kobopatch request thread

[swmhoktpndroawoq]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Could you disable the header and footer in the settings, then edit the "Reduce top/bottom page spacer" patch to increase the page spacer size to match the margins used with the header/footer enabled?

Thanks! It works perfectly

[Aleron Ives]

I was poking around in libnickel.so.1.0.0 earlier, and I remembered a few users reporting that the patch "Block WiFi firmware upgrade" didn't actually work a few firmwares ago (as the patch description warns might be the case). I noticed the following strings appear near the "UpgradeCheck" strings that get patched:

https://api.ereaderupgrade.com
https://api.ereaderupgrades.com
https://api.kobobooks.com

Perhaps it would be possible to overwrite one or more of these strings to create a more reliable method of blocking firmware updates? Ideally it would be possible to block the firmware check without losing the ability to sync books and dictionaries, but I don't know which URLs Kobo uses for which functionalities.

As an easy test for an adventurous user, you could redirect these addresses to 127.0.0.1 in your Kobo hosts file, instead of editing libnickel.so.1.0.0 directly.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

https://api.ereaderupgrade.com
https://api.ereaderupgrades.com
https://api.kobobooks.com

I think the ereaderupgrade URL is for China, especially since it gives download URLs like "https://cdn.8a24a8b95776b1ec975b8cdd7dfdf7fd.com/downloads/firmwares/8a24a8b95776b1ec975b8cdd7dfdf7fd8/Aug2023/8a24a8b95776b1ec975b8cdd7dfdf7fd-update-4.38.21908.zip", and appears to otherwise be a limited proxy (written in node.js) to the existing api.kobobooks.com (written in asp.net). Also, 8a24a8b95776b1ec975b8cdd7dfdf7fd is the MD5 hash of "Kobo".

[Aleron Ives]

Do you know which URL is used for syncing books and dictionaries? I guess blocking api.kobobooks.com would work for firmware, at least.

[Florin]

Sorry for ressurecting an old topic, but I accidentally reset my kobo an would really want to get my reading hours stat back. From the info I've been able to dig out the only method that (once) worked was to use the kobopatch to make it so that every time you finished a book it added some amount of hours to total reading time.

Manipulate reading stats:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: Always add 10 hours to the reading time every time you close a book.
  # in EventEngine::endReadingSession(*Volume) when recording end of reading session stats, change QDateTime::secsTo calls to a fixed value
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0x4D53A0, FindBLX: 0x425270, ReplaceH: 4F F6 FF 70} # MOV  r0, #65535
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0x4D53C0, FindBLX: 0x425270, ReplaceH: 4F F6 FF 70} # MOV  r0, #65535

This doesn't work on current firmware version. Did a search for 0x425270 (4FF766EF) with no results in libnickel.so.1.0.0 file.

Is there a way to make this work on the 4.38 update? Or did they change something that makes this impossible to do anymore?

[Aleron Ives]

As I recall, this patch was an April Fool's joke. It was never a serious patch, so it wasn't released for any other firmware versions.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by Florin

Sorry for ressurecting an old topic, but I accidentally reset my kobo an would really want to get my reading hours stat back. From the info I've been able to dig out the only method that (once) worked was to use the kobopatch to make it so that every time you finished a book it added some amount of hours to total reading time.

Manipulate reading stats:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: Always add 10 hours to the reading time every time you close a book.
  # in EventEngine::endReadingSession(*Volume) when recording end of reading session stats, change QDateTime::secsTo calls to a fixed value
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0x4D53A0, FindBLX: 0x425270, ReplaceH: 4F F6 FF 70} # MOV  r0, #65535
  - ReplaceBytes: {Offset: 0x4D53C0, FindBLX: 0x425270, ReplaceH: 4F F6 FF 70} # MOV  r0, #65535

This doesn't work on current firmware version. Did a search for 0x425270 (4FF766EF) with no results in libnickel.so.1.0.0 file.

Is there a way to make this work on the 4.38 update? Or did they change something that makes this impossible to do anymore?

PM me how long you want (I can do any amount of time), and I'll put something together for you.

[Florin]

Originally Posted by geek1011

PM me how long you want (I can do any amount of time), and I'll put something together for you.

I've spent like 10 minutes trying to figure out how to send a PM, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm a new member or what but I don't see the option anywhere, so I'll write here. Hope that's ok.

This is the thread you replied to a while back. That's where I got that code snippet from, also the instructions on how to use it.

For the amount of time what I need is 723 hours total, but something like 10 hours would also be ok. If the method to change the amount of time is still the same as in that thread, then I think I understand how to change the amount added using armconverter to get the hex value to replace (for example for 1 hour -> MOVW R0, #03600 -> ReplaceH: 40 F2 80 70; did I get that right?).

This is one patch that rarely gets used, but when you mess up and reset your device you really need something like it. One thing I learned from all this is to use KoboUtilities and backup the db often.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Florin

I've spent like 10 minutes trying to figure out how to send a PM, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm a new member or what but I don't see the option anywhere, so I'll write here. Hope that's ok.

Currently you do not have PMs enabled (click on an user name in the upper left corner of a message. If you don't see 'send a private message...' in the options, you need to have PMs enabled. See attached images.

You should post in the Requests to enable Private Messages thread to ask for PMs to be enabled or, if feeling very patient, simply wait until you have posted enough times for the automatic enablement to happen.

[Florin]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You should post in the Requests to enable Private Messages thread to ask for PMs to be enabled

Thank you. Made a request.

[zuyang]

I wonder if it's possible to change font display name when selecting font based on current system language or even content language.

For example, when I set the language to Chinese, the built-in fonts have their names in Chinese, while custom fonts are shown in English.

Thanks,

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by zuyang

I wonder if it's possible to change font display name when selecting font based on current system language or even content language.

For example, when I set the language to Chinese, the built-in fonts have their names in Chinese, while custom fonts are shown in English.

I doubt whether a patch can do this but you will need to wait for a reply from @geek1011 to be sure.

As far as I can tell, for custom fonts, the font display name in the drop-down menu is read from the font-family name stored inside the actual .ttf/.otf font file. I base this comment on observation rather than a deep knowledge of the code in the firmware.

You could try opening one of your fonts in a font editor (e.g. FontForge) to edit the name to something you like better. However, a font file can contain multiple occurrences of font-family name so it's anyone's guess which of those Kobo actually uses. You would need to experiment.

[egin]

how can I deactivate the recommodations? I cant find it in the patches

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by egin

how can I deactivate the recommodations? I cant find it in the patches

The patch should be "Remove recommendations (row1col2) from home screen". It's in the libnickel.so file.

[egin]

I have changed the nickel file to this entry:

Remove recommendations (row1col2) from home screen:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: |
      By default, when there are less than 2 books open, a recommendations
      column shows in the top right of the home screen. This patch hides it.
  - ReplaceBytes:
      Base:           "HomePageView::configureTopRight(HomePageWidgets)"
      Offset:         48
      FindH:          58 B1 # never skip hiding the top-right widget
      ReplaceInstNOP: true

somehow it was not changed after i patched the created firmware.