Firmware 4.17.13651

[Quoth]

Just two tiny issues with the decisions on the GUI design when reading a book:

1. WiFi: No ability to disable while in a book
I might want to look up a word / name / phrase in Wikipedia or Google* when reading, especially my own writing. As before, if WiFi is off, the dialogue offers to turn it on, and it works. Then there is no way to turn it off. On exiting the book, the reader then will immediately try to "Sync", even if automatic sync was off. Previously you could avoid that by explicitly disabling WiFi after the search or before leaving the book. The GUI icon to do that is now missing.

2: Navigation when reading
There is now no menu with Home. Only the "Back" icon, which returns to screen you were at when you opened the book.

So the top bar of Icons needs Home and WiFi. There is space.

Other niggles:
It's nice that the bottom bar of Icons has the Bookmarks/Annotations/Highlights, behaviour in that is as before. It would (as I've always said), be better if Bookmarks only was that icon and Annotations/Highlights had a marker/pen/pencil icon beside that. I appreciate that's not a simple GUI issue like missing Home and WiFi icons as Bookmarks/Annotations/Highlights are all in the one list.

It's nice that Header, Footer and Progress bar are all separately on/off. I expect the Chapter header Plus Progress is chapter in Kepub, but I've not checked, it's handy in epub that it's book progress (I find % more useful than page number or time left) as then I don't need the footer, though the separate Progress bar would show book in kepub. There doesn't seem to be a way to have the Chapter name WITHOUT progress.

Copying off annotations using Kobo Utilities in Calibre is speedy and worked perfectly.
Actually making the annotations is maybe a little faster to select the text, but there is still the bug that certain initial directions of selection seem to "crash" the Touch interface till the ereader is put to sleep maybe 30 seconds (a quick sleep/wake doesn't work).

(* Why hard code Google and Wikipedia? Why not have ability to set two Search Engine URLs on the settings page?)

[BilboBaggins]

No way to reset the possibility to hide/show the header with the newest firmware ?

[Quoth]

Yes, you can separately turn on/off the Header, Footer and Progress bar. Also the content can include page (virtual), real percent or time left (estimate).

However Chapter progress (header) may equal Book Progress, certainly with epub rather than kepub.
You can't have Chapter name (header) or Book name (footer) without also having progress(page, % or time), nor have progress (page, % or time) without a prefix book or chapter name.
The very slim progress bar at the extreme bottom is a separate element that has on/off in the Reading Settings.
This is all controlled on page 2 of the reading settings.

[Semwize]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'm reporting what I was told.

This is clear.

But this is a trash change that nobody needs, as it turned out (for example, the example above is indicative, backup etc. are stored in such folders). And it would be great to take this into account and roll back, in the next firmware.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Semwize

This is clear.

But this is a trash change that nobody needs, as it turned out (for example, the example above is indicative, backup etc. are stored in such folders). And it would be great to take this into account and roll back, in the next firmware.

So, what you are saying is that Kobo shouldn't respond to their customer requests. Or at least, they shouldn't respond to their customer requests that you don't agree with.

Kobo responded to requests from their customers. If you think that they are wrong, then tell them.

[wingmongyee]

Kobo Glo HD problem with extra dictionaries after firmware update.

I updated the firmware and everything works fine except I no longer can access my extra dictionaries.

I have a few extra dictionaries that I installed a while back. They still show up as installed in the settings after the update and they also still show up when I open the choice of dictionaries when looking up a word but when I select any of the extra ones, I end up with the default english dictionary.

Here's an example of the formatting of the name of the dictionaries : Extra:_e5_Webster_Unabridged_1913

I checked the Kobo eReader.conf and KoboReader.sqlite files after the update and all the necessary entries are still there unchanged from when I first installed the extra dictionaries.

One last thing : on the previous versions of the firmware, I used the patch that changes the dictionaries from "dicthtml" to "micthtml" so all my dictionaries had previously been renamed "micthtml" by me. Since the patches are not available yet for the new version, I changed all the dictionaries back to "dicthtml" when I updated the firmware and thus they all show correctly as being installed and I can access all the standard kobo dictionaires but as I explained above, I can't access any of the extra ones. When I select one of those, all that happens is that it takes me to the default english dictionary.

Any suggestion ? Thanks in advance !

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Elim Garak

A little hint.
If, after the firmware update, contents of the hidden directories are displayed on the Kobo, you may want to uninstall KoboCloud. Afterwards KoboCloud can be reinstalled.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=311977

How will that help? The firmware has changed so that it follows different rules for finding books. I can't see anything in that code that would affect this.

[Semwize]

Originally Posted by davidfor

So, what you are saying is that Kobo shouldn't respond to their customer requests.

No need to distort my words)

Literally, I wrote that I do not see in the subject a single person who would like this. And justified why.

[geek1011]

Another way I just thought of for fixing that bug (yes, davidfor, I consider it a bug to scan files in a dotdir on a Linux app, regardless of if the Linux part is user-facing or not) in a semi-permanent way. If we created a LD_PRELOAD shim to prevent listing those hidden does, and made it persist through updates by adding it through ld.so.preload instead of an env var in the startup script, that should prevent libnickel from scanning those dirs. The biggest risk would be during development, as a bad shim would need a reset, but it should be pretty safe afterwards, even if the firmware changes drastically. @NiLuJe, what do you think?

[djazz]

I wonder if it scans .Trashes (created by macOS) and .Trash-1000 (created by Linux distros) for ebooks as well. If it does, that's really bad. If you delete an ebook (move to trash) it would reappear when you unplug the usb cable.

I found some issues with the Swedish translation on the device. How do I report them to Kobo? Also, OverDrive got added to the settings menu! I don't have an account to test it though.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by wingmongyee

Kobo Glo HD problem with extra dictionaries after firmware update.

I updated the firmware and everything works fine except I no longer can access my extra dictionaries.

I have a few extra dictionaries that I installed a while back. They still show up as installed in the settings after the update and they also still show up when I open the choice of dictionaries when looking up a word but when I select any of the extra ones, I end up with the default english dictionary.

Here's an example of the formatting of the name of the dictionaries : Extra:_e5_Webster_Unabridged_1913

I checked the Kobo eReader.conf and KoboReader.sqlite files after the update and all the necessary entries are still there unchanged from when I first installed the extra dictionaries.

One last thing : on the previous versions of the firmware, I used the patch that changes the dictionaries from "dicthtml" to "micthtml" so all my dictionaries had previously been renamed "micthtml" by me. Since the patches are not available yet for the new version, I changed all the dictionaries back to "dicthtml" when I updated the firmware and thus they all show correctly as being installed and I can access all the standard kobo dictionaires but as I explained above, I can't access any of the extra ones. When I select one of those, all that happens is that it takes me to the default english dictionary.

Any suggestion ? Thanks in advance !

You also need the patch named 'Allow searches on Extra dictionaries' to be enabled to successfully access Extra dictionaries. The patches for 4.17.13651 haven't been released yet. Once they are you should be OK.

[Elim Garak]

Originally Posted by davidfor

How will that help? The firmware has changed so that it follows different rules for finding books. I can't see anything in that code that would affect this.

It helped me!
KoboCloud affects updating the database of Kobo. KoboCloud also ensures visibility of hidden files. After the firmware update, KoboCloud suddenly integrates all hidden directories.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by davidfor

It's a bug. It's another problem with files in the book that do not have a ToC entry. There is a change in how the reading location for epub is stored. I think it was the first part of fixing the existing issues with files not having entries in the ToC. Unfortunately, it looks like it hasn't. I recommend reporting it to Kobo so they know the problem is important to you to have fixed.

Thanks that makes sense. The book concerned has 9 parts and 182 chapters and it's the parts not the chapters that are TOC points. And yes, having checked there are whole files with no TOC entry.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Thanks that makes sense. The book concerned has 9 parts and 182 chapters and it's the parts not the chapters that are TOC points. And yes, having checked there are whole files with no TOC entry.

It case it wasn't clear, adding the KoboTouchExtended Plugin to Calibre and then resending the book to device will take fix this issue for you, (or you can edit the book of course,)

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by djazz

I wonder if it scans .Trashes (created by macOS) and .Trash-1000 (created by Linux distros) for ebooks as well. If it does, that's really bad. If you delete an ebook (move to trash) it would reappear when you unplug the usb cable.

I found some issues with the Swedish translation on the device. How do I report them to Kobo? Also, OverDrive got added to the settings menu! I don't have an account to test it though.

I was going to say that the books I had "re-appear" were in the .Trash-1000 directory. Some of them were screenshots that I'd manually deleted under the file manager. I think the rest were ones I deleted through Calibre but I'd need to double-check that.

I do think both these directories should be on an ignore list.