How to hack a brand new Kindle PW2 (leaving it unregistered)

[denydias]

Hi all,

I had some difficulties hacking my first Kindle Paperwhite 2nd Gen (aka PW2) to the point I totally bricked it (even after unbrick it once).

So, as a shortcut to the newcomers, I compiled a small primer guide to hack your Kindle PW2 before registering it, so Amazon will never know about your reading habits or update it silently, which I think is fair.

BIG RED NOTE: This guide is neither comprehensive nor complete nor definitive. You can help me to complete it by providing more details/information in this thread. There are catches and one is going to still read a lot of information to get it done right. There are things that don't work and one will loose functionality by doing it. Consider all this carefully before proceed. Do it at your own risk as I'm not responsible for anything bricked by YOU.

BIG BLACK NOTE: I'm not the author of any of the tools needed to complete these instructions. We, the community, owe a big THANK YOU VERY MUCH for all those intrepid and devoted developers that allows us to choose. In any case, do it at your own risk as none of these developers are responsible for anything bricked by YOU.

BIG MAGENTA NOTE: This guide applies only to Kindle Paperwhite 2gen, aka Kindle PW2, with 5.4.0 firmware. I advise you to never go beyond this firmware version, 5.4.0. Downgrade if you can, which I heard is difficult and risky. In any case, do it at your own risk as none of these developers are responsible for anything bricked by YOU.

That said, let's get it done.

Instructions

Spoiler:

1. Open the box, enjoy this moment. Might be your last;
2. Turn Kindle PW2 on;
3. Choose your language;
4. On WiFi setup screen, choose any private network, type a NOT VALID password and choose cancel;
5. In the bottom of the screen, you'll see a 'register later', so click it to skip registration;
6. IMPORTANT: FROM NOW ON AND FOREVER FOR THE REST OF YOUR KINDLE'S LIFE, NEVER, EVER SELECT AN WIFI FOR YOUR KINDLE ON EVERY REBOOT THAT THESE INSTRUCTIONS TAKES!!! Always cancel the WiFi and skip registration using the two steps above. One might want to turn airplane mode on and leave it as such forever.
7. Install Jailbreak from Kindle Touch/PaperWhite 5.0.x - 5.4.4 JailBreak. Plus K5/PW USBNetwork, kindle-jailbreak-X.X.N.zip file;
8. Install Rescue Pack from ixtab's "Rescue pack" for Paperwhite / Touch. One might need this if things goes wrong;
9. Install MKK from NiLuJe's Mobileread Kindlet Kit;
10. Install KUAL from twobob, ixtab, StepK, NiLuJe, KNC1, et al. [Kindle] Unified Application Launcher. KUAL;
11. Install USBNetwork from Kindle Touch/PaperWhite 5.0.x - 5.4.4 JailBreak. Plus K5/PW USBNetwork, kindle-usbnet-X.X.N.zip file;
12. Fake register from kaznelson's Offline registration for DX / K3 / K4(NT) / K5(KT+PW1/2). Read the Readme_eng.txt inside the zip to fill in reginfo.ini and install instructions;
13. After previous step, your Kindle will look like registered, enabling all Amazon's bells and whistles that are locked while unregistered, but it will never touch a network, so no actual registration at Amazon. Look at settings and confirm that your Kindle thinks it's registered before continue;
14. Make sure that USB cable is disconnected;
15. Open KUAL, USBNetwork, * Toggle USBNetwork * to enable USBNetwork (you can check if it was enabled by clicking ** USBNetwork Status **, should read enabled on the bottom of screen);
16. Connect the USB cable between Kindle and your computer (Linux preferred here, always actually);
17. Run this as user on your Linux box:
    

    $ sudo ifconfig usb0 up;sudo ifconfig usb0 192.168.15.201

    Type your sudo password. Also consider to create an alias for this command as you might use it quite a lot. If you are typing something on your Kindle and the prompt stops to reply, type the above command again from a new terminal and it should be back;
18. Run this as user:
    

    $ ssh root@192.168.15.244

    Accept the host key if this is the first time you do this, type password which happens to be 'mario' (no quotes, no bold). Consider an alias for this one too;
19. Lets set the timezone, date and time of our Kindle. Run this as root on Kindle (be careful after run the first command, mntroot rw, as any mess from there may brick your Kindle):
    

    # mntroot rw
    # cp -p /var/local/system/tz /var/local/system/tz.orig
    # ls -lah /var/local/system/tz*
    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root         123 Jan 28 00:25 /var/local/system/tz
    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root         123 Jan 28 00:25 /var/local/system/tz.orig
    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root          14 Jan 28 00:25 /var/local/system/tzVar

20. Open a new terminal on your Linux box and run this as user:
    

    $ ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/

    You are going to see a long list of different files, being each one a timezone setting. Choose one that fits your needs. Don't forget to look inside directories like Africa, America, Europe and others if your preferred timezone is not in the first list. For instance, I'm going to use my own timezone, which is /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Sao_Paulo;
21. Install the timezone on Kindle by running this on your Linux box as user:
    

    $ scp /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Sao_Paulo root@192.168.15.244:/var/local/system/tz

22. From now on, Kindle is running at your preferred timezone. To check, run as root on your Kindle:
    

    # date
    Wed Jan 29 20:16:30 BRST 2014

23. Set date and time by running on your Kindle as root:
    

    # date 012922252014.00
    Wed Jan 29 22:25:00 BRST 2014
    # hwclock -w

    For the records, the date command format is: MMDDHHMMYYYY.SS, where MM=Month, DD=Day, HH=Hour, MM=Minute, YYYY=Year and SS=seconds. The values used here should be your local time, not UTC;
24. Log out from your Kindle by hitting CTRL-D on its command prompt.
25. Run this on your Linux box as user:
    

    $ sudo ifconfig usb0 down

26. Remove the USB cable from your Kindle;
27. Open KUAL, USBNetwork, * Toggle USBNetwork * to disable USBNetwork (you can check if it was disabled by clicking ** USBNetwork Status **, should read disabled on the bottom of screen);
28. Disconnect USB cable from your Kindle;
29. Reboot your Kindle to see time and date properly set;
30. If by some reason you reboot your Kindle and its clock seems wrong by the offset of your timezone to UTC, connect to USBNetwork again and just run:
    

    # hwclock -s

    This will set the software (system) time from hardware clock. I'll look for a more persistent way for this one; (anyone, tips?)
31. Install Collections Manager from ixtab's Collections Manager. Don't forget to install meme's [GUI Plugin] Kindle Collections to Calibre too, so you can manage your offline collections;
32. Run to Callibre to sideload your books to Kindle;
33. REMEMBER: NEVER! EVER SET A NETWORK ON YOUR KINDLE'S WIFI! YOU CAN SAFELY KEEP IT ALWAYS IN AIRPLANE MODE TO SAVE JUICE;

My personal comments

Spoiler:

Now you can go and install some neat KUAL extensions. There are lots of them here ('So what can you do with this?' spolier), here and here. Just in case someone mess with my PW2 network settings, I've installed dsmid's BackDoorLock and knc's1 BBB Firewall. To speed up KUAL sorting, I've also installed gawk. USBNetwork also appears as a result of the above instructions.

I would also advice to set a Device Password to our Kindle as well as disable Web Browser, Kindle Store and Cloud on Parental Controls (which requires to set a password that should not be the same as the device one).

As I said earlier, there are some caveats. The main ones, imho, are:

• Wikipedia definitions doesn't work at all. No network. Workaround: connect to the network, so, in what matter to this post, none;
• All the network features are unavailable. This renders impossible to use cloud sync and all other networked services, including Amazon's thirst for juicy analytics and user information.

Changelogs
On every change to these instructions, I'll update this changelog accordingly, on reverse chronological order (newer versions first).

Changelog 0.24

Spoiler:

1. Update instructions to change NiLuJe's Jailbreak post titile;

Changelog 0.23

Spoiler:

1. Update instructions to change Developer Certificates+Kindlet Jailbreak to the all new Mobileread Kindlet Kit (MKK);

Changelog 0.22

Spoiler:

1. Move the changelog to this post;
2. Add the link to [KUAL] Extension Support and Versioning post.
3. Add titles to sections (instructions, comments, changelog).

Changelog 0.21

Spoiler:

1. Reset clock after a reboot; (Anyone out there have tips to make this persistent?)
2. Typos/cosmetics.

Changelog 0.2

Spoiler:

1. Remove diagnostic mode requirements. Tks twobob and NiLuJe;
2. Add USBNetwork for filesystem device access required for timezone/date/time setup. Tks twobob and NiLuJe;
3. Change fake registration method to a much easier, less error-prone one. Tks kaznelson;
4. Change timezone/date/time setup method to something that works, although a bit risky as it requires read/write remount of system partition. This one could be improved (any tips someone?);
5. Fewer caveats, as the device gets fake registered;
6. Lots of typos.

Changelog 0.1

Spoiler:

1. Initial version.

[twobob]

*raises hand*

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=193260 See point 5

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=205732 Date time.

And does not Nilujes USBNETWORKING work to allow for USB networking? I'm not a PW2 owner so... just mentioning these things out loud.

Cheers.

*puts hand down*

[NiLuJe]

Also: Why the hell do you even boot in diags?

That's, err, overkill, error prone for newbies, and unneeded.
At that point, the device is jailbroken, just install USBNet and do it from main.

As the name implies, ixtab's rescue pack is primarily aimed at developers/wanabe developers/adventurers to assist in *rescuing* a soft-bricked device. I *strongly* discourage anyone (especially newcomers) from booting into diags unless they really have to.

[denydias]

Originally Posted by twobob

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=193260 See point 5

This one works like a charm! Tks.

Originally Posted by twobob

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=205732 Date time.

This one don work as it relies on NTP (the network time protocol) to get the time and date and set Kindle's both software and hardware clocks. As per my instructions, the Kindle never get connected to a network in its entire life. This method should work (not tested by myself) with Panopticon's Fake-register your Paperwhite 5.2.x to use collections and other blocked features you've mentioned above, but not with mine.

Originally Posted by twobob

And does not Nilujes USBNETWORKING work to allow for USB networking? I'm not a PW2 owner so... just mentioning these things out loud.

See bellow.

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Also: Why the hell do you even boot in diags?

That's, err, overkill, error prone for newbies, and unneeded.
At that point, the device is jailbroken, just install USBNet and do it from main.

As the name implies, ixtab's rescue pack is primarily aimed at developers/wanabe developers/adventurers to assist in *rescuing* a soft-bricked device. I *strongly* discourage anyone (especially newcomers) from booting into diags unless they really have to.

Yeah, yeah. My bad.

How can I edit the original post to change what's needed? Is there a way so you OPs could give me access to permanently edit only this post in the entire forum?

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by denydias

How can I edit the original post to change what's needed? Is there a way so you OPs could give me access to permanently edit only this post in the entire forum?

I think that this is an automatic "feature" of the forum for new users (your posts currently also end up in the moderation queue if they contain links). If I'm not mistaken, these restrictions should be lifted after 10 posts or so. Just keep trying (and nope, there's not much that we can do about it. "Computer says 'no'")

Spoiler:

[denydias]

Originally Posted by ixtab

(and nope, there's not much that we can do about it. "Computer says 'no'")

I feel like the fluffy puppy at girls hand now.

Well, let's wait for something interesting to reply to as I'm against to reply with emoticons or short words just to improve post figures. If the magic number is 10, them I'm only one post from there. I hope I can edit my older posts, not only the ones I post after reach that number.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by denydias

I feel like the fluffy puppy at girls hand now.

Well, let's wait for something interesting to reply to as I'm against to reply with emoticons or short words just to improve post figures. If the magic number is 10, them I'm only one post from there. I hope I can edit my older posts, not only the ones I post after reach that number.

You can always hang around in the New Posts area and answer random questions for people.

Or incite people in the political forums. (That's what they're there for. )

Or answer this comment and you're there already.

[denydias]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Or answer this comment and you're there already.

Your title on this forum is appropriate: an irrational optimist. Thanks for the chance. With this post, I can see the 'holly grail', aka edit button.

Tomorrow I'll correct my first post with the last guru advices.

[kaznelson]

Fake registration as BIN-file for DX / K3 / K4(NT) / K5(KT+PW1/2):
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...28#post2509628

[denydias]

Changelog used to be here. It was moved to the first post on this thread.

[msh]

I wonder if there is good answer to my current situation. Unfortunately the more I am reading on this forum the more unsure how to proceed I am

I have bought new KPW2 and want to use it w/o it is ever connected to Amazon based on the steps in this thread and benefit from the great tools I am reading here about - koreaderd, collection manager...

Now the problem - my Kindle is the 4GB version with SN 9017 and FW 5.4.3.2
I was happy I am able to JB it and didn't consider any FW changes, but just before I started the process I realized w/ this combination of FW and HW Active content will not work

The relevant steps in this thread suggest
- install JB
- install rescue pack
- install MKK
- install KUAL

My question is what would be the best sequence of steps in my case?
When it would be the right moment to upgrade FW?
Would the FW upgrade introduce any extra steps? like re-install JB because of MKK? (just guessing)
And to which version of FW would you recommend me to update to?

Thank you in advance

[eschwartz]

All you need to do is install the JB, like, immediately.

The JB comes bundled with MKK, and both will reinstall themselves without you even noticing anything wrong, on every firmware upgrade.

Upgrade the FW to a version that supports Active Content, whenever you want, just so long as you jailbreak first.

Then sideload KUAL (it is a document, so you can do this at any time) to launch apps.

[msh]

Thank you for your reassurance

I have applied all the updates like this [JB, FW5.4.5, KUAL, USBnet, fake registation] and everything worked like a charm!

Looks like the right start to have some fun
I love this forum

[eschwartz]

Happy to help. Enjoy your new Kindle.

You may be interested in the KUAL Firewall with BBB (Block Big Brother) Filter.

Although I maintain it is unreasonable paranioa (and to Jeff).
Still, you should be aware of your choices.

This will prevent Amazon from contacting your Kindle (and vice versa) even if WiFi is turned on.
Might come in handy.

[msh]

Thank you for pointing this out. I am aware of iptables and the blocking setup is among the top ones in my TODO list.
And I am OK to admit my "unreasonable paranioa"

But this way of connection with KUAL is just brilliant idea and moves it to the next level.

My thinking about firewall was about a bit different setup, though.
Something like this
- ACCEPT all LAN IPs ranges
- ACCEPT white-listed IPs
- DROP all know evil addresses
- LOG into file system remaining attempts
- default policy: DROP
+ be able to see the log w/o connecting Kindle to PC. In KUAL (ideal, if possible) or as an eBook (less elegant)

But in first place I need to investigate if logging would be even possible. So this is where the fun part begins...