Tutorial Brand new PaperWhite 4 (2018) factory image JailBreaking

[otinen]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

No, that is the factory firmware. You need to download customer firmware from amazon. Examples for the PW3 are in step 7 in the thread I pointed you to. I'm not up to searching around for instructions. All the prior versions are there, but you need to edit the version number to match what you are looking for because amazon only shows the most recent version. If you look through the various jailbreak threads you should be able to find instructions for getting firmware updates from amazon

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

If you'd like to play it safe and don't need any of the new features in latest firmware (e.g. Read/Unread filter), you could install this:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/firmwaredow...2_5.10.1.3.bin (customer fw is ~200-300MB, factory is much bigger at ~700-800MB)

Sticking to this version means you can always redo the factory fw jailbreak in case something happens.

Thanks for mentioning the size difference, this whole jailbreaking is all new to me, and with so many threads all over the place its very overwhelming on what to follow. I'll look around or just go with what ilovejedd pointed out, what you both said now gives me a better understanding to what I am looking for. Thanks again both of you

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Xanotos

What’s the difference between Customer and Factory firmwares? I haven’t connected to amazon with my PW4 and been using Calibre solely on it.

Factory firmware is what we installed in order to jailbreak. It has commands not available in the customer firmware version and vice versa (e.g. ;installHtml). Customer firmware is the normal version that's installed on Kindles.

Caveat, the differences between customer and factory firmware may cause add-ons to fail. Hence the recommendation to switch back to normal customer firmware before installing add-ons.

[Xanotos]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Factory firmware is what we installed in order to jailbreak. It has commands not available in the customer firmware version and vice versa (e.g. ;installHtml). Customer firmware is the normal version that's installed on Kindles.

Caveat, the differences between customer and factory firmware may cause add-ons to fail. Hence the recommendation to switch back to normal customer firmware before installing add-ons.

Well, only thing running on my PW is the screensaver hack.
Heheheh I’m pretty nervous about updating the PW, I really don’t want to lose the screensaver hack. It’s the only reason I did all of this.
I had a hackable PW3, but I updated OTA and lost the my chance to hack it.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Xanotos

Well, only thing running on my PW is the screensaver hack.
Heheheh I’m pretty nervous about updating the PW, I really don’t want to lose the screensaver hack. It’s the only reason I did all of this.
I had a hackable PW3, but I updated OTA and lost the my chance to hack it.

That's why I recommended sticking to customer/OTA 5.10.1.3 (not to be confused with 5.10.3 which is not jailbreakable). If you install customer fw5.10.1.3, you always have the option to install factory fw5.10.1.3 and jailbreak. Make sure you have the latest hotfix installed when you install firmware. That's what makes the jailbreak persistent.

Note, there's an option to block updates on the either KUAL+ or Helper add-on. I highly recommend enabling it from there.

The option does two things:

1. create /mnt/us/update.bin.tmp.partial directory
2. create /var/local/system/SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK file

Consider #2 an extra level of protection. In my case, SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK also greatly helped improve battery life (my PW4 was draining at 1-2% per hour on idle with wifi on).

[Xanotos]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

That's why I recommended sticking to customer/OTA 5.10.1.3 (not to be confused with 5.10.3 which is not jailbreakable). If you install customer fw5.10.1.3, you always have the option to install factory fw5.10.1.3 and jailbreak. Make sure you have the latest hotfix installed when you install firmware. That's what makes the jailbreak persistent.

Note, there's an option to block updates on the either KUAL+ or Helper add-on. I highly recommend enabling it from there.

The option does two things:

1. create /mnt/us/update.bin.tmp.partial directory
2. create /var/local/system/SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK file

Consider #2 an extra level of protection. In my case, SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK also greatly helped improve battery life (my PW4 was draining at 1-2% per hour on idle with wifi on).

Ok, I got the customer firmware; so I just install by putting in root. Then update. Then run Hotfix: JailBreak-1.15.N-FW-5.x-hotfix.zip.

Do I also have to reinstall screensaver hack files again?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Xanotos

Ok, I got the customer firmware; so I just install by putting in root. Then update. Then run Hotfix: JailBreak-1.15.N-FW-5.x-hotfix.zip.

Do I also have to reinstall screensaver hack files again?

After an update, you always have to reinstall everything.

[NRB73]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Note, there's an option to block updates on the either KUAL+ or Helper add-on. I highly recommend enabling it from there.

The option does two things:

1. create /mnt/us/update.bin.tmp.partial directory
2. create /var/local/system/SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK file

Consider #2 an extra level of protection. In my case, SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK also greatly helped improve battery life (my PW4 was draining at 1-2% per hour on idle with wifi on).

Where can I find these options? I've installed KUAL/KUAL+/Helper+ but can't see the option anywhere.

[shamanNS]

@NRB73: You're probably using older version of "Helper" extension. Replace it with the newest from here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=225030

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by NRB73

Where can I find these options? I've installed KUAL/KUAL+/Helper+ but can't see the option anywhere.

Just checked on my PW4, it's in:
Helper+ -> PREVENT OTA Updates

[NRB73]

Hmm.. Under Helper+ I only have:
Install MR Packages
PREVENT ScreenSaver
ALLOW ScreenSaver
Device ID
/

No PREVENT OTA Updates

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by NRB73

Hmm.. Under Helper+ I only have:
Install MR Packages
PREVENT ScreenSaver
ALLOW ScreenSaver
Device ID
/

No PREVENT OTA Updates

As @shamanNS mentioned, install the latest Helper version from the Snapshots thread.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=225030

[NRB73]

I only purchased and JB the device last week and installed the Helper version from the snapshot page. I reinstalled and it's still the same.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by NRB73

I only purchased and JB the device last week and installed the Helper version from the snapshot page. I reinstalled and it's still the same.

Just to confirm, you installed from the r15916 package and not the one from the Upstream link, right? How did you install it? Do you have the otaallow.sh and otaprevent.sh files in [usb_root]/extensions/helper/bin/? Can you post the contents of the [usb_root]/extensions/helper/menu.json file (enclose it in code tags)?

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

KUAL & KUAL extensions:

• Helper | kual-helper-0.5.N-r15916.tar.xz -> GOOD | 2019-Apr-30 16:20:34 | 8.5K | bb8e0c17fb7effa808eb2e629f5e5473 | Upstream -> BAD

[NRB73]

Ahah! You're onto something there - I installed via the Upstream link. My WinRAR doesn't open .tar.xz files and I didn't realise the content was diferrent.

I installed by dragging the contents of the extensions folder of the archive to that on the PW4, but it looks like I have to do something else, eh?

Thanks.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by NRB73

Ahah! You're onto something there - I installed via the Upstream link. My WinRAR doesn't open .tar.xz files and I didn't realise the content was diferrent.

I installed by dragging the contents of the extensions folder of the archive to that on the PW4, but it looks like I have to do something else, eh?

The package from the Upstream link hasn't been updated since 2016. The Prevent OTA Updates entry is a very recent development.

Use 7zip to open the tar.xz archive. When you open the file with 7zip, there's a tar file inside. You'll need to open the tar file before you can get the actual contents.