Success! Downgraded firmware from 5.6.1.1

[madagascaradam]

Moderator -- Split off thread from: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3141315

Well, I have what I think is great news - I downgraded back to 5.3.9 and got everything working the way I want it again!

In case anyone else is reading this and wants to give it a try, here's my info:

* I had originally jailbroken my Kindle PW 1 a long time ago (back on the 5.3.x firmware). So I don't know if this would work for people who haven't yet jailbroken their kindles - but as others say on here, it sounds like probably not or that it would be incredibly difficult, such as the serial hack. I hadn't used it on internet (wifi) for a long time, but after having it on for a couple hours, it OTA updated to 5.6.1.1 and (in my opinion) functionality dropped significantly. Not a good update for me. I'm a windows 7 user too, in case that makes a difference to anyone.

1. I re-jailbroke my kindle (from the original jailbreak thread where they talk about the bridge) and reinstalled KUAL and everything else that I would normally want to, as well as the MR Package Installer.

2. I tried the "downgrader" as described in this thread, and as downloaded in the tools snapshot thread. (BTW... for windows users, I used 7-zip to read and extract the archives on that tool snapshot thread, and it worked just fine.) I downloaded the 5.3.9 from the ixtab website (I chose 5.3.9 because my main goal is to use kindle collections manager, and that firmware still works well with it. I put the firmware in the "old_update" folder as described in the downgrader thread. BUT... the downgrader didn't work as usual, because with 5.6.1.1 firmware update, I can no longer "update my kindle" with package installers from here on Mobile Reads. The "update my kindle" is grayed out.

3. So, I put the "downgrader" thing in the MRPackages folder (according to the MR PI thread explaining how to use it through the KUAL helper utility). And I still put the old firmware update in the "old_firmware" folder. When I tried installed through MR Package Installer, it initially seemed to work well and said it was a success... though it didn't follow through and do a full firmware update. (Still at firmware 5.6.1.1 at this point.)

4. I plugged back into my computer and saw the MR Packages Installer "downgrader" was removed (i.e. deleted after success presumably), and the old firmware update (the 5.3.9) was moved into the root directory of the kindle. So, then I tried what others have said on here (in this thread and others) about a forced reboot while plugged into the computer. I *DID NOT* eject my kindle from the computer, nor did I unplug it, but I held down the power button on it for a long time (over 30 sec.). I think somewhere before all that, the computer dinged as if disconnected and the green light on the kindle went off (actually, maybe it was the orange light, I don't remember which - but the light on the kindle). So 30 sec. may not be a requirement, but I held it down for a long time just to be sure and to see if it would reboot while I was holding the power button down. It didn't reboot while I had the button down, but as soon as I un-pressed the power button, the kindle started going into the reboot cycle. Then it said it was updating and it would take a long time (took probably 5-10 minutes, so I just had to be patient). I left it *PLUGGED IN TO THE COMPUTER* this whole time. When the Kindle was clearly no longer updating or anything else (back on its home screen I think) - I "ejected" it from the computer and turned it on and off again (to be sure) - and VOILA! My kindle was downgraded to 5.3.9! I then reinstalled the jailbreak (not with the bridge, but with the full most-up-to-date file on the original jailbreak thread here), KUAL, MR Packages Installer, all my apps (especially screensavers and collections manager, etc. And I MADE SURE to install the backdoor lock this time before trying to access the wi-fi again.

5. Everything's working great! My kindle is back the way I want it! My screensavers were never lost, my collections info had to be re-imported from calibre, but I didn't have to re-upload my books or anything. It's a miracle! (I read my kindle all the time, so I was devastated when most my books disappeared because their collections were lost (previously nested sub-directories of other collections). I didn't want to restore my kindle to factory and lose all my highlights, etc. So I'm very glad this worked. I have no idea if trying to install the downgrader through MR PI is what made it work or if I got lucky with the manual reboot or what. But I wanted to list my steps here in case anyone else wants to try to replicate it and get back to older Kindle firmware.

EDIT-----

5b. - After a bit of fooling with collections manager, I found it double-reporting some of my books in collections and just generally a little off-base. However, I searched this forum and found the thread for manually resetting the kindle database using the usbnetwork ssh command (through the computer). Here's the original thread that tells how to do that. And here's the command line itself (to use on your computer when connected to your kindle in usbnetworking mode):

stop lab126_gui && sleep 2 && rm /var/local/cc.db && start lab126_gui

END EDIT------

To Knc1 and eschwartz: Two of the main functions I like about Collections Manager that's not listed elsewhere in the LibrarianSync thread (that I've read so far) are that Collections Manager allows me to nest collections inside each other (i.e. a "Wheel of time" collection inside the "fantasy" collection, that sort of thing) and also that I can "hide" books from the homescreen, or cause them to re-appear if I want quick access to them. I also have some books in multiple collections. I do that so the current few books I'm reading are accessible immediately, but my older books (or books I haven't read yet) are searchable in their topical categories rather than cluttering the homescreen with a hundred pages. Does LibrarianSync do that? Of course, I do my original creation of categories on Calibre, so it sounds like LibrarianSync does that... but if it doesn't have the nested collections and the hide on homescreen options, then LibrarianSync wouldn't improve my kindle experience very much.

Thanks again for your input guys, and I hope my experience can help others as well. (P.S. - if there are any mods here who think this little step-by-step downgrade from 5.6.1.1 would help people by being posted in other threads, then please do that, or let me know where I should copy and paste it.)

[unabatedshagie]

Originally Posted by madagascaradam

Well, I have what I think is great news - I downgraded back to 5.3.9 and got everything working the way I want it again

I've been trying to get this solution working for the last hour or so, but I just can't get it to work. :-(

When I get to step four and force reboot it says update failed.

Bloody Amazon and their bloody not allowing you to downgrade rubbish. *shakes fist*

[madagascaradam]

Originally Posted by unabatedshagie

When I get to step four and force reboot it says update failed.

Which firmware version are you using? Your profile says you have a Paperwhite 2. From what I understand, the 5.3.9 only works for Paperwhite 1. I believe any of the 5.4.0 or 5.4.2.1 or that sort of stuff works for Paperwhite 2. The others here know better, but that's what I saw some people saying as I was searching these forums trying to figure it out for myself.

EDIT: I just looked at ixtab's website again and it says what I just wrote. That you have to use firmware 5.4.2 and up for paperwhite 2. Is that possibly why you're getting an "update failed" error?

[unabatedshagie]

Originally Posted by madagascaradam

Which firmware version are you using? Your profile says you have a Paperwhite 2. From what I understand, the 5.3.9 only works for Paperwhite 1. I believe any of the 5.4.0 or 5.4.2.1 or that sort of stuff works for Paperwhite 2. The others here know better, but that's what I saw some people saying as I was searching these forums trying to figure it out for myself.

EDIT: I just looked at ixtab's website again and it says what I just wrote. That you have to use firmware 5.4.2 and up for paperwhite 2. Is that possibly why you're getting an "update failed" error?

I did not know that, guess I'm going to give it another go.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by unabatedshagie

I did not know that, guess I'm going to give it another go.

And with the firmware version 5.4.2, the support for nested collections came to an end.

Since 5.4.2 is the earliest firmware available for a PW-2 - - -
That means "no nested collections" on a PW-2

[knc1]

Originally Posted by madagascaradam

- - - -
Thanks again for your input guys, and I hope my experience can help others as well. (P.S. - if there are any mods here who think this little step-by-step downgrade from 5.6.1.1 would help people by being posted in other threads, then please do that, or let me know where I should copy and paste it.)

I have reported that this post should be the start of its own thread.

Note to the Newbee's -
* Don't make requests for moderation in the text body of a post, use the "report post" button.
* Do not be afraid to use the "new thread" button for new (or otherwise off-topic) posts.
We have an on-going special here on new threads, they are cheap.

[eschwartz]

@madagascaradam,

I know the fw5.6.x line has builtin protections against downgrade "attacks", interesting that the downgrade hack breaks past that.

I use both LS and CM myself, since the one is faster and the other has more features.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by knc1

And with the firmware version 5.4.2, the support for nested collections came to an end.

Since 5.4.2 is the earliest firmware available for a PW-2 - - -
That means "no nested collections" on a PW-2

Earliest firmware update. Ixtab still has those partition images for 5.4.0 (which the PW2 shipped from the factory with) but using them requires booting from the diags partition and overwriting the main partition with `dd`.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by knc1

I have reported that this post should be the start of its own thread.

Note to the Newbee's -
* Don't make requests for moderation in the text body of a post, use the "report post" button.
* Do not be afraid to use the "new thread" button for new (or otherwise off-topic) posts.
We have an on-going special here on new threads, they are cheap.

Done.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Earliest firmware update. Ixtab still has those partition images for 5.4.0 (which the PW2 shipped from the factory with) but using them requires booting from the diags partition and overwriting the main partition with `dd`.

Thanks for the correction.
(I don't have a PW2, so did not recall that detail.)

Also thanks for the post move to thread.

[NiLuJe]

Oh, right, by design, the downgrader package won't do a thing when run via MRPI.

That could be fixed with a bit of tweaking, though (i.e., do a reboot from the install script, instead of relying on the reboot done by the OTA updater, which we're not using).

EDIT: Done. Should hit the next batch of snapshots, whenever that is.

[AirRaven]

I ran this a few days ago- worked perfectly.

However, I've had some issues since that might have stemmed from this method. For anyone attempting this, I do recommend looking into whether performing a Factory Reset after downgrading would be worth doing, to prevent any potential conflicts.

I'll edit this post down the line if I have any luck with my case.

[NiLuJe]

Yup, I'd say a factory reset is nearly mandatory, if only because of the catalog db schema.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Yup, I'd say a factory reset is nearly mandatory, if only because of the catalog db schema.

Hmm...
If that turns out to be required . . . .

I wonder if adding ixtabs 'do factory restore' flag file to the USB storage somewhere near the very end of the procedure would do the job?
Ref: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=223067

- - - -

None of the referenced procedure touches /var/local - -
These problems could be caused by some file mis-match in /var/local between versions.
Still, perhaps doing this reset to factory defaults might be the best way to fix /var/local.

But in that case, the user is going to lose some bookmarks (or something else) if /var/local gets wiped and re-built.
(The original downgrade post specifically said they wanted to keep their user's settings.)

[madagascaradam]

Yeah, after I did this, I noticed I had some database problems with my collections. So I searched this forum and found the usbnetwork ssh commands for resetting the database only (didn't have to do factory restore) and now everything's working super awesome on my kindle. Sorry I can't find the thread I found that on, as I'm on my phone right now. I'll go back in a few days and link to it here.