Why KUAL and MRPI?

Many extensions you can install after jailbreaking the Kindle depends on them, e.g., enabling SSH on the Kindle.

Prerequisites

You have a Kindle which is already jailbroken. If not, refer to this post.

KUAL

It can be installed by following these steps:

1. Go to the Snapshots page on MobileRead, there under the KUAL & KUAL extensions section, you can download the file for the bullet KUAL.
2. Extract the downloaded .tar.xz file.
   • If your Kindle runs firmware 5.x, select file KUAL-KDK-2.0.azw2
   • If your Kindle runs an older firmware, select file KUAL-KDK-1.0.azw2
3. Connect your Kindle to your computer via USB cable. Confirm it’s in USB Drive Mode.
4. Copy the selected file into /documents of your Kindle drive.
5. Disconnect your Kindle and a new book should appear on your home screen.
6. Tap on the book, you enter KUAL, meaning it’s successfully installed.

MRPI

It stands for MobileRead Package Installer, which is an extension of KUAL. You can install many packages using MRPI and it makes your life easier according to MobileRead.

The steps to install are:

1. Go to the Snapshots page on MobileRead, there under the KUAL & KUAL extensions section, you can download the file for the bullet MR Package Installer.
2. Extract the downloaded .tar.xz file.
3. Connect your Kindle to your computer via USB cable. Confirm it’s in USB Drive Mode.
4. Copy all extracted files in Step 2 to the root folder of your Kindle.
5. After disconnecting your Kindle from the computer, you can confirm it’s successfully installed by going to KUAL, there a new helper menu should appear.

Concluding remarks

With these preparations done, many extensions can be installed, which will be shown in the next post.

Downgrading:

This is mainly based on this post on MobileRead.

The firmware on my KW1 is 5.6.6.1 which doesn’t seem to be jailbreaking ready according to MobileRead. Thus, it needs to be downgraded to a supported version of firmware (5.3.3 before applying jailbreaking. The steps are:

1. Download 5.3.3 firmware here
2. Disable your Kindle’s WiFi by turning on airplane mode
3. Connect your Kindle to your computer through USB cable, you should see a wallpaper displaying USB Drive Mode
4. Once connected, copy the download firmware (.bin) to the root of your connected Kindle
5. keep connected, wait for 2 minutes
6. Press and hold power button until Kindle is restarted, now it should be installing the firmware.
7. You can confirm the downgrading after the reboot by going to: Menu--Settings--Menu--device info

If you see 5.3.3 for the firmware, congrats! You have successfully downgraded the firmware on your Kindle Paperwhite 1.

Jailbreaking

This is mainly based on this post on MobileRead.

Now you are on 5.3.3, you can jailbreak your Kindle by following these steps:

1. Download K5 JailBreak (5.0.x - 5.4.4.2) file from Snapshots page on MobileRead.
2. Connect your Kindle to your computer by USB, make sure it’s in USB drive mode
3. Extract the content of the downloaded tar.xz file (not the folder JailBreak itself) to the root folder of your Kindle.
4. Update the Kindle system as you normally will by going to: Menu--Settings--Menu--Update your Kindle. The system will not reboot. Instead, after a few seconds the following text appear **** JAILBREAK ****. This will only appear once.
5. Restart your Kindle by: Menu--Settings--Menu--Restart.

Concluding remarks

Jailbreaking your Kindle opens many new ways for you to use your Kindle. But before going into, several preparations need to be done on the Kindle, which will be shown in another post.