Kobo insiders beta

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I asked. It seems they have configured the people on the Insiders list to not need this. There should be an email coming out about what is happening.

Meant to reply earlier, they asked for the account email and device serial both of which I assume are sent when the device syncs. So they wouldn’t need anything on the users side in order to flag them for the beta, and which also prevents people from getting the beta who Kobo hasn’t approved for it.

Though I suppose I could download the update but opt not to install it then plug my kobo in and grab the update files. Not that there’s much point since I can’t see anyone updating patches for beta firmware, and while I don’t have any issues talking about being in the beta program due to no NDA, I do draw the line at distributing the beta since that’s well outside a common sense agreement in being in said program.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Meant to reply earlier, they asked for the account email and device serial both of which I assume are sent when the device syncs. So they wouldn’t need anything on the users side in order to flag them for the beta, and which also prevents people from getting the beta who Kobo hasn’t approved for it.

The update check doesn't use the email address. It uses a model number, the current firmware version, the affiliate and the serial number. The affiliate is probably being ignored for previews. The serial number is the important bit here.

Though I suppose I could download the update but opt not to install it then plug my kobo in and grab the update files. Not that there’s much point since I can’t see anyone updating patches for beta firmware, and while I don’t have any issues talking about being in the beta program due to no NDA, I do draw the line at distributing the beta since that’s well outside a common sense agreement in being in said program.

But, any time a sync is done, it will check for the update and download it. If you don't have WiFi on, then you won't see it, but, if you do it will be a pain.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Though I suppose I could download the update but opt not to install it then plug my kobo in and grab the update files. Not that there’s much point since I can’t see anyone updating patches for beta firmware

Unless there's major changes, all patches other than "Remove forgot pin button from lock screen", "Customize ComfortLight settings", "New home screen subtitle custom font", and "Set font scale factor" should continue to work fine. Any patch which applies successfully should work.

If anyone wants to update those patches themselves, the first and third one should be able to be matched against the old offsets with qrc (the offsets are in r1, r2, and r3 in the qInitResources functions in nickel) (cssextract is easier if you remember the correct order for the duplicated ones). The second one's first offset can be found by looking for the reference to QTime:QTime(int, int, int, int) from an unnamed function. The last one can be found by looking to references to getReadingFontScaleFactor, then taking the address of the vmov 15.0 instruction plus two for each reference.

[JSWolf]

But the idea is to test the beta firmware. That means testing the firmware as is without any patches. So patching the beta firmware is not a good idea as it's not allowing proper testing.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But the idea is to test the beta firmware. That means testing the firmware as is without any patches. So patching the beta firmware is not a good idea as it's not allowing proper testing.

I’d wager anyone who is both in the beta, and can apply the patches also would recognize that they need to test without the patch before submitting feedback to Kobo.