[Kindle Touch] What does update 5.0.4 change?

[ixtab]

Hi everyone,

The KT update to version 5.0.4 is out for some 2 days now. I'm refraining from updating for another week or two.

Still, judging from the size, it seems to be a rather large update. Did anyone notice significant changes between this, and previous versions?

Most notably, will previous jailbreaks still work on a "fresh" KT 5.0.4 which DID NOT have the jailbreak installed before the update?

From what I've read so far, if the Kindle had been jailbroken *before* the update, the jailbreak will persist (=survive the update). The same is true for the localization (again, as far as I know).

Any information is welcome... thanks!

[eureka]

Update could be easily unpacked with kindletool and it contains whole files, not the binary patches as in 5.0.3. So it's easier to inspect for differencies.

Remeber, it's not only update from 5.0.3 to 5.0.4. It's also an update from 5.0.0 to 5.0.4 (i.e. 5.0.3 is included in 5.0.4). And, as it contains whole files, big size doesn't means big changes.

There is a new busybox. I've tried to unpack tar.gz containing /var/local/system/locale with busybox from 5.0.4 and result was the same as with busybox from 5.0.3. So, I suppose, current jailbreak method should still work.

There is a new kernel.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by ixtab

Hi everyone,

The KT update to version 5.0.4 is out for some 2 days now. I'm refraining from updating for another week or two.

Still, judging from the size, it seems to be a rather large update. Did anyone notice significant changes between this, and previous versions?

Most notably, will previous jailbreaks still work on a "fresh" KT 5.0.4 which DID NOT have the jailbreak installed before the update?

From what I've read so far, if the Kindle had been jailbroken *before* the update, the jailbreak will persist (=survive the update). The same is true for the localization (again, as far as I know).

Any information is welcome... thanks!

I updated last night. I did partition dumps before, halfway through, and after.

The first update deposited a payload.bin file on the USB Drive, and another reboot runs that one with a slightly different screen that says 2/2 on it.

The reason I was able to capture it between the two reboots is that I had an ENABLE_DIAGS on my usb drive, and I used SSH from diags "Enable USBnet" menu.

After the update, the data.tar.gz "bug" still works, as I posted on the IRC last night. That means that amazon obviously WANTS us doing this stuff, right?

Somebody on IRC last night mentioned that the md5sum of almost all files changed, and kernel changes too.

Personally, I think that second install.bin file was for the diags partition, because it was almost exactly the same size as my mmcblk0p2.img.gz file...

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by eureka

Update could be easily unpacked with kindletool and it contains whole files, not the binary patches as in 5.0.3. So it's easier to inspect for differencies.

Remeber, it's not only update from 5.0.3 to 5.0.4. It's also an update from 5.0.0 to 5.0.4 (i.e. 5.0.3 is included in 5.0.4). And, as it contains whole files, big size doesn't means big changes.

There is a new busybox. I've tried to unpack tar.gz containing /var/local/system/locale with busybox from 5.0.4 and result was the same as with busybox from 5.0.3. So, I suppose, current jailbreak method should still work.

There is a new kernel.

I asked amazon to release a FULL update when I was on the phone with their "deep" techs who know this stuff for a few hours a few weeks back. I believe I convinced them that partial updates were a bad idea, and it looks like they listened to me. I called for permission to include a partition image in my recovery tools, but we discussed much more than that.

@eureka: Did you notice when unpacking that there was another update package inside the first one?

[eureka]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Personally, I think that second install.bin file was for the diags partition, because it was almost exactly the same size as my mmcblk0p2.img.gz file...

payload.bin is an ordinary update bundle. After a flashing of new kernel and installing of new upstart script (otafix.conf), payload.bin is copied to userstore partition. Device is rebooted and then payload.bin is applied by otafix.conf. payload.bin updates files in root partition.

Seriously, am I the only who knows about Yifan Lu's kindletool?

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by eureka

payload.bin is an ordinary update bundle. After a flashing of new kernel and installing of new upstart script (otafix.conf), payload.bin is copied to userstore partition. Device is rebooted and then payload.bin is applied by otafix.conf. payload.bin updates files in root partition.

Seriously, am I the only who knows about Yifan Lu's kindletool?

Never used kindletool. I suppose I should. I was mounting and comparing before-and-after partition images.

The reason I asked amazon to release a full update was so I would have an official source to repopulate a reformatted partition, instead of a clandestine backup image. Their legal department never did get back to me on my request for written permission to distribute a backup image. Now I do not need to.

I tired very hard to convince them that partial backups were BAD, and I believed at that time that I DID convince them. And this update appears to be proof of that...

And now, still waiting for a K4NT full update package...

[ixtab]

Thank you both for the detailed infos!

So, expressing this in terms mostly known from backups, 5.0.4 is an *incremental* update from 5.0.0 instead of a *differential* one from 5.0.3, right? Wise choice, and explains the larger size.

Originally Posted by geekmaster

After the update, the data.tar.gz "bug" still works, as I posted on the IRC last night. That means that amazon obviously WANTS us doing this stuff, right?

Well, they probably don't downright WANT (or encourage) us to do it, but at least they seem to TOLERATE it (leave the door open). This is pretty much the hope that I was expressing in some of the posts in the jailbreak thread -- give users the freedom to experiment with the device (at their own risk), and in the end, it can be beneficial for both the users and the "reputation" of the company (in the "hacker" community). Two thumbs up for Amazon!

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by eureka

Seriously, am I the only who knows about Yifan Lu's kindletool?

Nope. I also took a closer look at the 5.0.3 update, which already contained two distinct .bin files for 5.0.0 and 5.0.1.

But because I'm lazy, and I figured that someone else had already done the work, I just asked...

[geekmaster]

So this is INCREMENTAL, not a FULL update? I do not fully understand how update terminology is used here. How is an incremental backup different from a full backup?

Does this require a 5.0.0 image to be installed on the partition before updating it?

Confused...

I see that the KindleTool readme refers to OTA and recovery packages. I did not realize that they were diffierent. I was studying different stuff. Time to look at this closer it would seem. So much to learn and so little time.

[eureka]

Originally Posted by ixtab

Nope. I also took a closer look at the 5.0.3 update, which already contained two distinct .bin files for 5.0.0 and 5.0.1.

But because I'm lazy, and I figured that someone else had already done the work, I just asked...

Well, not all work, because I don't know what is changed from 5.0.3 besides busybox and kernel. And kernel, in fact, could be the same as after applying of 5.0.3 (I didn't checked md5sum's).

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Does this require a 5.0.0 image to be installed on the partition before updating it?

Yes. 5.0.0 or 5.0.3. 5.0.4 will not work if it will be just unpacked to empty partition.

It's an update, after all

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

So this is INCREMENTAL, not a FULL update? I do not fully understand how update terminology is used here. How is an incremental backup different from a full backup?

Does this require a 5.0.0 image to be installed on the partition before updating it?

Confused...

Yep, I assume so. Otherwise it would have to contain the *entire* file system (=all files).

[root@kindle fonthack]# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root               340.2M    213.8M    109.3M  66% /
tmpfs                   124.9M     72.0K    124.8M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   124.9M         0    124.9M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                    32.0M    436.0K     31.6M   1% /var
/dev/mmcblk0p3           31.0M     10.8M     18.6M  37% /var/local
fsp                       3.2G    293.4M      2.9G   9% /mnt/us
/dev/loop/0               3.2G    293.4M      2.9G   9% /mnt/base-us

This is pretty much impossible given these sizes, and the update size.

• FULL: every single file is contained. In other words, the full backup contains EVERYTHING. You could start from a completely empty situation -- a full backup will restore it all.
• INCREMENTAL: Contains the *full* new contents of any changed file, compared to an existing state (let's call this "ground truth"). Comparable to extracting an archive onto an existing file system, replacing some files, but leaving others intact.
• DIFFERENTIAL: Contains *differences* between a known previous state, and a known new state. Comparable to applying a "patch" command, replacing some files, but only if they were in the expected previous state.

From what I see, the 5.0.3 update has been a differential update (relying on a known 5.0.0 or 5.0.1 state, which is why it included two different installers). The 5.0.4 is an incremental update instead (just replacing everything that changed from 5.0.0 to 5.0.4).

I might be totally wrong (I did not take a look at 5.0.4 yet, actually, and am relying on eureka's and your information here!) -- still, that seams plausible to me.

As for the term "full", you are both right and wrong: an incremental update includes the complete new file for any file that has actually (ever) been changed since the "ground truth" (v5.0.0), but it also does not include any file available in "the ground truth" that has not been changed. This is what I understood the 5.0.4 package to be.

[geekmaster]

I compiled the newest KindleTool. It display usage info, but it "Cannot open input file for reading". Any ideas?

EDIT: Nevermind. the input file was 0-bytes. One of the options I tried must have written to it. PEBKAC error.

It worked after I re-copied the file...

I *like* how the update scripts are fully commented.

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

I compiled the newest KindleTool. It display usage info, but it "Cannot open input file for reading". Any ideas?

Yes: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=111


kindletool is (unfortunately) totally, utterly broken (see my posts about that in the Jailbreak thread). It works sometimes, but unfortunately, it produces garbage many other times. The reason is not so much wrong coding, but wrong assumptions about memory management (which seem not to hold in current Linux distributions).

For newer .bin packages (like the font hack), kindletool did not work, so I am now relying on the "unofficial kindletool mode" that I built into the localization package, where the original "kindletool" is only used for converting packages.

[geekmaster]

Unless I am missing something, there were very few changes in mmcblk0p1.

/usr/java/bin/ams and /usr/java/bin/ams.map are in my 5.0.0 image but not 5.0.4.

/usr/share/webkit-1.0/pillow/javascripts/debug_cmds.js was changed to a .json file and moved to its parent folder,

That's about it. A lot of the stuff in the update package (including the busybox) does not seem to be different from 5.0.0.

Now to see if the diags partition changed...

EDIT: I do not see ANY changes on mmcblk0p2. Were the only changes the files listed above?

What am I doing wrong here?

[Novo]

Is it safe to apply this update on my already jailbroken kindle touch?
Will the jailbroken things be still there?