Aura root/ssh on my Aura and stable Wifi - Firmware 3.5.0

[waterwave]

Hi I'm new in this community and have bought a new Kobo Aura (not HD) yesterday. I already have a Kindle 3 but I wanted an new one with backgroud light.

I think the Aura is a good deal above all the device is now cheaper (99 Euro in Austria)

After the kobo started for the first time it wants to make an registration.

But I don't like this kind of behavor, Kobo should respect that I own this thing now.

Can you give some examples how to become root on this firmware and make the wifi stable ?


Here the step I have done so far.

Bypass registration


This works also for the Aura
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=223155
http://max.kellermann.name/tricks/kobo.html

You need sqlite3 on your linux distro. Start the Kobo and mount it. Make an backup of .kobo and .adobe just for sure.

Modify .Kobo/KoboReader.sqlite and put it back.

First look whats in the table then add a new user

sqlite3 KoboReader.sqlite '.dump user'

PRAGMA foreign_keys=OFF;
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
CREATE TABLE user(UserID TEXT NOT NULL,UserKey TEXT NOT NULL,UserDisplayName TEXT,UserEmail TEXT,___DeviceID TEXT,FacebookAuthToken TEXT,HasMadePurchase BIT DEFAULT FALSE,PRIMARY KEY (UserID));
INSERT INTO "user" VALUES('dec75cef-493f-4da1-af8d-d7a7183fa3e5','0a0e4b93-68fd-455a-b716-039e7c973dce','demobundle06_13@kobo.com','demobundle06_13@kobo.com',NULL,NULL,'false');
COMMIT;

create a new user record

uuidgen tool for plausible uuids for a nice valid user

sqlite3 KoboReader.sqlite  
  
SQLite version 3.8.5 2014-06-04 14:06:34
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite> INSERT INTO "user" VALUES('7e76d785-6f12-4576-9a68-26b88a4fc6ed','3460f4ed-d88b-45b9-a2d6-b66f31cc17ac','koboaurauser@mail.net','koboaurauseracc@mail.net',NULL,NULL,'false');
sqlite> .quit

compare the records if it's there

sqlite3 KoboReader.sqlite '.dump user'

sqlite3 KoboReader.sqlite '.dump user'
PRAGMA foreign_keys=OFF;
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
CREATE TABLE user(UserID TEXT NOT NULL,UserKey TEXT NOT NULL,UserDisplayName TEXT,UserEmail TEXT,___DeviceID TEXT,FacebookAuthToken TEXT,HasMadePurchase BIT DEFAULT FALSE,PRIMARY KEY (UserID));
INSERT INTO "user" VALUES('dec75cef-493f-4da1-af8d-d7a7183fa3e5','0a0e4b93-68fd-455a-b716-039e7c973dce','demobundle06_13@kobo.com','demobundle06_13@kobo.com',NULL,NULL,'false');
INSERT INTO "user" VALUES('7e76d785-6f12-4576-9a68-26b88a4fc6ed','3460f4ed-d88b-45b9-a2d6-b66f31cc17ac','koboaurauser@mail.net','koboaurauseracc@mail.net',NULL,NULL,'false');
COMMIT;

Now you can copy the new file to your kobo aura in the .kobo folder and replace it.
__________________________________________________ ________________________

Manual Firmware update

Mark 5 Hardware : New Aura
3.5.0 (, July 2014)
71.7 MB - 73,442 KB - 75,203,836 bytes
http://download.kobobooks.com/firmwa...date-3.5.0.zip

Copy this stuff under .kobo on your mounted ereader

.kobo/
├── KoboRoot.tgz
├── manifest.md5sum
└── upgrade
    └── mx50-ntx
        ├── u-boot_mddr_256-E606F0B-K4X2G323PC.bin
        └── uImage-E606F0B

other files

Step by step Howto

Get the zip file. From here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660
Unzip the zip file.
Connect your device to the computer and select Connect on the device (if asked). Make sure when you run Windows that the Kobo Desktop or stuff like is not running.
Copy the entire contents of the zip file to the .kobo directory on the device.
Disconnect the device.
The Kobo Aura will now install the new software.

I have also read when you going to a previous version for whatever reason, you may want to do a Factory Reset.

__________________________________________________ _____________

Stop Kobo from phoning home
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=162713

Modify etc/hosts on your ebook-reader

to do that create this hosts config

127.0.0.1 host localhost.localdomain localhost localhost localhost.localdomain
127.0.0.1 kobobooks.com mobile.kobobooks.com www.kobobooks.com dev.kobobooks.com
127.0.0.1 partner.dev.kobobooks.com ecimages.kobobooks.com images.kobobooks.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com ssl.google-analytics.com google-analytics.com

pack to to a KoboRoot.tgz archiv with path to /etc/hosts
cp to .kobo - restart device
Same routine like a firmwareupdate

the finale file for time saving

mv KoboRoot_koboservice_google_block.tgz KoboRoot.tgz
md5sum fdd29d481c545a2fd12a61676f3bd0bb

http://www22.zippyshare.com/v/19898536/file.html
__________________________________________________ ____________

I experience that the wifi is not very stable. First it conects to the AP and gets a IP from the dhcp. The device is pingable from extern! Webbrower can load a site but after some time a dialog shows up that Internet is not variable and turn wifi off. lulz I sniff into the traffic for fun and discovered that kobo want to phone to

a1961.g.akamai.net	HTTP GET /ncsi.txt HTTP/1.1 
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.0; en-us;) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1 (Kobo Touch)
Accept-Language: de-DE, de;q=0.9, en;q=0.8, *;q=0.7
Connection: Keep-Alive
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Host: www.msftncsi.com

After some search I found
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=218837

I think the new Aura whats to check if its online on
http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt instand of the Apple URL but that don't works everytime. Someone has a locale http server that resolve the url on this device a other patches the libnickel.so . When you on your own network you can redirect the url to your own resolver.

Befor I'm making some ugly tricks I what to backup the internal SD, I don't what to brink something.

This looks like the way to go:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...62#post2851462

But I'm a bit unsure how the procedure works. Unfortunately i have no big mircosd at hand and transfering over wifi seems risky with this bug.

Can me point someone in the right direction to get a permanent root shell on this device witch is reachable over a wifi or usb ?

Right now I'm looking into this:
http://www.preining.info/blog/2014/0...-5-0-kobohack/
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=238175
http://a3nm.net/blog/fnacbook_kobo_hacking.html
http://a3nm.net/blog/kobo_glo_hacking.html

By the way is this a good cover ?
http://tuff-luv.com/catalog/product/.../category/146/

Hopefully you can help me Guys

[tshering]

Welcome waterwave! This is a real nice compilation of useful information. Unfortunately, I cannot give you an answer to any of your questions. However, I would like to ask myself a question.

Originally Posted by waterwave

Befor I'm making some ugly tricks I what to backup the internal SD, I don't what to brink something.

How do you plan to get the backed up image back on the Aura in case you brick it by your ugly tricks, since it does not have a removable internal sd?

[hawhill]

Having a backup is certainly a good idea in any case - maybe you didn't break it completely... There'll always be the serial interface, and if you're very dedicated, you might be able to interface the eMMC chip...

But to emphasize this: there is no "internal SD", not in the sense of an accessible microSD card. It's an eMMC chip (at least, I guess so, as it is a chip and eMMC is what manufacturers use nowadays).

[Lucas Malor]

Originally Posted by waterwave

Can me point someone in the right direction to get a permanent root shell on this device witch is reachable over a wifi or usb ?

You have to install KoboLauncher and use its usbnet utility. But I discourage you to use dd while nickel, KoboLauncher or dropbear are running. External sdcard + rcS modification is better IMHO.

[swamp thing]

Hello,

I am returning to the forum after a long time. I got a Kobo Touch in late 2012, and I have been using it mostly as a device for reading ebooks - always sideloading via usb and never using Wifi.

Recently I got an Android phone, so I started using WiFi to transfer web pages that I epubized via www.dotepub.com.



This worked perfectly for a few days, but now Kobo's Wifi has stopped working. (Firmware upgrading is disabled by changing /etc/hosts, so it can't be down to new fw).

The device is pingable for some time after typing the Wifi passkey, but pretty soon it says "Something went wrong" and disconnects.

Now, my version of the firmware is known to use "www.apple.com/library/test/success.html" to test the internet access. Many people have used captive servers to spoof this address and persuade kobo to stay online.

Is it possible to solve this in a simpler, definitive way? Where does the device actually store the test URL? If the string can be modified to a "file://" url instead of a "http://" url, would it work at all?

Thanks,
S. T.

[ewphoenix123]

Did you try the Wifi Insomnia patch in the kobo patcher?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=245204

Just make sure to get the right patch version for your firmware, there are other threads for older firmware version in the forum.

[swamp thing]

Originally Posted by ewphoenix123

Did you try the Wifi Insomnia patch in the kobo patcher?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=245204

Just make sure to get the right patch version for your firmware, there are other threads for older firmware version in the forum.

As I understand it, the insomnia patch is useful to keep the wifi alive after it has been successfully activated, i.e. disabling the power saving timeout of several minutes.

In my case, the wifi does not really work at all - it cuts out in 15 to 20 sec after typing the password. The only sign that something is happening is that the device is pingable during that short spell.

S. T.

[PeterT]

Just wondering.. I recently created a custom KoboRoot.tgz that just serves to overwrite the WPA supplicant configuration file on Kobos. You might want to try installing it; the only downside is you will have to reenter any WiFi credentials.

See this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=247678

[swamp thing]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Just wondering.. I recently created a custom KoboRoot.tgz that just serves to overwrite the WPA supplicant configuration file on Kobos. You might want to try installing it; the only downside is you will have to reenter any WiFi credentials.

See this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=247678

I'll try it out. Thanks.

[swamp thing]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Just wondering.. I recently created a custom KoboRoot.tgz that just serves to overwrite the WPA supplicant configuration file on Kobos. You might want to try installing it; the only downside is you will have to reenter any WiFi credentials.

See this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=247678

PeterT,

I had a look at that post. My problem is a bit different, in that I can't establish a stable connection in the first place; remembering the ssid is a hurdle that I haven't even reached at this point.

The device is able to join the wlan and get a DHCP lease, but it disconnects soon after. This is probably to do with testing against www.apple.com/libary/test/success.htm.

Anyway, I finally decided that I could achieve my original goal by turning on Wifi from a Launcher script rather than asking Nickel to do so.

Thanks,
ST

[PeterT]

Any idea why you can't access that page (and it should be http://www.apple.com/library/test/success.htm )?

[SatorArepo]

Hi,
I am sure one of you guys knows the answer:
What is the root Password for Kobo Aura HD when running usb network from KoboLauncher?? I got it all working but cannot access it via ssh (User: root, PW:????). Blank Password doesn't work.

Thanks

[Lucas Malor]

Try to run ssh with -v option and post the output.

[SatorArepo]

ssh 192.168.2.100 -v

rainer@rainer-PC:~$ ssh 192.168.2.100 -v
OpenSSH_6.6.1, OpenSSL 1.0.1f 6 Jan 2014
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to 192.168.2.100 [192.168.2.100] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/rainer/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/rainer/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/rainer/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/rainer/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/rainer/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/rainer/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/rainer/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: identity file /home/rainer/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2
debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2 pat OpenSSH_6.6.1* compat 0x04000000
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com none
debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: ECDSA 69:bf:55:aa:7f:d4:62:d7:5c:f9:e5:f8:b9:22:c9:d5
debug1: Host '192.168.2.100' is known and matches the ECDSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /home/rainer/.ssh/known_hosts:3
debug1: ssh_ecdsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: Roaming not allowed by server
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: /home/rainer/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Trying private key: /home/rainer/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Trying private key: /home/rainer/.ssh/id_ecdsa
debug1: Trying private key: /home/rainer/.ssh/id_ed25519
debug1: Next authentication method: password
rainer@192.168.2.100's password:

Hope that tells you sthg...for me it looks ok, but I never worked with usb network....

[Lucas Malor]

After you enter a blank password, it tells you "Permission denied (publickey,password)"?

If so, try the password "banana" (not joking).