SSH failed "connection refused"

[ChrisXenon]

Hi guys,

I just got an old Kindle 4.1.2 and I followed the instructions here https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kind...king#Jailbreak to jailbreak it. All steps completed without apparent problems, and I see the Jailbreak book, so I guess it worked.

Next I tried to SSH into it. I have enabled USBnet, allocated my PC's host IP (which is to say I typed in the command and it didn't puke) and tried to SSH in using Putty. It fails "Connection refused".

My first thought is that I didn't actually assign the host PC (Windows Vista) IP address correctly. However, ipconfig shows "Ethernet adaptor Local Area Connection 2" (which Device Manager tells me is a "USB Ethernet/RNDIS Gadget #2") at address 192.168.15.244 with the correct subnet mask, which suggests to me that this is OK.

So at this point, I'm out of ideas and would appreciate any wisdom you can give me.

Many thanks,
Chris

[knc1]

What is the IP address of the Windows end of the cable?
That 192.168.15.244 address is suppose to be the Kindle end of the cable, IIRC.

[NiLuJe]

@ChrisXenon: I'm assuming you're talking about the USBNetwork hack from the main system, and not diags (because as mentioned in the wiki, you have very few chances to actually get a device with a working sshd in diags these days).

[ChrisXenon]

KNC1, thanks for your help. I followed the instructions which told me to do a netsh int ip set address "*name of connection given by Windows*" static 192.168.15.201 255.255.255.0 - which I did.

MiLuJe, thanks also. I got this device second hand, and I don't know how old it is. I'm sorry but I don't understand your assumption. I followed the instructions at the URL I gave under the heading "SSH (on diags, potentially deprecated)". Steps 1 thru 5 seemed to work as expected. It failed at the second step 1 (!). The Wiki says this option was disabled from fall 2012. Since I don't know the age of the Kindle, I thought I would try it. It doesn't seem disabled - the option is present in the menu system, and my PC detects the network device. Does that tell you anything which might enable you to help me further?

Thanks,
Chris

[NiLuJe]

@ChrisXenon: Then you *are* following deprecated instructions, which is why it doesn't work.

You don't have any (easy) way of knowing whether the diags build is old enough for that to work, but in general, it's not, hence the expected failure. Whether the menu entry is present or not is irrelevant.

[ChrisXenon]

Oh I see. So disable and ignore it, and install the other one. Thanks again.

[ChrisXenon]

I know all this is free, and represents a lot of hard work which you then gave to us in exchange for bugger all, an that's impressive. Thank you. I think it would have been really helpful if your Wiki said exactly that the diag USBnet should not be tried.

But anyway, now I know the diag SSHD is not to be trusted and I should install the "USBNet package".

So I click that link, and I'm in the "giant thread".

It mentions Jailbreak, but I assume I don't need to re-install it. Or is it a different Jailbreak? I'll assume not.

Spoiler: [SHOW] (Why does this forum do this SPOLIER shit? I'm guessing to force people to join in order to see the details)

Anyway, it says "Note for Kindle 4 users " (that's me) "use the Wiki instead". OK, well I just came from there, so this re-enforces the notion that the Jailbreak I already have is OK. But does that "use the Wiki instead" pertain only to Jailbreak? I'll assume so.

So reading on.... fonts (don't care) ... screen savers (don't care) ...

Eh? Where's the thing that I have to do to install the USBnet package?

I'm guessing it's in the list of attached files. I can see a File Type: zip kindle-usbnetwork-0.57.N-k4.zip. But if it is (and it's an IF I'm unwilling to try in case it bricks my Kindle) then what do I do after unzipping it?

Well, I'll download it and unzip it, and maybe there's a readme inside.

There is! Oh, but it's a plain text copy of this thread. Great.
But wait (there's more) - there's a read me first. Aha - this is the stuff I need....

Oh - heh - get this: "Windows people you're on your own".

Gee - thanks! How nice to work so hard to get here to then be told this.

What a complete waste of my waste of time.

NiLuJe I'm sure this post will irk you. I'm a non-Unix moron with an entitlement mentality, no doubt. But perhaps you might see how - if you wanted to - you could make this easier for people who aren't you to use.

OK, bring it.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by ChrisXenon

Oh I see. So disable and ignore it, and install the other one. Thanks again.

A hint for you notebook:
Kindles are "dual boot" machines -

Sort of like having both WinXP and Win<something else> installed on the same machine and selectable at boot time.

The instructions your following concern the "Diags" system.
You want, and the USBnet package will give you, ssh on the "Main" system.

- - - -

There is a lot written on this forum about installing and using ssh (into the "Main" system).
On this forum's index page -
Set the prefix filter to: "Tutorial" in the dropdown box -
Click "show threads" -
Now browse through the much shorter list of threads for those mentioning ssh.

[NiLuJe]

@ChrisXenon: The thread historically had a lot of non-technical users getting thrown at it, because it's the home of the Fonts and the ScreenSavers hack.

To avoid said users shooting themselves in the foot, by design, the USBNetwork docs were done the *nix way: i.e., RTFM, which happens to be a README_FIRST text file *inside* the package.
As you've discovered in said doc, since I'm not a Windows user, and Windows (used to, I'm told since Windows 8 or 8.1 things are better) ships *without* the relevant drivers, well, there was no 'official' documentation.
This was fixed by third-party forum posts, and wiki edits.

Fast-forward to the K4. For technical reasons, K4 packages belong with old, legacy packages, which means that mega-thread.
You'll notice that I had since moved to single dedicated threads, because, yes, that thread is unwieldy as hell (and the spoiler tags serve the specific purpose of making it slightly less so; think of them as collapsible subsections, it's a cheap hierarchy). But, again, historical reasons, can't touch it.

But we do needed a slightly better doc, especially because the K4 JB is so peculiar. The wiki looked good, and had the most succinct & clear instructions, so I went with that, and simply linked to it inside the README, because why the hell c/p stuff that risks getting outdated and that I can't actually verify myself anyway .

TL;DR: The wiki has the relevant information. The state of the USBNet doc is by design, a prospective USBNet user is *expected* to have basic *nix admin knowledge.
As for Windows, can't write doc for stuff I don't use . OS X info only appeared in there once I got my hands on an OS X system, for instance.

[NiLuJe]

Okay, granted, some recent wiki edits made the network setup instructions murky as hell (at the very least in terms of presentation).

EDIT: there, unmurkified the K4 wiki page.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ChrisXenon

Spoiler: [SHOW] (Why does this forum do this SPOLIER shit? I'm guessing to force people to join in order to see the details)

Perhaps the wikipedia definition of a "spoiler" will help answer your confusion.
"Spoilers" are a tag created to save people from accidentally reading things they didn't want to, like, um, "spoilers" for books. Do you know what forum you are posting to? (A forum about books.)
Spoilers in this subforum are used for information that may or may not be relevant, to collapse large walls of text out of the way until they are needed. That is the name of the tag we have, we are not fussed about what we call it.

Small suggestion -- try reading the evil spoilers when you aren't logged in, before you complain that you cannot (whyever you care, I do not know...)...
you will discover you can.

There is! Oh, but it's a plain text copy of this thread. Great.
But wait (there's more) - there's a read me first. Aha - this is the stuff I need....

Oh - heh - get this: "Windows people you're on your own".

Gee - thanks! How nice to work so hard to get here to then be told this.

What a complete waste of my waste of time.

NiLuJe I'm sure this post will irk you. I'm a non-Unix moron with an entitlement mentality, no doubt. But perhaps you might see how - if you wanted to - you could make this easier for people who aren't you to use.

OK, bring it.

(Keep in mind that documentation attached to the hack are an initial writeup by the hack author, and may not ever get updated. Updates will target the hack itself, by means of automated rebuilds and critical fixes to the actual functionality.)

Would you rather he serenely promised working directions for something that isn't guaranteed to work and he has never tested for himself?
Windows *is* more difficult. Consider, the tools you are using are fundamental unix tools, running on an embedded linux device... unix is preferred over Windows for networking, for a reason.
I am pretty sure you need to install special drivers on Windows.
On linux, those drivers are baked into the standard kernel.

(Ever tried to use the Android Platform-Tools? Same story.)

Nevertheless, the collaborative Wiki often has more complete information, which is why it is the recommended source of documentation for what we do here, also there are threads created by people who have tried to get this working on Windows. Search the forum for matches for e.g. "Windows usbnetwork ssh".
Worst comes to worst, ask and someone will probably try to help you. Which you did. And we did. And then you started having an attitude about our *perceived* attitude.
I would track down one of those links for you, but it's not worth my time if I will only get complained at.


Attitude gets you nowhere. Passive-aggressive claims that "I'm a non-Unix moron with an entitlement mentality, no doubt", gets you nowhere. (Except, perhaps, to make people think you are a unix-agnostic moron with an entitlement mentality. That option is on the table.)

I'm sure this post will irk you.
Hopefully it will make you think as well.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by ChrisXenon

- - - -
There is! Oh, but it's a plain text copy of this thread. Great.
But wait (there's more) - there's a read me first. Aha - this is the stuff I need....

Oh - heh - get this: "Windows people you're on your own".

Gee - thanks! How nice to work so hard to get here to then be told this.
- - - -

There is a very simple solution to that . . . .
Upper left of index page: "new thread" . . .
Now just post the directions which windows users need (that are not already posted - I think they are).

We intentionally left that missing so that someone else could contribute them for the system that they know.

[ChrisXenon]

Originally Posted by knc1

A hint for you notebook:
Kindles are "dual boot" machines -

Sort of like having both WinXP and Win<something else> installed on the same machine and selectable at boot time.

The instructions your following concern the "Diags" system.
You want, and the USBnet package will give you, ssh on the "Main" system.

- - - -

There is a lot written on this forum about installing and using ssh (into the "Main" system).
On this forum's index page -
Set the prefix filter to: "Tutorial" in the dropdown box -
Click "show threads" -
Now browse through the much shorter list of threads for those mentioning ssh.

Thanks. However, if by "forum's index page" you mean https://www.mobileread.com/forums/ - then I cannot see a "prefix filter" drop-down box to set to "Tutorial", and if look at the HTML source for the page there is no occurnece of the word "Tutorial" on it. Neither does that word occur in thew HTML source of www.mobileread.com. Please tell me where the forum index page is, where I can select Tutorial from a "prefix search" drop-down menu.

[ChrisXenon]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

...
To avoid said users shooting themselves in the foot, by design, the USBNetwork docs were done the *nix way: i.e., RTFM, which happens to be a README_FIRST text file *inside* the package.
As you've discovered in said doc, since I'm not a Windows user, and Windows (used to, I'm told since Windows 8 or 8.1 things are better) ships *without* the relevant drivers, well, there was no 'official' documentation.
This was fixed by third-party forum posts, and wiki edits.

Fast-forward to the K4. For technical reasons, K4 packages belong with old, legacy packages, which means that mega-thread.
You'll notice that I had since moved to single dedicated threads, because, yes, that thread is unwieldy as hell (and the spoiler tags serve the specific purpose of making it slightly less so; think of them as collapsible subsections, it's a cheap hierarchy). But, again, historical reasons, can't touch it.

But we do needed a slightly better doc, especially because the K4 JB is so peculiar. The wiki looked good, and had the most succinct & clear instructions, so I went with that, and simply linked to it inside the README, because why the hell c/p stuff that risks getting outdated and that I can't actually verify myself anyway .

TL;DR: The wiki has the relevant information. The state of the USBNet doc is by design, a prospective USBNet user is *expected* to have basic *nix admin knowledge.
As for Windows, can't write doc for stuff I don't use . OS X info only appeared in there once I got my hands on an OS X system, for instance.

Thanks - I was expecting abuse and banishment and not neither. I was suggesting that you simply label your instructions much higher up the instructions that this is a Unix HowTo. That way, non-Unix people wouldn't go to all that trouble before finding it out.

I appreciate your edplanation on why things are the way they are, and again - thanks for all the hard work you have invested in making this work available to others.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by ChrisXenon

Thanks. However, if by "forum's index page" you mean https://www.mobileread.com/forums/ - then I cannot see a "prefix filter" drop-down box to set to "Tutorial", and if look at the HTML source for the page there is no occurnece of the word "Tutorial" on it. Neither does that word occur in thew HTML source of www.mobileread.com. Please tell me where the forum index page is, where I can select Tutorial from a "prefix search" drop-down menu.

Abuse is not the best way to get help here, and pretended ignorance isn't much better.

But in case English isn't your native tongue -
The word: "forum's" is singular possessive, I.E:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=150

At the top of the page you will see two horizontal, blue bars -
In between, the content will vary depending on if your logged in or not (plus this site is cluttered with ads, if you don't ad-block it).

Immediately below the second blue bar are two horizontal, gray bars -
In between those you will find a horizontal row of four drop down boxes and a button.

Try them - they should be obvious once you do.
And before you claim otherwise, they work for people who are not logged in and for non-members.

The only thing on this site that being a member and being logged in gets you is fewer ads - - but a good ad-block utility in the browser that your using will do better.