I bought a Kobo because it felt one of the most hackable e-readers but I ended up using the stock software with a single but very important change: I edited a configuration file to point the API to my BookLore instance.
This gives me access to all of my ebooks and preserves all the functionalities of the stock software, which is perfectly adequate for my needs.
It turns out that what I wanted all along was the ability to seamlessly read books I buy from any source, not any deeper hacking of the OS.
Kudos to Kobo for keeping their system so open. These days it’s not that common
> Kudos to Kobo for keeping their system so open. These days it’s not that common
This is such an underrated feature. I used to own a Kindle before, and now a Kobo Libra. I'm very pleased and satisfied with the Kobo - something I rarely feel about consumer devices these days. Kobo should be proud of themselves for sticking to the principle. I will not spend my money on anything less open when it's time to replace it. I hope the vendors take note.
Freedom and openness should be considered as a feature for any product - perhaps the most important one. And us, consumers need to encourage and if possible, force the vendors using our collective purchasing power, to offer us that feature. I may be preaching to the choir here. But this message is well worth spreading among the public. Please do.
PS: I have seen DIY devices that are more open than Kobo. But Kobo is also the most viable option here. Please mention any alternatives that you know of.
Pocketbook is the main alternative. Hardware better than Kobo imo (e.g. their 6-inch eReader has buttons, Kobo's doesn't), and the software is even more open.
Pocketbook has far worse service and are not easily available in the US. Their use of flat bezels means that any small fall or bump will destroy the screen too.
I came onto the comments to bemoan the fact that there isn't an easy way to sync progress across devices. This is definitely going to be the trigger for me to buy a Kobo
I was just looking at booklore for my kobo this weekend. The links for kobo in the docs 404 so I had sort of assumed it was an abandoned part of the project. Glad to hear it’s not and now I have a reason to dig into the code.
Commenting to provide a confirming data point. I bought a Kobo Libra H2O a few years ago. Unboxed it, modified the config, and immediately started using it with Calibre. It has never participated in any manufacturer's "ecosystem" and has functioned well in a totally "offline" capacity.
I was sad to hear newer Kobo devices are shipping with Secure Boot. I've never reflashed my Libra H2O (it's my daughter's and I'd never be able to get it away from her long enough to replace it) but I liked knowing that I owned the device. I'm sad to hear the new ones are owner-hostile.
I used the Kobo with its ecosystem, even bought a few books with the store. Also disappointed to hear that they seemingly don't allow unlocking the bootloader on their newer devices... If that's true.
I don't care about secure boot / a locked bootloader so much as the ability to unlock it.
I'm not sure about that. The relevant discussion here is at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46194337 but from the linked Github issue it's not at all clear that a true bootloader lock is involved. It should still be possible to boot something else on device, it's just likely to require a lot of work.
I have a few of these Kobo Touch readers that haven't been touched in years, so no idea if the batteries even still work. Even though I'd never tried them before, I got 3 as a local shop (WHSmiths in the UK) was having a clearance sale as they were being discontinued, so I got 3 of them for less than the price of 1 would normally cost, and I'd read they were quite hackable.
I really liked the idea of using them, and while I did take one on holiday once, I found that I just couldn't put up with the slow speed of page transitions and the screen flickering every page turn.
For the speed issue, if it's limited by the time to render a page, I wondered why they wouldn't just cache the rendered previously page and pre-generate the next page while you were reading the first.
I understand why the page flickers, but it always seemed to me that doing partial refreshes of the screen would be much better aesthetically. Maybe the more recent ones actually do that, although I got the impression that manufacturers had just moved back to LCD screens because people liked colours more than battery life. Certainly not long after I bought my Kobo, my mum upgraded from an e-ink Kindle to an LCD one which seemed like a step backwards to me, but she was much happier with it.
So, just wondering if any of the issues around page turning are addressed in this custom OS and app. If so, I'll dig around in my junk box to try it out. Otherwise I guess they're likely to stay there for another decade!
I guess maybe mine is just too old from before they got this sorted.
From what I remember, mine always fully turns black then clears before rendering. Even big areas of the page that are white both before and after, there was always a full screen black flash. I wouldn't be at all bothered if it was just the areas with text that went fully black before clearing, but it's very jarring full screen.
That said I have a 2012 Kobo Mini with the option in stock firmware (and an undocumented "only refresh when I choose to" setting too). Maybe there's a firmware update for yours that would add it?
I’m trying to leave the Kindle world. I’ve already stopped buying books on Amazon, instead getting them elsewhere and using Calibre to strip the DRM and sideload them.
What I really want is a physical eink reader that can load books from the bookshop.org ebook store. Then I can support both authors and bookstores.
Their website claims that they have an integration with Kobo on the way, but it’s said this for about a year now with no progress.
My dream for an open e-book reader is to have some kind of graphical OPDS browser as a substitute for the commercial storefronts offered by Amazon/Rakuten/etc. If you could host and publish your own ebook library (using BookLore or something similar), then explore and fetch content off of it with the same UI polish as you can get from a corporate vendor (complete with cover art galleries, carousels for recent releases and recommendations and the like), I think that'd make e-readers so much more appealing and usable for diehard FOSS folks.
I use koreader, including its OPDS server support! While I'm always grateful for all FOSS (and especially for well-written FOSS), koreader's OPDS UI still has a long way to go to approximate what I'm imagining. It's basically a file browser in List view, whereas a good digital book storefront would include gallery views with cover art, synopses and other metadata when clicking into any individual publication, search functionality, recommendation carousels, and more.
I had the same issue, and I'm working on an ebook reader that does exactly what you're asking for. It's not available yet, but there are screenshots here:
There is a brand new plugin for KOReader that offers a richer experience and uses Kavita's API. I don't have a link handy, but it was shared in the Kavita discord (and will be on the wiki once I write a new page for it).
Koreader's OPDS implementation is VERY rough around the edges. It doesn't support much of the metadata and doesn't follow the spec very well. I had to write hacks in Kavita to give users better support for it. (My understanding is Koreader isn't too hot on OPDS in general).
Yeah they could take some lessons from Plato. However, koreader works on everything. Android, Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook etc. Not just on Kobo like Plato does.
It took me some getting used to but it's not bad IMO. It's more that its conventions are a bit different from the commercial readers but that's not a bad thing.
Koreader is pretty intimidating at first but once you dig into its features and know what's going on, it's pretty easy to navigate into the menus. It require some time to invest at first, but after that it's really "set and forget" with some lovely features and power to customise absolutely everything. I love the statistics wallpaper that shows you how much you read previous 7 days, per day, and the fact that you can set every book parameter as default, making every epubs looking the same, something I've never been able to achieve with stock Kobo, where I absolutely hated beginning a new book and discover huge fonts, weird margins, and tiny line-spacing, that I had to set again.
True, that could be spiced up a lot. But I didn't think you intended it for mainstream users in your comment. For the HN crowd it should be enough. A mainstream user will not be messing around with OPDS servers anyway.
And recommendation caroussels are a bit too much like advertising to me. Something I wouldn't want on self-hosted stuff.
I'm desperately searching for an e-book reader and i wonder if someone here has a good answer. I'd like a something I can root and or at least run arbitrary userland code on. I want a size that's good for edc in a small backpack or handbag, maybe 7 - 11", pen support would also be really nice, does any such thing exist?
I got a Boox Go Color 7 as a less locked in alternative to my Kindle a while back, and overall I've really enjoyed it.
It's apparently rootable, although I haven't done that personally. It's Google Play certified so anything from the Play store works, and side loading Android apps works too. I use it with the open source KOReader app and in tandem with Calibre Web Automated. I did a writeup[0] with some details if you're interested.
I second this, been using an Onyx Boox tablet for a year and a half for uni. It's great for reading and taking notes and it fits nicely in my laptop bag on top of my laptop.
I habe a "Pocketbook Verse Pro" that runs Linux. No need to root, you can copy ARM executables to the SD card and run them (that's how I use Syncthing on it). KOReader also works on it.
Love my Remarkable 2, but my main use case for an e-reader is reading in bed at night, and it just doesn't work for that (form factor and lack of backlight, though the newer ones do have a backlight).
However, for reading technical docs or workshop docs in daylight, it's great.
The Kobo Libra Color is within your size range and has pen support. You can run Koreader on it and some other things, it's not like, a linux device though. I do think you can run arbitrary scripts through the program that manages alternative readers like Koreader or Plato.
I tend to think kindle is an anathema but I also think I'm heavily invested in their product, and so is a lot of the world.
Being able to strip drm is good. But, it's stepwise refinement warfare. In the meantime, being able to run a copy of the Google Android kindle reader, and obtain a valid licence-to-read key is useful. I'm not disparaging calibre or apprentice Alf, I'm just pointing out the more compliant path also exists.
That's what boox does. It's clear android can do this. I suppose what I'm asking is can these debian style OS run enough emulation/compatibility libraries to run an Android kindle app?
Don't the told exist to divest of one's 'ecosystem investment' in Amazon by way of Kindle. You've been able to strip DRM from the Amazon-purchased books and jailbreak the Kindle. At that point, Amazon holds nothing over you and both the ebooks and hardware are no longer held hostage.
I have a paperwhite theater I bought years ago from Woot for like $30 and I simply never logged in or even connected it to wifi, so I get no ads and I don't buy DRM-laden books from Amazon. Calibre turns DRM-free epubs into Kindle accepted mobi format seemlessly on upload.
I can't help but think that those who complain about the lock-in but simply never bother to break free, just don't care that much. Shaking a fist at Amazon feels more like a self-soothing exercise to allay the cognitive dissonance that arises from telling oneself that you agree with those who curse Amazon (or what it represents) while you continue to choose Amazon.
From what I gathered the (germany centric?) available "Tolino" eReaders are just a rebranding of Kobo (or the other way round). So depending on the model the OS should also run on Tolinos right?
At the end I still returned the Shine 5 because the small front-facing LED kept shining for no reason. I don’t know if it was hardware related or happened because of the firmware switch.
Unfortunately this is mostly for very old versions of Kobo e-readers! Specifically the ones that use an SD Card for internal storage. Very sad since I'm very much in the market for an e-Ink device that I can just use offline to read my .pdf and .epub files. Does anyone have suggestions?
Apparently they're working on a new OS based on the Pine64 Pinenote* but it's almost $400!
This is very timely, as I recently purchased a Kobo device. One painpoint has been syncing sideloaded books between my phone and Kobo. I am using Readest sync with KOReader but I'd love to see a more seamless solution. Hoping that Quill can offer some sort of sync in the future.
This is the best setup I've tried as well. Syncthing works so well I just often forget about it / take it for granted. I used to just deal with plugging our Kobo devices in, but now I can just distribute the relevant media by dropping a file somewhere.
The Kobo devices are truly worth every penny and we've got 4 of them in our household at this point. These are some of the best devices to put in the hands of kids.
Yes and Kavita just introduced support for it in epubs. It already had it for comics but that's because their pages are more static, a much easier problem to solve.
By OS I take it this includes a kernel and is a full replacement of the native Kobo OS (Nickel)? If so, then I wonder if it's possible to get Kobos to boot directly into KOReader.
While I do like Plato, it's got a lot of bugs and design issues... It can't handle epubs without chapters/really large chapters, it is noticeably worse on battery life than KOreader or the stock firmware, the amount of time taken to load the dictionary is proportional to the number of dictionaries, etc.
Is it? Calibre with deDRM is a must for me. I love Overdrive but cannot imagine to stick to the forced regime of lending periods and random waiting times. I also typically read multiple (sometimes dozens of) non-fiction books in parallel, plus one or two fiction. That just wouldn’t work at all with digital lending.
It's the only way that works with digital lending! If you want to always have something available to read you need to be steadily queuing up books, but then they come in at a semi-random time so you have to jump between books depending on lending periods / length / interest to get through everything you have checked out before they get returned.
I love the idea of OverDrive but I've yet to have success with it. Either the book I'm interested in isn't available or it's unavailable for weeks. I don't have a ton of time to read or to drop what I am reading when something becomes available, so I usually just wind up buying the book if I'm really excited about it.
Granted, my library is not part of a major city's system but it's also not what I'd call a small one. I'd be curious to know how NYC or Chicago compare, as those are where people I know have had very positive experiences with these options.
What works for me with overdrive is using holds and then when it comes available, if I'm not ready to read I let someone skip ahead of me. That way I'm still next in line but it gives me a few days until someone else finishes the book and then it pings me again.
If you read one book a quarter then yeah it’s not for you. If you read one book a week you can queue up fifty good books and wait for that one to come available at some point in the year.
If you care about the author, navigate to their website and buy a book directly from them, or a tshirt or something. Then they'll actually get paid, unlike from a library loan, or the scraps that Amazon gives them (unless the author depends on Amazon's print on demand for all prints of their books in which case, I guess buy it from Amazon).
In order for the writer not to starve, we must bypass the zillionaires.
Send pennies directly to the artist and work for a just society.
I'd prefer a complete bypass of the enshittified economy. Replaced with a system that doesn't trust that people with absolute power won't turn into narcissist cunts.
We've seen this waterfall of a system in communism, capitalism and more recently technofeodalism so one would think the logical solution would be to replace it with a grassroots up system.
> I'd prefer a complete bypass of the enshittified economy. Replaced with a system that doesn't trust that people with absolute power won't turn into narcissist cunts.
I've been running a co-op for about 4 years now and I really want to expand the model since it seems to be working really well. Turns out giving everyone in the company ownership and an equal say in what we do with our profits (including simply redistributing it to everyone) results in ridiculously hard working people. I'm trying to leverage this into making our own internal product development happen but am kinda stuck coming up with ideas.
Anyway someone interviewed me recently and was asking, "why don't more companies form as co-ops? What's the hidden downsides?" I was surprised that there was this suspicion that there must be some sneaky hidden downside, when in fact co-ops are more sustainable, have lower turnover, higher profit per person, and happier employees. There's no actual downside, it's literally all upsides - oh, except for the fact that there's no way to get obscenely rich as the owner of a co-op. That's it, that's the entire reason. People with capital start companies so they can exploit labor to get even more capital, and only people with capital have enough time and money to start companies, so thus there's not many co-ops.
> replace it with a grassroots up system.
This is basically how Marx wrote about Communism, and how Kropotkin wrote about Anarchist Communism. There have been many... interpretations... of their work in practice. Spanish anarchist syndicalism actually worked remarkably well, they had nearly their entire economy syndicalized before they were betrayed by the communists and then killed en masse by the fascists.
> Waiting in line in a library app is annoying, but the waiting signals demand, which drives the library to buy more copies to circulate.
This is not true for digital libraries. They do not "buy more copies" to circulate. They don't physically send you an USB Stick with a copy of the book and you send that back without making a copy. They can send everyone "in line" as many copies as they want. Whats the size of an ebook these days? 1MB? How many trillion copies could you make in a day?
You have to wait in line to hopefully someday maybe be allowed to read a copy of a book while meta torrents a petabyte of books for their AI usage. This is nothing but a humiliation ritual.
Huh cool, we don't have any such large online libraries in Europe. Some countries or regions have some small online repos but it's a real PITA to get working as they all use Adobe drm.
I used to buy on kindle but since they made it much harder to break drm I just pirate now. I'm not paying for content I don't get to own.
I have an account with Berlin libraries and they offer both Libby and Overdrive (and some others) with a fairly large catalog. There is deDRM for calibre, and a command line tool called Knock which does not require Adobe software to remove the DRM.
But I don't think I will go back from what I'm doing now. It took a lot to get me to leave Amazon, but the DRM thing and also lately the larger amount of books "not available in your country or region" has just made me give up on the industry.
I will buy books now only if they are available to buy without DRM, and if they are not I will just pirate them.
Considering the Kobo ereaders have bluetooth antennas, it is really too bad that they cant be put on the FindMy network to find a lost ebook. Open source firmware should enable that though since the FindMy protocol has been reverse engineered.
What I don't really understand is why they've tied the reader app so tightly to the entire custom OS. It seems like it used to be more standalone, and these days that is essentially impossible?
I'd love to try this, but (tangential) have they fixed their screen issues? I sent back three Kobo Elipsa 2E units in a row before just getting my money back due to bright point spots on the lit-up screen, which are reportedly caused by dust caught between layers during assembly. It's a bit disappointing to spend over €400 on a device several times and discover that the manufacturer apparently can't even bother assembling them in a clean room to avoid messing up the primary feature of the device.
Rakuten, the company behind kobo, has always tolerated hacking their devices, so there are several options, including KOReader, Plato and the subject here, Quill. Personally I think Kobo is your best option, if i understand your ‘open OS’ requirement.
I bought a Kobo because it felt one of the most hackable e-readers but I ended up using the stock software with a single but very important change: I edited a configuration file to point the API to my BookLore instance. This gives me access to all of my ebooks and preserves all the functionalities of the stock software, which is perfectly adequate for my needs.
It turns out that what I wanted all along was the ability to seamlessly read books I buy from any source, not any deeper hacking of the OS.
Kudos to Kobo for keeping their system so open. These days it’s not that common
> Kudos to Kobo for keeping their system so open. These days it’s not that common
This is such an underrated feature. I used to own a Kindle before, and now a Kobo Libra. I'm very pleased and satisfied with the Kobo - something I rarely feel about consumer devices these days. Kobo should be proud of themselves for sticking to the principle. I will not spend my money on anything less open when it's time to replace it. I hope the vendors take note.
Freedom and openness should be considered as a feature for any product - perhaps the most important one. And us, consumers need to encourage and if possible, force the vendors using our collective purchasing power, to offer us that feature. I may be preaching to the choir here. But this message is well worth spreading among the public. Please do.
PS: I have seen DIY devices that are more open than Kobo. But Kobo is also the most viable option here. Please mention any alternatives that you know of.
Do you know if booklore syncs the page that you’re on?
I haven't updated to a version with the feature yet but support for it has been added recently In https://github.com/booklore-app/booklore/pull/1541 and https://github.com/booklore-app/booklore/pull/1644
I noticed that there is also this issue open https://github.com/booklore-app/booklore/issues/1898 so it sounds like the core of the feature is there but they are still ironing out all the kinks
Pocketbook is the main alternative. Hardware better than Kobo imo (e.g. their 6-inch eReader has buttons, Kobo's doesn't), and the software is even more open.
Pocketbook has far worse service and are not easily available in the US. Their use of flat bezels means that any small fall or bump will destroy the screen too.
I came onto the comments to bemoan the fact that there isn't an easy way to sync progress across devices. This is definitely going to be the trigger for me to buy a Kobo
I was just looking at booklore for my kobo this weekend. The links for kobo in the docs 404 so I had sort of assumed it was an abandoned part of the project. Glad to hear it’s not and now I have a reason to dig into the code.
This should be the correct link https://booklore-app.github.io/booklore-docs/docs/integratio...
If your goal is just to easily sync your own ebook library with a Kobo device, I've found that something like this isn't really necessary.
There is a config file on the stock OS that you just need to change, and you can point the Kobo store to your own instance of Calibre Web.
This lets you sync and download your own books to the device over wifi.
I played around with KOReader a bit but found the stock software simpler to use. All I really need is to not be tied to an ebook store.
Commenting to provide a confirming data point. I bought a Kobo Libra H2O a few years ago. Unboxed it, modified the config, and immediately started using it with Calibre. It has never participated in any manufacturer's "ecosystem" and has functioned well in a totally "offline" capacity.
I was sad to hear newer Kobo devices are shipping with Secure Boot. I've never reflashed my Libra H2O (it's my daughter's and I'd never be able to get it away from her long enough to replace it) but I liked knowing that I owned the device. I'm sad to hear the new ones are owner-hostile.
Can also confirm, I have used the config modification to sync my Kobo Forma with Calibre Web since new.
A quick config change to the store URL to point to Calibre Web, and some setup in Calibre Web and you're good to go.
This is the guide I followed: https://brandonjkessler.com/technology/2021/04/26/setup-kobo...
I used the Kobo with its ecosystem, even bought a few books with the store. Also disappointed to hear that they seemingly don't allow unlocking the bootloader on their newer devices... If that's true.
I don't care about secure boot / a locked bootloader so much as the ability to unlock it.
I'm not sure about that. The relevant discussion here is at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46194337 but from the linked Github issue it's not at all clear that a true bootloader lock is involved. It should still be possible to boot something else on device, it's just likely to require a lot of work.
Could you share what the config item is that you need to change for this? Or point to some docs?
I found the instructions here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/1nahk6f/got_calibrewe...
https://jccpalmer.com/posts/setting-up-kobo-sync-with-calibr...
You can also use Dropbox to sync your data on some kobo devices. It used to be disabled, but you can enable it manually in one config file.
Or, of course, you can just plug USB and it'll sync (and charge).
is this the file? KOBOeReader/.kobo/Kobo/Kobo eReader.conf
what did you change?
This is the guide I followed when I did mine years ago: https://brandonjkessler.com/technology/2021/04/26/setup-kobo...
I have a few of these Kobo Touch readers that haven't been touched in years, so no idea if the batteries even still work. Even though I'd never tried them before, I got 3 as a local shop (WHSmiths in the UK) was having a clearance sale as they were being discontinued, so I got 3 of them for less than the price of 1 would normally cost, and I'd read they were quite hackable.
I really liked the idea of using them, and while I did take one on holiday once, I found that I just couldn't put up with the slow speed of page transitions and the screen flickering every page turn.
For the speed issue, if it's limited by the time to render a page, I wondered why they wouldn't just cache the rendered previously page and pre-generate the next page while you were reading the first.
I understand why the page flickers, but it always seemed to me that doing partial refreshes of the screen would be much better aesthetically. Maybe the more recent ones actually do that, although I got the impression that manufacturers had just moved back to LCD screens because people liked colours more than battery life. Certainly not long after I bought my Kobo, my mum upgraded from an e-ink Kindle to an LCD one which seemed like a step backwards to me, but she was much happier with it.
So, just wondering if any of the issues around page turning are addressed in this custom OS and app. If so, I'll dig around in my junk box to try it out. Otherwise I guess they're likely to stay there for another decade!
>For the speed issue, if it's limited by the time to render a page
It's not, it's a physical limitation of the e-ink screen.
Any e-reader I've seen does full refresh every n pages where n is user-settable.
> I understand why the page flickers, but it always seemed to me that doing partial refreshes of the screen would be much better aesthetically.
Well but this is exactly what they do ahahaha x) You can set how many page turns between full refreshes in the settings.
I guess maybe mine is just too old from before they got this sorted.
From what I remember, mine always fully turns black then clears before rendering. Even big areas of the page that are white both before and after, there was always a full screen black flash. I wouldn't be at all bothered if it was just the areas with text that went fully black before clearing, but it's very jarring full screen.
I think installing KOReader would let you configure it https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/Installation-on-Ko...
That said I have a 2012 Kobo Mini with the option in stock firmware (and an undocumented "only refresh when I choose to" setting too). Maybe there's a firmware update for yours that would add it?
I’m trying to leave the Kindle world. I’ve already stopped buying books on Amazon, instead getting them elsewhere and using Calibre to strip the DRM and sideload them.
What I really want is a physical eink reader that can load books from the bookshop.org ebook store. Then I can support both authors and bookstores.
Their website claims that they have an integration with Kobo on the way, but it’s said this for about a year now with no progress.
My dream for an open e-book reader is to have some kind of graphical OPDS browser as a substitute for the commercial storefronts offered by Amazon/Rakuten/etc. If you could host and publish your own ebook library (using BookLore or something similar), then explore and fetch content off of it with the same UI polish as you can get from a corporate vendor (complete with cover art galleries, carousels for recent releases and recommendations and the like), I think that'd make e-readers so much more appealing and usable for diehard FOSS folks.
I got beat to the punch in being the one to tell you, but I can add a link: https://github-wiki-see.page/m/koreader/koreader/wiki/OPDS-s...
You can do that with koreader. It can even sync progress now with kavita. Stimulating what Amazon called whisper sync.
I use koreader, including its OPDS server support! While I'm always grateful for all FOSS (and especially for well-written FOSS), koreader's OPDS UI still has a long way to go to approximate what I'm imagining. It's basically a file browser in List view, whereas a good digital book storefront would include gallery views with cover art, synopses and other metadata when clicking into any individual publication, search functionality, recommendation carousels, and more.
I had the same issue, and I'm working on an ebook reader that does exactly what you're asking for. It's not available yet, but there are screenshots here:
https://leafl.it/
There is a brand new plugin for KOReader that offers a richer experience and uses Kavita's API. I don't have a link handy, but it was shared in the Kavita discord (and will be on the wiki once I write a new page for it).
Koreader's OPDS implementation is VERY rough around the edges. It doesn't support much of the metadata and doesn't follow the spec very well. I had to write hacks in Kavita to give users better support for it. (My understanding is Koreader isn't too hot on OPDS in general).
Let's be honest, if we are talking about UX for the average user the koreader UI has a long way to go in general.
Yeah they could take some lessons from Plato. However, koreader works on everything. Android, Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook etc. Not just on Kobo like Plato does.
It took me some getting used to but it's not bad IMO. It's more that its conventions are a bit different from the commercial readers but that's not a bad thing.
Koreader is pretty intimidating at first but once you dig into its features and know what's going on, it's pretty easy to navigate into the menus. It require some time to invest at first, but after that it's really "set and forget" with some lovely features and power to customise absolutely everything. I love the statistics wallpaper that shows you how much you read previous 7 days, per day, and the fact that you can set every book parameter as default, making every epubs looking the same, something I've never been able to achieve with stock Kobo, where I absolutely hated beginning a new book and discover huge fonts, weird margins, and tiny line-spacing, that I had to set again.
True, that could be spiced up a lot. But I didn't think you intended it for mainstream users in your comment. For the HN crowd it should be enough. A mainstream user will not be messing around with OPDS servers anyway.
And recommendation caroussels are a bit too much like advertising to me. Something I wouldn't want on self-hosted stuff.
I'm desperately searching for an e-book reader and i wonder if someone here has a good answer. I'd like a something I can root and or at least run arbitrary userland code on. I want a size that's good for edc in a small backpack or handbag, maybe 7 - 11", pen support would also be really nice, does any such thing exist?
I got a Boox Go Color 7 as a less locked in alternative to my Kindle a while back, and overall I've really enjoyed it.
It's apparently rootable, although I haven't done that personally. It's Google Play certified so anything from the Play store works, and side loading Android apps works too. I use it with the open source KOReader app and in tandem with Calibre Web Automated. I did a writeup[0] with some details if you're interested.
[0] https://blog.eldrid.ge/2025/03/12/self-hosted-ebook-manageme...
Onyx violate GPL with their linux-based OS. I'd go Kobo or remarkable over them for that alone
It's an easy process; I wrote up how to do it: https://gist.github.com/carlosonunez/a0ec3f02576867329bc313b...
I second this, been using an Onyx Boox tablet for a year and a half for uni. It's great for reading and taking notes and it fits nicely in my laptop bag on top of my laptop.
You have a cool blog.
Thank you!
I habe a "Pocketbook Verse Pro" that runs Linux. No need to root, you can copy ARM executables to the SD card and run them (that's how I use Syncthing on it). KOReader also works on it.
+1 for the PocketBook. I have an Era and use it with KOReader and Calibre. Installation was as easy as copying a folder onto the device.
I also wrote a short write-up about my experience with PocketBook devices and KOReader, for anyone who's interested: https://tc3.eu/posts/pocketbook-era-with-koreader/
If you don't require an e-ink display, the least effort route might be the MS Surface Go 3 tablet running Windows or Linux (https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installa...).
The Remarkable 2 has an e-ink display but is rather underpowered as an e-reader. It does have an SDK for building apps: https://developer.remarkable.com/documentation/sdk
Love my Remarkable 2, but my main use case for an e-reader is reading in bed at night, and it just doesn't work for that (form factor and lack of backlight, though the newer ones do have a backlight).
However, for reading technical docs or workshop docs in daylight, it's great.
The Kobo Libra Color is within your size range and has pen support. You can run Koreader on it and some other things, it's not like, a linux device though. I do think you can run arbitrary scripts through the program that manages alternative readers like Koreader or Plato.
You must check out the Supernote line
https://supernote.com/
The important thing to know here is that Supernote nowadays allows sideloading apps, like any other Android device.
I tend to think kindle is an anathema but I also think I'm heavily invested in their product, and so is a lot of the world.
Being able to strip drm is good. But, it's stepwise refinement warfare. In the meantime, being able to run a copy of the Google Android kindle reader, and obtain a valid licence-to-read key is useful. I'm not disparaging calibre or apprentice Alf, I'm just pointing out the more compliant path also exists.
That's what boox does. It's clear android can do this. I suppose what I'm asking is can these debian style OS run enough emulation/compatibility libraries to run an Android kindle app?
Don't the told exist to divest of one's 'ecosystem investment' in Amazon by way of Kindle. You've been able to strip DRM from the Amazon-purchased books and jailbreak the Kindle. At that point, Amazon holds nothing over you and both the ebooks and hardware are no longer held hostage.
I have a paperwhite theater I bought years ago from Woot for like $30 and I simply never logged in or even connected it to wifi, so I get no ads and I don't buy DRM-laden books from Amazon. Calibre turns DRM-free epubs into Kindle accepted mobi format seemlessly on upload.
I can't help but think that those who complain about the lock-in but simply never bother to break free, just don't care that much. Shaking a fist at Amazon feels more like a self-soothing exercise to allay the cognitive dissonance that arises from telling oneself that you agree with those who curse Amazon (or what it represents) while you continue to choose Amazon.
I see their repo[0] mentions transitioning to the Pinenote. I'd like to run an ordinary distribution on my Pinenote.
Does anyone know what the mainline support is like nowadays, and whether widely packaged software can make it usable as an ebook reader?
0. https://github.com/Quill-OS/quill
The kernel has mainline support, but it looks a fork is used by most images.
https://git.sr.ht/~hrdl/linux/log/v6.17-rc5_pinenote has many commits.
We should fully own what we buy, things like this are essential
From what I gathered the (germany centric?) available "Tolino" eReaders are just a rebranding of Kobo (or the other way round). So depending on the model the OS should also run on Tolinos right?
Yes it does.
I bought a Tolino Shine 5 and converted it to Kobo Clara BW following this guide: https://old.reddit.com/r/tolino/comments/1hni1fn/you_can_con...
At the end I still returned the Shine 5 because the small front-facing LED kept shining for no reason. I don’t know if it was hardware related or happened because of the firmware switch.
Unfortunately this is mostly for very old versions of Kobo e-readers! Specifically the ones that use an SD Card for internal storage. Very sad since I'm very much in the market for an e-Ink device that I can just use offline to read my .pdf and .epub files. Does anyone have suggestions?
Apparently they're working on a new OS based on the Pine64 Pinenote* but it's almost $400!
Kobo + Koreader (https://koreader.rocks/) works pretty sweetly with Calibre.
I went from Kobo to PocketBook, and I am very satisfied with this change.
You can use newer Kobo devices offline and without an account: https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2022/02/10/how-to-use-kobo...
Don't all of them do that? I've had many Kindles over the years that all do that. You can probably get a cheap second hand one too
PostmarketOS runs on a few models of Kobo:
https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Category:Kobo
This is very timely, as I recently purchased a Kobo device. One painpoint has been syncing sideloaded books between my phone and Kobo. I am using Readest sync with KOReader but I'd love to see a more seamless solution. Hoping that Quill can offer some sort of sync in the future.
I've found Syncthing to work well with my Kobo; it's easier than plugging it in and adding/removing books through Calibre. There's a KOReader plugin (https://github.com/jasonchoimtt/koreader-syncthing), or it can be enabled/disabled through Nickel (https://anarc.at/hardware/tablet/kobo-clara-hd/#install-sync...).
This is the best setup I've tried as well. Syncthing works so well I just often forget about it / take it for granted. I used to just deal with plugging our Kobo devices in, but now I can just distribute the relevant media by dropping a file somewhere.
The Kobo devices are truly worth every penny and we've got 4 of them in our household at this point. These are some of the best devices to put in the hands of kids.
> in the hands of kids
Until you learn the hard way that e-ink displays have a thin, fragile glass plate inside.
KOReader has built in Progress Sync, which works well for the purpose.
Yes and Kavita just introduced support for it in epubs. It already had it for comics but that's because their pages are more static, a much easier problem to solve.
If they ever make a Kobo like the Kindle Oasis, I'll switch. Until then, I'm holding onto the best e-reader experience I've ever had.
By OS I take it this includes a kernel and is a full replacement of the native Kobo OS (Nickel)? If so, then I wonder if it's possible to get Kobos to boot directly into KOReader.
How does this compare to using Plato or KOreader? I currently use Plato for its simplicity.
Love Plato- it’s so performant! I’ve always wondered why Kobo doesn’t just throw out what they’ve got and fork it.
While I do like Plato, it's got a lot of bugs and design issues... It can't handle epubs without chapters/really large chapters, it is noticeably worse on battery life than KOreader or the stock firmware, the amount of time taken to load the dictionary is proportional to the number of dictionaries, etc.
I don't see anything about libby/overdrive support which isn't surprising but is unfortunate.
Integration with libraries is the killer feature of ereaders IMO
Is it? Calibre with deDRM is a must for me. I love Overdrive but cannot imagine to stick to the forced regime of lending periods and random waiting times. I also typically read multiple (sometimes dozens of) non-fiction books in parallel, plus one or two fiction. That just wouldn’t work at all with digital lending.
It's the only way that works with digital lending! If you want to always have something available to read you need to be steadily queuing up books, but then they come in at a semi-random time so you have to jump between books depending on lending periods / length / interest to get through everything you have checked out before they get returned.
This is really sad. You're just pirating books. At least go use a pirate website and don't ruin libraries for the rest of us.
We will no longer have public goods if the public abuses them.
I love the idea of OverDrive but I've yet to have success with it. Either the book I'm interested in isn't available or it's unavailable for weeks. I don't have a ton of time to read or to drop what I am reading when something becomes available, so I usually just wind up buying the book if I'm really excited about it.
Granted, my library is not part of a major city's system but it's also not what I'd call a small one. I'd be curious to know how NYC or Chicago compare, as those are where people I know have had very positive experiences with these options.
What works for me with overdrive is using holds and then when it comes available, if I'm not ready to read I let someone skip ahead of me. That way I'm still next in line but it gives me a few days until someone else finishes the book and then it pings me again.
If you read one book a quarter then yeah it’s not for you. If you read one book a week you can queue up fifty good books and wait for that one to come available at some point in the year.
I used to do that but then like 10 books would come available at the same time and I'd feel all this pressure to read them as fast as possible.
In the end I gave up and just download now.
Just Pirate stuff on Annas Archive. Jumping through these ridiculous hoops for less than a floppy disk of data is just a humiliation ritual.
Authors should get paid for their work, though. Publishers, too, to be honest (they also do a lot of work and usually run on thin margins).
Waiting in line in a library app is annoying, but the waiting signals demand, which drives the library to buy more copies to circulate.
If you care about the author, navigate to their website and buy a book directly from them, or a tshirt or something. Then they'll actually get paid, unlike from a library loan, or the scraps that Amazon gives them (unless the author depends on Amazon's print on demand for all prints of their books in which case, I guess buy it from Amazon).
Yup.
In order for the writer not to starve, we must bypass the zillionaires.
Send pennies directly to the artist and work for a just society.
I'd prefer a complete bypass of the enshittified economy. Replaced with a system that doesn't trust that people with absolute power won't turn into narcissist cunts.
We've seen this waterfall of a system in communism, capitalism and more recently technofeodalism so one would think the logical solution would be to replace it with a grassroots up system.
> I'd prefer a complete bypass of the enshittified economy. Replaced with a system that doesn't trust that people with absolute power won't turn into narcissist cunts.
I've been running a co-op for about 4 years now and I really want to expand the model since it seems to be working really well. Turns out giving everyone in the company ownership and an equal say in what we do with our profits (including simply redistributing it to everyone) results in ridiculously hard working people. I'm trying to leverage this into making our own internal product development happen but am kinda stuck coming up with ideas.
Anyway someone interviewed me recently and was asking, "why don't more companies form as co-ops? What's the hidden downsides?" I was surprised that there was this suspicion that there must be some sneaky hidden downside, when in fact co-ops are more sustainable, have lower turnover, higher profit per person, and happier employees. There's no actual downside, it's literally all upsides - oh, except for the fact that there's no way to get obscenely rich as the owner of a co-op. That's it, that's the entire reason. People with capital start companies so they can exploit labor to get even more capital, and only people with capital have enough time and money to start companies, so thus there's not many co-ops.
> replace it with a grassroots up system.
This is basically how Marx wrote about Communism, and how Kropotkin wrote about Anarchist Communism. There have been many... interpretations... of their work in practice. Spanish anarchist syndicalism actually worked remarkably well, they had nearly their entire economy syndicalized before they were betrayed by the communists and then killed en masse by the fascists.
> Waiting in line in a library app is annoying, but the waiting signals demand, which drives the library to buy more copies to circulate.
This is not true for digital libraries. They do not "buy more copies" to circulate. They don't physically send you an USB Stick with a copy of the book and you send that back without making a copy. They can send everyone "in line" as many copies as they want. Whats the size of an ebook these days? 1MB? How many trillion copies could you make in a day?
You have to wait in line to hopefully someday maybe be allowed to read a copy of a book while meta torrents a petabyte of books for their AI usage. This is nothing but a humiliation ritual.
> They do not "buy more copies" to circulate.
That is exactly how ebook licenses for libraries work.
No, that is not how ebook licenses work. They buy more LICENSES not more COPIES.
Huh cool, we don't have any such large online libraries in Europe. Some countries or regions have some small online repos but it's a real PITA to get working as they all use Adobe drm.
I used to buy on kindle but since they made it much harder to break drm I just pirate now. I'm not paying for content I don't get to own.
I have an account with Berlin libraries and they offer both Libby and Overdrive (and some others) with a fairly large catalog. There is deDRM for calibre, and a command line tool called Knock which does not require Adobe software to remove the DRM.
Ah nice we don't have anything like that here.
But I don't think I will go back from what I'm doing now. It took a lot to get me to leave Amazon, but the DRM thing and also lately the larger amount of books "not available in your country or region" has just made me give up on the industry.
I will buy books now only if they are available to buy without DRM, and if they are not I will just pirate them.
Considering the Kobo ereaders have bluetooth antennas, it is really too bad that they cant be put on the FindMy network to find a lost ebook. Open source firmware should enable that though since the FindMy protocol has been reverse engineered.
So you mean it's not _currently_ possible, not that they _can't_ be put on the network?
Love my jailbroken kindle, but would love a full replacement OS like this.
Yes, Quill OS would look amazing running on a Kindle!
Currently supported devices lists Kindle Touch: https://github.com/Quill-OS/quill/wiki#currently-supported-d...
I've got a paperwhite 4. But for now KUAL is enough
I'd love to see this on the Aura HD
Same - maybe no one’s tested it on the aura HD yet?
I'd try it but sadly disassembling an IP68 device is a no go for me. :(
This project is basically abandoned, as they chose to rebuild it from the ground up targeting a different platform: https://github.com/PorQ-Pine
Part of the motivation derived from newer Kobos deploying with SecureBoot, making it tough to reflash them.
From the wiki: currently supported devices does not appear to support the recent Kobo eReaders
Yes because they use signed firmware, it was in another article here recently
What I don't really understand is why they've tied the reader app so tightly to the entire custom OS. It seems like it used to be more standalone, and these days that is essentially impossible?
I have a Kobo Elipsa 2E (which I love). I never new about the PineNote! It seems awesome. Maybe I will have to get one.
Should really be called Restricted Boot
I'd love to try this, but (tangential) have they fixed their screen issues? I sent back three Kobo Elipsa 2E units in a row before just getting my money back due to bright point spots on the lit-up screen, which are reportedly caused by dust caught between layers during assembly. It's a bit disappointing to spend over €400 on a device several times and discover that the manufacturer apparently can't even bother assembling them in a clean room to avoid messing up the primary feature of the device.
what's the recommended ereaders now aday? with an open OS?
Rakuten, the company behind kobo, has always tolerated hacking their devices, so there are several options, including KOReader, Plato and the subject here, Quill. Personally I think Kobo is your best option, if i understand your ‘open OS’ requirement.
Not anymore! They've recently moved to closing their devices with signed firmware
is it a linux?
https://github.com/Quill-OS/rootfs
Yep.