Can I delete the 'kbmenupngs' folder?

[El Duderino]

To be honest, I've already done this - deleting the 'kbmenupngs' folder from my device after first installing and seeing the png's in Nickel's library - and so far Nickel & KOReader seem to be working fine with it gone.

I'm just wondering if there's a known issue I should watch out for.

My books are sorted into Collections via Calibre, and I don't think the png's folder can be managed in Calibre. Down the road, these KOReader png's would get buried by new books, rendering them useless to me. I can just reboot and get into KOReader anyway...

My PDF's are in a hidden .PDF. folder on the device, and KOReader sees it fine after checking the setting to show hidden files, while Nickel doesn't recognize them. All good so far!

I suppose I could have created a Collection on the device for these KOReader png's, but not sure how Calibre would handle that, seeing as I have automatic syncing turned on (which might have Calibre delete my custom png collection as it doesn't see any books in it).

Anyway, thoughts on deleting this folder?

Thanks!

[Ken Maltby]

First it isn't a KOReader folder, it is part of KSM and provides a means of launching KSM provided routines, while in Nickel. Probably one you might want to keep is the "Exit" PNG that brings you back to KSM. If you use Nickel and KOReader a lot, you might also want to keep the one for switching directly to KOReader. The folder doesn't need to have anything to do with calibre, it is its own folder that Nickel processes separately/independently from the file structure calibre maintains.

Luck;
Ken

[El Duderino]

Thanks Ken, as always you're full of sterling advice.

Glad to know it's not required, but recommended. When setting up KSM I'd chosen to always load KSM on boot, so I can reach KOReader from there.

I would have kept the files in Nickel except the following reasons:

1. Unsure about a custom Collection managed outside Calibre with no books in it. Would Calibre delete it?
2. The PNG's getting buried under new books so they're not quickly accessible.
3. Rotating the KOReader PNG in Windows after it was already loaded because I didn't like the logo being sideways, causing that PNG to disappear from "My Books".

Would you know about how Calibre handles device collections without books in them with its auto management setting? To be clear, my collections are managed via Calibre. It's set to delete collections on the device with no books in them.

If not, I'll try it and report back, but would love to save the time if you know.

[Ken Maltby]

(1) The files that calibre works with - on your device - are only those it maintains in the file structure that it builds onto your device. It should not do anything with the folder outside of that file structure. That said I do seem to remember where a poster had made those PNGs a collection in Nickel.

(2) Making them a collection might make them easier to find.

(3) You might have to copy the rotated file and delete the file from your device then re-add the rotated image file with the same name as the original file. It would then need to get processed by Nickel, before it would work again. (The actual "koreader.png" is not needed or used when using KSM to launch KOReader.)

I haven't used calibre that way, as "collections" are a Nickel thing.

Luck;
Ken

[El Duderino]

Well, adding the png's back would have been the best of both worlds, but I ditched that idea due to strange behaviour. Here's what happened:

I added the 'kbmenupngs' folder back to the device. Nickel loaded fine, and I was able to create a collection for them on the device. I connected with Calibre to see if it would delete the collection, but it didn't!

I tried to look at the collection in "cover view" in Nickel, and it immediately booted me back to KSM. After several tries, I got back into Nickel and changed back to "list view" from another collection.

Having no need for 3 of 6 functions in the png folder, I deleted those 3 from the device. At this point, I also updated the autostart interval to 5 seconds, like you'd mentioned in another thread.

Not sure what caused it, but I kept getting kicked back to KSM while trying to load Nickel. It would seem to boot Nickel halfway before back into KSM.

I changed the "set runmenu settings.msh" in KSM back to "alternate", and Nickel loaded successfully this time. Immediately I connected to my PC where I deleted the 'kbmenupngs' folder, checked the integrity of my Database in Calibre (which was OK), and rebooted.

After that I could load into Nickel just fine (keeping autostart at 5secs), but now the SD card wasn't being read in Nickel.

Lastly, I synced with Calibre again and rebooted the device. This time it read the SD card.

I guess long and short of it, everything's working OK but I'm fully expecting Nickel to sometimes not recognize my SD card requiring a reboot.

I'd blame it on installing KSM, KOReader et al, but I often got an "SD card not recognized" message in Nickel before this install process. It's probably that same issue just emerging in a different way.

We shall see.

Thanks for all the help Ken!

[El Duderino]

Just an update, I set the "set runmenu settings.msh" in KSM back to "always", and changed the autostart interval to 10 seconds.

So far Nickel has loaded fine and it sees my SD card. Have rebooted a few times successfully.

My guess is a 5 second delay in KSM was too short for Nickel to recognize the SD card.

Back to !

[Ken Maltby]

The delay settings needed are affected by a number of factors, in many cases. The device involved, with CPU speed, memory available, as well as "racing conditions" in general. The delay settings for suspend and the related image display might be a good example. They were refined mostly by trial and error, the timings I would have posted were those working as I wanted on my AuraHD and other timings might be needed for other devices.

Luck;
Ken

[El Duderino]

I see, an interval of 5 seconds was a little too fast for my Aura (original).

Reading deeper into KOReader threads, I see others were having the same rebooting issue with the png's, and struggled to keep them from the homescreen. On the newer firmware, the most recently used Collection shows on the homescreen, though I'm not sure that triggers the png scripts. What I hadn't done is bury the png's under new books, or hide them from home (which I read about but don't know how to do).

I was having issues viewing those files in a Collection anyway, so simply deleted the png folder was a sure-fire solution for me. Not a problem, as I intend to spend 95% of my time in Nickel, and can change autostart to KOReader anytime from KSM.

I guess the coolest thing is this delayed start thanks to KSM may have solved the recurring issue of SD card not mounting in time (as it did with vanilla Nickel).

[Ken Maltby]

You can start things in the KSM menu manually, you don't have to use autostart. I usually just slow count to 10, after the menu shows up, before poking "Start KOReader".

Luck;
Ken

[El Duderino]

That's kind of quirky Ken, but I like it!

BTW, a cool thing about KSM is custom messages. I created a Powered Off message that asks anyone who finds my device to return it for a reward.

Seems like a smart thing to do...

[Ken Maltby]

Neat idea. I always thought that there was some real potential in the html approach that Tshering used for displaying a poweroff message. I ended up just using it to display a full screen image, created in Gimp2.

Luck;
Ken

[El Duderino]

Well, we spend so much time setting these devices up with our personal settings, ironing out idiosyncratic issues, and loading/organizing our e-book library, that it makes sense to treat it as an investment worth finding if lost.

My only wish was that when in Nickel or KOReader, KSM could load that PowerOff html instead of the book cover.

[Ken Maltby]

It should be possible to capture an image of the page (perhaps using your PC's browser and the "Print Screen" key) then paste it into an image program, crop it to the part you want and save/export it as a .png file. Then you can set that file as the one to be used when there is no cover image, or when you have the use books cover disabled.

Luck;
Ken

[El Duderino]

Thanks for the tip, I'll try it!

[tshering]

Originally Posted by El Duderino

Well, we spend so much time setting these devices up with our personal settings, ironing out idiosyncratic issues, and loading/organizing our e-book library, that it makes sense to treat it as an investment worth finding if lost.

My only wish was that when in Nickel or KOReader, KSM could load that PowerOff html instead of the book cover.

You can do it for nickel, see this post (towards the end).

Edit: I just tried it and realised that they have changed their power off procedure. That means KSM cannot any longer replace the nickel's power off screen.