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kobolabs / Kobo-Reader

http://www.koboereader.com/
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[Libra H20] backup / restore the original firmware #97

Open ncarrier opened 4 years ago

ncarrier commented 4 years ago

Hello, I plan on buying a Libra H20 but I'd like to be able to reflash it with custom firmwares. Could you provide instructions on how to backup and restore the original firmware so that everything can get repaired if things went wrong, when for example, reflashing a custom uboot or kernel? Thank you by advance

pgaskin commented 4 years ago

Unfortunately, the Libra H2O has eMMC soldered to the waterproof board. It won't be possible to make a SD image for backup and write it back for recovery the way it is on the other Kobo devices which use non-soldered SD cards.

If you are fine limiting yourself to only modifying the software (i.e. not the kernel/uboot/recovery), you will be able to recover from nearly any issue that causes by doing a full reset. Is there something specific you are trying to do?

Otherwise, you probably want to hold off from making changes.

I haven't looked into this or tried anything, but it might be possible to use the i.MX flashing tools to write to the eMMC. I'd suggest you post this on MobileRead and ask there, as this repository isn't really about doing this kind of thing. Note that I'm not a Kobo employee, just someone interested in this subject.

ncarrier commented 4 years ago

Hello, thank you very much for the feedback. Yes, I'll probably start with some not too risky tinkering of only the userland software, but ideally, I'd like to be able to master the full firmware with FLOSS.

I think a company like kobo has a real interest in letting customers control the full software of their machines, because it'll increase their durability, usability and will have a not to be neglected, really positive impact in terms of PR...

If some engineer at Kobo reads those issues, it would be really helpful to have a technical, step by step, description, of how to reflash the Libra H20 :)