Desktop App KoboPatchFan - a GUI application for Kobo patches

[Tommalka]

Hello everybody!

I would like to introduce KoboPatchFan, a GUI application for Kobo patches written in PyQt6 for Windows and Linux.

With KoboPatchFan, you can download, configure and generate Kobo patch files fully automatically. The aim is to significantly reduce the hurdle of patching a Kobo: No more complicated selecting and downloading and unpacking of the right files, no more manually editing the files in a texteditor, no more manually executing a .bat or .sh file. KoboPatchFan can do of all these steps for you.
I wrote the tool because I noticed that the relatively complicated process kept me from patching. Now I want to share it with you.

I took advantage of the brilliant infrastructure of the Kobopatch system. I have briefly described what the tool does on the Github page, where you can also find the source code. The usage of KoboPatchFan is (hopefully) self-explanatory, but here is a short introduction with screenshots:

• In the tab (1) Download, after selecting your Kobo and the firmware, the tool will automatically check if there is a patch for the selected firmware available. If so, the required files can be downloaded automatically by clicking ‚Start‘. There is an important option to update the underlying "database" files (the first time you start, you will be greeted with a red message indicating that an update is required). This way KoboPatchFan will always be up to date (hopefully).
  
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• In the tab (2) Select patches you select the options that you want to patch. Simply select or deselect the checkboxes. There is also a search mask for filtering.
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  And there is an „Open Edit Mode“ for directly editing the corresponding patch code of the respective option:
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• At the end, switch to the tab (3) Generate patch. Click on Run to generate a RootKobo.tgz file. Connect your Kobo, copy the RootKobo.tgz file into the .kobo folder of your Kobo using the Export-File button - and you're done!
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• (New in v1.1.0): Enable, disable or delete backup patches (patches to be kept across Kobo/Patch versions) in the tab Backup patches:
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• In the Settings tab, you can see the working directory (this is the user's Documents directory, in which a folder "KoboPatchFan" with all the files is created). You can also see the log report there if an error occurs or if you want to have a manual download link.
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Download (v1.3.1):

Windows installer (.msi)

Windows portable folder

Linux (.AppImage)

Changelog:

• 1.3.1 (released 05/03/2024)
  
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  • Support for 3 new Kobos (Libra Colour, Clara BW, Clara Colour)
  • Support for new download mirror in kfw.db.js
  • Always automatically choose the latest firmware version in tab 1
  • Fixed a bug that made wrong firmware versions available for selection
  • Reworked layout for patch selection, the size of the description text field now adapts to the text
  • Other small visual changes
• 1.2.2 (released 09/24/2023)
  
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  • Fixed a bug that prevented the loading and selection of some patches
• 1.2.1 (released 06/30/2023)
  
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  • Fix 'Error add patches from save kobopatch.yaml to unsave kobopatch.yaml: 'NoneType' object is not iterable'
• 1.2.0 (released 06/30/2023)
  
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  • Support for Elipsa 2E
  • Button to show only selected patches in tab 2
  • Button to show all selected patches in tab 3
  • Confirmation dialogue before download, other small things
• 1.1.0 (released 04/11/2023)
  
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  In version 1.1.0, it is now possible to keep the selected patches across Kobo/patch versions. When a new patch version is downloaded, you no longer need to reselect all the patches, but simply use the ones you have previously saved (I call them "backup patches").
  This works via the kobopatch.yaml file included with each patch.

  • Backup patches in the "(2) Select patches" tab by clicking the "Backup selection" button. This will write the selected patches to a secure kobopatch.yaml file under ./kobopatch_save. Note that you have to do this for each file/tab (nickel, libnickel, librmsdk, libadobe).
  • Activate, deactivate or delete the backup patches in a new tab called "Backup-Patches".
  • In the tab "(3) Generate patch", a checkbox called "Use Backup-Patches" must be set if the backup patches are to be used.

  (So if you already have your own kobopatch.yaml configuration, you need to copy it to ./KoboPatchFan/kobopatch_save/kobopatch.yaml, NOT to the root directory of the KoboPatchFan working folder. You can see the exact location (path) in the Backup-Patches tab.)
• 1.0.1 (released 04/02/2023)
  
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  The freezing and errno 13 problem should now be solved (the KoboPatchFan working folder is now always located under Documents)

If something doesn't work, you can post it here or on GitHub. Enjoy!
Source (GitHub): https://github.com/folkemat/KoboPatchFan

[jamalau]

My Virusexplorer give me an Allert, if i try to download the Windows installer.
The same Problem if i try to start the KoboPatchFan.exe.
Installed is Bitdefender Total Securitiy.

Name der Bedrohung: Trojan.GenericKD.65680727

[Tommalka]

Originally Posted by jamalau

My Virusexplorer give me an Allert, if i try to download the Windows installer.
The same Problem if i try to start the KoboPatchFan.exe.
Installed is Bitdefender Total Securitiy.

Name der Bedrohung: Trojan.GenericKD.65680727

Yes, I have unfortunately found that Python applications generate such messages all the time: False positives. It seems to be an inherent problem with Python executables.. It probably doesn't help that KoboPatchFan performs file operations and downloads.

I have now send and reported kobopatchfan.exe to Bitdefender as a false positive. Perhaps they will then update their database and the alert will disappear in the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, you can ignore the message or you can look at the source code on Github and, if you install python, pyqt6 and yaml, you can run the application by yourself from source (via "python main.py")

[Sirtel]

Very nice, thank you very much!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jamalau

My Virusexplorer give me an Allert, if i try to download the Windows installer.
The same Problem if i try to start the KoboPatchFan.exe.
Installed is Bitdefender Total Securitiy.

Name der Bedrohung: Trojan.GenericKD.65680727

It's time to delete Bitdefender Total Security as it has no idea what it's doing.

[JSWolf]

Will KoboPatchFan deal with kobopatch.yaml from a previous patch so we don't have to pick/choose every patch from scratch? Also, if you make eny edits, does it keep track for the next set of firmware patches and does it keep track of what you selected the last time?

[Tommalka]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Will KoboPatchFan deal with kobopatch.yaml from a previous patch so we don't have to pick/choose every patch from scratch? Also, if you make eny edits, does it keep track for the next set of firmware patches and does it keep track of what you selected the last time?

No, support for kobopatch.yaml is not implemented in version 1.0.0. If you click on "Start" in the download section, the old patch data will be completely overwritten and the previous selection is forgotten.

So you have to edit your kobopatch.yaml manually, copy it to another location before "Start" and then copy it back to the KoboPatchFan working folder.

If there is interest, I can do something like "Save to / load from kobopatch.yaml" and move the file to a safe subfolder. And a menu in the GUI that shows all the patch options that are saved in kobopatch.yaml.

[jamalau]

Sorry, the same Problem with Windows Defender.

Both versions dosen´t work at me , the installer with error, see attachment, and the portable is frozen!
Edit: The installversion is frozen too.

[PioXX]

Excellent GUI !

[Tommalka]

Originally Posted by jamalau

Sorry, the same Problem with Windows Defender.

Both versions dosen´t work at me , the installer with error, see attachment, and the portable is frozen!
Edit: The installversion is frozen too.

Hmm I think I know what the problem is. It is related to the creation of the working folder, I could reproduce the freezing. I will look into it.

And can you share the exact alert from Windows Defender?

[jamalau]

At this time, i have no alert with Defender, only that with the freezing

[Tommalka]

Here comes KoboPatchFan version 1.0.1:

• The freezing problem should be solved (the KoboPatchFan working folder is now always located under Documents, where there should be no problems with denied access)

Download 1.0.1:
Windows installer (.msi)
Windows portable folder
Linux portable folder

For version 1.1, I plan to support kobopatch.yaml

I just realised I can't edit the first post? That's not so good

[Lys]

Originally Posted by jamalau

Sorry, the same Problem with Windows Defender.

Both versions dosen´t work at me , the installer with error, see attachment, and the portable is frozen!
Edit: The installversion is frozen too.

I got the same error (errno 13) (windows installer installation)

[Tommalka]

Originally Posted by Lys

I got the same error (errno 13) (windows installer installation)

Please try the new version 1.0.1, in which the problem should be fixed!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Tommalka

Here comes KoboPatchFan version 1.0.1:

• The freezing problem should be solved (the KoboPatchFan working folder is now always located under Documents, where there should be no problems with denied access)

Download 1.0.1:
Windows installer (.msi)
Windows portable folder
Linux portable folder

For version 1.1, I plan to support kobopatch.yaml

I just realised I can't edit the first post? That's not so good

For 1.1, do you plan to support edited patches? So we can keep track of patches edited and what was done with the edits?