Direct Links to Kobo Firmware

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by murg

WARNING: I've received a report that recently manufactured Touches may use the Glo firmware. Make sure you are loading the correct version of the firmware for your particular device. Yes, this means the one you are holding in your hands.

Agh. Way to make things complicated!

[volpo]

Because of all the problems lately I'm starting to think even people at Kobo cannot tell which firmware goes on which device....

[murg]

Originally Posted by volpo

Because of all the problems lately I'm starting to think even people at Kobo cannot tell which firmware goes on which device....

And renaming the two versions of the file to be the same just makes it that much likelier that someone (at Kobo) will make a mistake and brick thousands of devices.

[mmutoo]

Hi all,
I just found this forum! and I was excited since I did not know there are forums about ereaders (that is a shame indeed!).
I am a new member of the forum. I've had a kobo touch for a long time (like 1.5 years) and I really loved it, especially in the old days. I was really satisfied with it. But day after day and update after update, it gets slower and buggier than ever. The last problem is that I read lots of pdf files on it. And I cut the pdf files using Briss. When I open the files, I see strange behavior along with the bottom or right margin (depending on reading direction) is cut and gets larger with each update. I am now basically reading on a square screen instead of rectangle! So I decided to downgrade the firmware (and that was when I found this forum). I used this thread and downgraded to 1.9.12 which was the earliest link that worked, but still I have the edges cut. The thing is when I do a factory reset, the original version which is 1.9.4 is amazingly fast and flawless. The only thing I miss is the dictionary on it. So here is my question:
1) Is there a way I can add a dictionary to this version? (my guess, since it did not contain a dictionary originally, I cannot, but please let me know if I am wrong).
2) Can anybody give me a link for the 1.9.6 version of the firmware? since it is the earliest upgrade that contains the dictionary and the link in this thread does not work.

Many thanks everybody.

[Reaper1242]

Wow, the update servers are horrendous. 2.3.1 through the desktop client, 5 hours and then times out at the end and restarts. I've never had a 69 meg file take that long. And I know that it's not my connection.
Abandoned that and tried downloading using the link here. About halfway I get a timeout and it restarts again. Trying again. We shall see how it goes this time.

Honestly, Kobo needs to make the updates resumable.

[murg]

Since there was a new version of Desktop, and allegedly one for the devices, I tried syncing my Glo through the new Desktop while wireshark was running.

It looks like Kobo is starting to use akamai, as there are references to akamai urls in the Kobo message traffic.

Hi to all, I have a Kobo Glo so my update to 2.3.2 was easy. But my parents have a Kobo Touch, how could they know the right firmware to use???
Thanks

[PeterT]

The simple answer is what ever version is offered to them by Kobo Desktop and/or a direct WiFi sync.

If none is offered then they are at the version currently recommended by Kobo for their device.

[ichrispa]

Originally Posted by murg

WARNING: I've received a report that recently manufactured Touches may use the Glo firmware. Make sure you are loading the correct version of the firmware for your particular device. Yes, this means the one you are holding in your hands.

That warning is to be taken seriously. I tried installing the Kobo Touch 2.3.2 Firmware on my touch yesterday - which completely bricked the device. Not only would it no longer start (and not even refresh the screen while starting), it also prooved completely impervious to factory resets (Home + Slider). I had to remove and restore the internal sd card to get it working again.

My Kobo was manufactured in the fall of 2012, so it is fairly new.

I ended up updating by using just the KoboRoot.tgz and skipping uboot and kernel updates.

Apparently the uboot and kernel updates in that Firmware are not targeted at the newer Kobo Touch devices. I suppose I could try Glo update, but I am really just happy my KT is working again.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by ichrispa

That warning is to be taken seriously. I tried installing the Kobo Touch 2.3.2 Firmware on my touch yesterday - which completely bricked the device. Not only would it no longer start (and not even refresh the screen while starting), it also prooved completely impervious to factory resets (Home + Slider). I had to remove and restore the internal sd card to get it working again.

My Kobo was manufactured in the fall of 2012, so it is fairly new.

I ended up updating by using just the KoboRoot.tgz and skipping uboot and kernel updates.

Apparently the uboot and kernel updates in that Firmware are not targeted at the newer Kobo Touch devices. I suppose I could try Glo update, but I am really just happy my KT is working again.

Thanks for the extra warning and glad you got your Touch working again! Sounds like the Glo firmware is what your Touch wants.

How do you know your Touch was manufactured in autumn 2012? It would be great to know how to find out if someone has a "new" or an "old" Touch to know which firmware they should use. (Eg. buying a new Touch after the Glo's release could also be an old Touch from old stock.)

[Reaper1242]

Originally Posted by ichrispa

That warning is to be taken seriously. I tried installing the Kobo Touch 2.3.2 Firmware on my touch yesterday - which completely bricked the device. Not only would it no longer start (and not even refresh the screen while starting), it also prooved completely impervious to factory resets (Home + Slider). I had to remove and restore the internal sd card to get it working again.

My Kobo was manufactured in the fall of 2012, so it is fairly new.

I ended up updating by using just the KoboRoot.tgz and skipping uboot and kernel updates.

Apparently the uboot and kernel updates in that Firmware are not targeted at the newer Kobo Touch devices. I suppose I could try Glo update, but I am really just happy my KT is working again.

Same thing happened to me. Exactly. Mine bricked on the restarting screen.
Though I'm lucky in that we have some pretty good return policies in place here over the last year or 2 so just took it to the store for a replacement.
Didn't feel like trying to fix it myself.

[ichrispa]

Well, if the screen was displaying "Restarting" and you could reboot/reset the device (first the blue light, then the flashing green one visible for about 10 seconds), than we had exactly the same issue.

Curiously enough I don't get 2.3.2 when syncing with kobo. They just give me 2.3.1 and say I'm "up to date". 2.3.2 does improve a lot of things, incl. longer battery life, fixing the annoying 'jump to the wrong page when reopening a book' bug and much (much much) better handling of PDF's.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by ichrispa

Well, if the screen was displaying "Restarting" and you could reboot/reset the device (first the blue light, then the flashing green one visible for about 10 seconds), than we had exactly the same issue.

Curiously enough I don't get 2.3.2 when syncing with kobo. They just give me 2.3.1 and say I'm "up to date". 2.3.2 does improve a lot of things, incl. longer battery life, fixing the annoying 'jump to the wrong page when reopening a book' bug and much (much much) better handling of PDF's.

2.3.2 is not officially released outside of Japan for some (incomprehensible to me) reason.

[Reaper1242]

Originally Posted by ichrispa

Well, if the screen was displaying "Restarting" and you could reboot/reset the device (first the blue light, then the flashing green one visible for about 10 seconds), than we had exactly the same issue.

Curiously enough I don't get 2.3.2 when syncing with kobo. They just give me 2.3.1 and say I'm "up to date". 2.3.2 does improve a lot of things, incl. longer battery life, fixing the annoying 'jump to the wrong page when reopening a book' bug and much (much much) better handling of PDF's.

Nothing worked for me at all. Tried power cycle, soft restart, both factory reset methods. Opened it up and pulled the battery and internal SD.
Tried connecting to USB and didn't pick up. Overnight charge on mains, nothing.
It did flash green and blue, but that was the end of it's activity. I have a hunch it was a hardware failure that just happened to coincide with the update.

From my chat with a Kobo agent they still aren't even acknowledging the release of 2.3.2. I wonder if they're skipping it outside of Japan and running straight to 2.3.3.

[ichrispa]

Sorry Mrs_Often, I forgot to answer your question.

How do you know your Touch was manufactured in autumn 2012?

Sorry: bought in autumn, manufactured in the summer of 2012. It's in the image of my sd card. The Files on the original backup partition (the one used to restore using hard reset) all date to the 18th of July 2012. Also, when looking at the raw sdcard image, the first couple of bytes contain the serial number, which looks like "N-N**************_1207180919". I bought the Kobo in October 2012, so it does make sense to me that the 18th July 2012 is the manufacturing date of my device. But it stays of course an assumption.

There is another possible hint to the manufacturing date of the hardware (which in no sense says anything about the device in general) on the integrated circuits inside the device. The processor (yes, I looked. I was curious ) at least does bare a 1/12 marking, which could mean that it was manufactured on the first or second quarter of 2012. But the markings are manufacturer specific and could really mean anything.