7 ms·
Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle
- marinhero 9mo agoExcellent. This plus OPDS will make for easier transfer of files locally.
- Havoc 9mo ago> is available for all but the most up-to-date Kindles Bought one from eBay to try it out. Silly me connected it to wifi and suddenly it’s up to date and no longer breakable
- jsheard 9mo agoIf you want a cheap rooted eReader I think you're better off getting a Kobo instead, they don't officially support rooting but AFAICT they make basically no effort to prevent it.
- tfsh 9mo ago+1 to a Kobo, they cheaper and better than Kindles, with full Calibre support (https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre - OSS which has been in development for ~20 years!). The way you install additional software is literally just moving files into folders whilst its plugged into your computer. I'm sure it could handle Tailscale.
- graemep 9mo agoI use the Calibre support, but did not know you could install additional software that easily!
- finalarbiter 9mo agoI agree with your sentiment that the Kobo is better than the Kindle from an... ethical standpoint, if you have the money for one. However, it is worth noting that Kindles will always be cheaper than Kobo devices [0] due to economies of scale and lockscreen advertisements (removable with jailbreaking). From a pure cost perspective, and assuming the user is technically-minded enough to accomplish the jailbreak, the Kindle is likely always [1] a better deal. [0] as of today, 12/8/25, the "base model" Kindle 11th Generation is priced at $109.99 USD, and the respective Kobo Clara BW is $139.99 USD. [1] I say "likely always" to cover my bases. To my knowledge Calibre supports Kindle, just not as well as Kobo. That said I have found that the KOreader app is more than powerful enough for my use case (reading my own epubs, using dictionaries, etc.)
- jsheard 9mo agoThat doesn't always hold, if you want color e-ink then Kobo is currently the cheaper option. Kindle Colorsoft (7" 16GB) - $250 Kindle Colorsoft (7" 32GB) - $280 Kobo Clara Color (6" 16GB) - $160 Kobo Libra Color (7" 32GB) - $230 The Libra also supports a stylus (sold separately) while the Colorsoft doesn't, that's reserved for the much bigger and pricier Kindle Scribe.
- kaladin-jasnah 9mo agoKobo is great. I use Plato and KOReader on mine. They worked better than the original reader software for reading manga.
- whoisburbansky 9mo agoThe only (tiny) issue I've had with Tailscale on Kobo has been that the tailscale daemon prevents me from using the Kobo in Mass Storage Mode while it's active, so I have to disable/quit KOReader to be able to plug it in again, which is admittedly not frequently warranted anyways.
- enthdegree 9mo agoThe latest Kobos use MediaTek SoCs with locked bootloaders. The Kobo Clara BW's MT8113, for example. As far as I know, one of the early bootloaders it, BL1, refuses to execute the next bootloader (BL2) unless its signature is valid. We can get the device into a mode where BL1 waits for upload of a BL2 via USB using an exploit called Kamakiri, but in public there is neither an exploit to get BL1 to boot an arbitrary BL2, nor an authorized BL2 image to upload. See here: https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient/issues/1332 https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient/issues/1332 Kobo devices have root exposed but don't let users boot their own kernels (and the kernel they ship was not compiled with kexec either). I really don't know the reason so many devices these days don't have an unlock method. It seems predatory. Who knows where in the chain this happens... maybe it's Kobo, or maybe MediaTek won't sell you their SoCs for mass-market devices unless you lock them.
- monerozcash 9mo agoCan you just access /dev/mem or load a kernel module? Is there a SELinux policy stopping that? If you can do either of those, it should be trivial to get kexec working by just loading it as a module.
- enthdegree 9mo agoAs far as I know, yes, it's possible. No SELinux. Kernel is a branch from 4.9.something pretty far off mainline with a few proprietary binary blob modules. As far as I know the real impediment here is lack of demand.
- j45 9mo agoOlder Kobos sound ok though?
- zozbot234 9mo agoAccording to the github issue it seems to be a simple checksum step, not a true signature verification? If so there is no locked bootloader in any real sense. If the real impediment is lack of demand or low-level development effort for any given device, that's in principle a solvable issue once projects like pmOS and Mobian choose to focus on some reasonably-available hackable hardware and bring it up to true daily driver state.
- maximilianburke 9mo agoI used to like my Kobo a lot but recently it's got some pretty severe unreliability issues, usually around reading non-Kobo epubs and PDFs. Like, if I open of those files, the device usually crashes and when it recovers after a reboot, the file disappears.
- dotancohen 9mo agoSame with the Barnes and Noble Nooks. I've never rooted one, but via ADB one can install a launcher and most Android applications run. I've used four generations of Nooks to run AnkiDroid. Just beware to check what version of Android the Nook is using before you buy, and what your app needs.
- ewoodrich 9mo agoAndroid on an e-reader unlocks so much potential. I've owned four or five Kindles over the years but recently switched to an Onyx Boox page 7" as my main e-reader. Expensive (relative to Kindles) but runs full Android 11 and has physical page turn buttons. I use an app called BookFusion to sync my library including reading position across all platforms. Battery life isn't Kindle grade but I can get by charging once a week which is a good enough tradeoff for the convenience of being able to run Android apps.
- Havoc 9mo agoI was more after a eink display in a shape that is cheaper than new boards for a DIY project
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- ycombinatrix 9mo agoBeen there before with the OG pixel.
- cyberax 9mo agoThere is a new jailbreak, that is currently unpatched. You might need to make sure your Kindle doesn't get updated first by filling in all the disk space.
- devilbunny 9mo agoResell it, or wait six months. FWIW the 10th generation Kindle Paperwhite (the "PW4" in kindlemodding/mobileread lingo) doesn't have as large a screen as the newest models, but its maximum supported OS is currently 5.18.1 (and you can download that update directly from Amazon and transfer over USB), which is vulnerable to AdBreak. I just jailbroke and Tailscaled my PW4 this weekend after numerous failed attempts over a period of about a year to use the previous WinterBreak exploit. I read mostly on my iPad; the Kindle is really just for reading outside, like at the beach/pool. But it was such a neat idea that I couldn't just pass it up.
- IAmBroom 9mo agoThat's a (very) minor plotline in The Naked Gun (2025).
- _fzslm 9mo agoYou can also run Syncthing on a jailbroken Kindle. That opens up a world of possibilities!
- epiccoleman 9mo agoWhoa, now that sounds like the use case I've been looking for since I jailbroke mine. I have calibre set up to just email books to my Kindle, but that's an extra layer of indirection that I really don't need. I'll have to check that out.
- zikduruqe 9mo agoIf you have calibre, just turn on the wireless connection and have your Koreader connect to it. https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/calibre https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/calibre
- Cherub0774 9mo agoPersonally I'm most fond of Calibre + Calibre-Web, which masquerades as the Kobo Store and lets you use the built-in Kobo syncing mechanisms with your Calibre library instead of having to do it all within Koreader.
- boneitis 9mo agoI too have heard about syncthing for the first time today but from a different submission[0] you might care to be aware of. Although, I realize Android != Kindle's OS, so I'm not sure how much concern there should be. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46184730 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46184730 "Syncthing-Android have had a change of owner/maintainer"
- pidgeon_lover 9mo agoI've been experimenting with Syncthing on Kindle (https://github.com/Darthagnon/syncthing-kindle https://github.com/Darthagnon/syncthing-kindle), but have had no luck seemingly because the Linux kernel included is too old and doesn't support network connections, or because the CPU is too weak. Is there a project other than the one I forked?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 9mo agoWhat kernel version is it running? I wanted to add an old paperwhite to a kubernetes cluster and the ancient kernel held me back.
- humanfromearth9 9mo agoSame for me. I wanted to use it for HPC...
- usefulposter 9mo agoHow many Kindles to run a LLaMA 7B model?
- vessenes 9mo agoI used Tailscale on my remarkable tablet for a while; synchronizing documents over ssh is a lot easier with a static IP. It's fairly hard to get stuff to start on boot on the RM, or at least it was at the time, so I eventually moved off that plan. But it was pretty awesome to be able to ssh in from anywhere in the world.
- beepbooptheory 9mo agoLove the splash Jameson quote in the first pic. > If everything means something else, than so does technology
- yegle 9mo agoNow do Tesla! I had to resort to running an oauth-proxy to access my Plex on Tesla.
- switz 9mo agoI have tailscale running on my robot vacuum. It's my own little autonomous mesh vpn node that lets me connect back to my home network when I'm on the go.
- eyjafjallajokul 9mo agoPlease share more details! This sounds so cool!
- switz 9mo agoYou can root certain models of robot vacuums and then ssh into them. Most run some variant of linux. Then just install tailscale. There are a few blogs out there of people who have done it[0][1]. It's taking a cloud-based product, de-clouding it, and then connecting it to your own private 'cloud'. Pretty cool all things told. [0] https://kazlauskas.me/entries/tailscale-doesnt-quite-suck https://kazlauskas.me/entries/tailscale-doesnt-quite-suck [1] https://tailscale.com/blog/tailscale-sucks https://tailscale.com/blog/tailscale-sucks
- dan_can_code 9mo agoWhat value do you get from installing tailscale on your robot vacuum?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- citruscomputing 9mo agoOh, this will be very useful. My current solution is incredibly hacky, I run an unauthenticated SSH server on the Kindle (key-based wasn't working), port scan to find it, and SFTP new files. At home, at least, I have a static IP. The whole system falls apart enough that I usually just connect to calibre's remote server and send books that way, though. I wonder what the battery impact of running tailscale on a Kindle is.
- fodkodrasz 9mo agoThis is pretty interesting write-up*, though I'm not sure my employer would be happy with me putting out EULA-violation instructions to our company homepage. * - at least for me, as the bugs in the stock reader drive me nuts, and have been waiting for this opportunity for a while
- carlosjobim 9mo agoI heard that a lord two provinces to the North had seven of his serfs severely whipped when he found out that they had been talking about how to violate the EULA. These agreements have to be respected!
- fodkodrasz 9mo agoWell, you can always pray to only get a DMCA takedown request, because possibly you might get something, if not the whip. Surely the internet snarky comment coins will allow you pay the rent.
- carlosjobim 9mo agoI'd probably get one extra whiplash for each comment karma point ;)
- jll29 9mo agoKudos to all involved in freeing up Kindles around the world.
- d1egoaz 9mo agoI thought this was a random blog post, but it's coming directly from Tailscale, https://tailscale.com/blog/tailscale-jailbroken-kindle https://tailscale.com/blog/tailscale-jailbroken-kindle
- wrxd 9mo agoThat’s cool, and unexpected from a corporate blog. Ma favourite e-reader setup still is the Kobo + Booklore combination. Editing a configuration file on the device I can have it connect to my Booklore library that adds my own ebooks seamlessly on top of the one I can get from the Kobo store. I haven’t setup Tailscale on it yet but it’s possible.
- veverkap 9mo agoDo you have any more information about this?
- Larrikin 9mo agoThe setup is install Tailscale on your Kobo install Koreader Install Tailscale on the machine that host your eBook collection app of choice Add the OPDS URL from the collection app, replacing the local machine URL with the Tailscale URL You can now browse and download your private collection from anywhere. I went with Kavita since I wanted my eBooks treated as equals with my manga.
- conkeisterdoor 9mo agoThis is what I'm currently doing sans tailscale. I'm running Ubooquity on a server in my homelab as my OPDS service to serve the ebooks hosted on a mounted NAS. I can download any of those books from my Kobo with a few presses on Koreader. It's pretty great. My Kobo Forma is probably one of my best and most used tech purchases. I've had it since 2019 and couldn't be happier with the device + setup. Getting it set up with tailscale so I can fetch ebooks when I'm away from home sounds like a pretty good upgrade.
- wrxd 9mo agoThis explains how to integrate Kobo with BookLore https://booklore-app.github.io/booklore-docs/docs/integration/kobo https://booklore-app.github.io/booklore-docs/docs/integratio... I haven’t personally setup Tailscale yet, but looking at this it seems possible and not too difficult https://github.com/videah/kobo-tailscale https://github.com/videah/kobo-tailscale
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- sphars 9mo agoIf you're looking for a good resource on jailbreaking and installing KOReader on your Kindle, I highly recommend the guides at https://kindlemodding.org/ https://kindlemodding.org/
- skeptrune 9mo agoyes, let's definitely do that
- FlyingSnake 9mo agoKindles are amazing devices for hacking and turning into cute little dashboards. The kindle modding community is wonderful and full of people experimenting with it. If you have an old kindle, give it a new lease! Shameless plug: I wrote about my experience here https://samkhawase.com/blog/hacking-kindle/ https://samkhawase.com/blog/hacking-kindle/ Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43822251 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43822251
- scary-size 9mo agoI love just how non-intrusive an e-ink dashboard is sitting in a room. Definitely can recommend it as a base device that gets you display, wonky Linux, a battery and networking in neat little package. Also recently showed my dashboard here: https://franz.hamburg/writing/kindling-e-ink-dashboard.html https://franz.hamburg/writing/kindling-e-ink-dashboard.html
- jack_tripper 9mo agoYou don't need to ball out on eink for that. An old oled android phone is even easier to mod for that. Eink is like the Rust of displays for hobby projects. Everyone defaults to it even when it's not necessary.
- FlyingSnake 9mo agoThat's an unfair criticism. Kindles and their eInk setup provide the perfect low-fi hacking experience that developers love. It's minimal, slow and barebones linux base makes it easier to hack für such fun projects.
- jack_tripper 9mo ago> low-fi hacking experience that developers love Well I'm a hacker too and I don't really prefer low-fi hacking experiences, or at least not that flavor. I prefer getting stuff done since my free time after work is limited. Oh and I used to work with eink displays for a living, but they always end up gathering dust for my hobby projects because it's only good for very few niche use cases that most of the time are better served by the more flexible and practical available solutions, unless of course, your uses case is showing it off on the internet for clout because this time what makes it special is it uses eink even though it adds no benefit. Like I said, the Rust of displays.
- usefulposter 9mo ago[flagged]
- zaggynl 9mo agoCan someone correct me on this: Is using Tailscale effectively putting your firewall at someone else's PC?
- teejmya 9mo agohttps://archive.is/QR3By https://archive.is/QR3By