Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Booting Android from external SD on Kobo Aura HD

Looking through http://phj.hu/auraHD/ for information about running Android on Aura HD I've stumbled to the idea to run Android from the external SD. I started to investigate this matter and as a result I was able to realize this idea. You won't even need to disassemble the device. Below is a short instruction on how to run Android from the external card.

The first thing you need to download the SD card image with Android: 2014-02-02_Android_Kobo_AuraHD.7z. Here is the updated image: 014-02-28_Android_Kobo_Aura_HD.7z. Or here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uc187pmcnelk9yq/2014-02-28_Android_Kobo_Aura_HD.7z. To create a SD card from this image you need Flash Drive Image Writer and at least 8GB miŅroSD card. You can use micro SD card up to 32GB, you only need to move the last two partitions to the end of the card and extend the first partition. After you create the card you'll need to delete the folder .kobo from the created SD card. (Only for the old (2014-02-02_Android_Kobo_AuraHD.7z) image).

Now you are ready to install the patch that lets you run Android from the external SD. First we create a backup internal SD card. You need to install this patch (fix-udev-tgz.zip), otherwise the device won't see the external card, which will be used to save the backup. Connect your device to your computer through USB and unzip fix-udev-tgz.zip to the folder named .kobo which is located on the device. Next you need to safely unmount and disconnect the device from the computer. Then the device will be upgrading and rebooting. Creating a backup is a long process, it took me about 15 minutes. Now you have to download the main patch (dualboot-android-aurahd.zip). Connect your device to your computer through USB and unzip dualboot-android-aurahd.zip to the folder named .kobo which is located on the device. Next you need to safely unmount and disconnect the device from the computer. Then the device will be upgrading and rebooting. During the upgrade will be created backup, so be prepared for a long wait.

After the device will reboot you will be able to choose which system to boot. If you press the backlight button when the device turns on then Android will boot from the external SD card which was created earlier. If backlight button isn't pressed the standard firmware will boot from the internal SD.