Some questions from a newcomer

[sumdog]

Hi! I am new to the world of e-readers, I study computer science, so you can speak in a "technical" way if you want, I was wondering only one thing ... what exactly do the patches entail? why should you do it? do I need to activate developer mode to install them? Is this mode safe, or does it expose sensitive data contained in the e-reader to the network (if there are any)? Do I need to remove the SD card from the reader in order to install the patch? (I don't think since currently if I'm not mistaken it is possible to remove it only from Clara HD)
Is there a well done post with a list of all the mods? Or do you have to go crazy looking for them and looking for the right versions in the forum?

[ps67]

They are modifies to the Kobo firmware, They consent a better customization of it, They are maintained by @geek1011 which created Kobopatch and @jackie_w. When other persons help them @geek1011 gives the credit of their work.

This is a link to a post in which is explained what patches are.

Originally Posted by PeterT

Patches are exactly that. They replace existing bytes in programs by other bytes. They can't make the programs any larger than they are.

The skill of creating patches is in decompiling the programs, not back to their original language (which was probably C or C++) but to assembly language, and then seeing how to affect the functionality by changing the assembly code and then replacing the original bytes (the op codes) by different opcodes.

Some patches are to the data; strings of characters which in somes cases are stored in compressed format in the compiled modules



Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

To know what patches do see the actual patches files in the src folder in Kobopatch. In commented lines there is a brief but generally exhaustive description of what the patch changes. The devmodeon is not required, it is a function of standard firmware and it is not correlated with patch. Be careful that the version of the firmware must be the same of the version of the patches. Find the thread of Kobopatch of the firmware You have.

I don't think that patching could influence the exposition of sensitive data contained in the e-reader to the network. And You don't need to remove anything, only see the Kobopatch instruction, it is very simple expecially if You study computer science.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by sumdog

Hi! I am new to the world of e-readers, I study computer science, so you can speak in a "technical" way if you want, I was wondering only one thing ... what exactly do the patches entail? why should you do it? do I need to activate developer mode to install them? Is this mode safe, or does it expose sensitive data contained in the e-reader to the network (if there are any)? Do I need to remove the SD card from the reader in order to install the patch? (I don't think since currently if I'm not mistaken it is possible to remove it only from Clara HD)
Is there a well done post with a list of all the mods? Or do you have to go crazy looking for them and looking for the right versions in the forum?

The vast majority of 'patches' we talk about here are all rolled into one package. To patch the kobo, you download the official Kobo firmware update, then you run a script that changes a few bytes here and there within the firmware package. Upload the modified firmeware update to the kobo via usb, and the kobo installs it.

The kobo is not locked in any way and doesn't need any kind of rooting/jailbreaking. Software is simply packed into .tar.gz file, and people use that for more ambitious projects as well. (Such as completely replacing the book reader software with an open source alternative.) Removing the SDCard is only necessary in case you mess up and end up with a non-booting kobo, which is great for developers, but be aware can not be done with the water proof models.