# Kindle 4 custom screensaver (non-touch version)



## stevo2434 (Feb 8, 2012)

Video instructions now on Youtube - tested and working!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xXr94j8Vuk

Replace the existing pictures that appear with your own!!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Watching the video makes me kind of nervous about some of the steps involved.  I wish there were more explanation of what's actually being done...

Has anyone else looked at this?

Betsy


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Disclaimer - I've not got a K4, I've not tried it, so these thoughts are just from watching the video. Don't blame me if you try it and brick your Kindle.

Personally, it worries me less than the jailbreak for the old K3. For the old Kindles, you were downloading and installing a partial update to the Kindle firmware. With this, you are are using stuff that Amazon has left in there.

It relies on a hole that Amazon have left, they've left diagnostics mode easily accessible (which lets you into the Linux kernel) and left the root password easy to get. I'm taking bets that there will be a firmware update pretty quickly to fill this hole! 

Basically, the steps it goes through are:

1) You force the Kindle into its built in Diagnostics mode, then you enable networking over the USB cable.
2) You remotely connect to the Kindle from your PC using a telnet client (which is a pretty standard tool for Linux-ites).
3) You log into the Kindle using the root account and password which Amazon have conveniently left on there.
4) You run the commands below which mount the Kindle as read-write, backup the old screensavers and create a "symbolic link" which will let you copy files into the (normally hidden) screensaver location.
5) You copy the screensavers across.
6) You restart the Kindle, at which point everything goes back to normal but your new screensavers are on the Kindle in place of the old ones.

My only real concern is that once you've mounted the Kindle as read-write, you run the risk that if you do something wrong you could brick your Kindle monumentally! I only think this would be a problem if you don't take care when pasting the commands in. I'm assuming that when you restart the Kindle at the end it goes back to read only.

Personally I'd prefer it if somebody wrote a real step-by-step text description rather than a youtube video - there are some descriptions over on mobileread but not very clear as yet.

Also, there are suggestions that the default password may not always be mario, which is a complication the video ignores.

Hope this helps!


```
mntroot rw
mkdir /mnt/us/screensaver
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/base-mmc
mv /mnt/base-mmc/opt/amazon/screen_saver/600x800 /mnt/base-mmc/opt/amazon/screen_saver/600x800.old
ln -sfn /mnt/us/screensaver /mnt/base-mmc/opt/amazon/screen_saver/600x800
```


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