Emulating Kobo firmware in virtual machine

NiMa · 08-20-2020, 12:03 PM

Hi,
Just for a little bit of fun and nostalgia, I wondered this morning if it was possible to 'emulate' the Kobo firmware in something like QEMU ARM.
What I would like is, yes, run the latest firmware in that emulator, and also run older firmwares (3.x, 2.x, 1.x) just for nostalgia.
I think that's not very easy, but I'd be willing to do it if you have ideas or instructions. I'd really like that!

So, if you have any ideas, paths to follow, etc. Feel free to give them to me!

Thanks!

geek1011 · 08-20-2020, 01:02 PM

I've experimented with this before. If you're only interested in CLI stuff. (e.g. my dictword-test tool), you can use proot and the base fs from fs.tgz in the recovery partition with the upgrade extracted over it. For a full system, you'd need to emulate the NTX hardware and the e-ink screen at the minimum. That might be doable with FUSE (you'll need to handle ioctls too), but it might be easier in QEMU. Either way, that will be quite a bit of work. I'm not planning on pursuing this further myself.

NiMa · 08-20-2020, 01:05 PM

Thanks for your answer. I'll investigate and post my discoveries and other stuff here.
If you other people have further recommendations about that, feel free to post them here.
Thanks!

geek1011 · 08-20-2020, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiMa

Thanks for your answer. I'll investigate and post my discoveries and other stuff here.
If you other people have further recommendations about that, feel free to post them here.
Thanks!

Note that if you choose to go the e-ink emulation way, it'll require a lot of experience with Linux internals and emulation. Also, I just had another (easier) idea for emulating the ntx_io and e-ink stuff: you could hook mmap/open/ioctl instead of emulating the file (see the old kobo-nightmode for some stuff about this).

08-20-2020, 12:03 PM	#1
NiMa Fanatic Posts: 507 Karma: 2390534 Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Somewhere in the Universe Device: Kobo Libra, Glo HD, Touch C/B, Mini, Glo, Aura SE, Clara HD, KT	Emulating Kobo firmware in virtual machine Hi, Just for a little bit of fun and nostalgia, I wondered this morning if it was possible to 'emulate' the Kobo firmware in something like QEMU ARM. What I would like is, yes, run the latest firmware in that emulator, and also run older firmwares (3.x, 2.x, 1.x) just for nostalgia. I think that's not very easy, but I'd be willing to do it if you have ideas or instructions. I'd really like that! So, if you have any ideas, paths to follow, etc. Feel free to give them to me! Thanks! Last edited by NiMa; 08-20-2020 at 01:02 PM.

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08-20-2020, 01:02 PM	#2
geek1011 Wizard Posts: 2,804 Karma: 7025947 Join Date: May 2016 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Mini, Aura Edition 2 v1, Clara HD	I've experimented with this before. If you're only interested in CLI stuff. (e.g. my dictword-test tool), you can use proot and the base fs from fs.tgz in the recovery partition with the upgrade extracted over it. For a full system, you'd need to emulate the NTX hardware and the e-ink screen at the minimum. That might be doable with FUSE (you'll need to handle ioctls too), but it might be easier in QEMU. Either way, that will be quite a bit of work. I'm not planning on pursuing this further myself.

08-20-2020, 01:05 PM	#3
NiMa Fanatic Posts: 507 Karma: 2390534 Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Somewhere in the Universe Device: Kobo Libra, Glo HD, Touch C/B, Mini, Glo, Aura SE, Clara HD, KT	Thanks for your answer. I'll investigate and post my discoveries and other stuff here. If you other people have further recommendations about that, feel free to post them here. Thanks!

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