Kobo WebPortal / Notes / ServiceMenu

[frostschutz]

This used to be a mod for the iriver Story HD.
Old threads for sake of history:Story HD Mod: WebPortal ; Story HD Mod: Notes ; Story HD Mod: ServiceMenu.

The Kobo Web Portal is a local webserver, running on your Kobo. It has a HTML landing page with links to several sites. It can also run CGI scripts and thus provide you with browser-based apps.

To install, copy KoboRoot-WebPortal.tgz » .kobo/KoboRoot.tgz

After installation it can be reached via http://webportal/ and you can choose to "Set Page as Home" in Kobo's webbrowser settings.

Unfortunately it won't work if no wifi network is available, since the Kobo refuses to start the webbrowser. But it does come with a small hack that allows intranet wifi networks (without real internet connectivity).

To enable this hack, see .addons/webportal/vhosts.conf

After the installation you will find the following files:

• .addons/webportal/cgi-bin/notes (sample CGI script, see below)
• .addons/webportal/cgi-bin/servicemenu (sample CGI script, see blow)
• .addons/webportal/httpd.conf (webserver configuration file)
• .addons/webportal/index.html (WebPortal landing page, edit to your liking)
• .addons/webportal/ncsi.txt (part of the intranet wifi hack)
• .addons/webportal/vhosts.conf (vhosts configuration file, also part of the intranet wifi hack)

Note: These files will be overwritten any time you install this mod. If you customize these files, make backups! Alternatively set a different home directory in httpd.conf and make your customizations in that directory.

To uninstall, create .addons/webportal/uninstall and reboot the device. It will be renamed to .addons/webportal/uninstall-date-time and you can remove the .webportal directory yourself.

Notes

Read, write and edit notes as plain text files in your webbrowser. They will be stored in /notes/file.txt. May be useful for shopping lists or something. (From the way it looks you can tell it was originally made for another device. I've yet to learn Kobo browser oddities. Clicking the 'save' button only seems to work while the keyboard is open.)

ServiceMenu

Displays system info. Checks internal and external memory for read errors. Also has an option to format the external card. (On the iriver Story HD, this mod could also format the internal card, and delete the book database, but I've disabled it here).

FileManager

Lets you browse the Kobo's files, as well as download individual files or entire folders (as TAR). Also lets you upload files, and upload&install TAR/TGZ. In order to use this you must allow machines in your local network to access the web portal, by editing .webportal/httpd.conf. The Kobo's IP can be seen in Settings->Device Information (while Wifi is enabled).

[Vauxdvihl]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

To install, copy KoboRoot-WebPortal.tgz » .kobo/KoboRoot.tgz

Many many thanks to this.
Sorry but i am a newie in modding kobo devices.
I have stored the file into the folder, but i do not know how to install.

Can you please help me

Thanks a lot

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by Vauxdvihl

I have stored the file into the folder, but i do not know how to install.

KoboRoot-WebPortal.tgz » .kobo/KoboRoot.tgz

Unzipping the KoboRoot-WebPortal.zip gives you KoboRoot-WebPortal.tgz and you rename that to KoboRoot.tgz and copy it into the .kobo directory on the reader (same dir that also has the KoboReader.sqlite which is the database of all your books and reading progress).

The reader should install it and reboot automatically. If it was installed successfully you should see a .webportal directory which contains the files listed above.

If you got this far it should work. If it does not, it needs more than just the www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt ...

Unfortunately my WIFI Router only lets me block WWW access for testing; it does not block DNS queries so it may behave differently in that case. I'll see if I can set up tethering on my ancient smartphone to test with another wifi network...

EDIT: Just tested with tethering, and no real internet connection whatsoever, and it worked so I hope it will work for you as well.

[Vauxdvihl]

It works

Really, thanks a lot

[frostschutz]

File Manager is a WebPortal CGI script that lets you browse the Kobo's filesystem in a web browser and download books and other files from it. In particular it also lets you download an image of the internal SD card if you navigate to /dev/mmcblk0 and download that [no guarantees on filesystem consistency though].

I also want to add an upload function, both for individual files and tar packages, so you can use it to install mods; as well as rename / delete / edit / ... it's not finished yet and thus not included in the package above, but you can get it from GitHub if you really want to.

[frostschutz]

Updated the package, the File Manager is now included. It supports download and upload (including TAR support so you can upload&install KoboRoot-tgz), but not yet rename/delete. Turns out upload forms (multipart/form-data) is not easy to parse in a shell script so there is a helper program written in C for that.

[frostschutz]

Updated it to fix two bugs:

- setting a custom home dir in httpd.conf didn't actually work
- the webserver running off /mnt/onboard caused problems with USB connectivity

Also the included "intranet wifi" hack is now disabled by default and you have to uncomment a line in .webportal/vhosts.conf to enable it. It was too intrusive for readers that do not need this modification.

[Bob Brunius]

Works great, thank you.

[Bob Brunius]

What will happen with a post to the server?

[frostschutz]

Not sure what you mean exactly, but nothing happens unless you make something happen yourself. If you're coming from PHP or something, no such magic here.

As an example, cgi-bin/notes takes regular form posts, cgi-bin/filemanager takes multiple file upload posts ( using a helper to handle multipart_pipe data ).

[Vwow]

Many Thanks from kobo owners in the new great wall.We can't connect wifi and the pocket can't work any more after the firmware 4.7.10413， until a internet user named sirwu found you postings.We can watch the sky again.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Vwow

Many Thanks from kobo owners in the new great wall.We can't connect wifi and the pocket can't work any more after the firmware 4.7.10413， until a internet user named sirwu found you postings.We can watch the sky again.

I have to say I am curious. I didn't have any problems at all with firmware 4.7.10413 with WiFi or Pocket or any other thing requiring the net. So, I'm curious about what this thread has told you that or this "sirwu" person discovered here. The only thing I can think of is the URL used by the firmware to check it can go online, but that had been in use for several years. Add that firmware 4.7.10413 has been out for six months makes me very curious about why you haven't asked about the problem before.

Can you tell me what it was?

[tshering]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I have to say I am curious. I didn't have any problems at all with firmware 4.7.10413 with WiFi or Pocket or any other thing requiring the net. So, I'm curious about what this thread has told you that or this "sirwu" person discovered here. The only thing I can think of is the URL used by the firmware to check it can go online, but that had been in use for several years. Add that firmware 4.7.10413 has been out for six months makes me very curious about why you haven't asked about the problem before.

Can you tell me what it was?

I think the reason why you do not see the problem is that you do not live behind the great wall. But I am also curious about the details.

[Vwow]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I have to say I am curious. I didn't have any problems at all with firmware 4.7.10413 with WiFi or Pocket or any other thing requiring the net. So, I'm curious about what this thread has told you that or this "sirwu" person discovered here. The only thing I can think of is the URL used by the firmware to check it can go online, but that had been in use for several years. Add that firmware 4.7.10413 has been out for six months makes me very curious about why you haven't asked about the problem before.

Can you tell me what it was?

Your say is right,4.7.10413 is ok,but the later 4.8 firmwares can't connet wifi frequently.So we had to use 4.7.10413 or earlier firmwares. It was said that he URL used by the firmware after 4.7.10413 has changed from microsoft to kobo which is forbided by the soft great wall.

你猜的是对的。4.7.10413固件连接WiFi网络正常，但是4.8以后的固件经常不能连接WiFi网 络，并伴随假死重启现象。据说是因为4.7.10413之后的固件改变了WiFi连接安全验证的策略，验证 地址也从微软的改到了Kobo，而这个验证地址恰巧在瓷器国防火墙的名单之内。因此我们只能委曲求全使用4 .7.10413或之前更早的固件，以确保Pocet能够正常使用。

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Vwow

Your say is right,4.7.10413 is ok,but the later 4.8 firmwares can't connet wifi frequently.So we had to use 4.7.10413 or earlier firmwares. It was said that he URL used by the firmware after 4.7.10413 has changed from microsoft to kobo which is forbided by the soft great wall.

OK, that makes sense. If the kobo.com domain is being blocked then most of the on-line function of the device is also being blocked and is useless.

The URL for the check is now http://www.kobo.com/buildinfo.xml. The was a discussion about how to get around this recently. It was someone doing something on a local network to return the appropriate results. That would allow you to use later firmware. But, for your situation, a patch to disable the check would probably be better. I can't remember if there is one or not.