PW3 is it okay to downgrade from 5.15.1 to 5.9.7?

[Vlash]

I just jailbroke my PW3 and I see there's a "downgrader" package available.

I'd like to know if it's possible to use that to go back to 5.9.7. This is a fairly old PW3. I got it in 2017. and IIRC it was on 5.7-ish when I bought it. Anyways, after 5.12 the battery of this kindle never lasted the same. It was immediate. The problem only got worse with each new firmware, and I wonder if downgrading is the right option to solve this issue.

Thanks.

[j.p.s]

It should be possible, but there are some caveats.

The formats of internal databases in /var/local and the various contents of the .sdr directories for books have probably changed a lot. Firmware update code migrates these, but downgrading would probably confuse the conversion code.

It would probably be prudent to remove all books, do a reset, reinstall hotfix, kual, etc, reboot a couple of times, then downgrade. The reset clears the databases and books. If you backup the books and .sdr directories in your documents directory, you can restore the books. It is likely the .sdr contents won't be directly usable. If you allowed syncing, you get all that back for amazon bought books if you restore books by redownloading from amazon.

I don't think anyone has downgraded that far in one step, but it might be possible or you can downgrade in steps.

[Vlash]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

It should be possible, but there are some caveats.

The formats of internal databases in /var/local and the various contents of the .sdr directories for books have probably changed a lot. Firmware update code migrates these, but downgrading would probably confuse the conversion code.

It would probably be prudent to remove all books, do a reset, reinstall hotfix, kual, etc, reboot a couple of times, then downgrade. The reset clears the databases and books. If you backup the books and .sdr directories in your documents directory, you can restore the books. It is likely the .sdr contents won't be directly usable. If you allowed syncing, you get all that back for amazon bought books if you restore books by redownloading from amazon.

I don't think anyone has downgraded that far in one step, but it might be possible or you can downgrade in steps.

Ok, cool.

I'm facing 2 issues though.

1. Downgrader doesn't show up inside Kual.
2. I can't find a firmware that old to try the downgrade.

ANy ideas on those issues?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Vlash

I'm facing 2 issues though.

1. Downgrader doesn't show up inside Kual.
2. I can't find a firmware that old to try the downgrade.

ANy ideas on those issues?

1. Have you installed any other KUAL extension? Maybe you are making a mistake.

2. Downloading old kindle firmware used to be simple, now it is a moving target.

You need to go to
https://us.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...MQC26VQQMM8XSW
and check what the download URL is for your model and change the firmware number in the URL. What is tricky now is that the link is a redirect so you have to fiddle around in view source and maybe actually download the latest version to figure out where is came from.

[Vlash]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

1. Have you installed any other KUAL extension? Maybe you are making a mistake.

2. Downloading old kindle firmware used to be simple, now it is a moving target.

You need to go to
https://us.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...MQC26VQQMM8XSW
and check what the download URL is for your model and change the firmware number in the URL. What is tricky now is that the link is a redirect so you have to fiddle around in view source and maybe actually download the latest version to figure out where is came from.

EDIT:

Did it all again, factory reset, now I even formatted internal storage. Then I installed mrpi, jailbreak hotfix, kual and tried to install downgrader 2.0
It is the one extension that doesn't show up at all in KUAL.

I did the following:
1. Deleted the documents folder with all the .sdr and stuff
2. Factory reset
3. Reinstall MPRI
4. Using MPRI, reinstalled JB hotfix
5. Reboot
6. Reboot again
7. Reinstalled Kual, Kual+ and Helper
8. Installed Downgrader 2.0, it doesn't show up in the menu
9. Downgrader 1.0 shows up, but doesn't work