Kindle with old (non-updated) firmware

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Oops. Wrong place.

Well, I just replied - it seemed to be in absolutely the right place.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Pjama

Well, I just replied - it seemed to be in absolutely the right place.

I lost track of what thread this discussion was in. I have restored my original post.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Pjama

Note that I tried to remove this effect by setting it to refresh after every page, but that is no way to read - back to the days of a black flash after every page turn = no thanks.

Dunno. I read with full refresh every page on all my ereaders, intentionally (I want the text to retain the best contrast it can). Frankly I no longer notice the black flash at all, my brain just filters it out. Partial refresh bothers me much more - I immediately notice how the contrast decreases with every page. I've gathered that's something most people don't notice at all, which goes to show how different our eyes and perceptions really are.

[buyifan43]

downgrading is possible if you have jailbreak

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by katadelos

Roughly speaking, you'd need to:

• Find a device compatible with KindleBreak
• Jailbreak the device and install the hotfix + Cowards Rescue Pack
• Extract the rootfs.img from a suitable firmware version using KindleTool (I have a feeling that the DL links for old-old firmware versions were removed by Amazon but the rootfs.img from a Factory image would work)
• Transfer the rootfs.img to the Kindle USB userstore
• Boot into diagnostics mode and login over SSH
• Flash the rootfs.img to the main firmware partition
• Disable OTA updates by https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=327879 following this thread

There's a thread with more info about downgrading with this method here.

Thanks again for this, I am trying to downgrade my Kindle using these steps. I first followed the thread you quoted and successfully jailbreaked (jailbroke?) the Kindle, installed the hotfix, then installed MR Package Installer and KUAL. This worked: I now have an item called "KUAL" in my library, and when I open it, and then "Helper," I have the option to "Install MR packages." When I select this, it finds no MR packages. I am assuming the MR packages are somewhere on the link https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=225030 but I don't know what to download in order to downgrade my Kindle to a previous firmware version.

I then looked at your steps, which involve installing Cowards Rescue Pack. I downloaded Cowards Rescue Pack, but do not know how to install it. And I downloaded KindleTool for Windows, but it does not work because I have Windows 16-bit and Kindle Tool is evidently only for 32-bit.

If you could help me along the next steps, I'd be grateful! Thanks again

[katadelos]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Thanks again for this, I am trying to downgrade my Kindle using these steps. I first followed the thread you quoted and successfully jailbreaked (jailbroke?) the Kindle, installed the hotfix, then installed MR Package Installer and KUAL. This worked: I now have an item called "KUAL" in my library, and when I open it, and then "Helper," I have the option to "Install MR packages." When I select this, it finds no MR packages. I am assuming the MR packages are somewhere on the link https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=225030 but I don't know what to download in order to downgrade my Kindle to a previous firmware version.

I then looked at your steps, which involve installing Cowards Rescue Pack. I downloaded Cowards Rescue Pack, but do not know how to install it. And I downloaded KindleTool for Windows, but it does not work because I have Windows 16-bit and Kindle Tool is evidently only for 32-bit.

If you could help me along the next steps, I'd be grateful! Thanks again

To install CRP:

• Extract the CRP archive you downloaded and place the Update_crp_3.N_install.bin file in the mrpackages directory on the Kindle USB storage
• Open KUAL and select Helper -> Install MR Packages

Once that's done, you should follow the instuctions in the thread that I linked in my earlier post. You can download a copy of the original KT2 firmware from one of the mirrors here - the file that you're after is factory_KT2_5.6.0_initial.bin.

[ApK]

I thought the gist of this thread was that the op was on a firmware level that made it impossible to jailbreak, and therefore to downgrade. What did I miss?

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by katadelos

To install CRP:

• Extract the CRP archive you downloaded and place the Update_crp_3.N_install.bin file in the mrpackages directory on the Kindle USB storage
• Open KUAL and select Helper -> Install MR Packages

Once that's done, you should follow the instuctions in the thread that I linked in my earlier post. You can download a copy of the original KT2 firmware from one of the mirrors here - the file that you're after is factory_KT2_5.6.0_initial.bin.

Thank you katadelos, much appreciated. I successfully installed the Cowards' Rescue Pack (using KUAL Helper ->Install MR Packages).

However on the link you sent me that lists the original KT2 firmware, when I click on the "factory_KT2_5.6.0_initial.bin" link, there is no download mirror, it just goes to DuckDuckGo and enters "factory_KT2_5.6.0_initial.bin" as a search input and gives various search results.

Also, the instructions on that link mention extracting the contents of the .bin file using kindletool. I downloaded and tried to run kindletool on my PC, but it didn't work (I have 32-bit Windows 10, in case that might have something to do with it?).

Before that it also says "it would be a good idea to also install the USBNetwork hack (also available in NiLuJe's snapshots thread), setup ssh access (the process is described in the wiki) and try to connect to the Kindle; I used PuTTY on a Windows PC." Is it necessary to do this as well?

Very much hoping this downgrade will be possible, hoping for your help, thanks again

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Very much hoping this downgrade will be possible, hoping for your help, thanks again

It looks like it's available here...

http://www.mediafire.com/file/hg92x3...itial.bin/file

From this site...

https://www.epubor.com/how-to-downgr...ware-2017.html

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by rcentros

It looks like it's available here...

http://www.mediafire.com/file/hg92x3...itial.bin/file

From this site...

https://www.epubor.com/how-to-downgr...ware-2017.html

Excellent, thank you! I am downloading the firmware from the mediafire site. The epubor.com link you gave says all I need to do is put the firmware .bin file in the Kindle root directory via USB, disconnect, and then go to settings and select "Update your Kindle." Just checking that this is really all that is needed and is going to work? I went through all those Jailbreak steps, installed MR Package Installer, KUAL, Cowards Rescue Pack... Was all of that not needed?

Just want to make sure what I need to do now so that it works and nothing goes wrong.

Thanks again in advance!

[Quoth]

I think you can't downgrade ANY kindle without a jailbreak and some don't jailbreak depending on model or FW version.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I think you can't downgrade ANY kindle without a jailbreak and some don't jailbreak depending on model or FW version.

Thank you. Well, I've done the jailbreak and I have the file of the old firmware version. Now is just the question of the next step so I can install the old firmware.

The link to instructions from katadelos says to download and use Kindletool, which I tried but which does not work on my computer. There are some other parts of the instructions on the link which don't seem entirely clear to me. I think part of the issue may be that I have been following instructions from parts of two different links so far.

So in summary: thus far I have jailbroken my Kindle basic 7 (which evidently corresponds to the abbreviation KT2), installed something called hotfix (if I remember the title correctly), installed Mobile Read Package Installer and KUAL, and using the previous two installed the Cowards Rescue Pack. I have downloaded the old firmware version for my Kindle and it is sitting on my PC.

What would be the next steps?

Thanks again.

[katadelos]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Thank you. Well, I've done the jailbreak and I have the file of the old firmware version. Now is just the question of the next step so I can install the old firmware.

The link to instructions from katadelos says to download and use Kindletool, which I tried but which does not work on my computer. There are some other parts of the instructions on the link which don't seem entirely clear to me. I think part of the issue may be that I have been following instructions from parts of two different links so far.

So in summary: thus far I have jailbroken my Kindle basic 7 (which evidently corresponds to the abbreviation KT2), installed something called hotfix (if I remember the title correctly), installed Mobile Read Package Installer and KUAL, and using the previous two installed the Cowards Rescue Pack. I have downloaded the old firmware version for my Kindle and it is sitting on my PC.

What would be the next steps?

Thanks again.

If you're having trouble with KindleTool, I'd give NiLuJe a shout - it's his tool so I'm sure that he'd know what's up.

Once you've got the rootfs.img.gz, you should be able to follow the instructions from the linked thread directly - ignore what I said earlier about using gzip to decompress the rootfs, I'd forgotten that you can directly write the compressed rootfs to the device using zcat.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by katadelos

If you're having trouble with KindleTool, I'd give NiLuJe a shout - it's his tool so I'm sure that he'd know what's up.

Once you've got the rootfs.img.gz, you should be able to follow the instructions from the linked thread directly - ignore what I said earlier about using gzip to decompress the rootfs, I'd forgotten that you can directly write the compressed rootfs to the device using zcat.

Thank you katadelos, I will try that!

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by katadelos

If you're having trouble with KindleTool, I'd give NiLuJe a shout - it's his tool so I'm sure that he'd know what's up.

Once you've got the rootfs.img.gz, you should be able to follow the instructions from the linked thread directly - ignore what I said earlier about using gzip to decompress the rootfs, I'd forgotten that you can directly write the compressed rootfs to the device using zcat.

I just used my friend's computer to run kindletool using the command prompt. Kindletool worked, but unfortunately there was an error in extracting the .bin file and I was not able to obtain the rootfs.img.gz file (or the uIMage file, which the instructions in the link say that I also need).

Would anybody who is somewhat computer-savvy possibly be able to extract these two files for me using kindletool and make them available by download? If that is possible, I would be very grateful. Thank you!

The .bin file of the old firmware version to be extracted is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/hg92x3...itial.bin/file

Kindletool is on this page: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=225030