KV Kindle Voyage - disable touch screen in native way

[MrTick]

Sooo I've just got a second-hand Voyage and I love the device already.
The screen quality leaves my PW4 waaay behind.

Anyway: KV have this pressure-something semi-physical page-turn button-thingies.
But it also has a touch screen, so there's no real difference if I press the edge of screen or the pressure button... so let's disable the touchscreen.

There are some hacks for that available:
http://www.fabiszewski.net/kindle-untouchable/
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=279209

But PW4 and Oasis family have this neat feature when reading a book (introduced around 5.12 maybe earlier [see EDIT2]):


So I've started digging in the OS of PW4 and eventually found a solution:
This option appears only for waterproof devices, and is internally called "Bath Mode" - probably implemented mostly for preventing accidental page turns from water drops.
So the solution is simple - we need to make our Kindle waterproof

!WARNING! FOLLOWING GUIDE WILL NOT MAKE YOUR VOYAGE WATERPROOF DESPITE WHAT IT SAYS!

The waterproofness (waterproofability?) (waterprooficiency??) is determined by output of

> devcap-get-feature -a waterproof

Devcap uses an encrypted configuration file /etc/deviceConfig.conf:

> md5sum /etc/deviceConfig.conf
ecc8818ba367fd199a227d386b8f70f3  /etc/deviceConfig.conf

Fortunately eureka has found a solution way back in 2013
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=200294
There is devcap-encrypt tool available, that performs symmetric encryption/decryption of the configuration file:

> devcap-encrypt -i /etc/deviceConfig.conf /tmp/deviceConfigDecrypted.conf
Successfully encrypted file=/tmp/deviceConfigDecrypted.conf 
> md5sum /tmp/deviceConfigDecrypted.conf 
4cb16f866dc3ee5b5d407d1240877aa1  /tmp/deviceConfigDecrypted.conf

Spoiler:

[root@kindle root]# cat /tmp/deviceConfigDecrypted.conf 
# Groups are started by a header line containing the group name enclosed in '[' and ']',
# and ended implicitly by the start of the next group or the end of the file.
# The group common contains features common to all devices, the remaining groups are devices associated with the platform.
# If feature.available=value does not exist its value will be assumed as false by default.
# For example audio.available key not existing means that there is no audio available.
[common]
screen.available=true
screen.inverted=1
touch.available=true
touch.proc=/proc/touch
wifi.available=true
hall.available=true
adtcp.available=true
oobe.available=true
usb.available=true
usbaudio.available=true
chapterflashing.available=true
prime.available=true
odot.available=true
kdk.capability.path=/res/pinot.capability.json
bookerly.available=true
futura.available=true
battery.no_of_supported_batt=1
chargecover.available=false
publicnotes.available=true
[icewine]
frontlight.available=true
frontlight.fl_default_intensity=18
frontlight.max_smooth_intensity=24
frontlight.led_type=wario_6led
als.available=true
button.keypad.available=true
button.keypad.fsr=1
touch.gripsuppr.available=true
touch.multitouch.available=true
haptics.available=true
wan.available=true
wan.display_type=3G
odot.topic=dtcp.iw
screenreader.available=true
bookerly.dialog.available=true
otg.available=true
fastmetrics.available=true
[icewine_wfo]
frontlight.available=true
frontlight.fl_default_intensity=18
frontlight.max_smooth_intensity=24
frontlight.led_type=wario_6led
als.available=true
button.keypad.available=true
button.keypad.fsr=1
touch.gripsuppr.available=true
touch.multitouch.available=true
haptics.available=true
odot.topic=dtcp.iw
screenreader.available=true
bookerly.dialog.available=true
otg.available=true
fastmetrics.available=true
[pinot]
touch.multitouch.available=true
frontlight.available=true
frontlight.fl_default_intensity=22
frontlight.max_smooth_intensity=25
frontlight.led_type=wario_4led
frontlight.turbobrightness.available=true
frontlight.turbobrightness.intensity_levels=1
wan.available=true
wan.display_type=3G
activecontent.available=true
odot.topic=dtcp.pi
bookerly.dialog.available=true
[pinot_wfo]
touch.multitouch.available=true
frontlight.available=true
frontlight.fl_default_intensity=22
frontlight.max_smooth_intensity=25
frontlight.led_type=wario_4led
frontlight.turbobrightness.available=true
frontlight.turbobrightness.intensity_levels=1
activecontent.available=true
odot.topic=dtcp.pi
bookerly.dialog.available=true
[wario]
als.available=true
[bourbon]
odot.topic=dtcp.bb
bookerly.dialog.available=true
[muscat_wfo]
odot.topic=dtcp.mu
frontlight.available=true
frontlight.fl_default_intensity=22
frontlight.max_smooth_intensity=25
frontlight.led_type=wario_4led
frontlight.turbobrightness.available=true
frontlight.turbobrightness.intensity_levels=1
screenreader.available=true
touch.multitouch.available=true
otg.available=true
fastmetrics.available=true
device.name=Kindle Paperwhite
[muscat_wan]
odot.topic=dtcp.mu
frontlight.available=true
frontlight.fl_default_intensity=22
frontlight.max_smooth_intensity=25
frontlight.led_type=wario_4led
frontlight.turbobrightness.available=true
frontlight.turbobrightness.intensity_levels=1
screenreader.available=true
touch.multitouch.available=true
wan.available=true
wan.display_type=3G
otg.available=true
fastmetrics.available=true
device.name=Kindle Paperwhite
[muscat_mme]
odot.topic=dtcp.mu
frontlight.available=true
frontlight.fl_default_intensity=22
frontlight.max_smooth_intensity=25
frontlight.led_type=wario_4led
frontlight.turbobrightness.available=true
frontlight.turbobrightness.intensity_levels=1
screenreader.available=true
touch.multitouch.available=true
otg.available=true
deregistration.deletecontent.available=true
multifolder.available=true
fastmetrics.available=true
device.name=Kindle Paperwhite

All we need is to add following property:

waterproof.available=true

to [icewine] (Voyage 3G+WiFI) or [icewine-wfo] (Voyage WiFi) or [common] sections:

# adding to common section because why not:
> sed -i 's/\[common\]/\[common\]\nwaterproof.available=true/g' /tmp/deviceConfigDecrypted.conf
> md5sum /tmp/deviceConfigDecrypted.conf 
7193d166a3d235cb3b01043981c1830f  /tmp/deviceConfigDecrypted.conf

And encrypt again:

> devcap-encrypt -i /tmp/deviceConfigDecrypted.conf /tmp/deviceConfigNew.conf
Successfully encrypted file=/tmp/deviceConfigNew.conf 
> md5sum /tmp/deviceConfigNew.conf 
35f97ecdbb3fa07da14df965f4a309dd  /tmp/deviceConfigNew.conf

Now CAREFULY (as probably Kindle will brick if we mess this config) copy it back:

> mntroot rw
> cp /etc/deviceConfig.conf /etc/deviceConfig.conf.bak
> cp /tmp/deviceConfigNew.conf /etc/deviceConfig.conf

And after reboot new menu item should show up... but it will not work yet.

Disabling screen via menu triggers lipc daemon event com.lab126.kaf->startXBath.
From /etc/lipc-daemon-events.conf

## This file defines what evetns are handled by lipc-daemon
## The format of the file is 
##<event name>   <event publisher>   <command to execute when event is received>
(...)
startXBath        com.lab126.kaf        start xbath;
(...)

So we need an upstart rule for xbath
Option 1: Copy it from PW4 firmware:

1. get PW4 firmware 5.13.6
2. extract it with kindletool extract <fw_file>
3. decompress rootfs: gzip -d rootfs.img.gz
4. mount rootfs somewhere, e.g.: mount -o loop,ro,noload rootfs.img rootfs/
5. copy /etc/upstart/xbath.conf and /usr/bin/xbath from rootfs to Voyage

Option 2: No need to copy anything from PW but will also disable swipe page flip.
Create /etc/upstart/xbath.conf with following content:

stop on stopping x

env LIBC_FATAL_STDERR_=1
env STDERR=/tmp/xbath.err

script
    source /etc/upstart/env
    lipc-set-prop com.lab126.deviced enable_touch 0
end script

Now reboot and you should have disable-touchscreen option available and working
I'll try to create an update file, but I've never done it, so maybe later

EDIT:
Update files in the attachment -> touchblock_1.0.zip
(it uses "option 2" as we can't share amazon-copyrighted files)
Everything was tested on KV running 5.13.6, packages were installed through MRPI.

EDIT2:
I went through Voyage update files and prepared touchblock_1.1.zip.
It should work on any 5.10.2+ firmware (5.10.2 is the exact version, where bath mode was introduced).

EDIT3:
Fix for FW 5.12.1 - 5.13.5 -> touchblock_1.2.zip

[hius07]

Nice investigation, thanks a lot!

[lclrc]

Thanks! I'll try it! I am using Intocable now.

[Sol Arkite]

installed the bin with mrpi on my KV FW 5.10.3
It worked.
Thank you.

[MrTick]

Originally Posted by Sol Arkite

It worked.

Thanks for confirming!
I've uploaded version 1.3 that works with recent (hacky) 5.14.1

[lclrc]

Version 1.3 works with FW 5.13.6! Thank you.

[lclrc]

BTW，is there any idea to use this feature in KOReader？

[MrTick]

Originally Posted by lclrc

BTW，is there any idea to use this feature in KOReader？

Let's see...



You need to extract the attached plugin to koreader/plugins folder

[lclrc]

Originally Posted by MrTick

Let's see...

You need to extract the attached plugin to koreader/plugins folder

WOW! Thank you! It works like a charm!

[Vudinhthinh]

Ver 1.1-1.2-1.3 installed the bin with mrpi on my KV FW 5.13.5 not works. Please help me.

[lclrc]

Originally Posted by Vudinhthinh

Ver 1.1-1.2-1.3 installed the bin with mrpi on my KV FW 5.13.5 not works. Please help me.

The mrpi logs? And did you restart your KV after installed the bin?

[Vudinhthinh]

Originally Posted by lclrc

The mrpi logs? And did you restart your KV after installed the bin?

I install and reboot 2 times. Installing successful. Thank you.

[JPMYNWA]

I just stumbled on this, and I didn't realize this was possible! I just installed on my KV on 5.13.6 using MRPI. It rebooted during the installation process, but that didn't actually initialize the process. I manually rebooted, and it started working. Still works!
Thanks so much!

[BiliBug]

Likewise! Thank you for your efforts, and sharing.

[MReader67]

Newbie here. I am guessing that I need to jailbreak my Kindle Voyage (FW 5.13.6) so that I am able to SSH into my device so that I can then install this? Is that correct?