Hacks I want my family back - not dead authors...

[TwinMoonsAnime]

That's exactly what happened with my Kindle 2 today. I was sitting at my desk and noticed that my Kindle was trying to install an update. And sure enough, the update failed. I connected the Kindle to my computer and copied the update bin file to my computer. Then I deleted it and copied over the hack un-install bin and ran that. After the hack was un-installed, i copied the kindle update bin back to the kindle and the update to 2.02 went smoothly. After that I ran the screensaver hack again and it appears to be running fine.

I want to thank the author for this great hack. I don't see why Amazon makes such a big deal about giving us this capability to start with. It seems that they have gone on a control-freak trip as of late.

Originally Posted by twister

I love the hack. Thank you Clarknova and Igor! It is so nice seeing my smiling kids face instead of a dead author.

What will happen if you have this hack installed and the Kindle tries to update via wireless? I was able to update to 2.0.2 but I did it it after restoring with restore bin file and then updating with screen saver bin. I updated to 2.0.2. with downloaded file. I'm a bit concerned that I will be out and about one day and the Kindle will try to update.

Thanks!

[kevindorsey]

Amazon is sort of lucky actually that Kindle owners are so loyal, otherwise after dismal K2 release and all the problems it carried, in all other cases they would have lost a lot of business.

I think they are tightening up their control over things, and trying to correct some of these issues, but they sure are pissing a lot of people in the process.

[TwinMoonsAnime]

It would make sense if they were the only game in town (although their wireless delivery really is), but considering the onslaught of new e-book readers (and the first color one from Fujitsu), they really need to open things up and make things easier for users. Tightening up on the controls is really heading the wrong way.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Maybe we should take up a collection to buy a K2 for igorsk and have him hack it for us.

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so mad at Amazon right now I could spit. Not Dr Pepper either... broken glass, or nails, or something harmful.

Here's the problem; and I know I am not alone here. There is one series I really enjoy. I have purchased the rest of them from Books on Board, but they do not have the first book in the series. Matter of fact, NO ONE has the first book in the series except Amazon. I don't have a Kindle, therefore I cannot purchase the book. AGH!! If I was trying to get something for free, or circumvent the DRM on something, I wouldn't be so righteously indignant, but I can't even PAY FOR and purchase this book - simply because I chose a different device than a Kindle. Actually, I don't know if I should be angry at Amazon, or at the publisher (Kensington). I did write the author's publishing representative, as listed on the author's site, but have received no response. The rest of the series is available in other formats, just not the first book, so I know it's possible to do. If this boneheaded logic becomes common, I will have no choice but to start bribing Kindle owners to purchase material for me (that I pay them for) which I will then have to start dabbling in the grey area of scripts to be able to read.

for letting me hijack the thread to vent. Rant over.

[schulzmc]

Originally Posted by TwinMoonsAnime

I connected the Kindle to my computer and copied the update bin file to my computer. Then I deleted it and copied over the hack un-install bin and ran that. After the hack was un-installed, i copied the kindle update bin back to the kindle and the update to 2.02 went smoothly.

You actually can just delete the update bin file, copy and use the uninstall bin, and then tell your Kindle to sync and check for new items and it will re-download the update bin for you.

[twister]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so mad at Amazon right now I could spit. Not Dr Pepper either... broken glass, or nails, or something harmful.

Here's the problem; and I know I am not alone here. There is one series I really enjoy. I have purchased the rest of them from Books on Board, but they do not have the first book in the series. Matter of fact, NO ONE has the first book in the series except Amazon. I don't have a Kindle, therefore I cannot purchase the book. AGH!! If I was trying to get something for free, or circumvent the DRM on something, I wouldn't be so righteously indignant, but I can't even PAY FOR and purchase this book - simply because I chose a different device than a Kindle. Actually, I don't know if I should be angry at Amazon, or at the publisher (Kensington). I did write the author's publishing representative, as listed on the author's site, but have received no response. The rest of the series is available in other formats, just not the first book, so I know it's possible to do. If this boneheaded logic becomes common, I will have no choice but to start bribing Kindle owners to purchase material for me (that I pay them for) which I will then have to start dabbling in the grey area of scripts to be able to read.

for letting me hijack the thread to vent. Rant over.

What book is it?

[MoboHobo]

Originally Posted by Alisa

How disappointing. I wonder why they decided to take away this ability. I notice all the Kindle 2 skins on decalgirl.com don't have the custom wallpapers like they do in Kindle 1.

Apparently they are sort of working on that. Or at least that the word on the "streets" .. aka various boards.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by twister

What book is it?

Actually I found out there are two. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder and Fudge Cupcake Murder.. both by Joanne Fluke. Chocolate Chip is the first book in the series, Fudge Cupcake is the fifth.

[FaerieFire]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Are you getting a blank image every time you put your Kindle to sleep? Or do you see one blank image and re-do the hack?

I have one blank screen that I believe to be the thumbs.db file in the folder. I'm going to try deleting it to see if that gets rid of the blank page.

I was getting it every time I put the Kindle to sleep, never saw a single image after the hack. I even waited a few minutes sometimes, just in case the image size was too large (the .pngs were way bigger than the .jpgs I'd used when I tried the K1 version of the hack and got a glorified image directory instead of screensavers).

The hack appeared to apply correctly, since the version number came up with the correct "with screensaver hack" information. It's not a thumbs.db issue, because with system files showing, I would have seen a .db file on the Kindle, and there wasn't one. I'm wondering if this is a Vista issue -- anyone with Vista get it to work correctly?

I do need to double-check if I added an S to the directory name, but I don't think I did. (It's been a week, so I don't remember for sure...). I'll report back either way.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by FaerieFire

I was getting it every time I put the Kindle to sleep, never saw a single image after the hack. I even waited a few minutes sometimes, just in case the image size was too large (the .pngs were way bigger than the .jpgs I'd used when I tried the K1 version of the hack and got a glorified image directory instead of screensavers).

The hack appeared to apply correctly, since the version number came up with the correct "with screensaver hack" information. It's not a thumbs.db issue, because with system files showing, I would have seen a .db file on the Kindle, and there wasn't one. I'm wondering if this is a Vista issue -- anyone with Vista get it to work correctly?

I do need to double-check if I added an S to the directory name, but I don't think I did. (It's been a week, so I don't remember for sure...). I'll report back either way.

I am using Vista but it's really just the delivery system to get the hack bin files onto my Kindle. Here is how I did it (re-did it after the update)

I saved each image as a 600 x 800 .png file.
I did not convert them to gray scale.
I numbered the images in the order I wanted them to appear (k2a, k2b, k2c...).
Placed all the .png images in the system "screen_saver" folder.
Copied the "Update_kindle2_user_screen_savers.bin" to the root of my K2
Ejected the Kindle.
Surfed over the the K2's setting menu and selected "Update Your Kindle"
I let the Kindle do it's thing and Voila! It worked.

BTW, getting rid of the thumbs.db file got rid of the blank screen for me.

[FaerieFire]

An additional S on the screen_saver folder was not the problem. I didn't delete the folder after the last try, so it was still sitting there, with the correct name. I just tried applying the hack again (over 2.0.1, since I haven't updated yet), and ran into the same thing -- just blank when it's in sleep mode.
Is there a length limit on the image file names or on the size of the files?

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by FaerieFire

An additional S on the screen_saver folder was not the problem. I didn't delete the folder after the last try, so it was still sitting there, with the correct name. I just tried applying the hack again (over 2.0.1, since I haven't updated yet), and ran into the same thing -- just blank when it's in sleep mode.
Is there a length limit on the image file names or on the size of the files?

I have some images that have file size larger than some of my books so I don't think that's the issue. I kept my image names simple so I don't know if name length is a problem.

Do you feel comfortable posting some screen grabs of what you're seeing in Windows Explorer (similar to the 2nd and 3rd images in my previous post)?

[FaerieFire]

I'm feeling very silly now. There was no extra S on screen_saver. But I did manage to leave out the first R...
Problem solved!
Thanks everyone for the attempts at helping someone who obviously needs more sleep these days. (Too much time spent reading late into the night!)

[koland]

Did you make sure the directory you created is all lower case? It makes a difference in linux. Actually check it via the command line, don't rely on windows explorer, as it sometimes just displays the case however it feels like doing it (in fact, setting up your screensavers this way avoids all the problems others have with these "hidden" files being copied in, as DOS doesn't do that to you, whatever you want to call DOS on your particular OS).

I'd avoid names with spaces in them, also.

[clarknova]

I'd been kinda meaning to do this for a while now, but just hadn't had the time to sit down and test it and make sure everything works OK, but I finally did and here it is.

All this really is was an attempt to help alleviate blank screen problems.

You no longer have to create the system/screen_saver directory yourself: after you have "updated" the K2 with the hack, when the K2 boots, it checks to see if the screen_saver directory is there and if not, it creates it and copies the default screen saver images to it. This way you can then plug your K2 in, browse to the directory and remove the default images (or keep some or all, it's up to you) and add your own and reset the kindle.

Also on boot, if the screen_saver directory is there, then it will check it for any troublesome files like Windows' thumbs.db and Mac OS's dot-underscore files and remove them automatically. So no more messing around with the command line for the Mac folks trying to get rid of blank screens.

Finally, an FYI: if you already have v0.3 (or v0.2 or v0.1) installed, you don't have to remove it to install v0.4. Just go ahead and use the new bin and update directly. (This has always been the case, but I don't know if it was mentioned or not.)