Kindle with old (non-updated) firmware

[Nikkidog]

The Voyage is no longer receiving updates. It didn’t receive the last update. The last update my Voyage has is 5.13.6. Maybe you can find a used one on eBay. Good luck.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If the issue is indeed Bookerly, then it's strange the OP couldn't use the Kindle 4, which has no Bookerly at all.

I'm pretty sure the OP hoped the Kindle 4 NT would have firmware similar to the original Kindle "Basic" (7th generation) firmware. The Kindle Touch or the original Paperwhite would come much closer.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Nikkidog

The Voyage is no longer receiving updates. It didn’t receive the last update. The last update my Voyage has is 5.13.6. Maybe you can find a used one on eBay. Good luck.

But the OP is not happy with 5.12.2.2 (the last Kindle, 7th generation, firmware upgrade) so I'm guessing 5.13.6 wouldn't be acceptable either.

[ApK]

Like others I recommend the OP experiment with font and related spacing settings before spending money on an unknown or going to any extraordinary measures.
I cannot imagine what a firmware update could do to an old Kindle OTHER than adjust font and spacing. There's just nothing else that firmware can alter on an eink display as far as I know. Maybe anti-aliasing logic?

[jhowell]

One possible explanation is Enhanced Typesetting. The newer firmware might have downloaded KFX replacements for Amazon book purchases. That would add kerning, ligatures, hyphenation and cause other subtle rendering differences.

[DanielSt]

Thank you everyone for these thoughtful and helpful replies. Rcentros: if the 5.6.5 is from 2015, I expect it should be fine. Thank you again for linking to this kindle for sale, I will likely contact the seller.

The Kindle 4th generation (the one I bought recently) has version 4.1.4 firmware, which is the most recent version from 2019, as I was able to look up yesterday. In terms of the layout, it is not the same as the new firmware version on my Kindle 7th generation, but has some similarities (compared the older version of the Kindle 7th generation firmware I had bene using before); however in terms of the new appearance of the text and its triggering my symptoms, it is about the same.

One thing I am wondering about is the 5.6.5 version firmware for Kindle 7 that is from 2015, and the 4.1.4 version firmware for Kindle 4 that is from 2019. Evidently the first number of the versions means different things for different Kindles? I.e. perhaps we can't compare the chronology of firmware versions based on the first number alone, without considering which type of Kindle it applies to.

Sirtel: this is also very helpful, thank you. The issue is a mysterious one. There is an entire forum -- Ledstrain.org -- devoted to the issue, which is experienced by a minority of people. The forum has been around for about seven years, as I recall, and many of the contributors seem to be IT people; after all this time and all the acuity and expertise of the contributors trying feverishly to find out the cause of the problem, they remain almost as clueless as seven years ago. Different people are often triggered by different things, different things often work for different people. The only consensus is that the problem is triggered by newer devices (or software versions), whereas people are fine with older ones. The forum is called LEDstrain; of course Kindle is not LED, but the problem does extend to e-ink for many people. What is more, some people are fine with certain e-ink devices while they have problems with others. It is indeed surprising that a few software version alone could trigger the problem, but this has been reported many times by users of the forum (though not with Kindle to my knowledge); they were perfectly fine using their computer/laptop for years, then there was a Windows update, and they can now no longer use their device. My only current basis for determining whether something will work for me is trial and error, and orienting myself on older devices where possible. Incidentally, there are a number of theories about the cause this problem, like "temporal dithering," or "PWM," or Binocular Vision Dysfunction (or others), but certainly no consensus. I should mention in passing that my new Samsung A7 tablet gives me absolutely horrible symptoms right away, whereas I am able to use my Lenovo Ideapad 100S from 2014 quite well, though with extended reading I do get symptoms.

I have not experimented with fonts within the new firmware yet, I suppose I could try simply to rule out that this is not the problem, thank you for this idea.

I did not know about the Kobo, this is also worth looking into in case I cannot find a resolution for Kindle.

I am quite confident it is not psychological, but thank you for bringing up this possibility, as it could certainly be considered a possibility based on the situation as I described it.

NullNix: thanks for bringing my attention to Bookerly, I didn't know about this and will look into it! Sirtel: perhaps the Kindle 4 with its 2019 firmware version (4.1.4) would have Bookerly?

[katadelos]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Amazon customer support has been unable thus far to roll back the firmware to the previous version.

Amazon support are (for the most part) about as useful as a chocolate teapot when it comes to technical stuff.

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Are there any Kindle builds, for example, that Amazon has stopped supporting a long time ago, so that even if their previous owners have connected them to wi-fi recently, this would not have resulted in an automatic update?

Nope. But if you can find a device running 5.12.2.1.1 or earlier, it would be possible to jailbreak and downgrade it, then disable updates permanently to prevent it from upgrading at all in the future.

[DanielSt]

Thank you everyone. I posted a reply earlier today but it did not appear automatically like the others, but I got the message that it would be posted when approved by the moderators. So hopefully that reply will appear soon. A quick reply to katadelos: would you know how to go about jailbreaking the Kindle and downgrading it, then disabling updates? (actually jailbreaking and downgrading would be sufficient, since after that I could just not connect it to wifi). What sort of people would be able to do this?

Thank you again everyone, I have read your messages attentively, and hopefully my previous reply (and this reply!) will appear soon.

[katadelos]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Thank you everyone. I posted a reply earlier today but it did not appear automatically like the others, but I got the message that it would be posted when approved by the moderators. So hopefully that reply will appear soon. A quick reply to katadelos: would you know how to go about jailbreaking the Kindle and downgrading it, then disabling updates? (actually jailbreaking and downgrading would be sufficient, since after that I could just not connect it to wifi). What sort of people would be able to do this?

Thank you again everyone, I have read your messages attentively, and hopefully my previous reply (and this reply!) will appear soon.

Roughly speaking, you'd need to:

• Find a device compatible with KindleBreak
• Jailbreak the device and install the hotfix + Cowards Rescue Pack
• Extract the rootfs.img from a suitable firmware version using KindleTool (I have a feeling that the DL links for old-old firmware versions were removed by Amazon but the rootfs.img from a Factory image would work)
• Transfer the rootfs.img to the Kindle USB userstore
• Boot into diagnostics mode and login over SSH
• Flash the rootfs.img to the main firmware partition
• Disable OTA updates by https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=327879 following this thread

There's a thread with more info about downgrading with this method here.

[DanielSt]

Thank you katadelos for this! Much appreciated.

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

This is independent of the appearance of the Home Screen. I do not like the new Home Screen, and I did make the change in the preferences which modifies the Home Screen slightly (I still don't like it). But my not liking the Home Screen, or the general appearance of the Home Screen, is a different issue. Along with the new Home Screen, the new firmware results in a different appearance of the text of books and documents on the screen. It is this second matter that causes me the problem.

As to why it causes me the problem, how could a new firmware cause this problem, etc., this is a different and interesting topic (and probably difficult to answer).

Hello there, I have an Oasis and a Basic Kindle, both with the new software. It works great on the Oasis - but - when I tried to read on my Basic after the last update, the page turns looked very different from how I remembered. Instead of being smooth, and, to my eyes, unnoticeable, they are now very glitchy looking.

My husband has a PW5 with the very smooth, fast page turn animation, and the page turns on my Basic now look like a super slowed down version of this. It kind of looks like every individual letter is being slowly changed from right to left across the screen instead of a sudden change. It actually makes me feel nauseous/travel sick, so I assume this is what you are experiencing.

Note that I tried to remove this effect by setting it to refresh after every page, but that is no way to read - back to the days of a black flash after every page turn = no thanks.

I think Amazon must have made the firmware changes without properly verifying whether they are truly appropriate for the Basic model. Yes, the firmware runs, but it produces an intolerable reading experience for me.

The Oasis page turns, on the same firmware, look perfect, this effect is not seen at all. Ditto for the Paperwhite 5. I assume this is because they have a faster processor.

So, maybe your (perhaps somewhat counterintuitive) answer is to upgrade to a higher-specced model of the Kindle? Could you try one and send it back if you can’t live with it?

My Basic as it is now I would not be comfortable selling to anyone as it is so unreadable. I will trade it in instead next time I am upgrading.

[JSWolf]

DanielSt there is a simple solution to your problem that does not require buying another Kindle. Find a font that you like and side load it to the fonts directory of your Kindle and select that font as the font to use when you are reading.

[jhowell]

Interesting. That sounds a lot like the new page turn animation that is available in the 11th Generation Paperwhite (PW5). I wonder whether some software screw up made it available on your device. Check in the "More" tab of the Aa menu for a "Page turn animation" option.

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

DanielSt there is a simple solution to your problem that does not require buying another Kindle. Find a font that you like and side load it to the fonts directory of your Kindle and select that font as the font to use when you are reading.

But it’s nothing to do with fonts - they have changed something wrt the screen refresh method. See my post above - I think I have experienced something similar to DanielSt.

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Interesting. That sounds a lot like the new page turn animation that is available in the 11th Generation Paperwhite (PW5). I wonder whether some software screw up made it available on your device. Check in the "More" tab of the Aa menu for a "Page turn animation" option.

Hi there - if you see my post above, that is very similar to what I described as happening on my Basic. However, there is no option to turn it off anywhere. It is like a very lo-fi rendering of the page animation, which the Basic is obviously not equipped for.

Maybe once more people notice this is happening, Amazon will produce a fix. But, until then, Basic reading experience = nausea for me.