I can't restart nickel

[myki]

Greetings,

After a database update with auto shelf, nickel refuses to restart.
I still can access to the KSM.

Can you help me, please ??

[tshering]

One guess is that after the creation of new shelves the home view (in nickel) has changed in a way that creates troubles (nickel tries to open one of the png files that trigger fmon). If this is the case:

If you are running KSM 07, try

• tools > kobo diverse.msh > start nickel_no_fmon.sh

If you are running KSM 06, have a look at this post, just for starting nickel, the other points that concern the data basebase might not be relevant, or maybe they are.


If you cannot start nickel in this way the database might be corrupted. You could try replacing the database by a back up.

[myki]

The nickel_no_fmon.sh worked perfectly, thank you very much !

But I suppose that it can happens again because sometimes the shelves who appear are the ones built by calibre, sometimes the ones built by "auto shelf"...

I tried to log out to start with a fresh database free of shelves, but it already contains some ones...

I don't understant how it works.... I'm lost !

Do you know a way to clean up the part of the database talking about shelves ??

[tshering]

Originally Posted by myki

The nickel_no_fmon.sh worked perfectly, thank you very much !

But I suppose that it can happens again because sometimes the shelves who appear are the ones built by calibre, sometimes the ones built by "auto shelf"...

I tried to log out to start with a fresh database free of shelves, but it already contains some ones...

I don't understant how it works.... I'm lost !

Do you know a way to clean up the part of the database talking about shelves ??

There is no need to remove those shelves.
Fmon is watching some image files (in our case the ones in kbmenupngs), and if nickel reads one of those files fmon executes an associated script. For instance, if you select exit_nickel.png for opening, nickel tries to access the file exit_nickel.png. In response to this fmon executes a script that kills nickel so that we can return to the KSM menu. But there is a certain danger to that method. At certain points nickel creates thumbnails of the books for different purposes (for displaying in the library view, in the tiles of the home screen, for the sleep and power off screens, and I don't know what). If nickel tries to create thumbnails of exit_nickel.png it accesses this file, fmon fires and nickel gets killed. Next time you start nickel, it tries again to produce the thumbnail ...
Therefore, you have to start nickel without fmon once and make nickel produce all thumbnails that it will possibly ever need of the "dangerous" files. For that purpose you go to the library and search there for those images (look at the kbmenupngs folder for the file names [or use the shelf for that purpose]). Open each of these files, so that it gets displayed on the home screen. After some firmware update, it can happen that nickel needs to create further images, because other dimensions are needed or anything like that. Then you have to start nickel again without fmon and let nickel do its work.

[myki]

You were right again, I went in my library and as soon as nickel tried to calculate the thumbnail of the switchtokoreader png file, it closed nickel and went to the KSM menu.
I started nickel again and everything is fine.

But it seems that I still have a shelf problem, because the shelves that appeared after the restart are the ones made by calibre, and not the ones supposed to be built by the auto shelf script (launched in KMS).

I will try again and if it doesn't work, I will open a new tread...

Oh maybe a last question Is it possible to backup and restore the internal memory (internal SD ?) on a Kobo H20, without opening it ? If yes, do you know a link ??

Anyway thank you very much for your help, when nickel refuses to start, it looks like to much to a brick, and it is really frightening !

[PeterT]

I'm sure there have been some posts on how to backup the internal SD card without opening the device, but there has never been a means documented as to how to restore without opening the device.

[myki]

Ok thank you PeterT.
At least a backup will be my inusrance, hoping i will never have the use

[tshering]

Originally Posted by myki

But it seems that I still have a shelf problem, because the shelves that appeared after the restart are the ones made by calibre, and not the ones supposed to be built by the auto shelf script (launched in KMS).

From what you say, I take that you are using KSM 06, and autoshelf_on_demand.sh. If that is the case then delete the file autoshelf_md5sum, which you will find in .kobo/kbmenu/log/. Then run autoshelf on demand again.

If however you run the original autoshelf as provided by Frostschutz (I am not sure whether this is even possible when using KSM), you have to delete the file /usr/local/AutoShelf/md5sum.

Originally Posted by myki

Oh maybe a last question Is it possible to backup and restore the internal memory (internal SD ?) on a Kobo H20, without opening it ? If yes, do you know a link ??

You can do this with netcat. Do you run linux on your pc and can telnet into your reader? If yes, I can give some more information.
As for rewriting the image to the reader of course you will have to open it, as Peter said.

[myki]

No I don't use Linux natively, only in a virtual vmware machine... Maybe that is enough..

For my shelves problem, I use autoshelf_on_demand.sh, but with KSM 07.
Anyway, I read a post from PeterT, and I think that I have resolved my problem... He said :

One option when you DO get things back is to add the option SyncShelves=false to the [ApplicationPreferences] section of the .kobo\Kobo\Kobo eReader.conf file on the device. This will ensure that shelves don't get synced with the Kobo cloud.

That's what I did now, but too late

• So I am looking for a way to save my internal SD (but to be honest I have not yet search anything about this in the forum for now).
• And a way to clean up empty shelves... I found in Calibre in the utilities, a way to remove duplicated shelves, but not the empty ones

Thank your for your patience, keeping on helping me

PS : tell me if you want me to split my questions in two separated posts

[tshering]

Originally Posted by myki

No I don't use Linux natively, only in a virtual vmware machine... Maybe that is enough..

That is enough, same here. To make things easy for me: Have you already usbnet running, and can telnet into the reader?

[myki]

usbnet ? not at all, i even don't know what it is (even if I guess a bit)...

[tshering]

Originally Posted by myki

usbnet ? not at all, i even don't know what it is (even if I guess a bit)...

I see. I try to find the relevant posts, and give you the information then (possibly not earlier than tomorrow).

[PeterT]

I'm not at a PC right now but I'm sure that one of the options in the Kobo driver is to delete empty shelves. This is NOT in the Utilities plugin but rather the base device driver.

[PeterT]

Also you could just ask the maintainer of images (davidfor) for a copy of it as opposed to making your own.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Also you could just ask the maintainer of images (davidfor) for a copy of it as opposed to making your own.

This is of course the most convenient way.