Here you find a set of utilities to get Alpine Linux running on Kindles with the target to run the Midori Browser to display the AppDeamon dashboard from HomeAssistant. I use this on Paperwhite 2, but it should work on any Kindle (not Kindle Fire though) that has a touchscreen and enough Flash/RAM.
This differs from the version it was forked from in that it works with older Kindles. It uses Midori instead of chrome and has some other tweaks to save resources. In addition to that I wil describe the approach I took to Jailbreak my Kindle. This will presumably lead to more chaos about the whole "how to Jailbreak my Kindle" in the internet, but nevertheless maybe you just need the right entrypoints for your research. I had difficulties to find up to date information and techniques, so here you are, let's begin.
Kindles run a Linux operating system with X11 and everything on board already. To make better use of that one can utilize a full blown Linux distro including a proper desktop environment through chroot. Your Kindle stays fully functional to buy & read books. With the Linux distro we can run another browser Midori. With that it is possible to display and Interact with the AppDeamon Dashboard from HomeAssistant.
- Backup Kindle
- Downgrade Kindle
- K5 Jailbreak
- Upgrade
- Install Hotfix from K5 Jailbreak
- install KUAL
- install Helper and KTERM
- create alpine and run it
- open the browser and enjoy
- Original Post that got this AppDeamon Project started Here you can also find some information on how to tweak App Deamon with some CSS for better Kindle support. With the new AppDeamon integration a docker container isn't necessary anymore to run AppDeamon. Yous still need to check if the CSS is applicable in that case.
- Current maintained packages post from mobileread.com Here you will find all current information about jailbreaking and installing KUAL. Use this as your primary information source if you are stuck.
- Some page I found with a good tutorial on jailbreaking and downgrading inclusive binaries
Connect you Kindle to your Computer and copy the documents folder somwhere safe. Reset your Kindle afterwards to
factory settings.
I had my Firmware version somewhere at 5.8.x. Luckily I didn't update my Kindle in the last couple of years. That meant, the downgrade -> Jailbreak -> Update Methode could be done.
Simply put the update_PW2_5.4.3.2_initial.bin in the rood folder of the Kindle and press "update your Kindle"
in the settings menu. You can find the binary I used in the releases of this repository.
Here you can find a very up to date post of how to Jailbreak your Kindle if downgrading isn't working for you. This methode is also linked in the current maintained package post listed above in the resources and is called Kindlebreak.
I used this to Jailbreak my Kindle. I will not put the jailbreak file into the releases, because there could be updates coming out and I won't maintain this README. It is as simple as the downgrade process. Just follow th post and extract the contents of a certain zip file into the root kindle folder and tap on "update your Kindle". A "JAILBREAK" sign should appear on the bottom of your screen.
Now you can use an update file of a Kindle version you like to upgrade your Kindle. You can get the Upgrade files directly from Amazon.
First look here
and choose a version of Kindle you like. For the PW2 you have to look into the Kindle Paperwhite (6th Generation) section. Note that it is
not a complete list.
Use following Url schema to retrieve the .bin file for the paperwhite 2 (methode taken from here): https://s3.amazonaws.com/firmwaredownloads/update_kindle_paperwhite_v2_5.XX.X.bin
I used version 5.10.3. because it is the lowest version that supports the newest jailbreak method: Kindlebreak. Also I ONLY want the Alpine to work and also the Kindle to show book pages lol why would I need the newest firmware? With the newest firmware there is always the possibility that Amazon prevents Jailbreaking or finds a way to silently update the Kindle. After downloading I placed the .bin file into the root directory and clicked "update your Kindle".
I found it necessary to update the jailbreak. For that place the "hotfix" file from the K5 jailbreak into the root folder and once again press "update your Kindle".
The KUAL post and information can be found here. Because we have a software version >5.9 we use the "Booklet" version of KUAL. The other versions are old approaches to the KUAL system, so don't bother with them.
To install KUAL first we need to "install" MRPI. For that head to this post here and retrive the MRPI files. Those need to be extracted into the root folder of the Kindle. MRPI is technically an extention of KUAL but for installing KUAL we need to first "install" MRPI.
Then retrieve the KUAL files and place the install file into the mrpackages folder that should be in the root directory
of your Kindle after the "install" of MRPI. After that type ;log mrpi into
the search bar of your Kindle. Some magic should happen now and KUAL installs itself.
you should now have KUAL as a Book on your Kindle
The Helper wil activate a Button to disable the OTA Updates and the Screensaver. Kterm is needed to Configure and Start Alpine.
Retrieve the Helper from the package post that is listed in the resources. Extract the contents and put the folder that is in the
extensions folder into the extentions folder that on in the Kindle. All KUAL extensions go in the extensions folder of your Kindle.
It should look like /extensions/helper/....
After that get KTERM from here and extract it into the Kindle extensions foler.
It should look like /extensions/kterm/....
Confirm the installation by spotting the new button kterm and HELPER+ in KUAL.
WHILE ALPINE IS RUNNING / THE IMAGE IS MOUNTED, DO NOT CONNECT YOUR KINDLE TO THE COMPUTER! The image resides in /mnt/us, and that is your usb mass storage location. When Alpine and the computer write on the userstore partition (partition 4) at the same time, it will be destroyed, and you need to fix that partition to get your Kindle working again. It might even be possible to brick the Kindle!!!
The default password of the user "alpine" is "alpine".
Creating your own doesn't take long, and if you have a linux computer it's pretty easy. All you need to install is qemu-user-static to execute arm software, but that should be in the repositories of your distro in most cases. Then have a look at the create_kindle_alpine_image.sh script especially at the configuration part (top). Finally you can execute it, and after a while you should be dropped into a shell inside Alpine. I've used a Linux VM and got heaps of "qemu: Unsupported syscall: 397" (also with different numbers) log output. Although I didn't feel good ignoring it, the Image works in the end. You can have a look around and tweak whatever you want, and with "exit" the script unmounts your fresh image and terminates. After that you should end up with a "alpine.ext3" file.
Open Kterm and make sure you have more than 1G available on your Kindle. The userspace is mounted in /mnt/us.
[kterm]# df -h /mnt/us
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
fsp 1.3G 20M 1.2G 1% /mnt/us
You now need to copy the Alpine.conf, Alpine.ext3, Alpine.sh on to the Kindle into the root folder.
To save on RAM the Kindle GUI can be stopped before Alpine gets started. That must be done through upstart
though, because when you stop the Kindle GUI, so does Kterm and Alpine itself when you start it from there.
"alpine.conf" is a script to allow for that, it must be copied to the appropriate place though. Upstart is already on the
kindle and does not need to be installed.
e.g. assuming you have put it into /mnt/us:
mntroot rw
cp /mnt/us/alpine.conf /etc/upstart/
mntroot r
For running Alpine you have two options:
- good for debugging In Kterm, first run
sh alpine.shin the/mnt/usfolder. That drops you into an Alpine shell, where you can do text based stuff, or runsh startgui.shto start the desktop - recommended You can use upstart to save on ram, for that run
start alpinefrom Kterm. It will bring you to the desktop immediately.
The default password of the user "alpine" is "alpine".
Now we can open the browser with a tap on Apps -> Web Browser. You may need to choose Midori as standard browser. Then you can connect to your AppDeamon dashbord.
By pressing F11 on the keyboard you will drop into fullscreen. But beware, you can't exit that and need to restart the Kindle by pressing the power button for 10 - 15 seconds.
If you log out of Alpine you will restart into Kindle mode.