Tools Software Jailbreak for PW2, PW3, PW3W, KT2, KV, KOA and KT3

[knc1]

Thanks for all of the help with the answers.

To summarize:

• Device installs a firmware update.
• User panics.
• User presses the 'never touch' button.

Like it or not, the user just reverted their Kindle to stock (non jail broken) state.
There is nothing we or the user can do about it, except learn to like it.

Note to anyone stumbling onto this post -
You should really scroll up and read the answers submitted by other people.

[knc1]

The first post now has a new introduction that includes a new spoiler.
Open, check it out.

If anyone ever asks: "Will this jail break my x.y.z version firmware?" again;
Get their GPS coordinates and we will 'nuke them, thus saving the world a lot of aggravation.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Antinoos

<snip>
Apropos repair: Well, maybe this is a peculiarity here in Good Old Germany; but you can also buy Kindle readers directly in electronic marts "cash-and-carry", not only via Amazon. I've bought ALL my Kindles that way, saving the shipping costs. And in in case of a defect you have two options:
1) If bought less than 2 weeks ago: They will replace the device "no questions asked". (More correctly: they refund it and you're free to choose either the cashback, or buy another device. This could be especially interesting if there is a bargain offer like "Kindle xy 40,- Euros off now!" and you happened to buy it a few days ago for the old price: you can then get the old price refunded and just buy a new one for the reduced costs. )
2) If bought more than 14 days ago: They send it in for repair. And than it could happen that they don't do the replacement/repair when recognizing that the device is "modified": this voids any warranty....

I'm curious...where do they send it to be repaired? As stated earlier in the thread, Amazon does not repair Kindles. Do the stores in Germany have repair shops that can handle fixing broken Kindles?

Shari

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Antinoos

- - - -
The "initial factory builds" are really, really outdated and not advisable any longer for productive use.
- - - - -

Wrong.


They where never intended for customer use, never intended to leave the factory.

They are special builds, used in the factory as the first firmware install, that contain production line testing facilities.

[Antinoos]

That's what I've meant: Pure test/development builds which should be updated for normal consumer use asap after the jb was successful.

Gesendet von meinem Google Pixel mit Yabba-Dabba-Talk.

[Ruskie_it]

Originally Posted by Antinoos

I had once helped a friend of mine jailbreaking his PW3. Everything was fine. It was the time around when version 5.8.5 or so was the latest. Installed this for hin. Then this guy hadn't correctly read my lips ... an did a factory reset! (I told him definitely and repeatedly: NEVER EVER do that thru all the lifetime of your reader!) But in this case he could be helped by doing all the steps from #1 "downgrading to the intitial build" sucessfully once again. The same situation with a prior update to 5.8.8 or 5.8.9, and he would have been completely out of luck!

That is related to the very first jb you perform to your newly bought kindle. And if you misread and make mistakes, there are a lot of them that you can make and brick your kindle, including the part you suggest to add where you specify the maximum version you can update to. So, the real solution to the problem really and simply is: NEVER EVER RESET THE KINDLE, or if you prefer, do not misread that part of the instructions. ☺

Apropos repair: Well, maybe this is a peculiarity here in Good Old Germany; but you can also buy Kindle readers directly in electronic marts "cash-and-carry", not only via Amazon. I've bought ALL my Kindles that way, saving the shipping costs. And in in case of a defect you have two options:
1) If bought less than 2 weeks ago: They will replace the device "no questions asked". (More correctly: they refund it and you're free to choose either the cashback, or buy another device. This could be especially interesting if there is a bargain offer like "Kindle xy 40,- Euros off now!" and you happened to buy it a few days ago for the old price: you can then get the old price refunded and just buy a new one for the reduced costs. )
2) If bought more than 14 days ago: They send it in for repair. And than it could happen that they don't do the replacement/repair when recognizing that the device is "modified": this voids any warranty....

Except, they don't. Because the only workshop able to repair your kindle without voiding AMAZON's warranty would be Amazon itself, and they do not repair kindles. 😉
What happens is something that is common to a lot of shops here in Italy as well (and I think all around the world): if you return a product soon after a purchase, the shop itself takes care of the defect, for the sake of simplicity, and replaces it with one of its stock, returning the product to the supplier as a defective item. If you return it "too late" then the normal warranty procedures kick in. You have the right to return the defective item to the shop you bought it in, but they simply send it to their supplier for warranty procedures, because the risk of it being out of warranty for any reason is higher. In the case of kindles, that means sending it back to Amazon, and again: Amazon does not repair kindles. They simply replace it with a new one.


Inviato dal mio SM-G935F utilizzando Tapatalk

[Ruskie_it]

Oh and, if you have to send it in and wanna remove any sign of it being jailbroken (thus, warranty voided), then you simply do a device reset. 😉
Yes you will lose the option of jailbreaking it back, but since you are never getting it back from Amazon (because as I said they do not repair kindles, they replace them), it doesn't matter.☺

Inviato dal mio SM-G935F utilizzando Tapatalk

[Antinoos]

Well, I really don't know the procedures for "repair" of Kindles. In case of many, many smartphone brands I definitely know that the shops send them to free specialist regional workshops for repair and then send their invoices to the respective manufacturer in case of warranty.

Okay, have learnt now that the only workshop for Kindles is Amazon itself, and that they for the sake of simplicity do just a replacement. But surely the defective/bricked devices anyway do get a repair then. That's where the lots of "refurbished" devices come from which you can buy at Amazon's website with a little discount...

Gesendet von meinem Google Pixel mit Yabba-Dabba-Talk.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Antinoos

Well, I really don't know the procedures for "repair" of Kindles. In case of many, many smartphone brands I definitely know that the shops send them to free specialist regional workshops for repair and then send their invoices to the respective manufacturer in case of warranty.

Okay, have learnt now that the only workshop for Kindles is Amazon itself, and that they for the sake of simplicity do just a replacement. But surely the defective/bricked devices anyway do get a repair then. That's where the lots of "refurbished" devices come from which you can buy at Amazon's website with a little discount...

Gesendet von meinem Google Pixel mit Yabba-Dabba-Talk.

The refurbished models are those that have been returned by customers because the customer didn't like it. Refurbished just means pre-owned and has been reset to factory defaults after a technician makes sure there is nothing wrong with it.
They cannot sell it as new anymore.

[Antinoos]

Okay, it's obvious that the majority of the "refurbished" devices are simply customer returned. I just can't believe that the defective Kindles will be dumped instead of repaired, given a factory new housing, and then sold as "refurbished".

BTT: I would never buy such a "refurbished" Kindle, as it could have a "brand new" firmware 5.8.8 and up, which can't be jailbroken any longer. In a shop I can easily check the firmware version before buying.

Gesendet von meinem Google Pixel mit Yabba-Dabba-Talk.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Antinoos

Okay, it's obvious that the majority of the "refurbished" devices are simply customer returned. I just can't believe that the defective Kindles will be dumped instead of repaired, given a factory new housing, and then sold as "refurbished".

BTT: I would never buy such a "refurbished" Kindle, as it could have a "brand new" firmware 5.8.8 and up, which can't be jailbroken any longer. In a shop I can easily check the firmware version before buying.

Gesendet von meinem Google Pixel mit Yabba-Dabba-Talk.

Oh I can believe it. Those defective units are cost-offs.
Oh you aren't in the US, so you probably don't know how our businesses operate.
It is actually more profitable for Amazon to not fix the defective units.
The reason for this is that they can show they lost money on the device when they do their taxes.
So rather than paying someone to fix them and reselling them at a cheaper price, they get a bigger tax break.
Would you rather make $10 on an item or at least $50?
First would be profit when resold, second would be the tax deduction.

[knc1]

In the USA, there is no trade standardization on the meaning of "refurbished".
It means whatever the user claims it means.

So what you are getting depends on if you are buying "refurbished" from Amazon or "refurbished" from some other vendor.
Different vendors, different definitions.

For Kindles returned as "defective" - those go into a bin with absolutely minimum time spent (unpack and toss operation).
Those bins (about 32 cubic feet) are sold at auction to others whose business it is to repair for re-sale returned devices. These businesses also use the term "refurbished" or "refurbishers".

It is a closed box (bin) auction, what you get is whatever happens to be in the bin.
Some will be good, some will be spare parts, and everything in-between.
The only thing certain is there will be a lot of them.


There are controls on what is called: "new"

[erehwon]

Originally Posted by knc1

Only the first appearance of a device is mentioned in the table.
What version firmware was on it when you took it out of the box?

- - - -

I don't really remember but it was prior to 5.6.5

Last year,I JB my PW2 and when I started for this 7th gen one, I stupidly took the wrong file and upgraded to firmware 5.7.4 that didn't allow JB at that time. So I guess I cannot find the exact firmware version number anymore.

Most important KT2 was appropriate for my device and the JB was succesful

[jackrandom]

Bought a KV this week (Germany), it came with 5.8.7.0.1:

Disclaimer: this device was only connected one time to the internet (to sign in to amazon) and resetted afterwards (as part of instructions). I have amazon update servers blacklisted in openwrt anyway (I'm a nerd, not a noobie) and it obviously was still on 5.8.7.0.1 after reset (I checked). I'm familiar with the process as I already did this on 2 older kindles. here I share my experience

- After following instructions and copying binary it didn't show me an update (was in flight mode, of course).
- when I connected kindle to USB (after 20min), bin file was gone.
- again, disclaimer: I checked the md5sums (of course also right on fs mount point of kindle, not just in my Downloads folder. It's f7c8905ea993fef902be82b70a98542a for KV. why is this important? So I can eliminate corrupted file as a reason for deletion of .bin / no update available)
- so I tried a second time, but renamed the file to update_kindle_voyage_5.8.9.bin (which is the official filename of current version) because I thought maybe the're blacklisting the name in newer builds (seems like 5.8.7.0.1 is not always the same, as other people reported it went fine without problems)
- turns out I was right, indeed they seem like to have implemented a filename-based blacklisting (dumb, they should have used checksums, but probably they can't because initial firmware still has legit use somewhere)
- second attempt: success - I'm on 5.5.0. Will jailbreak now and update this post.

UPDATE 1:
jailbreak tested, working, survived to 5.8.9 (latest)

[knc1]

Grab the first four characters of an update package (the package type identifier).

The production line packages are a different type than the public packages and until 5.8.8 that type was always allowed if properly signed.

At least one of the changes (in readable scripting) Lab126 just commented out that package type from a case statement.
Bye-bye green light execution of any Amazon signed package of that type.