Kindle Notes

A couple of notes on Kindle Jailbreaking that have served me well.

Links of Interest:

• The Kindle Modding Wiki
• The Kindle Modding Guide (WIP)
• Very Generous Update Files
• Marek's Hard Float Hacking
• Mobileread's Kindle Firmware version history (somewhat abandoned)
• My Continued Kindle Firmware History

Disabling Minerva (Another Data Logger Service)

You can too disable "minerva" manually through SSH like this:

      mntroot rw
      ln -s -b /dev/null /usr/bin/minerva_service
      ln -s -b /dev/null /usr/bin/minervad
      mntroot ro
   

Apparently, this stops whatever is happening at /var/local/log/minerva/ with the “entryDs_file_X” files which are supposedly logging files.

How to revert changes:

      mntroot rw
      mv /usr/bin/minerva_service~ /usr/bin/minerva_service
      mv /usr/bin/minervad~ /usr/bin/minervad
      mntroot ro
    

PS. I can confirm BinaryRenamer (a plugin that disables Updates and data logging) is still working on 5.16.8 (using Marek's hard float hotfix) and I would recommend it over renametobin.

Calibre QualityCheck Hack

You can use the aforementioned plugin to mark books as Documents (PDOC) instead of Books (EBOK), so they don't get deleted by Amazon.

1. Unzip Qualitycheck plugin and modify the following lines within "check_fix.py":

      mu.update(asin, b'EBOK')
      to...
      mu.update(asin, b'PDOC')
      

Save changes, select all the files inside the folder and zip them back.

In calibre, convert a book to AZW3 > Open the QualityCheck plugin > Fix > Fix ASIN for Kindle Fire.

For KFX books, you can tell Calibre to always tag converted books as PDOC. (Preferences > Output Options > KFX Output > "Create personal document").

SSH Tutorial

This tutorial works best with NiLuJe's USBNetwork Hack.

1. Install usbnet bin through mrpackages
2. Connect your kindle through USB
3. Create an empty "authorized_keys" file at "usbnet/etc/dropbear"
4. Run Putty and generate a new ssh-rsa key
5. Copy the public key and type it into the authorized_keys file like this: ssh-rsa "yourkeyhere"
6. Close down Putty and disconnect your Kindle
7. Type ;711 on the search bar and write the IP address
8. Go to KUAL > USBNetwork and click on "Allow SSH over WiFi" then "Toggle USBNetwork"
9. Go to your SFTP program, type the Kindle's IP address, set the port to "22" and username as "root". Leave password in blank because you will load up the private key file generated earlier as your Authentication log in.
10. Try to log in.
11. Pray This Will Be Your First Attempt.
12. Enjoy.

Other Notes:

  ;dm - Dump messages to /documents
  ;411 - server information
  ;711 - wifi information
  

- Renable OTA Updates on BinaryRenamer before reseting the Kindle to factory settings.

- In some firwmare versions, you won't be able to highlight text across pages if you sideload books as AZW3.

- Be wary of either leaving SSH enabled or disabled on your Kindle before doing any dangerous activities.

- (`mntroot` rw and `mntroot ro` makes the changes to the filesystem possible).

- There are no hotfixes for jailbreaking on 5.17.1 as of 2024 december.

- Buy an e-reader device that is not a Kindle.