Glo Memory Upgrade Mod Guide (With Pictures)

[thatworkshop]

My Mini was on v2.* when I got it. I updated it to v3.18.0 and it works flawlessly. It is without any modifications or patches applied.

To have a backup, I cloned the 2GB SanDisk to my other 2GB microSD. (So I guess no partition expansion using Partition Tools was needed?) Then, I popped the new microSD card in and powered on but it gave me a critical error and asked to do factory reset. I let it do its things and it successfully booted up, but it was back on v2.* !!!!! It's weird, why is that?! Do Kobo store their firmware somewhere else other than the microSD card?!!!!!!!!

Also, why didn't it just boot up fine? Should I not trust my dd-image and delete it and do imaging again? (dd was done successfully - it reported success)

[oren64]

Hi idoit,

First you can upgrade the sd card to bigger size (someone use 32GB in a Mini and it works well).

Originally Posted by idoit

(So I guess no partition expansion using Partition Tools was needed?)

Maybe by 10-15MB.

Then, I popped the new microSD card in and powered on but it gave me a critical error and asked to do factory reset.
I let it do its things and it successfully booted up, but it was back on v2.* !!!!! It's weird, why is that?! Do Kobo store their firmware somewhere else other than the microSD card?!!!!!!!!
Also, why didn't it just boot up fine? Should I not trust my dd-image and delete it and do imaging again? (dd was done successfully - it reported success)

try to create and write the image again or use the original sd card.
maybe the "new" sd card you use is too slow, use class4 or class10.


You can sideload the firmware see https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660

[thatworkshop]

Hi Oren!

You'd certainly laugh at how I cloned my Kobo's image!!! Ok, ready, here we go:

Either USB ports on my computer are borked or the microSD reader that I have was playing funny! So, what I did was I grabbed my Android phone, shoved the microSD card into it, connected to it through SSH and used ssh-dd pipelining to my Windows computer (Yes, at this point I'm not even running my trusty Arch for some reasons). Ridiculously innovative

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by idoit

You'd certainly laugh at how I cloned my Kobo's image!!! Ok, ready, here we go:

Either USB ports on my computer are borked or the microSD reader that I have was playing funny! So, what I did was I grabbed my Android phone, shoved the microSD card into it, connected to it through SSH and used ssh-dd pipelining to my Windows computer (Yes, at this point I'm not even running my trusty Arch for some reasons). Ridiculously innovative

If you have a Windows PC you can use the tools and instructions in the first post.

Luck;
Ken

[thatworkshop]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

If you have a Windows PC you can use the tools and instructions in the first post.

It's not about OS, but bad USB port!

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by idoit

It's not about OS, but bad USB port!

You don't use the USB port, on your Kobo device, to follow the instructions in the first post. By following the instructions and using the tools, you can create the image file from the original internal uSD card, and write that, or a downloaded image, onto a new larger uSD card. If your PC has no card reader or its USB is not working, you need that corrected. A broken PC, would be a subject for another forum.

Luck;
Ken

[thatworkshop]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

You don't use the USB port, on your Kobo device, to follow the instructions in the first post. By following the instructions and using the tools, you can create the image file from the original internal uSD card, and write that, or a downloaded image, onto a new larger uSD card. If your PC has no card reader or its USB is not working, you need that corrected. A broken PC, would be a subject for another forum.

Luck;
Ken

Sorry but I think the previous two posts were sort of redundant (which could've been avoided by carefully reading my post), and therefore my replies to them.

Take it easy!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by idoit

My Mini was on v2.* when I got it. I updated it to v3.18.0 and it works flawlessly. It is without any modifications or patches applied.

To have a backup, I cloned the 2GB SanDisk to my other 2GB microSD. (So I guess no partition expansion using Partition Tools was needed?) Then, I popped the new microSD card in and powered on but it gave me a critical error and asked to do factory reset. I let it do its things and it successfully booted up, but it was back on v2.* !!!!! It's weird, why is that?! Do Kobo store their firmware somewhere else other than the microSD card?!!!!!!!!

Also, why didn't it just boot up fine? Should I not trust my dd-image and delete it and do imaging again? (dd was done successfully - it reported success)

I have to ask, what did you expect a factory reset to do? It completely resets the device to out of the factory state. The factory firmware is on the card in the restorefs partition. The factory reset formats the rootfs and the data partitions. Then it installs the uboot and kernel and unpacks the firmware.

Apart from some errors after installing the new card, everything worked properly. And plenty of people have had this sort of problem. I usually recommend a factory reset after replacing the internal SD card or restoring an image to one. It shouldn't need it, but it seems to.

If you want to get the device to the same state as on the other card, install the desired firmware. Then, take a copy everything on the data partition of the original card and copy it to the device.

[thatworkshop]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you want to get the device to the same state as on the other card, install the desired firmware. Then, take a copy everything on the data partition of the original card and copy it to the device.

Thanks.

I was forced to do factory reset because of the critical error. Only button available was to factory reset.

So to clarify, after dd-ing (or however cloning is done), copy all contents from Kobo's user accessible root folder (.kobo etc.) and we'll be good, right? This way, I would not face that critical error, correct?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by idoit

I was forced to do factory reset because of the critical error. Only button available was to factory reset.

So to clarify, after dd-ing (or however cloning is done), copy all contents from Kobo's user accessible root folder (.kobo etc.) and we'll be good, right? This way, I would not face that critical error, correct?

I very much doubt it. If you imaged your current SD card to a new one, then it would have contained everything that is on the data partition. And if that data was missing, all it would have triggered was the setup prompting you to login, and checking for a new firmware version.

The problem was probably something in the imaging process. Between Windows and the Android phone, one of them probably touched something that it shouldn't have and the Mini didn't like it. What, it was, I have no idea.

If the purpose of this is to have a backup card, then you have one. If the purpose is to have a backup of all the books and their state, an image of the card isn't very useful as you would need to create a new copy whenever you added or removed a book. Or read one if you need the backup the status. There are simpler ways to do this.

[thatworkshop]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If the purpose of this is to have a backup card, then you have one.

Indeed. Mission done.

Coming from the other K neighborhood, I didn't know if I'd like Kobo, but I do. And I'm glad I chose the tiniest one. Now, I need to have Android Shine on it (which seems a couple of people attepmted to no avail). The reason is I'd like to sync my Kindle books and read on this tiny guy too. With Kindle app, I can accomplish this, while at the same time, I can read my public domain books. PDFs are always welcome on my DXG.

[thatworkshop]

I have to say, I wish every company did follow this path of System on SD card. One of my worries about gadgets was always when/if fixed memory goes bad.

Am I right in assuming that with this approach, Kobos enjoy much longer life? If memory (i.e. uSD) dies, swap another one. What I'm saying is, Is my assumption that in PCBs it's the fixed memory that is more likely to die way more and before all other components, say CPU, RAM etc. ? due to planned obsolescence, aging of device, ...

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by idoit

Am I right in assuming that with this approach, Kobos enjoy much longer life? If memory (i.e. uSD) dies, swap another one.

While I bricked a reader that could not be fixed due to the soldered memory and lack of alternative reset methods, so far I had not one device with internal flash die on me because of bad sectors.

I think most readers die due to broken display or ripped off USB. Also I have here a Glo with defective touchscreen.

It's a huge plus in any case, for the bricking issue alone, even though Kobo's built in reset / recovery methods save your ass most of the time... I don't think we'd have this lively developers community without the SD card.

[p1r473]

Hello, I am having trouble writing to my brand new 32gb class 10 card that I am replacing the 4gb with.
I can write to it if I put it in my SD card reader in the microsd -> SD card adapter with the lock set to unlocked.

But when I put the microSD card into my microSD card slot, I am getting a CRC error 32 in the USB Image program. But there is no way to slide the lock on the microSD card to unlocked position... So how do you write to a MicroSD card without using an adapter that allows you to unlock it?

Thanks

[zwijnands]

thank you very much for this post!! i upgraded my kobo to 64 gb