Kobo Patcher

[byblo]

Originally Posted by dmapr

I must've missed your earlier post. Sure, but please be as precise as you can. What are the restricted dictionaries you speak of?

Sure.


- .epub: When opening a new ebook, will be nice to always start to page 1 (usually the cover), instead of the page specified in the first TOC (Table Of Content) entry.


-.epub: Always force the user fonts settings, like the fonts character, and the line spacing. (Some ebooks have a CSS that locking these settings... Will be nice to bypass them)


- Dictionary : some dictionaries like the french one are restricted and preventing you to enter a word. Like DNSB said:

Originally Posted by DNSB

Some of the dictionaries are restricted to looking up words from an ebook. Others will allow you to enter a word and find it's definition.

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by giorgio130

Great, thanks.
- It looks like they removed time statistics for .kepub.epub starting from 2.9.0. I'd like to ask to Metazoa when he starts working on this newer firmware to try to find a way to have those back. It should be fairly easy, I hope.
- Internal fonts are somehow obfuscated to avoid people ripping them out of the firmware and using those elsewhere. I'd like to find out how nickel decrypts those to be able to use internal fonts with Koreader/Cool reader.

I'm asking Metazoa since it requires decompiling or analyzing assembler, I'm not really familiar with that while he is. If he can't do that or he has no spare time now I'll have a look myself.

Originally Posted by byblo

Sure.


- .epub: When opening a new ebook, will be nice to always start to page 1 (usually the cover), instead of the page specified in the first TOC (Table Of Content) entry.


-.epub: Always force the user fonts settings, like the fonts character, and the line spacing. (Some ebooks have a CSS that locking these settings... Will be nice to bypass them)


- Dictionary : some dictionaries like the french one are restricted and preventing you to enter a word. Like DNSB said:

Got it. Asked, will let you know if he says anything.

[giorgio130]

Originally Posted by dmapr

Got it. Asked, will let you know if he says anything.

Thank you very much!

[tshering]

Originally Posted by giorgio130

- Internal fonts are somehow obfuscated to avoid people ripping them out of the firmware and using those elsewhere. I'd like to find out how nickel decrypts those to be able to use internal fonts with Koreader/Cool reader.

Originally Posted by byblo

I'd like to sent to him some requests like ... to unlock restricted dictionaries

These two "feature proposals" seem dangerous to me. If Metazoa provides those features, and I don't doubt that he is able to do this, Kobo might be forced to take counter measures. As a result of this, even legally justifiable modifications might become harder to achieve.

So please, if you ask for possibly illegal stuff, don't do it openly.

[giorgio130]

Originally Posted by tshering

These two "feature proposals" seem dangerous to me. If Metazoa provides those features, and I don't doubt that he is able to do this, Kobo might be forced to take counter measures. As a result of this, even legally justifiable modifications might become harder to achieve.

So please, if you ask for possibly illegal stuff, don't do it openly.

I don't see how those could be considered illegal, since both things were available in earlier firmwares (no font obfuscation and no restrictions on dictionary search). However, yes, kobo could be annoyed by those... maybe less by byblo's proposal. It's up to Metazoa to decide to do it or not.

Since I'm already writing, I've got another one:
- enable other combinations of dictionaries, e.g. de-it, to be used if there's the corresponding custom dictionary on memory. This one should not have any consequence.

[Nick_1964]

The use of a dictionary is copyrighted, when you buy the e-reader you buy the right to use it in your reader and a little amount of money is payd to the maker of the dictionary,you get a licence to use it, but that is something else then rip it and use it in other applications, so I can understand that the maker of the dictionary would ask Kobo to avoid it for being shared as he no longer get money for it, even for the fonts you pay money to the maker of the font and get a licence to use it ( exerpt the free fonts) to adopt a reader so you can use it the way you want it, is something else then to use some parts of it for something completely else, I am not a person that has troubles with it but I can understand that Kobo does, that it is available in first editions doesn't say that you are in right to use it for your own ways, the use of the dictionary is prohibited, it is stated in the paper that comes with the reader, I don't know if it is also on the Kobo reader, but in the Sony reader it is made clear in the user manual on the reader itself that you are granted to use the dictionary's in the reader itself, but are not granted to use it outside due to copyright, so the owner of the dictionary can say to Kobo, you are no longer granted to use it in your readers.
So changing the functions of your own reader is something completely different then take something out and use it in another application that indeed is illegal.

[byblo]

Originally Posted by dmapr

Got it. Asked, will let you know if he says anything.

Waiting impatiently. Thank you

Originally Posted by tshering

These two "feature proposals" seem dangerous to me. If Metazoa provides those features, and I don't doubt that he is able to do this, Kobo might be forced to take counter measures. As a result of this, even legally justifiable modifications might become harder to achieve.

So please, if you ask for possibly illegal stuff, don't do it openly.

Sorry I wasn't clear enough (english isnt my native language so I always tends to be quick and not precise)

By unlocking the dictionary feature, I meant to unlock 'The languages' themselves. Not the copyrighted dictionary itself.

I don't see anything 'illegal' here.

Thus, in the firmware, it is the language that is locked, not the dictionary itself.

For instance, if you replace like I did the french dictionary by a custom one and totally free of rights (in my case, I've installed the "Dictionnaire Français (1863) Émile Littré" source and download: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...07#post2580807), the feature will still locked (editfor french language...

Now if people will use the official dictionary...
I think Kobo do what they want with their firmwares, as it is up to us to modify it for our own taste. I bought the device, I'm not renting it.

If they eventually decide to lock everything in future, I'm fine with that, I 'll just switch to a custom application, like the Koreader (which is planed anyway, not sure what I am waiting for, when I see how buggy, poor and restricted the official firmwares and apps are since months now. each new firmware seems worse than the previous one...)

But It seems a large debate, not sure its the right topic for this :s

Just wanted to clarify about my request.

[Nick_1964]

@byblo I don't want to debate, from your point of view you are right, you buy the device.
But from Kobo: you buy the device but not the software on it.
The same with a tablet or phone, If I buy it, why can't I buy a rooted one.
I buy a book, I can share it, I can sell it, I can do with it what I want, but a e-book is a totally other story, I buy a Microsoft program, it is my property, but I can't sell it, I can't put the same program on my laptop.
I buy a passport, but it always stays property of the government... so just say, I pay for it, I can do whatever I want with it isn't that clear.
You buy the reader,but got a license to use the software, you don't own the software.
We think very easy,I pay for it,it is my property,but don't try to use this logica in court

I have a dutch dictionary that is in epub format, I can use the search on the book to get all I want, maybe there is something for you in French ?

[davidfor]

@byblo: The reason you can't to non-book searches for these dictionaries is due to the license. The licence Kobo has for these dictionaries mean they are not allowed to do this. If someone publishes a hack to enable the search, Kobo could see that as a problem for them. Replacing the dictionary is not actually supported by Kobo. So, it is not surprising that Kobo don't enable the search when you replace the dictionary.

I would expect the same goes for the fonts. Kobo have licensed them, so protecting them makes sense. Any that are open source or under some other free license, should be available from elsewhere.

[tshering]

removed because it seemed to be irrelevant in view of the next post

[tshering]

Originally Posted by giorgio130

- enable other combinations of dictionaries, e.g. de-it, to be used if there's the corresponding custom dictionary on memory. This one should not have any consequence.

To my surprise, this seems to work again (FW 2.8.1[a]). Unfortunately, added dictionaries have the same restrictions as the French definition dictionary, and both languages [used in the name of the dictionary file] must be supported languages.
Edit: After editing the database, those dictionaries are searchable.

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by tshering

To my surprise, this seems to work again (FW 2.8.1[a]). Unfortunately, added dictionaries have the same restrictions as the French definition dictionary, and both languages [used in the name of the dictionary file] must be supported languages.
Edit: After editing the database, those dictionaries are searchable.

Does that mean that editing the database will fix the problem that byblo is facing with the substitute French dictionary?

[dmapr]

Metazoa's response (and keep in mind that he is mostly using CoolReader now, so his personal interest in patching has been reduced quite a bit):

On opening the book from the first page: he would need a copy of a book that doesn't do it to even start looking, but expects this would take a while.

Ditto on user-chosen fonts & line spacing -- he would need a sample to work with.

He said pretty much the same thing about dictionaries. Hopefully tshering can help byblo out with the database editing trick?

On to 2.9.0. He hasn't even seen it (nor did he sound very interested in trying it out), but his gut feel is that it'll generally be hard to put back in something Kobo took out.

As for encrypted fonts, he said pretty much the same thing as davidfor -- non-encrypted copies of these fonts are available on the net, some even free. Considering the lack of Cyrillic support in the built-in ones his interest in decrypting those is close to 0.

And for all of that, it's contingent on his having some spare time on his hands.

I think that's about it. @byblo, if you can make a small sample book that would allow Metazoa to look at your navigation & font/line spacing problem, please post it somewhere and I'll point him to it.

@giorgio130, does tshering's finding solve your dictionary problem?

[giorgio130]

Originally Posted by tshering

To my surprise, this seems to work again (FW 2.8.1[a]). Unfortunately, added dictionaries have the same restrictions as the French definition dictionary, and both languages [used in the name of the dictionary file] must be supported languages.
Edit: After editing the database, those dictionaries are searchable.

In the images you posted, it looks like you sacrificed an available dictionary, isn't it? Like in the english-farsi dict, it says Deutsch in the image.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by giorgio130

In the images you posted, it looks like you sacrificed an available dictionary, isn't it? Like in the english-farsi dict, it says Deutsch in the image.

No, I did not sacrifice the German dictionary. In the picture it actually says Deutsch-Deutsch. The name of the file is dicthtml-de-de.zip, cf. this post. So it-de should work. Unfortunately one can only use names of supported languages.