[bitfreak]

* My environment is completely custom
* It does not have nickel
* It does not have the file /mnt/onboard/.kobo/Kobo/Kobo eReader.conf

After starting KOReader, it drops back to the shell with the following error:

./luajit: frontend/device/kobo/nickel_conf.lua:155: /mnt/onboard/.kobo/Kobo/Kobo eReader.conf: No such file or directory

Spoiler:

stack traceback:
[C]: in function 'assert'
frontend/device/kobo/nickel_conf.lua:155: in function 'set'
frontend/device/kobo/nickel_conf.lua:68: in function 'get'
frontend/device/kobo/powerd.lua:38: in function '_syncKoboLightOnStart'
frontend/device/kobo/powerd.lua:173: in function 'init'
frontend/device/generic/powerd.lua:28: in function 'new'
frontend/device/kobo/device.lua:774: in function 'init'
frontend/device.lua:62: in main chunk
[C]: in function 'require'
reader.lua:151: in main chunk
[C]: at 0x000140cd

Creating the file solves the problem, however I figured this might also affect regular users.
Some sort of disk or file corruption could cause the same issue and would prevent them from starting their favorite app.