Kobo Forma: changing button behaviour

[franklekens]

Is there a way to edit the "Kobo eReader.conf" file such that you change the behaviour of the buttons so that they *both* turn a page forward?

I saw that's a feature of a so called "patch" that can be installed for the Kobo. I assume this is a mild kind of hack of the firmware that allows for more customization. But I don't really feel like installing that patch (just yet). However, if it would be simply a matter of adding or chaning a line in the "eReader.conf", I could try doing that.

MTIA.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by franklekens

Is there a way to edit the "Kobo eReader.conf" file such that you change the behaviour of the buttons so that they *both* turn a page forward?

No, if you want that feature the only current option is patching.

[geek1011]

jackie_w is correct (I made that patch). Also, unlike what quite a few people think, patching isn't risky, especially now with the new tools. The worst that can happen is it would crash when opening a book and you would need to disable the patch (but that has never happened before except once when a patch got copy-pasted wrong), and if everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong, you would need to do a factory reset (AFAIK, this has not happened before). That said, patching is quite simple, and this is one of the smallest patches.

[Liesse]

Originally Posted by franklekens

Is there a way to edit the "Kobo eReader.conf" file such that you change the behaviour of the buttons so that they *both* turn a page forward?

Thank you for asking this question. I'd found myself reading my forma a few times and wishing I could have both buttons go forward. The forma is so lovely and tactile, my hand position is sometimes better situated for the lower button than the top.

I decided to try patching when I saw the replies here. Just done it! And the forma didn't blow up. It really was easy, and I'm looking forward to the quality of life improvement. Maybe I'll try some of the other patches. Many thanks for the work that goes into it.

I hope no one minds too much if I ask a daft new patched related question. Now I've patched, how do I go on doing a firmware update? Will my kobo still download and apply an update when I sync if there is an update to apply? Obviously I would have to re patch after an update, but do I now have to apply new firmware in a different way?

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Liesse

I hope no one minds too much if I ask a daft new patched related question. Now I've patched, how do I go on doing a firmware update? Will my kobo still download and apply an update when I sync if there is an update to apply? Obviously I would have to re patch after an update, but do I now have to apply new firmware in a different way?

Updates will work the same as they ever did. Kobo (the device) doesn't know it's been patched and neither does Kobo (the company).

And yes you're correct, a firmware update wipes out all patches so they have to be re-applied using the correct kobopatch system for that specific firmware.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Updates will work the same as they ever did. Kobo (the device) doesn't know it's been patched and neither does Kobo (the company).

Yep, you're 99% correct, but Kobo (the company) can know it's patched based on the analytics showing usage of a feature on a device which doesn't usually have it.

And yes you're correct, a firmware update wipes out all patches so they have to be re-applied using the correct kobopatch system for that specific firmware.

Yes.

I can update all the patches in about 20-30 mins now (plus 10 for testing and another 10 waiting for the disassembler) (when I was learning about reverse engineering and assembly, it took about 5 hours), and I usually am available to do it within about 12 hours of the release at most. The only ones I don't update are the fixed margin and 24 line spacing values patches, as I didn't make them and don't know enough yet about how they work to be confident in updating them. GeoffR updates those ones (thanks!) within about a week.

When patching, I recommend using my "Always show confirmation dialog before upgrading" patch (or GeoffR's upgrade blocking one) to prevent an update before you are ready.