Aura HD Kobo Aura HD

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Dear Davidfor,

I already use your wonderful Kobo utilities to manage front page tile display and copy reading parameters between my preferred Aura and the "spare" Glo, but I hadn't noticed it could be used to compress databases.

I just used it for the Glo: the database was reduced from 126.7 to 111.8Mb. But it doesn't work for the Aura which is too big: I have an error

calibre, version 0.9.41
ERREUR : Exception non gérée: <b>OperationalError</b>:database or disk is full

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 833, in vacuum_device_database
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 1711, in _vacuum_device_database
OperationalError: database or disk is full

I did have an error "database full" the penultimate time I transferred books from calibre to the Aura, but it worked the last time. Following that, I explored the threads, and found a link to SQLite Database Browser 2.0 b1, but when I tried to use it (after backing up the database), I discovered there was no user's guide and don't know how to discard unused elements.

Regards, anacreon

I can't be much help on most of that but in SQLite if you Browse Data you should have two buttons: "New Record" and "Delete Record" to the right side of the listing.

Luck;
Ken

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I did have an error "database full" the penultimate time I transferred books from calibre to the Aura, but it worked the last time. Following that, I explored the threads, and found a link to SQLite Database Browser 2.0 b1, but when I tried to use it (after backing up the database), I discovered there was no user's guide and don't know how to discard unused elements.

You might want to try SQLite Expert Personal edition. It does have a vacuum option on the database menu. A bit easier to use the SQLite Database Browser with a half decent help.

Download page is at: http://www.sqliteexpert.com/download.html

Regards,
David

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You might want to try SQLite Expert Personal edition. It does have a vacuum option on the database menu. A bit easier to use the SQLite Database Browser with a half decent help.

Download page is at: http://www.sqliteexpert.com/download.html

Regards,
David

Thank you. I decided to try compressing with kobo utilities again after deleting a couple of dispensable books (the database went down from 262 to 256 Mb), and checking it (ok): it worked, and the compressed database is now 239 Mb. It still needs slimming, so I'll try your expert version tomorrow.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Thank you. I decided to try compressing with kobo utilities again after deleting a couple of dispensable books (the database went down from 262 to 256 Mb), and checking it (ok): it worked, and the compressed database is now 239 Mb. It still needs slimming, so I'll try your expert version tomorrow.

How much space do you have free on the devices disk? I am pretty sure the compress works by copying the database to another file and then compressing that. That means to work, it needs at least the size of the database file free on the devices disks.

[Mostly Math]

I have had my Aura since the were released and I love it but... I am noticing the screen is getting terribly scratched. This didn't happen on any of my other Kobo readers (original, touch and glo). Has anyone else noticed this happening?

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Mostly Math

I have had my Aura since the were released and I love it but... I am noticing the screen is getting terribly scratched. This didn't happen on any of my other Kobo readers (original, touch and glo). Has anyone else noticed this happening?

Mine looks okay. Seems unlikely that you are doing terrible things to it if none of your other readers are scratched.

Only suggestion I can think of is to clean it several times in case there is something (coating) on the surface that is scratched but again not too likely.

Helen

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by davidfor

How much space do you have free on the devices disk? I am pretty sure the compress works by copying the database to another file and then compressing that. That means to work, it needs at least the size of the database file free on the devices disks.

I have 1038 Mo available on the Aura this morning, 495 on the Glo. I have always wondered how much space I MUST leave available when I'm on a downloading frenzy, and I guess I'll leave at least 100 above the database - which means I'd really like to slim it down.

Unfortunately, the vacuum button on sqlite expert only reduced it by 20 Ko!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I have 1038 Mo available on the Aura this morning, 495 on the Glo. I have always wondered how much space I MUST leave available when I'm on a downloading frenzy, and I guess I'll leave at least 100 above the database - which means I'd really like to slim it down.

That should be enough space. I just checked the SQLite manual and for the vacuum, it says "up to twice the size of the original database file". So, for a 250MB database, you should be OK with 500MB.

Because of something unrelated, I have been wondering how much space should be left free. Other than the database, there is also the firmware files when they are downloaded. They are about 130MB, so leaving enough for that would be a good idea.

Unfortunately, the vacuum button on sqlite expert only reduced it by 20 Ko!

That isn't much, but it depends on what has happened recently. If you had just deleted a lot of books, I would expect a lot of space to be returned. But if you had just added a lot, there probably isn't much extra space in the database.

One thing I didn't check on: You didn't try to do the compress while calibre was still syncing or while you where sending books? It won't work if the database is open in some other way. The error should be something else, but it seems sometimes it shows as a disk full error.

To get around any issues on the device, you could take a backup of the database to the PC and do the compress there. That will show you how much space was freed and you can restore the file to the device.

[Ken Maltby]

I only have the free "SQLite Database Browser", it has a "File" option: "Compact Database" with this description: "Compact the database file, removing space wasted by deleted records." I assume the "vacuum" feature is something more than that.

Luck;
Ken

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I only have the free "SQLite Database Browser", it has a "File" option: "Compact Database" with this description: "Compact the database file, removing space wasted by deleted records." I assume the "vacuum" feature is something more than that.

Sorry, I'm swapping between different terms for the same thing. "vacuum" is the SQLite statement to compress the database. "Compress" is the more generic term that is used in most other database and in the various menus. Choosing this option will just run the vacuum statement.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Sorry, I'm swapping between different terms for the same thing. "vacuum" is the SQLite statement to compress the database. "Compress" is the more generic term that is used in most other database and in the various menus. Choosing this option will just run the vacuum statement.

I an just a little more confused. My non-expert SQLite is using the term "Compact", not "vacuum". The term "compress" is most often related to what the Zip programs do. I would expect a process named "vacuum" to be finding and removing un-needed bits, duplicates and orphans, within the database.

But I don't claim to have any idea how this feature functions in SQLite.

Luck;
Ken

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I an just a little more confused. My non-expert SQLite is using the term "Compact", not "vacuum". The term "compress" is most often related to what the Zip programs do. I would expect a process named "vacuum" to be finding and removing un-needed bits, duplicates and orphans, within the database.

But I don't claim to have any idea how this feature functions in SQLite.

The SQLite browser will have somewhere to run an SQL statement. You can enter "vacuum" in that and run it. The menu simple is a shortcut to running the statement.

As to why they chose "vacuum" for the name of the statement, I don't know. From my DB2 and SQLServer days, I think of it as "reorganize". "Compress" is a good generic term.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The SQLite browser will have somewhere to run an SQL statement. You can enter "vacuum" in that and run it. The menu simple is a shortcut to running the statement.

As to why they chose "vacuum" for the name of the statement, I don't know. From my DB2 and SQLServer days, I think of it as "reorganize". "Compress" is a good generic term.

Right the free version has three major tabs "Database Structure" "Browse Data" and "Execute SQL". I ran "vacuum" as a query and it reported "No Error", but I don't think it did much. There was nothing in the "Data returned:" area.

So in the windows version of SQLite the "File" tab selection "Compact Database" means what? Is it not what you guys are talking about or do you only get that in the "Expert" version?

Luck;
Ken

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Right the free version has three major tabs "Database Structure" "Browse Data" and "Execute SQL". I ran "vacuum" as a query and it reported "No Error", but I don't think it did much. There was nothing in the "Data returned:" area.

That is the expected result. If it works, it produces that. If it doesn't, there will be an error. The only time I have seen an error was when the database was corrupt.

So in the windows version of SQLite the "File" tab selection "Compact Database" means what? Is it not what you guys are talking about or do you only get that in the "Expert" version?

"Compact database" will run "vacuum". It is a short curt to running the vacuum statement. It might wrap it in checks and probably displays a message box at the end, but the only thing important is that it runs vacuum.

[anacreon]

I added and cancelled books today. So I retried the Kobo utilities "compress", checking that Calibre wasn't working, and I had again the database full message.

I then did it directly with sqlite expert, and it reduced the data base from 244.477 to 244.069 Mo. Not so impressive but better.

I remember reading it is not enough to reset the reader to have a pristine database, and since I noticed it very recently, I unfortunately didn't keep a copy of the original one.

Does anybody know where I can find one?