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1/7/2025
For years, I've wanted to install my own software onto my blue Kinde Paperwhite 4, and today is the day to do it!
On January 2nd of 2025, a developer named HackerDude released WinterBreak, a jailbreak script that works on almost every model of Kindle on almost any firmware version.
When I found out about WinterBreak, I immediately started working on jailbreaking my Kindle, not knowing when the exploit would be patched. I'm still not sure if it will be patched. But thankfully, I did get the jailbreak working!
It took four tries, starting with
Once that finished, I installed the universal hotfix (allows the jailbreak to persist across updates), then KUAL and MRPI (a launcher and package installer), then KOreader (an alternative frontend/document viewer for eReaders, only the nightly kindlehf build works on my specific device), then finally the "Disable ADs" scriptlet from the Kindle Modding discord, which I installed by putting the script in the documents folder on the device, then running it from the home screen.
I'm very happy with my Kindle now, I feel like it stands toe to toe with my Kobo since I jailbroke it.
More info on how the jailbreak works can be found at the excellent Kindle Modding Wiki, which can be found here. Have a good day, and enjoy a good book!_
12/5/24
Recenly, I picked up a "broken" Kobo Glo N613 from eBay, which I foolishly believed was misdiagnosed and only needed a factory reset. It arrived in good condition, but lo and behold, who could've guessed, it didn't work!
Trying and failing to do a hard factory reset, I did some research on Reddit and the Mobileread forums (a great place to learn about eReaders), and found that the device most likely had two issues; a completely dead battery, and a corrupted OS image.
After deciding to work on the corrupted OS problem before trying to find a replacement battery, I ran into my first obstacle; I couldn't find a working, whole OS image anywhere :(
Through some digging, I did eventually find a thread of people asking for one of the moderators of the Mobileread forums to PM them download links for their eReader's software. After making an account and requesting the ability to get PMs, I asked on the Micro SD Card Image thread for a link to the Kobo Glo N613 stock image. After a couple days, and three PMs from the creator of the thread with the wrong image, I finally had the file I needed.
Taking the Kobo apart was a little bit destructive, as a few of the twelve-year-old plastic clips broke when I pried the case open. Inside were the two components I needed to get at; the battery, and the stock 2GB Micro SD card that served as the tablet's SSD. Taking the card out and putting it into my laptop, I could see that the partitions on the card didn't seem corrupted... but I knew better, so I pressed on and flashed the image the Mobileread moderator had given me to a new 64GB Micro SD card (Side note; I don't think I could fill 64GB purely with ebooks in my lifetime). When I put the card in the eReader, plugged it in, and turned it on, it still didn't work :(
The only thing I could think to try now was replacing the battery, so I took the measurements of the original battery, and found this part on AliExpress:
I ordered it and waited a week, and when it arrived, I opened the Kobo Glo up, ripped out (gently) the old battery, and snipped the cable going to the connector on the motherboard. I delicately soldered the new battery leads to the wires from the old battery, shrunk the pair of heat shrink tubes I had put on them, and plugged the battery in. Pushing the power switch on the Kobo, I held my breath...
...and it turned on!!!
I had a bit of trouble getting it to sync with the Kobo Desktop software, but after a few tries I was able to do it. I jailbroke the device, set it up with KOReader and Calibre, and started reading!
At the time of writing I'm about 2/3 of the way through my third read of Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, which I'm enjoying even more than my first two reads through it... especially on my new Kobo!_
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