Experimental V2 Stability Update #1

[Jstudner]

Howdy,

First off, I want to apologize for the long gap between updates, I’m still a full-time college student, so my available time for Nomad development is much more limited. Thank you all for your patience!

This update focuses on reliability and background stability, while continuing to expand features I started last time. This makes the new experimental version usable, and while its still got some rough edges I am hoping I can get some feedback to get this ready for Main in the near future.

What’s new

• Indexing system overhaul - The new system is much more reliable and consistently picks up files and directory changes. Tasks that previously blocked boot are now handled in the background, allowing full library scans with minimal interference. (Usualy)
• Admin console - A console has been added to the Admin Panel so you can see serial output and get insight into what the device is doing in real time.
• Books page improvements - EPUB, audiobook, and CBZ support are now available:
  • EPUB works, though formatting is messy; it will get its own dedicated page soon.
  • Audiobooks have basic functionality with a resume option, but are still buggy.
  • CBZ files work (by some miracle), but currently load the entire file rather than streaming in parts, so loading can take several minutes; UI is still rough. I need to serve it as partial content but have had much trouble getting it working.
• General Stability - Improvements from the last update for version 2 are still present, including dynamic LCD brightness (no restart required) and added shutdown and flashmode buttons in the Admin Panel. Admin menu password and locking systems are fixed.
• Code cleanup - Removed unused library preferences.h.
• Music page - Subfolder and playlist handling should now work correctly.
• Frontend and Filebrowser - NDJSON sync issues have been fixed. I’m planning to limit Filebrowser functionality (removed it from mobile and added a warning on PC) and focus on edits via SD card to improve reliability.

I am planning to ship prebuilt units next week, so I’m rushing to test everything thoroughly this week. There is almost no doubt I’ll push that deadline back slightly, but for now I’m focusing hard to get everything as stable as possible.

Things that still need fixing

• Music page - Main page show duplicate or ghost items; this should be an easy fix.
• Theme inconsistencies - Minor visual differences between pages still exist.
• Crashes / memory tuning - Some operations can still crash the device. Quick recovery masks this for most users, but I need to tune memory management to avoid failures during critical tasks and playback interuptions.

Seeking help / Feedback

• CBZ & ZIM streaming - If anyone has experience serving these file types as 206 partial content for smooth loading, suggestions are welcome. Main thing is just unzipping them fully in browser in small chunks.
• Indexing improvements - Ideas for making the indexing system faster, safer, or more reliable are appreciated.

Future Goals

• Add custom CSS support so users can personalize the UI theme.
• Additonal functions / pages (same as usual)

This is experimental, so if you want to try the newest features and help test, grab the experimental branch. Your feedback and bug reports are hugely appreciated and will help ensure these improvements make it into main.

[Jstudner]

I am planning on spending the weekend doing tests and performance optimizations so there will certainly be some changes in the next two days.

[Jstudner]

Custom CSS (or even just putting all the frontend CSS in one file) would really be nice to have to make setting up the colors and theming to match your preferences, might even make a theme editor or something down the road.