PW5 ScreenSaver Options Not Working

[KetchupCider]

Hi, I'm trying out the Screensaver hack on a freshly jailbroken 5.16.2.1.1.

I'm trying to enable Black Borders, within the Cover Mode Behavior, but each time I select this option, the screen just refreshes and I'm returned to the KUAL menu.

Has anyone had this happen before on a PW5? Wanted to reach out in case there is a fix available.

Happy new year!

[mergen3107]

Don't try this. Nothing expect KUAL, KOReader and usbnet work on 5.16.x .

[KetchupCider]

Darn, that's a bummer -- thank you for letting me know!

It sounds like a lot of posts are indicating that downgrading is ideal. I remember back with the PSP hacking scene, everyone talked about the "golden firmware" that you were advised to downgrade to. Is there a recommended version to downgrade to with the Kindle, to get a better balance of stock OS features as well as working jailbreak features?

[mergen3107]

Anything less than 5.16.x xD

[KetchupCider]

Originally Posted by mergen3107

Anything less than 5.16.x xD

Thanks! I'm considering potentially 5.15.1 now for this device.

Looking at the Firmware page
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Firmware

It seems like the ad-infested homescreen was implemented on 5.13.7. I think the Paperwhite 5/11th gen signature edition was released after this though, likely with a FW version of ~5.14ish... would it be dangerous to attempt a downgrade to a version that was released prior to a device's release? I could see some issues potentially coming up with the ambient light sensor, for example. I just don't know enough about this so want to be extra careful.

[j.p.s]

NiLuJe has frequently posted that it is a bad idea to install and run any sleep screen hacks on any firmware that natively supports sleep screen customization.

[Marek]

Originally Posted by KetchupCider

Thanks! I'm considering potentially 5.15.1 now for this device.

Looking at the Firmware page
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Firmware

It seems like the ad-infested homescreen was implemented on 5.13.7. I think the Paperwhite 5/11th gen signature edition was released after this though, likely with a FW version of ~5.14ish... would it be dangerous to attempt a downgrade to a version that was released prior to a device's release? I could see some issues potentially coming up with the ambient light sensor, for example. I just don't know enough about this so want to be extra careful.

I can't recommend downgrading 11th gen devices (PW5, KT5) since ive heard multiple reports of pw5's being bricked on lower firmwares

[KetchupCider]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

NiLuJe has frequently posted that it is a bad idea to install and run any sleep screen hacks on any firmware that natively supports sleep screen customization.

Aaah, got it -- apologies, I'm pretty new here and hadn't seen that yet!

Originally Posted by Marek

I can't recommend downgrading 11th gen devices (PW5, KT5) since ive heard multiple reports of pw5's being bricked on lower firmwares

Darn, thanks for letting me know! Do you know if that includes downgrading these from 5.16.2.1.1 to 5.14.2 for example? Or, not sure if there would be issues downgrading to specifically lower versions that were released before the PW5 was even released, like 5.13.7?

I'm glad to have jailbreak working on it, so at this point I'm hoping to get some more jailbreak features working better than they do on 5.16.x like mergen3107 mentioned earlier in the thread. Either way, stoked to have the jailbreak working at this point, but figured I'd ask!

[j.p.s]

Never ever install any firmware earlier than the original model release on any kindle. (Unless you want to brick it. Most of the time the kindle will silently delete it, but you never know what might happen except that it won't be good. Kindle firmware makes all kinds of assumptions about the hardware it is running on.)

[KetchupCider]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Never ever install any firmware earlier than the original model release on any kindle. (Unless you want to brick it. Most of the time the kindle will silently delete it, but you never know what might happen except that it won't be good. Kindle firmware makes all kinds of assumptions about the hardware it is running on.)

Definitely, that makes sense for sure! Thanks for confirming; better safe than sorry!

I guess I'm wondering then, have there been any reports of people successfully downgrading a PW5 to an existing firmware for that device? I could definitely see a case where many would brick their PW5 downgrading to any version with the old interface (since the device was not even around then), but I'm now curious about going to a version like 5.14.2 on a PW5, since that version was around after the PW5 was released.

I checked the downgrade thread and searched forum topics, but I haven't yet found any reports of successful downgrades (or bricks, for that matter) for the PW5 downgrading to 5.14.x versions. Figured I'd ask about it in case I'd missed anything!

[KetchupCider]

I found a few posts here that indicated success after downgrades to 5.14.2, so I attempted it and it worked! This version definitely works better with jailbreak apps/hacks than 5.16.x.

[shamanNS]

Is your PW5 a 8GB or a 16GB version?
And what firmware version did it have out of the box?

[KetchupCider]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

Is your PW5 a 8GB or a 16GB version?
And what firmware version did it have out of the box?

Mine is the 32GB version, and I'm not certain which firmware it came with. I purchased it around September 2022, so maybe 5.14.x was prevalent around that time.

I couldn't get the Downgrade to execute the reboot action from within KUAL (seems like it doesn't work well on 5.16.x), so I looked at the downgrader files and ended up SSHing in, and ran the same shell script as is contained within the downgrader files. Had to add the argument of the Paperwhite 11 shown in the menu.json, but it ran that script and then rebooted to the "Upgrading..." screen. I haven't noticed any issues so far but I'm keeping an eye out!