Sage Kobo Sage SD image?

[kohzn]

Hello,

I would like to "safely" do some tinkering without worrying that I'll end up bricking the whole thing, hence I would like to have a backup image which I can use if things go south.

As far as I know, Kobo Sage has a soldered memory? Are there any other ways that I could try to "safely" obtain the image? Is it possible to use other device's image? (most likely not).

[PeterT]

Not meaning to be dense but.... how would you restore the image to a non removable storage media?

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by kohzn

Hello,

I would like to "safely" do some tinkering without worrying that I'll end up bricking the whole thing, hence I would like to have a backup image which I can use if things go south.

What sort of tinkering are you thinking of? Most of what is discussed here will not cause issues. Patching, KOReader, etc. should not cause the problems. You would probably need to play with the kernel or replacing the full OS with something else before it became an issue.

As far as I know, Kobo Sage has a soldered memory? Are there any other ways that I could try to "safely" obtain the image? Is it possible to use other device's image? (most likely not).

You could probably generate an issue and write it to over the network somewhere. That should be workable, but, might take a while. But, as PeterT said, restoring it is another matter. You might be able to restore it to a working device over the network, but, I have no idea how well it would work. For a "bricked" device, you would need to connect and update it some other way. There are headers on the PCB that can be used. It has been discussed, but, I do not remember if anyone has successfully revived a device that way.

[kohzn]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Not meaning to be dense but.... how would you restore the image to a non removable storage media?

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

You are not dense! It was 100 % wishful thinking on my part and I just thought that maybe there was a way that didn't involve unsoldering / soldering. I know, wishful thinking.

What sort of tinkering are you thinking of? Most of what is discussed here will not cause issues. Patching, KOReader, etc. should not cause the problems. You would probably need to play with the kernel or replacing the full OS with something else before it became an issue.

Tinkering Well, to be specific: I would need to make changes to the init rcS file, which of course could bork the whole thing if I mess something up -- and I feel like there's a pretty high chance for me to mess it up someway that I didn't even know that was possible in the first place. I've used Linux for 3 years or so on my work computer and home, so by no means I've no full understanding of all possible ways how I could bork it up. I remember that I've managed to bork a one server init file by copy-pasting a file that I edited on a Windows PC.


But yeah, even if I could get the image by somehow the real problem is that if the whole thing just boot loops or won't boot at all, there's probably no way to reflash it _easily_. It's beyond my expertise and rather, I do not even know if it would be even possible to somehow unsolder the memory and reflash it on a dummy board.

Regardless, good talk, seems like I'm just dense.

There's nothing important on my device, I could just buy a new one but of course, I'd rather not to.