Tools Introducing WinterBreak - Better Late Than Never

[HackerDude]

WinterBreak
Late Edition

I am proud to present the culmination of over a year of procrastination: WinterBreak
WinterBreak is a new jailbreak which works on ANY KINDLE (from the K5) on ANY FIRMWARE

Installation instructions can be found on the KMC wiki:
https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/


(silly art - the WinterBreak logo)

Happy New Year Everyone!
~ HackerDude (Formerly Bluebotlabs)

[Marek]

Awesome job! (The image is a bit too big tho)

[icebarf]

Thank you for your work. The long awaited jailbreak is finally here.

[shamanNS]

@JSWolf

[cdhigh]

WOW, really any kindle any version?
Based on some unknown hardware flaws?

[HackerDude]

Originally Posted by cdhigh

WOW, really any kindle any version?
Based on some unknown hardware flaws?

Nah, just a new software exploit that hasn't been patched yet!
However, whilst this exploit works on all Kindles, the hotfix does not yet work on ColorSoft Kindles, it's something I'm working on

[Frogm4n]

Thank you! I've been waiting and hoping for this for a while. Is it confirmed to work on the latest Scribe 2022 firmware, 5.17.2? I've been holding back on 5.16.21 by keeping my storage mostly full, and missing all of the new features that came with the release of the 2024 Scribe. (I'm a tad wary due to the mention of bricked Kindles!)

[HackerDude]

Yes, however, the hotfix currently has a few issues which I'm working to fix so probably hold off for a little bit

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by HackerDude

WinterBreak is a new jailbreak which works on ANY KINDLE (from the K5) on ANY FIRMWARE

Great! Thank you!

I haven't ever got up the nerve to try special gestures and fast (un)plugging.

Originally Posted by HackerDude

Yes, however, the hotfix currently has a few issues which I'm working to fix so probably hold off for a little bit

Does the current hotfix work for pre-armhf firmwares?

Also will WinterBreak succeed/work if the WiFi connection is made while the access point has no internet connection? (I think kindles get upset after connecting to WiFi and can't find home.) I managed to register a new kindle and disconnect it before it could download any thumbnails, etc., and I want to keep it that way.

[HackerDude]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Great! Thank you!

I haven't ever got up the nerve to try special gestures and fast (un)plugging.



Does the current hotfix work for pre-armhf firmwares?

Also will WinterBreak succeed/work if the WiFi connection is made while the access point has no internet connection? (I think kindles get upset after connecting to WiFi and can't find home.) I managed to register a new kindle and disconnect it before it could download any thumbnails, etc., and I want to keep it that way.

The WiFi connection needs to be "real" sadly, afaik it won't work offline, sorry
The current hotfix doesn't work at all (won't persist updates, ikr?), I'm fixing a bug it has, but once that's fixed, yes, it'll work on all firmwares

[hondabf]

For anyone trying this jailbreak on firmware => 5.16.3, make sure you're installing the hard float version of MRPI (MR Package Installer) after setting up WinterBreak and the universal hotfix.

MRPI versions from Nijule's thread currently only work on soft float firmware versions (pre 5.13.6). It took me a while to figure this out.

PS. KOReader current nightly builds for kindle hard float firmware (named koreader-kindlehf) may not work for everyone, the KOReader team is working on it. If this is your case, try Marek's nightly builds in the meantime.

PSS. The KOReader links above only work on firmware => 5.16.3. If you're running anything lower than that, you can download from the KOReader releases page

[bivi]

Thanks for all of the work that's gone into this!

I have a Kindle Scribe that I've just tried this with, firmware 5.16.5, but it doesn't load WinterBreak when I visit the store after rebooting. Can confirm that it's extracted into the root directory.

[widyanirwadi]

Thanks for all your hard work. What we've been waiting for is finally here!

[Rimidal]

Hello. Thanks for jailbreak.
But I have problems with hotfix on PW6 5.17.0
Got an "update error Invalid update file" when disconnecting from PC and bin file is deleted.

[Frogm4n]

Scribe 2022 with firmware 5.17.2 success report!

Got updated Hotfix v1.1.0, and also the kual-mrinstaller-khf.tar.xz as recommended by @hondabf. Otherwise followed the guide nearly as written, using those files instead. I now have KUAL, MRPI, renameotabin all installed (and rename run!). There were a couple sections where I got a bit worried when a step took a while to finish running, but patience won out. I've since gotten the KOReader nightly for kindlehf installed, and it found an OTA update once I changed it to the developer channel. This is exactly what I've been waiting months for! KOReader is my preferred reading app, and now I finally have it on the large Scribe screen, and I get to enjoy the latest firmware and features at the same time.

Thanks for the work getting this jailbreak working, and thanks for all the developers and testers of the whole stack of projects that make this all work!