Kindle Touch/PW1/PW2 5.0.x - 5.4.4.2 JailBreak. Plus FW 5.x USBNetwork.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by cryzed

But at this point the jailbreak stops being "just a single file", right? And how do you force the Kindle software to check for the private key in the new partition? I'd imagine that they usually lie in a set position on the system or data partition, probably the root home folder?

I'd just like to understand the inner workings, of both, the jailbreak and the Kindle OS a bit better.

And what do you mean by "takes care of the back up"? Can I reflash the image whenever I feel like it?

The jailbreak never becomes more that a single file. Never.

It is only the public key of a key pair used to sign the binary files.
Amazon has one pair for their binaries, we add our own pair for our binaries.

Both Amazon and Mobileread use the Amazon OTA updater.
Most of which is just scripting files, which you can read with any text editor for whatever amount of detail that you want to know.

If you have questions about the command shell script files, the file system structure, or any other *nix related questions. . . .
You can find plenty of documentation on the 'net.

- - - -

No.
You can re-flash the image any time the battery is over 70% charged, regardless of your feelings.

[cryzed]

Originally Posted by knc1

[...] regardless of your feelings.

I do know my way around GNU/Linux, its file system structure and bash files, thank you for the suggestion though. What puzzled me was simply how I would acquire the 5.3.0 image and still flash it even after having possibly bricked the Kindle. But apparently the modern way to do that is with the USB Downloader mode if I am not mistaken.

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by cryzed

I do know my way around GNU/Linux, its file system structure and bash files, thank you for the suggestion though. What puzzled me was simply how I would acquire the 5.3.0 image and still flash it even after having possibly bricked the Kindle. But apparently the modern way to do that is with the USB Downloader mode if I am not mistaken.

In principle, yes. USB downloader mode will pretty much always work for the K4 and for the K5T.

For the Paperwhite, you're essentially right: as there is no known way of getting the device into USB downloader mode, the simple truth is: If the device is *really* bricked, it's bricked for good. If it's "semi-bricked", you may still be able to revive it by booting into diags mode, or by opening it and using the serial port to fiddle with u-boot.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by cryzed

What puzzled me was simply how I would acquire the 5.3.0 image and still flash it even after having possibly bricked the Kindle. But apparently the modern way to do that is with the USB Downloader mode if I am not mistaken.

The 5.3 update posted by Amazon is a full system install image, not the usual incremental update.

I did not read the "after having bricked the Kindle" qualification before.

At this time, the only known way to get into USB Downloader mode is by u-boot commands given over the serial port.
Although it might be possible with a special USB cable to trigger the downloader mode.

You will want to read all of the posts related to the above before taking the risk of bricking your device.

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by knc1

At this time, the only known way to get into USB Downloader mode is by u-boot commands given over the serial port.

Small correction: the "USB downloader" mode is baked into the SoC, and is what happens *before* u-boot (and what allows to download and execute a custom u-boot). There is currently NO known way of getting there. u-boot only allows you to get into fastboot mode, but that's a different story again. (Yes, I know this is all very confusing; it also took me months to wrap my head around it).

Although it might be possible with a special USB cable to trigger the downloader mode.

You will want to read all of the posts related to the above before taking the risk of bricking your device.

The former might be true - I'm too much of an idiot in electronics to be able to contribute anything meaningful. The latter is definitely true

[knc1]

Maybe the post I was remembering did say "fastboot" mode, rather than "downloader" mode.

There is a thread here about using a "factory cable" -
The OTG port has a "ID" pin - and OTG uses ground and open - evidently the Kindle is recognizing ground, open and pulled up.

I recall reading the announcement but do not recall seeing any follow-up on how to make use of that behavior.
(But I have been away for a few days, it could have slipped past me - since we still don't have a Kpw prefix here.)

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

Maybe the post I was remembering did say "fastboot" mode, rather than "downloader" mode.

There is a thread here about using a "factory cable" -
The OTG port has a "ID" pin - and OTG uses ground and open - evidently the Kindle is recognizing ground, open and pulled up.

I recall reading the announcement but do not recall seeing any follow-up on how to make use of that behavior.
(But I have been away for a few days, it could have slipped past me - since we still don't have a Kpw prefix here.)

The referenced code that checks for OTG ID pulled high is only used if idme var bootmode = factory. And you need a way to change the bootmode var, which means opening it up.

[eureka]

Originally Posted by ixtab

For the Paperwhite, you're essentially right: as there is no known way of getting the device into USB downloader mode, the simple truth is: If the device is *really* bricked, it's bricked for good. If it's "semi-bricked", you may still be able to revive it by booting into diags mode, or by opening it and using the serial port to fiddle with u-boot.

OTOH, it's very hard to *really* brick PW. It will be "semi-bricked" even with the full erase of /dev/mmcblk0 from PW's Linux. U-Boot is stored in separate eMMC boot partition. And "eMMC boot pairtiton" has nothing common with the partitions of /dev/mmcblk0 and stock PW Linux has no access to this boot partition (at least, nor kernel, neither programs in stock KT firmware never access boot partition and it's not available as device node in /dev). So, I beleive, U-Boot will be always accessible through serial console.

But, of course, after full erasing of /dev/mmcblk0 on PW one will enter into a great adventure of enormous much of googling with parallel soldering, fiddling with U-Boot, fastboot and Linux internals. Don't try this at home!

At least, Amazon had provided us with official complete rootfs and compiled kernel of 5.3.0...

[cryzed]

Thank you all for the detailed answers! Now I am really queasy about actually jailbreaking + bridging my 5.2.0 Paperwhite though... . If the jailbreak + bridge is really only one update, I can entirely remove it even on version 5.3.0, correct? Now I just need to make sure that the Collection Manager doesn't permanently modify any files and removes itself fully.

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by cryzed

Thank you all for the detailed answers! Now I am really queasy about actually jailbreaking + bridging my 5.2.0 Paperwhite though... .

Well... look at it from this perspective: If you don't do anything, your device will sooner or later auto-update itself, and completely lock you out at the same time. If it then decides to go into "Your kindle needs repair" mode for whichever reason - yes, at least the Kindle Touch occasionally does that, even without any jailbreak or custom modifications... we've seen more than one report of such behavior, and the PW is doing odd things all by itself at times, too - then you're out of luck.

If you *do* proactively install the newest jailbreak, and especially the rescue pack (before AND after the update to 5.3.0), you will have a device that is still under your control, and that you can still debrick in most normal circumstances.

Knowing that both the jailbreak and the rescue pack are safe to install (they won't break your device), that's not a terribly difficult choice in my opinion

PS: If you prefer, you can also update manually. In any case, you should probably take action soon, because the longer you keep running 5.2.0, the higher the chances of Amazon pushing 5.3.0 to your device, thus locking you out of it.

@NiLuJe: does it make sense to link to/recommend that "Paperwhite rescue pack" from the jailbreak post, or even include it in the jailbreak (for PW only)? At least I personally feel much safer knowing that there is a good chance of getting into a working diags system from a broken main system...

[Velos]

Is it possible to remove "Discover new titles in the Kindle Store" somehow? It occupies half of the start screen...

I want to see books only at the start screen, but Kindle shows link to its store (before registration it was a link for registration)

[knc1]

Originally Posted by cryzed

Now I just need to make sure that the Collection Manager doesn't permanently modify any files and removes itself fully.

The update from 5.2 to 5.3 will take care of removing the Collection Manager for you.

[cryzed]

Okay, this sounds convincing. And I am sorry if I seem lazy or uneducated about this whole stuff but I couldn't actually find much information about the diags mode in the Wiki. What does this special system-partition(?) when booted into, allow me to do? With the rescue pack it basically provides me with a way to access my Kindle over SSH and possibly save it by replacing/deleting/modifying some files, given that I know what went wrong or even restore entire partitions. What does the diags partition do by default? nothing that could possibly unbrick the Kindle? I assume it's just a usually "useless" diagnostics partition which is used by the Amazon staff to check if the system is alright and you guys just modified that slightly with the rescue pack, as to allow full root access to the Kindle's file system over SSH additionally.

From what I gather installing the regular USBNet is not important anymore after installing the rescue partition because I already have another way to enable SSH (by booting into diags mode) and creating back-ups of all system partitions would be a great idea too, so that, if I actually fuck something up, I can overwrite the partitions which I had previously backed up? Are the images provided by you, ixtab, here then just a way for people who did not back up their own partitions to save their Kindle by overwriting their partitions with your back-ups of them basically?

Is there any good reason why I should still install USBNet after having installed the rescue pack? And after having updated to version 5.3.0 is it possible to basically revert to 5.2.0 by restoring all partitions that I have backed up (during the 5.2.0 state), or will this create problems?

Thank you, and sorry for all these questions, as you said, it's quite a lot of stuff to wrap your head around.

EDIT: @knc1, yes I was also planning to install it after updating to 5.3.0 !

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by Velos

Is it possible to remove "Discover new titles in the Kindle Store" somehow? It occupies half of the start screen...

I want to see books only at the start screen, but Kindle shows link to its store (before registration it was a link for registration)

Please stay on topic. This has nothing to do with the jailbreak.

But to answer your question anyway: yes, 5.3.0 lets you disable these ads. It's up to you to decide whether you want a locked-down, or an unlocked, version of 5.3.0. You can find all the required information in this thread (and the ones linked from here).

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by cryzed

Now I just need to make sure that the Collection Manager doesn't permanently modify any files and removes itself fully.

Hmmm... that sentence wasn't there originally when I read your post and pressed "reply"

Anyway: Collections Manager does not modify ANY system files. It only (indirectly, through Amazon's API) modifies the collections database, which is located at /var/local/cc.db. CM cannot do ANY harm to your device. And even if it did, any and all of its effects would be gone after a factory reset.

Originally Posted by knc1

The update from 5.2 to 5.3 will take care of removing the Collection Manager for you.

Wrong. Because the CM application resides in /mnt/us/documents/, it is not removed by the update. However, one of its prerequisites (namely the Kindlet Jailbreak) is nuked by the update, and thus will need to be reinstalled - assuming that the device jailbreak is still in place, this will work without any problems.