and not a 'non-mainstream distribution of Linux' thing, since I don't play with Linux I won't be able to check. :-( To "davidfor": Wow! What a response! Definitely learned something there. I only have 54 books loaded onto the 4GB SD card, plus 104 which were the ones pre-loaded by Kobo on the internal memory. Thanks to all three of you for your comments, insight and responses! Let's see if anything else pops up in the future. NormZ

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