Glo 1% brightness isn't allowed since upgrade [Glo HD]

[MrSquid_]

Hi there !

I've very recently purchased a Kobo Glo HD (from ebay, since Kobo has stopped selling this model) which was running firmware 3.9...-something from 2015.
I then flashed version 4.3.8966 downloaded from the geek1011.github.io website which provides firmware download links for kobo devices. After that I immediately installed KSM 08 with the recommended patch for it (I'm telling you this because I don't know exactly what caused the issue).

Since then, brightness control has been acting a bit weird, in the sense that if I try and turn off the brightness using the left side screen swipe it will first go down to 1%, and about 5 seconds later it will go to 0%.
Moreover, if I set the brightness to 1% from the relevant panel, it will switch to 0% after that same amount of time (i.e about 5 seconds). So the 1% brightness setting is now forbidden on my reader (or - more precisely - is only allowed for about five seconds).

Have any of you experienced this ? Do you have any thoughts about what could've caused this and/or how to fix it ?

I'll appreciate any input, thanks !

[geek1011]

My tool gets the download links from the same place (the Kobo servers) as the normal updater. I'll also test the brightness on my Kobo when I have a chance.

[MrSquid_]

Hi geek1011, thanks for your quick reply !

Originally Posted by geek1011

My tool gets the download links from the same place (the Kobo servers) as the normal updater.

I'm sure it does, I didn't mean to incriminate your tool which I think is quite great. I mentioned it to empathize the point that I did not upgrade from OTA in the event that it is a relevant piece of information.

At this point I'm inclined to believe that the kobo firmware - or at least, my installation of it - is at fault because I've realized that my reading statistics are all over the place since the upgrade too (I've read for about 4 hours and the device sometimes says ~80 hours, sometimes ~20 hours ...).

But I would still like to get other opinions on this before I look into re-flashing/resetting/downgrading.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by MrSquid_

Hi geek1011, thanks for your quick reply !



I'm sure it does, I didn't mean to incriminate your tool which I think is quite great. I mentioned it to empathize the point that I did not upgrade from OTA in the event that it is a relevant piece of information.

At this point I'm inclined to believe that the kobo firmware - or at least, my installation of it - is at fault because I've realized that my reading statistics are all over the place since the upgrade too (I've read for about 4 hours and the device sometimes says ~80 hours, sometimes ~20 hours ...).

But I would still like to get other opinions on this before I look into re-flashing/resetting/downgrading.

The reading stats problem is already known.

Sent from my XT1527 using Tapatalk

[davidfor]

@MrSquid: The 1% light problem is a known bug and has been discussed in other threads here. Kobo knows about it and hopefully will fix it soon. But, you can set the light level to 1% by tapping the button on the right end of the light slider when the light is at 0%.

And yes, the reading stats is a known problem and also reported to Kobo.

[MrSquid_]

Originally Posted by davidfor

@MrSquid: The 1% light problem is a known bug and has been discussed in other threads here. Kobo knows about it and hopefully will fix it soon. But, you can set the light level to 1% by tapping the button on the right end of the light slider when the light is at 0%.

And yes, the reading stats is a known problem and also reported to Kobo.

I see. I searched around in the bug tracking thread before posting but did not see them mentioned. I must've missed them.

I'm glad these issues are known from Kobo, but I'm also a bit startled that they release new firmwares with these sort of issues. Especially regarding the reading statistics as it doesn't seem like a very complex thing to achieve.


Thanks for the brightness trick, I did not even realize that the two icons on the edges of the light slider were +/- buttons, it's very useful to know and the 1% setting now works.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by MrSquid_

I see. I searched around in the bug tracking thread before posting but did not see them mentioned. I must've missed them.

The bug thread isn't really a tracking thread, just a discussion for bugs found. But, most are discussed in the firmware specific threads, or separate threads like this.

I'm glad these issues are known from Kobo, but I'm also a bit startled that they release new firmwares with these sort of issues. Especially regarding the reading statistics as it doesn't seem like a very complex thing to achieve.

I'm not surprised by the light problem, it's not something that most of us noticed. The stats bug is more obvious, but is a lot more complex than you think.

Thanks for the brightness trick, I did not even realize that the two icons on the edges of the light slider were +/- buttons, it's very useful to know and the 1% setting now works.

In that case, I'll point you to my UI standards post. And suggest you have a play and tap anything that might be tappable.

[MrSquid_]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'm not surprised by the light problem, it's not something that most of us noticed.

I noticed it very quickly because I was in complete dark tweaking the brightness from the left edge side and then it suddenly switched off after 5 seconds. But yeah it's much harder to notice the difference between 1% and 0% if you're not in the dark.

Originally Posted by davidfor

The stats bug is more obvious, but is a lot more complex than you think.

Probably, though I wish it was handled more simply. I'd like a reading-stats tool only for local purposes as I don't and won't ever use any Kobo web service (like syncing, downloading books from bookstores or whatever). I'm sure such a tool could be quite fault-less as it would only need to note the current time when opening a book and then again when closing it (i.e putting the device in sleep mode or going back to the homescreen) and measure time at a couple of other events to make these stats.

In fact, I use exclusively Kobo ePubs (regular epub files loaded using the Kobo Touch Extended Driver from Calibre) and the inbook statistics that the kepub renderer provides are just fine, though incomplete to my taste.

Maybe one day they'll be a custom global-reading-stats tool for the device.