Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Readers > Kobo Reader > Kobo Developer's Corner

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 08-03-2019, 02:07 AM   #1
Awk
Junior Member
Awk began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 5
Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2019
Device: Kobo Touch N905B
Backing up Kobo Touch N905B firmware.

Hi I recently got a second hand Kobo Touch N905B, with it's firmware at 1.9.14 (r34837). I wish to upgrade the firmware, but before I do as a general precaution and for archival purposes, I want to create a backup of the currently installed firmware. As far as I understand it, I will need to enable telnet and such, but I wish to keep the backup as similar to the factory installation as possible. I have read through these posts:

https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Touch_Hacking
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=338

But it seems that I will need to upgrade my firmware to even enable telnet. Are there any other options to back up my firmware, while keeping the installation as close to the original as possible?

Thanks in advance.
Awk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2019, 02:55 AM   #2
davidfor
Grand Sorcerer
davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 24,908
Karma: 47303748
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
Personally, I wouldn't bother. The factory reset process will restore the firmware if you need to. If you need more than that, take the internal card out and take an image of it. Then you can restore the image if needed.
davidfor is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 08-03-2019, 03:01 AM   #3
Awk
Junior Member
Awk began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 5
Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2019
Device: Kobo Touch N905B
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor View Post
Personally, I wouldn't bother. The factory reset process will restore the firmware if you need to. If you need more than that, take the internal card out and take an image of it. Then you can restore the image if needed.
I assumed the factory reset will revert to the latest update? Also I don't think the Kobo Touch N905B has an internal SD card.
Awk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2019, 03:12 AM   #4
davidfor
Grand Sorcerer
davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 24,908
Karma: 47303748
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
Quote:
Originally Posted by Awk View Post
I assumed the factory reset will revert to the latest update? Also I don't think the Kobo Touch N905B has an internal SD card.
There are a few ways to do a factory reset. Until recently, all of them did exactly that: Reset the device to the out of the factory state. That included restoring the firmware to what was on the device then and starting the setup process.

The Touch N905B definitely has an internal SD card. If the device you have doesn't, then it is probably the N905.
davidfor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2019, 03:16 AM   #5
Awk
Junior Member
Awk began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 5
Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2019
Device: Kobo Touch N905B
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor View Post
There are a few ways to do a factory reset. Until recently, all of them did exactly that: Reset the device to the out of the factory state. That included restoring the firmware to what was on the device then and starting the setup process.

The Touch N905B definitely has an internal SD card. If the device you have doesn't, then it is probably the N905.
I see, I'll try get an image of the internal SD card. Then I'll try upgrading then factory resetting if all goes well. Thanks.
Awk is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 08-03-2019, 04:33 AM   #6
Awk
Junior Member
Awk began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 5
Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2019
Device: Kobo Touch N905B
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor View Post
There are a few ways to do a factory reset. Until recently, all of them did exactly that: Reset the device to the out of the factory state. That included restoring the firmware to what was on the device then and starting the setup process.

The Touch N905B definitely has an internal SD card. If the device you have doesn't, then it is probably the N905.
Yup, you were right! I've updated it and factory resetting doesn't revert it to the original version. Glad I've made a backup of the SD Card, otherwise I wouldn't be able to downgrade. Nonetheless thanks for the help!
Awk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2019, 06:06 AM   #7
davidfor
Grand Sorcerer
davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 24,908
Karma: 47303748
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
Quote:
Originally Posted by Awk View Post
Yup, you were right! I've updated it and factory resetting doesn't revert it to the original version. Glad I've made a backup of the SD Card, otherwise I wouldn't be able to downgrade. Nonetheless thanks for the help!
How did you do the factory reset? From the Device info page recently changed to new reset the firmware. That changes with, I think, firmware version 4.15.x. If you used the manual method, it should still completely reset the device.

Last edited by davidfor; 08-09-2019 at 02:48 AM. Reason: change "net reset" to "new reset".
davidfor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2019, 09:24 AM   #8
geek1011
Wizard
geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.geek1011 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 2,700
Karma: 6254413
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Ontario, Canada
Device: Kobo Mini, Aura Edition 2 v1, Clara HD
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor View Post
How did you do the factory reset? From the Device info page recently changed to net reset the firmware. That changes with, I think, firmware version 4.15.x. If you used the manual method, it should still completely reset the device.
The new reset option in the Developer Options section might do a full reset. I will have a look at the firmware later today.

Update 1: So, for the strings, there are a whole new set of rm commands which are more specific than rm -rf /mnt/onboard/.kobo. There are also 3 strings: "Signing out...", "Resetting device...", and "Factory resetting...".

Update 2: During the new partial reset, it runs mkfs.vfat on the KOBOeReader partition now to reformat it completely. It also removes the external storage directory recursively.

Update 3: The full reset remains the same (it triggers it to have it done through the recovery firmware).

Update 4: The sign out remains the same (removes .kobo, .kobo-images, .adobe-digital-editions, koboExtStorage, but not the sideloaded books).

Update 5 (the last one): The Developer Options reset does trigger the full reset unlike the Device Information one. Also, a bit off topic, but sickel can be enabled/disabled over DBus (com.kobo.watchdog.Sickel/Suspend) (this might interest @NiLuJe). You can also ping sickel with com.kobo.watchdog.Sickel/Ping.

Last edited by geek1011; 08-03-2019 at 10:13 AM.
geek1011 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2019, 10:44 AM   #9
davidfor
Grand Sorcerer
davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 24,908
Karma: 47303748
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
Quote:
Originally Posted by geek1011 View Post
The new reset option in the Developer Options section might do a full reset. I will have a look at the firmware later today.

Update 1: So, for the strings, there are a whole new set of rm commands which are more specific than rm -rf /mnt/onboard/.kobo. There are also 3 strings: "Signing out...", "Resetting device...", and "Factory resetting...".

Update 2: During the new partial reset, it runs mkfs.vfat on the KOBOeReader partition now to reformat it completely. It also removes the external storage directory recursively.

Update 3: The full reset remains the same (it triggers it to have it done through the recovery firmware).

Update 4: The sign out remains the same (removes .kobo, .kobo-images, .adobe-digital-editions, koboExtStorage, but not the sideloaded books).

Update 5 (the last one): The Developer Options reset does trigger the full reset unlike the Device Information one. Also, a bit off topic, but sickel can be enabled/disabled over DBus (com.kobo.watchdog.Sickel/Suspend) (this might interest @NiLuJe). You can also ping sickel with com.kobo.watchdog.Sickel/Ping.
I probably shouldn't have used "should" in my post. I have tested each of the different methods since I noticed the change, though not on all devices.
davidfor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-09-2019, 01:12 AM   #10
Awk
Junior Member
Awk began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 5
Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2019
Device: Kobo Touch N905B
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor View Post
How did you do the factory reset? From the Device info page recently changed to net reset the firmware. That changes with, I think, firmware version 4.15.x. If you used the manual method, it should still completely reset the device.
So I installed 4.15.x manually, and did Factory reset from Device info page. I didn't see any net reset the firmware. But I'll check again later.

Quote:
Originally Posted by geek1011 View Post
The new reset option in the Developer Options section might do a full reset. I will have a look at the firmware later today.

Update 1: So, for the strings, there are a whole new set of rm commands which are more specific than rm -rf /mnt/onboard/.kobo. There are also 3 strings: "Signing out...", "Resetting device...", and "Factory resetting...".

Update 2: During the new partial reset, it runs mkfs.vfat on the KOBOeReader partition now to reformat it completely. It also removes the external storage directory recursively.

Update 3: The full reset remains the same (it triggers it to have it done through the recovery firmware).

Update 4: The sign out remains the same (removes .kobo, .kobo-images, .adobe-digital-editions, koboExtStorage, but not the sideloaded books).

Update 5 (the last one): The Developer Options reset does trigger the full reset unlike the Device Information one. Also, a bit off topic, but sickel can be enabled/disabled over DBus (com.kobo.watchdog.Sickel/Suspend) (this might interest @NiLuJe). You can also ping sickel with com.kobo.watchdog.Sickel/Ping.
I haven't seen any developer options, but I might check it out when I update it again.
Awk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-09-2019, 03:59 AM   #11
davidfor
Grand Sorcerer
davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 24,908
Karma: 47303748
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
Quote:
Originally Posted by Awk View Post
So I installed 4.15.x manually, and did Factory reset from Device info page. I didn't see any net reset the firmware. But I'll check again later.
That should have been "new reset". And it probably should have been "changed factory reset". The factory reset option on the Device info page hasn't changed. Until you use it. The prompt is now:

Code:
All books, documents and custom settings will be deleted from this device.
Your software version will remain up to date.
Previously it was:

Code:
Resetting your eReader to its factory default state erases your books, documents and custom settings.
Both end up wiping the book partition and starting the setup process. But, the older version would wipe the root partition and install the factory firmware from the recovery partition.
Quote:
I haven't seen any developer options, but I might check it out when I update it again.
This is enabled via an option in the config file or typing "devmodeon" in the search screen. It adds "Developer options" link to the bottom of the Device information page of the settings. This has various options including a factory reset. That factory reset is the same as that available in previous firmware versions from the Device information page and is the same as the manual factory reset.
davidfor is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
K5 Backing Kindle Touch up before upgrading firmware vedg Kindle Developer's Corner 12 03-23-2019 10:36 PM
Touch Best firmware for Kobo Touch N905B prior to 3.17/3.18? Spheres Kobo Reader 3 07-13-2017 11:26 AM
N905B Kobo touch internal SD JackED42 Kobo Developer's Corner 1 09-21-2016 06:09 PM
Kobo Touch N905B annotation support bnhershy Kobo Reader 2 08-17-2016 11:17 PM
Touch Which firmware version for N905B model jusmee Kobo Developer's Corner 2 04-21-2015 06:47 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:29 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.