KoboPatch WebUI: customization (NickelMenu, KOReader) and patching via your browser

[Liesse]

Originally Posted by MrSilverstrike

[*]Allow manually customizing patches' text for easy customization; perhaps some patches can get "pre-filled" text fields... not sure how to approach this yet. This should give everyone the benefit of more manual control w/o needing to manually run kobopatch via your favorite terminal.


Cheers!

What I used to do, when I was patching regularly, was copy the custom section of the yaml file in the main folder which had the patches I wanted listed and enabled.

I had a bash with this lovely friendly tool last night. It was very user friendly, and I especially liked how it will also upgrade firmware versions for you before you patch.

I did wonder if a section where I could just copy and paste that custom bit of the yaml file and have it enable the patches I want might be possible? That might go against how user friendly it is though, and I am sure you have lots of other things you want to work on.


edit: Kobopatch.yaml is what I meant. For instance mine is:

 
overrides: 
  src/nickel.yaml:
      Reduce new header/footer height: yes
      Increase Book Details synopsis area: yes
      Show all games: yes
  src/libadobe.so.yaml:
  src/libnickel.so.1.0.0.yaml:
      Remove recommendations (row1col2) from home screen: yes
      Both page turn buttons go next: yes
      Always show confirmation dialog before upgrading: yes
      Never show Kobo Plus, wishlist, and points SmartLinks: yes

If I could just copy and paste that somewhere and have it give me a file with the patches I want without having to go through the menus, that would be grand.

[MrSilverstrike]

@Liesse: Since reapplying a set of particular patches when a new software version comes out is probably what you want to do, I'm thinking the best solution is to simply write a file to the device in a hidden folder (e.g. .kobopatch-webui/custom-patches.json) which keeps track of what patches were applied the last time.

If you reconnect your device to re-apply patches the next time, the web app could simply check that file on your device, and offer you the choice to re-apply the patches you chose last time. That's probably the most user friendly way of handling this.

Or, alternatively, also giving you the ability to drag-and-drop that yaml file, which may be useful for people who have multiple devices they want to patch the same way. Both should be possible, I think.

[rantanplan]

@MrSilverstrike
Is it possible to have the darkmode button in the brightness menu, as the gods intended?

[MrSilverstrike]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

@MrSilverstrike
Is it possible to have the darkmode button in the brightness menu, as the gods intended?

I'm afraid that isn't possible with NickelMenu, so the (...) menu is the best I can do for now.

[hamers]

Originally Posted by MrSilverstrike

Hi everyone. So, to answer your questions:

@hamers: Ideally, you should backup your existing NickelMenu config and you can copy/paste what you want to keep into the file generated by the web UI. If you already have a config, I highly recommend doing the manual process, it's easy to see what's happening that way and you can merge your existing config w/ the one downloaded via the web UI.

@JSWolf: I last updated the patches two weeks ago when the latest software update dropped. I have an automated flow that verifies which patches work with the older v4.38 and newer v4.45 releases. I see there's some new and updated patches, I'll try to add them tomorrow.

....

On the list I currently have:

• Searching for patches via filter/search bar; thanks for the suggestion above!
• Allow manually customizing patches' text for easy customization; perhaps some patches can get "pre-filled" text fields... not sure how to approach this yet. This should give everyone the benefit of more manual control w/o needing to manually run kobopatch via your favorite terminal.

Cheers!

Excellent updates thanks. A textarea prefilled with the existing patch that you can then paste in new patch code or slightly modify would be an elegant solution imo.

Re: livetype, I dont want to step on a fellow developers code but the Datatables implementation is super easy in projects Ive done and works flawlessly (and is free!). Would also have the ability to add extra columns to your current list such as date/last uploaded/etc

I am in a funny position right now because I want to test your tool from scratch but since the specific patch I want (both buttons next) hasn't been incorporated yet, I need to do kobopatch from scratch. Really great work though.

[JSWolf]

The updated patch Both page turn buttons go next has been verified to work in firmware 4.45.23697.

So it can be implemented.

[MrSilverstrike]

@JSWolf: Great, I'll add it to the list of existing patches tomorrow.

In the meantime, everyone else can try out the preview of the new version here: https://kp-dev.nicoverbruggen.be/

It has the editor for individual patches and a quick search bar, as well as other refinements and fixes for the NickelMenu flow.

I haven't done the "load previous patch set" functionality yet, but the web UI does already generate a definition file that contains the list of patches you applied.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MrSilverstrike

@JSWolf: Great, I'll add it to the list of existing patches tomorrow.

In the meantime, everyone else can try out the preview of the new version here: https://kp-dev.nicoverbruggen.be/

It has the editor for individual patches and a quick search bar, as well as other refinements and fixes for the NickelMenu flow.

I haven't done the "load previous patch set" functionality yet, but the web UI does already generate a definition file that contains the list of patches you applied.

I've had a quick look at the preview version. Looks good.

[MrSilverstrike]

@JSWolf: Happy to hear that, thanks!

I've updated the preview:

- By popular demand, NickelClock is now an optional add-on when customizing the NickelMenu preset (under Advanced).

- You can now customize the NickelMenu tab item with an image and label of your choice. I have a few preset icons but you can select your own image and it'll be used, too.

The new patches are also integrated for both versions, 4.45 and 4.38.

[sardarkar12]

This is awesome, but I"m getting an error on my Kobo Clara BW when trying the install. "NickelMenu installation failed: Failed to execute 'getFileHandle' on 'FileSystemDirectoryHandle': Name is not allowed."

I had NickelMenu installed in the past but was having some issues with lag. I used the web ui to uninstall it, went through the reboot, and got the error when reinstalling. I did a factory reset on my device and I'm still getting the error. Any ideas?

[MrSilverstrike]

Originally Posted by sardarkar12

This is awesome, but I"m getting an error on my Kobo Clara BW when trying the install. "NickelMenu installation failed: Failed to execute 'getFileHandle' on 'FileSystemDirectoryHandle': Name is not allowed."

I had NickelMenu installed in the past but was having some issues with lag. I used the web ui to uninstall it, went through the reboot, and got the error when reinstalling. I did a factory reset on my device and I'm still getting the error. Any ideas?

Hmmm... This means that some files couldn't be written because of some filesystem problem. There could be a few reasons for that. Is there anything useful in the log directory in .kobopatch-webui/logs?

Here's a couple of things you can try:

- Safely eject, unplug, reboot the Kobo, reconnect, and choose the Kobo drive root again.
- Try a different USB cable or port.
- Try Chrome or Edge on another computer if available.

Or, probably the best method: try the manual download ZIP instead of the direct write via the browser. If the manual install works (be careful to follow all instructions!), then there's a bug I may need to fix.

I also pushed a small update to https://kp-dev.nicoverbruggen.be, so try the preview version and see if that changes anything.

Please let me know if any of these helped!

[sardarkar12]

Thanks! I was able to get it to work by manually installing it.

[rantanplan]

As an idea:
Would it be possible to have an option to include NickelSeries in the process?

[MrSilverstrike]

@rantanplan: Yes, it's definitely possible to include NickelSeries.

I'm also looking into including some other mods as well (kobo-tweaks and nickel-screensaver by redphx on GitHub) that might be worth adding.

[BeansBaxter]

Thanks for putting this tool together. I got to playing around with the icon and ended up creating a simple toggle svg that you're welcome to use. I would have submitted a pull request but those are disabled for the repository.

<rect width="22" height="8" x="1" y="3.5" rx="4" fill="#111827"/><circle cx="19" cy="7.5" r="2.5" stroke="white" fill="white"/><rect width="22" height="8" x="1" y="14.5" rx="4"/><circle cx="5" cy="18.5" r="2.5" fill="#111827"/>