Because tinkering with open source software is easier
This guide could also help you port InkBox to another device.
The "From inkbox repo" points are easier, and will work for 100%. "From source" is dedicated to understand the automated process, to know whot changes are made to make inkbox working
For errors, check links.md and the Fixes section
Here is the copy of the discord chat as of 25.02.2022
Don't brick your device.
dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 | xz > kobo-backup.img.xz
The working toolchains are:
- https://releases.linaro.org/components/toolchain/binaries/4.9-2017.01/arm-linux-gnueabihf/ | This toolchain is a newer version of the one that KoboLabs provides, because compiling the Nia's kernel with that one isn't possible.
- https://github.com/pgaskin/NickelTC | Creator: @pgaskin
- https://github.com/Kobo-InkBox/kernel/tree/master/toolchain/armv7l-linux-musleabihf-cross
Simply unpack it to ~/.local/. Remember to delete the previous toolchain there, and make sure that in ${PATH} the .local directory is first.
Adjust the parameters of make and the CROSS_COMPILE environment variable to your needs.
- From inkbox repo
Clone InkBox kernel repository and change directory into the Nia bootloader sources (or make a symlink of this location):
sudo mkdir -p /home/build/inkbox
sudo chown -R "${USER}:${USER}" /home/build
cd /home/build/inkbox && git clone https://github.com/Kobo-InkBox/kernel
cd kernel/bootloader/mx6ull-n306
- From source
Get the sources: https://github.com/kobolabs/Kobo-Reader/blob/master/hw/imx6ull-nia/bootloader.tar.bz2
* whot did you changed to make it work? how to do this, which file to edit? for example:
change kernel sector to 81920 and load size to 18432 in ntx_comm.c
To get the config, for Kobo Nia there are 2:
mx6ull_ntx_lpddr2_256m_defconfig
mx6ull_ntx_lpddr2_256m_mfg_defconfig
mfg means "manufacturing", so grab the normal one:
make -j$(($(nproc)*2)) ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-nickel-linux-gnueabihf- mx6ull_ntx_lpddr2_256m_defconfig
This will setup the sources according to the chosen configuration.
Configuring with menuconfig needs special parameters, for example: ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi-
Compile with:
make -j$(($(nproc)*2)) ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-nickel-linux-gnueabihf-
Now, there should be two important files, u-boot.imx and u-boot.bin. For the Kobo Nia the .imx file is working for me. To choose how to install the bootloader look at the upgrade script in the stock Kobo firmware:
if [ `echo $UBOOT | grep -c imx` == 1 ]; then
dd if=$UBOOT of=/dev/$DEVICE bs=1K seek=1
else
dd if=$UBOOT of=/dev/$DEVICE bs=1K seek=1 skip=1
So, for Nia, it is:
dd if=$UBOOT of=/dev/$DEVICE bs=1K seek=1
If something does not work, look at the image of the SD card in an hexadecimal viewer/editor, compare headers and read the dd man page.
Connect the eReader to a PC with the USB cable and execute ums 0 mmc 0 in U-Boot via a serial connection.
Launch sudo fdisk /dev/sdcard (of course, replace sdcard with your SD card's device node), clear the partition table with o, look up the partition with p, and n to add a partition.
Important: set the Start and End sectors exactly like said below. InkBox OS will probably not boot otherwise.
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/nbd0p1 49152 79871 30720 15M 83 Linux
/dev/nbd0p2 104448 1128447 1024000 500M 83 Linux
/dev/nbd0p3 1128448 1390591 262144 128M 83 Linux
/dev/nbd0p4 1390592 8388607 6998016 3.3G 83 Linux
The last partition can be extended to the end of the SD card.
Format the four partitions with the command below:
mkfs.ext4 -O "^metadata_csum" /dev/sdcardp${partition}
Finally, write the Root kernel flag to a specific sector of the SD card, which will allow us to interface with the device via USBNet, SSH, etc. and have root access:
printf "rooted\n" | dd of=/dev/sdcard bs=512 seek=79872
1. From inkbox repo
First, follow the steps in the "Bootloader" part to set up InkBox's "kernel" repository.
With the build_kernel.sh script in InkBox repository:
Change directory into /home/build/inkbox/kernel, then run:
env -i GITDIR="${PWD}" TOOLCHAINDIR="${PWD}/toolchain/arm-nickel-linux-gnueabihf/" THREADS=$(($(nproc)*2)) TARGET=arm-nickel-linux-gnueabihf scripts/build_kernel.sh n306 root
Post 2.0 init fix:
env -i GITDIR="${PWD}" TOOLCHAINDIR="${PWD}/toolchain/arm-nickel-linux-gnueabihf/" THREADS=$(($(nproc)*2)) TARGET=arm-nickel-linux-gnueabihf INIT_GCC="/home/build/inkbox/kernel/toolchain/armv7l-linux-musleabihf-cross/bin/armv7l-linux-musleabihf-gcc" INIT_STRIP="/home/build/inkbox/kernel/toolchain/armv7l-linux-musleabihf-cross/bin/armv7l-linux-musleabihf-strip" scripts/build_kernel.sh n306 root
if something breaks:
/tmp/cccPPzwF.s: Assembler messages:
/tmp/cccPPzwF.s:888: Error: .err encountered
/tmp/cccPPzwF.s:904: Error: .err encountered
CC fs/ext3/xattr.o
make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:258: fs/fat/dir.o] Error 1
Use a debian container ( distrobox makes it easy ). Arch is weird sometimes
2. From source
Get the source: https://github.com/kobolabs/Kobo-Reader/blob/master/hw/imx6ull-nia/kernel.tar.bz2
Grab the config from arch/arm/configs/imx_v7_kobo_defconfig and copy it to the main directory as .config
Create a symlink to your cloned repo from /home/build/inkbox/kernel/. The script getting busybox is static.
* I have writed this sentence, and now I don't know whot a talked about. Could you clarify?
Enable Loopback device support, FUSE and SquashFS with XZ support.
* whot are the specific "names" of the changes? so it would be easy to paste the name in menuconfig, using "/" and then enable this feature
Set the CONFIG_CMDLINE_FORCE option to y and change the CONFIG_CMDLINE option with the contents below.
console=ttymxc0,115200 rootwait rw no_console_suspend hwcfg_p=0x8ffffe00 hwcfg_sz=110 waveform_p=0x8ff71a00 waveform_sz=582529 ntxfw_p=0x8ff71400 ntxfw_sz=1034 mem=255M boot_port=1 rootfstype=ext4 root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 quiet
* where to set it, in which file?
Write the kernel to the SD card:
dd if=zImage-root of=/dev/sdcard bs=512 seek=81920
get the rootfs, but clone it as root ( to avoid permissions problem later on the kobo ):
sudo git clone https://github.com/Kobo-InkBox/rootfs
Enter the directory, execute as root:
env GITDIR="${PWD}" ./release.sh
create your keys:
openssl genrsa -out private.pem 2048
openssl rsa -in private.pem -out public.pem -outform PEM -pubout
* tux-linux, explain here the key part, becouse propably creating your own is not a good idea? also the gui bundle needs to be verified with the same key so idk
sign the rootfs:
openssl dgst -sha256 -sign private.pem -out rootfs.squashfs.dgst rootfs.squashfs
Now copy the rootfs.squashfs.dgst and rootfs.squashfs to the third partition ( 128M one )
clone the repo: https://github.com/Kobo-InkBox/emu
* is it needed to clone it as root too?
Execute those commands, where [location-of-p4] is the biggest partition ( where userdata X11/KoBox images as well as GUI bundle and other things are stored )
cat sd/user.sqsh.* > sd/user.sqsh
sudo unsquashfs -f -d [location-of-p4]/ sd/user.sqsh
get the gui bundle:
wget 23.163.0.39/bundles/private/update-n306.isa
and copy it to partition 4, with name update.isa to the folder update