Preventing Wi-Fi firmware updating

[tshering]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Kobo initial release of any firmware is to a small group. I believe it is to one of their partners or affiliates. Knowing who that was and maybe a matching serial number would mean you could jump the queue.

And I just remembered something. When the above was first mentioned in the beta group, something was said that suggested that the partner chosen was local to them. I wondered if that was to make it easier for them to get a device that didn't upgrade properly to look at what happened.

Thank you for the clarification!

[Caramon77]

Just "bricked" my glo with https://api.kobobooks.com/1.0/Upgrad.../N905xxxxxxxxx

Factory reset was the only solution

Now i'll try different codes.

[jgoguen]

What did you do with that link? The firmware version you have in the link (9.9.0) should be saying there's no upgrade link available.

[PeterT]

@Caramon77; I'm not sure if I see the point of randomly trying codes. You can see ALL the known f/w versions in the thread Direct Links to Kobo Firmware.

The only reason people are discussing this link https://api.kobobooks.com/1.0/Upgrad...%1/%2/%3/%4/%5 (and the variant YOU tried) was looking for a means to speed up the determination of the availability of upgrades.

[Caramon77]

I am trying to avoid future upgrades. I tryed https://api.kobobooks.com/1.0/Upgrad...%1/%2/%3/9.9/N

with no luck. Factory reset...

[Caramon77]

Originally Posted by PeterT

The only reason people are discussing this link was looking for a means to speed up the determination of the availability of upgrades.

What? The thread is called "preventing upgrades"!

[PeterT]

BUT BUT BUT.... What on EARTH did you do with that URL?

No information has been supplied here on how to PATCH your device to use this URL.

[Caramon77]

anyway i did. And maybe i succeeded. Now i have to wait for the next firmware to know it :-)

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by Caramon77

I am trying to avoid future upgrades. I tryed https://api.kobobooks.com/1.0/Upgrad...%1/%2/%3/9.9/N

with no luck. Factory reset...

The url is the one that the Kobo software on your device uses during its sync process to check if an update is being fielded for the device, as the variables describe it. The %4 variable (the one you have replaced the variable with "9.9") has been described as the current firmware on your device. The point of replacing the variable with 9.9 is that it would be a higher number than any FW release Kobo is likely to push out. https is not ftp and I would think that the "UpgradeCheck" program on the server could'nt initiate a download process without some handshake protocol, to the device. Your PC would not be what it would be setup to download to.

Then there is the variable that references the "affiliation" of the device, it is assumed that there is a requirement that this variable match an entry on a list of current affiliates to receive updates. If there is no validity check on the variable then you could use anything that would not appear on the list Kobo made, and prevent the "upgrade" requirement from interfering with your sync.
If there is a requirement that the variable be one on a list, then for the AuraHD at least, there is "Rakuten" as an affiliate that is not currently receiving upgrades. You can change this variable by changing the entry in .kobo/affiliate.conf from; "affiliate=KoboDirect" to; "affiliate=Rakuten" or whatever you want , if there is no validity check.

Luck;
Ken

[Cecell3000]

changed to "affiliate=fnac" and my koboglo updated to 3.2.0

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Cecell3000

changed to "affiliate=fnac" and my koboglo updated to 3.2.0

fnac, whsmith, mondadori are (among) the happy ones.

[jgoguen]

Just trying to be sure... Do these non-Kobo affiliations get any different firmware, or is it just that the device displays sometimes different things in the UI for non-Kobo affiliations?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by jgoguen

Just trying to be sure... Do these non-Kobo affiliations get any different firmware, or is it just that the device displays sometimes different things in the UI for non-Kobo affiliations?

It looks like they get all the same FW. You can check this with your web browser. We can not compare 3.2.0, since it is not available for Kobo (unless perhaps you have a special serial number). The mini is the only one which still gets 2.6.2. And the download link is the same with kobo and fnac.

[Cecell3000]

teste prevent firmware update

# Firmware 3.1.1 (761b066420)

<Patch>
patch_name = `prevent firmware update`
patch_enable = `yes`
# alternative 1
#change `5.0.0` , `99.10` , `999.9` or similar
replace_string = 01105C10, `3.1.1`, `99.10`
# alternative 2
#replace_string = 01106BB0, `https://api.kobobooks.com/1.0/UpgradeCheck/%1/%2/%3/%4/%5`, `https://api.kobobooks.com/1.0/UpgradeCheck/%1/%2/%3/9.9/N`
# alternative 3
#replace_string = 01106BB0, `https://api.kobobooks.com/1.0/UpgradeCheck/%1/%2/%3/%4/%5`, `https://api.kobobooks.com/1.0/UpgradeCheck/%1/%2/k/99.9/N`
</Patch>

I tested and it's working ...

but question:
this code can cause problems with account kobo (blacklist) or device serial number ??

sorry English (using google translator)

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Cecell3000

I tested and it's working ...

but question:
this code can cause problems with account kobo (blacklist) or device serial number ??

They can cause your problems, but I am not sure they are interested in doing so.
With alternative one, you send a fake version number together with your real device serial number. Therefore, this is very easy to detect. With alternative two and three, they have at least to investigate the server logs a little bit more.
With alternative one, there might be another problem. This version number might be used for the actual sync, and for the sync it might be important that the real version number is know, because of changing database format or something like that.