How to transform your old, obsolete Kindle into the ultimate open-source reader

There was a time when I felt it was my divine right to access any computer I wanted, to crack any DRM, to break through any encryption, and to make the walls of digital walled gardens fall at my feet.

Early on, I met some very smart (and fairly scary) people from three-letter agencies who convinced me that my talents would be put to better use if I left my black hat behind and wielded my digits on behalf of the forces of truth, justice, and the American way. But that’s a story for another day.

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When my wife’s beloved Kindle DX was bricked by obsolescence through no fault of her own, it gave me a frisson of excitement and anticipation to take on Darth Bezos and break open the Kindle so she could once again read her favorite books using one of the largest format Kindle devices ever made.

The practice is called jailbreaking, and in most cases, it’s fairly dangerous.

Jailbreak with caution

For example, it’s a very, very bad idea to jailbreak your phone. According to a study released this month, rooted (jailbroken) Android devices are subject to 3.5 times more malware attacks. Far, far worse are system compromises caused by rooted devices being carried past a company’s firewall. Those have surged to 250 times more than non-rooted devices.

Old Kindles like my wife’s DX are obsolete precisely because they can’t maintain a network connection. The DX used to connect to Amazon through 3G networks, most of which have been dismantled. So all jailbreaking does on that device is allow some books to actually be read.

Last year, she wanted to do a spring cleaning on her DX, so she factory reset it, thinking she’d be able to download her library again. But because she couldn’t get a network connection, she couldn’t register the device. Therefore, she couldn’t wirelessly load any books onto it. Other older Kindles have difficulty registering because their network security is quite obsolete and can’t authenticate with Amazon’s servers.

Rather than turning all those devices into just so much electronic waste, it’s possible to jailbreak them and then add open-source ebook reading software to them. That can give them years more life.

In this article, I’ll take you through the process of jailbreaking my wife’s Kindle DX. Each device has somewhat different methodologies, so use this as a guide for the general approach. Unless you also have a DX, you’ll have to do some of your own research and reading.

Also: 7 reasons Kindles are still a great buy, even without downloads

I should also point out that, courtesy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), jailbreaking is a practice of dubious legality. Technically, it was intended to prevent people from creating and distributing cracking technology. So if you’re just using it to free up your own devices to read your own books, you’re probably fine.

And, with that, let’s dig in.

Which Kindle do you have?

The starting point for this entire process is for you to both identify the Kindle model you’re working with and the firmware currently installed on the Kindle. You can find both from the Settings menu on your Kindle.

My serial number begins with B009, and I’m running firmware 2.5.8. With that information, you can jump to the Kindle Serial Numbers wiki page, find your serial number prefix, and then your Kindle nickname code. In my case, B009 indicates I’m running a Kindle DX Graphite, which is known as DXG.

This will help you determine where to start your jailbreak process. If you have a more modern Kindle, head over to the Jailbreak page on the MobileRead forums. Because I’m working with the considerably older Kindle DX, I’m starting with a thread specifically on jailbreaking the DX.

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Depending on what device you have, you’ll need to dig around for instructions and files. Since I’m using the DX, that’s the path I’ll document here.

Jailbreak your Kindle

The process of doing this is kind of like finding pieces of a treasure map. You start with one clue and follow it for a while, then branch off following a different clue. In our case, the clues are message board posts. The bits of treasure are the files linked to on those boards.

And, yes, this is a bit of a risky process. You will be downloading unverified files from random forums on the internet. Anything could be attached as a payload. The only saving grace is that these are very well-populated and regularly updated pinned posts, so hopefully the jailbreak community would find and expose any unsavory payloads.

Also: How to add EPUB, MOBI, and PDF files to your Kindle – no converting required

That said, caveat downloader. For the record, my wife (who reads Latin) says “caveat” means “let a person beware.” That works in this context.

My next step was to go to the files page for 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x firmware versions. I downloaded the kindle-jailbreak-0.13.N.zip file to my PC.

I then unzipped that jailbreak ZIP file and found a pile of different jailbreak files, each meant for a specific configuration.

Next, I plugged a Micro USB cable into my Kindle DX and connected it to my PC. That put my Kindle in USB Drive Mode.

I opened the Kindle drive from Windows and dragged the Update_jailbreak_0.13.N_dxg_install.bin file to my Kindle’s root directory.

Note that I specifically chose the version with “dxg.” This harkens back to our earliest step, where I found the nickname code for my Kindle. It was DXG, so I installed the dxg_install_bin file.

The next step is to run the update. This is accomplished first by ejecting and unplugging the Kindle from the PC. I hit the physical menu button on the Kindle DX and then selected Update Your Kindle.

Now, here’s where it got a little freaky. OK, it’s been freaky the whole time, but this one was a bit more disturbing. First, the Kindle will perform the update.

Then, when the update completed, the Kindle reported a failure, with a tiny U006 error in the lower left of the screen. Fortunately, the jailbreak instructions say, “It’s completely normal, intended, and harmless.”

So, yeah, trust the process.

Install the MobileRead Kindlet Kit

Next up, I needed to install an MKK file (MobileRead Kindlet Kit), which appeared to install some sort of developer certificate. This is documented on this page, and will redirect you to another page to find the file and download it.

I downloaded the MKK zip file and extracted its contents.

Once again, there was a -dxg- binary in the directory, so I uploaded that to my Kindle DX. Next, I ejected my Kindle and ran the Update Your Kindle process. It took a few minutes and some fiddling to get the Update Your Kindle option to show.

I wound up restarting the Kindle, navigating to Settings, and then hitting Menu. Then Update Your Kindle was presented, and I chose it as an option.

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This time, the Kindle reported that the update was successful.

Install Launchpad to test the jailbreak

There are two launchers available for jailbroken Kindles. One is Launchpad, which works on older Kindles. The other is called KUAL (Kindle Unified Application Launcher). Launchpad uses Kindle key sequences to launch apps. KUAL uses a GUI to launch apps.

KUAL does run on the DX, but it is a bit fussy to set up, especially since, at this point, I hadn’t yet confirmed that the jailbreak actually worked. Launchpad sets up quite easily, and I used it strictly as a quick way to confirm I could add apps to the Kindle and run them.

So, I installed Launchpad.

In what’s becoming a pattern, I downloaded the Launchpad zip file and unzipped it. Then, I found the appropriate bin file and uploaded that to the root directory of my Kindle. I switched into Settings, then Menu, then ran Update Your Kindle.

Launchpad has a bunch of predefined key sequences. Once the Kindle is mounted as a drive, you can go into the launchpad directory and look at the contents of servicecmds.ini. One such command is SHIFT S, which will put your Kindle into screensaver mode.

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To test if Launchpad works, eject the Kindle from your computer. Then, on the Kindle, press the shift key twice, followed by the S key, all in rapid succession. This should display a small “success” prompt in the lower left of the screen and push the Kindle into sleep mode (showing one of its famous graphics).

When this worked for me, it indicated that a lot was working. It meant that the main jailbreak had succeeded because I was able to run an additional non-Amazon app. And it meant that I could run localized commands, even if the interface is a bit clunky.

Where this tool is fairly powerful is that it allows you to define hotkeys that run scripts on your Kindle. That’s beyond the scope of this article, but go to the launchpad directory at the root of your Kindle device and read the README file. It will get you started if you want to set up hotkeys.

Install KUAL to launch applications

Now, it’s time to install KUAL (the Kindle Unified Application Launcher). It’s available from the MobileRead Snapshots page. I downloaded the first KUAL tar file and extracted the files.

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Installation is different for KUAL than what I did previously. The README file describes different procedures depending on what Kindle you’re using. For my old Kindle DX, I put the Kindle back into USB drive mode and then dragged the KUAL-KDK-1.0.azw2 file to the Kindle’s documents folder.

This makes KUAL show up as a book on the Home page. Just click it to launch. And no, I’m not sure what those letters mean to the right of the name.

Unfortunately, I ran into a snag, as you can see in the screenshot below.

To overcome this, I read this forum post and downloaded this time and date fix from one of the forum users. It’s an update file, so unzip it, drag the bin file for your device to the mounted Kindle root folder, eject the Kindle, and run Update Your Kindle.

Also: 5 hidden ways to upgrade your Kindle without paying full price

Different Kindle models may run into different but similar problems. The file I’m linking to above is just for Kindle DX models. If you run into the same problem with a different device, do what I did: paste the error message into Google along with the string “KUAL” and start treasure hunting.

Once that update process completed, clicking on KUAL launched a screen that showed just KUAL itself. Here’s what it looked like after I installed the KOReader ebook reader.

That’s next.

Install KOReader

KOReader is a very customizable ebook reader that supports EPUB, PDF, DjVu, XPS, CBT, CBZ, FB2, PDB, TXT, HTML, RTF, CHM, DOC, MOBI, and ZIP files. Let’s get started doing the install.

There are four different KOReader builds for the Kindle. To determine which version is for your device, check out this page. Because I’m using the Kindle DX, I downloaded the Legacy version from the KOReader distribution page.

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Installing is a matter of unzipping the distribution file, then dragging the KOReader folder to the root level of the Kindle, the contents of the Launchpad folder to the Launchpad folder on the Kindle, and the contents of the Extensions folder to the Extensions folder on the Kindle.

Once that’s done, just launch KUAL, wait a moment, and then click into KOReader.

The interface does take a few minutes to get used to, and the navigation is quite slow on the Kindle DX. That said, page flips aren’t terrible, so the actual reading experience seems just as nice as when the DX was able to download and display all my wife’s Kindle books.

She was initially grumbly about the KOReader interface and navigation, but once she got a book open, she expressed her usual pleasure at how nice reading is on the DX.

New life for old electronics

We started with a once-cherished device that was absolutely unusable because the connectivity infrastructure it relied on was shut down a few years ago. I spent a few hours lobbing profanities (the real-world analog to Harry Potter’s “Alohomora” magic spell). And now, we have a working device once again.

Huge thanks to the dedicated coders and forum members who developed and documented these jailbreaks for the benefit of the Kindle community. Speaking of the Kindle community, their posts helped me a lot and they might help you.

Also: Want free ebooks? These 10 sites offer thousands of options

Don’t blame me if you break, brick, or blow up your Kindle. Do this at your own risk. Don’t ask me for tech support. This is all very device-specific. Don’t think you’re the one special person I’ll answer a tech support request for (I’m talking to you, Uncle George). May the Force be with you.

Our DX is back from the dead and better than ever.

Have you ever tried jailbreaking an old Kindle or thought about doing it? What do you think about repurposing obsolete hardware instead of sending it to the landfill? Do the legal gray areas around jailbreaking give you pause, or do you see it as fair game for devices you own? Have you tried using KOReader or another alternative ebook reader? Let us know in the comments below.

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