Firmware 4.38.23852 & 4.46.23852 have been released

[DNSB]

Kobo has released firmware 4.38.23852 & 4.46.23852 for all Kobo touch ereaders other than the Mini.

As usual, the What's new notes are a bit vague. Buying books from the device has had some issues with payment verification fixed, unnamed security updates and a mention of StoryGraph.

[JSWolf]

Does anyone have any idea what's new in this firmware other then the release notes?

[xyclonei]

I've updated my device to the new version (4.38.23852) and I don't see any obvious changes. Perhaps they're all under the hood?

Also, all patches from the previous version seem to work without any issues as well.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by xyclonei

I've updated my device to the new version (4.38.23852) and I don't see any obvious changes. Perhaps they're all under the hood?

Also, all patches from the previous version seem to work without any issues as well.

I'm working on the new set of patches for the new 4.38 version.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by xyclonei

I've updated my device to the new version (4.38.23852) and I don't see any obvious changes. Perhaps they're all under the hood?

Also, all patches from the previous version seem to work without any issues as well.

According to a Kobo contact, it's pretty much all security issues that were patched in this update.

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by DNSB

According to a Kobo contact, it's pretty much all security issues that were patched in this update.

Maybe because of a SSL certificate? 😜

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

According to a Kobo contact, it's pretty much all security issues that were patched in this update.

Thanks. I'm considering updating since I'm on an older firmware.

[Toto123]

Hi all,

After updating to 4.38.23852, my two Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 are no longer detected over USB by my Linux PC. Has anyone else seen this?

Devices:
- 2x Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 (USB ID 2237:4227), hardware revision [v1/v2]
- Firmware: 4.38.23852 on both (updated over Wi-Fi after Oct 30)

Computer:
- Debian 12.15, kernel 6.1.0-34-amd64
- Same PC, same USB port and same cable as before (3 cables tested)

Symptoms:
- When plugged in, the Kobo shows the usual "Computer detected" dialog (charge / connect), so it does detect a USB host.
- After tapping "Connect", the Kobo screen shows: [describe]
- On the PC side there is nothing at all: no event in "journalctl -kf" (not even an enumeration error), nothing in lsusb, no block device in lsblk.
- So this is not a Calibre or mount issue: the device never enumerates.

History (from the persistent kernel journal):
- Both readers were detected without any problem for over a year, through successive 4.38.23xxx releases. Each time the kernel showed "New USB device found, idVendor=2237, idProduct=4227" followed by "scsi ... Kobo eReader-4.38.23x".
- Last successful connection: Oct 21, with firmware 4.38.238xx (truncated in the SCSI string, most likely 4.38.23828).
- Since the 4.38.23852 update: nothing, on both devices.

Both devices stopped being detected at the same time, right after the same update, so I suspect the firmware rather than hardware.

Has anyone else lost USB mass storage after 4.38.23852, on an Aura H2O Ed. 2 or another model? Is there any way to restore USB without a factory reset?

Thanks!

[enuddleyarbl]

I've got 2 Sages with the same firmware and they both connect to my Bazzite (KDE Desktop) linux machine. One of them did factory reset when the new firmware came in. But, they do connect to Calibre on this computer.

EDIT: It looks like your Debian 12.15 came out in July 2026. So, not old at all and I wouldn't expect that to be the problem.

[JSWolf]

@Toto123 have you tried a different OS, different USB cable, different USB port, different computer?