Direct Links to Kobo Firmware - Page 64

dmapr · 07-27-2014, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rantoie

Thanks for the replies about the Mark models, that helps clarify things.

Since I have an HD, and for some reason I'm still on 3.3.0 FW, I'm going to prepare a side-load upgrade to 3.5.0, bundling in the ssh server, the /etc/hosts overrides of google analytics, etc. All my hacks and tweaks got overwritten by the automatic upgrade to the previous version, so now I'm going to bundle my own and side-load it.

I'm surprised that people aren't bundling and providing a complete package for people that includes all the good hacks and tweaks (like cyanogenmod for android), it would make things easier for people if there was just one update you had to install, instead of having to trawl through mobile read to find all the things you can do.

I'm pretty sure people are not going to agree on what needs and doesn't need to be included. That's why the patcher has the ability to turn on/off certain patches. For example, I'm personally not at all interested in either the SSH server or GA overrides simply because I never turn on the networking. Somebody else may deem other goodies unnecessary and so on, not to mention legal aspects of repackaging Kobo's firmware which (unlike Android) is not open source (at least I don't believe it is).

murg · 07-27-2014, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leftright

currently the instructions are;
Installation Instructions for Direct Zip Files

Get a zip file.
Unzip the zip file.
If going to a previous version, you may want to do a Factory Reset.
Connect your device to the computer and select Connect on the device (if asked). Make sure that the Kobo Desktop is not running.
Copy the entire contents of the zip file to the .kobo directory on the device.
Disconnect the device.
The Touch will now install the new software.

Shouldn't it be;
Installation Instructions for Direct Zip Files

Get a zip file.
Unzip the zip file.
If going to a previous version, you may want to do a Factory Reset.
Connect your device to the computer and select Connect on the device (if asked). Make sure that the Kobo Desktop is not running.
Copy the entire contents of the unzipped directory to the .kobo directory on the device.
Disconnect the device.
The Touch will now install the new software.

I've changed the post with the firmware sideloading instructions (the third post of this thread).

I considered your changes, but decided to mostly keep the original wording. The original line says "Copy the entire contents of the zip file to the .kobo directory on the device." I consider this to be correct. I've added a second line to this item, though: "Do not copy the original zip file itself to the device." This should be sufficient to clarify things.

I especially didn't want to use the term 'unzipped directory' as it is entirely possible that the firmware is not unzipped to a new directory, thereby comingling the firmware files with other files. Also, on Windows, it is possible to access the contents of the zip file without unzipping it.

akorx · 07-28-2014, 02:53 PM

Is there a page where we can post ideas for next firmwares

?

For example, I think the scroll for light is too difficult to set, it should be interesting to have a "-" and a "+" at each extremity of the bar to adjust the light one by one... it's not a big work for developers and a lot of people could be interested by this add. So where can I post this suggestion ?

Maybe some people have other ideas that could be quickly integrated in next firmwares if thoose new functions do not need too much development...

Last thing : Yoq and kevinshort have made a big work around the "night mode", why not integrate it into the firmware because it's THE basic function that a lot of people use (all the others marks/models proposed the function like amazon/kindle, etc))

?

davidfor · 07-28-2014, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by akorx

Is there a page where we can post ideas for next firmwares

?

You mean like the sticky threads https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105210 and https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139965? Or do you mean an official Kobo place? If so, there doesn't seem to be one.

Quote:

For example, I think the scroll for light is too difficult to set, it should be interesting to have a "-" and a "+" at each extremity of the bar to adjust the light one by one... it's not a big work for developers and a lot of people could be interested by this add. So where can I post this suggestion ?

Maybe some people have other ideas that could be quickly integrated in next firmwares if thoose new functions do not need too much development...

Last thing : Yoq and kevinshort have made a big work around the "night mode", why not integrate it into the firmware because it's THE basic function that a lot of people use (all the others marks/models proposed the function like amazon/kindle, etc))

?

For whatever reason, Kobo have not chosen to implement this. Hopefully that means they have done some research and found that it is not actually used by many people. Or that there is a technical reason that it is a bad idea. More likely is that they have a long list of things to implement and they don't see this as important as some of the others. Personally, I have no use for it and hope they spend time on things I want.

DNSB · 07-28-2014, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by akorx

Is there a page where we can post ideas for next firmwares

?

For example, I think the scroll for light is too difficult to set, it should be interesting to have a "-" and a "+" at each extremity of the bar to adjust the light one by one... it's not a big work for developers and a lot of people could be interested by this add. So where can I post this suggestion ?

Oddly on my Aura HD, that functionality is already there. When I pop up the light control, if I touch the little light icon at the left end of the bar, the brightness drops, if I touch the large light icon at the right end, the brightness increases. Default is by 10% but one of the patches changes that value (default is by 1%). Of course, this misses the bleeping double 28% bug (brightness goes 27%-28%-28%-30%) which is a bug that is close to getting tenure.

Regards,
David

lopta · 08-09-2014, 11:50 PM

My poor Kobo WiFi (N289) won't boot after I tried to format it. If I press the power button the blue light blinks and the seven little squares in the bottom, right-hand corner of the screen march endlessly. If I hold the Menu button while I power it on, it says "Initialising USB partition" and then "Please Connect Your eReader to USB". If I do that, it looks as though I can mount a 200M partition with an empty folder called .kobo_upgrade. My guess is that it would like to be fed a firmware image. I tried installing the Kobo Desktop app on my wife's PC but it won't even launch because Windows says it's not a valid 32-bit app. I'm comfortable with dd and can find an SD card if that will help. Is firmware available somewhere for my Kobo?

meeera · 08-09-2014, 11:53 PM

Iopta: I suggest contacting Kobo. They've been replacing Wifis bricked by auto firmware upgrade with Kobo Touches.

lopta · 08-10-2014, 12:08 AM

I wouldn't decline a new Kobo but my hope is to get this one working. I suspect there's nothing wrong with it physically and if I can get it back on its feet with a firmware update, that will save them the cost of a new Kobo, shipping etc.

davidfor · 08-10-2014, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lopta

My poor Kobo WiFi (N289) won't boot after I tried to format it. If I press the power button the blue light blinks and the seven little squares in the bottom, right-hand corner of the screen march endlessly. If I hold the Menu button while I power it on, it says "Initialising USB partition" and then "Please Connect Your eReader to USB". If I do that, it looks as though I can mount a 200M partition with an empty folder called .kobo_upgrade. My guess is that it would like to be fed a firmware image. I tried installing the Kobo Desktop app on my wife's PC but it won't even launch because Windows says it's not a valid 32-bit app. I'm comfortable with dd and can find an SD card if that will help. Is firmware available somewhere for my Kobo?

I take it you formatted the visible partition from the PC? If so, that explains the rest.

Holding the menu button down and turning on, should do a factory reset. It is now waiting to get the latest firmware and do the basic configuration. And the desktop app is needed for that.

The problem with the desktop app is that Kobo decided to drop support for XP in the latest version. Downloading a copy now will get the Win7/8 only version. There are a couple of threads discussion this. I can't remember if there was a link to XP version one posted or not.

The second post in this thread has a link to firmware for the WiFi. That can be sideloaded. But, it probably won't help as I think the desktop app is still needed for logging in. A dummy user can be inserted into the database to avoid this, but I don't think this will work if you are buying and syncing books with Kobo. The same goes for reimaging the disk.

lopta · 08-10-2014, 12:12 PM

I found one there that specifically mentions the "Mark 2 Wifi" but it seems that mine is a different model (Mk 1?) because kobo-update-1.9.11.zip contains upgrade/m166e, which I'm guessing is a model number and mine is an N289. Should I copy the entire contents of the zip file into the .kobo_upgrade folder or do some of the files go elsewhere?

davidfor · 08-10-2014, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lopta

I found one there that specifically mentions the "Mark 2 Wifi" but it seems that mine is a different model (Mk 1?) because kobo-update-1.9.11.zip contains upgrade/m166e, which I'm guessing is a model number and mine is an N289. Should I copy the entire contents of the zip file into the .kobo_upgrade folder or do some of the files go elsewhere?

No, "Mark 1", "Mark 2", etc refer to he generations of the Kobo devices. There are two different WiFi's, but they are both Mark 2. The "m166e" refers to something in the hardware, probably the processor. In any case, that is the file you want.

tshering · 08-11-2014, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lopta

If I hold the Menu button while I power it on, it says "Initialising USB partition" and then "Please Connect Your eReader to USB".

From this I take that your reader is working as expected and is waiting to be registered. But this does not happen because

Quote:

Originally Posted by lopta

I tried installing the Kobo Desktop app on my wife's PC but it won't even launch because Windows says it's not a valid 32-bit app.

So there seems to be no need of an image or another firmware update at this point.
As Davidfor suggested you can circumvent the registration by inserting a dummy user into the data base. The data base is ./kobo/KoboReader.sqlite. The table "user" consists currently of one row. Add a second row with made up content. After rejecting the reader from the pc it should be ready for usage. After that you can still consider steps how to officially register in order to use the kobo server for synchronizing your notes and so on.

I have to admit however that I am surprised about the .kobo_upgrade folder.

lopta · 08-11-2014, 09:42 PM

Ah if only. I have installed the desktop application on my work laptop (Windows 7) and signed into my Kobo account but the desktop app doesn't see my Kobo and the "EREADER" tab is greyed out.

PeterT · 08-11-2014, 09:47 PM

Does Windows see the device?

trinity1 · 08-12-2014, 02:37 PM

I had the same problem and solved as follows:
1. Dowmloaded latest fw (at thay time it was 2.8.1, now you can go for 3.5.0) and extracted files onto pc for further use
2. Downloaded and installed sqlite manager
3. Went for a Glo's factory reset and reconnected the Glo to the pc (to have access to the internal memory)
4. Copied KoboReader.sqlite file onto PC and opened with sqlite manager.
5. Modified "standard" values of USER records with the "fake" (you can easily find here on Mobileread)
6. Rebooted the KGlo. It booted without any issues.
7. Reconnnected the KGlo to the PC and copied fw files (those previously extracted) into .kobo directory
8. Disconnected the Kglo. At this point the upgrade started...
Then I had to push all my epub/kepub into the KGlo (I did it with Calibre, since I use to manage my universal biblioteque: I have 805 books).

07-28-2014, 02:53 PM	#948
akorx Addict Posts: 336 Karma: 59242 Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: France, languages : french and a little bit english. Device: Kobo Glo, Aura HD	Is there a page where we can post ideas for next firmwares ? For example, I think the scroll for light is too difficult to set, it should be interesting to have a "-" and a "+" at each extremity of the bar to adjust the light one by one... it's not a big work for developers and a lot of people could be interested by this add. So where can I post this suggestion ? Maybe some people have other ideas that could be quickly integrated in next firmwares if thoose new functions do not need too much development... Last thing : Yoq and kevinshort have made a big work around the "night mode", why not integrate it into the firmware because it's THE basic function that a lot of people use (all the others marks/models proposed the function like amazon/kindle, etc)) ? Last edited by akorx; 07-28-2014 at 03:39 PM.

08-12-2014, 02:37 PM	#960
trinity1 Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 13450 Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Civitavecchia (Italy) Device: Kobo Glo	I had the same problem and solved as follows: 1. Dowmloaded latest fw (at thay time it was 2.8.1, now you can go for 3.5.0) and extracted files onto pc for further use 2. Downloaded and installed sqlite manager 3. Went for a Glo's factory reset and reconnected the Glo to the pc (to have access to the internal memory) 4. Copied KoboReader.sqlite file onto PC and opened with sqlite manager. 5. Modified "standard" values of USER records with the "fake" (you can easily find here on Mobileread) 6. Rebooted the KGlo. It booted without any issues. 7. Reconnnected the KGlo to the PC and copied fw files (those previously extracted) into .kobo directory 8. Disconnected the Kglo. At this point the upgrade started... Then I had to push all my epub/kepub into the KGlo (I did it with Calibre, since I use to manage my universal biblioteque: I have 805 books). Last edited by trinity1; 08-12-2014 at 02:40 PM.

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08-09-2014, 11:50 PM	#951
lopta Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2014 Device: Kobo WiFi	My poor Kobo WiFi (N289) won't boot after I tried to format it. If I press the power button the blue light blinks and the seven little squares in the bottom, right-hand corner of the screen march endlessly. If I hold the Menu button while I power it on, it says "Initialising USB partition" and then "Please Connect Your eReader to USB". If I do that, it looks as though I can mount a 200M partition with an empty folder called .kobo_upgrade. My guess is that it would like to be fed a firmware image. I tried installing the Kobo Desktop app on my wife's PC but it won't even launch because Windows says it's not a valid 32-bit app. I'm comfortable with dd and can find an SD card if that will help. Is firmware available somewhere for my Kobo?

08-09-2014, 11:53 PM	#952
meeera Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,658 Karma: 66417824 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles	Iopta: I suggest contacting Kobo. They've been replacing Wifis bricked by auto firmware upgrade with Kobo Touches.

08-10-2014, 12:08 AM	#953
lopta Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2014 Device: Kobo WiFi	I wouldn't decline a new Kobo but my hope is to get this one working. I suspect there's nothing wrong with it physically and if I can get it back on its feet with a firmware update, that will save them the cost of a new Kobo, shipping etc.

08-10-2014, 12:12 PM	#955
lopta Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2014 Device: Kobo WiFi	I found one there that specifically mentions the "Mark 2 Wifi" but it seems that mine is a different model (Mk 1?) because kobo-update-1.9.11.zip contains upgrade/m166e, which I'm guessing is a model number and mine is an N289. Should I copy the entire contents of the zip file into the .kobo_upgrade folder or do some of the files go elsewhere?

08-11-2014, 09:42 PM	#958
lopta Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2014 Device: Kobo WiFi	Ah if only. I have installed the desktop application on my work laptop (Windows 7) and signed into my Kobo account but the desktop app doesn't see my Kobo and the "EREADER" tab is greyed out.

08-11-2014, 09:47 PM	#959
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,160 Karma: 73448616 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Nexus 7, Clara, Touch, Tolino EPOS	Does Windows see the device?