FW Version on newly bought Paperwhite2's?

[hexagon]

Hi there,
I am thinking of buying a Kindle Paperwhite 2 to experiment with e-ink (eg. using it as a VNC based display) as well as regular reading. So far, this page has helped me a lot already. Thanks!
But if I understood this correctly, with the latest 5.6.x firmware there is currently no possibility to jailbreak the device. Now I'm wondering if the latest firmware already ships factory-loaded, given the patch is already out for quite some time. How do you think my chances are if I bought one now? And do you think the new version will get jailbroken in the future?

[knc1]

You have a 30 day, no-questions-asked, return as part of your Amazon purchase.
If you can't determine what firmware version it is running in the first 30 seconds ....

- - - - -

Don't hold your breath for a 5.6.x (closed Kindle) jailbreak.

[Althelney]

Mine was delivered yesterday with 5.4.3. However it silently OTA updated to 5.6.1 by the end of the night, so register it and turn wifi off immediately!

[eschwartz]

You will almost definitely get an OTA update, so my advice is do not even connect to WiFi before jailbreaking* and/or installing Kindle_Touch_Hacking#Blocking_Official_Updates

It will probably be a good long time before Amazon actually starts shipping new PW2s with fw5.6.1, they certainly won't bother unpacking them all to update the firmware when it should get an OTA anyway. Most likely, Kindles ship with the latest firmware as of the day it was originally boxed up, which could be a while ago.


* -- the latest jailbreak reserves special root powers so it is safe to update... well, in the sense that KUAL and other infrastructure can handle root elevation through gandalf. It's still impossible to change your mind and decide you prefer older firmware, unless you like diags mode and a terminal shell. And know how to use disk destroy safely.

[kelvinleungaz]

Mine came with 5.4.3, I got it a week ago.

[hexagon]

Nice, sounds good! Thank you the fast replies
Good idea with the free return period as well, did not think about that.

[Minotaur]

Mine (just bought today) has 5.4.5.1, so I am about to try to downgrade it. The only real JB tool I need is the Collections Manager, shame that the Kindle's own software doesn't handle collections better.
(It also had downloaded about 20Mb of the 5.6.1 update before I turned wifi off, and it did that just while I was going through the tutorial stuff that runs at first boot, so be mindful.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Minotaur

- - - -
(It also had downloaded about 20Mb of the 5.6.1 update before I turned wifi off, and it did that just while I was going through the tutorial stuff that runs at first boot, so be mindful.

** What is the full name of that partial file? **

We need that information, letter exact, including any extension(s).

[Minotaur]

Originally Posted by knc1

** What is the full name of that partial file? **

We need that information, letter exact, including any extension(s).

Sorry, I didn't take note of it
However my internet connection is slow enough that I should be able to re-enable wifi and do another partial download if you like?

-UPDATE-
OK I have a file called update.bin.tmp.partial sitting in the root folder of my PW after unlocking the back door and disabling Airplane mode.

-UPDATE 2-
Looks like I plugged back in at the right time - the file has finished downloading and I have the file name:

update-2531760037-fwo.bin

Hope this helps.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Minotaur

Sorry, I didn't take note of it
However my internet connection is slow enough that I should be able to re-enable wifi and do another partial download if you like?

-UPDATE-
OK I have a file called update.bin.tmp.partial sitting in the root folder of my PW after unlocking the back door and disabling Airplane mode.

-UPDATE 2-
Looks like I plugged back in at the right time - the file has finished downloading and I have the file name:

update-2531760037-fwo.bin

Hope this helps.

Emphasis added.

Yes, it does.

Move that update file **OFF** of your Kindle onto your PC before the Kindle can get ahold of it.

Then, would you upload it to one of my servers if I pm'd you an sftp account?

[Minotaur]

Originally Posted by knc1

Emphasis added.

Yes, it does.

Move that update file **OFF** of your Kindle onto your PC before the Kindle can get ahold of it.

Then, would you upload it to one of my servers if I pm'd you an sftp account?

No problem. PM me the details. Be aware that my slow (Australian) internet download speed also means slow upload speed though, so it will take some time to complete the upload as it's over 200Mb

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Minotaur

No problem. PM me the details. Be aware that my slow (Australian) internet download speed also means slow upload speed though, so it will take some time to complete the upload as it's over 200Mb

I will PM you the details.

I understand the speed situation.
In my own case, I would let my pc stay up all night, working on the upload.

But I think there are things to be learned in that OTA update file.

[Minotaur]

Originally Posted by knc1

I will PM you the details.

I understand the speed situation.
In my own case, I would let my pc stay up all night, working on the upload.

But I think there are things to be learned in that OTA update file.

PM me with the server details.

[knc1]

We have this taken care of now.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by knc1

- - - -
But I think there are things to be learned in that OTA update file.

Not as much as I thought, the OTA update captured and the side-load update now posted are bitwise identical:

# md5sum *.bin
a49f2bd34d79403f2369adc7e8537896  update-2531760037-fwo.bin
a49f2bd34d79403f2369adc7e8537896  update_kindle_paperwhite_v2_5.6.1.bin

And the reports (above) by Minotaur indicate that our OTA blocker(s) are still working.
Prior posts of the blocker(s) failing may have been user error.