Glo HD [Mac-users] Update Storage, KOReader, hacks on Glo HD

[menneske]

[WorkInProgress for Glo HD with MacOS tools and Terminal]

My first eReader was in 2009.
Purpose: To publish poetry .EPUBs.

That went well.
[Ask me how to overcome auto-linebreaks in poetry, if you are interested]

Now I have a lot of ebooks. Also ePoetry.
Ideal: Gather ALL on Kobo Glo HD with a decent file navigation interface.

PS: My mind is less plastic with age, so I need solutions that are easy to follow. Hopefully I can reproduce my own understanding and successes in a meaningful way, without the need of a lot of details. I am not English native, though, so some concepts may not explained in "real" English. Sorry about that.

UPDATE STORAGE

Kobo Glo HD, mine is firmware 4.25, so I cannot use "The Magic Memory Upgrade Mod", and I don't care to fiddle with downgrading to earlier firmware to be able to do that. A cool clone on the Mac is ideal. No matter what firmware your Glo HD has.

Needed soft:
Download Apple PiBaker
Download Etcher
Ctrl-click "save as" -> KoboRoot-MagicMemory-Resize-3.16.10.zip residing on this page
Download InVisibles 1.5 from this page - or similar app

New SD card
A Sandisk Micro SDXC, with SD SDXC adapter (for USB or built-in)- [I have testet 32 and 128GB. Both work]

Tools:
Credit card or similar
Plastic plunger, plastic pincer, good eyes, good light

DO

- 1. Turn off Kobo Glo HD by holding down the button.

- 2. Kobo on hard, flat surface, face down, protect screen w/ towel.

- 3. Slide the back open with a defunct credit card - alternate pressing vertically down the edge crack to release the snaps, and lifting the back.

- 4. Good light, strong glasses: Plastic plunger to push the right-side SD card-lock to the side, while plastic pincers grasp SD card and pull horisontally out.

- 5. Insert SD card into MacOS. [Observe that some SD adapters cannot handle fast cards, but the original card should not be a problem with most adapters]

- 6. Error message on Mac -> Choose "Ignore". DO NOT AGREE TO FORMAT, DO NOT AGREE TO EJECT

- 7. To clone the original Glo SD card: Open Apple PiBaker
----- Select your SD card in PiBaker's inner window (or click the reload button next to it. Still don't see it? Re-insert your SD card (again: do not format))
----- Press "Create backup". Give it a name, eg "Kobo Glo HD". It saves as .img
----- When done cloning, quite Apple PiBaker.
----- Remove original SD card, keep in safe place,

- 8. To format NEW SD card to FAT
----- Insert new SD card in compatible SD adapter, connect to Mac
----- Open Disk Utility [Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility]
----- Choose the SD card on the left (should only be the one)
----- Click "erase"-button to open erase-window
----- Choose "format" from erase-window, from drop down -> "MS-DOS (FAT)
----- Choose "scheme" from erase-window, from drop down -> "Master Boot Record"
----- Click "erase"
----- Leave formatted SD card in adapter

- 9. To restore original content to new card: Open Etcher
----- In Etcher choose "Flash from File", navigate to cloned .img, Enter
----- Click "Select target" and select new SD card
----- Click "Flash"

- 10. Remove SD card from adapter, place card in turned-off Kobo Glo HD

- 11. Connect KOBO Glo with cable to USB on Mac,

- 12. [Kobo Glo mounts in Finder, and is called "KOBOeReader"]

- 13. Make MacOS invisible files visible with app.

- 14. Unpack "KoboRoot-MagicMemory-Resize-3.16.10.zip" to "KoboRoot-MagicMemory-Resize-3.16.10.tgz". [MacOS build-in un-compression app should not unpack to root (folder with no file extension); if it does, use The Archiver]

- 15. Rename "KoboRoot-MagicMemory-Resize-3.16.10.tgz" to "KoboRoot.tgz"

- 16. Drag KoboRoot.tgz onto .kobo on KOBOeReader in Finder

- 17. Safe eject KOBOeReader from Finder

- 18. [KOBO Glo HD blinks a few times, while it grows the SD card remaining space as storage. Then everything hopefully is back to normal. If not, try again.]*

- 19. Check settings on KOBO to see build-in storage of SD card.

- 20. Maybe clean up by making MacOS files invisible again.

[menneske]

INSTALL KOReader into memory updated Glo HD

KOReader did not work for me the first 35 times I tried. So, I satisfied myself with Vlasovsofts interface [very focused on Chess and other board games], but too many epubs it either could not read or took a really long time about opening.

Having grown to 128GB (albeit, on a fast SD card) I really need a folder structure and reliability...

INSTALL :-D

- 1. Mount KOBO Glo HD via USB to Mac

- 2. Download and unpack in Finder this "one-click installation"(November version 2020 - there may be a new one in your day - check out this KOreader installation page)

- 3. Ctrl.click to "save this link" macOS Terminal install script archive.

- 4. Unzip "kfm_mac_install.zip" as "install.command" into the "One-click KOReader installation" folder in Finder

- 5. Dbl.click script. It will try to open Terminal.app. (You may have to give MacOS permission to do so, if Preference panel "Security & Privacy" opens to complain).

- 6. [Terminal installs KOReader into mounted KOBOeReader, replacing and adding folders. Takes few seconds.]

- 7. Safely unmount/eject KOBOeReader, remove from USB

- 8. [KOBO Glo HD opens to unchanged front] Wait! [1-2 minutes later the change will have gone through].

- 9. Clicking NickelMenu opens the shortcut for KOReader

- 10. Familiarise yourself with all the amazing good stuff!

I am REALLY impressed!

---
Unanswered Question: Can I let it be Firmware-updated?

[menneske]

[placeholder]

[menneske]

Originally Posted by menneske

- 18. [KOBO Glo HD blinks a few times, while it grows the SD card remaining space as storage. Then everything hopefully is back to normal. If not, try again.]*

--
* For some reason the 128 GB card became unresponsive in the KOBO Glo HD. The 32 GB still worked, so it wasn't the KOBO. I decided to erase the SD and start over, but I could not erase the card with Apple Disk Utility as one FAT32 partition - only as 2 partitions, for some reason.

UPDATE: formatting, and testing moving a clone of the 32GB card with Koreader installed onto the 128 GB card to have it be grown to fit, did not work. I will have to begin over with the original clone to see if that works.

UPDATE 2: yes, I had to use the SD formatter app, and begin over by cloning the original 4 GB KOBO image to the 128 GB card. For some reasons only 118 GB is left now. I suspect the SD card is semi-defect. But it works.

Here is a hint how to reformat the whole SD as one.

And here is an "official" SD-formatter app. It does, however, format to ExFAT, but it will make the card formattable to FAT32 by Disk Utility