Koreader running on Kobos (all of them, hopefully!)

[ebrahimpak]

Originally Posted by Alan_S

Do you by any chance mean that menu (or top menu, how I guess you call it) is now accessed by swiping from top of the screen downwards (similar to Android phones), instead just tapping in the middle of uppermost part of screen?

Or are you suggesting something completely else?

BTW, swiping is described in quick instructions that you now get with latest koreader versions. Just in case people miss it.

You were right. I did not care to read the new instruction manual. Thanks again.

[ebrahimpak]

Originally Posted by Alan_S

Just an idea, maybe system time needs to be synced with hardware clock.

I had similar problem, after reboot I had "missing" three minutes. Only lately I found out that Kobos have system and hardware clock and that system time is erased and read from hardware clock every reboot (or power on/off cycle).

Thanks a lot. With the latest nightly build installed, the time is back to normal.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by ebrahimpak

Hi everybody,

When I turn on my Aura One, it starts the Nickle rather than the Start Menu. I have to switch back from Nickel to Koreader each time. Nonetheless, this is not the case with Aura HD, and it goes directly to Start Menu upon start-up, allowing me to choose between any of the two readers. Any suggestions?

Best,
Abe

Has this problem disappeared after you did a factory reset. I am just guessing that you reset your Aura One.

[ebrahimpak]

Originally Posted by tshering

Has this problem disappeared after you did a factory reset. I am just guessing that you reset your Aura One.

Yes, I reset everything on KA1, including Nickel, KSM, and Koreader. But as I informed you in the KSM08 thread, due to the challenge that one would face for getting the Natural Light on Koreader, now I am experiencing difficulties in Koreader-Nickel-Koreader switching. The power cycle method does not feel alright each time you wanna wake your reader and change the natural light at night. It is cumbersome, both for the user and the device(!). Besides, as you have already emphasized, the "start nickel no fmon.sh" doesn't help the switching procedure. Still the Natural Light is not supported in Koreader at all.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by ebrahimpak

Yes, I reset everything on KA1, including Nickel, KSM, and Koreader. But as I informed you in the KSM08 thread, due to the challenge that one would face for getting the Natural Light on Koreader, now I am experiencing difficulties in Koreader-Nickel-Koreader switching. The power cycle method does not feel alright each time you wanna wake your reader and change the natural light at night. It is cumbersome, both for the user and the device(!). Besides, as you have already emphasized, the "start nickel no fmon.sh" doesn't help the switching procedure. Still the Natural Light is not supported in Koreader at all.

I was referring to the problem you reported:

Originally Posted by ebrahimpak

When I turn on my Aura One, it starts the Nickle rather than the Start Menu.

The purpose of launching nickel once by selecting "start nickel no fmon.sh" is to give nickel a chance to produce the thumbnails of the exit_nickel.png and other KSM pngs, so that next time you can launch nickel by selecting "start nickel" without unintentionally triggering fmon.

[ebrahimpak]

Originally Posted by tshering

I was referring to the problem you reported:The purpose of launching nickel once by selecting "start nickel no fmon.sh" is to give nickel a chance to produce the thumbnails of the exit_nickel.png and other KSM pngs, so that next time you can launch nickel by selecting "start nickel" without unintentionally triggering fmon.

Yes the problem could not be solved otherwise. So I had to reset it. I could not find the underlying problem.

Regarding my current issue, no palpable change could be seen after that, as the PNGs are already there.

[ebrahimpak]

Hi all,

For those who might be curious about the way I could use Nickel again:

Once in the nickel (through the: Start Nickel No Fmon.sh), I opened some books and closed them, hence pushing the PNGs further and away from the nickel's homepage. Therefore, the homepage thumbnails of PNGs won't trigger fmon upon startup anymore, and nickel would start without crash. On the other hand, the switching PNGs will work like a charm as long as they are not shown on the homepage.

This may sound like a temporary workaround, but it works!

Best,
Abe

[tshering]

Originally Posted by ebrahimpak

Hi all,

For those who might be curious about the way I could use Nickel again:

Once in the nickel (through the: Start Nickel No Fmon.sh), I opened some books and closed them, hence pushing the PNGs further and away from the nickel's homepage. Therefore, the homepage thumbnails of PNGs won't trigger fmon upon startup anymore, and nickel would start without crash. On the other hand, the switching PNGs will work like a charm as long as they are not shown on the homepage.

This may sound like a temporary workaround, but it works!

Best,
Abe

I am happy that it works again for you. I wonder whether having the PNGs on the nickel home page really made the difference. On my Touch I have the thumbnail of the exit_nickel.png on nickel's home, and there is no problem with it. I updatet to 4.4.9349, and there is still no problem. I wonder what else in your setting might have changed.

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by tshering

I am happy that it works again for you. I wonder whether having the PNGs on the nickel home page really made the difference. On my Touch I have the thumbnail of the exit_nickel.png on nickel's home, and there is no problem with it. I updatet to 4.4.9349, and there is still no problem. I wonder what else in your setting might have changed.

I was curious after reading about the problems of the PNGs on the homepage. So I created a collection of the PNGs which I called KSM and tapped on one of the PNGs to "open" it so that the collection would appear on Nickel's homepage on my KA1.

What I discovered was that if I include the "switchtokoreader" PNG in the collection and then tap on it, I will be taken the KSM homepage. However, if I try to return to Nickel from there it won't let me. It just redirects me back to the KSM homepage.

The only way to get back to Nickel was to power my KA1 off and then start it again so that it would launch into Nickel. A nuisance, but not a problem.

I then removed the "switchtokoreader" PNG from the collection and powered off and on again. This time, while in Nickel, I opened up my KSM collection and tapped on "exit_nickel" which brought me to the KSM homepage. And from there, there was no problem launching into either Nickel or Koreader.

So there does seem to be some issue with having the "switchtokoreader" PNG on the new homepage (at least on a KA1 running FW 4.4.9298). So, instead of using that PNG to switch to koreader, I now use the "exit_nickel" PNG which achieves the same result without locking me out of Nickel.

I'm really glad I did this little experiment because it is handy having my KSM collection readily accessible on the Nickel homepage as I also like using the comfort light while reading with Koreader.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Question Mark

I was curious after reading about the problems of the PNGs on the homepage. So I created a collection of the PNGs which I called KSM and tapped on one of the PNGs to "open" it so that the collection would appear on Nickel's homepage on my KA1.

What I discovered was that if I include the "switchtokoreader" PNG in the collection and then tap on it, I will be taken the KSM homepage. However, if I try to return to Nickel from there it won't let me. It just redirects me back to the KSM homepage.

The only way to get back to Nickel was to power my KA1 off and then start it again so that it would launch into Nickel. A nuisance, but not a problem.

I then removed the "switchtokoreader" PNG from the collection and powered off and on again. This time, while in Nickel, I opened up my KSM collection and tapped on "exit_nickel" which brought me to the KSM homepage. And from there, there was no problem launching into either Nickel or Koreader.

So there does seem to be some issue with having the "switchtokoreader" PNG on the new homepage (at least on a KA1 running FW 4.4.9298). So, instead of using that PNG to switch to koreader, I now use the "exit_nickel" PNG which achieves the same result without locking me out of Nickel.

I'm really glad I did this little experiment because it is handy having my KSM collection readily accessible on the Nickel homepage as I also like using the comfort light while reading with Koreader.

Thank you for your report. I am not sure what exactly is happening.
I have all KSM pngs in a collection, and everything works fine. So maybe by comparing some things we can figure out what causes the problem. I try to describe the points that I think might be of relevance for our problem.

On my nickle home:
In the first row there are four tiles, the first three tiles are of .epub files. Since these epub files have no dedicated title page, they tiles show the "title pages" generated by nickel. The forth tile shows the exit_nickle.png.

In the second row there is the "My Books" block consisting of three black tiles. Maybe they are black because the corresponding epub files do not have dedicated title pages. I do not know.

In the second row there is further a block referring to the KSM pngs collection. It showes the tiles of the restart_nickel.png, toggle_nightmode_png, and poweroff.png.

These are the related thumbnails that nickel has created:

Spoiler:

.kobo-images\39\95\
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_poweroff_png - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_poweroff_png - N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_poweroff_png - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed

.kobo-images\103\166\
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_toggle_nightmode_pn g - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_toggle_nightmode_pn g - N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_toggle_nightmode_pn g - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed

.kobo-images\39\1\
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_simulate_usb_connec tion_png - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_simulate_usb_connec tion_png - N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_simulate_usb_connec tion_png - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed

.kobo-images\231\208\
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_run_test_script_png - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_run_test_script_png - N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_run_test_script_png - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed

.kobo-images\135\255\
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_exit_nickel_png - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_exit_nickel_png - N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_exit_nickel_png - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed

.kobo-images\135\148\ ## strangely there is no ... N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_switchtokoreader_pn g - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_switchtokoreader_pn g - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed

.kobo-images\167\80\ ## this does not belong to the default KSM pngs
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_restart_nickel_png - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_restart_nickel_png - N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_restart_nickel_png - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed

By the way, the switchtokoreader.png is supposed to be used only if nickel was launched by "koreader additions" > "start nickel koreader switch" or "start koreader nickel switch." Then switchtokoreader.png starts koreader directly, rather then bringing you back to the KSM home. Since switchtokoreader.png seems to create problem on your device, you better do not try this function right now.

[ebrahimpak]

Originally Posted by Question Mark

I was curious after reading about the problems of the PNGs on the homepage. So I created a collection of the PNGs which I called KSM and tapped on one of the PNGs to "open" it so that the collection would appear on Nickel's homepage on my KA1.

What I discovered was that if I include the "switchtokoreader" PNG in the collection and then tap on it, I will be taken the KSM homepage. However, if I try to return to Nickel from there it won't let me. It just redirects me back to the KSM homepage.

The only way to get back to Nickel was to power my KA1 off and then start it again so that it would launch into Nickel. A nuisance, but not a problem.

I then removed the "switchtokoreader" PNG from the collection and powered off and on again. This time, while in Nickel, I opened up my KSM collection and tapped on "exit_nickel" which brought me to the KSM homepage. And from there, there was no problem launching into either Nickel or Koreader.

So there does seem to be some issue with having the "switchtokoreader" PNG on the new homepage (at least on a KA1 running FW 4.4.9298). So, instead of using that PNG to switch to koreader, I now use the "exit_nickel" PNG which achieves the same result without locking me out of Nickel.

I'm really glad I did this little experiment because it is handy having my KSM collection readily accessible on the Nickel homepage as I also like using the comfort light while reading with Koreader.

Thanks for addressing the issue and finding the culprit!

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by tshering

On my nickle home:
In the first row there are four tiles, the first three tiles are of .epub files. Since these epub files have no dedicated title page, they tiles show the "title pages" generated by nickel. The forth tile shows the exit_nickle.png.

In the first row of my Nickel home, there are four tiles: a Chinese epub, a Japanese kepub, and two more Chinese epubs, in that order going left to right.

Originally Posted by tshering

In the second row there is the "My Books" block consisting of three black tiles. Maybe they are black because the corresponding epub files do not have dedicated title pages. I do not know.

In the second row where it says "My Books", it is currently showing three of the KSM pngs: the exit nickel, power off and test script pngs in that order left to right.

Originally Posted by tshering

In the second row there is further a block referring to the KSM pngs collection. It showes the tiles of the restart_nickel.png, toggle_nightmode_png, and poweroff.png.

In the second row, in the area to the right of "My Books", it has my KSM collection, showing: the power off, run test script and toggle nightmode pngs in that order left to right.

Originally Posted by tshering

By the way, the switchtokoreader.png is supposed to be used only if nickel was launched by "koreader additions" > "start nickel koreader switch" or "start koreader nickel switch." Then switchtokoreader.png starts koreader directly, rather then bringing you back to the KSM home. Since switchtokoreader.png seems to create problem on your device, you better do not try this function right now.

That's good to know. I had always just used the switchtokoreader png to bring up the KSM start menu. It is working fine on my original Aura running FW 3.19.5761 where it sits on the home screen without any problems. However, I think I will start using the exit nickel png from now on as I am currently using it on my KA1.

[ebrahimpak]

@Question Mark: Your method is better than mine, as I had to keep the PNGs away from Home. I have tested your method and it works well. I deleted them all and copied them again, save for the switchtokoreader. I did this so as to test your method and also be enable to tap the icons on the Home. Once the switchtokoreader icon is gone for good, everything goes back to normal. I was always wondering why the switchtokoreader does not do its designated job on KA1, and the icon does the same job as exitnickel, though it works well with my Aura HD running on older versions of Nickel, KSM and Koreader. So both of us have experienced the same misbehavior, provided that the switchtokoreader exists on KA1.

[tshering]

@Question Mark
Can you tell me whether in .kobo-images\135\255\ you have
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_switchtokoreader_pn g - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_switchtokoreader_pn g - N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_switchtokoreader_pn g - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed?
And if you have them, whether the file date indicates whether the file existed already at the time when you had the problem starting nickel?

@Question Mark and ebrahimpak
That switchtokoreader.png causes problems is somehow related to the history of your devices. The question is, why, on your devices, nickel tries under certain circumstances to open switchtokoreader.png on startup. By launching nickel by "start nickel no fmon.sh" and opening and closing the KSM pngs, nickel should have had sufficient opportunity to create all thumbnails that it needs.

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by tshering

@Question Mark
Can you tell me whether in .kobo-images\135\255\ you have
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_switchtokoreader_pn g - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_switchtokoreader_pn g - N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_switchtokoreader_pn g - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed?
And if you have them, whether the file date indicates whether the file existed already at the time when you had the problem starting nickel?

No, those files don't seem to be in that location. When I go there, the only files in the folder are:

E:\.kobo-images\135\255

file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_exit_nickel_png - N3_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_exit_nickel_png - N3_LIBRARY_FULL.parsed
file____mnt_onboard_kbmenupngs_exit_nickel_png - N3_LIBRARY_GRID.parsed