If you need help with your Literati come here! - Page 22

AlienRace · 05-31-2012, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Mine has all 5 pins installed.

Dale

AHA!

Thank you!!!!

Sooo, you are able to get PC to see your reader and have 5 pins (just confirming to myself here ), well, my project just began! Will update what will be!
Also, please post if your reader has 4 pins (like mine or so) and you can connect to a PC, just in case

250 Coupe · 05-31-2012, 10:06 PM

I have the black Literati and it also has 5 pins and can connect both via USB and WiFi.

It looks like you are missing pin 2 which should be the data - pin and that would definitely keep you from connecting.

Michael

klu529 · 06-01-2012, 01:19 AM

The usb standard only has 4 pins. The mini usb port has 5 pins but 1 of them is not connected. If you look at the plug with the large part on the bottom, it will be pin 4 starting from the left. If that is the one missing, it shouldn't matter.

AlienRace · 06-01-2012, 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by klu529

The usb standard only has 4 pins. The mini usb port has 5 pins but 1 of them is not connected. If you look at the plug with the large part on the bottom, it will be pin 4 starting from the left. If that is the one missing, it shouldn't matter.

Well, i opened and i found 1 pin was pushed in and broken (cheap soldering), so now i'm buying broken reader so i could replace all that small usb/power board(?). All pins have destination to a wires on white cable, so it matters. Do you have 4 pin usb and working one?

Altivo · 06-02-2012, 06:04 PM

Joining this thread late, I see. I've now read the entire thing through, all 22 pages of it, and have to admit I'm a bit disappointed at the lack of serious technical information. Surely someone must have the real details. Now that there is really no support available from the manufacturer or distributors of Literati and Lookbook, the user community is the only support available. Vague answers like "They told me it was caused by Windows 7" don't help anyone much, alas.

I recently admired a white Literati that is working correctly and has 2.0 firmware in it. I was so taken with the display that I went looking for one, and ended up buying a "new, in box" black model off EBay. Yes, I knew it was taking a risk. The first one was operational but was unable to upgrade itself from the supplied 1.6 version of firmware. On connection to wifi, it would announce that an upgrade was available, and proceed to download it, but after a few minutes it would declare "Update Cancelled." No explanation. I read that you could update from an SD card so I followed instructions for that: download the KoboRoot.tgz file, put it in the root directory of the SD card, power on while holding ALT-Q. It claimed again to be updating itself, but after several minutes announced "Update failed. Unable to write attribute file." After that, the device was no longer able to boot up. It would power on and show the startup logo, but never go beyond that even after several hours.

So I returned it and received another new, in the box unit. This one fails to update itself over wifi with the same behavior as the first. I'm not about to try the SD card and ALT-Q method again. I've seen another set of instructions that says to place the KoboRoot.tgz file into the .kobo directory on the Literati virtual drive, and restart. I'm suspicious of that, and expect it will trash the device the same way the SD chip method did.

Some have noted in the past that mysterious tech support people "had them reformat the Literati drive," which I assume means using a PC to format the drive while it is mounted as a USB mass storage device. I can see where this might correct issues with the original disk image, if for instance there weren't enough directory blocks or something was marked "read only" that has to be replaced in order to update.

However, reformatting would erase the entire file structure that is already on the drive, including the sqlite database that contains the "free book" data and the other existing configuration files. Does the Literati rebuild all that automatically when it restarts? Does anyone know for sure?

The Literati itself is running a Linux kernel of some sort, not Windows. However, I see that the virtual drive is in fact formatted as FAT32 to allow Windows-based PCs to read and write it. Is that how it should be reformatted? That might explain the Windows 7 issues, since a default format from Windows 7 surely would write NTFS rather than FAT32.

Most of the problems reported here can be fixed, I'm quite sure. But we need more detailed facts and less vague hand-waving in order to build up a list of procedures known to have worked.

(Note: I don't think we should be blaming Kobo, as some users have done. They apparently provided the base code, but were not directly involved in development or support until Sharper Image or Merch Source abandoned the product. I also have a Kobo WiFi reader, and it works just as the manual says it should. The problems here seem to be the fault of Merch Source or whomever they outsourced the product design and development to.)

DaleDe · 06-02-2012, 07:06 PM

I have a white one and had no problem doing the upgrade. However, the black one may be different hardware and require a different firmware. I have a Koboroot.tgz file for 1.9 at 60,748,205 bytes that I used to resurrect a broken unit (locked in initial load as yours now is) and I have a Kobroot.tgz.20.tgz at 62,043,413 that I could have used to upgrade my white unit later. I use the SD card approach and it went well. I may have done the upgrade from the Internet instead of the second file. I really can't remember for sure.

AlienRace · 06-02-2012, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

... I have a Kobroot.tgz.20.tgz at 62,043,413 that I used to upgrade my white unit later. I use the SD card approach and it went well.

I confirm size 62,043,413 for 2.0.
Also (white one) i downgraded to FW1.9 from 2.0 and then upgraded back to FW2.0 (i was trying to figure out why my usb did not work.. silly me, i know now). I noticed with FW1.9, that reader asked to download update but it failed in ~10 sec, so i used SD card.
Make sure that SD is formatted, i used my digital camera to format it, not windows and also i put some pdf file in it to see if my reader can see what is inside SD card before doing FW update. Make sure you give some time to reboot by itself when doing update (5 min or so)

Altivo · 06-04-2012, 01:52 PM

Well, that's interesting. I have the 2.0 file at a length of 65,188,231. Using Linux to parse and check the .tgz file, it seems to be readable and verified.

Is there anyone who has successfully upgraded the firmware in a BLACK literati?

250 Coupe · 06-04-2012, 08:41 PM

I upgraded my black Literati but don't remember any trouble other than maybe a couple of reboots and maybe a factory reset. And I'm pretty sure it was over WiFi.

Michael

Altivo · 06-04-2012, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlienRace

I confirm size 62,043,413 for 2.0.

OK, I took the KoboRoot.tgz for 2.0 that I downloaded, and ran it through gunzip. Now the file size is 62,043,413 just as you say, but it's called KoboRoot.tar. There seems to be something very fishy going on with these files. You decompress it and it gets smaller.

I'm really afraid of turning this thing into a brick trying to upgrade it. It seems a factory reset ought to recover from that, but there's apparently no way to do a factory reset unless you can get to the menu. No menu, no reset. (The regular Kobo WiFi does a factory reset from the menu but also if you hold down "menu" while turning the power on. Tried that, but no result with Literati.)

AlienRace · 06-05-2012, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Altivo

OK, I took the KoboRoot.tgz for 2.0 that I downloaded, and ran it through gunzip. Now the file size is 62,043,413 just as you say, but it's called KoboRoot.tar. There seems to be something very fishy going on with these files. You decompress it and it gets smaller.

if you want, use working one (link http://www.freefilehosting.net/literatifirmware20 and it will be called KoboRoot.tgz ) FW (2.0) (extract, and copy file to root of SD card) and i know it works on white one and it's from kobo site. So i don't think they released for black version as a separate file. It worked for me.
P.S.this is for information only, I take no responsibility for your ways of doing FW updates , you do it on your own, good luck and post it back.

As of my own project - i received from ebay non-working one, and it was black, not white, the hardware is designed simillar but not identical, cloud not swap that part, so it's ebay after all...

Altivo · 06-06-2012, 09:16 AM

Thanks. I'll download your copy of the file and compare it to what I have.

I heard that someone has a way to backup the original contents of the system so it can be restored if an update fails, and I'm trying to find that before I experiment further.

I'm sure you're right that there's just one update file for both the black and white versions. The difference between the two is just the keyboard layout, and that may not even appear different to the software. My update files were downloaded from the Kobo site, just in the last two weeks. Just possible that something screwy has happened there.

Altivo · 06-07-2012, 11:28 AM

OK, now it has upgraded to 2.0 and appears to be working.

Here is what I found out by experimenting with downloading the KoboRoot.tgz files from the links given in the Literati WIKI page on this site:

A right click and save as using Firefox 12 or 13, running on either Windows or Linux, does download a file with the correct name. However, the file is corrupted. It has the wrong length and the Linux command "tar ztvf KoboRoot.tgz" tells you that it doesn't appear to be a valid archive.

The same operation in Internet Explorer presents a message asking if you want to save the file and when you tell it to save, the file downloaded is of the correct length and can be listed correctly by the tar command in Linux.

Since I run Linux, I use Firefox. It never occurred to me that such a corruption was possible, and I've never seen it before. I strongly suggest that someone who can update that WIKI page add the correct file lengths to the information at the bottom. MD5 checksums wouldn't be a bad idea either. And a warning to check the file lengths at the very least is in order.

Added information: For those who use Linux and have no access to Windows, I tested the "wget" command line program and it does download the file without corruption when used with the URL from the WIKI page.

It's clear now that the first Literati that crashed trying to upgrade using the 2.0 KoboRoot.tgz file downloaded by Firefox could probably have been recovered by repeating the upgrade using a correct file. That would have saved me from returning the device for a replacement and then doing a whole lot of research before daring to try the upgrade again. With an uncorrupted KoboRoot.tgz, the upgrade proceeds normally and succeeds. Following common advice, I did a system reset after that.

The Literati is now visible to the Kobo Desktop and Adobe Digital Editions. I have loaded books to it using both of those and also Calibre, and all seem to work as expected. Wireless connects, but apparently will not actually download or sync from kobobooks.com even though the site does recognize that I'm properly logged in and that I'm entitled to download books I've paid for. That's a fairly minor nuisance, since I'm able to sync over USB now. Has anyone else seen this?

Oh, and note on SD cards as well. As I had suspected, I find that the reported "unable to see the SD card" has to do with the card itself, not the reader. I have other devices that behave in the same way. They expect "high speed" SD cards, those that are class 4 or 5 and above. When you insert an old, slow card they don't always recognize it. The Literati rejects my old class 2 cards from several manufacturers, but is happy with all the faster cards I have (the ones usually touted for use in video cameras.) It might not hurt, though, to note in the WIKI that cards should be inserted with the label side down or away from the user when looking at the screen/keyboard side of the Literati.

AlienRace · 06-07-2012, 05:50 PM

Thanks for the update!

Praxus07 · 06-11-2012, 08:44 AM

Well I think my literati just died on me. I added a few books to my SD card and while reading the new files the unit froze, so I let it sit for almost an hour thinking it's usually so slow maybe it just needed time to read the files. After I saw the progress bar hadn't budge I tried turning it off, but it wouldn't. So I hit the rest button and it did go off, now it won't come back on at all. Tried plugging in the power supply as that normally will turn it on for me, but nothing.

05-31-2012, 10:06 PM	#317
250 Coupe Groupie Posts: 169 Karma: 10721 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: Many ebook readers at my house	I have the black Literati and it also has 5 pins and can connect both via USB and WiFi. It looks like you are missing pin 2 which should be the data - pin and that would definitely keep you from connecting. Michael Last edited by 250 Coupe; 05-31-2012 at 10:19 PM.

06-02-2012, 06:04 PM	#320
Altivo Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 12152 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Northern Illinois Device: Generic Android tablet, Kobo WiFi, Literati, and eBookwise 1150	Joining this thread late, I see. I've now read the entire thing through, all 22 pages of it, and have to admit I'm a bit disappointed at the lack of serious technical information. Surely someone must have the real details. Now that there is really no support available from the manufacturer or distributors of Literati and Lookbook, the user community is the only support available. Vague answers like "They told me it was caused by Windows 7" don't help anyone much, alas. I recently admired a white Literati that is working correctly and has 2.0 firmware in it. I was so taken with the display that I went looking for one, and ended up buying a "new, in box" black model off EBay. Yes, I knew it was taking a risk. The first one was operational but was unable to upgrade itself from the supplied 1.6 version of firmware. On connection to wifi, it would announce that an upgrade was available, and proceed to download it, but after a few minutes it would declare "Update Cancelled." No explanation. I read that you could update from an SD card so I followed instructions for that: download the KoboRoot.tgz file, put it in the root directory of the SD card, power on while holding ALT-Q. It claimed again to be updating itself, but after several minutes announced "Update failed. Unable to write attribute file." After that, the device was no longer able to boot up. It would power on and show the startup logo, but never go beyond that even after several hours. So I returned it and received another new, in the box unit. This one fails to update itself over wifi with the same behavior as the first. I'm not about to try the SD card and ALT-Q method again. I've seen another set of instructions that says to place the KoboRoot.tgz file into the .kobo directory on the Literati virtual drive, and restart. I'm suspicious of that, and expect it will trash the device the same way the SD chip method did. Some have noted in the past that mysterious tech support people "had them reformat the Literati drive," which I assume means using a PC to format the drive while it is mounted as a USB mass storage device. I can see where this might correct issues with the original disk image, if for instance there weren't enough directory blocks or something was marked "read only" that has to be replaced in order to update. However, reformatting would erase the entire file structure that is already on the drive, including the sqlite database that contains the "free book" data and the other existing configuration files. Does the Literati rebuild all that automatically when it restarts? Does anyone know for sure? The Literati itself is running a Linux kernel of some sort, not Windows. However, I see that the virtual drive is in fact formatted as FAT32 to allow Windows-based PCs to read and write it. Is that how it should be reformatted? That might explain the Windows 7 issues, since a default format from Windows 7 surely would write NTFS rather than FAT32. Most of the problems reported here can be fixed, I'm quite sure. But we need more detailed facts and less vague hand-waving in order to build up a list of procedures known to have worked. (Note: I don't think we should be blaming Kobo, as some users have done. They apparently provided the base code, but were not directly involved in development or support until Sharper Image or Merch Source abandoned the product. I also have a Kobo WiFi reader, and it works just as the manual says it should. The problems here seem to be the fault of Merch Source or whomever they outsourced the product design and development to.) Last edited by Altivo; 06-02-2012 at 06:10 PM.

06-02-2012, 07:06 PM	#321
DaleDe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,470 Karma: 13095790 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Grass Valley, CA Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7	I have a white one and had no problem doing the upgrade. However, the black one may be different hardware and require a different firmware. I have a Koboroot.tgz file for 1.9 at 60,748,205 bytes that I used to resurrect a broken unit (locked in initial load as yours now is) and I have a Kobroot.tgz.20.tgz at 62,043,413 that I could have used to upgrade my white unit later. I use the SD card approach and it went well. I may have done the upgrade from the Internet instead of the second file. I really can't remember for sure. Last edited by DaleDe; 06-02-2012 at 07:12 PM.

06-07-2012, 11:28 AM	#328
Altivo Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 12152 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Northern Illinois Device: Generic Android tablet, Kobo WiFi, Literati, and eBookwise 1150	Success! OK, now it has upgraded to 2.0 and appears to be working. Here is what I found out by experimenting with downloading the KoboRoot.tgz files from the links given in the Literati WIKI page on this site: A right click and save as using Firefox 12 or 13, running on either Windows or Linux, does download a file with the correct name. However, the file is corrupted. It has the wrong length and the Linux command "tar ztvf KoboRoot.tgz" tells you that it doesn't appear to be a valid archive. The same operation in Internet Explorer presents a message asking if you want to save the file and when you tell it to save, the file downloaded is of the correct length and can be listed correctly by the tar command in Linux. Since I run Linux, I use Firefox. It never occurred to me that such a corruption was possible, and I've never seen it before. I strongly suggest that someone who can update that WIKI page add the correct file lengths to the information at the bottom. MD5 checksums wouldn't be a bad idea either. And a warning to check the file lengths at the very least is in order. Added information: For those who use Linux and have no access to Windows, I tested the "wget" command line program and it does download the file without corruption when used with the URL from the WIKI page. It's clear now that the first Literati that crashed trying to upgrade using the 2.0 KoboRoot.tgz file downloaded by Firefox could probably have been recovered by repeating the upgrade using a correct file. That would have saved me from returning the device for a replacement and then doing a whole lot of research before daring to try the upgrade again. With an uncorrupted KoboRoot.tgz, the upgrade proceeds normally and succeeds. Following common advice, I did a system reset after that. The Literati is now visible to the Kobo Desktop and Adobe Digital Editions. I have loaded books to it using both of those and also Calibre, and all seem to work as expected. Wireless connects, but apparently will not actually download or sync from kobobooks.com even though the site does recognize that I'm properly logged in and that I'm entitled to download books I've paid for. That's a fairly minor nuisance, since I'm able to sync over USB now. Has anyone else seen this? Oh, and note on SD cards as well. As I had suspected, I find that the reported "unable to see the SD card" has to do with the card itself, not the reader. I have other devices that behave in the same way. They expect "high speed" SD cards, those that are class 4 or 5 and above. When you insert an old, slow card they don't always recognize it. The Literati rejects my old class 2 cards from several manufacturers, but is happy with all the faster cards I have (the ones usually touted for use in video cameras.) It might not hurt, though, to note in the WIKI that cards should be inserted with the label side down or away from the user when looking at the screen/keyboard side of the Literati. Last edited by Altivo; 06-07-2012 at 12:17 PM.

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06-01-2012, 01:19 AM	#318
klu529 Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Literati	The usb standard only has 4 pins. The mini usb port has 5 pins but 1 of them is not connected. If you look at the plug with the large part on the bottom, it will be pin 4 starting from the left. If that is the one missing, it shouldn't matter.

06-04-2012, 01:52 PM	#323
Altivo Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 12152 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Northern Illinois Device: Generic Android tablet, Kobo WiFi, Literati, and eBookwise 1150	Well, that's interesting. I have the 2.0 file at a length of 65,188,231. Using Linux to parse and check the .tgz file, it seems to be readable and verified. Is there anyone who has successfully upgraded the firmware in a BLACK literati?

06-04-2012, 08:41 PM	#324
250 Coupe Groupie Posts: 169 Karma: 10721 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: Many ebook readers at my house	I upgraded my black Literati but don't remember any trouble other than maybe a couple of reboots and maybe a factory reset. And I'm pretty sure it was over WiFi. Michael

06-06-2012, 09:16 AM	#327
Altivo Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 12152 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Northern Illinois Device: Generic Android tablet, Kobo WiFi, Literati, and eBookwise 1150	Thanks. I'll download your copy of the file and compare it to what I have. I heard that someone has a way to backup the original contents of the system so it can be restored if an update fails, and I'm trying to find that before I experiment further. I'm sure you're right that there's just one update file for both the black and white versions. The difference between the two is just the keyboard layout, and that may not even appear different to the software. My update files were downloaded from the Kobo site, just in the last two weeks. Just possible that something screwy has happened there.

06-07-2012, 05:50 PM	#329
AlienRace Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2012 Device: Literati	Thanks for the update!

06-11-2012, 08:44 AM	#330
Praxus07 Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: Literati	Well I think my literati just died on me. I added a few books to my SD card and while reading the new files the unit froze, so I let it sit for almost an hour thinking it's usually so slow maybe it just needed time to read the files. After I saw the progress bar hadn't budge I tried turning it off, but it wouldn't. So I hit the rest button and it did go off, now it won't come back on at all. Tried plugging in the power supply as that normally will turn it on for me, but nothing.