Patch for unlocking builtin Dropbox/Google Drive support

[imax]

I've sent a pull request to kobopatch repo a few days ago (https://github.com/pgaskin/kobopatch-patches/pull/139).

Firmware has a hardcoded list of device models on which these features are enabled. The patch simply changes device model checks to always return "true", effectively enabling them on any device.

I've applied this to my Kobo Libra 2 and Google Drive sync works perfectly well.

Initially I was setting out to find a way to enable them via some simple config changes, but, sadly, it turned out that libnickel simply does

return this->isFrost() || this->isEuropa();

🫠

If you happen to know of a less intrusive way to achieve the same without patching libnickel.so after every update - please do let me know!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by imax

I've sent a pull request to kobopatch repo a few days ago (https://github.com/pgaskin/kobopatch-patches/pull/139).

Firmware has a hardcoded list of device models on which these features are enabled. The patch simply changes device model checks to always return "true", effectively enabling them on any device.

I've applied this to my Kobo Libra 2 and Google Drive sync works perfectly well.

Initially I was setting out to find a way to enable them via some simple config changes, but, sadly, it turned out that libnickel simply does

return this->isFrost() || this->isEuropa();

🫠

If you happen to know of a less intrusive way to achieve the same without patching libnickel.so after every update - please do let me know!

Where is the actual patch?

[imax]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Where is the actual patch?

In the pull request, in the "Files changed" tab. Just in case, also attaching it here.

[PeterT]

I will admit this is a patch I'm not really in favour of; it's adding functionality that is intended for new devices to older ones.

[imax]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I will admit this is a patch I'm not really in favour of; it's adding functionality that is intended for new devices to older ones.

My point of view is that the code is already there (and hopefully tested before shipping), the patch simply removes artificial gating of the features to more expensive devices.

I personally prefer having this over third-party scripts for similar results.

[PeterT]

I seem to remember hearing from Kobo devs that one issue was memory usage; that older devices did not have sufficient RAM for this function to be reliable.

[imax]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I seem to remember hearing from Kobo devs that one issue was memory usage; that older devices did not have sufficient RAM for this function to be reliable.

Yeah, it might need a bit of RAM. Some devices Kobo ships this to have 512MB of RAM, so any of their devices having that much memory should be fine.

With 256MB I'd still give it a shot, but would be fully prepared to roll it back if it crashes.

[Aleron Ives]

Nice! Did you use Ghidra to locate the relevant functions that need patching?

[imax]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Nice! Did you use Ghidra to locate the relevant functions that need patching?

Yup. It was a bit messy though, because I don't have a .gdt with Qt stuff.

[aceflor]

Works like a charm on my Libra2. Thanks !

[MGlitch]

I seem to recall the folks putting out the patches stating they would not offer these sort of patches because it could lead to Kobo locking down their firmware to prevent patching.

None of the current patches offer off-device functionality that is exclusive to any device(s).

So I suspect this patch won’t be in an official release from Geek when the time comes.

[gereksizuser]

I want to try this patch, but I'm not sure how to add the shared .yaml file to the patch file? Will the patch work if I do it like this?

1) Put the "cloud_sync.yaml" file in the src folder in the zip file and
2) in the patches section of the kobopatch.yaml file; If I add the line
"src/cloud_sync.yaml: usr/local/Kobo/cloud_sync"

Thank you in advance.

[Dirk-71]

Dropbox works fine. Google Drive doesn't work at all. I get a blank screen and cannot do anything. I have used the original patch. Kobo Libra 2.

[Semwize]

Originally Posted by Dirk-71

Google Drive doesn't work at all. I get a blank screen and cannot do anything.

Add to Kobo eReader.conf

googledrive_link_account_start=https://authorize.kobo.com/{region}/{language}/linkcloudstorage/provider/google_drive

As far as I remember, geek1011 was against this and similar patches.

[xyclonei]

From a discussion on NickelMenu's GitHub repo (link), it is possible to enable Google Drive on unsupported devices with just a modified NickelMenu and an eReader.conf edit.