Goal of this project is liberation of Kindle 3 (and older) devices, so users can do things for which they are not originally designed.

Steps required to get root shell over usb networking and local terminal on your Kindle are described in:

liberate-kindle.txt

e-ink framebuffer

Kindle's e-ink display is exposed as framebuffer /dev/fb0 under linux. For now, we have two tools to deal with it:

create dump.fb0.pgm file from framebuffer data

fb2pgm.pl dump.fb0

convert pgm page to framebuffer format

pgm2fb.pl data.pgm > data.fb0

/opt/eink/scripts/diags script on Kindle is best documentation how to use e-ink

example of eink refresh

echo 1 > /proc/eink_fb/update_display

keyboard and fiveway

You can see status of lock on keyboard and fiveway using:

[root@kindle test]# cat /proc/keypad /proc/fiveway keypad is unlocked fiveway is unlocked

example of keypad unlock

[root@kindle root]# echo unlock > /proc/keypad

Reseting Kinde

When you get stuck in state where you are no longer running Amazon framework and you need to somehow connect to your kindle again, press and hold power button for 20 seconds. It's important to note that your Kindle should be disconnected from USB while you are doing it. Wait 5-10 seconds and screen will blink white-black-white and it will re-boot.

Screen rotation from command line

lipc-send-event -r 3 com.lab126.hal orientationUp lipc-send-event -r 3 com.lab126.hal orientationLeft lipc-send-event -r 3 com.lab126.hal orientationDown lipc-send-event -r 3 com.lab126.hal orientationRight

You can get current rotation using

cat /sys/module/eink_fb_hal_broads/parameters/bs_orientation

It will return 0 for portrait and 1 for landscape orientation

Screen saver disable/enable

lipc-set-prop com.lab126.powerd preventScreenSaver 1 lipc-set-prop com.lab126.powerd preventScreenSaver 0

Wifi on/off

This seems to move from version to versiion, so here is way to find it out:

[root@kindle root]# lipc-probe -l | grep wifi
com.lab126.wifid
[root@kindle root]# lipc-probe com.lab126.wifid | grep enable
rw      Int     enable
[root@kindle root]# lipc-get-prop com.lab126.wifid enable
1
[root@kindle root]# lipc-set-prop com.lab126.wifid enable 1

Development

For development and compiling binaries, I would recommend getting Debian lenny armel and running it under qemu using kernel, initrd and rootfs from:

http://people.debian.org/~aurel32/qemu/armel/

To run Debian armel under armhf kernel, you have to add following so apt-get will fetch armel packages on armhf architecture:

dpavlin@ac100$ cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00arch APT::Architecture=armel;