Get rid of Kindle Paperwhite's backlight

[knc1]

The Kindle access runs as the administrative user: 'root'
Please do not aim that loaded gun at your own foot.

[qlob]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Do I need the tools, or can I just use any file browser?
My understanding was, that certain files are locked. Editing them will cause some sort of virus warning or something? At least, back in the days the OS would notice when a file has been modified.
Especially OS files should be protected.
I still remember some parts of the procedures of Sudo Root and stuff, and trying to gain access on a harddrive using the OS's clearance.
Without it, you'd not be able to access (or see) those files.

I could be wrong, it's been such a long time ago.

Also, there's a file for windows to be able to read EXT formatted drives.
Once installed, you could access the drive, and even change it. I wonder if that may be able to do it?

Err, you'd at least need one with a "connect to server" functionality, so most would probably work. IIRC you might have to login and make the rootfs Read/Write before loggin in with nautilus...

It's been a while since I've done this...

[DuckieTigger]

@ProDigit: Sounds fair enough. If you would trust yourself to try packaging, you might as well have simply gone in the Kindle and fix the files by hand. So it is a Catch 22 - if you want to avoid going in and fixing it, go ahead and just create your own package. The catch is, to make sure you made the package right, you have to go in and in the very least check that you changed the right files.

@all: I checked out the package-tool this morning, and looks simple enough. (Well, not THAT simple) I managed to extract the dummy package. Since it looks like it simply runs a shell script and can picky-pack files in a .gz file.

Questions about kindletool:
1) Do I still need to chmod the files to make sure they have the right permissions, or is it enough if they have the right permission when sticking them into the .gz file?

2) Do I need to mntroot rw and mntroot ro in the script that runs in the update file, or does it run in a state where root is mounted rw to begin with?

3) Do I need to stop and start daemons if I change them? Or does it simply reboot after the .bin got installed?

[knc1]

I can answer #2 - -

Read the mntroot script -
The cases of mntroot rw when it is rw, and mntroot ro when it is ro is already handled.

(Of course, the underling 'mount' command doesn't care either, dumb-dumb lab126)

[ixtab]

1) permissions are preserved, but so is ownership. So unless you pack the file as root in the first place, you may want to add a few chown/chmod commands in the installer.
2) mntroot rw is generally required, if you need to write to the root partition.
3) No. The update performs a reboot anyway.

[DuckieTigger]

@ixtab: Thank you, that answeres all my questions in a nutshell.

Since it is a reasonable request, I thought about an easy way to customize at which light level(s) the light should be turned off. That will also streamline the script handling it. I am checking for existance of the turnlightoff file anyway, so checking against turnlightoffatlevelXX is basically the same (plus I don't need to check against the level again). But since you might end up with a total of 25 files, I will move those into a subdir.

[NiLuJe]

@DuckieTigger:

1) If you let KindleTool pack stuff itself, it will automatically try to use sane permissions (root:root & 644 or 755 IIRC). If you pack part of your stuff yourself, you'll need to take care of that (hence the dependency on GNU tar in some of my packaging scripts).

2) Note that, in the specific case of an update script, root is already rw at the time the script will run (unless something went very wrong), which is why you don't see a mntroot in any of my update scripts .

3) Nope. On the K1/2/3/4, the update process is done in a specific runlevel, with only the most basic stuff running, and on the K5/PW, it's done after stopping a bunch of stuff, and it does a full reboot at the end.

[ProDigit]

Isn't there a way to plug the kindle in a pc, loaded with a live cd of linux (knoppix, ubuntu, or whatever), and just manually edit the settings on the file?
What would happen if you try this?

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Isn't there a way to plug the kindle in a pc, loaded with a live cd of linux (knoppix, ubuntu, or whatever), and just manually edit the settings on the file?
What would happen if you try this?

Try it out, and report back.

(PS: No, it's not as easy as that. But you are still welcome to try out whatever you want to, and to contribute your findings).

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@DuckieTigger:

1) I you let KindleTool pack stuff itself, it will automatically try to use sane permissions (root:root & 644 or 755 IIRC). If you pack part of your stuff yourself, you'll need to take care of that (hence the dependency on GNU tar in some of my packaging scripts).

2) Note that, in the specific case of an update script, root is already rw at the time the script will run (unless something went very wrong), which is why you don't see a mntroot in any of my update scripts .

3) Nope. On the K1/2/3/4, the update process is done in a specific runlevel, with only the most basic stuff running, and on the K5/PW, it's done after stopping a bunch of stuff, and it does a full reboot at the end.

Aye, thanks. I will just run the script by you guys and see if I missed anything that needs to be checked.

Welcome back, did you have a nice vacation?

[DuckieTigger]

Now that KUAL works pretty well, I wrote an extension to turn the light on and off in the launcher.

UPDATE: New version will now create two entries: FrontLight - Toggle ON/OFF and FrontLight - Toggle OFF on Wakeup in KUAL.

The first button lets you turn the light on and off on demand, the second installs/uninstalls automatic turning off of the light when you wake up from sleep. At levels greater than 10 the light will stay on, otherwise it turns off. There is a slight delay and you can notice that the light turns on and then off. This is unfortunately necessary as otherwise the light will not turn off - it has to be turned off after the Kindle had a chance to turn it on.

After turning the light off, it will stay off until PW wakes up from sleep or the light setting is changed. If auto off is enabled, it will turn off if the light level is low enough. Alternative you can turn turn the light back on in KUAL. The light will turn on to the brightness you previously set in the settings menu. The scripts will only do anything when started from Paperwhite - on other Kindles it does nothing.


To install simply download the attached zip or tar.gz, unpack into the extensions folder and start KUAL. Install KUAL by visiting its page first. New version can simply overwrite the old version, or simply delete old and replace with new.

GPG: Public key available at http://drpbox.knetconnect.com/mr-keys/ (you will need DuckieTigger-gpg.asc) Both the tar.gz and the zip file are signed by me with their corrosponding file. Sorry for the ".txt" file extension, simply remove the ".txt" after download to verify the downloads.

UPDATE: Small fix in menu.json, to make compatible with future versions of KUAL.

[twobob]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

...

To install simply download the attached zip or tar.gz, unpack into the extensions folder and start KUAL. Install KUAL by visiting its page first.

Enjoy.

Thanks DT. will link it up on the main thread.
Good to see this emerge into the light.
heh I made a funny.

[DuckieTigger]

New version of light toggle for KUAL. See post #116. Also added gpg - signatures to verify download.

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Credit to Alan (aka alansplace) for making me look into this on an unrelated topic. Thank you, you made me hardware-hack my PW today.

Do not worry, all that is needed is a small magnet and any way to strap it to the PW so that it can be easily removed / reattached. That is it on hardware needed.

Now how to turn the light OFF? Follow these 2 steps:

1) disable screensaver in search bar by entering and hitting return after this:

~ds

2) attach your magnet so PW would normally go to sleep with wake / sleep function

Ta Da, the light is off.

Few things you need to know:

- you can't enter screensaver sleep mode by closing the cover or pushing the button shortly - nothing will happen other than the light turns off when using cover (that is where the magnet above comes in)

- you can still put PW to sleep, but you must remove the magnet, push power button for few seconds (about 4 maybe) to enter white screen sleep mode. Again, light must be turned on, or PW won't enter white screen sleep mode

- the screensaver will not come on after 10 minutes (thought I mention that as ~ds disables that)

- the light can be turned on and off by simply removing / attaching magnet

- to return normal operation a restart is necessary (menu->settings, then menu->restart) - screensaver is back , attaching the magnet sleeps device again

- last not least: does not require Jailbreak or USB Network
Happy Hacking



p.s.: Thank you Amazon for this undocumented feature.

Update: See post #80 or directly this post for a nice guide on what magnet to use and where to put it. That post is for waking / sleeping with a cover. So you need to adjust accordingly to make it work for turning the light off. See picture #5 there for placement.

Using this method, PW also does not show password screen when starting it up again.
How's battery performing with ~ds?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Using this method, PW also does not show password screen when starting it up again.
How's battery performing with ~ds?

Should perform just as normal. You should put the PW to sleep though when you are done reading for a while. With ~ds the only way to put the PW to sleep is by making it go to white screen sleep mode by pushing the power button for a while until screen becomes white.

The same thing can be done in KUAL with the helper extension. For enable/disable screensaver. But then if you already installed KUAL, you might as well get my Light Toggle. Then you can turn off the light, and the PW will still go to sleep after 10 minutes. (see post #116 above)