Brand new PW3 - 5.12.1

[TwinsDad1958]

Yesterday UPS delivered a brand new PW3 that I got from Woot. I booted it up and got it all setup, and before I could even get to MR to research jail breaking, it had updated itself to 5.12.1.

I have not gone through this process since I got my Kindle Keyboard, many years ago, so for all intents and purposes I'm a complete noob at this once again. I've been trying to search and wade through the various threads but am not having any luck getting started. I've downloaded all the zips and tars from the "Snapshots of NiLuJe's hacks" thread for the PW3. I am now in airplane mode. So for instance ";merchant" has no effect that I can see.

So is there a tutorial, or other reference that I can use to get started correctly; that will walk me through this? Do I need to first do a downgrade firmware? Not looking for anyone to hold me hand so much as a reference, or list there of to get me on my way. Unless someone really wants to hold my hand.

[NiLuJe]

You could have checked the sticky, which would have told you you're SOL.

[WaseemAlkurdi]

Originally Posted by TwinsDad1958

Yesterday UPS delivered a brand new PW3 that I got from Woot. I booted it up and got it all setup, and before I could even get to MR to research jail breaking, it had updated itself to 5.12.1.

I have not gone through this process since I got my Kindle Keyboard, many years ago, so for all intents and purposes I'm a complete noob at this once again. I've been trying to search and wade through the various threads but am not having any luck getting started. I've downloaded all the zips and tars from the "Snapshots of NiLuJe's hacks" thread for the PW3. I am now in airplane mode. So for instance ";merchant" has no effect that I can see.

So is there a tutorial, or other reference that I can use to get started correctly; that will walk me through this? Do I need to first do a downgrade firmware? Not looking for anyone to hold me hand so much as a reference, or list there of to get me on my way. Unless someone really wants to hold my hand.

As @NiLuJe said above, you're SOL ...
... unless you open the Kindle up.

You don't need to be an electronics guru to do it. Heck, you don't even have to know how to solder (which I don't either).

Let me summarize the process in three very easy steps:

1. Open up the front of the Kindle. It's nothing more than a piece of plastic glued with glue that's ordinarily hard to remove (so it doesn't fall off in normal usage), but nothing that an ordinary hairdryer won't fix.
2. Take the Kindle out of the backplate (like taking a smartphone out of its back cover), flip it over, get a serial adapter ($3 from eBay, also available at local electronics stores), solder two cables to two clearly marked spots on the Kindle (two drops of solder, free at your friendly local electronics shop), and boom! You're done!
3. Install HyperTerminal (Windows) or Minicom (Mac, Linux) and copy-paste from a tutorial.

It really beats the hell out of waiting for a probably non-existent software jailbreak exploit. And as a bonus, you won't be ever afraid of breaking it by software, because you always have the way back. And it even helps with diagnosing hardware issues.

[WaseemAlkurdi]

[Deleted]