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.
First, you need to identify your device. Just follow the instructions on
this wiki page.
If you can't find your exact variant in the table, PM me the first 6 characters of your S/N, along with as much information about your device as you can (marketing name, date & country of purchase/delivery, whether it's WiFi-only or has cellular capabilities, and the bezel color if appropriate). Then wait for me to confirm that stuff has been repackaged to handle it, because none of this will work until I do
.
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.
That's for the JailBreak step itself, but everything else in here is still relevant (i.e., once you're jailbroken, you can resume following this thread).
On those older devices, you'll also want to replace the JB Hotfix with the Mobileread Kindlet Kit when the former gets mentioned later on.
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.
This applies to everything, even KUAL extensions (i.e., if a bit of documentation says "just unpack it to <somewhere>", it means unpack the *inner* tarball).
The current method (WatchThis) requires a device running a FW version <= to 5.14.2.
If that's not you, then you're currently sorely out of luck.
If that's you, check out the
WatchThis thread for detailed installation instructions, and come back here once that's done
.
TL;DR: Identify your device, make sure your device is running an appropriate FW version, then install the
WatchThis JB.
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.
Speaking of updates, remember that everything is basically evil since FW 5.12.x, so the only sure fire way not to get screwed is to *permanently* stay in Airplane mode.
On older FW versions, there are non-intrusive ways to prevent OTA updates, c.f., the mentions about that in the final section of this document.
WARNING: FW >= 5.15.1.1 INTRODUCED A BREAKING CHANGE. DO NOT UPDATE!
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.
You can now forget about the "Update Your Kindle" (UYK) menu,
(almost) *everything* will have to go through the
MobileRead Package Installer (MRPI).
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.
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
>= 5.9, you'll need the "Booklet
(coplate)" variant.
If you're running FW < 5.9 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.
NOTE: If, despite the many earlier warnings, you're currently running FW >= 5.12.2, things get a little dicey:
;log may be gone. Instead, in the "Booklet (coplate)" archive, you'll find an
Update_KUALBooklet_hotfix_*_install.bin install package, which you'll have to install via UYK (like the JB Hotfix earlier).
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).
We generally recommend using the "Helper" KUAL extension, which provides a "PREVENT OTA Updates" button which, besides doing what it says on the tin, should prevent some battery drain caused by a tad aggressive "call home" behavior in some FW versions.
Fair warning, though: this will *no longer* protect you from automatic updates on FW >= 5.12.x! On those FW versions, slightly more aggressive methods are in various phases of development, check the forums (e.g.,
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=327879).
If you're in a position to choose which FW version to update to, *avoid* anything >= 5.12.x, as it has become even more aggressive, preventing you both from (easily) blocking OTA updates, and greatly (potentially fatally) hampering the JailBreak's ability to survive, as well as your recovery options!
Keep in mind than an official FW update will basically throw you back to the post-hotfix step: you'll basically have to reinstall anything that came bundled in a .bin, except for the hotfix/bridge itself.
Speaking of the bridge/hotfix, you shouldn't ever need to reinstall it, unless you want to make extra sure it's got its hooks set in right before and/or after doing a severely destructive manipulation, like a factory reset. But, technically, if nothing untoward ever happened to your device, this shouldn't be needed, it's just a precaution.
And speaking of destructive manipulations, combining a factory reset with a FW update *will* irremediably wipe your JB. Don't be that guy.
$Id: RECAP_MR_THREAD 19014 2023-02-23 04:55:03Z NiLuJe $