K5 FW 5.x ScreenSavers Hack

[eschwartz]

Maybe extend FGA#11 to include old jailbreaks and getting the hotfix.

[lresende]

afasdf

[eschwartz]

You're welcome.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Maybe extend FGA#11 to include old jailbreaks and getting the hotfix.

I probably should.
It was only when I read it again today that I noticed the 'hotfix' information was missing.

[jwilker]

I remember it took me a while to find the details on the hot fix as well.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by jwilker

I remember it took me a while to find the details on the hot fix as well.

Right!
You had to read all the way to the bottom of the K5 Jailbreak post.

TL;DR:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...postcount=1597
(It was a year old, yesterday.)

[bostonpolar]

Please, PLEASE, help me!

I need help to do the Screensaver Hack for a Kindle Paperwhite (5th Generation); PLEASE let me know if I have done anything wrong in what I write below.

I want to tell you how important this is to me so you can understand how *desperate* I am:

I have over 600 Kindle screensavers (many of which I had to resize for the paperwhite), 95% of which I made myself. I really *enjoyed* making screensavers for my Kindle and would make 1-3 every few days. (I have very *few* things in my life which I enjoy doing; I live a very lonely life which I have tried and failed to change many times.)

One of the other things that I greatly enjoy in my life is *reading*. I likely have read over 15,000 books; I own about 6,000 physical books -- which I no longer have direct access to. So I am trying to build my eBook Library with both new books and to replace the physical books I have/had. (I do have Calibre.)

When my Kindle update to 5.6.1.1 in summer 2015, my Kindle screensavers no longer work. I was truly *devastated*. I was furious with Amazon and wrote them many complaints. I will NEVER understand why --

1) Amazon insists on creating updates which make it so hard -- if not impossible -- to *modify* a Kindle so its owner can get greater enjoyment and use from it, and

2) Why the heck doesn't Amazon actually *incorporate* such modifications INTO its own *official software updates* so that owners would NOT have to resort to hacking them. These would be additional features that a great many Kindle owner would LOVE to have and, I think, *increase sales* for Amazon. Heck, Amazon could sell packages of *screensavers* themselves that people would buy!

But as I said, I was truly *devastated* -- to such a point I stopped using my Kindle and all but stopped *reading* for over 2 months. AND for over 50 years of my life I have read a book entirely within 1-3 days. And I just *stopped* for months using my Kindle, my central source for reading.

I love physical books and being able to have my *own* screensavers on my Kindle gave me a sense of having the covers of a book on it. Without them, it is the same 10-15(?) boring, dull screensavers over and over again. Almost all my enjoyment of using my Kindle went with my screensavers.

I am reading using my Kindle again, but the pleasure of a Kindle is just no longer there for me. I do not even want to look at it when I am not reading.

I think I have gotten part of the Screensaver Hack done; I think it is the basic hack for the 5.6.1.1 update. I installed something on this Kindle and now have as folders on it:

.active_content_sandbox

documents

extensions

mkk

mrpackages

rp

...and two files with no association:

driveinfo

metadata

Is that what I should have with that hack???

If it is, that's great. BUT the problem is, I cannot *understand* want to do next! I have read many of the posts about installing the Screensaver Hack and I just get confused over and over again. I normally can follow such things enough to know what to do, but with this, I just do NOT get it.

It has reach the point I just cannot stand not having my own screensavers for the Kindle.

So please, PLEASE, someone here, would you go slowly, step-by-step, in just simple language, HOW I make the Screensaver Hack *work* and exactly WHAT programs I need to do this.

I'm begging you people. Truly.

Thanks, I hope.

. . .

[eschwartz]

I don't know why they do it.

...

Anytime the firmware updates, you need to reinstall all hacks.
The 5.6.x updates are more annoying, because you also need to update the jailbreak, see the official jailbreak thread for more details and use the hotfix listed there.

Once your jailbreak is updated, install KUAL (Kindle Unified Application Launcher) and the MrPI (MobileRead Package Installer) extension, and use that to reinstall your hacks.


Edit: Right, FGA #11: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237083
In fact, it is the conversation right above this one, if you look at the previous page.

[bostonpolar]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

...

Anytime the firmware updates, you need to reinstall all hacks.
The 5.6.x updates are more annoying, because you also need to update the jailbreak, see the official jailbreak thread for more details and use the hotfix listed there.

Once your jailbreak is updated, install KUAL (Kindle Unified Application Launcher) and the MrPI (MobileRead Package Installer) extension, and use that to reinstall your hacks.

I do NOT understand any of that. This is the same type of posts I have been having problems with not knowing what to do.



I *need* someone to walk me through this step-step, clearly and slowly.


PLEASE!

. . .

[knc1]

1) Update your jailbreak.
See: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=186645 for information, include reading the section for people with firmware greater than 5.6.x (that is you).
See: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...postcount=1597 for using the hotfix (which is what you need to do).

For all other packages, check here first:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=225030

2) Install KUAL
3) Install MrPI

MrPI (Mobileread Package Installer) is a KUAL menu extension, so you need KUAL to run it.
You **MUST** use MrPI to install or re-install packages on your new firmware.

Get that much done and post back if you are still having trouble.
(We do expect people who own an e-book reading device to be able to read the directions.)

NOTE: Double posting is really, really frowned on here.

[bostonpolar]

Originally Posted by knc1

(We do expect people who own an e-book reading device to be able to read the directions.)

That was uncalled for.

As I stated, I have been reading many of the posts here about this and was constantly confused by them and the constant references to things I could not understand.

And when I looked up those references, I was just confused further.

I am not even sure exact what you are telling me to do. Repeatedly in the past when I go looking for these files or whatever, I end up with all this different versions telling me what seems to be to use one thing or another thing and do this, no, do that, and I just get further confused.

I am not an idiot. I have concentration problems due to emotional illnesses and I am also dyslexic. Following the conversation on here by *Developers* when I am just a *user* is difficult for me to do.

Originally Posted by knc1

NOTE: Double posting is really, really frowned on here.

I wasn't getting the *help* I needed, so what should I have done?

Please let me know where I need to post -- as I stated above -- so I can get that HELP I need it -- because I suspect your instructions are not going to be able to do that.

I already installed a hack of some kind -- I listed the details of what files are in my Kindle now after it. Now I am suppose to apply another hack to hack the one I already did to Jailbreak my Kindle?

I thought that is what the *first* hack I used did!

Because once again I get a reference to ALL the other packages and I look at those and get confused even more.

. . .

[knc1]

Originally Posted by knc1

1) Update your jailbreak.

See: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=186645 for information, include reading the section for people with firmware greater than 5.6.x (that is you).

See: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...postcount=1597 for using the hotfix (which is what you need to do).

For all other packages, check here first:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=225030

2) Install KUAL
3) Install MrPI

- - - -

What, specifically, do you not understand about:
"Update your jailbreak"
? ? ?

Read the first post of the first link given above.
There you will discover that you must use the "hotfix".

Read the post of the second link given above.
That is where you will find the "hotfix" attachment.

Get that done and we will lead you into the next thing you need to do.

Note: If my comment is uncalled for, then prove it by reading and following the directions that already exist.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by bostonpolar

I wasn't getting the *help* I needed, so what should I have done?

Post in the right spot and ask nicely. People here are friendly and helpful and spend a lot of time answering questions. We understand you're upset and confused, but help is a favor, not a right.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by bostonpolar

[B]I do NOT understand any of that. This is the same type of posts I have been having problems with not knowing what to do.



I *need* someone to walk me through this step-step, clearly and slowly.

Well:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Anytime the firmware updates, you need to reinstall all hacks.

Clear enough, I hope?

Reinstall the screensavers hack from this thread...

The 5.6.x updates are more annoying, because you also need to update the jailbreak, see the official jailbreak thread for more details and use the hotfix listed there.

As a one-time thing, there is an emergency hotfix for the jailbreak. Before going further, apply this hotfix, immediately: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...postcount=1597

THIS IS STEP ONE!!! URGENT!!!

Once your jailbreak is updated, install KUAL (Kindle Unified Application Launcher) and the MrPI (MobileRead Package Installer) extension, and use that to reinstall your hacks.

Step 2:
There is a new way to install hacks

KUAL itself is the second Sticky thread in this forum.
It will appear on your Kindle as an "Active Content" document, think of it as your Start Menu.

MrPI is the application you will use to install your hacks. Get it here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=251143


Step 3:
Reinstall the screensavers hack from this thread.

...

"We do expect people who own an e-book reading device to be able to read the directions."

True enough, as a general rule. And this is a legitimate problem, and we cannot help people who don't seem to be trying and doing their fair share.

Originally Posted by bostonpolar

I am not an idiot. I have concentration problems due to emotional illnesses and I am also dyslexic. Following the conversation on here by *Developers* when I am just a *user* is difficult for me to do.

This is information you should have given us in the first place, if you want special treatment.

We can be extra understanding if the situation seems to warrant it, but we usually assume that people will read the directions -- that's what they are there for, and they *usually* do a pretty good job.

If you don't tell us why we should give you extra-special help and a more careful walkthrough, we assume you don't need it...


You now have three steps, which link to four things you must install, in order.
Hopefully, that will be enough.

If not...
Whichever thread you are having trouble with, ask for help there.

[bostonpolar]

...

"We do expect people who own an e-book reading device to be able to read the directions."

True enough, as a general rule. And this is a legitimate problem, and we cannot help people who don't seem to be trying and doing their fair share.
--------------


I don't think it is a "legitimate" problem as you claim, given that those sections are written in heavy techno-jargon.


YOU may understand because you are involved in development and maybe even wrote some of the posts here, but I suspect for a great many people who come here get as lost as I did with all the tech-terms and just go away without saying anything.

The MOST important parts of communication is that you *communicate*. And I can tell you as someone who has read well over 15,000 books AND who had been professionally published (I got paid, in other words) the writing with these files/programs is NOT written in a way most people can understand.

My question for you is this: WHO are you writing for?!

Yourselves?

Or the average person who come here for help with their Kindle?

What is MORE important?!

Your egos?

Or helping others?

Because in all the links I have been given, I see very little of the second being done.

And, yes, I am -still- struggling to understand exactly WHAT I am suppose to do with WHAT.

So let me do try to do that. If I succeed, great; I will let you know.

If I don't, I may come back here to try to get further help. Or I might just given up like I did last summer when I first tried to *understand* what I was to DO when reading all that techno-jargon.

. . .