Glo Memory Upgrade without opening your Kobo

[Markismus]

INTRODUCTION
Today I resized my mother's Kobo Glo from 2GB to 4GB without opening the reader. The default configuration in some countries* only uses half the space that is available. This guide takes full advantage of the space available. It also works for the Touch according to xping.

(*See posts in this thread for a discussion on where Kobo has or has not put in 4GB SDcards.)

I upgraded my Kobo Aura HD using info form here. You exchange the SD-card on the inside of the reader with a bigger one. I am not doing this again, because I found that the reader became less rigid after opening and closing it a couple of times.

So it entails a few steps:

1. Install telnet,
2. telnet into the reader over wireless network,
3. repartition using fdisk and
4. do a factory restore.

When you have done that the result is this:

O:\>dir
 Volume in drive O is KOBOeReader
 Volume Serial Number is 52BE-BBAC

 Directory of O:\

28-12-2013  12:11    <DIR>          .kobo
28-12-2013  11:57    <DIR>          .adobe-digital-editions
28-12-2013  12:06    <DIR>          .kobo-images
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               3 Dir(s)   3.377.491.968 bytes free

32,6MB Used space / 3,14GB Free space.

THE STEPS

1. Install telnet.

1. Download Kevin Short's telnet hack from the thread telnetd broken with firmware 2.10.0?
2. Plug in your ereader and connect to PC.
3. Unzip an copy the file KoboRoot.tgz to the .kobo directory on your ereader.
4. Safely remove the device and let it restart.

2. Telnet into the reader over wireless network.

1. Install putty (Google it)
2. Start internet on your ereader. Go to settings, go to Beta functions or extra, tap internet browser.
3. Go to settings, go to information about device, write down IP-address. For me it's 192.168.1.88.
4. Start putty. Put the IP-address in the box "Host Name (or IP address). Check Telnet under Connection Type. Click Open. This will start your terminal session to your ereader.
5. At "(none) login:" type "root" press enter. Your now at the Bash shell prompt. Enjoy!

3. Repartition using fdisk.

I'm just going to give you the cleaned log of my session:

[root@(none) ~]# fdisk /dev/mmcblk0

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 121008.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): m
Command Action
a       toggle a bootable flag
b       edit bsd disklabel
c       toggle the dos compatibility flag
d       delete a partition
l       list known partition types
n       add a new partition
o       create a new empty DOS partition table
p       print the partition table
q       quit without saving changes
s       create a new empty Sun disklabel
t       change a partition's system id
u       change display/entry units
v       verify the partition table
w       write table to disk and exit
x       extra functionality (experts only)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 3965 MB, 3965190144 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 121008 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 64 * 512 = 32768 bytes

        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1             305        8497      262144+ 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p2            8497       16689      262144+ 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3           16689       60352     1397247   b Win95 FAT32

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 3

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 3
First cylinder (1-121008, default 1): 16689
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (16689-121008, default 121008): Using default value 121008

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 3965 MB, 3965190144 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 121008 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 64 * 512 = 32768 bytes

        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1             305        8497      262144+ 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p2            8497       16689      262144+ 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3           16689      121008     3338239  83 Linux

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 3
Hex code (type L to list codes): L

 0 Empty                  1b Hidden Win95 FAT32     9f BSD/OS
 1 FAT12                  1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA) a0 Thinkpad hibernation
 4 FAT16 <32M             1e Hidden W95 FAT16 (LBA) a5 FreeBSD
 5 Extended               3c Part.Magic recovery    a6 OpenBSD
 6 FAT16                  41 PPC PReP Boot          a8 Darwin UFS
 7 HPFS/NTFS              42 SFS                    a9 NetBSD
 a OS/2 Boot Manager      63 GNU HURD or SysV       ab Darwin boot
 b Win95 FAT32            80 Old Minix              b7 BSDI fs
 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)      81 Minix / old Linux      b8 BSDI swap
 e Win95 FAT16 (LBA)      82 Linux swap             be Solaris boot
 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)      83 Linux                  eb BeOS fs
11 Hidden FAT12           84 OS/2 hidden C: drive   ee EFI GPT
12 Compaq diagnostics     85 Linux extended         ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
14 Hidden FAT16 <32M      86 NTFS volume set        f0 Linux/PA-RISC boot
16 Hidden FAT16           87 NTFS volume set        f2 DOS secondary
17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS       8e Linux LVM              fd Linux raid autodetect
Hex code (type L to list codes): b
Changed system type of partition 3 to b (Win95 FAT32)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 3965 MB, 3965190144 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 121008 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 64 * 512 = 32768 bytes

        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1             305        8497      262144+ 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p2            8497       16689      262144+ 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3           16689      121008     3338239   b Win95 FAT32

Expert command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table
fdisk: WARNING: rereading partition table failed, kernel still uses old table: Device or resource busy
[root@(none) ~]# reboot

4. Do a factory restore.

You will lose all your books and added software when you do a full reboot. Backup your books and data before doing a factory restore!!!!
You have to power off first. Then hold the frontlight button while you pull the power switch.
The ereader goes into factory restore. It will reformat partition 3 (/dev/mmcblk0p3 ) and copy partition 2 to 3. After that it will try to upgrade to the newest firmware.

That's it!

[Ken Maltby]

It looks like you can do as you did using Sergey's USBnet ( but Fdisk is at: [root@(none) ~]# /sbin/fdisk /dev/mmcblk0). I didn't try it, other than to look at fdisk's reports, I wasn't going to delete my partition 3, so I can't say it works this way but it looks like it could. The terminal in WinSCP didn't work, but the Putty link in it does.

You can telnet in using the USBnet, and not need to use the WiFi.

Luck;
Ken

[xping]

Nice job.

On kobo touch everybody can use exactly the same steps
values are exactly the same and after factory reset U will have 3227 MB free instead of 1300.


Thxxxx

P.S. My kobo touch is model N905-KBO-B. Telnet works great!

[Markismus]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

It looks like you can do as you did using Sergey's USBnet...You can telnet in using the USBnet, and not need to use the WiFi.

Yes. However, it would have cost me a lot more text to explain that without assuming previous knowledge. I don't think people would keep reading until the end. It is probably already too long as it is.

[Lucas Malor]

And Kobo Aura HD have 4 Gb of internal storage... nice try, Kobo.

Thnak you Markismus for the info and guide

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Lucas Malor

And Kobo Aura HD have 4 Gb of internal storage... nice try, Kobo.

Thnak you Markismus for the info and guide

What? The OP was talking about the Glo which is specced with 2GB. The Aura and Aura HD are specced with 4GB. The fact that the people have found that their Glo, Mini or Touch had a 4GB card in them has been discussed before. The assumption is that the factory ran out of 2GB cards and used available 4GB cards or they were cheaper. But, they kept using the same disk image. And that is a reasonable thing for them to do.

[Lucas Malor]

Nothing to object against, but why leaving 2 Gb of unpartitioned space?

[davidfor]

Read my post. The device is specced with a 2GB card. They have an image for 2GB card. For some reason, they have put 4GB cards into them. This is most likely because they ran out of 2GB cards and it was cheaper to get 4GB cards. Or the factory simply had them available. But, building a new image to put on these cards would cost extra. And if they revert to 2GB cards when they come back in stock, then they have to revert to the original image. It is much cheaper and easier for Kobo and the factory to do it this way.

[INCSlayer]

also people are gonna start to become very angry if some random kobo glos where shipping with more space than others but there are no way of seeing which "version" you have

[Markismus]

I am starting to wonder whether people have seen 2GB SDCards on Glo's. Especially now that even the Touch has a larger SDcard, I wonder what models in what frequency have larger SDCards.

[Anghirrim]

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 3965 MB, 3965190144 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 121008 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 64 * 512 = 32768 bytes

        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1             305        8497      262144+ 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p2            8497       16689      262144+ 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3           16689       60352     1397247   b Win95 FAT32

Hi, I guess that if at that step I don't have 3965mb shown but something like 1677 MB (or similar, I don't remember, but for sure, less than 2000 MB), I have a Glo shipped with a 2Gb SD card, right?

So this answers your question Markismus I guess, and see that in France we are still delivered with 2Gb Glo's ( I bought mine last July).

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Markismus

I am starting to wonder whether people have seen 2GB SDCards on Glo's. Especially now that even the Touch has a larger SDcard, I wonder what models in what frequency have larger SDCards.

My Glo came with a 2GB card which I upgraded to a 8GB prior to passing it on.

Regards,
David

[Markismus]

Originally Posted by Anghirrim

So this answers your question Markismus I guess, and see that in France we are still delivered with 2Gb Glo's ( I bought mine last July).

It does indeed.
Sorry that you'll have to open it to upgrade. Every time I opened my Aura HD another tiny plastic catch would break off.

I have no idea how to open my new Aura without damaging it. But then again it doesn't have internal SDCard, so why bother.

[RoninTech]

Another 2GB Canadian Glo:

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 1977 MB, 1977614336 bytes

So make sure you check that you really have a bigger internal card before doing this!

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Markismus

I am starting to wonder whether people have seen 2GB SDCards on Glo's. Especially now that even the Touch has a larger SDcard, I wonder what models in what frequency have larger SDCards.

My Glo came with a 2GB card, I updraded to 8GB.