Kindle Jailbreak Cheat Sheet

Jailbreak

Tutorial Reference: https://kindlemodding.org/

Scripts Archive: https://scriptlets.notmarek.com/
Plugins/Tools Archive: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225030

Tips

Expedite the process of cleaning filler files on macOS

  • Disable Spotlight on the Kindle

    sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/Kindle

  • Expedite the cleaning process (should finish around 2 minutes)

    rm -rf /Volumes/Kindle/.active_content_sandbox

Otherwise it may take over an hour to delete the recursive folders (around 5000)

Equivalent/Mapping Paths

Folder /mnt/us/ on Kindle (internally) is the same as /Volumes/Kindle/ (externally) on macOS

Package Management

Kindle Package Manager (KPM)

Installation

Included in WinterBreak / SpringBreak

Usage

The locations of kpm binary:

[root@kindle extensions]# find / -name "kpm" 2>/dev/null | grep -v "proc"
/mnt/base-us/kmc/kpm 							# Only .db file
/mnt/us/kmc/kpm 								# Only .db file
/var/tmp/chroot/mnt/us/kmc/kpm 					# Only .db file
/var/tmp/chroot/var/local/kmc/kindlehf/bin/kpm 	# Executable binary file
/var/tmp/chroot/var/local/kmc/kindlepw2/bin/kpm # Empty on Paperwhhite 5
/var/local/kmc/kindlehf/bin/kpm 				# Executable binary file
/var/local/kmc/kindlepw2/bin/kpm 				# Empty on Paperwhhite 5

or type commands in the search bar on Kindle

KindleForge

An AppStore-like GUI tool, but not designed to use alongside with new jailbreak stacks (WinterBreak / SpringBreak)

⚠️ Caution

KindleForge is under maintenance mode. It will need to be re-written using KPM in the backend. If you are using hdnext, an ABI error is expected and I am choosing not to fix it because it isn’t ideal for use alongside KPM/the new jailbreak stack anyway. There’s currently no real ETA.

Reference: https://github.com/KindleTweaks/KindleForge

KOReader

KOReader is a document viewer for E Ink devices. Supported fileformats include EPUB, PDF, DjVu, XPS, CBT, CBZ, FB2, PDB, TXT, HTML, RTF, CHM, DOC, MOBI and ZIP files. It’s available for Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook, Android and desktop Linux.

Installation

kpm install koreader

Usage

Check the reference

Reference: https://koreader.rocks/

SSH

UsbNetLite / UsbNetwork

Q: I wanna use USBNetwork for SSH. How do I get started?

A: You can download it here! https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225030

for kindles on firmware 5.16.3 or later please use USBNetlite https://github.com/notmarek/kindle-usbnetlite/releases/tag/1.0.M

To get started with USBNetwork/USBNetlite you can read the guide here: https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/USBNetwork

To find more detailed info about USBNetwork/Netlite you can go here (and go down a rabbit hole!) https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204942

Installation (of UsbNetLite):

  1. Download the update.bin file from Released
  2. Place it into the mrpackages folder on your kindle
  3. Run ;log mrpi from the search bar
  4. Profit! You should be able to control usbnetlite from KUAL

Configuration

  • The location of public keys

    /mnt/us/usbnetlite/etc/dropbear/authorized_keys

  • The location of configs

    /mnt/us/usbnetlite/etc/config

Reference: https://www.answeroverflow.com/m/1397616071099289794

KOReader Built-in SSH

Installation (of KOReader)

kpm install koreader

Configuration

Using port 2222 by default

  • The location of public keys

    /mnt/us/koreader/settings/SSH/authorized_keys

Terminal Emulator

Kterm

Installation

Download from https://github.com/bfabiszewski/kterm

You should use this package with Unified Applications Launcher (KAUL). First install the launcher then unzip my package to extensions folder. Then start launcher and choose kterm from menu.

scp -r ./kterm root@<KINDLE_IP_ADDRESS>:/mnt/us/extensions/

Usage Example

  • Check Battery Status

    echo -n 'Charge: ' ; gasgauge-info -c ; echo -n 'Load: ' ; gasgauge-info -l

Reference: https://www.fabiszewski.net/kindle-terminal/

Disable Ads

Create a shell script file as below, and put it under folder /mnt/us/documents/, and you will be able to run the script by clicking the icon (displayed as a book) in the Kindle library.

#!/bin/sh
# Name: Disable ADs
# Author: Marek
# Icon:
echo "Removing adunits folder"
rm -rf /var/local/adunits
echo "Removing ad assets"
rm -rf /mnt/us/.assets
echo "Updating appreg.db"
sqlite3 /var/local/appreg.db 'update properties set value = "false" where name = "adunit.viewable";'
echo "Rebooting in 5 seconds :)"
sleep 5
reboot;

Reference: https://scriptlets.notmarek.com/

Alpine Linux on Kindle

Troubleshoot

If Chromium fails to launch after a crash, it can due to corrupted SUID permissions on the sandbox binary. The file mode needs to be reset to 4755.

chown root:root /usr/lib/chromium/chrome-sandbox
chmod 4755 /usr/lib/chromium/chrome-sandbox

Reference: https://github.com/schuhumi/alpine_kindle

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