Disassembling the kobo firmware

[geek1011]

I will update this post as I find interesting things about the kobo firmware.

Index:

• FeatureSettings
• SmartLink (the rotating links at the bottom of the new home screen)
• Checksum for stats and achievements
• List of AbTests
• Features specific to affiliates
• Kepub renderer
• Demo mode
• Kobo Web Browser user agent

[geek1011]

I have found some interesting things in the FeatureSettings class.

FeatureSettings contains functions such as showLayoutRectangles, sketchNote, fullScreenBrowser, gestureKeyboardEnabled, bookSpecificStatsEnabled, invertScreen, myWords, and syncEmulatorPath. Some of these are known values for the config file. These enable or disable features. The main difference is that some of these functions check the config file, while some of the others have different checks such as device type. For reference, here is a partial list of some FeatureSettings which can be changed in the config file:

Epub2fxl bool
NewStore string (this looks kinda interesting)
ReaderBookmarkHistory bool
InvertScreen bool
MyWords bool
MaxWifiTimeout int
MaxDownload int (max number of books to download?)
ForceSingleBook bool
MediaOverlay bool
ExcludeEndMatterFromStats bool
OverDrive bool (I don't think this will enable overdrive by itself)
SyncEmuPath string (seems to be able to do fake syncs. may be useful for blocking upgrades)
FullScreenReading bool
SmartShelves bool
SketchNote bool
OptlyTest bool (what?)
ShowLayoutRectangles bool
FullScreenBrowser bool
GestureKeyboard bool
ExportHighlights bool
BookSpecificStats bool
PhraseTranslation bool

[geek1011]

Here is a bit about how the smart links work. The relevant symbols are _ZN15SmartLinkWidget19showRotationMessageERK6Devic e and _ZN15ActivityManager23smartLinkGeneralMessageERK6D evice.

Messages and conditions:

Format: "Message" (Title): Conditions

"Catch up on the %n article(s) you added recently" (POCKET):
- 1 or more unread articles

"Read articles from the web on your eReader" (POCKET):
- Not signed into pocket

"You've finished %n book(s) and read for %n hour(s)/minute(s)" (READING STATS):
- More than 1 book finished, more than ? minutes read
- Stats enabled

"Learn about the natural light feature" (SETTINGS):
- Has light sensor
- Not yet clicked this link

"Create a Wishlist of books you're interested in" (WISHLIST):
- Can't understand

"Discover books related to the ones you're reading" (RELATED READS):
- Always?

"Read the user guide for your %0" (USER GUIDE):
- Has user guide
- Not read yet
- More?

"Find out what's new in this software update" (RELEASE NOTES):
- Unsure

"Learn how to borrow ebooks from your public library" (OVERDRIVE)
- Supports OverDrive
- Not signed in

"Get quick tips about reading on your eReader" (GETTING STARTED):
- Quick tour not shown yet
- Quick tour widget not showing

"Get to know your %0" (GETTING STARTED):
- Quick tour not shown yet
- Quick tour widget not showing

"Get unlimited access to books in all genres" (KOBO PLUS):

"Browse Kobo Plus books" (KOBO PLUS):
- Has kobo plus
- More?

"Browse fiction, romance, biography and more" (KOBO STORE):
- Always

"You have %0 Super Points to redeem" (KOBO SUPER POINTS):
- Has at least 0x960 (2400) super points

"Customize the way you read a book" (SETTINGS):
- Reading settings not changed yet

"Get recommendations by telling us what you like" (RECOMMENDED):
- Always

[geek1011]

Still trying to understand the disassembly. Will update later.

[geek1011]

URL is http://download.kobobooks.com/ereade...st/abtests.xml

[ItalianUruguayan]

Thanks, this is really interesting.

[geek1011]

• Overdrive will not work with affiliate rakutenbooks (found in 4.7.10413)

[geek1011]

This will be updated as I find more interesting tidbits of information.

Regex used to find kobo spans: <span [^>]*id=\"kobo(.*)\"

Chapter titles classified as end matter (used for a FeatureSetting to prevent end matter from being included in stats):

• ^Index$
• ^Searchable
• Glossary
• Acknowledge?ments?$
• ^Dedications?$
• ^Thank you
• ^About This Book$
• ^Copyright
• Credits
• Permissions
• Colophon
• About the Authou?rs?
• ^Author Bio
• ^Also By
• Bibliography
• ^Sources$
• Reading
• ^References$
• ^Notes$
• ^Footnotes$
• ^Back.?matter$
• ^Endnotes$
• Reader.?s.? Guide
• Discussion Questions
• Excerpt
• ^Preview Of
• ^Preview from
• Sneak Peek
• ^Teaser
• ^Other Books By
• ^Other Books From
• ^Coming Soon
• ^Praise for
• ^About
• Autho.*Note
• Epilogue

[geek1011]

Type the following in the search box:

To turn demo mode on, either type demo mode on or demomodeon
To turn demo mode off, either type demo mode off or demomodeoff

[geek1011]

The user agent currently follows the following pattern:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.0; en-us;) AppleWebKit/%1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/%1 (Kobo Touch %2/%3)

%1 is the webkit version.
%2 is the last 4 digits of the device id (like 0375 for the KA2, which is the last 4 digits of 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000375)
%3 is the current firmware version

This is useful because this means that my firmware downloader will be able to detect the kobo firmware version and device id to support new devices easier. I will add this feature soon.

[geek1011]

reserved 2

[geek1011]

reserved 3

[geek1011]

reserved 4

[geek1011]

reserved 5

[geek1011]

reserved 6