Firmware3.17.0 Discussion

[SHunter101]

Originally Posted by PeterT

So why not take a backup before starting the upgrade?

Not sure how to do that. Could you provide a link?

Thank You.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by SHunter101

No, not assigning any blame to Kobo. To me yes. My choice for using the 128gig card!! In my line of work, I have a large number of reference books which are great to read on the ereader, when needed. They are large pdfs and that warrants the 128gig card. These files worked great on 3.15 and hopefully soon with 3.17. It's great when a 'PEBKAC' can solve a problem - disable sickle and it is working! No more reboots.

Shunter

Thank you frostschutz for the sickle remover

good common sense thought for the day, the sickle function could be implemented into the settings of the firmware so that the user could enable or disable it depending on their own personal preference, perhaps this might be considered for future firmware releases.


best wishes koboy.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by SHunter101

Not sure how to do that.

Copy *everything* you see on the USB KOBOeReader drive.

Then if it blows up, copy everything back, and you should be back in the game at the state you copied earlier (barring mods that install into the rootfs, those you still have to reinstall).

If you copy just the books back, it will have to re-index everything. But if you copy the database that already has everything indexed along with it, it should be fine.

The copy program you use should probably be able to preserve timestamps of the original files and such things.

[xor_]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The change is that it appears that the sideloaded books are added to the library as they are processed. If something goes wrong, the books processed should be in the library. At the next disconnect, the processing will attempt to do the rest of the books. It might get stuck on the same book, but it will at least mean some of the books are readable.

That sounds like a step in the right direction. But it's still not telling you which book it chokes on? Why on earth not?

[GeoffR]

Viewing my awards (Extras > Awards from the homescreen) takes about 15 seconds the first time after the device has booted, but less than a second after the first time. But 15 seconds is too long for sickel, which reboots after 10 seconds, so I never get to a second time.

There are probably a lot of other functions like this, things that take a long time the first time you use them, but are very quick thereafter. It is one good reason for never powering off, the device just gets faster and faster the longer you use it. But if the device is regularly rebooted by sickel then it is going to make everything a lot slower.

I really hope Kobo will abandon this automatic rebooting idea.

[SHunter101]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Copy *everything* you see on the USB KOBOeReader drive.

Thanks, I just made a back up of my AuraHD database (500megs) using Windows explorer. Do you know if the databases are interchangeable? Can I use the database from my AuraHD on my AuraH2O if I use a similar microSD card and the exact same books on the card?

I must say, even though 3.17.0 was a royal pain in the ass to install, with sickle disabled it re-cataloged all my ebooks in 2.5 hours. That is very impressive. . Everything is super fast, page turning, indexing the icons; I am starting to really like this update.

SH

[arspr]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Viewing my awards (Extras > Awards from the homescreen) takes about 15 seconds the first time after the device has booted, but less than a second after the first time. But 15 seconds is too long for sickel, which reboots after 10 seconds, so I never get to a second time.

There are probably a lot of other functions like this, things that take a long time the first time you use them, but are very quick thereafter. It is one good reason for never powering off, the device just gets faster and faster the longer you use it. But if the device is regularly rebooted by sickel then it is going to make everything a lot slower.

I really hope Kobo will abandon this automatic rebooting idea.

Yes a pretty damn stupid idea. But more over a HORRIBLY tweaked and tested feature. As I said, I really don't know what Q&A section in Kobo does.

You just cannot launch a feature which chokes within the common, normal usage of the device. If you do you are plainly stupid and you deserve bankruptcy ASAP. Period. No excuses. You should revert this feature in one day at most with a fast hotfix FW release and publicly apologize about it in half one.

For the time being, we can live because of the de-sickel patch...



Another example I think I've found (I'm 95% sure but not 100%). Go to Language and tick the new dictionaries you get. Press Save and wait till the device download them. Voilà, after it finishes downloading, you get a sickel reboot. And after it, my Japanese dictionary is 89.6 Mb big!!! Is it normal? (I've tried syncing and nothing changes). (I really don't care as I don't read in Japanese, but I don't like it anyway).

[MGlitch]

Updated from 3.15 on my H2O to 3.17, applied patches though not the sickle remover, and I've had no issues. If I hadn't read about sickle, I wouldn't know from experience that it was in 3.17.

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Updated from 3.15 on my H2O to 3.17, applied patches though not the sickle remover, and I've had no issues. If I hadn't read about sickle, I wouldn't know from experience that it was in 3.17.

From what I can gather its an "Endless reboot"

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by SHunter101

Do you know if the databases are interchangeable?

I only have one device (not counting a broken Kobo Touch I got for 1€ off ebay) so I can't test it myself but they should be transferrable for the most part, if the firmware version of the source device is not higher than the target device. There may be some little details lurking though...

Originally Posted by jackastor

From what I can gather its an "Endless reboot"

endless reboot loop is sickel's worst case, but you can also get random reboots at unexpected times, whenever the reader hits something that took a while to process.

It happened to me while browsing the library (when it had to generate thumbnail images for books), while trying to switch Kobo accounts [it seems it waited for a reply from Kobo server but rebooted instead], in a book while using dictionary (albeit I was experimenting with a patched Japanese dictionary there so may not be representative), ...

If you have some way to trigger the reset button manually & do not suffer from real system freezes? then you can probably disable this feature. Right now it seems to cause more problems instead of solving any.

[arspr]

Originally Posted by jackastor

From what I can gather its an "Endless reboot"

Nope, it's just an automatic reboot when something takes too much time so this "failsafe" feature assumes the device is "hanged". The problem is that the time threshold is way too aggressive and common situations can bring it up:

• The award access GeoffR has posted.
• Thumbnail image generation (within Library) for heavy pdfs.
• Of course, opening some conflictive pdfs.
• Quite possibly, dictionary upgrading.
• An educated guess: highlighting in epubs whenever it is done at the slowest rate?

[JSWolf]

I've installed 3.17.0.
I've installed the patches and the monospace font.
I've installed the sickle reboot remover patch.

I hope all is well.

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by SHunter101

No, not assigning any blame to Kobo. To me yes. My choice for using the 128gig card!! In my line of work, I have a large number of reference books which are great to read on the ereader, when needed. They are large pdfs and that warrants the 128gig card. These files worked great on 3.15 and hopefully soon with 3.17. It's great when a 'PEBKAC' can solve a problem - disable sickle and it is working! No more reboots.

Shunter

Thank you frostschutz for the sickle remover

Yes and no... I am gratefull he made it, but I don't think i will upgrade, but, and a big one.. imagine all those customers "outside" who never heard of mobileread ?
They have a device that can reboot by itself and never knowing why and how to disable it.
And that all for those who forget their "reset pin" ??
I tried 3.16.10 and got more reboots then I ever had the hanging problem, I don't even remember when I needed the reset pin.
I do remember the times at night when I am in bed, "try" to read which doesn't work because of this "beautiful" mechanism.
And the "best" part of it, no one that asked for it,will get it when their device is getting the update.
There must not be an option to put the automatic reset on or of, there must be one asking if they want to update their device.
Sure, a lot of the people will think, what the heck.. Ill update.. but there are allso people who think, if it isn't broken,don't fix it.

We have the option to disable the sickel... but only because some smart people know how to fix it.
What is next that Kobo is changing ??
In the beginning, I was gratefull, yes so many updates,they really keep the device up to date but for now,every update introduces also a couple of bugs which are more nasty then the ones before.
Until that final ones come that bricks your device ?
I am not talking about people who update devices that are not the ones the update is intended for, but 139 euro's for each Kobo HD is not money for candy.

I find this new tendency/trend rather dangerous... every time they make an update,we must hope that someone can make a patch,not for the extra options but just one that can keep you doing where the device is made for: reading,knowing (hopefully) that a lot of people are left alone who can't patch..

[JSWolf]

I've started reading and page turns are noticeably faster for ePub. I am using an H2O.

[rogerinnyc]

Can't resist tinkering -- was running 3.16.0 on my H2O quite happily, but had to try 3.17.0. Did a factory reset first (after copying all my titles to my computer). FWIW, on reboot and wifi connect, it downloaded 3.15.0 (so 3.17.0 isn't available, at least to me yet, over the air). Anyway, sideloaded 3.17.0 and then applied GeoffR's miraculous already prepared patches, including his experimental sickel time delay, and all is working well (so far). No reboots, although of course I didn't try it without the sickel patch.

Unscientifically, page turns on my kepubs (I don't use epubs) seem faster than on 3.16.0 (which, in itself was an improvement IMHO on 3.15.0), as does tap and hold recognition (e.g., for a word lookup). So, absent something further that shows itself after time or more use, I think 3.17.0 is a worthwhile upgrade for an H20.