KT2 Index

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The Kindle Touch 2 is also known as the Basic Kindle, Kindle 2014 and, officially, as the 7th Generation Kindle.

Introduced in 2014 at the low end of the product line as a replacement for the aging K4.

Its board ID is "bourbon"; it is based on the "wario" (Paperwhite 2) platform, with which is binary compatible.

It features a 600x800, 167 dpi Pearl screen, with an infrared 10x14 touchscreen capable of tracking at least 2 points.

All members are encouraged to make additions to this page, both to the index links and to the sections.

Image viewer

The Kindle has an undocumented image viewer mode, accessible by creating an "images" folder at the root of the USB storage and uploading JPG pictures to a subfolder of "images", which title will be used as an album name.

Font scaling

The Kindle supports 8 font sizes: they can be redefined by creating a text file with a space-separated list of sizes.

This file, to be put in the root of the USB storage, must be named CJK_FONT_RAMP for Chinese, Korean and Japanese fonts; FONT_RAMP for Western ones.

Demo mode

The following is also known to work on a PW-1 with firmware 5.2.0.

Removes the ability to easily access system settings and USB disk mode.

While it can be removed by flashing a complete OS image, demo Kindles are not special units, and can be restored to regular functionality or viceversa using the device itself.

All semicolon-started, case sensitive commands mentioned in this chapter are to be entered in the search bar.

• To enable: on language selection screen, hold down a language for ~15 seconds (subject to the presence of specific files, as declared in /opt/amazon/data.whitelist); otherwise, type ;enter_demo
• Special settings (includes USB mode and Resell Device): ;demo
• System settings: ;dsts
• Restore automatic USB connection: ;uzb
• Break automatic USB connection: ;duzb
• Exit demo mode: select Resell Device as mentioned above or enter ;exit_demo

Shipping mode

The Kindle can't be normally powered off, except by entering shipping mode (a special factory reset that includes the additional step of displaying the "Kindle -- push button to power on" image and powering off the board).

This can be accomplished by entering ;lzzl or ;shpm (both subject to the presence of specific files, as declared in /opt/amazon/data.whitelist), using the above mentioned Resell Device feature, or the command:

/sbin/start shutdown SHUTDOWN_MODE=shipping_mode

Console access

A connector for a serial port (not installed) can be found on the back of the board.

The KT2 uses a nominal voltage of 1,8 V, but is 3,3 V tolerant (notably, a Raspberry Pi can be used as a terminal).

Settings: 115200 bps, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no flow control

Further instructions, including a root password calculator and manual access to diagnostics mode, are available on hondamarlboro's topic.

Partition list

• mmcblk0p1: Root filesystem (normal mode)
• mmcblk0p2: Alternate root filesystem (diagnostics mode)
• mmcblk0p3: Settings and application data (mounts on /var/local)
• mmcblk0p4: USB storage (mounts on /mnt/us)

REAGL Settings

A program located at /usr/bin/reaglConfig.sh (launchable by entering ";reaglConfig" in the search bar) checks for a file only present on pre-release OS images, then displays an on-screen menu through which the frequency of screen refreshes can be selected.

The file can be readily edited to remove the requirement, or the menu can be manually launched:

lipc-set-prop com.lab126.pillow customDialog '{"name":"sensitivity_control","clientParams":{"show":true}}'

Fake registration

Create a file called /var/local/java/prefs/reginfo according to the following contents:

   #Thu May 21 01:18:20 CEST 2015
   givenName=A
   userId=amzn1.account.AAAARRRRJJJJ4444JJJJKKKK7777
   deviceName=B
   userName=C
   deviceEmailAddress=D@kindle.com

• givenName: not used
• userId: Cookie that logs you into Amazon (!), must be present on 5.6.x or will softbrick
• deviceName: Text normally shown in status bar on home screen (can be changed through settings)
• userName: Shown on first page of settings
• deviceEmailAddress: Shown on some page of settings

Jailbreak

March 2016 UPDATE: "Branch Delay" (mobileread user) found a solution that can be used only for firmware version 5.6.5. The jailbreak survives future updates (tested on 5.7.2.1 and 5.7.3). For details see: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265675

Before his method was made public, or with other firmware versions Kindle KT2 could't/can't be jailbroken with a software-only procedure.

It's however possible, after obtaining console access as superuser on the normal system image, to manually run the jailbreak: Download and extract the jailbreak package, then extract again the included .zip in the root of the Kindle's USB storage, cd to /mnt/us then run jb.sh.

Do not run the jailbreak from a different folder than /mnt/us or while booted into diagnostics partition.

Performing a factory reset or switching to shipping mode will effectively disable the jailbreak and MKK; however, it can then be reinstalled without serial access.

After installing the jailbreak, it's recommended to install KUAL (using the KUAL-KDK-2.0.azw2 file), KUAL Helper, and MR Package Installer as the "Update your Kindle" system will ignore most custom packages.

USBNetwork can be installed and used as normal.

Screensaver replacement

Screensavers are located in /usr/share/blanket/screensaver/bg_ss??.png, where ?? normally ranges from 00 to 19 in the decimal base.

Reboot the system after changing the number of images!!

As usual, they'll be overridden by ad-sponsored screensavers if they've been downloaded.

Diagnostics mode

The unmodified KT2 ignores the presence of an ENABLE_DIAGS file: this functionality can be implemented by installing the rescue pack, which however fails to be installed through MR; manually processing the package install script will work...

It can also be accessed by running the following commands:

idme -d --bootmode diags && reboot

Keep in mind that, due to it residing on a different partition, the logins and available software in diagnostics mode are different from regular mode. Remember this doubly when making changes to system files!