Kindle 2 Screen Saver Hack

Note: Amazon does not support 3rd party hacks and may void your warranty should anything go wrong. Exercise caution and use at your own risk. Only the user will be responsible for the results (good or bad).

*** DEPRECATED *** Please see Kindle Screen Saver Hack for all 2.x, 3.x & 4.x Kindles instead.

From MobileRead member clarknova

Kindle 2 Screen Saver Hack Discussion Thread

If you would like to mix some of the original Kindle Screen saver images with your own, you can find them at the links below.

Kindle 1 Original Screen Savers
Kindle 2 Original Screen Savers

WARNING: Use at your own risk!  This is an UNOFFICIAL update to allow custom Kindle2 Screen Savers. 
This file is NOT from Amazon.com and any harm it causes your Kindle2 will be your own fault.

Using Hack v0.03 to add your custom screen savers

kindle2_screen_saver_hack-0.3.zip

1) Plug your Kindle2 into your computer.

2) Copy "Update_kindle2_user_screen_savers.bin" to the root of your Kindle2.

3) Change directories to the "system" folder.

4) Create a new folder called "screen_saver"

5) Place any 600x800 PNG (Kindle 2/2i) or 824x1200 PNG (Kindle DX) image files into the system\screen_saver folder that you just created.

6) Unplug your Kindle2

7) Press the "Menu" button on your Kindle2 and select "Settings."

8) At the Settings page press "Menu" again and select "Update Your Kindle."

9) When the "update" is done your Kindle2 will reboot and you are done.

To remove your custom screen savers and restore the originals

1. Plug your Kindle2 into your computer.
2. Copy "Update_kindle2_restore_default_screen_savers.bin" to the root of your Kindle2.
3. Unplug your Kindle2
4. Press the "Menu" button on your Kindle2 and select "Settings."
5. At the Settings page press "Menu" again and select "Update Your Kindle."
6. When the "update" is done your Kindle2 will reboot and you are done.

More v0.03 Information:

You can change images at any time, but you must reset your kindle for them to appear (press and hold the slider for 15 seconds). If there are no images then a blank screen will be shown when you go into sleep mode.

After further research, it appears JPEG files work as well as PNG, and they do not have to be 600x800.

After the update, the update bin will be gone, but there will be two new files in the root of your kindle: "framework.mario.conf.orig" and "framework.mario.conf.new" You can delete these if you want, they are simply copies of the config file (before and after) the screen saver directory was changed in it.

The "src.0.2.tar.gz" has the code (modified from Igor Skochinsky's code) to generate the update bin yourself. You can see that all the update really does is a single sed(1) command to change the path of the SCREEN_SAVER_DIR variable.

Any official kindle2 updates that patch the framework.mario.conf file will fail if this is installed ie. 2.0 to 2.0.1). Use the remove procedure, to restore the default screen savers, then apply the official update, and all will be well.

Note: Currently the v0.3 hack does not restore the framework.mario.conf md5sum to match the original.
thus, future updates _may_ still fail.

Using Hack v0.04 to add your custom screen savers

kindle2_screen_saver_hack-0.4.zip

1) Plug your Kindle2 into your computer.

2) Copy "Update_kindle2_user_screen_savers.bin" to the root of your Kindle 2.

3) Optional Steps:

3a) Change directories to the "system" folder.
3b) Create a new folder called "screen_saver"
3c) Place any 600x800 PNG image files into the system\screen_saver folder
that you just created.

4) Unplug your Kindle 2

5) Press the "Menu" button on your Kindle 2 and select "Settings."

6) At the Settings page press "Menu" again and select "Update Your Kindle."

7) When the "update" is done your Kindle 2 will reboot and you are done.

If you choose not to do step 3, the system will create the system\screen_saver folder for you and place the default screen savers in it.

To go back to the default Kindle2 screen savers

1) Plug your Kindle2 into your computer.

2) Copy "Update_kindle2_restore_default_screen_savers.bin" to the root of your Kindle 2.

3) Unplug your Kindle 2.

4) Press the "Menu" button on your Kindle 2 and select "Settings."

5) At the Settings page press "Menu" again and select "Update Your Kindle."

6) When the "update" is done your Kindle 2 will reboot and you are done.

More v0.04 Information:

You can change images at any time, but you must reset your kindle for them to appear (press and hold the slider for 15 seconds). If there are no images then a blank screen will be shown when you go into sleep mode.

After further research, it appears JPEG an GIF files work as well as PNG, and they do not have to be 600x800.

If you would like to restore the original screen savers without removing the hack, simply delete the screen_saver folder and reset your kindle, and the folder will be recreated with the original images in it.

After the update, the update bin will be gone, but there will be two new files in the root of your kindle: "framework.mario.conf.orig" and "framework.mario.conf.new" You can delete these if you want, they are simply copies of the config file (before and after) the screen saver directory was changed in it.

The "src.0.4.tar.gz" has the code (modified from Igor Skochinsky's code) to generate the update bin yourself.

Any official kindle2 updates that patch the framework.mario.conf file will fail if this is installed (ie. 2.0 to 2.0.1). Use the remove procedure, to restore the default screen savers, then apply the official update, and all will be well.