Factory reset on the touch

[stef70]

This is question for the Kobo developers.

I know that it is possible to restore the factory settings by pressing the Home button while powering on the device. This is a very useful feature when hacking into the system.

I would like to know if that reset is performed by the booloader or by a linux process (nickel?). Simply speaking, can I brick my Touch if I messed up some of the linux startup files such as inittab or rcS?

S.

[jackastor]

Hey just wanted to say thanks messed my squilt file up if I had not come accross your post i would be stuck at the updating your firmware screen endlessly


regards

jack

[george.talusan]

Originally Posted by stef70

This is question for the Kobo developers.

I know that it is possible to restore the factory settings by pressing the Home button while powering on the device. This is a very useful feature when hacking into the system.

I would like to know if that reset is performed by the booloader or by a linux process (nickel?). Simply speaking, can I brick my Touch if I messed up some of the linux startup files such as inittab or rcS?

S.

When the home key is pressed on power up, the second partition is loaded which performs a format of the first partition.

If you mess up the first partition then that should be fine.

Just don't mess up the second one.

[stef70]

Originally Posted by george.talusan

When the home key is pressed on power up, the second partition is loaded which performs a format of the first partition.

If you mess up the first partition then that should be fine.

Just don't mess up the second one.

Ok! That make sense. Thanks.

Ideally, I would prefer booting from the SD card. I found in u-boot.bin what seems to be the description of a boot entry for /dev/mmcblk1p1. I copied the internal root partition onto an SD card but that does not seem to work. Is there a trick here (such as changing the partition name)?

[george.talusan]

Originally Posted by stef70

Ok! That make sense. Thanks.

Ideally, I would prefer booting from the SD card. I found in u-boot.bin what seems to be the description of a boot entry for /dev/mmcblk1p1. I copied the internal root partition onto an SD card but that does not seem to work. Is there a trick here (such as changing the partition name)?

Turning the device on while holding down the home key and actuating the power key will trigger a boot from the SD card.

The card needs to be specially formatted with a kernel placed at a particular offset for this to work.

The kernel and bootloader source haven't been released yet - it'll happen soon.

But FWIW, booting from the SD card is a real pain. If you want to hack, just change the startup scripts on mmcblk0p1.

[Cyberman tM]

Originally Posted by george.talusan

Turning the device on while holding down the home key and actuating the power key will trigger a boot from the SD card.

The card needs to be specially formatted with a kernel placed at a particular offset for this to work.

Is this true for the Kobo Wifi too or is it different there?

[george.talusan]

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

Is this true for the Kobo Wifi too or is it different there?

Different. There are threads on the forum about how to boot from an SD card.

A recovery partition on the Wi-Fi exists, but it relies on the desktop and functionality that was never built.

[stef70]

Originally Posted by george.talusan

Turning the device on while holding down the home key and actuating the power key will trigger a boot from the SD card.

The card needs to be specially formatted with a kernel placed at a particular offset for this to work.

The kernel and bootloader source haven't been released yet - it'll happen soon.

But FWIW, booting from the SD card is a real pain. If you want to hack, just change the startup scripts on mmcblk0p1.

Hummm.. That seems a very dangerous method. If the power key is not properly used then you end up with a factory reset :-(

I'll stick with telnet and ftp for the time being.

[Cyberman tM]

Originally Posted by george.talusan

Different. There are threads on the forum about how to boot from an SD card.

Hm. I didn't find them then. What I found seemed to be about the original Kobo only. :-/
I'm guessing it needs to be a FAT formatted SD card instead of Ext3. But what else?