Wish There Were Separate Kobo Reader and Kobo Reader Modified Forums

[Nightflyer]

Don’t know if this has ever been discussed.

I’m a newbie with stock Clara HD for a few months and have no plans to modify. I don’t expect to be a big player/talker here in mobileread but who knows. I read almost daily.

I frequently get into a Kobo Reader forum thread and then realize it only applies to modified Kobo readers although I can sometimes know by thread title.

Really confusing early on here on mobileread until I realized so much talk in the Kobo Reader thread is not about my stock unmodified Kobo Reader. Still hard to tell about some threads until getting into it.

Anyway, would be nice for some, possibly a lot, of people, to have a dedicated Kobo Reader (unmodified) forum.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Nightflyer

Don’t know if this has ever been discussed.

I’m a newbie with stock Clara HD for a few months and have no plans to modify. I don’t expect to be a big player/talker here in mobileread but who knows. I read almost daily.

I frequently get into a Kobo Reader forum thread and then realize it only applies to modified Kobo readers although I can sometimes know by thread title.

Really confusing early on here on mobileread until I realized so much talk in the Kobo Reader thread is not about my stock unmodified Kobo Reader. Still hard to tell about some threads until getting into it.

Anyway, would be nice for some, possibly a lot, of people, to have a dedicated Kobo Reader (unmodified) forum.

Well, there is a developer's subforum - maybe that could be renamed, and then all the threads about hacked Kobos moved there?

[DevonHess]

Originally Posted by Nightflyer

Don’t know if this has ever been discussed.

I’m a newbie with stock Clara HD for a few months and have no plans to modify. I don’t expect to be a big player/talker here in mobileread but who knows. I read almost daily.

I frequently get into a Kobo Reader forum thread and then realize it only applies to modified Kobo readers although I can sometimes know by thread title.

Really confusing early on here on mobileread until I realized so much talk in the Kobo Reader thread is not about my stock unmodified Kobo Reader. Still hard to tell about some threads until getting into it.

Anyway, would be nice for some, possibly a lot, of people, to have a dedicated Kobo Reader (unmodified) forum.

Personally I don't care if the forum is divided like that. Honestly I assumed that was the point of the developer's corner.

However, "modifying" your Kobo is so easy and straight-forward that I don't see any good reason to separate everything. This forum is filled with people trying to get the most out of their Kobo, and custom software is often the way to do that.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DevonHess

However, "modifying" your Kobo is so easy and straight-forward that I don't see any good reason to separate everything. This forum is filled with people trying to get the most out of their Kobo, and custom software is often the way to do that.

Agreed. It's not like jailbreaking a Kindle, very few Kindle owners do that these days if it's possible at all (my info on jailbreaking is not up to date). I've never even attempted to jailbreak my Kindles, but I patched my Kobo the very first day I had it, installed a custom dictionary, custom screen savers etc. Patching is quite easy and there's no real danger of damaging the Kobo beyond repair.

[Gone]

Originally Posted by DevonHess

However, "modifying" your Kobo is so easy and straight-forward that I don't see any good reason to separate everything. This forum is filled with people trying to get the most out of their Kobo, and custom software is often the way to do that.

Personnally, I stoped modifying my Kobo.

Main reason: tired to do it after each update.

Second reason, I like the stock enough now that I can live with it. Could be better, but good enough.

[MGlitch]

What would be in the unmodified kobo forum? Firmware posts, and troubleshooting posts? Firmware isn’t generally released so frequently, and troubleshooting posts aren’t super common either. So why split the forum into what would be fairly inactive and an active one? Where’s the benefit?

[Barbara1955]

Check out the Threads that Introduce the Kobo... look for them to say New Clara or New Aura One. That type of thread gives the MOST information Before people Modify.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Claude_C

Personnally, I stoped modifying my Kobo.

Main reason: tired to do it after each update.

If I had to install every update and patch again every time after that, it would be tiresome indeed. But I don't install every firmware update. I only update the firmware when there is something in the new firmware that I really want. Doesn't happen very often.

[geek1011]

Not all things here require modifying the firmware directly.

For example, you can use Calibre/Kepubify to convert sideloaded books to KEPUB for additional features like the chapter chart, faster page turns and rendering, and pop-up footnotes.

You can also use dictutil and/or PyGlossary to convert dictionaries for use on the Kobo. I've converted Webster's 1913 dictionary and GOTDict (see the dictutil thread), but there's also other preconverted ones available like Wiktionary, GCIDE, and WordNet.

If you are willing to modify the configuration file by hand, you can even use calibre-web (a separate server, not the built-in Calibre one) as a custom sync server to sync your sideloaded books/collections wirelessly.

Originally Posted by Claude_C

Personnally, I stoped modifying my Kobo.

Main reason: tired to do it after each update.

Second reason, I like the stock enough now that I can live with it. Could be better, but good enough.

Have you tried NickelMenu and NickelSeries? Those ones (and anything else using NickelHook) won't need to be updated with different firmware versions, and they are a lot safer and less intrusive than the other mods (like patches).

Also, if there's demand for it, I can make a NickelHook version of the 24 line spacing values patch and a few others.

Some useful things you can do with NickelMenu are:
- Invert screen menu item.
- Pop-up web browser (even within a book or the full web browser).
- Custom orientations, including the inverted ones, on all devices (after next week's NM release).
- Rescan books transferred wirelessly.
- Toggle the built-in telnet/ftp server.
- Connect to USB without reconnecting the cable or on computers which aren't detected.
- Add the browser or other extras to the main menu.

NickelSeries adds support for series metadata (without needing to plug it in twice) and subtitles.

P.S. I recently posted an up-to-date list of all mods I'm aware of: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...09&postcount=5.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

What would be in the unmodified kobo forum? Firmware posts, and troubleshooting posts? Firmware isn’t generally released so frequently, and troubleshooting posts aren’t super common either. So why split the forum into what would be fairly inactive and an active one? Where’s the benefit?

Another issue would be where things like kepubify/Calibre/dictutil/font/config things would go, since they aren't exactly firmware mods, but they aren't not mods either.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If I had to install every update and patch again every time after that, it would be tiresome indeed. But I don't install every firmware update. I only update the firmware when there is something in the new firmware that I really want. Doesn't happen very often.

I always have wifi on so the automatic updates during sync are what gets me. When that happens, I typically stop using the Kobo until it can be repatched.

I recently discovered there's a patch to prevent updates so I just enabled that. Hopefully, that works so I don't have to keep repatching in future. Also, I haven't tested if sync will work when updates are disabled via patch. Can anyone here enlighten me if syncing and automatic ebook downloads will still work?

Having tinkered with both Kobo and Kindle, initial hacking is more iffy on the Kindle but after that, I've been able to update on my own schedule (usually some time between once in a blue moon and when hell freezes over ).

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I always have wifi on so the automatic updates during sync are what gets me. When that happens, I typically stop using the Kobo until it can be repatched.

I recently discovered there's a patch to prevent updates so I just enabled that. Hopefully, that works so I don't have to keep repatching in future. Also, I haven't tested if sync will work when updates are disabled via patch. Can anyone here enlighten me if syncing and automatic ebook downloads will still work?

Having tinkered with both Kobo and Kindle, initial hacking is more iffy on the Kindle but after that, I've been able to update on my own schedule (usually some time between once in a blue moon and when hell freezes over ).

It’ll sync regardless though you might want to use the ask before updating patch instead as the one you’re using can potentially cause issues.

Obviously kobo might make a change that does require you to update but I don’t see this being common and given how kobo rolls out updates patches etc would likely be done before Kobo forced you to be on the most recent firmware.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

It’ll sync regardless though you might want to use the ask before updating patch instead as the one you’re using can potentially cause issues.

Obviously kobo might make a change that does require you to update but I don’t see this being common and given how kobo rolls out updates patches etc would likely be done before Kobo forced you to be on the most recent firmware.

Yes, sync will work fine. Also, I suggest you use the "Always show confirmation dialog before upgrading" patch instead of "Block WiFi firmware upgrade", as it's not going to cause any issues.

Anyways, the patches are now usually finished within 12 hours of a firmware release and you can use nearly all patches from the previous version as-is due to the improvements I was working on for kobopatch over the last year and a bit (find by symbol, flexible offsets, replace blx/bx, tail call symbols, zlib replacements, find-replace string, etc). Even complicated ones like the 24 line spacing values patch can now be used without changes.

[fathead]

Does anyone else think it's ironic that this thread has devolved into a technical discussion about modification?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by fathead

Does anyone else think it's ironic that this thread has devolved into a technical discussion about modification?

probably goes to show that most folks, once exposed to how easy modding a Kobo is, tend toward modding. Not all, but even those who don't would generally admit it's not difficult.