windows always complains when connecting Forma

[hobnail]

I reinstalled Windows last week and now whenever I connect my Forma it says that there's a problem with the drive and to scan it. I did that but it said that there were no problems, but it still complains every time I connect it.


Has anyone else seen this? Have a solution?

[Sirtel]

Yes, same here every time I connect my Libra. I just ignore it.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I reinstalled Windows last week and now whenever I connect my Forma it says that there's a problem with the drive and to scan it. I did that but it said that there were no problems, but it still complains every time I connect it.


Has anyone else seen this? Have a solution?

IIRC you could just close Calibre without ejecting the Kobo and eject the Kobo via Windows Explorer. This should take care of it.

I eject mine via Calibre because I have to put my books on my out-and-about-reader, which means my Calibre stays open and the Explorer is shut down the second it pops up. Like Sirtel I just ignore it the pesky little message.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

IIRC you could just close Calibre without ejecting the Kobo and eject the Kobo via Windows Explorer. This should take care of it.

I eject mine via Calibre because I have to put my books on my out-and-about-reader, which means my Calibre stays open and the Explorer is shut down the second it pops up. Like Sirtel I just ignore it the pesky little message.

I just tried that and it still complained. It was a bit slower to complain.

[4691mls]

Windows always complains about my Clara too. If I run the scan/repair it never finds a problem. It's even worse with my Tolino - sometimes Windows will disconnect it and say that it can't be read.

I don't use Calibre. If I connect one of my ereaders to my PC it's to either transfer via Adobe Digital Editions or for drag & drop via File Explorer.

[RobertJSawyer]

Does it every time on my Clara HD, too. It's safe to ignore it, but I do wish Kobo would fix this.

[hobnail]

I solved the problem, unintentionally. I'd rebooted my computer, plugged in the kobo while it was off, and when it booted, it saw that the drive needed fixing so it did that. Now no more complaints from windows.

[NiLuJe]

Noticed an interesting tidbit by chance (I, err, mistakenly switched to the "USB Connected" screen while in USBNet mode ):

The (ancient) stock dosfstools used by Kobo appears not to be smart enough to properly identify the dirty bit. Which means it just says "here, that bit was flipped", but it does *not* attempt to fix it.
Which explains why the chain of fsck done during boot never manages to "fix" this.

Broke-ass dosfstools:

[root@(none) ~]# dosfsck -a -w /dev/mmcblk0p3
dosfsck 3.0.6, 04 Oct 2009, FAT32, LFN
There are differences between boot sector and its backup.
Differences: (offset:original/backup)
  65:01/00
  Not automatically fixing this.
/dev/mmcblk0p3: 16845 files, 612334/1764440 clusters

Sane dosfstools:

┌─(ROOT@illyria:pts/1)───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────(~SVN/Bash/trunk)─┐
└─(0.38:52%:20:05:#)── fsck.vfat /dev/sde                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              ──(Tue, Jun 02)─┘
fsck.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
0x41: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.
1) Remove dirty bit
2) No action
? 1
Perform changes ? (y/n) y
/dev/sde: 16845 files, 612334/1764440 clusters

I'm going to try a current build on-device next, to see if there's an extra sneaky issue somewhere... (I just have to actually trigger the issue in the first place ;D).

(That doesn't change the fact that Nickel should really be more careful when unmounting, so as not to trigger this to begin with, but, at least this would explain why it's never auto-corrected...).

EDIT: Yup, it tracks, dirty bit handling was implemented long after that release: https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfst...cc9b5f0408bd34

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I solved the problem, unintentionally. I'd rebooted my computer, plugged in the kobo while it was off, and when it booted, it saw that the drive needed fixing so it did that. Now no more complaints from windows.

After seeing your post, I tried this the other day - turned my computer off, attached the Kobo, and started the computer (Windows 10) and it didn't complain. Repeated the process with my Tolino. Now the question is, will it still work the next time I connect one of them? I guess I need to get another book that can't be downloaded directly on the reader and find out......

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

After seeing your post, I tried this the other day - turned my computer off, attached the Kobo, and started the computer (Windows 10) and it didn't complain. Repeated the process with my Tolino. Now the question is, will it still work the next time I connect one of them? I guess I need to get another book that can't be downloaded directly on the reader and find out......

The problem came back. I'm pretty sure it was after I rebooted my Forma.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, same here every time I connect my Libra. I just ignore it.

Originally Posted by Poppaea

I just ignore it the pesky little message.

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Windows always complains about my Clara too.

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

Does it every time on my Clara HD, too. It's safe to ignore it, but I do wish Kobo would fix this.

Same! (I didn't realize it was so widespread.)

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Noticed an interesting tidbit by chance (I, err, mistakenly switched to the "USB Connected" screen while in USBNet mode ):

I'm trying not to get my hopes up here, but ... does this mean that you may be able to figure out a way to make it go away?

I have frequent problems (but not on every connection) with this with both my Mark7 devices (Clara, Forma) but never had it at all on any of my Mark4, Mark5, Mark6 devices.

[NiLuJe]

@jackie_w: I suppose the brute-force approach of replacing /bin/dosfsck with an up to date build (careful: not the same filename, fix it) would at least fix it on reboot until the next FW update.

(Fair warning: if I screwed up, this will break the boot horribly. Hopefully leading to an instant factory reset on boot. Emphasis on *hopefully* ^^. I did try a dry-run manually with no ill effects, and the commandline arguments haven't changed, so, it *should* behave. But, here be angry potentially disk-eating dragons).

I'm vaguely hoping Nickel itself runs a fsck before remounting onboard after an USBMS session (which would fix it *always*), but that may be wishful thinking .

EDIT: The udev script run on unplug would seem to concur with that theory, yay.

----

And, yeah, only ever happens on the Forma on my end, too.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@jackie_w: I suppose the brute-force approach of replacing /bin/dosfsck with an up to date build (careful: not the same filename, fix it) would at least fix it on reboot until the next FW update.

(Fair warning: if I screwed up, this will break the boot horribly. Hopefully leading to an instant factory reset on boot. Emphasis on *hopefully* ^^. I did try a dry-run manually with no ill effects, and the commandline arguments haven't changed, so, it *should* behave. But, here be angry potentially disk-eating dragons).

I'm vaguely hoping Nickel itself runs a fsck before remounting onboard after an USBMS session (which would fix it *always*), but that may be wishful thinking .

EDIT: The udev script run on unplug would seem to concur with that theory, yay.

----

And, yeah, only ever happens on the Forma on my end, too.

Well, thanks for replying ... however I'm afraid I only understood about 1 word in 5. Were there some instructions of something to try in there or just some casual musings?

[NiLuJe]

@jackie_w: I don't want to ship a "ready-to-use" approach (i.e., a KoboRoot tarball), because I know random people will try it, and if it breaks, madness will ensue. So that was just enough information and background for adventurous people to DIY .

If you want to try it, I'll send you a link in a PM .

(I'd ideally liked to have at least ran a real run on my Forma manually first, but, of course, it's when you desperately want to reproduce the issue that it stubbornly refuses to happen ^^).