Aura ONE NEW Aura One initial setup

[crane3]

Got my Aura One last night & charged it; currently battery icon claims to be at 83%.

Trying to do initial setup/config. Unable to connect to my wifi router, Netgear Nighthawk (7800) with the 'latest' firmware. I have some tablets connected to the router wifi as well as a Logitech hub using the router wifi. The router is setup not to broadcast its ssid.

5ghz do not work; 2.4ghz also do not connect. Also, how does one use uppercase in the KA1 keyboard when doing an initial config?

Bad 1st impression of the Aura One. Have there been any others who have had problems with the initial setup?

Will try again later to connect. If not possible will contact Kobo & return the defective unit for a refund.

[Atilla]

I can't remember exactly which one but one of the older firmware had a bug when connecting to hidden SSID. You may want to update the firmware first using your PC.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by crane3

The router is setup not to broadcast its ssid.

If you are doing this in the hopes of improved security, forget it. Every connected device and the access point itself will send the SSID in management packets which can be captured and displayed. See Acrylic's page on this at Hidden Wi-Fi Network: How to know the name of a wireless network with no SSID.

Originally Posted by crane3

5ghz do not work; 2.4ghz also do not connect. Also, how does one use uppercase in the KA1 keyboard when doing an initial config?

AFAIR, no 5GHz support in the Kobo hardware. As for the upper case? Look for the up arrow below the a and to the left of the z (QWERTY keyboard). Tap once to shift, tap twice to shift lock, tap a 3rd time to release shift lock.

Originally Posted by crane3

Bad 1st impression of the Aura One. Have there been any others who have had problems with the initial setup?

I've set up enough Kobo readers from the good old days of needing a computer to current. I have to wonder how an inability to locate the shift key on the on-screen keyboard becomes a setup issue.

If worse comes to worse, try using the Kobo Desktop app on your Windows or Mac PC to connect and do the initial setup and firmware update that way.

And again, hidden SSIDs are like MAC address filtering in that their only use is to give a false sense of security.

[crane3]

I am not broadcasting ssid just to have hackers do more work than just having the ssid listed; also not to have someone select my network "just to see" or by mistake. On my tablets, I have turned off notifying me of networks because I do not want to see a cluttered screen.

Had thought that 5ghz came with the support of protocol "n"; guess not so.

Did NOT see any "up arrow" anywhere, just the left/right arrows. It is presumed that an up arrow is a shift but NOT if it is not present.

My network is not just for security but to make people to do some work before they can get in. I have no wish to make things easier for hackers; it is just my preference to make it a bit more irritating to some amateur hackers. Do you leave your car door unlocked? Do you leave your home unlocked? Do you leave your windows wide open? Locked doors have not been "secured" for many years.

[crane3]

Got my KA1 connected. Used the old tech method for checking connections for indoor antennas for tv. When the reader is trying to connect, reorient the tablet a few times without success & so waved the reader around a bit & that got a solid connection.

I was only around 3 feet from the router the 1st time & was about 6 feet from the router when waving the reader.

Loaded 12 books from Calibre, then did a little configuration for Kobo Utilities & Touch Extended....did things backwards. & so need to find how to delete a collection on the KA1 without doing a factory reset. Will be looking into how to install KoReader.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by crane3

I am not broadcasting ssid just to have hackers do more work than just having the ssid listed; also not to have someone select my network "just to see" or by mistake. On my tablets, I have turned off notifying me of networks because I do not want to see a cluttered screen.

No extra work for the hackers. Virtually all wireless network snoopers supply the functionality to display a hidden SSID. If you have a password protected network, that works. Hidden SSID or MAC address filtering are useless.

Originally Posted by crane3

Had thought that 5ghz came with the support of protocol "n"; guess not so.

Nope, you can do N over a 2.4GHz network. AC requires 5GHz. You can check the Wikipedia entry IEEE 802.11 for more information.

Originally Posted by crane3

Did NOT see any "up arrow" anywhere, just the left/right arrows. It is presumed that an up arrow is a shift but NOT if it is not present.

I've attached a couple of screenshots of the keyboard on my KA1.

Originally Posted by crane3

My network is not just for security but to make people to do some work before they can get in. I have no wish to make things easier for hackers; it is just my preference to make it a bit more irritating to some amateur hackers. Do you leave your car door unlocked? Do you leave your home unlocked? Do you leave your windows wide open? Locked doors have not been "secured" for many years.

While my doors may not be that secure, they are about as secure as you can get in a house today. I also have a security system. Windows are closed when we are not at home and have motion/break sensors. Car has an alarm system. I don't need to have perfect security, I just need good enough security to have the would be burglar check out my neighbours instead. The same spirit as the attached cartoon.

As for preferring to make it a bit more irritating for amateur hackers? Those are the only ones liable to be poking at your home network and even the script kiddies will be using tools that will display your hidden SSID, crack WEP and WPA, etc. with no special knowledge needed. Check on Kali Linux for more information on a popular tool (it used to be called BackTrack for those older users).

[Ken Maltby]

KOReader

KOReader Rocks

An Arua One install walkthrough

Luck;
Ken

[crane3]

The idea of the SSID not broadcasted is a MY personal preference.

I did have a problem with Calibre & Kobo Touch Extended driver where I get an error about "invalid format" somewhere sending 700 books to the KA1. After a 2nd try, the same error occurred; found that the plugin allows one to not use the 'extended' feature & so unselected it as well as xferring kepub to the KA1. Now the 3rd time loading the KA1 was successful & faster.

Do have a problem: how can I get out of the KoReader browser? Cannot find the exit/quit to get back to the 'main page'. Had made the 'onboard' directory as the 'home' page & cannot change it to the main page. The only way I can get out is to select reboot!

The KoReader has a date of 2018-07-15.

Thank you for any help.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by crane3

The idea of the SSID not broadcasted is a MY personal preference.

Which is fine as long as you realise that the added security benefit is so tiny that it is usually not worth the effort.

And if the hackers brains work the way mine does, then I know which would be attacked first.

I did have a problem with Calibre & Kobo Touch Extended driver where I get an error about "invalid format" somewhere sending 700 books to the KA1. After a 2nd try, the same error occurred; found that the plugin allows one to not use the 'extended' feature & so unselected it as well as xferring kepub to the KA1. Now the 3rd time loading the KA1 was successful & faster.

The extended driver is designed to convert epubs to kepub on the fly without doing a full conversion or saving the book in the calibre library. If you disable this feature, you may as well stick to the built-in KoboTouch driver.

The error means that one of the books you were sending had some sort of problem. It probably means a coding error in the book, but without more details, we can't guess.

As you mentioned KOReader, the extended driver has absolutely no benefit if you are only using KOReader. In fact, if you don't intend to read using the Kobo software, then I recommend not using the Kobo drivers at all and configuring either a folder based device or a user defined device.

[crane3]

Does the standard Kobo Touch still create collections from the tags on Calibre on my setup?

The problem is probably from whatever the Touch extended is doing/changing as I don't have any problems sending the entire Calibre library to the Tab Pro 8.4 or the Tab S2 or the Asus....all Android tablets. Evidently, the Kobo driver is not able to handle a book. Of course, one of the books is listed on Calibre as 177 MB & I believe that another book has lots of illustrations as in maybe Genji's Watercolors.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by crane3

Does the standard Kobo Touch still create collections from the tags on Calibre on my setup?

The extended driver does exactly what the name suggests. It extends the function. If you look at the configuration for both, you will see the extra bits it adds on a separate tab.

And yes, the collections are part of the function provided by the KoboTouch driver.

The problem is probably from whatever the Touch extended is doing/changing as I don't have any problems sending the entire Calibre library to the Tab Pro 8.4 or the Tab S2 or the Asus....all Android tablets. Evidently, the Kobo driver is not able to handle a book. Of course, one of the books is listed on Calibre as 177 MB & I believe that another book has lots of illustrations as in maybe Genji's Watercolors.

As I stated, the extended driver is converting the books to kepub on the fly. If there is an error, it is usually because the book has an error. No other driver does anything like this, so it is not surprising that you don't see an error with those. For other devices, or the KoboTouch drive, you will probably see an error or some wierdness when reading the book. It depends on the error and how the device handles it.

[Ken Maltby]

The "Home" page is for the KOReader File Browser, it is not for leaving KOReader and going to the stock software's home page. If you tap the top of the screen or swipe down from the top of the screen the KOReader menu should drop down. The far right icon (called Hamburger Icon) includes a set of "Exit" options. Exiting KOReader should bring you back to your launcher program, normally KSM, from there you can select the stock Nickel interface. (or other installed programs like Plato, Coolreader, various utilities)

Luck;
Ken

[crane3]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

The "Home" page is for the KOReader File Browser, it is not for leaving KOReader and going to the stock software's home page. If you tap the top of the screen or swipe down from the top of the screen the KOReader menu should drop down. The far right icon (called Hamburger Icon) includes a set of "Exit" options. Exiting KOReader should bring you back to your launcher program, normally KSM, from there you can select the stock Nickel interface. (or other installed programs like Plato, Coolreader, various utilities)

Luck;
Ken

Thank you for letting me know that it is not possible as I was trying different ways to exit like on Android tablets. Looks like a limitation of the KA1.

Have also tried to "remove" books from "my books" but it still shows up in "my books"; was able to remove the collection but not the books from 'my books'. Will be trying to remove the books from 'onboard' after I finish reading current book since I am unable, so far, to 'exit' the book (in nickle(?)) to go to 'onboard'.

I do see popups that state I can select remove ALL the books from the download or 'my books'; nothing agout just 1 or more books. Did see 'help' about removing a book after finishing reading to 'save space' but the 'remove' do not seem to work.

The Aura One do need a real file manager even tho some say it is not needed. Many ways to add a book but nothing about deleting/removing a book.

[crane3]

I have deleted the books in 'onboard'. Now, where are 'my books' located? The books I 'removed' still shows up in 'my books' so the books must be stored some unknown directory.

Wonder if reviews ever add books or remove a book in their reviews. If not they are doing a crummy job.

[Ken Maltby]

It is obviously quite easy to "Exit" KOReader, and KOReader allows you to browse book files and a long-press on a book's listing will allow you to Delete the file, along with other options. The problems you seem to be talking about sound like they are with the stock software and the Nickel user interface. As far as I know, though the Nickel interface doesn't have a file manager/browser that would let you see the file structure and give you access to /mnt/onboard/. If you connect your device to your PC it can look at the file structure of the device and use your PC to manipulate the files.

Luck;
Ken