My Custom Kobo Configuration

What is this?

This repository helps you set up your Kobo just like I set up mine. Take a look!

What are the tweaks?

• Tweaked tab layout!
  • My Books and My Notebooks are now "Books" and "Notes".
  • The Activity tab is now also visible as "Stats".
  • (Notes and Discover tabs are hidden by default, but can be re-enabled.)
  • Note: This is only available with the latest version of NickelMenu, which I included in the repository.
• Added customized fonts.
• Tweak tab with various options:
  • Screensaver: Toggles the screensaver by moving the .kobo/screensaver folder. The repository comes with a nice moon screensaver, but you can add your own.
  • Screenshots: Toggles taking screenshots with the power button. Take care to disable this timely or you may encounter issues w/ waking up the device.
  • Auto USB: Toggles automatic USB connection. Helpful if you connect to your computer frequently, and don't want to keep approving the connection.
  • Toggle Legibility: Toggles the experimental WebKit rendering feature, which enables rendering of ligatures. Since this causes issues w/ justified text rendering in kepubs this is a toggle. This will also briefly reboot your device!
  • IP Address: If connected to WiFi, displays your IP address.
  • Invert & Reboot: Inverts the colors of the entire display and reboots the device.
  • Sleep: Does the same as pressing the power button.
  • Reboot: Does the same as pressing the power button for a few seconds.
• In the reader menu, a Dark Mode toggle has also been added. You can press the ... (ellipsis menu) to see this option when reading. You no longer need to dig into settings to toggle this!

Installation Guide

NickelMenu

First, install the latest version of NickelMenu.

Important

I've actually included a snapshot of the newest work-in-progress version of NickelMenu in the repository, but if there's a newer version you may want to download it from the website. If you want to download the same snapshot via GitHub, you can find the build here.

To install NickelMenu, copy .kobo/KoboRoot.tgz to your device in the same folder and let your device reboot.

Copy the .adds directory to the root of your KOBOeReader volume. This is the configuration for NickelMenu.

Separating Kobo and KOReader libraries

Ensuring this works

Ensure your Kobo doesn't scan certain directories! Important if you want to use KOReader.

To do this, add the following block to the .kobo/Kobo/Kobo eReader.conf file:

[FeatureSettings]
ExcludeSyncFolders=(calibre|\\.(?!kobo|adobe|calibre).+|([^.][^/]*/)+\\..+)

After doing this, disconnect your device and reboot it to apply this configuration tweak! After rebooting, you can copy over files to the calibre directory.

(This particular configuration ensures that a root-level calibre folder won't be scanned by Kobo's operating system. This essentially keeps the Calibre books separate from the Kobo books. Great when using KOReader.)

KOReader

If you want an alternative reading experience, this is the way to go, and a great combinatio with Calibre.

Install the latest release of KOReader. You can download it here.

Follow the instructions carefully. You will also need to add a new item to .adds/nm/items to launch KOReader via the Tweak menu!

Fonts

Copy the fonts directory and any extra fonts you like over. If you like what you're seeing, you can find more fonts in my other repository.

Screensaver

You can copy the screensaver from .kobo/screensaver into the same folder on your Kobo device. You can toggle this feature via the Tweak menu.