Aura E2 Aura 2 slow/unable to connect to *nix PCs - file system/permissions issue?

[Thorned Rose]

I got a second hand Aura 2 for my kid and we use Calibre to manage our ebooks. However, connecting the Aura 2 to my PC (Artix Linux w/ KDE) is either incredibly slow or it refuses to connect at all causing my system to softlock.

What happens is, I connect the Aura 2 (the exact same way I connect my H2O 2 which connects perfectly fine and without issue) to my PC. It almost immediately pops up with USB device connected (there's a slightly slower delay as compared to my H2O).

Mounting then takes several minutes to do it's thing - first it shows up in the file browser (Dolphin) but is not mountable - it shows a red icon and if I try to mount it at this point, it will error and lock up Dolphin. If I wait a bit longer, it will eventually become mountable. But navigating the file system is incredibly slow - sometimes taking minutes to open a single folder.

Calibre then takes several minutes to connect to the Aura 2, if at all. It more often fails with the following error:

calibre, version 9.14.0
ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device

Failed to access files in the main memory of your device. 
You should contact the device manufacturer for support. 
Common fixes are: try a different USB cable/USB port on your computer. 
If you device has a "Reset to factory defaults" type of setting somewhere, 
use it. Underlying error: [Errno 30] Read-only file system: 
'/run/media/rose/KOBOeReader/driveinfo.calibre'...

I also can't shutdown Calibre without disconnecting the Aura 2 first because trying to eject it softlocks Calibre. If I have the Aura 2 plugged in (not mounted) before starting Calibre, it won't even load, just instantly crashing with an error.

If I am really patient, I can disconnect and then reconnect the Aura 2 over and over till eventually I get lucky and the file system is browsable almost like normal (still a delay in mounting though) and Calibre works albeit slow compared to my H2O.

I have tried multiple USB cables, no difference. I tried factory resetting it (menu option) I tried it on my spouse's PC with the same issue (he also has Artix Linux). We tried it on a laptop running GhostBSD and it came up with this error:

The folder contents could not be displayed.
Sorry, could not display all the contents of "KOBOeReader": Error when getting information for file "/media/KOBOeReader/.kobo-images": Device not configured

So then we tried connecting it to a Windows PC (Win11 I think) and it worked without any issues. But since we only have Linux PCs, this isn't a practical solution for us. Nor is using wi-fi because we don't normally have it turned on.

After searching the net, we came across a Kindle and a Kobo Glo coming up with the same problem on Linux machines. But the solution (running the fsck.vfat command) didn't make any difference for us. So far, as we've been able to glean, it's that the Aura 2 has a corrupted file system or incorrect permissions set?

Does anyone know if there's an easy fix for this? Or will it require reformatting the Aura 2's storage? If so, how do we do that? (I haven't been able to find how to do that or how to do a full factory reset to remove all updates and take it back to the original settings). Thanks!

[geek1011]

Try a different USB cable/port, and a USB 2.0 hub if you have one, or even a different computer.

This is a somewhat known issue with the Aura 2.

[Thorned Rose]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Try a different USB cable/port, and a USB 2.0 hub if you have one, or even a different computer.

This is a somewhat known issue with the Aura 2.

As I said in my post, we already tried that - we tried several different cables (all of which work fine with my H2O 2, my spouse's Clara and 2 Kindles) and four different computers - 2 with the same OS (Artix Linux), a laptop with GhostBSD and a Windows PC. Only the Windows PC worked normally. On the *Nix based systems, we get the slowness, softlocks and crashes, regardless of cable, regardless of port, regardless of different computers.