Instructions for patching firmware 4.3.8945

[GeoffR]

See the FirmWare 4.3.8945 discussion thread for information about what has changed in this firmware version.

See the Index to the Metazoa firmware patches thread for a description of what some of these patches do.


Before starting:

1. Make sure your Kobo ereader is already running firmware version 4.3.8945 (14b5a0d83e). If not, then you need to upgrade before applying this patch.

2. Check that your battery is well charged.


Patching from Windows, Linux (i386/x86_64), or Mac (OS X 10.8-10.9, i386/x86_64):

1. Download and extract patch_kobo_4038945.zip (attached).

2. Download the Kobo firmware archive version 4.3.8945 for your device (See this thread) and copy it into the 4.3.8945_source/ subdirectory. (Don't unzip the firmware.)

3. Read and edit all the *.patch files in the 4.3.8945_source/ subdirectory in order to: choose which patches to enable (patch_enable=`yes`) or disable (patch_enable=`no`); and to change some of the replacement values to suit your device and preferences.

4. In Windows double-click 4.3.8945.bat; For Linux/Mac open a terminal, change to the patch_kobo_4038945/ subdirectory, and run ./4.3.8945.sh from the command line.

5. If there were no errors, copy the resulting KoboRoot.tgz from the 4.3.8945_target/ subdirectory to the .kobo directory on your ereader.

6. Safely eject and unplug the device, which will then update and restart.


To return your ereader to its original unpatched state:

1. Edit all the 4.3.8945_source/*.patch files to disable all patches (set patch_enable = `no` for every patch).

2. Repeat steps 4-6 of the procedure above.


Note that the following patches are enabled by default:

`Fix page breaks bug`
`Default ePub monospace font (Courier)`
`Custom left & right margins`
`Custom page refresh options`
`Fix three KePub fullScreenReading bugs`

[Terisa de morgan]

Thank you, Geoff!

[GeoffR]

Notes:

Be extra careful checking the version number of the firmware your device is running. There have been a lot of different 4.3 versions released, and the version number on the device must match exactly with the version number used for patching.


Other patches:

Here is a `Keyboard template` patch for the Aura One. (Paste into libnickel.so.1.0.0.patch. You'll need to fill in the replacement values with the keys you want according to the pattern in the comments.)

Spoiler:

<Patch>
patch_name = `Keyboard template (Aura One)`
patch_enable = `yes`
# patch_group = `Keyboard alternatives`
#
## Replaces keys on the Extended Latin keypad.
#
# Aura One keyboard layout:
#
# Row:  Position
# ---:-----------
# Top: 0123456789
# 2nd: 0123456789
# 3rd: 0123456789
# Bot:  12345678
#  
# Untested: Enable uppercase for `ß` key (Top row, pos 7)
#replace_bytes = 74D984, 00 26, 01 26
#
# Replace layout sign (Cyrillic example)
find_base_address = `ÉÀÇ`
replace_string = 0000, `ÉÀÇ`, `абв`
# Change keyboard layout
find_base_address = `š\0ž\0þ\0ŀ\0`
# Top row, pos 2-3
replace_string = 0000, `š`, `2`
replace_string = 0003, `ž`, `3`
# Top row, pos 6
replace_string = 0006, `þ`, `6`
# Top row, pos 9
replace_string = 0009, `ŀ`, `9`
#
find_base_address = `æ\0à\0è\0ì\0`
# Top row, pos 0-1
replace_string = 0021, `ý`, `0`
replace_string = 0045, `ÿ`, `1`
# Top row, pos 4-5
replace_string = 0000, `æ`, `4`
replace_string = 0024, `œ`, `5`
# Top row, pos 7-8
replace_string = 0054, `ß`, `7`
replace_string = 0060, `ij`, `8`
# Second row, left to right:
replace_string = 0003, `à`, `0`
replace_string = 0012, `á`, `1`
replace_string = 0027, `â`, `2`
replace_string = 0036, `ä`, `3`
replace_string = 0048, `ã`, `4`
replace_string = 0051, `å`, `5`
replace_string = 0006, `è`, `6`
replace_string = 0015, `é`, `7`
replace_string = 002A, `ê`, `8`
replace_string = 0039, `ë`, `9`
# Third row, left to right:
replace_string = 000C, `ò`, `0`
replace_string = 001B, `ó`, `1`
replace_string = 0030, `ô`, `2`
replace_string = 003F, `ö`, `3`
replace_string = 004E, `õ`, `4`
replace_string = 005D, `ø`, `5`
replace_string = 0009, `ì`, `6`
replace_string = 0018, `í`, `7`
replace_string = 002D, `î`, `8`
replace_string = 003C, `ï`, `9`
# Bottom row, left to right:
replace_string = 000F, `ù`, `1`
replace_string = 001E, `ú`, `2`
replace_string = 0033, `û`, `3`
replace_string = 0042, `ü`, `4`
replace_string = 004B, `ñ`, `5`
replace_string = 0057, `ç`, `6`
replace_string = 005A, `đ`, `7`
replace_string = 0063, `ł`, `8`
</Patch>

If anyone else has patches for firmware 4.3.8945 post them in this thread and I'll include a link here.

[Martina Schein]

GeoffR, you're the greatest. Thanks for the quick creation of the patcher for this new firmware.

The patcher works fine on my H2O. Our Glo HD and the Glo update I also equal.

[GlenRunciter]

GeoffR aka Speedy Gonzales
Great work Dude!

[Daniel650]

I updated from 3.19.5761 to 4.3.8945.
One of my main reasons for patching the firmware disappeared - the Disaple reading footer patch.
Will it be included in future firmware patches again or do I have to downgrade back to 3.19.5761?

[oren64]

Originally Posted by Daniel650

I updated from 3.19.5761 to 4.3.8945.
One of my main reasons for patching the firmware disappeared - the Disaple reading footer patch.
Will it be included in future firmware patches again or do I have to downgrade back to 3.19.5761?

The patches `Disable reading footer` and `Custom reading footer style` moved to nickel.patch file.

[Daniel650]

Originally Posted by oren64

The patches `Disable reading footer` and `Custom reading footer style` moved to nickel.patch file.

Thank you very much! Never recognized this one before.

[bluesorella]

Thanks a lot GeoffR! As quick as possible, working fine.

[Ksquared]

As usual, I am impressed with the patches and with how quickly they are updated after a firmware release.

If one is interested in learning more about how the patches work and seeing firmware, how should I get started? Are there some tools available in the developers forums?

Thanks - Ken

[pablitoclav]

Good work, man! Super fast!
There's any patch to put the cover in fullscreen on the screensaver (without the black strips on the side)?

Sorry my english

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Ksquared

If one is interested in learning more about how the patches work and seeing firmware, how should I get started? Are there some tools available in the developers forums?

It is hard to know where to start really, if you don't know C/C++ and some variety of assembly language then there could be a lot to learn to get a real understanding how some of the more complicated patches work.

The basic tools to use are a hex editor for viewing data, and a disassembler for viewing code. You can look at the data/code before and after the patch has been applied to see exactly what it has done.

There is also another approach, using a debugger to watch the firmware live as it runs, but I am not familliar with how to do that.

I am using Linux, I use hexl-mode in Emacs as a hex editor and objdump from the binutils-multiarch package as a disassembler, mainly because that is what I am used to using for programming, but there are probbaly lots of other tools that will do a similar job.

I mainly used sites such as ARM assembler guide guide to learn about ARM assembly language.

If you want to start a thread to ask questions about particular subjects then I'd be happy answer them as best I can.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by pablitoclav

There's any patch to put the cover in fullscreen on the screensaver (without the black strips on the side)?

There is no patch for that, but it is easy to do if you sideload your books with Calibre. Configure the KoboTouch driver, tick the "Upload covers" box, and untick the "Keep cover aspect ratio" box. Then Calibre will send a cover image that is stretched to fit the screen of your device. You can use the KoboUtilities plugin to re-send covers for books that are already on the device, but you will probably need to restart the device for them to show up.

(You can also do the same for books synced from Kobo if you have a copy of the book in Calibre, but with recent firmware versions Kobo have been reloading covers and other metadata from the server and overwriting the custom covers and metadata set from Calibre.)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pablitoclav

Good work, man! Super fast!
There's any patch to put the cover in fullscreen on the screensaver (without the black strips on the side)?

Sorry my english

If you do stretch the cover to fully fill the screen, it will look off because the aspect ratio will be off. You are best to leave the cover as is so it will look proper.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by pablitoclav

There's any patch to put the cover in fullscreen on the screensaver (without the black strips on the side)?

As well as sending the covers from calibre, you can make sure the covers are generated as you want. For an epub, the device renders the first page and uses that. The stripes on the side come from that. If the cover image fills the screen, there won't be an stripes.

For sideloaded kepubs, the image in the book that is marked as the cover is used. If it has the same aspect ratio as the screen, there won't be any stripes on the side.