Font, ScreenSaver & USBNetwork Hacks for Kindle 2.x, 3.x & 4.x

[DRNKMNKY]

@ NiLuJe: OK, I got it! It's the "keyboard key" on the K4 for bringing up the search bar. And when I enter ...

;debugOn
~usbNetwork

... it switches to the USB drive mode and I can access my Kindle via USB cable and ssh! THANK YOU so much!

However, since the K4 immediatly shows the USB drive mode screen after entering ~usbNetwork I cannot enter ;debugOff and I also cannot exit from usbNetwork mode to the mass storage mode. I cannot find any information in the Readme on that and I am wondering how one exits the usbNetwork mode again?

BTW: Is there another way to start the ssh daemon besides entering ;debugON & ~usbNetwork and the [Kindle]\usbnet\auto? What I would love to have is a "1-Click-Solution" to activate sshd (as I can activate / deactivate WiFi on the Kindle). Or would I need Kite (or another Launcher) for something like that?

Again: Thank you very much for your time and effort!!!

PS: For all those who are as stupid as me, did not understand the Readme correctly and renamed DISABLE_auto to auto to early: make absolutely sure and re-check that your changes to the NDIS adapter in windows were applied! I had to do it twice because the first time it didnt change from 192.168.15.1 (for diag mode) to 192.168.2.1!!! This was the cause for my problem describe above in post #2532 of this thread!

[NiLuJe]

@DRNKMNKY:

Great! I'll clear up the readme on the whole searchbar thing .

As for showing the 'USB Drive Mode' screen straight away: that shouldn't happen. Did you happen to do this *while the Kindle was plugged to your computer*? If it was plugged in, that's likely the reason this happened. If it wasn't, it's likely a quirk of the K4 I'll have to look into (but it's gonna be tricky because I don't have a K4 ^^).

And, nope, it's the only 'vanilla' way to toggle it on this device. But you can, indeed, use a launcher like launchpad or kite, or even set up a Kindlet launcher.

[DRNKMNKY]

@NiLeJu: I just checked again. On the K4 the "USB Drive Mode" screen appears right after one enters ~usbNetwork, even if the USB cable is unplugged! There is absolutely no time to enter ;debugOff!

Another thing: what is the right way to exit the usbNetwork mode once one has finished doing everything via SSH and wants to continue reading books? The only solution I found was a hard-reset!
Because once I unplug the USB cable the Kindle still shows "USB Drive Mode", but with the message text "If you want to use your Kindle, please eject your Kindle from the Computer" instead of "If you want to read or shop on your Kindle while continuing to charge over USB...". But this may also be a quirk of the K4???

[NiLuJe]

@DRNKMNKY: Grmbl. I'll look into it, but since I don't have a K4, I can't promise anything.

In the meantime, try again with everything unplugged after a full restart, just in case.

But, if it still happens, you're left with:

* Trying to toggle usbnet off manually (/usr/local/bin/usbnetwork), but volumd might still get its panties in a bunch, and there's no telling if the 'USB Drive Mode' screen will go away.
* Rebooting manually (shutdown -r now)
* Playing around with the framework & volumd until you get them to behave without breaking the userstore or the framework.

[NiLuJe]

USBNet v0.41.N!

* Some minor binary refreshes
* Added a new setting, USE_VOLUMD (disabled by default), that might help on some systems when volumd gets its panties in a twist.

@DRNKMNKY: Try enabling the new USE_VOLUMD setting from v0.41.N, see if it helps after a reboot . (As usual with an updated config, you might have to merge it manually from the latest version in the package if you modified yours). (Also, always edit the config file while in usbms mode, NOT in usbnet).

[DRNKMNKY]

@NiLuJe:

Your efforts are much appreciated! I'm giving v0.41 a try this evening and let you know how my K4 is behaving with the new USE_VOLUMD switch set to TRUE.

[f-j-p]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@f-j-p: The first error is a corrupt file. Re-download the update & re-upload it again, and take care to unplug your Kindle safely.

As for the jailbreak, I can't tell you any more without more details about the error you encountered. (But the current version should be listed in linkjail/info.txt, and the upgrade instructions are one of the first things in the first post of this thread).

Hi NiLuJe,
Thanks for all your great help and support. However, I tried to re-download the Amazon update file and to update the Kindle a couple of times, but it doesn't work. Always an U008 error message.

When I try to update the jailbreak, I get an U007 error message.

What can I do?

Thanks and regards,
f-j-p

[jawadams]

Hello,

I installed the jailbreak quite some time ago for the screensaver ability. My Kindle shows it's software version as 3.3

I recently joined Amazon Prime and can't for the life of me find how to get to the Lending Library.

Is this because of the jailbreak?

[metalheadmalta]

An absolutely great post. I had Kite, which hooked me to jailbreaking, by creating my own family screensavers... now I uninstalled that (which still kept the savers) , and installed the new updated jailbreak.

Also installed the fonts, which have really been beneficial... Thanks.

[NiLuJe]

@f-j-p: You can always check the logs, but U008 is a failure to extract the package, which usually means it's corrupt.

As for the U007 when installing the jailbreak, you probably have a half-installed jb still clinging on to life. Try rebooting your device. (Keep in mind that you *have* to uninstall the previous jb to upgrade it).

@jawadams: No.

[DRNKMNKY]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

In the meantime, try again with everything unplugged after a full restart, just in case.

@NiLuJe: OK, just did a full restart and tried with different settings of usbnet\etc\config:
- If I leave everything on default ("K3_WIFI", "K3_WIFI_SSHD_ONLY" and "Use_OpenSSH" on FALSE) and type ;debugon & ~usbnetwork, the "USB Drive Mode" screen appears immediately.
- If I activate only WiFi (K3_WIFI="True") and type ;debugon & ~usbnetwork, the "USB Drive Mode" screen appears immediately.
- If I activate both WiFi and SSHD_Only (K3_WIFI="True" and K3_WIFI_SSHD_ONLY="True") and type ;debugon & ~usbnetwork, everything is fine: no "USB Drive Mode" appears but I can connect via WiFi!

Next I tried to disable the usbnetwork manually by calling /usr/local/bin/usbnetwork via ssh. This seams to work and the "USB Drive Mode" screen disappears!!!

What did not work was my attempt to use a Kite script to start WiFi SSH access by calling /usr/local/bin/usbnetwork. The script looks as follows:
#!/bin/sh
/usr/local/bin/usbnetwork

However, when executing it via Kite there is no SSH access. Do I need to call something else in the Kite script to get the same effects that ;debugon & ~usbnetwork do???

I am going to upgrade to V0.41 now and let you know how that works...

[NiLuJe]

@DRNKMNKY:

Yep, that's completely consistent with what the script does, K3_WIFI_SSHD_ONLY doesn't actually disable USBMS, so, yeah, it bypasses the issue .

Good to know that calling it from the shell works, though .

Can't help you with kite, I've never used it, but, no, just calling the script is enough .

Yep, hopefully USE_VOLUMD will help... (keep in mind that you'll have to test it with K3_WIFI_SSHD_ONLY=false, since it completely bypasses the issue otherwise ).

[DRNKMNKY]

@NiLuJe: OK, I tried V0.41 on my K4 (FW 4.1.0). The upgrade succeeded (but only the 3rd try; the first two ended in an update errror 3).

So after finishing the installation I tried to use it with the default settings in the etc/config and everything worked as expected (after typing ;debugon and ~usbnetwork).

Next I set USE_VOLUMD="True" and did a restart. After the restart I typed ;debugon and ~usbnetwork again. No "USB Drive Mode" screen came up but unfortunately I was not able to connect via SSH or Telnet.
Therefore I did another restart and now the "USB Drive Mode" came up immediately after the reboot (eventhough DISABLED_auto is in place!).

I currently can connect only via Telnet (not SSH) and even though I set USE_VOLUMD="False", rebooted and the even uninstalled V0.41 with the update_usbnetwork_0.41.N_k4_uninstall.bin, my Kindle always boots into "USB Drive Mode"!

Fortunately I can put the Kindle into usb ms mode be pluggin in the USB cable when restarting my Kindle. From there I can reach the home screen after I safely remove the Kindle from Windows.

So I will now try to fix this, worst case scenario is a factory reset! Long story short: I cannot recommend using USE_VOLUMD="True" on a K4 with 4.1.0 at the moment.

Do you have any ideas who the culprit might be???

[NiLuJe]

@DRNKMNKY:

Huh. Okay, so that's not just my old K2i getting creaky, I think I know what triggered the errors 0003... Will fix. (FWIW, the installation was successful, even if it doesn't look like it, I don't know how the 0003 error screen looks on the K4, but on previous devices we can hit a key (R) to continue booting, and it works ).

Err, wait, you mean that with v0.41.N, with the default settings (USE_VOLUMD false), it *doesn't* pop the USB Drive Mode screen?

Yeah, I can confirm that, there's a timing issue when using volumd, everything's up, but on volumd's terms (ie. on 192.168.15.244). I'm testing a workaround for that, too.

The setting USE_VOLUMD sets seem to be permanent, which *might* explain the 'sticky' USB Drive Mode screen, since nothing's reset it with what you did.... What you *can* try is to re-enable USE_VOLUMD over USBMS, eject, and trigger ~usbNetwork manually (might need to trigger it twice, actually, if I followed things right). You should then end up with your Kindle in usbnet mode, at best on the right IP, at worst on 192.168.15.244.

[NiLuJe]

Okay, USBNet v0.42.N, to fix the broken mess that was v0.41.N... Sorry about that ;/.

* Fix the random failures (error 0003) after an OTA update
* Possibly fix the timing issues when using USE_VOLUMD (the Kindle ending up using the wrong IP, instead of the one we ask for). [I can't reproduce this anymore, but then, I had to dig up my old K2i to trigger it in the first place, so, do shout at me if you still encounter this.. :/].

@DRNKMNKY: This should work better, once you manage to get back to a 'clean' state (the double usbNetwork with volumd should do the trick). As always, unplug the Kindle before toggling usbnet/usbms, and keep the Kindle unplugged during updates/boot.