Kobo Touch - Not ejecting properly?

[fbrII]

I have run into this sequence several times when using calibre on Linux with a Kobo Touch.

I send a book or books to my device
I get the message all jobs are complete
I quit calibre
I unmount the Kobo directory from Linux
I then get a message that the data transfer has not completed
When I try to cancel the operation I see that the device has already been ejected (this is not a calibre problem obviously)

The problem with this is I have been forced to factory reset my Kobo three times now and it has been suggested when posting in the Kobo forum, that this is related to calibre ejecting the device improperly.

I don't know if this is the case but I have noticed that a growing number of people are posting about having to do factory resets due to memory storage problems. Which I would assume is the result of a corrupted database.

Is there a way to troubleshoot this problem to verify whether true or not?

Thanks

[PeterT]

Worth noting that some users on Windows 7 are also seeing this --> https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...3&postcount=16

[fbrII]

PeterT,

Actually my case is somewhat different, at least in the details. The user in the post disconnects his device using the eject device option in calibre. I simply quite calibre after the jobs are reported as complete. I then right click on the Kobo icon on my desktop and select the eject/unmount option, at which point I sometimes get the message: datatransfer is not complete and other times I get a message - it's safe to disconnect.

When I get the first message I try to cancel the operation but sometimes find the Kobo was ejected anyway. (Which is a seperate issue.) The real problem is why is calibre reporting the job is complete when the data-transfer between the computer and the device appear to be still in progress?

[PeterT]

Yes.. sorry.. missed that. With Removable devices on Windows, they are mounted in a non-buffered mode; writes to them happen immediately.

I wonder if something as trivial as adding a "flush" to Calibre jobs that update a removable device might suffice.

[kovidgoyal]

calibre always flushes after all file operations to devices. On linux you need to make sure your device is being mounted in sync mode.

[fbrII]

On linux you need to make sure your device is being mounted in sync mode.

I'm sorry but I'm not familiar with sync mode, can you elaborate? Specifically, how do you access sync mode?

Many Thanks

[kovidgoyal]

Its an option to the mount command. You'll have to ask on your distro forums for how to ensure it is enabled on your distro.

You can check if it is by just running

mount

and looking for the word sync next to the mount point for you Kobo

[fbrII]

Using mount without any options gives me the following output from the terminal. I will post on the Salix forum for further guidance.

/dev/sdb on /media/KOBOeReader type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,uid=1000,shortname=wi nnt

I appreciate your help!

[fbrII]

Just as a quick update for anybody else reading this, having a similar problem, people are reporting this problem in the Kobo forum who are not using calibre, so it appears the problem is not specifically related to calibre.

[kovidgoyal]

There's no sync there, here's what the output for my Kindle shows

/dev/sdh1 on /media/Kindle type vfat (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,sync,uhelper=udisks,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,uid=1000,gid=1000)

Note the word sync.

While I doubt this is the cause of your problem (since if you eject properly, the filesystem should automatically be flushed), it is good practice to mount removable devices in sync mode, this protects them from corruption in the case where someone yanks the cord, instead of ejecting properly.