Quill OS: An open-source OS for Kobo's eReaders
quill-os.org
quill-os.org
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
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.
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
(I used to run flashcards on a Palm Pilot back in the days. The app was called SuperMemo.)
I've actually since graduated to a 10.3" Boox E-ink tablet. It's too big for AnkiDroid or book reading, but it is terrific for note taking during meetings or lectures, reading and annotating technical documentation, calendar management, and web browsing. My next gift to self will either be a Tesla Roadster or a 7" E-ink device for AnkiDroid and books!
Why so passionate, I hear you ask? Pretty much exactly the reasons you specify - unlike other hardware, I actually can do what I want with it.
And now I'm wondering what this Quill OS is about. Thanks Kobo!
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.
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.
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 don't care about secure boot / a locked bootloader so much as the ability to unlock it.
That’s awesome. Going to add this change to my Kobo - I already self host a bunch of stuff on a Pi, will add Calibre to the list
what did you change?
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'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).
And recommendation caroussels are a bit too much like advertising to me. Something I wouldn't want on self-hosted stuff.
Everyone here is lauding kobo for being so 'open' and 'hackable', but when I set mine up in 2022 it kind of just felt like they just weren't as good at fucking me over and subverting my intentions as Amazon. Kind of like being an intruder in your own home. Have things changed? Should I update my setup?
Apparently they're working on a new OS based on the Pine64 Pinenote* but it's almost $400!
The Pocketbook synchronizes reading between several devices, even for books you have uploaded yourself.
And the Pocketbook has text-to-speech and supports audiobooks.
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!
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.
Well but this is exactly what they do ahahaha x) You can set how many page turns between full refreshes in the settings.
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?
What I really want is for the framebuffer to remember past pixels, so that the blacking out is restricted to only areas where there previously were pixel. I don't really mind noise on where the text was while the page is replaced, it the big areas flashing black needlessly that's distracting.
I might try out this firmware over the holidays though. If I get back into using the kobo as an e-reader, maybe I'll look at the issue myself now that it's open source, if it's not been addressed by someone already.
For the stock reader I believe this was the option I changed to disable automatic refresh entirely : https://old.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/pbqey3/page_refresh_i...
Part of the motivation derived from newer Kobos deploying with SecureBoot, making it tough to reflash them.
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?
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.
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...
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/
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
However, for reading technical docs or workshop docs in daylight, it's great.
Does anyone know what the mainline support is like nowadays, and whether widely packaged software can make it usable as an ebook reader?
https://git.sr.ht/~hrdl/linux/log/v6.17-rc5_pinenote has many commits.
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.
Until you learn the hard way that e-ink displays have a thin, fragile glass plate inside.
Our first two Kobo were purchased in 2018 and both have been on every business / personal trip since. I don't particularly go out of my way to protect mine, I have the stock magnetic cover. Other than the edges of it wearing, that's the only visible "damage". My kids have had Kobo since 2019 and they take them everywhere. The Kobo devices are not fragile in the least. I worry more about them being left behind than breaking them.
Integration with libraries is the killer feature of ereaders IMO
We will no longer have public goods if the public abuses them.
Photocopying an entire book is, in fact, against the law in most cases: https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/academic-and-education...
Selfish people like yourself are why we can't have nice things. Either pay for your books or pirate them outright from bittorrent.
2. You’re pointing at the legal code that is about exceptions for library liability. 17 U.S.C. § 108 doesn’t say anything about me making a personal copy.
I don’t yet understand your one-link argument about privacy and how it relates to this discussion. I read that you would prefer if I were to directly download a copy from a shadow library instead of lending it from my local library.
(but they also don't like privacy laws around libraries)
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.
In the end I gave up and just download now.
Waiting in line in a library app is annoying, but the waiting signals demand, which drives the library to buy more copies to circulate.
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'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.
I'm not too familiar with the communist theory, but I have come to the conclusion that the system doesn't matter nearly as much as the direction.
Waterfall communism or capitalism will corrupt the ones on top. And the grassroots up one will keep absolute power and the human narcissist tendencies at check.
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.
That is exactly how ebook licenses for libraries work.
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.
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.
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.
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.
not for real coding but for sometimes writing a patch and meybe creating a small script
The UX is absolutely awful. Do better. Score is -10 until you think of the user experience.
People who are too narcissistic or too selfish to think of others and their expereience should not be designing a ui/ux.
Update the progress bar under "InkBox" fo god's sake. It looks like it's sitting there frozen for minutes at a time. Are you a sadist?
And then the progress bar goes away and it just sits there. What is happening? A traditional linux boot log screen would be better. Are you trying to make us miserable?
Than I click on a book and the screen changes a bit but it just sits there. You're presumably a sadistic person who just wants to make everyone miserable. WHAT IS HAPPENING?