Where's our kobo hacks?

[LeviTX]

Originally Posted by jimmyzou

What's the way to make a copy of backup Firmware MicroSD? just copy out the file or we need a software like "winimage"?

I used the linux "dd" command to do it, but for Windows Win32DiskImager would likely do the trick.

Of course, if you really wanted to be "safe" you put the original SD card somewhere safe after you make your image (like taped to the inside of the Kobo) and do all your hacking with another micro SD card. That way if you really manage to stuff it up, you just pop it open, stick the original card back in, and you're good to go.

[jimmyzou]

Originally Posted by LeviTX

I used the linux "dd" command to do it, but for Windows Win32DiskImager would likely do the trick.

Of course, if you really wanted to be "safe" you put the original SD card somewhere safe after you make your image (like taped to the inside of the Kobo) and do all your hacking with another micro SD card. That way if you really manage to stuff it up, you just pop it open, stick the original card back in, and you're good to go.

That was exactly what I wanted.

[badtoyz]

any one tried a swap sd card ? im not sure if the linux will load it. it just might make it smother. i will take a look in the start up files to see if it will.

[Cyberman tM]

Question to those who opened their Kobo (WiFi):

How did you do that? There are no screws or anything. Just pull it apart?

I intend to open it, but I'd like to know beforehand if there is anything I should be careful about.

[cutterjohn42]

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

Question to those who opened their Kobo (WiFi):

How did you do that? There are no screws or anything. Just pull it apart?

I intend to open it, but I'd like to know beforehand if there is anything I should be careful about.

I haven't actually taken mine apart but on my WiFi I noticed at one point the case had pulled apart on it's own, upper left corner on the side(near SD card slot). I just popped it back together and it hasn't happened since, but given that this happened in the first place I'm thinking that there are no screws...

[jayupark]

There is no spoon.

[thepossum]

Originally Posted by Zog

Trying the cool-er system on the Kobo:

I followed Zog's instructions on booting the Cool-er firmware from a SD card, more or less. And yes, turning pages is noticeably faster: there is NO delay between pressing the button and the black screen-flash-wipe. I only made just a couple of changes that didn't seem to affect anything:

1- I didn't comment out the "msd.sh", and it didn't seem to have any effect on the system (ie. nothing crashes in any obvious way)

2- I partitioned my 2GB SD card into two equal-sized 1GB partitions (/dev/sdd1 and /dev/sdd2 on my system). I marked the first one as bootable (dunno if that was necessary), and formatted that one as ext3. I formatted the second one as FAT16. So for any other interested Kobo hackers, a 1GB SD card has plenty of space: There is still 700+KB free in the ext3 partition.

I was hoping that the FAT16 partition would be visible to my pseudo-Cooler, but unfortunately it could only see the Kobo's internal memory. If anybody else wants to try and figure out how to get the Cool-er init scripts to mount the second partition instead, please share the trick with the rest of us! I'd tried editing the "msd.sh" script but I am not sure which /dev/??? device to choose. Personally I'd LOVE to set it up so that booting to the Cool-er firmware ONLY uses the SD card and ignores the internal memory. Any ideas?

And I have another question about using the Cool-er firmware instead of the Kobo's. As there doesn't seem to be a "sleep" mode, it will only turn itself off after being idle. But when I turn it back on, it remembers which book I was reading but it won't go back to the page I was on. Is this something that I'm doing wrong or is that how the Cool-er is supposed to operate?

[thepossum]

Originally Posted by JCKobo

We post all the open source code we've modified on github, including code for a full app that runs on the Kobo Reader. That should be a lot of help to home brewing your own stuff.

You can find the code here:
http://github.com/kobolabs

I have been as yet unable to get that source tree to compile on my Fedora system. I guess there are some significant differences between the developer's systems (Debian I presume?) and mine. I followed the instructions in the "documentation/README.build" file, and made quite a bit of progress, actually, but now I'm stumped.

Some notes on getting at least as far as I did:

When it complains that SSIZE_MAX is undefined when compiling the "glib" package, you can just add these lines to that source file:

#ifndef SSIZE_MAX
#define SSIZE_MAX 0x7fffffff
#endif

When compiling "dosfstools" (and a few other packages) edit the kobo/KoboLabs/build/build-config.sh to include "/usr/arm-gp2x-linux/include" "/usr/include" in CPPFLAGS, and to include "/usr/arm-gp2x-linux/lib" in LIBS, and add "-D_GNU_SOURCE" to CFLAGS.

Note that certain other packages WON'T compile with those three changes, and you may have to revert back and forth as you go.

I have so far been unable to get any of "busybox" or "udev" or "qt" to compile, all the rest seemed to compile properly.

[thepossum]

I have a source code request ... the github gives example code for the Poker/Blackjack apps, but I would like to see Kobo's source for the plain text reader.

[carlb]

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

Question to those who opened their Kobo (WiFi):

How did you do that? There are no screws or anything. Just pull it apart?

I intend to open it, but I'd like to know beforehand if there is anything I should be careful about.

There are no screws, just a large number of flimsy plastic tabs around all four outer edges of the device; perhaps http://soapyfrogs.blogspot.com/search/label/kobo would make the picture clearer? Unfortunately, the eInk screen is very fragile and there is a risk in opening the device insofar as even the smallest hairline crack in the glass can make the display partially or totally unusable.

Given Kobo's unwillingness to make any replacement parts available for this device, the only solution if a Kobo malfunctions is to ship it back to the manufacturer for replacement (which will lose you any stored data or internal memory upgrades as what comes back isn't the same device (or the same serial number) as what you sent in.

As for copying the entire internal microSD card? If you are insane enough to open this flimsy and fragile device, I'd suggest using 'dd' to copy everything to a 16Gb microSDHC card and then 'parted' to resize that final 1Gb VFAT partition to use the entire remaining space on the new card (a 16Gb card, with about 1Gb used for the Kobo firmware and 'factory reset' recovery image, would still have 14.1Gb free on which to store your books.

The 'dd' and 'parted' utilities are included free with pretty much any pir8ed copy of linux (also free) or, for that matter, an official copy of linux (about the same price, can't beat it).

[magnus117]

Originally Posted by tpw

I just tried the 1.8 firmware via SD but reloaded the cool-er firmware after an hour. I actually really appreciate the effort that Kobo is making but the experience is just so slow. Page turns on epubs are barely any faster than the original. A slick looking interface is all well and good but if the core experience - reading and navigating a book - is this slow then I'm unfortunately just not that vibed about it. For the time being I'll stick with the speed and navigation features of the cool-er over the slower slickness of the Kobo.

How does the cool-er fw compare with the 1.9 fw? I'm not familiar with the the cool-er fw. What are the advantages and does it have any features that the stock fw does not posses?

[kirill]

I have managed to get console on the Kobo reader (1gen) via bluetooth. I have written up all the steps here: http://code.google.com/p/kobo-hacks/...uetoothConsole

Summary:
Create virtual "serial port" between your computer and reader using bluetooth
Start getty on that virtual port
Login into your reader via the "serial port"

Didn't do much with it yet...

[pholy]

Woot! There's life in the old blue button yet!

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by tpw

OK, firstly all credit to zog for this, I just interpreted his instructions.

1 - Download the kobo update http://www.borders.com.au/uploads/bo...u-full-1_4.tgz

2 - Download the Cool-er update https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...42&postcount=8

3 - Format a 2Gb SD card to ext3 (I used gparted under ubuntu)

4 - Extract the kobo update to the SD card (I used the built in function of midnight commander)

5 - Extract the Cool-er update to a temporary directory somewhere

6 - Copy files/eb600em/fs.tgz from the expanded Cool-er directory to overwrite file/eb600em/fs.tgz on the SD

7 - Turn off the kobo, insert the SD, and turn it back on whilst holding down the centre D pad button

8 - Once 5 boxes have appeared on the kobo boot screen, you can let go and the firmware will update. Takes a few minutes and the device appears to restart several times.

Of course these instructions may be pretty worthless if the just released 1.8 firmware is any good


Edit: haven't tried PDFs yet

THESE LINKS APPEAR TO BE ALL BROKEN! JUST INCASE ANYONE IS LOOKING

[filmo]

Originally Posted by moffattm

And also the Kobo is a lot more limited as far as being able to interact with it. Other readers have things that the Kobo doesn't, such as a keyboard, tough screen, speakers, etc. So this limits the sort of things you an do with the device, making it much less desirable to develop on.

One of early Kimble-3 hacks was installing fonts for Russian language. A reason for this was 3G was compatible with Russian cell phone accounts and Wifi is not widely available. This eliminated lots of great hackers.

the-ebook.org has good review of Kobo but doesn't recommend it because of limitations. I needed Google translation to read the review.