Kindle Touch 5.1, Jailbreak, and Screensaver Hack

[sparrowlight]

Can anyone get the screensaver hack to work on a Kindle with 5.1? I updated my jailbroken w/ screensaver hack Kindle to 5.1 and in the process, had to factory reset and uninstall the hack (it wasn't working anyway and made my power button unresponsive).

I have been reading about the Method 3 jailbreak that seems to still work but any word on screensavers? I'll be honest, I hate the standard non-ad screensavers. It's my fault for upgrading to 5.1 without reading through other people's experiences but I would love to get that hack back and get rid of the annoying built-in screensavers. Thanks...

[ixtab]

If you updated a jailbroken KT to 5.1.0, then it's still jailbroken.

For the screen saver, either try to find the reason by yourself and fix (and release) it... or wait until somebody else who considers this high priority does

[sparrowlight]

Ha, I do not have the technical know-how to figure it out myself. I'm at the mercy of the those on this forum who understand the technicalities. Just curious if anyone had gotten the screensaver to work.

[Poetcop]

I didn't expect to love the 5.1.0 update so much (great UI improvements, amazing progress in making pdfs viewable) but I also don't care for the builtin screensavers, which look like greeting cards you would buy at Starbucks. I'll take a look at the source, but I'm pretty sure it's beyond my ability. I can contribute one clue: on my system anyway, the installation goes through, but when I press the power button the screen doesn't change but becomes unresponsive. When I press it again, it returns to normal. (could this be congruent with your observations sparrowlight?) So if I had to guess, I'd say that the screensaver hack is installed properly, and it is going into screensaver mode, just whatever method yifan used to draw to the screen has changed.

[wolftail]

Originally Posted by Poetcop

when I press the power button the screen doesn't change but becomes unresponsive. When I press it again, it returns to normal.

You're not the forst one to report this exact behavior. The Kindle goes to sleep normally but for some reason It does not display custom screensavers so the screen keeps the last displayed image.

[Portia]

Originally Posted by wolftail

You're not the first one to report this exact behavior. The Kindle goes to sleep normally but for some reason It does not display custom screensavers so the screen keeps the last displayed image.

I have the same issue, after the KT automatically updated when I forgot and left wireless on. Everything else seems to work, just no screensaver in sleep mode and it stays on the last image. And I really, really don't have the technical know-how to even begin to find a solution. (But hey, if you need advice on how to conduct a multibillion dollar international arbitration, I'm your girl.)

I have the data.tar.gz jailbreak installed (not sure who's version), and tried installing Yifan Lu's simple screensaver hack as suggested in the KT wiki page (after carefully making sure all my custom screensavers were properly named and formatted), but no luck. It downloads to the USB drive and onto the Kindle fine, or at least after I disconnect from the computer I get "update your kindle" option on the settings menu so the basic jailbreak is still working. Then it restarts, but eventually I get the "update unsuccessful Error 3" message. I tried to figure out the explanations of how to fix that error in the context of a bricked KT, but frankly got lost in the jargon and was afraid I really would brick my device. So I'm going to keep searching the web for a fix, while hoping that some kind, generous, and non-judgmental developer here will come up with a simple solution to rescue us ignorant non-techies.

[sparrowlight]

Originally Posted by Portia

I have the same issue, after the KT automatically updated when I forgot and left wireless on. Everything else seems to work, just no screensaver in sleep mode and it stays on the last image. And I really, really don't have the technical know-how to even begin to find a solution. (But hey, if you need advice on how to conduct a multibillion dollar international arbitration, I'm your girl.)

I have the data.tar.gz jailbreak installed (not sure who's version), and tried installing Yifan Lu's simple screensaver hack as suggested in the KT wiki page (after carefully making sure all my custom screensavers were properly named and formatted), but no luck. It downloads to the USB drive and onto the Kindle fine, or at least after I disconnect from the computer I get "update your kindle" option on the settings menu so the basic jailbreak is still working. Then it restarts, but eventually I get the "update unsuccessful Error 3" message. I tried to figure out the explanations of how to fix that error in the context of a bricked KT, but frankly got lost in the jargon and was afraid I really would brick my device. So I'm going to keep searching the web for a fix, while hoping that some kind, generous, and non-judgmental developer here will come up with a simple solution to rescue us ignorant non-techies.

I successfully got the simple screensaver to work. Are you sure you are still jailbroken? The error 3 message can happen when you aren't jailbroken.

If you are, then maybe follow the directions through one more time. In my case, I was having issues because my enable_diags file was not working. A few folks helped me out. Let me find that thread and hopefully it will steer you in the right direction!

[sparrowlight]

Here you go!

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=179103

[Portia]

Thanks sparrowlight! I'll try it tonight after I get home.

I assumed it was still jailbroken because (i) I didn't uninstall the jailbreak and (ii) either Geekmaster or ixtab (can't recall which) posted times that if it was jailbroken before the 5.1 update, it was still jailbroken. It seemed to work, since it gave me the "update kindle" option in the settings submenu (it was not greyed out), and it began the process and restarted. Then I got the error message. But if this doesn't work, I'll try uniinstalling and then reinstalling. Thanks again.

[Portia]

Sparrowlight, thanks for your help. And thanks for the help of ixtab and geekmaster, et al, on the other thread that you pointed me to. All is good for me now.

I uninstalled the simple screensaver hack, then uninstalled the old custom screensaver hack, then uninstalled the jailbreak. Reinstalled the jailbreak and the simple screensaver hack, but still no screensavers. I then copied my existing "screensaver" folder to my C: drive to save my images, deleted the screensaver folder from my KT USB root drive, uninstalled and reinstalled the simple hack. I had screensavers back and can now put my custom images back in my screensavers folder in the USB root drive. (I also think I named them wrong by including the .png extension in the image names.)

So, I finally did figure it out, and thanks to all here for their help, the jailbreak, and the hacks.

(Forgive me if this counts as a cross-post, since I did put a short update on the KT jailbreak thread. I just wanted to update and thank Sparrowlight for providing the link to the other thread.)

[somkk]

Hi All,

Alas, Unlike Portia, I haven't been able to get custom screensavers onto Kindle 5.1.

Inspite of removing, re-installing Yifan Lu's jail break & custom screensaver, I still haven't gotten custom screensavers.

The last displayed image is still shown during sleep mode.

Any insights anyone ?
Did anybody manage to get custom screensaver working ?
(Custom not simple screensaver mod!!!)

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by Portia

(ii) either Geekmaster or ixtab (can't recall which) posted times that if it was jailbroken before the 5.1 update, it was still jailbroken.

ixtab and I have both posted each other's advice, and the advice of others. It is hard to say who was the first to post this particular tidbid of "common knowlege".

[Portia]

Originally Posted by somkk

Hi All,

Alas, Unlike Portia, I haven't been able to get custom screensavers onto Kindle 5.1.

Inspite of removing, re-installing Yifan Lu's jail break & custom screensaver, I still haven't gotten custom screensavers.

The last displayed image is still shown during sleep mode.

Any insights anyone ?
Did anybody manage to get custom screensaver working ?
(Custom not simple screensaver mod!!!)

As far as I've seen, Yifan Lu's "custom screensaver" hack does not work after the 5.1 update, and at this point there is no way to get it to work. That's what the wiki page says and I haven't seen anything to the contrary. Instead, you have to use his "simple screensaver" hack, which is also linked to on the wiki page.

https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Touch_Hacking

The "simple" version has strict naming and format requirements, but it works and you should still be able to get most of the images you like. (I just renamed and resized any of mine that did not fit the requirements.) But he's right, if even one of the images does not meet the image type, size, and naming requirements (set out in the READ ME with the hack), it will keep it from working.

You will probably need to go back and uninstall the custom screeensaver hack (if you had it before the update), and the jailbreak, then reinstall the jailbreak and then install the simple screensaver package.

Using the simple screensaver hack, I finally figured out that part of my problem was that I followed Yifan Lu's image naming instructions too literally and included the .png extension in the name. That is, I named the image "bg_xsmall_ss00.png" (with the progressive numbering from 00). I realized after I got the standard screensavers back (in the screensaver folder installed by the simple hack) that you don't need the .png because they are already all identified as png files. It finally worked after I deleted the .png extension from the image names on my custom images and redeposited them in the KT USB root drive "screensaver" folder.

Also, after you add or rename the custom images in the screensaver folder, you need to disconnect the Kindle from the USB drive and restart it before it will show the custom screensaver images. It should hopefully work after the restart.

I'm guessing these are some of the really basic things that the developers here assume everyone knows, but that's giving me waaaay too much credit.

[NiLuJe]

@Portia: The '.png' stuff smells like Windows hiding common file extensions, and you ending up with a .png.png file... Check your explorer settings.

[Portia]

Thanks NiLuJe! That makes sense. My laptop does run Windows 7. In any event, it worked after I deleted the extension.