Hey everyone, so I have been trying out a few guides to load wikipedia offline on the Kobo Aura by using kiwix-serve, but I never got it to work. However, as I was messing around, I noticed that the Kobo detected the ZIM wikipedia files I loaded on my SD card and added it to the library and I could load the wikipedia articles too. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere yet, so here's the guide!
*NOTE: I have only tried this on my Kobo Aura on firmware 3.19.5761, but I am pretty sure that it would work on any Kobo e-reader on that firmware, it would be nice if people with the other Kobos would be able to confirm that it works too!
Album of the pictures used in the guide: http://imgur.com/a/1LxII
Adding the ZIM files to your Kobo:
Step 1: Download a Non-indexed ZIM of the Wikipedia that you want from http://www.kiwix.org/wiki/Content_in_all_languages
Step 1b: If the ZIM file you downloaded is bigger than 4GB, you'll have to split the file to put it on your FAT32 formatted microSD card (FAT32 is the filesystem format the unmodified Kobo will want and recognize by default) - See "My ZIM file is too big, what should I do?" here: http://www.kiwix.org/wiki/FAQ
Step 2: Put the files on your microSD card. This is what my microSD card looked like: http://imgur.com/af5mc3i
Step 3: Put the microSD card in your Kobo and wait for the Kobo to scan the microSD card for files to add to the library.
Step 4: Done!
Using the Wikipedia ZIM files:
Step 1: Open one of the Wikipedia's that is now in your library as you normally would open an ebook. http://imgur.com/83uXR4K
You should then see the home/front page of the wikipedia that you have loaded. http://imgur.com/sMfGY6a
You'll notice that if you just turn the page, you'll just scroll through the front page of the Wikipedia.
Step 2: In order to access the other articles, tap the centre of the screen to open up the Reading Menu, then click the button in the bottom right hand corner with the 3 horizontal lines. The menu that pops up should have the "Wikipedia" option for you to click. http://imgur.com/Z1VIYAS
Step 3: In the "Wikipedia" search menu that pops up, you can now search for article titles in the Wikipedia file that you loaded, click on one of the suggestions that shows up as you search to get to that article. http://imgur.com/7Fxm8EZ
You will then see a properly ebook formatted version of the article on your Kobo! http://imgur.com/zCXdOq7
(I had this freeze my Kobo on me when I was first testing it out with searching for the 'Zoo' article since it was later in the file, but it worked properly after a reboot)
Finally, I would like to thank the hard-working devs at Kobo and Kiwix for making this possible! :D
*NOTE: I have only tried this on my Kobo Aura on firmware 3.19.5761, but I am pretty sure that it would work on any Kobo e-reader on that firmware, it would be nice if people with the other Kobos would be able to confirm that it works too!
Album of the pictures used in the guide: http://imgur.com/a/1LxII
Adding the ZIM files to your Kobo:
Step 1: Download a Non-indexed ZIM of the Wikipedia that you want from http://www.kiwix.org/wiki/Content_in_all_languages
Step 1b: If the ZIM file you downloaded is bigger than 4GB, you'll have to split the file to put it on your FAT32 formatted microSD card (FAT32 is the filesystem format the unmodified Kobo will want and recognize by default) - See "My ZIM file is too big, what should I do?" here: http://www.kiwix.org/wiki/FAQ
Step 2: Put the files on your microSD card. This is what my microSD card looked like: http://imgur.com/af5mc3i
Step 3: Put the microSD card in your Kobo and wait for the Kobo to scan the microSD card for files to add to the library.
Step 4: Done!
Using the Wikipedia ZIM files:
Step 1: Open one of the Wikipedia's that is now in your library as you normally would open an ebook. http://imgur.com/83uXR4K
You should then see the home/front page of the wikipedia that you have loaded. http://imgur.com/sMfGY6a
You'll notice that if you just turn the page, you'll just scroll through the front page of the Wikipedia.
Step 2: In order to access the other articles, tap the centre of the screen to open up the Reading Menu, then click the button in the bottom right hand corner with the 3 horizontal lines. The menu that pops up should have the "Wikipedia" option for you to click. http://imgur.com/Z1VIYAS
Step 3: In the "Wikipedia" search menu that pops up, you can now search for article titles in the Wikipedia file that you loaded, click on one of the suggestions that shows up as you search to get to that article. http://imgur.com/7Fxm8EZ
You will then see a properly ebook formatted version of the article on your Kobo! http://imgur.com/zCXdOq7
(I had this freeze my Kobo on me when I was first testing it out with searching for the 'Zoo' article since it was later in the file, but it worked properly after a reboot)
Finally, I would like to thank the hard-working devs at Kobo and Kiwix for making this possible! :D