Instructions for patching firmware 4.25.15875

[geek1011]

This patch thread is for firmware 4.25.15875 (7615d0aa087df5e3176b67363b51e37f9fe8a991):

Instructions for patching on Windows, Linux, or macOS with kobopatch:

1. Download the Kobo firmware release
   You can find the download links here here.
2. Download and extract the patch zip
   Download and unzip kobopatch_4.25.15875.zip from here.
3. Copy the firmware file to the src folder
   Copy the original firmware you just downloaded into the kobopatch src folder.
4. Install the firmware if needed
   Install the firmware on your kobo BEFORE proceeding with the next steps. You can do this by extracting the contents of the firmware zip into the .kobo folder and ejecting.
5. Choose your patches from the files in the src folder
   Enable patches in the files in the src folder (or use the overrides in kobopatch.yaml to keep your options separate).
6. Run kobopatch
   Double-click kobopatch.bat on Windows, or run ./kobopatch.sh on Linux or macOS. On macOS, you can drag it into the terminal and press enter (you may need to go to System Preferences - Security and Privacy - General to confirm that you actually want to run it).
7. Install the patches by copying KoboRoot.tgz into the .kobo folder of your device
   If the patching succeeded, a file named KoboRoot.tgz will be created in the out folder. Copy it to the .kobo folder of your device. Safely remove your device once you are finished. On Linux, you may have to press Ctrl+H to show the .kobo folder.

Download

[geek1011]

Changes to the kobopatch zip:
v70 (2021-02-16): Restore 'Increase page navigation history' (Semwize, geek1011).
v69 (2020-11-10): Initial release for 4.25.15875.

Missing patches:
- None!

New patches in this version:
- None yet.

[geek1011]

reserved

[DNSB]

2. Download and extract the patch zip
    Download and unzip kobopatch_4.24.15676.zip from here.

The correct file downloads but the link is mis-named.

Edit:

[jackie_w]

Please note that Kobo made some more changes to the CSS styles for dictionary definitions, so this patch needed to be updated again. The version in the kobopatch_4.25.15875.zip download pack should work OK.

However, if you keep your pre-customised version in a separate file from libnickel.so.1.0.0.yaml then you'll need to update it to match.

[Terisa de morgan]

Thank you!, I've already applied it and it works OK.

[LucyOne]

Which patches regulate the distance between the reading footer and the bottom progress line? I have a footer with reduced height and the chapter title is a bit too close to the progress line. Letters like y and g get cut off. Is there a way to have the chapter title placed a little higher?

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by LucyOne

Which patches regulate the distance between the reading footer and the bottom progress line? I have a footer with reduced height and the chapter title is a bit too close to the progress line. Letters like y and g get cut off. Is there a way to have the chapter title placed a little higher?

Look at the help notes for Part 2b of patch Custom new header/footer font in nickel.yaml. You can see the effect in screenshots 3 & 4 in this old post.

[LucyOne]

Thank you, that's what I was looking for!

[JSWolf]

As you can see in this screen grab, the title is cut off and there is more room on the bottom line to allow the full title. Can a patch be created to allow the L/R margins to be decreased so we get more of the book's title in the footer? Thanks.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As you can see in this screen grab, the title is cut off and there is more room on the bottom line to allow the full title. Can a patch be created to allow the L/R margins to be decreased so we get more of the book's title in the footer? Thanks.

I don't see anything in nickel's existing CSS which affects the width allocated to the header/footer captions.

I can see on my test KA1 that the whole footer caption block only takes up the central 8cm of the full screen width of 11.8cm. FWIW the header caption is similarly restricted. I don't know what the left/right unused blocks are supposed to be for. ETA: The left/right unused blocks are part of the page turning zones.

Unless geek1011 can suggest something better you could try one (or both) of the following:

• Use patch Custom new header/footer font to reduce font-size a bit.
• Stop prefixing the book's Title with its Series/Index. Presumably you're currently using a calibre metadata plugboard, but I'm not sure why you feel this is necessary with the current firmware.

[Semwize]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As you can see in this screen grab, the title is cut off and there is more room on the bottom line to allow the full title. Can a patch be created to allow the L/R margins to be decreased so we get more of the book's title in the footer?

try

Width allocated to the footer captions:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: |
  - FindZlib: "ReadingFooter"
  - ReplaceZlibGroup:
      Replacements:
        - Find:    "ReadingFooter[qApp_deviceIsDragon=true] {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 170;\n}"
          Replace: "ReadingFooter[qApp_deviceIsDragon=true] {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 70;\n}"

nickel.yaml

[jackie_w]

@JSWolf,

@Semwize is correct. I hadn't realised until now what 'ReadingFooter' property 'qproperty-footerMargin' was actually used for.

It's the width of the right & left corner tap zone blocks in the footer which can be used for turning pages. Whereas if you tap the caption area you bring up the scrubber.

The caption area is the area between these 2 corner zones so, by definition, you can increase the caption width by reducing the width of these corner zones. In theory you could even set them to zero to have the caption use the whole screen width, but I suspect that would mess up the header's top right corner tap zone used to create a dogear bookmark.

It's not necessary to create a new patch (unless you really want to). Instead you could add @Semwize's Find/Replace lines to either your customised Reduce new header/footer height or your customised Custom new header/footer font because both patches are targeting the same bit of nickel CSS (namely ReadingFooter.qss).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Semwize

try

Width allocated to the footer captions:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: |
  - FindZlib: "ReadingFooter"
  - ReplaceZlibGroup:
      Replacements:
        - Find:    "ReadingFooter[qApp_deviceIsDragon=true] {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 170;\n}"
          Replace: "ReadingFooter[qApp_deviceIsDragon=true] {\n  qproperty-footerMargin: 70;\n}"

nickel.yaml

Thank you for the patch. I'll apply it later today.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

@JSWolf,

@Semwize is correct. I hadn't realised until now what 'ReadingFooter' property 'qproperty-footerMargin' was actually used for.

It's the width of the right & left corner tap zone blocks in the footer which can be used for turning pages. Whereas if you tap the caption area you bring up the scrubber.

The caption area is the area between these 2 corner zones so, by definition, you can increase the caption width by reducing the width of these corner zones. In theory you could even set them to zero to have the caption use the whole screen width, but I suspect that would mess up the header's top right corner tap zone used to create a bookmark.

It's not necessary to create a new patch (unless you really want to). Instead you could add @Semwize's Find/Replace lines to either your customised Reduce new header/footer height or your customised Custom new header/footer font because both patches are targeting the same bit of nickel CSS (namely ReadingFooter.qss).

Thank you for having a look and for the advice here.