Aura H2O, no hyphenation in Adobe reader for left-aligned text

[jchtt]

I recently got my hands on an H2O and I can't seem to get hyphenation running the way I'd like to. Ideally, I'd want to use the Adobe reader for epub files, but it won't hyphenate unless I force the text to be justified. On the other hand, the kepub reader does hyphenation no matter what, but annoys me with its cut off bug. I'm a bit puzzled because this behavior seems to be the reverse from what I read should be true on the forums.

I attached a small test file to illustrate this, in which I also specified

* {
-webkit-hyphens: auto;
-moz-hyphens: auto;
hyphens: auto;
adobe-hyphenate: auto;
}

without any visible effect. Do other H2O owners share this experience? Any ideas?

[GeoffR]

It is the same on my Glo with firmware 3.11.0, epub hyphenation only happens with full justification.

I never noticed this before because I always use full justification, so I don't know if it has always been this way or if is was something new when the Adobe RMSDK was upgraded in firmware 3.5.0.

Unlike for kepubs, the device's built-in stylesheet doesn't set the hyphenation at all for epubs, it is the Adobe RMSDK that decides when to use hyphenation based on the book's stylesheet. Maybe someone who is still using firmware version 3.4.1 or earlier could check whether it was different in the old RMSDK.

Edit: For kepubs it is a little different: by default the hyphenation is whatever is set in the book, and if nothing is specified in the book then it defaults to no hyphenation. But if full justification is set on the device then hyphenation is turned on, overriding what is in the book.

[GeoffR]

I was able to try your test book on a Kobo Mini running firmware 3.4.1, and it hyphenated even when left justified. So my guess is the change happened when the Adobe RMSDK was updated in firmware 3.5.0.

[Anak]

Have you tried this property with the value "explicit"?

adobe-hyphenate: explicit

(adobe-hyphenate: none | explicit | auto)

[jchtt]

Originally Posted by Anak

Have you tried this property with the value "explicit"?

adobe-hyphenate: explicit

(adobe-hyphenate: none | explicit | auto)

If I do that, I get no hyphenation at all, not even justified.

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I was able to try your test book on a Kobo Mini running firmware 3.4.1, and it hyphenated even when left justified. So my guess is the change happened when the Adobe RMSDK was updated in firmware 3.5.0.

OK, great. What do you think I'd need to use this version on the H2O? Would it be enough to replace the adobehost binary, or would it have to be a bunch of files?

[robko]

Originally Posted by jchtt

OK, great. What do you think I'd need to use this version on the H2O? Would it be enough to replace the adobehost binary, or would it have to be a bunch of files?

Others with way more knowledge than I will no doubt weigh in shortly, but I don't think that's going to work for you. Firmware 3.7 was the first version for the H2O, so no guarantees that going back to 3.5 will work (or won't brick your device). I'd be very surprised if you could go back to the old adobe within the current firmware (obviously there's been big changes in the adobe code).

[jchtt]

Originally Posted by robko

Others with way more knowledge than I will no doubt weigh in shortly, but I don't think that's going to work for you. Firmware 3.7 was the first version for the H2O, so no guarantees that going back to 3.5 will work (or won't brick your device). I'd be very surprised if you could go back to the old adobe within the current firmware (obviously there's been big changes in the adobe code).

What's life without a bit of risk . I actually tried replacing the adobehost binary via usbnet and nickel still worked, but I don't think this is the correct binary for the adobe reader since the rendering did not change. Does anyone know if there's a separate binary for that, or is it integrated into nickel?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jchtt

What's life without a bit of risk . I actually tried replacing the adobehost binary via usbnet and nickel still worked, but I don't think this is the correct binary for the adobe reader since the rendering did not change. Does anyone know if there's a separate binary for that, or is it integrated into nickel?

Did you restart the device? Or otherwise cause nickel to restart?

You probably want the RMSDK library. It should be something like "librmsdk.so". But my bet is that the dependencies will mean that replacing it won't work. I suggest that you make sure you know how to do a factory reset on the device before doing anything.

As to older firmware, recognising the hardware is probably the biggest issue. If the hardware is not recognised, I expect it to drop back to treating it as the original Touch. The device ids were added a version or two before release. So, there is a reasonable chance that 3.5.0 will start. How well it works is another matter. There is also at least one script that checks the hardware ids and returns a value. Changing that to recognise the correct hardware and maybe returning that it is a Aura HD might get it working.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by jchtt

If I do that, I get no hyphenation at all, not even justified.

I think adobe-hyphenate: explicit; is for soft hyphenation. If you use Calibre to add soft hyphens to the book then explicit should cause it to ignore the built-in hyphenation dictionaries and only hyphenate at soft hyphens. My guess it will still only hyphenate fully justified paragraphs, but I haven't tried it.

OK, great. What do you think I'd need to use this version on the H2O? Would it be enough to replace the adobehost binary, or would it have to be a bunch of files?

In old firmware versions the RMSDK was compiled in together with libnickel.so, but in versions 3.3.0 and later it was seperated out into librmsdk.so. version 3.4.1 is the last firmware with the old RMSDK. However I very much doubt it will work to use the old librmsdk.so with the new firmware.

[jchtt]

Thanks for the hints! Indeed, I get a boot loop if I try to replace librmsdk with the one from the 3.3.0 firmware, and adobe-hyphenate:explicit together with softhyphens will hyphenate only in justified mode, too. I haven't tried replacing the whole firmware yet, but I think I'll give up for now and try to live with the header in the Kobo reader software .