KOA Removing margins from recent firmware

pupdeg · 11-11-2023, 02:56 PM

With the recent 5.16.2.1.1 jailbreak, I wanted to try out KOreader. Worked very well to get rid of margins, I could have text right up to the edges, but sadly, the renderer has no support for vertical text and doesn't look like it'll ever get it, so it's pretty much useless for most of my use cases.

The stock experience supports vertical formatting no problem, but has awful fat margins on all 4 sides, with top and bottom seemingly mandatory. Looking around I found some info about reducing these on much older hardware like the Kindle 2, but I can't find anything more recent than that. Negative margins through Calibre might help with the sides, but they don't help with all the wasted vertical area. Has anyone found a way to reclaim some of the screen without having to manually edit every book?

shamanNS · 11-12-2023, 05:40 AM

There used to be a way to reduce margins on devices using firmware 5.x branch but IIRC since somewhere around 5.10.x that stopped working. The same code is still there (or at least it was there when I last tried doing those JAR edits on firmware 5.13.6 on Kindle PW3) but probably the hardcoded values get overridden someplace else since changing values in that known location doesn't change anything.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...postcount=1795

I'm not even sure if after editing JAR files on newer Kindle models that are using verified boot ( or whatever it is called) those devices would even boot successfully.

pupdeg · 11-12-2023, 06:48 AM

My oasis might be able to downgrade far enough back to make that work, it's a pain in the ass finding any info but given it came out in 2016 it can probably run 5.9.X. Ideally it'd be nice to have an option for newer FW though, but I guess most people just use KOreader.

shamanNS · 11-12-2023, 07:50 AM

First Oasis model?

pupdeg · 11-12-2023, 10:45 AM

First model was 8th gen, 9th was the second one. Where do you find those older FWs, searching came up empty.

shamanNS · 11-12-2023, 05:23 PM

Here is the firmware version number history:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...deId=200203720

As for downloading actual firmware bin files you will need to edit (change version / build number) a link for latest firmware to download the older firmware instead.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...MQC26VQQMM8XSW

11-11-2023, 02:56 PM	#1
pupdeg Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2023 Device: Kindle Oasis (2016)	Removing margins from recent firmware With the recent 5.16.2.1.1 jailbreak, I wanted to try out KOreader. Worked very well to get rid of margins, I could have text right up to the edges, but sadly, the renderer has no support for vertical text and doesn't look like it'll ever get it, so it's pretty much useless for most of my use cases. The stock experience supports vertical formatting no problem, but has awful fat margins on all 4 sides, with top and bottom seemingly mandatory. Looking around I found some info about reducing these on much older hardware like the Kindle 2, but I can't find anything more recent than that. Negative margins through Calibre might help with the sides, but they don't help with all the wasted vertical area. Has anyone found a way to reclaim some of the screen without having to manually edit every book?

11-12-2023, 05:23 PM	#6
shamanNS Guru Posts: 886 Karma: 10113994 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Serbia Device: Kindle PW5 [bricked], Kindle PW1	Here is the firmware version number history: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...deId=200203720 As for downloading actual firmware bin files you will need to edit (change version / build number) a link for latest firmware to download the older firmware instead. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...MQC26VQQMM8XSW Last edited by shamanNS; 11-12-2023 at 05:26 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
[PDF] Removing margins?	Shohreh	Workshop	14	05-05-2020 03:51 PM
Removing the margins on a Kindle Touch?	randomviewer896	Kindle Developer's Corner	2	06-18-2015 07:26 AM
Paragraph breaks when removing margins	Canorka	Conversion	3	03-30-2012 02:00 AM
Ebook formatting - help with removing margins?	geekgeek	Amazon Kindle	8	12-22-2010 10:27 PM
Any good app for removing white margins of pdf?	hupple	Amazon Kindle	4	10-17-2010 05:22 PM

11-12-2023, 05:40 AM	#2
shamanNS Guru Posts: 886 Karma: 10113994 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Serbia Device: Kindle PW5 [bricked], Kindle PW1	There used to be a way to reduce margins on devices using firmware 5.x branch but IIRC since somewhere around 5.10.x that stopped working. The same code is still there (or at least it was there when I last tried doing those JAR edits on firmware 5.13.6 on Kindle PW3) but probably the hardcoded values get overridden someplace else since changing values in that known location doesn't change anything. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...postcount=1795 I'm not even sure if after editing JAR files on newer Kindle models that are using verified boot ( or whatever it is called) those devices would even boot successfully.

11-12-2023, 06:48 AM	#3
pupdeg Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2023 Device: Kindle Oasis (2016)	My oasis might be able to downgrade far enough back to make that work, it's a pain in the ass finding any info but given it came out in 2016 it can probably run 5.9.X. Ideally it'd be nice to have an option for newer FW though, but I guess most people just use KOreader.

11-12-2023, 07:50 AM	#4
shamanNS Guru Posts: 886 Karma: 10113994 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Serbia Device: Kindle PW5 [bricked], Kindle PW1	First Oasis model?

11-12-2023, 10:45 AM	#5
pupdeg Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2023 Device: Kindle Oasis (2016)	First model was 8th gen, 9th was the second one. Where do you find those older FWs, searching came up empty.

Advert

Advert