this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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Just FYI, older Kobos are exceptionally easy to repair and modify. They used to have an SD card as the hd you could remove and do all sorts of cool things with. They also published the version of the linux kernel they used and any modifications they (Kobo) devs had to do to get things working. It was awesome for a time. Its more locked down now... :(
I used to play around with https://quill-os.org/ and it worked decently well on kobo until the newer versions started to crack down on the mod scene.
Nowadays im thinking the open book or Diptyx E-Reader might be a better bet for long term sustainability. Its great ifixit is working with kobo, but the software is still locked down.
For a bigger list take a look: https://itsfoss.com/open-source-ebook-readers-options/
I'd love to have ventured into that with mine. Turns out the very first gen I got didn't have the SD card internally yet but soldered memory, so I can't do some fancy stuff with it. On the other hand, the thing still runs and that's like, most of what matters. The old thing still got firmware updates from time to time, gotta say that is rather impressive. I can also swap the battery once it decides to die, which is nice.
Bummed to hear they cracked down on the mod scene there, thought that was awesome. I'm bookmarking your comment so I know what to look for if my kobo ever dies. Not getting any locked down bs for sure.