Touch Hacking into the Kobo Touch

[MikeNorrish]

Originally Posted by taming

The ad display is not in the reading firmware. the reading firmware is designed to be replaced based on locale.

Is that also how the device determines which affiliate store / authentication server it should associate itself with? Or is that determined by some other means...?

As of now, a factory reset of my device sets it to use a local affiliate (contra to the default configuration, out of the box, which uses no affiliate). I've been considering trying to find where this is set on the device via telnet before setting it up with the desktop app, but if it's a simple matter of setting the locale of my machine before running setup, then obviously that's going to be a much easier option...

[novou]

Originally Posted by notimetoread

can't you just install the standard firmware? As long as you don't sync with the desktop application, you should be fine.

I doubt that would do it, since the FW packs only include the differences from the initial shipping version. If you install a vanilla FW on an ad subsidized version, it might create some nasty inconsistencies. To nuke the ads, the best strategy might be to go in and clone/copy an entire vanilla install, then load that. Even then, I'd suggest not altering the recovery partition. (I have the vanilla/full KT, so I can't test this.)

But really, there's a reason why the subsidized device is cheaper. Kobo will probably add a way to remove the ads by paying the difference, they might even have mentioned that it's in the works. (Though I don't remember.)

PS: The fact that firmware updates only include differences also means that reverting (from .16 to .14) also shares that risk of inconsistencies.

Originally Posted by MikeNorrish

Is [firmware] also how the device determines which affiliate store / authentication server it should associate itself with? Or is that determined by some other means...?

As of now, a factory reset of my device sets it to use a local affiliate (contra to the default configuration, out of the box, which uses no affiliate). I've been considering trying to find where this is set on the device via telnet before setting it up with the desktop app, but if it's a simple matter of setting the locale of my machine before running setup, then obviously that's going to be a much easier option...

There's an affiliate setting in .kobo/Kobo/Kobo.conf. It may not be the only setting for it, but that's one of them at least.

[NightStar76]

I'd love it if someone hacked a way to organize books via shelves into the kobo touch. I'm not sure I want to wait two or three months for that.

[novou]

Originally Posted by NightStar76

I'd love it if someone hacked a way to organize books via shelves into the kobo touch. I'm not sure I want to wait two or three months for that.

An experimental implementation of shelves is included in the firmware already, and it can be enabled by following the instructions here: https://github.com/ah-/koboplugins/wiki/Kobo-Tweaks
(You'll then need to enable shelves in the tweaks menu.)

Be warned though, it's not a final, supported, product yet, so it might be unreliable, break on upgrade, or convert all of your ePubs into puppies.

[PeterT]

Novou; the shelves support actually is in the base Kobo unit. All the plugin is doing is exposing the use of shelves to the user.

It is likely that if Kobo did NOT activate the shelves feature themselves, that there is a reason to it...

[novou]

That's exactly what I mean. It is in the firmware but not enabled, for very understandable reasons, hence the warning. (I've never even turned on shelves since I don't want the risk.)
Thanks for clarifying it for others; I suppose I was a bit ambiguous.

[NightStar76]

So... no one knows how bad it may be if I do it? Because the lack of shelves is a huge turn-off for me, to the point where I was almost thinking about going back to the nook.

[PeterT]

Remember there is no guaranteeing that a partially implemented feature will stay in place.

Also I think it is safe to say one reason for the slow turn around is the overall size of the Kobo teams, the fact they have multiple platforms to take into account (the various dedicated platforms, applications for other environments, website) and that a change in one platform probably needs to be reflected in others.

[petemjones]

I am trying the Tweak patch right now, it seems to work ok, plus it adds some customization features for the home page

[NightStar76]

A command to force it to check for new content would also be good.

[NightStar76]

Sorry to gravedig, but I thought people might be interested to know what's not working with the shelves; something I just realized myself. The shelves don't read an sd card properly, or save data from them. If you select books that are stored on an sd card to be added to the shelf, it acts like you haven't selected anything.

[WS64]

Would it be possible to change the behaviour of the home button to page forward instead?

[julandroid]

Originally Posted by stef70

- read touchscreen & key events

That's great! What is bugging me is the lack of keyboard layouts.
I'm wandering whether I can find the binary file and replace the extended latin characters (virtual keyboard) or maybe I can write some app that replaces the build-in virtual keyboard! The build-in virtual keyboard doesn't support cyrillic, for example.
Do you have any thoughts?

[kobotux]

Hi ! Any chance this could work on 3.0.1 FW ?

[sohelmk]

Hi Stef,
I bricked my kobo after first few steps from your guide. After first upgrade it refuses to boot. Can you please advise if there is any way to reset or fix?

Here are details of my model
======================
KOBO touch
Model N905
Mark 3 Hardware: Original Touch
SOFTWARE 1.9.9 JUL28 2011
=============================

Thanks a lot,
Sohel

Originally Posted by stef70

I just made a web page to describe my experiments with the Kobo Touch:

http://www.chauveau-central.net/pub/KoboTouch/

My achievements so far:
- execute arbitrary commands
- enable telnet & ftp
- read touchscreen & key events
- take screenshots
- and a lot of technical information about the hardware