The Glo HD has an internal microSD card slot

[murg]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Where's JSWolf when you need him, I wonder?

Aren't you supposed to be doing something like jumping over a lit candle three times when saying this?

[RZetlin]

Good Ereader has a video of the internal SD card.

https://youtu.be/O7FuyPwc7Iw

They tried a 16 GB SD card into the Glo HD and it didn't work.

Though there has to be a way to use a larger SD card.

[booklover6]

Ok, I didn't listen to their commentary, but did they actually clone the 4gb card and write it to a 16gb card and enlarge the partition, or did they just put a card in, and say it didn't work?

[bernard.ryefield]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Ok, I didn't listen to their commentary, but did they actually clone the 4gb card and write it to a 16gb card and enlarge the partition, or did they just put a card in, and say it didn't work?

Details are here: http://goodereader.com/blog/electron...has-an-sd-card

bottom line: still stuck with a 3GB memory

[darryl]

I just listened to the commentary. They are not at all specific, simply saying they copied the "data" to the same sandisk model sdcard in 2GB, 4GB and 16GB versions. They could not get anything but the original card to boot. They confirmed there is nothing remarkable about the Sandisk card installed in the device. This suggests to me that they have not cloned the original card, particularly the fact that they tried a 2GB card. Seems hard to believe, but perhaps they are not familar with Linux and the DD command, or any of the other available tools.

[jubuttib]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Ok, I didn't listen to their commentary, but did they actually clone the 4gb card and write it to a 16gb card and enlarge the partition, or did they just put a card in, and say it didn't work?

They said they tried extracting all the data and putting it on several other cars (2 gig, 4 gig and 16 gig) of the same make and model series from SanDisk, but none of those managed to boot it up.

Now, them saying they "extracted" the data sounds to me like they just copied the files over and didn't make a full clone of the card, so I'm betting that's what held them back. Especially if they used Windows to copy the data it's easy to miss partitions on the card. I myself have a USB memory stick that has separate partitions for data (shows up in every OS) and for running Linux straight from the stick (shows up only in Linux without using specific programs), and considering Kobos run Linux it could well be the main OS partition that they're missing.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Ok, I didn't listen to their commentary, but did they actually clone the 4gb card and write it to a 16gb card and enlarge the partition, or did they just put a card in, and say it didn't work?

Looking at the article linked by bernard.ryefield and the section quoted below:

The Kobo Glo HD does not have any internal memory, the entire operating system and proprietary Kobo files are stored on a 4 GB Sandisk SD card. We tried cloning the OS and put it on a 2 GB SD and a 16 GB SD and the e-reader failed to boot properly. We also verified that there were no hidden files preventing it from working, but all of the files are clearly visible.

My personal opinion is that they did not clone the entire uSD card but rather copied the contents of the FAT32 partition to a new uSD card without copying the Linux partitions. That procedure would not result in a bootable uSD card.

Originally Posted by DNSB

My personal opinion is that they did not clone the entire uSD card but rather copied the contents of the FAT32 partition to a new uSD card without copying the Linux partitions. That procedure would not result in a bootable uSD card.

They didn't describe what they did, so we can't really say what they did. Let's pretend that they faithfully booted Linux, recreated the partitions on a new uSD card, and copied the files over. Or let's say that they did the above, except they used an image of each partition to faithfully reproduce it. Those approaches would result in the exact same result as the one that you suggested since part of the system is outside of the partitioned space.

The only thing we can be reasonably sure of is that they did it wrong.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

The only thing we can be reasonably sure of is that they did it wrong.

I'm sure it will work, if it done correctly. No reason why it wouldn't!

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by bernard.ryefield

Details are here: http://goodereader.com/blog/electron...has-an-sd-card

bottom line: still stuck with a 3GB memory

If the the Badreader says it, it must be true

[PeterT]

Maybe we should start the BadeReader blog

[jackj]

Is there any reliability issue using an SD card instead of a chip for the os and content files? This just sounds sub-optimal for some reason--more prone to corruption. Are such concerns misplaced?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jackj

Is there any reliability issue using an SD card instead of a chip for the os and content files? This just sounds sub-optimal for some reason--more prone to corruption. Are such concerns misplaced?

Probably, but I'm not sure enough of the technology used for the two types to be really know. What I do know is that if the micro SD card fails, it can be replaced. Fixed memory can't be. And I have messed up and put the wrong firmware on my Glo. I was able to get an image and restore that to fix it.

Personally, I think the biggest danger with the separate card is from someone not knowing what they are doing. And I think we've just had a demonstration of that.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

They didn't describe what they did, so we can't really say what they did. Let's pretend that they faithfully booted Linux, recreated the partitions on a new uSD card, and copied the files over. Or let's say that they did the above, except they used an image of each partition to faithfully reproduce it. Those approaches would result in the exact same result as the one that you suggested since part of the system is outside of the partitioned space.

The only thing we can be reasonably sure of is that they did it wrong.

Other than the boot record, the only item I am aware of in the the unpartitioned space is the serial number. When I generate an image, I fill the serial number with a random set of bytes and it seems to have no ill effect.

If they copied the partitions without making the uSD card bootable, it does little to boost my opinion of their capabilities.

[darryl]

Cloning an sdcard is trivial from the linux command line with the dd command. The technique is to use dd to clone the whole original sdcard to the new sdcard which must be the same or larger with this particular approach. Cloning the partitions does not work, because it does not capture the space before the first partition, including the boot sector. This is likely what they did wrong. Once on a larger sdcard, the data partition can be safely expanded. Assume, for instance, that you have a Linux machine with the sdcard from the Kobo as /dev/sde and a new 16GB sdcard as /dev/sdf. The command to do the job can be as simple as "dd if=/dev/sde of=/dev/sdf". Of course, specifying an appropriate block size to copy would make things go faster, but the above command basically makes the 16GB sdcard a clone of the 4GB card, and it should boot. Though there is not much point in stopping there. The next step is to expand the size of the appropriate partition to actually use the full 16GB which can be done with any number of graphical and command line tools.

Finally, a caution. If you use dd, you must make sure you are specifying the right input and output disks. It is essentially creating a byte by byte copy of the input file. If you specified your primary hard drive as the output file by mistake, I would not like your chances of recovering much from it.