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Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

tailscale.com

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Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#21

Post by jrm4 »

tfsh wrote: post #6
jsheard wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If 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.

+1 to a Kobo, they cheaper and better than Kindles, with full Calibre support ( 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.

Also consider koreader instead of the stock reader app.

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#22

Post by zikduruqe »

epiccoleman wrote: post #16
_fzslm wrote: post #7

You can also run Syncthing on a jailbroken Kindle. That opens up a world of possibilities!

Whoa, 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.

If you have calibre, just turn on the wireless connection and have your Koreader connect to it.

https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/calibre

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#23

Post by switz »

eyjafjallajokul wrote: post #14
switz wrote: post #13

I 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.

Please share more details! This sounds so cool!

You 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

[1] https://tailscale.com/blog/tailscale-sucks

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#24

Post by ekropotin »

jsheard wrote: post #20
finalarbiter wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 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 Kin…

That 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.

How is situation with latency on these readers?

I’ve just acquired the latest gen Kindle and I’m absolutely blown away by how fast it is.

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#25

Post by carlosjobim »

fodkodrasz wrote: post #19

This 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

I 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!

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#26

Post by cyberpunk »

jrm4 wrote: post #21
tfsh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 to a Kobo, they cheaper and better than Kindles, with full Calibre support ( 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.

Also consider koreader instead of the stock reader app.

I kinda love that buried in the koreader menu somewhere is an option that drops me at a linux shell. I have no use really for this feature, but i like it. Good for those times you absolutely have to crank out some awk on the plane or whatever. :)

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#27

Post by Cherub0774 »

zikduruqe wrote: post #22
epiccoleman wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa, 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.

If you have calibre, just turn on the wireless connection and have your Koreader connect to it. https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/calibre

Personally 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.

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#28

Post by boneitis »

epiccoleman wrote: post #16
_fzslm wrote: post #7

You can also run Syncthing on a jailbroken Kindle. That opens up a world of possibilities!

Whoa, 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.

I 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 "Syncthing-Android have had a change of owner/maintainer"

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#30

Post by enthdegree »

jsheard wrote: post #4
Havoc wrote: post #2

> 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

If 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.

The 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

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.

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