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Quill OS: An open-source OS for Kobo's eReaders
- ihaveone 10mo agoI'd love to see this on the Aura HD
- listenfaster 10mo agoSame - maybe no one’s tested it on the aura HD yet?
- ctkhn 10mo agoLove my jailbroken kindle, but would love a full replacement OS like this.
- haoya 10mo agoYes, Quill OS would look amazing running on a Kindle!
- Curiositry 10mo agoCurrently supported devices lists Kindle Touch: https://github.com/Quill-OS/quill/wiki#currently-supported-devices https://github.com/Quill-OS/quill/wiki#currently-supported-d...
- ctkhn 10mo agoI've got a paperwhite 4. But for now KUAL is enough
- stonogo 10mo agoThis project is basically abandoned, as they chose to rebuild it from the ground up targeting a different platform: https://github.com/PorQ-Pine https://github.com/PorQ-Pine Part of the motivation derived from newer Kobos deploying with SecureBoot, making it tough to reflash them.
- mrsssnake 10mo agoShould really be called Restricted Boot
- pryce 10mo agoFrom the wiki: currently supported devices does not appear to support the recent Kobo eReaders
- wkat4242 10mo agoYes because they use signed firmware, it was in another article here recently
- __float 10mo agoWhat 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?
- pxc 10mo agoI have a Kobo Elipsa 2E (which I love). I never new about the PineNote! It seems awesome. Maybe I will have to get one.
- stuxnet79 10mo agoBy 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.
- outlore 10mo agoThis 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.
- mkozlows 10mo agoKOReader has built in Progress Sync, which works well for the purpose.
- wkat4242 10mo agoYes 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.
- ashtonabc 10mo agoI'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 https://github.com/jasonchoimtt/koreader-syncthing), or it can be enabled/disabled through Nickel (https://anarc.at/hardware/tablet/kobo-clara-hd/#install-syncthing https://anarc.at/hardware/tablet/kobo-clara-hd/#install-sync...).
- windexh8er 10mo agoThis 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.
- anilakar 10mo ago> in the hands of kids Until you learn the hard way that e-ink displays have a thin, fragile glass plate inside.
- ac29 10mo agoI 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
- ethagnawl 10mo agoI 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.
- aardvarkr 10mo agoIf 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.
- komali2 10mo agoI 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.
- y1n0 10mo agoWhat 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.
- IlikeKitties 10mo agoJust Pirate stuff on Annas Archive. Jumping through these ridiculous hoops for less than a floppy disk of data is just a humiliation ritual.
- oldfuture 10mo agoWe should fully own what we buy, things like this are essential
- qmmmur 10mo agoHow does this compare to using Plato or KOreader? I currently use Plato for its simplicity.
- erikw 10mo agoLove Plato- it’s so performant! I’ve always wondered why Kobo doesn’t just throw out what they’ve got and fork it.
- t-3 10mo agoWhile 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.
- tuananh 10mo agowhat's the recommended ereaders now aday? with an open OS?
- listenfaster 10mo agoRakuten, 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.
- wkat4242 10mo agoNot anymore! They've recently moved to closing their devices with signed firmware
- ggm 10mo agoI 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?
- crusty 10mo agoDon'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.
- rlue 10mo agoMy 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.
- wkat4242 10mo agoYou can do that with koreader. It can even sync progress now with kavita. Stimulating what Amazon called whisper sync.
- rlue 10mo agoI 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.
- hashworks 10mo agoLet's be honest, if we are talking about UX for the average user the koreader UI has a long way to go in general.
- wkat4242 10mo agoYeah 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.
- fdkjhkdsahfk 10mo agoUnfortunately 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!
- stonogo 10mo agoYou can use newer Kobo devices offline and without an account: https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2022/02/10/how-to-use-kobos-new-sideloaded-mode/ https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2022/02/10/how-to-use-kobo...
- crispinb 10mo agoKobo + Koreader (https://koreader.rocks/ https://koreader.rocks/) works pretty sweetly with Calibre.
- vasco 10mo agoDon'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
- Shorel 10mo agoI went from Kobo to PocketBook, and I am very satisfied with this change.
- hwj 10mo agoCan you please elaborate a little bit more on this? I'm thinking about buying an ereader but haven't decided yet which is the one...
- Shorel 10mo agoThe Pocketbook reads more formats natively like CBR, CBZ, which I also use. The Pocketbook synchronizes reading between several devices, even for books you have uploaded yourself. And the Pocketbook has text-to-speech and supports audiobooks.
- erelong 10mo agoPostmarketOS runs on a few models of Kobo: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Category:Kobo https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Category:Kobo
- dml2135 10mo agoIf 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.
- EvanAnderson 10mo agoCommenting 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.
- NewJazz 10mo agoI 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.
- zozbot234 10mo agoI'm not sure about that. The relevant discussion here is at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46194337 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.
- alias_neo 10mo agoCan 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-sync-in-calibre-web.html https://brandonjkessler.com/technology/2021/04/26/setup-kobo...
- systems 10mo agois it a linux?
- voxadam 10mo agohttps://github.com/Quill-OS/rootfs https://github.com/Quill-OS/rootfs Yep.
- thot_experiment 10mo agoI'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?
- komali2 10mo agoThe 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.
- eldridgea 10mo agoI 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-management/ https://blog.eldrid.ge/2025/03/12/self-hosted-ebook-manageme...
- franklyworks 10mo agoI 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 https://github.com/Quill-OS/quill
- franklyworks 10mo agoThe 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 https://git.sr.ht/~hrdl/linux/log/v6.17-rc5_pinenote has many commits.
- Schlagbohrer 10mo agoConsidering 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.
- cromka 10mo agoSo you mean it's not _currently_ possible, not that they _can't_ be put on the network?
- theodric 10mo agoI'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.
- EbNar 10mo agoI'd try it but sadly disassembling an IP68 device is a no go for me. :(
- wrxd 10mo agoI 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
- goku12 10mo ago> 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.
- nfredericks 10mo agoDo you know if booklore syncs the page that you’re on?
- wrxd 10mo agoI 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 https://github.com/booklore-app/booklore/pull/1541 and https://github.com/booklore-app/booklore/pull/1644 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 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
- ralferoo 10mo agoI 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!
- bondarchuk 10mo ago>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.
- andrepd 10mo ago> 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.
- ralferoo 10mo agoI 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.
- Schinken_ 10mo agoFrom 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?
- 7839284023 10mo agoYes 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_convert_downgrade_your_tolino_shine_5_to/nhehou4/ 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.
- didacusc 10mo agoIf 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.
- habosa 10mo agoI’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.
- mesaoptimizer 10mo agoReminds me of Project Oberon: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38892164 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38892164 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9847955 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9847955
- Western0 10mo agoI need ssh+mc+cc+git not for real coding but for sometimes writing a patch and meybe creating a small script
- ulfw 10mo agoWhy would i need another OS for ... an e-reader? Are people just so bored? Who would keep this up-to-date? And why?
- phyrex 10mo agoI hate the stock kobo reader, so this is exciting!
- caratamba 10mo agoThe design of Quill is terrible. It runs on marginal hardware, so you have to give the user clear and consistent feedback of what is happening. I want to see a textual boot with a lot of explanations of the interminable delays. I want to know what is happening when I press a button. It launches to a screen that says "InkBox" and sits there. Will it eventually do something? What? Is it hung? Is it broken? The UX is absolutely awful. Do better. Score is -10 until you think of the user experience.
- caratamba 10mo agoEdit: this is the worst ui/ux I have ever seen. You click something. It is working? Is it doing something? Who knows? 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?
- incee 10mo agoI have an Aura HD that I can't wait to try this on! thank you for starting this thread. I haven't used the Kobo since I got a Boox Note Air 2 that got downgraded to occasional use after I got an 11" iPad Pro that is extremely sticky and has become my primary workstation somehow.