What Is This?:
This aims to be an up-to-date version of @geekmaster's original "JailBreak Index" thread. It will recap what you can and cannot do with your device, and how to proceed, in a step by step process.
Identification.
Device Generation Concerns.
The main focus of this document will be all current devices with a touchscreen, running FW 5.x.
If you're using an older device see this historical thread, with a special addition if you're using a K4.
The Right Tools For The Job.
You'll soon realize that most of my stuff, despite being spread over a few dedicated threads, will actually redirect you to my Snapshots thread to actually download the files. I'd suggest keeping it open in a separate tab, or you might start to get dizzy with the amount of cross-references ;).
This allows me to centralize and update everything in one step.
Most of the files are shipped as xz compressed tarballs (.tar.xz). You'll need a decent unarchiver to handle those. We generally recommend 7-zip. If your unarchiver only leaves you with a simple tarball (.tar), you'll have to unpack that, too, to get to the goods.
JailBreak.
On current devices, the process involves installing a *factory* version of the FW. You are *not* able to downgrade a Kindle, which means you will have to be running a FW version <= to the factory image we have on hand.
If you're not, you're out of luck, at least not without hardware modifications, which we only know how to handle on *some* specific models (generally, older/simpler ones).
Which means making sure you won't get force-fed an unwanted OTA update is *very* important. Switch to airplane mode ASAP, and create a *folder* named update.bin.tmp.partial at the top level of the visible USB storage.
As of right now, the list of supported devices is as follows:
Be *very* careful to pick the right file for your device, because failing to do that *will* result in a brick.
You should be able to find links to those images at the bottom of this WiKi page, or, barring that, via Google (in which case, double-check the md5 sum of the files).
Once you've got your hands on an image that fits your device, check out this thread for detailed instructions, and come back here once that's done ;).
For older devices running FW <= 5.4.4.2, see this historical thread.
TL;DR: Identify your device, install the appropriate factory image like any other FW update.
Making sure your JB survives updates.
It's as simple as installing the JB Hotfix.
This will also take care of a few other necessary bits and bobs for the following steps.
TL;DR: This one should be installed via the "Update Your Kindle" menu, after dropping the .bin file at the top level of the visible USB storage.
Installing custom packages.
You can now forget about the "Update Your Kindle" menu, everything will have to go through the MobileRead Package Installer.
You might be wondering why this is listed first, while it appears to depend on another tool: KUAL. That's a bit of a catch-22 that we'll take care of shortly; for now, install MRPI as if you actually had KUAL installed ;).
TL;DR: This is as simple as extracting the package at the top level of the visible USB storage.
KUAL.
This is a GUI frontend that many custom tools will rely on, as such, we consider it a mandatory dependency.
As it's designed to run across the *full* range of Kindle devices, there are four different variants of it available.
If you're running FW >= 5.8, you'll need the "Booklet (coplate)" variant.
If you're running FW < 5.8, you can use the "Booklet" variant, or the "KDK-2" variant. Prefer the Booklet variant.
On older FW < 5.x devices, you'll have to use the "KDK-1" variant.
While the KDK variants were simple files you just sideloaded like any other book, the Booklet variants are proper packages, which is why MRPI had to come first ;).
TL;DR: Booklet variants should be installed via MRPI: drop the .bin in the mrpackages directory, located in the top level of the visible USB storage (if you don't see it, you bungled the MRPI install in the previous step), then run MRPI by entering ;log mrpi in the Homescreen's searchbar, then wait for MRPI to proceed. If nothing happens, you bungled something along the way.
Enjoy!.
You should now be ready to play with a lot of what's available on MR! A couple things to remember, though: As there's been a long history of various Kindle models and FW, some things may only target and/or behave properly on some specific models and/or FW versions. The documentation may not be any help in making you aware of that fact, especially for older stuff (the original author may be inactive, and even if he isn't, making sure stuff works everywhere and/or document it is a *lot* of work). Feel free to ask in the relevant thread, there's a good chance someone will tell you if it has a chance of working, or not ;).
As a rule, everything in my Snapshots thread should be sane & safe to use: it will either gracefully refuse to install on unsupported devices, or, barring that, gracefully refuse to *run* on unsupported devices.
Remember that MRPI supports installing *multiple* packages at once, and will attempt to install stuff in the right order if it matters (i.e., by installing Python first, for instance, as it's generally used by a few things, either as a hard dependency, or an optional one).
Last Updated: $Id: RECAP_MR_THREAD 16008 2019-06-04 17:42:53Z NiLuJe $
This aims to be an up-to-date version of @geekmaster's original "JailBreak Index" thread. It will recap what you can and cannot do with your device, and how to proceed, in a step by step process.
Identification.
Device Generation Concerns.
The main focus of this document will be all current devices with a touchscreen, running FW 5.x.
If you're using an older device see this historical thread, with a special addition if you're using a K4.
The Right Tools For The Job.
You'll soon realize that most of my stuff, despite being spread over a few dedicated threads, will actually redirect you to my Snapshots thread to actually download the files. I'd suggest keeping it open in a separate tab, or you might start to get dizzy with the amount of cross-references ;).
This allows me to centralize and update everything in one step.
Most of the files are shipped as xz compressed tarballs (.tar.xz). You'll need a decent unarchiver to handle those. We generally recommend 7-zip. If your unarchiver only leaves you with a simple tarball (.tar), you'll have to unpack that, too, to get to the goods.
JailBreak.
On current devices, the process involves installing a *factory* version of the FW. You are *not* able to downgrade a Kindle, which means you will have to be running a FW version <= to the factory image we have on hand.
If you're not, you're out of luck, at least not without hardware modifications, which we only know how to handle on *some* specific models (generally, older/simpler ones).
Which means making sure you won't get force-fed an unwanted OTA update is *very* important. Switch to airplane mode ASAP, and create a *folder* named update.bin.tmp.partial at the top level of the visible USB storage.
As of right now, the list of supported devices is as follows:
- PW2: 5.4.3.2 (MD5: 3cbac0b4821cec03432b9ed382744f41)
- KT2: 5.6.0 (MD5: d85a86f5c75b4b9d43648f3b6afd2e84)
- KV: 5.5.0 (MD5: f7c8905ea993fef902be82b70a98542a)
- PW3: 5.9.6.1 (MD5: a5460e698a531c7770ba2b1ac31667b0)
- KOA: 5.7.4 (MD5: 8f1e7c9124a2b12e643b15447d80feae)
- KT3: 5.8.0 (MD5: 3f1a5294e1bca8c4fa7ca2762c5b4505)
- KOA2: 5.9.0.6 (MD5: 18624db8c1838ec2b5b8bfb3406ac041)
- PW4: 5.10.1.3 (MD5: 538d939c2cb4f05c7952d33d5348f010)
- KT4: 5.11.0 (MD5: fd3e7ed8ebea59432163a5e713cd90c5)
Be *very* careful to pick the right file for your device, because failing to do that *will* result in a brick.
You should be able to find links to those images at the bottom of this WiKi page, or, barring that, via Google (in which case, double-check the md5 sum of the files).
Once you've got your hands on an image that fits your device, check out this thread for detailed instructions, and come back here once that's done ;).
For older devices running FW <= 5.4.4.2, see this historical thread.
TL;DR: Identify your device, install the appropriate factory image like any other FW update.
Making sure your JB survives updates.
It's as simple as installing the JB Hotfix.
This will also take care of a few other necessary bits and bobs for the following steps.
TL;DR: This one should be installed via the "Update Your Kindle" menu, after dropping the .bin file at the top level of the visible USB storage.
Installing custom packages.
You can now forget about the "Update Your Kindle" menu, everything will have to go through the MobileRead Package Installer.
You might be wondering why this is listed first, while it appears to depend on another tool: KUAL. That's a bit of a catch-22 that we'll take care of shortly; for now, install MRPI as if you actually had KUAL installed ;).
TL;DR: This is as simple as extracting the package at the top level of the visible USB storage.
KUAL.
This is a GUI frontend that many custom tools will rely on, as such, we consider it a mandatory dependency.
As it's designed to run across the *full* range of Kindle devices, there are four different variants of it available.
If you're running FW >= 5.8, you'll need the "Booklet (coplate)" variant.
If you're running FW < 5.8, you can use the "Booklet" variant, or the "KDK-2" variant. Prefer the Booklet variant.
On older FW < 5.x devices, you'll have to use the "KDK-1" variant.
While the KDK variants were simple files you just sideloaded like any other book, the Booklet variants are proper packages, which is why MRPI had to come first ;).
TL;DR: Booklet variants should be installed via MRPI: drop the .bin in the mrpackages directory, located in the top level of the visible USB storage (if you don't see it, you bungled the MRPI install in the previous step), then run MRPI by entering ;log mrpi in the Homescreen's searchbar, then wait for MRPI to proceed. If nothing happens, you bungled something along the way.
Enjoy!.
You should now be ready to play with a lot of what's available on MR! A couple things to remember, though: As there's been a long history of various Kindle models and FW, some things may only target and/or behave properly on some specific models and/or FW versions. The documentation may not be any help in making you aware of that fact, especially for older stuff (the original author may be inactive, and even if he isn't, making sure stuff works everywhere and/or document it is a *lot* of work). Feel free to ask in the relevant thread, there's a good chance someone will tell you if it has a chance of working, or not ;).
As a rule, everything in my Snapshots thread should be sane & safe to use: it will either gracefully refuse to install on unsupported devices, or, barring that, gracefully refuse to *run* on unsupported devices.
Remember that MRPI supports installing *multiple* packages at once, and will attempt to install stuff in the right order if it matters (i.e., by installing Python first, for instance, as it's generally used by a few things, either as a hard dependency, or an optional one).
Last Updated: $Id: RECAP_MR_THREAD 16008 2019-06-04 17:42:53Z NiLuJe $