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uk kobo wifi image

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hi all
ive got a kobo wifi here in the uk.
i have lost all the data on the internal sd card which was my fault.
im looking for a replacement image if possible or how i can reinstall all the data
i have had a couple of images from a couple of people (many thanks to flyboy 320, kevinshort & davidfor)

Kobo wifi PNG display

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I have just got a Kobo wifi (4-bit display version), rooted it and installed the koboWeather[3] app on it.

Something that I haven't seen anywhere in my research is a better way of displaying images other than using the "/usr/local/Kobo/pickel showpic" method. Even the koboWeather app uses this which causes one fairly major drawback - speed. Converting the pygame surface to a raw image takes very many seconds.

By using the ioctl dumper interposer[2] I decoded the relevant ioctl for displaying an image. Then with the aid of one of the libpng example programs[3] I hacked together a program that can read a PNG image and write it to the display without using pickel.

With the aid of this program the koboWeather app's convert_to_raw function requires only a single line to write a PNG file

Code:

def convert_to_raw(surface):
    pygame.image.save(surface,"/tmp/img.png");

which can then be displayed with my new program

Code:

call(["rpng-kobo", "/tmp/img.png"])
which is much faster than converting to a raw image and displaying it.

My program can also display a PNG image which is not full-screen by passing in the x,y coordinates of the top left of the image like this:

Code:

rpng-kobo test.png 300 400
In theory this could be used to make apps more interactive since you don't need to refresh the whole screen for every update - something for further investigation.

I've attached the source code and executable - only tested on an eReader wifi with 4-bit display.

[1] https://bitbucket.org/david_weese/kobo-weather-app
[2] https://github.com/kobolabs/Kobo-Rea...e/master/poser
[3] http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/book/sources.html

Attached Files
File Type: zip png-kobo.zip (16.2 KB)

Mini Linux on mini needing advice

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I have Linux installed on my Kobo Mini after following some of the posts here, utilising Marek's image. Thank you Marek!

I have installed Xfce4 and now that I can adjust the size of fonts and try some high contrast themes it is now useable for me and my poor eyes!

But, before I put any real data of mine on it I would really like to be able to password protect it, both at boot and after it has blanked the screen. But how to get either the virtual keyboard to appear when I tap the screen or at login?

I would settle for a pin code entry system, or even a drawing of a pattern as per Android, but can't find one for Linux.

Any suggestions?

Preventing Wi-Fi firmware updating

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I know I can turn Wi-Fi off, but I like to get my new content from the Kobo store, and I want to have my Pocket articles synchronized -- but I *don't* want to have a new Firmware pushed to my device when I'm traveling, or before my favourite hacks (night mode, 2-finger brightness control for Aura) are updated. Is there a way I can do that? A config setting that says, "Don't update the firmware"? I would imagine that the Kobo support people must have some way of keeping units at older firmwares while otherwise accessing Wi-Fi, for testing purposes. Anybody know what the magic words are?

Thanks!

fonts in kobo's webbrowser

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Hi,

I'm from China , and you knew kobo doesn't support Chinese language.
With the folder "fonts" and my Chinese fonts in it , I can read Chinese e-book now . But the fonts doesn't work in the browser when Web pages contain Chinese .

Yesterday , I found that my Chinese fonts Works perfectly when the page has the css "text-shadow" property(like "text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #ff0000;") .

So , what's the problem?
(my device is kobo glo 3.1.1)

Kobo wifi /dev/ntx_io hacking

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While examining various system calls that nickel makes I noticed that /dev/ntx_io is accessed a lot. So by looking at the source code for the Linux kernel I worked out what a lot of the ioctl() calls do.

I now have a program that can:
  • Detect if the SD card is inserted.
  • Detect if the SD card is read-only or read-write.
  • Detect if USB is connected.
  • Detect if the power button has just been pressed.
  • Get the battery charge status.
  • Switch on the blue LED.
  • Flash the blue LED once.

The attached is tested on a Wifi ereader with 4-bit display (m166e hardware version), but the source code of the imx357 hardware version (which I think is the 8-bit version) appears very similar.

Attached Files
File Type: zip ntx_io.zip (5.4 KB)

Instructions for patching firmware 3.2.0

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Before starting, make sure that you are on firmware 3.2.0 (d0a9bf18ea) as shown under Software version in Device Information in Settings.

These instructions are for Windows only.

1. Download mz_koboreaderpatch_11.exe (self-extracting archive) from http://rghost.net/50558386. You will only need the kpg.exe file from this archive so disregard the other files. Place this file in a convenient directory.

2. Download the .zip file attached to this message. At this time (2014-Feb-24), the only patch I've implemented is the footer patch. Extract the kpg.conf and patchgen.cmd file and place them in the same directory as kpg.exe.

Update: I've switched to GeoffR's kpg.conf in the .zip file which includes many of the other patches in addition to the footer patch.

3. Check the following post in the Direct Links to Kobo Firmware thead and download a kobo-update-3.20.zip file from there:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=774

Once you have the update file, extract the libnickel.so.1.0.0 file (located in the KoboRoot.tgz under usr/local/Kobo/libnickel.so.1.0.0. I use 7Zip for this this. The file size should be 21,809,640 bytes.

Copy this file into the same directory as the previous 3 files.

5. Run patchgen.cmd, wait for it to finish and hit any key to close the window. I chose this method to allow me to see if there are any error messages without having to run kpg.exe from a command prompt.

6. Copy the KoboRoot.tgz file generated to your Kobo ereader in the .kobo directory, safely disconnect it from your computer and wait for the update to install.

Regards,
David

Attached Files
File Type: zip kpg_conf_320.zip (2.5 KB)

Need help with mark 2 WIFI

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I have a Kobo Wifi that has recently developed some odd behaviour:
  • When it boots up, it always displays "Updating the software on your eReader"
  • No books are in the library when it does boot
  • When connected to the computer, the connected drive is completely empty. Not even a .kobo directory.
  • Using the device to reset to factory has no effect. The drive is still completely empty.

I tried to reconstruct a .kobo directory with a downloaded database, but while Calibre will now see the normal free books when I connect the device, the device itself still does not see anything.

I realize this is just a mark 2, but I'd still like to get it back up and running. Any advice? If anyone has a mark 2, I'd love to get a complete .zip of your .kobo directory to try and get mine back up and running.

An RSS reader for kobo wifi e-reader

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Following on from my earlier thread[1] where I created a new program for directly displaying PNG images on my wifi e-reader (4-bit display depth) without a full screen update I have created a simple RSS reader application.

To be able to use this you will need the python interpreter from the kobo-weather[2] application and the contents of the zip file attached here.

To use the RSS reader you need to copy the files onto the e-reader and from within that directory run:
Code:

python rss-gui.py
There is a file called rssurls.py that can be edited to change the list of RSS sources to use. The program will start up with a list of these sources which can be selected using the up/down and select butons (pressing the back button will exit the program).

When one of the RSS sources is selected the file will be downloaded, converted to a set of PNG files and then displayed. The individual pages can be viewed using the left/right buttons and the back button returns to the menu. Some example images are shown attached (not particularly pretty but useable).

The RSS processing makes use of the feedparser.py[3] and html2text.py[4] libraries to do the conversion and my PNG displaying program[1] to show them. The selection of the RSS sources from the menu (updating the highlighted menu items) is performed by writing to the frame buffer directly from Python.

As with my previous work this has only been tested on an e-reader with 4-bit display, but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work on the 8-bit version (the image handling is all performed in 8-bit depth).

[1] http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=234002
[2] https://bitbucket.org/david_weese/kobo-weather-app
[3] http://code.google.com/p/feedparser/
[4] https://github.com/aaronsw/html2text

Attached Thumbnails
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Attached Files
File Type: zip rss-reader.zip (74.2 KB)

kobo weather app

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So did anyone successfully get the weather app installed from here ? I managed to telnet into my device, I extracted the python libraries from here and have the app (all the root files from the site) extracted in my .kobo folder (which, I assume, is the successor of the .apps folder mentioned in the link) but am at a loss about what I should do next. Running

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=mnt/onboard/.kobo/python/pygamelibs/ python


results in a file not found message. Running weather.py from the bitbucket link using SSH results in a "Permission denied" message even though it looks like I'm in as root and I don't know what the equivalent of SUDO is for running files using SSH...

Yeah, I'm something of a noob that's patient enough to get somewhere. I would appreciate any help or advice with this.

My device is a Kobo Aura running the latest firmware and yes, I backed it up to a 4gb microsd using this method before trying any of this.

new de-en KOBO dictionary

Glo Fonts "update" on boot

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Hi all,

Apologies in advance if this has been raised before, I couldn't find anything on google.

I'm currently running 3.2.0 with this patch. My intention is to modify the font face used in the dictionary so it can display Vietnamese correctly. I'm partially successful but the solution is not as "clean" as I would like.

I was able to change the dictionary font to a Vietnamese-compatible Unicode font (Kobo Nickel for example). The problem is upon reboot, if I go straight to the dictionary (Extras > Dictionary) or look-up a word from a book, the font used in the dictionary appears to be Georgia still.

The only way for the dictionary to display Kobo Nickel correctly is to open a book, go to font-properties menu/popup [Aa] first. After that, Kobo Nickel would be used in the dictionary. This opening of the font-properties menu appears to "load" the font cache to make the fonts available to nickel. From my tests, this is true to both built-in fonts as well as external ones.

I'm investigating ways to automate this loading/refreshing of the font cache upon boot but don't know where to start. Any input is much appreciated.

:thanks:

Glo Any performance difference using faster microsd card?

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Hi. I have a Kobo Glo with firmware 3.1.1 using the standard 2 GB microsd card it came with, and no secondary microsd card. I'm generally pretty happy with the device, like the battery life and great screen for reading. Main niggle for me is inconsistent performance of device and some lost taps (next page or in word scramble game). Clearly the performance is limited by the CPU on this low power device, and dependent on the firmware from Kobo. However, I was wondering whether I might be able to make a quick win by replacing the microsd card: I believe that the internal microsd card is a Sandisk standard one, which will have pretty low performance I imagine. Whereas for a low cost I could replace it with a faster one such as the Sandisk Ultra.

Has anybody tried a faster microsd card to replace the original card and tested the difference, if any?

Thanks in advance

Adjust font within the Book Store

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I have a problem when browsing the Kobo Book store within my Aura HD, the fonts are way way way too small. I cannot read the synopsis or details about the books I am interested in. Is there a way to increase these fonts? Thanks.

pygame and 2.6.2 firmware

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Hi all,
Just picked up a kobo mini with the intention of hacking it and playing around with python :-)
I have installed the telnet hack successfully and installed python.

Am I correct in thinking that pygame is incompatible with firmware 2.6.2?

I have tried several times to downgrade to 2.5.2 but after installing/rebooting the device always gets stuck in boot-up mode and never becomes operational. I have to restore from a backup image to get back to a working system.

I would like to ask 2 questions...

1/What is the correct procedure to successfully downgrade a kobo mini to 2.5.2 and block it from auto upgrading to 2.6.2?

OR...

2/Is there any way the pygame library can be made to work with 2.6.2?

Thanks very much in advance
Phil

Sqlite on Kobo

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I'm trying to add SqLite on Kobo. I downloaded sqlite3 armel package and deps from Debian repo, and removed files already present on the device. Then I created a KoboRoot.tgz and installed it. I get this error:

Code:

[root@(none) ~]# sqlite3
sqlite3: error while loading shared libraries: libsqlite3.so.0:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I think I have to add /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabi/ to the library search paths, but I don't know how to do it on Kobo.

DB Auto-Backup Tool for Kobo

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Since I got the database corrupted very much times, I decided to do this little auto-backup tool.

It simply backups the db every 20 minutes in a hidden place. If the database is corrupted, you can see the backup in the .kobo folder with the name KoboReader_bak.sqlite.

How to install it: Check the instructions here.
How to repair your db: if you want to restore the backup, you have to follow these steps very carefully:
  1. attach your device to a PC
  2. go to .kobo directory
  3. rename KoboReader.sqlite as you want
  4. rename KoboReader_bak.sqlite to KoboReader.sqlite

I hope it will help us to save some time. Thanks to tshering for sqlite and USB detection, and yoq for runonce trick.


For devs only:
Spoiler:
Currently the script has some limitations:
  1. I need a better way to detected when the device is connected via USB (lsusb)
  2. no message is displayed if db is corrupted. I'm trying to use the LED light. I also know that I can display images using pickel showpic or pickel wait-for-hit (no pickel legendary?) but it does not work: I tried this while SSH connected, without any success:
    PHP Code:

    killall -STOP nickel
    zcat 
    /etc/images/kraken-factory-reset.raw.gz | /usr/local/Kobo/pickel showpic 


old post contents:
Spoiler:
backup file is not in the flash partition, but in /var/bak/. This is the reason.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHP Code:

zcat /etc/images/error_kernel.raw.gz | /usr/local/Kobo/pickel wait-for-hit 0 0 100 100 0 100 100 100 


.

Attached Files
File Type: zip [Kobo] DB Auto-Backup Tool - v0.2.zip (259.1 KB)

coolreader/koreader without fmon

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Hi,

I got a mini (FW3.20) for a while and tried advboot to test koreader without "pre launching" nickel.
Problem is, it freeze, i don't know if it's koreader or not)

I would try to use coolreader as i love landscape to read but i don't know how to install it without fmon (i want to keep most of the ressources of the kobo).

Do kobo start menu will do the trick ? I don't really understand how to install it and use cr3 without installing pbchess and fmon.. :smack:


Thanks

"Mounting" the Kobo internal uSD card in Windows 7 x64

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There is probably an easier way but this isn't too bad.

First you will need BOOTICEx64.

Then you can remove your Kobo device's internal uSD card, from your device and plug it into the reader on your PC.

Open Bootice and check that the "Destination Disk" is your uSD card.

Select the "Parts Manage" button and "Backup Partition Table", to save the existing partition arrangement so it can be restored easily after you are done. [I save mine in the same folder I keep my backup image files.]

Then select the "KOBOeReader" partition and click on the "Set Accessible" button. It should move to the top of the list. Now backup the partition table again and give it a name like; "AuraHD_FAT1st.dpt"

Close and exit Bootice. Open Windows Explrer and you should now have the FAT32 partition mounted and you can modify its contents.

When you are done, you open Bootice and restore the original partition table, that you saved earlier. Your uSD card should now work in your Kobo device again, with the changes you made in effect.

So...Now all you need to do to "Mount" the uSD card with the FAT32 accessible (for updates, ect.), is to "Restore" the FAT1st version of the partition table. Make your changes and then restore using the backup of the original partition table.

[My AuraHD all of a sudden gave me a "Code 43 Device has a problem" message and my USB connection won't work. Trying to fix it has not been pleasant. The Code 43 error is keeping me from getting any of the USB connection options (Nickel's, your Start Menu's, or Sergey's) to work, therefor I needed another way to do upgrades. Windows normally can't read the kobo devices internal uSD card, but this way I can read and write to the FAT32 partition, and do my upgrades/modifications. My AuraHD has a hatch that lets me remove the uSD card easily, so I can still make changes/upgrades even though I no longer have a working USB connection.]

Does anyone know of an easier way to mount the card in Win7 x64?

Luck;
Ken

Aura HD Need Help with Fullscreen Mod

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I have never modded my Kobo before, but this one caught my interest so I should try it:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=217192

I have no idea where to begin, and I thought people would ignore me were I to post in that thread. Can someone help me here instead? Thanks a lot!

PS: I can only select one prefix on the thread, but I also want to load the same mod for my Kobo Mini.
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