Kindle Hacks Information

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This page list Hacks and Apps that can be added to your kindle. It's mainly for the Kindle 3 and some for kindle 2 and 1. For information about kindle touch hack you can visit: Kindle Touch Hacking

Most of the links on this page are to the MobileRead forum, if you see a related subject from the wiki, please add it to the link, or even replace the link to the forum if the information linked on the wiki is more complete/ up to date.

Most of the content come from here and here, and we try to implement some coding (JB UN LP) to give a better understanding of what is needed for installing each of these applications.

Contents

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[edit] Hacking the Device

(This section is a work in progress on the main step of hacking the kindle as a general overview, it applies mainly to kindle 3 but some of these part will work with earlier version)

In short the kindle is a small computer running a Linux 2.6 on an ARM processor. Which make the device easily hackable. There is few way of hacking you device, from non intrusive file manipulation, to jail breaking your device to usb netowrking into the device. Here is a list of how to get you started to use the applications and hack listed on this page.

[edit] Jail break JB

Jailbreaking your kindle is quite straight forward and is generally the first step into hacking your device. The process is simple, you copy an .bin file to your root folder (when connecting your kindle to your computer) and from there you can upgrade your firmware (which will load the jaibreak software) To upgrade your firmware, once the .bin file is copied, you can disconnect your kindle, then go to home -> menu- > settings -> menu -> upgrade firmware. If the upgrade firmware is greyed out you haven't copied the file correctly, reconnect your kindle and try again.

Once you have jailbroken your Kindle a lot of other hack and apps are available for you to install. Some of these hack will simply change the behaviour of your kindle (changing font, screensaver etc..) but other hack will add complete software and games (readers, chess etc). In that case you need a launcher or a software that will make these software accessible. Some software are packages as kindlet which makes the easier to launch since they'll appear in your main menu on the kindle, but most of them won't. That's why in most case you need to use LaunchPad

[edit] Launchpad LP

To use a lot of the hack and apps on this page you will need launchpad. To install launchpad, you need to have your kindle jailbrake first. Then you can download launchpad here or here, copying the file to your root directory, ejecting your kindle, then updating the firmware. Once launchpad is install nothing really changes but you can start applications that are installed on your kindle.

[edit] Kindlet

Kindlet and in a way the most sophisticated hack. They are full application that are displayed in your home page on your kindle. Although installing kindlet is just a matter of copying the azw file in your documents section in your kindle, the complete process is a lot longer since you have to copy the signed key (keys that validate the kindlet) into some hidden folder of your kindle. Now to access these hidden folder you have to connect your kindle trough USB Networking, or you can also use a terminal emulator to copy the files from your /mnt/us/ folder (easily accessible) to the location where the files needs to live. Some developer provide also a .bin file that can be installed like launchpad or other firmware upgrade.

[edit] Usb networking UN

This gives you the ability to connect to your device remotely trough ssh (?) giving you acces to the inner core of your kindle. Accessing the root file system is not dangerous per say but if you haven't ever been in shell mode in linux system you have to know that you can brick your device quite easily.

From the documentation: 

This hack, based on ebs' code, restores `usbNetwork functionality.If you don't know what that means, then you probably shouldn't even be trying to use this.
If you don't understand half of what's written here, see the previous paragraph.
As always, it may void your warranty, eat your Kindle, kill a kitten, and sell your first born's soul to the devil.
I *strongly* recommend having a proper Linux CLI sysadmin background before trying to use this, or you *WILL*
probably end up messing your Kindle up. Do *NOT* do anything with this unless your are *REALLY* sure you understand what you're doing.

[edit] Kite

A new launcher has been created in the begining of 2012 and looks quite promising, call kited. You can follow the forum thread here

kite allows you to run native linux applications on kindle

[edit] download:

[edit] Content Reader

[edit] Epub and other eBook reader

[edit] Manga Reader

See also: Manga

[edit] Interactive Novel Reader

[edit] Multi Media

[edit] Layout and UI Hacks

[edit] Font

[edit] Screen Saver

[edit] Margin

[edit] Keyboard Localization

[edit] Kindle Development

[edit] USBNetworking

[edit] Term emulator on the Kindle

[edit] Package management

[edit] Other Apps and Games

[edit] Games

[edit] Launcher apps

[edit] VNC client

[edit] Alternate Kindle OS

[edit] Google Translation

[edit] Collections Manager and Converter

[edit] Kindlet

Kindlet are apps that are package to be install on the kindle. They differ from the .bin file that has to be install from the update firmware. For those interested in writing their own Kindlets, here is that link: [1]. Also, here is the link to the developer.keystore thread with the latest one that includes all of the Kindlets developer.keystore keys combined on this site: [2]

[edit] Official Kindlets (found on Amazon.com):

[edit] Unofficial Kindlets

[edit] Games

[edit] Reader

[edit] Apps

[edit] Kindle Firmware Related

Updates Provider hack - For Kindle 3. This hack allows you to choose how your Kindle firmware updates are accepted and installed. 

 When this hack is active in firmware < 3.1 with jailbreak installed:
- when the updates provider is set to 'amazon' you will be still able to install/uninstall 
  any hacks as well as any official Amazon updates
- when the updates provider is set to 'hack' you won't be able to install firmware updates 
  from Amazon (manually or automatically), only hacks
 
 When this hack is active in firmware 3.1 or in firmware < 3.1 with jailbreak 
    uninstalled:
- when the updates provider is set to 'amazon' you will be able to install official Amazon 
  updates only
- when the updates provider is set to 'hack' you won't be able to install firmware updates 
  from Amazon (manually or automatically), only hacks
Retrieved from "http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Hacks_Information"
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