[Device Plugin] Kobo Touch Extended Driver

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Leonatus

I realized that in the "ReadMe" file of the plugin, there is still a guide missing that helps Windows users to create a TGZ archive, in order to enable the plugin's option to KePub hyphenation (see first post).

I would suggest this one:

Spoiler:

How to create .tgz under Windows

The first Stepps are quite simple:

1. Download and install 7-Zip File Manager.

2. Go to usr/local/Kobo/hyphenDicts folder.

3. Right-click on the folder.

4. Select „7-Zip“->Add to archive.

5. In the opening window, under „Archive format“ select „tar“. Let other settings at default..

6. Click „Ok“.

7. Now the .tar archive is created. You find it at the place where you stored the „usr“ folder.

Now, some people recommend to continue by creating a .tar.gz archive, as „.tar.gz“ and „.tgz“ were just the same by different extension names (I'm not quite sure). The way to create such a „.tar.gz“ archive, that you may rename to „.tgz“, would be like this:

1. Go to the .tar folder.

2. Right-click on it, and select „7-Zip“ ->Add to archive.

3. In the opening window, under „Archive format“ select „gzip“. Let other settings at default..

4. Click „Ok“.

5. The .tar.gz archive is created. Find it where the „usr“ folder has been stored.

You might try to use it, as described, as „.tgz“ archive. It may work, or it may not.

I prefer the way to create a genuine .tgz“ archive, but as far as I know, you will need a third party service, such as the free online-tool „Convert.Files“ (http://www.convertfiles.com/convert/...GZ-to-TAR.html). If you decide to join this way, just open the website, upload the .tar archive, and under „output format“, chose „tgz“. Click „convert“. Then download converted archive. Rename it to „KoboRoot.tgz“.


Done.

If you approve it, Joel, you might add it to the "ReadMe".

And just to affirm: .tar.gz and .tgz are the same thing, a GZIP-compressed TAR archive file. So 7-Zip will do the job just fine.

[Leonatus]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

And just to affirm: .tar.gz and .tgz are the same thing, a GZIP-compressed TAR archive file. So 7-Zip will do the job just fine.

It should then be possible to copy the archive to the .kobo directory as the created "Koboroot.tar.gz", rather than "Koboroot.tgz". This is but not the common practice. Without any reason?

Btw.: When I simply renamed the .tar.gz to .tgz, the hyphenation did not work properly.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Leonatus

It should then be possible to copy the archive to the .kobo directory as the created "Koboroot.tar.gz", rather than "Koboroot.tgz". This is but not the common practice. Without any reason?

Btw.: When I simply renamed the .tar.gz to .tgz, the hyphenation did not work properly.

They are internally the same thing, but tools/scripts may look for a .tgz file specifically, so that the same file called .tar.gz will not work. That's not odd at all.

The second issue, however, is. Simply renamimg it should have worked, unless 7-Zip does something odd when gzip-ing a file that your third-party web site does not. That's possible, I guess, but I'd have to look into that.

[Leonatus]

O.k. I'll see it at least at the next firmware update.

To return to the topic: The hyphenate feature of the plugin gives, as far as I can see, only the possibility of updating (and applying) one hyphenation dictionary, in my case, the de-DE dictionary. I'm always wondering if there were a chance of giving an option for updating and applying various hyphenation dictionaries, so that I could, for example, also take advantage of the feature when transferring and reading an english (french ...) book. But, alas, I'm not a developper.

[jgoguen]

You can update all the dictionaries at once if you want. But you can't add new ones.

[Leonatus]

Ah, thanks! I'll try this!

[jgoguen]

Oh, and hyphenation doesn't magically start working with the new dictionaries unless you also enable it in the driver settings or the book sets the hyphenation rules itself.

[jgoguen]

This has been a bit of a rough decision, but I'm cutting myself loose from everything Kobo. Including my Kobo plugins for calibre.

It's been pure frustration dealing with Kobo in any way, and for cost and quality I've been buying books from Amazon for months now. I recently got a Kindle as a gift which I've been happy with, so I also haven't been using my Aura lately at all.

I'm no longer accepting bug reports or enhancement requests for my two Kobo plugins, nor will I be uploading new versions. The current version should work with the upcoming calibre with QT5, and it will also work with any future updates to the mainline KoboTouch driver maintained by davidfor.

The code will not be going away! The plugin ZIP file attached to the first post has all the source code in it, and the combined source for both plugins will remain on GitHub. The code is open source, anyone who wants to is free to fork it and take over development provided you adhere to the terms of the GPL. I'm willing to offer advice and assistance with Kobo-specific and KePub-specific details to anyone who wants to do so. Please let me know if you are taking over development though, as the plugin index thread will need to be updated and the mods may want to confirm with me a change to the plugin thread (although hopefully this post is confirmation enough).

It's been fun, except when I dealt with Kobo, but after hearing from them that they weren't interested in closing the gap on a $20 price difference for a single book (a work of fiction, not even an expensive book like textbooks) and the general difficulty I've had getting a polite response (or a response in general) out of them I decided I couldn't support their products anymore.

[chrisridd]

Originally Posted by jgoguen

This has been a bit of a rough decision, but I'm cutting myself loose from everything Kobo. Including my Kobo plugins for calibre.

I'm sorry you're giving it all up and departing to the Amazon, but I wanted to thank you for all your effort and bug fixing - your plugin's been really useful to me!

Originally Posted by jgoguen

I'm no longer accepting bug reports or enhancement requests for my two Kobo plugins, nor will I be uploading new versions. The current version should work with the upcoming calibre with QT5, and it will also work with any future updates to the mainline KoboTouch driver maintained by davidfor.

Would it make sense to merge your code into davidfor's mainline driver?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

I'm sorry you're giving it all up and departing to the Amazon, but I wanted to thank you for all your effort and bug fixing - your plugin's been really useful to me!

I'll back that, plus the occasional chat we've had about the plugins.

Would it make sense to merge your code into davidfor's mainline driver?

Sorry, but no. While I agree having the function available is a good idea, I don't think the main driver is the correct place for it. if there are problems with the extended driver, I will have a look at them. And if anyone wants to take over support, I will gladly give any help needed.

[Leonatus]

It's a strange feeling to have been the last to request for your support for this plugin, and I apologize very much to have you here no longer. But anyway, you have your reasons, and I thank you so much for your great work that has provided us with so many advantages.

Strange also that I just had and offer for a Kindle device and denied it, because I'm genereally satisfied with my Kobo. Your work is one (main) reason for this.

[snowstone]

Sorry to read you're leaving development for the plugin, it's my most used plugin, since I basically only use calibre to upload ebooks to my Kobo Glo. I actually haven't updated the firmware so I can keep the statistics since they're useful to me.

Anyway, best of luck in future projects

ps: While I've very happy with my Kobo, part of me wishes I had a kindle, mostly because of the integration with Goodreads and the X-Ray (not sure it's the name they use) feature that allows you to search for backstory of characters, etc. The only two reasons I don't switch to Kindle is price tag and not a fan of they being able to delete my ebooks remotely, although since I use mainly sideloaded ebooks I shouldn't have that problem.

[Lucas Malor]

Hello all, I have a little problem: I converted some books with this plugin and they works without any trouble. But I had done much annotations with the old epubs.
Can I move them to the other book changing only the path of the file inside the Bookmarks table of the main Kobo db? In other words: does the plugin changes the original epub structure or it only adds some data inside the zip?

PS: it's a pity that this plugin is no more maintained. Thank you for all, jgoguen.

[davidfor]

The way the locations are stored for the two types of books is different. kepubs use a reference to an id added to the books. Adding spans to contain the ids is the point of the plugin. epubs use a walk over the tags in each part. I suppose they could be translated, but I don't think anyone has been interested enough to try.

[buffaloseven]

Just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work on the plugin! I haven't been very active on here lately, but that's pretty much because I picked up a new Aura for cheap, and between your plugin & the various FW hacks to tweak font sizes, margins and enable font tuning, I've had absolutely no problems with my e-reader at all.

Thanks again for all your work; it has helped make my Kobo the ultimate reading device for me!