Kobo Bug thread

[Cootey]

I posted this originally in its own thread, but I think it’s a better fit here:

I’ve been using the Libby/KA1 link with two libraries for some time now, but I’ve encountered a bug you should know about.

Short: If you put a hold on the same book on multiple libraries (using Overdrive’s web access), and both come in, this will foul up syncing with Libby across devices. You have to return one of the books in order for Libby to sync books properly again.

Long: Sometimes you’re at the bottom of hundreds of library patrons waiting to get an ebook. I thought I’d increase my chances by putting a hold on an ebook from multiple libraries. Libby won’t allow you to do that, however, but if you log into the Overdrive websites for each library, you can get around Libby and place those holds. When one of the books comes in, I remove the hold from the other library. This has worked fine until tonight.

What hasn’t happened before was both holds coming in. Suddenly, there were two identical loans in Libby. Even though Libby shows all the books I’ve borrowed and goes about it’s business, I noticed that my iPad Kobo app and my KA1 were no longer in sync. They had different books. A book I had returned days ago remained on my KA1, and new books I borrowed showed up on my iPad, but not my KA1. Also, many were missing.

Rebooting and syncing didn’t solve this. Since I remembered Libby won’t let us borrow an ebook from a library if there’s an exhausting hold for the book from another library, I decided to remove the duplicate ebook by returning it. Now everything updates properly.

I probably won’t double borrow moving forward because of this. The books come quickly enough. Ebook readers are very good at returning books when they are done with them, don’t you think?


Sent from my iPhone, proving definitively that I’m all thumbs.

http://DouglasCootey.com

[chrisridd]

I noticed a bug in the way highlighted text is shown by the kepub reader in the Annotation screen on my KA1 (firmware 4.7.10413).

The 4th para in the attached epub ends in the HTML

&amp;quot</p>

which is displayed by the reader (correctly) as:

&quot

Steps to reproduce

Side load the attached book via the Kobo Touch Extended driver, so that the file will be opened by the device's kepub reader.

Open the book.

Highlight the text "ante.&quot" at the end of the 4th paragraph. Choose "Highlight".

Switch to annotations.

The text is displayed as:

ante."

That's incorrect - something has converted the trailing text to a double quote.

It is hard to tell if this is serious or not, but mishandling escape characters like this is often used in security exploits. Honestly I can't think how it could be exploited, but perhaps I'm just not devious enough.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

Highlight the text "ante.&quot" at the end of the 4th paragraph. Choose "Highlight".

Switch to annotations.

The text is displayed as:

That's incorrect - something has converted the trailing text to a double quote.

That's more common than you might think, and it has a long history. Somewhere along the line, some people got the idea that the semicolon terminator character for HTML entities was optional, and "forgiving" web browsers were coded to correct for that mistake - just as they were to handle improperly nested tags and other common issues.

That's what you're seeing here. An ampersand, the letters "quot", and a semicolon constitute the HTML entity for the " character. I haven't looked at the firmware, but I'd wager that the Annotations module uses the web browser's rendering engine, and that that engine is designed to forgive dropped semicolons. Making the engine stricter can come at the price of exposing bad code in other books as being bad.

[OrangeFlavored]

Noticed lately (possibly after a firmware update or something) that when showing progress on the bottom by time remaining in the chapter, page turns become noticeably slower, like 2-3 second lag after tapping the right edge of the screen before it changes. Don't remember it being like this before. Most of my books are .kepub sideloaded from Calibre and stored in external SD card so not sure if it affects other configurations. Have tested on many different books (initially thought it was simply because the first book I noticed it in was a large file with a lot of images but the same thing happens even in smaller ones with no images)

Edit: Fixed in 4.8 (or whatever just installed OTA in the past few days)

[chrisridd]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

That's more common than you might think, and it has a long history. Somewhere along the line, some people got the idea that the semicolon terminator character for HTML entities was optional, and "forgiving" web browsers were coded to correct for that mistake - just as they were to handle improperly nested tags and other common issues.

That's what you're seeing here. An ampersand, the letters "quot", and a semicolon constitute the HTML entity for the " character. I haven't looked at the firmware, but I'd wager that the Annotations module uses the web browser's rendering engine, and that that engine is designed to forgive dropped semicolons. Making the engine stricter can come at the price of exposing bad code in other books as being bad.

I agree, the annotations screen is using a more forgiving parser than the one in the main reader.

That's still a bit (not sure how much) of a concern. As the main reader's parser is apparently correct here, I don't see why the annotation window can't be at least as strict.

[JeanPierre]

I am using the "My Words" feature on my Aura One. I find that when looking at the list under "Activity", that the list will not sort correctly, and appears to show the words in random order as you move through the pages, generating a new random selection with each page turn. This means you don't necessarily get to see all of the words you've added, and see the same word on multiple pages. This happens regardless of whether the list is sorted by most recent or A-Z.

I am using firmware version 4.8.10956.

[JSWolf]

When posting abut a possible bug, please also include the firmware version being used. It could be your bug has been fixed if you are not using the latest version.

[Leonatus]

I have a Kobo Touch original (N905). Just yesterday I downloaded the new firmware 4.6.9960 (mark 3). Everything alright so far, but there are strange issues almost each time at tapping or wiping forward or back: there appears a black frame around the text and the page number (see attached screenshot). I looked at all possibilities of settings, but there is obviously nothing I can do.

I have to tap in the center, then appear the top and bottom menu bars, and when I tap once more, the normal screen is visible. Only sometimes, when I wipe very carefully, the next page of a book appears as it should. Once the black frame present, it will remain at every new page.

Is this known, or is it a single problem of my device?

Any help appreciated.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Leonatus

I have a Kobo Touch original (N905). Just yesterday I downloaded the new firmware 4.6.9960 (mark 3). Everything alright so far, but there are strange issues almost each time at tapping or wiping forward or back: there appears a black frame around the text and the page number (see attached screenshot). I looked at all possibilities of settings, but there is obviously nothing I can do.

I have to tap in the center, then appear the top and bottom menu bars, and when I tap once more, the normal screen is visible. Only sometimes, when I wipe very carefully, the next page of a book appears as it should. Once the black frame present, it will remain at every new page.

Is this known, or is it a single problem of my device?

It is a known problem that started with firmware 4.6.9960 on the Touch. And, I thought Kobo had stopped offering the upgrade to this on the Touch and stopped with version 4.5.9587. They did offer the short lived 4.8.10956 to the Touch, so maybe they rolled it back to the wrong version when they withdrew that.

[Leonatus]

Thank you, David! - How often did I say this during all the time!

You would recommend to return to version 4.5.9587, I understand?

[davidfor]

That is probably the best choice at the moment.

You could try 4.8.10956 and avoid the font problem in it. I'm not sure if this problem has been fixed with 4.8.10956 as my N905 Touch rarely showed it with 4.6.9960. I can't remember if I have seen it at all with 4.8.10956. And there should be replacement for 4.8.10956 out soon to solve the font problem. Whether it is worth waiting for that before doing anything, I don't know.

[Leonatus]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That is probably the best choice at the moment.

I did this, and now it works fine again.

By the way: The version 4.6.9960 had been installed by the "Kobo Utilities" plugin in Calibre. Each time that I connect the device, the suggestion of updating is repeated. Do you consider to remove the problematic version from the plugin's routine?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Leonatus

I did this, and now it works fine again.

By the way: The version 4.6.9960 had been installed by the "Kobo Utilities" plugin in Calibre. Each time that I connect the device, the suggestion of updating is repeated. Do you consider to remove the problematic version from the plugin's routine?

The plugin is doing the check against the Kobo server to see if updated firmware is available. At the moment, Kobo is offering that firmware version to the Touch. I'm not interested in adding code to the check the version and exclude them from some reason.

[JeanPierre]

Originally Posted by JeanPierre

I am using the "My Words" feature on my Aura One. I find that when looking at the list under "Activity", that the list will not sort correctly, and appears to show the words in random order as you move through the pages, generating a new random selection with each page turn. This means you don't necessarily get to see all of the words you've added, and see the same word on multiple pages. This happens regardless of whether the list is sorted by most recent or A-Z.

I am using firmware version 4.8.10956.

FYI, this bug is still present in 4.8.11073, which I just installed.

[taos]

If screen refresh is set to "Chapter", the screen doesn't refresh between the last page of the old and the first page of the new chapter but between the first and the second page of the new chapter. Firmwares affected by this bug are both 4.8.x versions and at least the last of the 4.7.x versions (if I remember correctly). Screen refresh between chapters used to work when this feature was introduced (in 4.6.x?).