K4 Removing ads in firm 4.1.0?

[flash2004]

Originally Posted by twilightsenpai

Hi,

I used to remove the ads in my kindle "special offers" with the old .assets method, but this doesnt work anymore with firmware 4.1.0.

Suggestion?

Ideas?

Thanks for your help.

I just bought a kindle 4 NT. It came with firmware 4.0. I used the .assets method to disable ads and yesterday morning updated to 4.1.0. Ads are still disabled and everything is working perfectly. So not sure why it is not working for you ?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by flash2004

I just bought a kindle 4 NT. It came with firmware 4.0. I used the .assets method to disable ads and yesterday morning updated to 4.1.0. Ads are still disabled and everything is working perfectly. So not sure why it is not working for you ?

Firmware begins its life on your Kindle as non-SO firmware.

Has your Kindle been Internet connected long enough since the update for Amazon to push you 4.1.0 ads?

[flash2004]

Originally Posted by knc1

Firmware begins its life on your Kindle as non-SO firmware.

Has your Kindle been Internet connected long enough since the update for Amazon to push you 4.1.0 ads?

Ok you are right , after a lot of restarts and constantly connected to internet, the ads seem to have appeared again

But I followed these instructions and now they are off again !!

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...20&postcount=4

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by flash2004

Ok you are right , after a lot of restarts and constantly connected to internet, the ads seem to have appeared again

But I followed these instructions and now they are off again !!

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...20&postcount=4

Why don't you do it the legal way, via the "Manage My Kindle" page at Amazon?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by flash2004

Ok you are right , after a lot of restarts and constantly connected to internet, the ads seem to have appeared again

But I followed these instructions and now they are off again !!

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...20&postcount=4

That one is written to take advantage of several non-obvious facts.

As pointed out in another thread here, after renaming a directory, it puts a file of the same, original, name in its place.

This leverages an obvious programming error in the SO code -
It is only testing for the existence of a name, not of its type (file or directory).

But it is not possible to add filenames (new screensavers) as members of a file, only as members of a directory (folder).

Evidently the SO support code either does not check the error code from trying to put a new screensaver file into what is now a file.
OR
The SO support code assumes that any error code that is returned means the (what was) /var/local/adunits directory is full.

Recall also that some firmware versions will "auto-brick" when /var/local fills up.
So in an attempt to avoid that situation, this exception to the SO support operation has slipped into the code.

@GM: If I failed to clearly summarize what is happening, please correct this description.

Edit:
Two points -

• HarryT is correct, your Amazon account panel is the proper way to deal with the SO function.
• Don't forget to revert this change before next updating your firmware.

[flash2004]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why don't you do it the legal way, via the "Manage My Kindle" page at Amazon?

My kindle is registered in UK (but bought in US). I can't see the option to disable ads anywhere on my manage the kindle page. Is it offered in UK ?

Also tbh, I am not really bothered by the ads...I just like tinkering with my new Kindle

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by flash2004

My kindle is registered in UK (but bought in US). I can't see the option to disable ads anywhere on my manage the kindle page. Is it offered in UK ?

No, it's not officially offered, but if you contact Kindle CS they'll remove them. Personally, though, I prefer the ads to the standard screensavers. They change and are a lot more varied. (Like you, I live in the UK, but have a US-bought Kindle Touch with ads.)

[poomex]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

You can do "cat /etc/shadow" while logged into framework:mario. Then you can crack the password with John the Ripper and the fiona wordlist. Or you can access the shadow file from diags SSH. Or you can use a RUNME.sh script with data.tar.gz.

Just to let everybody know - after installing 4.1.0 (before it was 4.0.1) root password on my Kindle has changed from mario to fionaXXXX.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by poomex

Just to let everybody know - after installing 4.1.0 (before it was 4.0.1) root password on my Kindle has changed from mario to fionaXXXX.

Does it work when you use only the first 8 characters (fionaXXX with 3 hex digits)? Standard default root passwords use a DES hash (which allows you to type extra random characters past 8, but they are ignored).

Is it the standard fionaXXX as shown on the "kindle password" web page after you supply your serial number (all uppercase)?

If the password generation algorithm has changed, we want to know so we can update it. Thanks.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by poomex

Just to let everybody know - after installing 4.1.0 (before it was 4.0.1) root password on my Kindle has changed from mario to fionaXXXX.

Would you post your /etc/shadow file somewhere we can look at it?

Did you use the update file posted by Amazon?
If so we can look in it to see if it patches /etc/shadow.

[NiLuJe]

K4 updates tend to do something funny with the shadow passwords, either resetting it from the one in diags or vice versa, can't ever remember which partition is what...

eval unset _dpinit && if mount | grep -q mmcblk0p2 ; then umount /dev/mmcblk0p2 ; fi && mkdir -p .b1 && mount -t ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p2 .b1 && cp /etc/shadow .b1/etc/shadow && sync && umount .b1 && rmdir .b1

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

K4 updates tend to do something funny with the shadow passwords, either resetting it from the one in diags or vice versa, can't ever remember which partition is what...

eval unset _dpinit && if mount | grep -q mmcblk0p2 ; then umount /dev/mmcblk0p2 ; fi && mkdir -p .b1 && mount -t ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p2 .b1 && cp /etc/shadow .b1/etc/shadow && sync && umount .b1 && rmdir .b1

On the K4s I bought from amazon one came with firmware 4.0.1 and password mario, but the next bought a couple of months later came with older 4.0.0 firmware with password fionaXXX. In both cases, the diags password was fionaXXX. When I bricked my 4.0.1 kindle, I recovered it by copying the firmware from my 4.0.0 kindle (including the shadow file with mario root pw). Doing upgrades did not change the password. As shipped both kindles had fionaXXX diags passwords.

Your script snippet above would explain the change from mario to fionaXXX (3 hex-digit DES password hash) described in this thread, but it did not seem to trigger when I applied the update to my kindles.

All of these posts about fionaXXXX (4 hex digits) default root passwords are not correct, not helpful, and only add to the confusion. You can verify that the root password is DES (with an 8 character limit) by inspecting the shadow file.

Of course if you CHANGE the root password to fionaXXXX (4 hex digits) then it gets a salted MD5 hash, and it is no longer a DEFAULT root password.

EDIT: It would be nice if the "kindle password" web page was corrected to not add to the "fionaXXXX confusion".

[knc1]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

K4 updates tend to do something funny with the shadow passwords, either resetting it from the one in diags or vice versa, can't ever remember which partition is what...

eval unset _dpinit && if mount | grep -q mmcblk0p2 ; then umount /dev/mmcblk0p2 ; fi && mkdir -p .b1 && mount -t ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p2 .b1 && cp /etc/shadow .b1/etc/shadow && sync && umount .b1 && rmdir .b1

Two points:

• Obviously written in or by a WinCE shop.
• It updates "main" with the current copy of "diags" passwords.

[NiLuJe]

@knc1: Well, technically, it's written as:

_dpinit='F?D6E 05A:?:E UU :7 >@F?E M 8C6A \B >>43=<_Aa j E96? F>@F?E ^56G^>>43=<_Aa j 7: UU ><5:C \A ]3` UU >@F?E \E 6IEb ^56G^>>43=<_Aa ]3` UU 4A ^6E4^D925@H ]3`^6E4^D925@H UU DJ?4 UU F>@F?E ]3` UU C>5:C ]3`'

[knc1]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@knc1: Well, technically, it's written as:

_dpinit='F?D6E 05A:?:E UU :7 >@F?E M 8C6A \B >>43=<_Aa j E96? F>@F?E ^56G^>>43=<_Aa j 7: UU ><5:C \A ]3` UU >@F?E \E 6IEb ^56G^>>43=<_Aa ]3` UU 4A ^6E4^D925@H ]3`^6E4^D925@H UU DJ?4 UU F>@F?E ]3` UU C>5:C ]3`'

Turkish? Urdu?