Development support hardware

[knc1]

Originally Posted by knc1

USPS has gotten their tracking system back on-line.
Both are due here Monday.

NiLuJe's PW-3 has arrived.
The serial port hardware is due on Monday.
The VoiceView adapter is due on Tuesday.

[Cinisajoy]

That was quick.

[knc1]

@NiLuJe:

It arrived running 5.6.1.1 (the initial for PW-3 devices).

I made (and saved on the Kindle) a complete recovery of the factory initial update package and binary copies of the interesting parts of exported USBMS.

Right now it is nursing on a USB port -

I suppose I should update it to 5.6.5, jailbreak it, update it to current VoiceView.
That way, all of those things can be done before the serial port hardware arrives Monday.

Your choice.
I am going to step away from the keyboard for awhile, while you think about it.

[NiLuJe]

@knc1: Yep, that sounds perfectly sensible to me, thanks .

[knc1]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@knc1: Yep, that sounds perfectly sensible to me, thanks .

OK, all done (except test VV - I'll do that tomorrow).

I followed the sticky software jail break instructions, including the linked-to page with the 5.6.5 update packages (in case Amazon had changed the package but not changed its name).

Despite reports of failures - the directions worked exactly as intended / as described.
(with the exception of a filename typo that I have reported)

= = = =

On 5.7.4.1 - with an unregistered device -
you can't reach the preferences to turn off the reading suggestions or purchase announcements (this device DOES NOT have special offers).

Which leaves the 'front page' really, really, crowded.
With no indication of how to reach the "old" home screen that lists your documents.

Found:
Treat it like a book - single finger swipe, right-to-left moves to the 'second' page of the 'home page(s)' display.
The only problem is finding a 'blank' area to swipe across.

JB survived the 5.6.5 -> 5.7.4.1 update and self reinstalled, just as intended.

The ;st date time command works on 5.7.4.1
(I didn't try to set the time zone.)

My first impression of this 5.7.4.1 GUI -
I sure am glad I did this to yours, not to mine.

[NiLuJe]

Yeah, don't worry, the PW2 is running 5.7.3, I'm getting used to it ;p.
That, and the Kobo basically does the same thing, too.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

Despite reports of failures - the directions worked exactly as intended / as described.
(with the exception of a filename typo that I have reported)

Those reports of failures (including mine) were for PW2, not PW3. The JB worked just fine on my PW3, just like you did on NiLuJe's shiny new PW3. But like I said, I did not do a factory reset first on my PW2, so maybe something loaded into a non-predicted location, causing the heap spray address to fail to find its intended target. I do not know enough about how it works (or fails) to make more than a poorly educated guess...

The PW2 and PW3 have different amounts of RAM, and different screen resolutions (and therefore perhaps a different framebuffer size). Perhaps that makes things load into different locations, if that matters in this case.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Huh, I always ignored that and kept reading my Kindle.

Originally Posted by geekmaster

"Face it. A background with lots of books on a bunch of shelves looks intellectual. A background with lots of Kindles on a bunch of shelves just looks nerdy."
-- Ken Sheldon

nerdy ==> geeky
I can live with that -- I thought that was the point...

[knc1]

Regarding questions of "why introduce VV on PW-3".

Here is one possible reason:
The PW-3 I received on the 'release' date last year and the one I received today (both the same model), have dates on internal things that seem to indicate they where both built last May.

Edit: It could just be that the eMMC reels where programmed at the same time, not the entire device built (flash is programmed before being soldered to the board).

Could the PW-3 be having that much slower a sales rate than planned?
It isn't very common for a company to build stock for a year's worth of sales projections.

The 'thing' to do today is JIT manufacturing.

= = = =

As of yesterday, Amazon (usa) is still shipping PW-3 Kindles with 5.6.1.1 installed.
Of possible interest to those that want a new, but jailbroken, Kindle.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Yeah, don't worry, the PW2 is running 5.7.3, I'm getting used to it ;p.
That, and the Kobo basically does the same thing, too.

It looks like 5.7.4.1 supports custom screen savers.
And it does support more than a single keyboard layout (although not all of those that we (Mobileread) have posted).
If it also supports custom fonts (I haven't checked) - then Amazon has picked up our two most used after-market add-ins.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

- - - -

The PW2 and PW3 have different amounts of RAM, and different screen resolutions (and therefore perhaps a different framebuffer size). Perhaps that makes things load into different locations, if that matters in this case.

The software jailbreak was developed for PW2 on 5.6.5 -
The only thing BD had to work with at the time.
It is only a matter of luck that it works on anything else.

- - - -

I forgot to mention -
I also skipped the "Reset (to factory defaults)" stated as being required in the directions seen in the browser.

- - - -

Since no one is interested in correcting the typo'd filename in that first post -
I think my chances of getting a "Ignore the directions to do a 'Reset' before using this jailbreak" included in the over-simplified directions is about zero to none.

[geekmaster]

No no clue why mine failed then (and the other PW2 owners who reported failures too)... And with my TTL serial adapters "put away" it looks like I will probably need to do (and write up) how to use a "spare" kindle as a USB TTL serial adapter...

[NiLuJe]

FWIW, I never did factory resets when testing either, @BD added it to make sure the Kindle was in a "known" state in case of weirdness.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

nerdy ==> geeky
I can live with that -- I thought that was the point...

If you put your spare devices in a makeup case, people won't notice you don't wear makeup.

[knc1]

Confirmed - you can't get to the "Customize your Kindle" stuff in settings unless the device is registered (or you happen to have command line access ).

All of the following with
/var/local/java/prefs
as the current working directory.

The filename is: app_utilities.preferences

(the un-registered default) Before turning off all the marketing and privacy invasion crap:

#User preferences for AppUtilities Preferences
#Mon Nov 09 13:55:37 GMT 2015
START_ACTIONS=true
ANNOTATIONS_BACKUP=true
START_ACTIONS_MENU_ITEM_VISIBLE=false
START_ACTIONS_SERVER_FLAG=hidden
START_ACTIONS_PARSE_SIDECARS=true
NEXT_IN_SERIES=true
START_ACTIONS_SETTING_VISIBLE=false
VOCABULARY_BUILDER=true

After (requires registration (fake or real) or text editor access):

#User preferences for AppUtilities Preferences
#Sun May 22 10:30:56 GMT 2016
ANNOTATIONS_BACKUP=false
START_ACTIONS=false
START_ACTIONS_MENU_ITEM_VISIBLE=true
START_ACTIONS_SERVER_FLAG=on
START_ACTIONS_PARSE_SIDECARS=true
NEXT_IN_SERIES=false
START_ACTIONS_SETTING_VISIBLE=true
VOCABULARY_BUILDER=false

The diff of those:

[root@kindle prefs]# diff -u app_utilities.preferences.old app_utilities.preferences
--- app_utilities.preferences.old
+++ app_utilities.preferences
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 #User preferences for AppUtilities Preferences
-#Mon Nov 09 13:55:37 GMT 2015
-START_ACTIONS=true
-ANNOTATIONS_BACKUP=true
-START_ACTIONS_MENU_ITEM_VISIBLE=false
-START_ACTIONS_SERVER_FLAG=hidden
+#Sun May 22 10:30:56 GMT 2016
+ANNOTATIONS_BACKUP=false
+START_ACTIONS=false
+START_ACTIONS_MENU_ITEM_VISIBLE=true
+START_ACTIONS_SERVER_FLAG=on
 START_ACTIONS_PARSE_SIDECARS=true
-NEXT_IN_SERIES=true
-START_ACTIONS_SETTING_VISIBLE=false
-VOCABULARY_BUILDER=true
+NEXT_IN_SERIES=false
+START_ACTIONS_SETTING_VISIBLE=true
+VOCABULARY_BUILDER=false

I haven't found out how to make 5.7.x display 'list view', but the above gets you the legacy 'cover view'.

Hmm...
Next I suppose someone will ask how you 'fake register' a Kindle running 5.7.x

Note: You can remove the fake reginfo file after making your selections and the above settings will survive a reboot.
Although you can bet they will not survive the Kindle 'calling home'.

Since my text editor isn't sending the 'notification' messages the system needs, I had to re-boot the Kindle to get the changes recognized.