fw5.3.3 for KPW and fw5.3.2 for KT: how different?

[pirl8]

How different are fw5.3.3 for Kindle Paperwhite and fw5.3.2 for kindle touch?

Ok, the java framework is obfuscated an then single files are obviously different.

But what about system files? Are there so many differences? What about device support?

For example, I've been told by Ixtab to be very careful substituting libraries on KPW since I could easily brick my kindle (once again, thank you Ixtab!).

By the way, I see that KPW uses the same libfreetype 6.3.20 used also by previous KT firmwares. In KT this library can be substituted by libfreetype 6.8.1 which renders fonts that the previous version show garbled.

I can confirm that KT with the 5.3.2 firmware works very well with libfreetype-6.8.1 (which is still symlinked by libfreetype.so.6 after the upgrade).

Any guess that it could be supported even by KPW?

As anyone tried to run fw5.3.3 on KT? Any chan

[twobob]

hi... don't have a PW so cant EASILY side by side.

I would think they are pretty damn similar.

Might I ask what it is about the other FW that you want specifically, perhaps a more clinical appraisal of exactly what you want might make that a closer reality.

[pirl8]

Originally Posted by twobob

Might I ask what it is about the other FW that you want specifically.

Nothing at all (apart from the libfreetype, of course). Having them phisically here side by side I'm just wondering how different are their firmware.

And how different is eventually their hardware, even on the same models.

Actually I have 3 kindles here.
A KT with serial B011 (with a minor eink display damage), a KT3G with serial B010 and a KPW.

I've put the same firmware and the same hacks on the two KTs. In particular they have the simple screensaver hack with the same pictures loaded. It seems to me that pictures are rendered differently; specifically, rendering is better on the KT than on the KT3G (there's less shading on clear parts on the latter - they look uniform where they shouldn't be).

The KT has got regular updates since fw 5.0.1. The KT3G is a "refurbished with warranty" replacement and has come with 5.1.1 (or 5.1.0, I don't remember) and has been upgraded to 5.3.2 directly (just after being jailbreaked). Could the rendering difference be in something which was upgraded in an intermediate step and which has been forgotten in the latest firmware? Or could the difference be in the e-ink hardware? Or maybe it's just a bias of mine?

[twobob]

oh.

sounds like screen quality control.

I have two kindle 3's here. the screens look ABSOLUTELY BUGGER ALL like each other.

One is dark and manky, one is clear and sharp.

It's the screens, nothing else. In my case

[eureka]

Originally Posted by pirl8

Nothing at all (apart from the libfreetype, of course). Having them phisically here side by side I'm just wondering how different are their firmware.

5.3.3 (and any other existing PW firmware) will not work on KT out of box, because it doesn't include kernel modules for KT-specific hardware.

You can easily run diff -ur between snapshots of rootfs of 5.3.2 and 5.3.3 and peek into differencies of files by yourself. It's the most practical way.

[knc1]

The kernel modules for the KT hardware will run on the Kpw kernel.

That is why we can build one set for the K4, K5touch and K5paperwhite.

There may be hardware differences that are not expressed in modules.
So be sure you know how to de-brick from the serial port before trying this mix-and-match trial at combining system image parts.

You will also have to do similar surgery on the initramfs system. Lots of luck there.

[hawhill]

Originally Posted by pirl8

Nothing at all (apart from the libfreetype, of course). Having them phisically here side by side I'm just wondering how different are their firmware.

Just go and try, I'd say. You can bind-mount another freetype in place and restart the framework, no permanent changes needed for that. If anything will go wrong you can just power-cycle and try again. Always remember to *not* mount your rootfs r/w when you didn't check if everything will work well. Bind-mounting is a simple approach to that.

[pirl8]

Originally Posted by hawhill

Just go and try, I'd say. You can bind-mount another freetype in place and restart the framework, no permanent changes needed.

Yep, I always forget that it's linux, after all.

Well, did it.

Device: Kindle Paperwhite with firmware 5.3.3

I've enabled the "USE_ALT_FONTS" hack.
I've uploaded the libfreetype.so.6.8.1 packaged by ixtab to /mnt/us and I've bind-mounted it as suggested:

mount -o bind /mnt/us/libfreetype.so.6.8.1 /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.20

Then I restarted framework (via JBPatch). The library got loaded painlessly. Result: no damage, just some rendering issues:

1. The 1st snapshot shows the "Aa" dialog with the default library. The "Junicode" font is garbled.
2. The 2nd snapshot shows what happens with libfreetype.so.6.8.1. "Junicode" is OK but some fonts (HYMyeongJo, HYGothic, MYing Hei T, Song T) are not displayed. Further more, Caecilia condensed is not condensed at all and there are some other minor differences on how some other fonts are rendered;
3. The 3rd snapshot is what I get after issuing a font cache rebuild with ";fc-cache". All fonts are displayed, but Caecilia condensed is still not condensed, those which weren't rendered at point 2 are quite different from those at point 1 and those with minor difference with point 1 are still different.

Hope this can be some way useful for developers.

At the moment I think I'll stay with the bundled 6.3.20 and try to rebuild Junicode to see if something changes.

Thank you hawhill!!!