Magic Memory Upgrade Mod

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by anesthezea

Thank you so much for this! It worked perfectly on my Kobo Glo HD. Very quick and painless!

Originally Posted by cramoisi

The Magic Memory Upgrade Mod is the ultimate tool to update Thanks a lot for your work.

Originally Posted by bikemd

It worked for me! I have now upgraded my Kobo Glo HD (firmware 3.19) with a 32GB Lexar 300X microsdhc card. All is working well!

I attempted a magic trick: Upgrade or Replace the Kobo's internal SD card using only the Kobo itself, no card readers, no partitioning or disk imaging on the PC.

The Magic Memory Upgrade Mod enables the Kobo to clone its internal SD card all by itself. I've only tested it with the H2O, but it should work with all readers that have at least 512MB RAM, which should include all models since Kobo Aura HD, I believe? It's not always mentioned in the specs...

Once the mod is installed, it copies the Kobo's operating system into RAM. At that point the internal card can be removed and replaced with another card of your choice. The mod detects the new card, formats it, and puts the Kobo's operating system back on it. Everything without help from the PC (no cardreader and no partitioning or disk imaging software required). Apart from installing the mod in the first place, of course.

Once the mod has done its work, the reader reboots and shows you the language selection screen. It's essentially a factory reset that also replaces your internal MicroSD card, making the full card's capacity available to you.

How to use: ( also see a video here: [deleted vidme link] )

• Backup your books and settings: All files and folders visible on the KoboEreader drive, in particular .kobo/KoboReader.sqlite (Without a backup, you will lose your reading stats).
• Make sure your reader is fully charged.
• Install this mod. (KoboRoot-MagicMemory.tgz » .kobo/KoboRoot.tgz)
• The reader shows the Updating/Restarting screen.
• The reader reboots and the screen goes blank.
  ~~~ OS is being loaded into RAM. This might take a while. ~~~
• You get the normal bootup progress bar and the main screen appears.
  (If you don't use nickel by default, start nickel.)
• A progress bar appears.
  ~~~ Data is being loaded into RAM. This might take a while. ~~~
• The screen goes fully black.
  ---> Without turning off the reader, carefully remove the internal SD card. There is no time limit at this stage, so if you haven't opened your device yet, you may do so now. <---
• The screen goes from fully black to fully white.
  ---> Check that the screen is white before you put in the new internal SD card. <---
  !!! Any card you put in at this point will be formatted. !!!
• A progress bar appears.
  ~~~ The SD card is populated with data from RAM. This might take a while. ~~~
• The reader reboots and gives you the Language Selection screen that normally appears after a factory reset.
• Restore your books and settings from the backup you made. (So your reading stats are back.)

The duration of this process heavily depends on the speed of the SD card. Actually the 4GB card that came with my H2O was the fastest card. I have several 4GB/8GB Sandisk card but they were all considerably slower than Kobo's card. (apparently I always bought the cheapest SD cards.)

If anything goes wrong in this process, the progress bar will stop moving. If that happens, take out the card, hit the reset button, put the (old) card in, hit the reset button again and it should boot up normally.

Alternative 1: Resize Partition

This alternative only resizes the data partition. Useful if you already cloned a card by other means, or if your Kobo somehow came with a larger card from the factory (which, apparently, was the case with some Kobo Glo).

The resize is done using an old version of 'parted'. The other versions of this mod don't need additional software, that's why this archive is a bit larger than the others.

Alternative 2: External SD Card

Only for devices which still have an external SD card slot, this alternative copies the internal SD card to the external SD card - including all the books and settings. The process is the same as the above (black screen: remove external SD card, white screen: insert external SD card. The card you insert will be formatted).

On reboot, the Kobo will complain about the external SD card not being a recognized format. That's normal and expected, because the first partition is EXT4 instead of FAT32. At this point you turn off the device and put the external SD card into the internal SD card slot.

All variants of this mod perform a one-time action only, during which the mod uninstalls itself regardless of success. You have to re-install in order to re-try.

This mod formats SD cards, it may brick the device or lose your data. Opening the device might void your warranty. You're expected to know how to handle sensitive electronics. Use at your own risk.

[PeterT]

It might be worth while suggesting that the back of the Kobo be removed before starting the process....

[frostschutz]

Well, you can remove it after the screen turns black. It waits for however long it takes you to remove the card, there is no time limit.

[PeterT]

The only reason I'd suggest back off first is that it can be a fiddly process, so why not take the time to do it first.

Also maybe some warnings to avoid shorting any of the connections might be wise.

[frostschutz]

In case of the H2O you can't, since there you take the front off and then the touchscreen does not work it anymore, so you can't connect it to the PC to copy the Mod on it anymore. So you install the mod first and then take all the time you need in the black screen phase.

I'll add a warning to the first post, all right; but the know-how (how to open the device, how to handle it when its opened, how to replace the sd card without ripping the sd card slot off, how to not break the eink screen while doing all of the above) is expected to be provided by the user

[Lucas Malor]

It's a nice idea. Is the OS partition unmounted when the mod starts the cloning?

[frostschutz]

Yes, everything lives in RAM, that's the magic... it wouldn't be possible to take the card out of the running system, much less putting it all back onto the new card otherwise. I'm currently working on a spin-off that only resizes the FAT partition of an already cloned card.

In theory it would be possible to transfer the entire book collection as well (provided the new card is same size or larger than the old). However this would require you to swap the cards back and forth several times as you can only fit so much into RAM for each step of the way...

But you can copy those normally through USB so I don't think there's a point to take the idea that far.

[PeterT]

Why not provide an option for those devices with an external SD slot to allow the replication to go from the internal to external slot?

[frostschutz]

One step at a time.

Growing a FAT partition (without losing its data) is actually mighty annoying. It turns out there is no light-weight Linux tool that is capable of doing that. This functionality is only available in gparted, of all things; it used to be in regular parted (removed from there), and then there is a program called fatresize which is buggy as hell and won't work on the Kobo at all and I'm too lazy to patch it.

[frostschutz]

Added two alternative mods, one that resizes the partition, and another that copies the internal to external SD card (including all the books).

[trekk]

Nice work, frostschutz! I still have a question.

Concerning alternative 2 you are saying: "On reboot, the Kobo will complain about the external SD card not being a recognized format. That's normal and expected, because the first partition is EXT4 instead of FAT32. At this point you turn off the device and put the external SD card into the internal SD card slot."

How could I do that, when at this point the external SD-card should already be in that internal slot?

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by trekk

How could I do that, when at this point the external SD-card should already be in that internal slot?

Uh. Not sure I follow you? Did I mis-type somewhere?

The original mod copies internal card to internal card (via RAM).

The external alternative copies internal card to external card (for devices with external card slot, so - not the Glo HD). When it's done it reboots but internal card is still internal and external card is still external. You have to turn the device off to put the ext. in the int. slot (or you could put it in a drawer if you just wanted to have a backup).

[trekk]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

The external alternative copies internal card to external card (for devices with external card slot, so - not the Glo HD).

OK, now I do understand. Thank you for the clarification. *confusion mode stop*

[cramoisi]

Has somebody tried on a glo HD ? I’m asked by a colleague to do it for him and since this method is a lazy one I want to use it

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Uh. Not sure I follow you? Did I mis-type somewhere?

The original mod copies internal card to internal card (via RAM).

The external alternative copies internal card to external card (for devices with external card slot, so - not the Glo HD). When it's done it reboots but internal card is still internal and external card is still external. You have to turn the device off to put the ext. in the int. slot (or you could put it in a drawer if you just wanted to have a backup).

Now if you could add the ability copy the internal card to internal card (via the external card). The user could both make a backup and have a way to restore the system drive, without having to open the case.

While the user would still have to open the case for an actual upgrade or to replace a failing internal uSD card, it would solve the remaining issue for those who don't wish to open the case of their device, and void the warranty. This might be especially useful for H2O owners.

Luck;
Ken