[Mrs_Often]

So, when manually up or downgrading the firmware, how to know if you need the Glo or the Touch firmware for your Kobo Touch? There's currently an elaborate way to find out through a factory reset and file size comparisons (see here; thanks DNSB). But, there must be an easier way. Maybe even as easy as a serial number?

Would people who know which firmware version their Touch needs care to share some information?

My info:

1. I use the Touch firmware
2. PID: 4163
3. rev: 326
4. model: N905 (next to µUSB socket)
5. SN: KG31B1500609E (in settings/Device info; or see below)

Some helpful steps to help you find your info, taken from here; thanks Peakcrew.

For Windows users

Spoiler:

How to get this info without Calibre on Windows (thanks to murg for this):

1) plug the Touch into the USB cable and connect.
2) bring up the Device Manager
2a) Windows 7 : Start/Control Panel/Device Manager
2b) Windows XP : Start/Control Panel/System/<one one of the tabs> (this is from memory)
3) under Disk Drives, find Kobo eReader USB Device
4) right click on this and select Properties.
5) select Details tab.
6) change Property dropdown to Device Instance Path
7) the value contains the Revision
8) change Property dropdown to Parent
9) the value contains the PID
10) note that you also get the Touch's serial number

device instance path: USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_KOBO&PROD_EREADER&REV_YYYY\KG1111111111B&0
parent: USB\VID_2237&PID_XXXX\KG1111111111B

Alternatives steps:
3) the Touch will also show up under Universal Serial Bus Controllers as USB Mass Storage Device.
Note: There may be more than one USB Mass Storage Device.
6) change Property dropdown to Hardware IDs
7) the value contains the PID and revision
skip 8) 9) and 10)

Hardware Ids: USB\VID_2237&PID_XXXX&REV_YYYY

With Calibre (thanks to davidfor for this):

1. Open Calibre.

2. In the top bar, click on Preferences.

3. Click on Miscellaneous (middle of the bottom row).

4. On the screen that comes up, locate the "Debug device detection" button, but don't press it yet. Connect the KT with a usb cable, and then allow it to connect to the computer.

5. Now, timing is a bit tricky. If you have autorun turned on, click the Debug button just after the box (or boxes if you have an SD card) have opened. If not, probably counting slowly to five would do it.

6. What you should see is a box that says "Getting debug information, please wait ...", and then produces a list of all the usb devices connected to your computer. Run down the list until you find "Looking for devices..." The line below will look like:
u'usb\\vid_2237&pid_XXXX&rev_YYYY' (italics will be numbers)

Followed by:
Detected possible device KoboTouch

The device ID/version are the two four-digit numbers after "pid" (those in italics above).

If you are Windows user, and don't have Calibre, please see murg's post (#6) below.

For Mac users

Spoiler:

(thanks to Mrs_Often for this):

Make sure your Kobo Touch is attached to your Mac, and mounted on the Desktop.
1. Click on the apple to the top left of the menu bar
- Click "About this Mac" at the top of the menu that opened
2. A small window with superficial information about your Mac will open
- Click the button down the bottom that says "More info…"
3. Skip this step if you're on 10.6.x, for 10.7.x and later:
- Hit the "System Report…" button on the bottom left
4. A larger window with detailed information is now open
- In the left column, click "USB" under "Hardware"
- In the top frame of the window, you'll see the USB Device Tree. From that tree, find and click "eReader" or "Kobo" or whatever yours is named by your Mac.
- In the bottom frame of the window, you'll see all sorts of information about your Kobo Touch
- Behind "Product ID" you'll see something like 0x4163. The four digits after the x is what you want, plus:
- Behind "Version" you'll see something like 3.26. This is the second number you want, without the decimal point, so in my case: 326.

For Linux users:

Spoiler:

(Thanks to RJCroy for this):

1) Open a terminal
2) type the command 'lsusb -v'

This will give details of all the USB devices connected. One will be the Kobo. It will look something like:

Bus 002 Device 005: ID 2237:4163 Kobo Inc.
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x2237 Kobo Inc.
idProduct 0x4163 [This is the device ID]
bcdDevice 3.26 [This is the version number]

-----------------------------



PRELIMINARY FINDINGS – need more data to confirm

- SN = KG31: Touch firmware
- SN = KG32: Touch firmware (uncertain)
- SN = N905B: Touch firmware
- SN = N905C: Touch firmware (uncertain)
- SN = N905J: Glo firmware
- SN = N905K: Glo firmware


Warning! SN = beginning of serial number, not to be confused with model number, which all start with N905