Help upgrading PW currently on FW 5.3.8

[anontemp123]

I have a PW1 (B024) running on FW 5.3.8. It is jailbroken and USBNet is installed. I never installed KUAL on it. I have to type ";un" in the search bar to enable/disable USBNet. I also have something called 'backdoorlock' which prevents silent updates. I don't think I have any other utility installed on it but I am not 100% sure. It still gets ads. Basically I set it up 3 years ago and never felt the need to touch it after that. It took me quite some time right now to figure out how to login via USBNet again.

This firmware has been giving me issues for a while, mostly while browsing the Amazon store. Since I use Calibre a lot, I ignored it for a while, but it's getting increasingly frustrating to always go get my computer just to browse Amazon's library. I never had an issue with Calibre, and if an upgrade will give me problems with that, I'd rather just keep suffering.

I want to upgrade the firmware to a known jailbreakable version, jailbreak it, and then install something like backdoorlock again. I have searched quite a bit but can't figure out what firmware version, how to upgrade, do I format what I have right now, etc? Just a link or two to nudge me in the right direction is all I need. Thanks.

[eschwartz]

Reinstall the latest version of the jailbreak before updating. You must have JB >= 1.13.N in order to remain functional on firmware >= 5.6.x
The BackDoorLock may or may not have updates for firmware revisions released since you originally installed it, best check the dedicated thread.

No issues with calibre, although not every firmware "improvement" has met with approval. e.g. Cloud Collections annoyed lots of people.

...

Issues with Amazon's Storefront... sounds like that might be fallout from (not applying) the March 22 critical update.

[anontemp123]

Thanks. That's what it seemed like when I was reading the JB thread, but I never heard of a case where you jailbreak a device first, then update the firmware via OTA.

Actually, the March 22 deadline made no difference for me. The shopping feature has been giving occasional hangups for many months now. Just purchased a book yesterday. I was surprised it worked because of all the 3/22 warnings I received, but I read on this forum it was about the Send To Kindle and Whispersync features only. That's why I didn't suspect 3/22.

Is there a consensus on this forum on a preferred firmware version? Are only the latest firmware versions 3/22-compliant?

[eschwartz]

Check my device info. I cannot be bothered to update, but the Store and Cloud work fine.

Some people specifically avoid e.g. fw>=5.4.2 because of Cloud Collections, but unless you are trying to avoid specific things I would say you might as well go with the latest firmware.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by anontemp123

Thanks. That's what it seemed like when I was reading the JB thread, but I never heard of a case where you jailbreak a device first, then update the firmware via OTA.
= = = =

It is a **requirement** for the 7th gen devices - -
Because we only have a JB for the 5.6.5 firmware version.

Although once jailbroken (both steps) on 5.6.5 you can update as desired - the jb is 'viral' - it will self re-install.