kobopatch request thread

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by nedward

Hi there,

I just bought my first ever eReader which is a Kobo Clara HD.

I'm very happy with it, but I'm missing the Overdrive menu entry since apparently this is remotely en-/disabled through the Kobo account's country setting.

I'm from Germany where there actually are a few libraries that provide Overdrive (e.g. https://bibnetz.overdrive.com and https://elibraryhh.overdrive.com), but as said, there's no Overdrive menu entry for me.

I wondered if there's a way to enable this through a patch or the manipulation of the SQLite database.

I'm a developer, but I haven't gotten my head around how to approach writing a patch myself. As I understand it, the yaml files allow the patcher to manipulate settings in binaries such as

/usr/local/Kobo/nickel

and

/usr/local/Kobo/nickel/libnickel.so

. But how would I go about inspecting those binary files myself?

There are some promising strings regarding Overdrive in those files, but I don't know how to approach the next step.

I am aware that I could change the invoice address of my kobo account with a fake US address but I'd rather not since I actually buy eBooks through the Kobo shop.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I'm not going to say much about OverDrive, but as for writing patches in general:

- The Hopper disassembler is currently my favourite for this (but it only works on Linux/macOS)
- IDA Pro works fine as well
- The ARM Kiel reference is very, very useful
- armconverter.com is also useful
- trial and error is the best way to learn
- well-placed NOPs, MOVs, and string replacements will get you 99% of the patches

If I can still have it, I will send you a screencast of me updating the patches.

[nedward]

Originally Posted by geek1011

I'm not going to say much about OverDrive, but as for writing patches in general:

- The Hopper disassembler is currently my favourite for this (but it only works on Linux/macOS)
- IDA Pro works fine as well
- The ARM Kiel reference is very, very useful
- armconverter.com is also useful
- trial and error is the best way to learn
- well-placed NOPs, MOVs, and string replacements will get you 99% of the patches

Thanks very much for the starting points! I'm on macOS, so I'll take a look at the Hopper disassembler, first and work my way through.

Originally Posted by geek1011

If I can still have it, I will send you a screencast of me updating the patches.

I'm sure that would be a huge help – I'd very much appreciate it and I'm sure this would be interesting for many more people.

[nedward]

Originally Posted by geek1011

as for writing patches in general:



- The Hopper disassembler is currently my favourite for this (but it only works on Linux/macOS)

- IDA Pro works fine as well

- The ARM Kiel reference is very, very useful

- armconverter.com is also useful

- trial and error is the best way to learn

- well-placed NOPs, MOVs, and string replacements will get you 99% of the patches

Just wanted to let you know that thanks to your resources, hints and the existing patches, I could write the patch.

The one thing I couldn‘t quite understand is why

4F F0 01 00

is a boolean true – maybe you can help me understand that. I guess this is a reference to some place where true is returned, but I might be way off.

Thanks so much for your effort in writing the patches and publishing it out in the open at GitHub.

[ps67]

Is it possible a patch to have indentation levels in index? I know that Kobo index is flatten by design and I don't know if that behavior can be changed with a patch, but if:

1) it is not too difficult (like hours of work);
2) it is funny for You to do the patch;
3) You have time to do it;

I would like to see how could appear a patched index.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by nedward

Just wanted to let you know that thanks to your resources, hints and the existing patches, I could write the patch.

The one thing I couldn‘t quite understand is why

4F F0 01 00

is a boolean true – maybe you can help me understand that. I guess this is a reference to some place where true is returned, but I might be way off.

Thanks so much for your effort in writing the patches and publishing it out in the open at GitHub.

No problem! 4FF00100 is MOV r0, #1. True is stored as 1, and false as 0. r0 is where the return value is stored.

Originally Posted by ps67

Is it possible a patch to have indentation levels in index? I know that Kobo index is flatten by design and I don't know if that behavior can be changed with a patch, but if:

1) it is not too difficult (like hours of work);
2) it is funny for You to do the patch;
3) You have time to do it;

I would like to see how could appear a patched index.

Probably not at the moment, unless I end up writing a tool for injecting significant amounts of additional assembly (it would involve finding enough contiguous free space and possibly messing with the ELF table).

[forster01]

is it possible to make a patch for all fonts to be little darker at initial values, as kobify font does not work or me? sorry if a similar request has being placed already.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ps67

Is it possible a patch to have indentation levels in index? I know that Kobo index is flatten by design and I don't know if that behavior can be changed with a patch, but if:

1) it is not too difficult (like hours of work);
2) it is funny for You to do the patch;
3) You have time to do it;

I would like to see how could appear a patched index.

Firstly, by "index", I assume you mean the "Table of Contents".

There are going to be two problems with doing this. One is changing the layout of the screen to show the ToC levels. The other is to get the levels. The latter is what I know about.

The ToC is built from the database. The database is populated when importing the books for sideloading, or when the books are downloaded from the Kobo server. There is a column in the database that appears to be for the ToC levels (content.Depth), but it is not populated for sideloaded books (always zero). It appears to be set for purchased books. Populating the column for sideloaded books wouldn't be that hard. But, whether this is read and put somewhere that can be used when building the ToC screen, I don't know.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There are going to be two problems with doing this. One is changing the layout of the screen to show the ToC levels. The other is to get the levels. The latter is what I know about.

The ToC is built from the database. The database is populated when importing the books for sideloading, or when the books are downloaded from the Kobo server. There is a column in the database that appears to be for the ToC levels (content.Depth), but it is not populated for sideloaded books (always zero). It appears to be set for purchased books. Populating the column for sideloaded books wouldn't be that hard. But, whether this is read and put somewhere that can be used when building the ToC screen, I don't know.

Rather than trying to wrangle the Kobo firmware it might be easier to add it as an extra option in KoboTouch to be called during send-to-device. A bit like 'Modify CSS', but this would be 'Modify TOC'.

I think calibre's TOC functions could be used to add some kind of pseudo-indentation padding as a prefix to each TOC entry's text.

This would only work for sideloaded epub/kepub, of course. Not necessarily the most elegant solution, but it might suffice.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Rather than trying to wrangle the Kobo firmware it might be easier to add it as an extra option in KoboTouch to be called during send-to-device. A bit like 'Modify CSS', but this would be 'Modify TOC'.

I think calibre's TOC functions could be used to add some kind of pseudo-indentation padding as a prefix to each TOC entry's text.

This would only work for sideloaded epub/kepub, of course. Not necessarily the most elegant solution, but it might suffice.

Ugly, but it would work. And the attached screenshot is a quick edit of the database to prefix the ToC entries with two em-dashes for each level. I tried spaces, but they don't show up. Non-breaking spaces probably will, but I can't be bothered to work out how to enter them.

And the space problem makes me wonder if the levels are implemented but spaces are used. I hope not. It's the sort of thing I'd do during development but hopefully it would have been noticed before now.

Also, when doing this, I discovered that the device I looked at before had no sideloaded kepubs on it. The above screenshot was for a sideloaded kepub and the Depth column was populated.

I'll have to think about this for the driver. I might do a quick-and-dirty addition to the Kobo Utilities to do this for books that have the depth column set. That would give a quick way for people to see it and give an opinion on whether it is a good idea. I also have to rewrite my ToC updater so it can be released. That would be another place to do something like this.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Ugly, but it would work. And the attached screenshot is a quick edit of the database to prefix the ToC entries with two em-dashes for each level. I tried spaces, but they don't show up. Non-breaking spaces probably will, but I can't be bothered to work out how to enter them.

I don't think nbsps will work, as QString::simplified removes all chars which return true for QChar::isSpace, which includes https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/category/Zs. I could write a patch to prevent this though (it's in N3TableOfContentsWidget::setContent(Shortcover const&)), and I might add the ability to use spaces for TOC depth feature to seriesmeta. Also, if this method is used, the chapter titles should probably be normalized too (simplified also removes repeated whitespaces within the string).

[Terisa de morgan]

Well, the indent in the TOC would be a patch/utility/whatever that I would gladly use. Thank you for trying it.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by geek1011

I don't think nbsps will work, as QString::simplified removes all chars which return true for QChar::isSpace, which includes https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/category/Zs. I could write a patch to prevent this though (it's in N3TableOfContentsWidget::setContent(Shortcover const&)), and I might add the ability to use spaces for TOC depth feature to seriesmeta. Also, if this method is used, the chapter titles should probably be normalized too (simplified also removes repeated whitespaces within the string).

That's unfortunate. I suppose stripping leading and trailing spaces makes sense for something like this and that's simple way to do this and remove anything else that might be bad. I'll try it just in case. Or maybe there is something else suitable.

[ps67]

Well, that was just a idea, and it is started a "conference"

Of course the right expression is "Table Of Content", not "index"

And may be there is a reason because it is flatten: if TOC is not well done the errors are less evident.

Thank You for Your effort.

ps: the system does not allow me to give Karma to Davidfor, thank You anyway

[geek1011]

I have started to work on a few patches for the SmartLink on the home screen (the footer one which changes). One of these will be only showing pocket.

For future reference, here is the stuff I have figured out so far about how SmartLinks work:

SmartLinks: (name from SmartLinkWidget::getAnalyticsMessage)
 # - internal name   - default condition                                   - what                                                             - action
PRIORITY MESSAGES (shown first up to 3 times each): (SmartLinkWidget::showPriorityMessage, ActivityManager::smartLinkPriorityMessage, SmartLinkWidget::tapped)
 5 - ReleaseNotes    - whats new available from Activity                   - RELEASE NOTES: Find out what's new in this software update       - whats new (from Activity)
 6 - OverdriveFTE    - overdrive enabled && not signed in                  - OVERDRIVE: Learn how to borrow eBooks from your public library   - overdrive about
 7 - KoboPlusFTE     - kobo plus enabled && not subscribed                 - KOBO PLUS: Browse Kobo Plus books                                - kobo store -> kobo plus
ROTATION MESSAGES (randomly chosen): (SmartLinkWidget::showRotationMessage, ActivityManager::smartLinkGeneralMessage, SmartLinkWidget::tapped)
 1 - Pocket          - pocket not signed in                                - POCKET: Read articles from the web on your eReader               - pocket about
 2 - KoboPlus        - kobo plus enabled && not subscribed                 - KOBO PLUS: Get unlimited access to books in all genres           - kobo store -> kobo plus
 2 - KoboPlus        - kobo plus enabled && not subscribed                 - KOBO PLUS: Read as much as you want with our ebook subscription  - kobo store -> kobo plus
 3 - Overdrive       - overdrive enabled && not signed in                  - OVERDRIVE: Borrow eBooks from your public library                - overdrive about
 4 - Categories      - always                                              - CATEGORIES: Browse fiction, romance, biography and more          - kobo store -> categories
 8 - NaturalLight    - has light sensor && not viewed tutorial             - DEVICE NAME: Learn about the Natural Light feature               - rgb front light about
 9 - QuickTour       - quick tour not shown && quick turn tile not visible - GETTING STARTED: Get to know your %0                             - quick tour
10 - ReadingTour     - read a book tour not showed                         - READING A BOOK: Get quick tips about reading on your eReader     - read a book tutorial
11 - UserGuide       - user guide present && not opened                    - USER GUIDE: Read the user guide for your %0                      - read -> user guide
12 - RelatedReads    - recent book available from Activity                 - RELATED READS: Discover books related to the ones you're reading - browse -> similar books
13 - Wishlist        - no wishlist items || something else                 - WISHLIST: Create a Wishlist of books you're interested in        - browse -> wishlist
14 - ReadingSettings - reading settings not changed                        - READING SETTINGS: Customize the way you read a book              - settings -> reading settings
15 - ReadingStats    - books finished > 0 && hours read rounded to .5 > 0  - READING STATS: You've finished %n books and read for %n hours    - reading life -> stats
16 - SuperPoints     - participating in super points && points > 2400      - KOBO SUPER POINTS: You have %0 Super Points to redeem            - kobo store
17 - PocketUser      - unread pocket articles > 0                          - POCKET: Catch up on the %n article(s) you added recently         - library -> pocket

[nicopilami]

Hi
thanks for this great patching system !

now i adopted it, can you please add the way to
> modify the menu entries
> make easily accessible the beta functionnalities (browser & games)

Thanks !
Nico