I am willing to help with the calibre kobo driver

[chaley]

First, I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in the calibre devices forum. I decided to try here first. Mods, feel free to move it.

I am willing to help maintain the calibre kobo driver. I understand the calibre device driver architecture. I have a fair understanding of the built-in calibre kobo driver, having hacked it to do some things I wanted. I understand sqlite databases. Releasing changes isn't a problem.

However, what I don't know is important. I don't know how to check if firmware changes require driver changes, including database schema changes. I know nothing of "nickel".

Thus, for me to be of help I need to work with someone who knows the stuff I don't know. Does such a person exist? Does this person already have things under control?

If this is a non-problem then fine. I have other ways of spending my time.

[rtiangha]

You should get into contact with PeterT as he's also volunteered to help with maintaining the Kobo the driver but is also trying to reverse engineer what davidfor did.

From my (limited) understanding from looking at the code (and I'm sure people will correct me if I'm wrong; please do!), when new devices enter the market, entries for its Product ID needs to be entered into the driver so Calibre can recognize it. This can be gotten from looking at the firmware, but if you want Calibre to support it on Day 1 release, that'll only work if you get access to pre-release firmware (ex. You're a Kobo Beta Tester), or if you ask Kobo really, really nicely.

Next, each device has a minimum firmware version, which I think is the version it ships with (because it may be a device specific version not released to the public) which you'd need to input. This is so the device can work out of the box with Calibre, even if there is no upgrade available at time of release.

In terms of database schema changes in between firmware releases, the driver would need to be changed to deal with them, and the database version number would need to be incremented. To figure out what changed, you'd need to look at the database that gets shipped with (or upgraded by) that firmware version. I think davidfor was able to keep on top of that because being a beta tester, he had access to pre-release firmware and could peek at the accompanying database files to see if anything changed (of course, in order to keep confidentiality, he'd only commit code changes after a new device or firmware was officially released, which is why Calibre support sometimes lags behind by a few days).

Finally, the Max Firmware value would be updated once new firmware was released and verified that everything was still working (was more important in the beginning when database schema changes were more frequent; less important today as the db rarely changes which is why it's (usually) safe to check the Unsupported Firmware option while waiting for Calibre to catch up).

That's about all I could glean by looking at the driver code and the commit history to see what davidfor did whenever new firmware or devices came out. But while I'm a computer scientist by degree, I'm not a strong coder so I'll leave this stuff to people who better know what they're doing, with my sincere gratitude and appreciation that they're picking up the mantle.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by rtiangha

You should get into contact with PeterT as he's also volunteered to help with maintaining the Kobo the driver but is also trying to reverse engineer what davidfor did.

Thanks much. I will do that. And I am glad that @PeterT is picking up the ball.

The driver is based on the Sony PRS driver that I (mostly) wrote some 10 years ago. There is a lot of stuff in it that doesn't make sense for the kobo, for example the code around collection sort values. Perhaps I can help explain some of it. I can also help explain the collection template stuff that @davidfor added, as I did some of the early versions.

[Cactus Chef]

I've glanced at the code, too, and sometimes it seems like adding "support" is just a matter of bumping up a few values here and there. What's not clear to me is where those magic hex values come from for the DEVICE_PRODUCT_ID. Is that coming from the manufacturer, or something generated by the driver to keep track of the unique devices?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I've glanced at the code, too, and sometimes it seems like adding "support" is just a matter of bumping up a few values here and there. What's not clear to me is where those magic hex values come from for the DEVICE_PRODUCT_ID. Is that coming from the manufacturer, or something generated by the driver to keep track of the unique devices?

The device USB ids come from the manufacturer. You can easily get them for a new device using calibre's "Get information to setup the user defined device" dialog (Preferences / Miscellaneous). It asks you to unplug the device (if needed), then plug it in. It displays the USB ids that appeared. These ids get added to the appropriate driver. For example, going through the process using my Pixel 6 I get:

USB Vendor ID (in hex): 0x18d1
USB Product ID (in hex): 0x4ee1
USB Revision ID (in hex): 0x510

One problem: sometimes manufacturers just make up the ids instead of getting them "officially". We have seen conflicts where a device appears as something else. Fortunately this doesn't often happen, and AFAIK never happens with quality companies.

Another problem: sometimes the new devices don't quite act the same as the previous ones. This is why the KOBOTOUCH driver lists the ids one by one; it can do different things depending on them.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by rtiangha

You should get into contact with PeterT as he's also volunteered to help with maintaining the Kobo the driver but is also trying to reverse engineer what davidfor did.

I hate to ask this, but did something happen to davidfor? I've been away from the forums for a month or so. I can't see a forum post about it here or in Kobo dev. Could somebody share a link? Thanks.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I hate to ask this, but did something happen to davidfor? I've been away from the forums for a month or so. I can't see a forum post about it here or in Kobo dev. Could somebody share a link? Thanks.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=348925

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=348925

Thank you. I feared the worst when I read that PeterT was trying to reverse engineer the plugin. I'm sad for David's passing.

Did David also code Obok? I always assumed that he did because the Kobo driver and Obok were distributed together.

I haven't been a programmer for a long time, and I'm far too rusty to offer any help. All I can do is offer my encouragement. PeterT has a tough road ahead of him. I hope that he, and possibly Chaley, the best of success with this venture.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Cootey

Did David also code Obok? I always assumed that he did because the Kobo driver and Obok were distributed together.

Davidfor was involved with creating the Obok DRM removal for Kobo ebooks plugin but it was never distributed with the Kobo driver. It was and is available as a part of the DeDRM plugin packages.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Davidfor was involved with creating the Obok DRM removal for Kobo ebooks plugin but it was never distributed with the Kobo driver. It was and is available as a part of the DeDRM plugin packages.

Ah, thanks for the correction. It’s been a long time since I installed the DeDRM plugin packages. That’s exactly why I thought they were distributed together.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by chaley

The device USB ids come from the manufacturer. You can easily get them for a new device using calibre's "Get information to setup the user defined device" dialog (Preferences / Miscellaneous). It asks you to unplug the device (if needed), then plug it in. It displays the USB ids that appeared.

Neat trick. I did not knew this.
For more information about genuine Vendor IDs, look here

My Kobo provides:

USB Vendor ID (in hex): 0x2237

0x2237 translates to 8759 (decimal) which according the above mentioned list belongs indeed to Kobo Inc.

Originally Posted by chaley

One problem: sometimes manufacturers just make up the ids instead of getting them "officially". We have seen conflicts where a device appears as something else. Fortunately this doesn't often happen, and AFAIK never happens with quality companies.

That also applies to USB cables (E-markers) in which Vendor IDs regularly identify themselves as 0x0000 indicating they are not genuine. Using the list above you can see whether obtained USB cables are indeed "official" ones.