Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle • Hacker News Board

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#51

Post by Larrikin » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:55 PM UTC

veverkap wrote: post #47

wrxd wrote: post #46

That’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.

Do you have any more information about this?

The 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.

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#52

Post by cyberax » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:57 PM UTC

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

There 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.

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#53

Post by sphars » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 11:16 PM UTC

If you're looking for a good resource on jailbreaking and installing KOReader on your Kindle, I highly recommend the guides at https://kindlemodding.org/

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#54

Post by vessenes » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 11:39 PM UTC

svat wrote: post #35

vessenes wrote: post #10

I 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.

Oh that sounds cool! What do you do now instead?

Rmapi calls to sync. My use case is updating an annual calendar pdf which is inked on tablet but shows calendar updates day to day, so I run it on a cron

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#55

Post by zozbot234 » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 11:42 PM UTC

enthdegree wrote: post #30

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.

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 B…

According 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.

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#56

Post by devilbunny » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 11:52 PM UTC

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

Resell 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.

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#57

Post by abnry » Tue, Dec 09, 2025, 12:22 AM UTC

finalarbiter wrote: post #15

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.

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…

Where do I get DRM-free ebooks to put on a Kobo? I don't support breaking DRM. So I'm using a Kindle because it has the best access to and integration with almost any book I want.

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#58

Post by carlosjobim » Tue, Dec 09, 2025, 12:56 AM UTC

fodkodrasz wrote: post #41

carlosjobim wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Well, 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.

I'd probably get one extra whiplash for each comment karma point ;)

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#59

Post by enthdegree » Tue, Dec 09, 2025, 1:43 AM UTC

zozbot234 wrote: post #55

enthdegree wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 B…

According 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 d…

mtkclient does not seem to correctly interpret the usb output of the device past some part of the early boot process. Really, any of those messages formatted by mtkclient are unfaithful to the intended meaning. So yes maybe it is "just a checksum step" or maybe something else entirely. Last year I collected some UART logs on the device during bootup in a zip here:

https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient/issues/1289

Re: Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle

#60

Post by conkeisterdoor » Tue, Dec 09, 2025, 2:20 AM UTC

Larrikin wrote: post #51

veverkap wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any more information about this?

The 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.

This 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.