KoboPatch Web UI beta

Customise your Kobo e-reader with NickelMenu or custom patches.

Loading…

How does this work?

KoboPatch Web UI is a fully client-side web application for customising Kobo e-readers. Nothing is uploaded to a server — everything runs in your browser.

NickelMenu

NickelMenu adds custom menu items and tweaks to your Kobo. This tool can install NickelMenu along with an optional curated configuration (custom menus, fonts, screensavers) or remove it. NickelMenu works with most Kobo devices and includes a failsafe that automatically uninstalls itself if something goes wrong.

Custom patches

  1. Device selection — On Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge), the app can auto-detect your Kobo via the File System Access API when connected over USB. On other browsers, you manually select your model and software version.
  2. Patch configuration — You choose which kobopatch patches to enable or disable. Patches in the same group are mutually exclusive. The patches themselves are community-contributed via the MobileRead forums.
  3. Build — The correct software update is downloaded directly from Kobo's servers (ereaderfiles.kobo.com). The patcher, compiled from Go to WebAssembly, runs inside a Web Worker so the UI stays responsive. It extracts KoboRoot.tgz, applies your selected patches as in-place byte replacements to the ELF binaries, validates the results (ELF headers, file sizes, archive consistency), and produces a new KoboRoot.tgz.
  4. Install — On Chromium, the patched file is written directly to the .kobo folder on the device. On other browsers, you download the file and copy it manually. After safely ejecting, the Kobo reboots and applies the update.

Restoring original software

You can also use this tool to restore the original unpatched software. In that case, no patches are applied — the original KoboRoot.tgz is extracted from the software update as-is.

Safety

NickelMenu includes a built-in failsafe mechanism. For custom patches, each patched binary is validated before being included in the output: ELF magic bytes, 32-bit ARM architecture, file size (must match the original), and archive integrity are all checked. If anything looks wrong, the build fails with an error. That said, both NickelMenu and custom patches modify system files, so you should know how to manually reset your Kobo if needed.