More Tailscale tricks for your jailbroken Kindle
Posted by Error6571 5 days ago
Comments
Comment by benterris 5 days ago
Comment by eddythompson80 5 days ago
I had it on my ereader to check it out, but never got around to it. One time on a long flight I had a Gutenberg Project book that wasn’t rendering correctly and thought I’d give KOReader a try. Spent like 10 minutes trying to find how to disable hyphenation. And even if you get to the right menu, there will be a dozen options to scroll through on 1-3 pages. Maybe if I had internet to check where each setting is to set it up, but it’s not very intuitive to configure. I came from Kobo default reader where all the settings I care about are all front and center and you find them in the first place you look all grouped together.
Also, I realize this is a personal preference, I don’t like the “file explorer” view. I prefer a “library” view like Kobo or Kindle defaults to. If that makes sense.
Comment by dewey 5 days ago
I'm with you, my reading device is something where I don't want to fiddle or be distracted by settings and options. I just want a stock, opinionated device with good defaults that just works and I have to charge once a month. That's it.
Comment by exhumet 5 days ago
Comment by sleepybrett 5 days ago
Comment by cynicalkane 4 days ago
Comment by dewey 4 days ago
Comment by ZeWaka 4 days ago
It does refresh the lockscreen ads for a month or so, though. I have a cover so they don't really bother me.
Comment by ZeWaka 5 days ago
Exact reason why despite having a jailbroken Kindle, I stick to the stock book browser. It's so tough to navigate on an old-gen Kindle with a low refresh rate.
Comment by ornornor 5 days ago
I had the same problem and someone here shared the plugin, it does the job very well independently of your file structure and nesting.
Comment by antonyt 5 days ago
Over the years I've gone from Kindle to Pocketboot to Boox to Kobo. Sometimes eReaders break, sometimes I hand them down to family members. Whenever I need to buy an eReader, as long as runs KOReader somehow I can pick the device purely based on its hardware instead of worrying about the stock software, compatible formats, etc.
But you're absolutely right that finding the specific setting you're looking for is an unintuitive process.
Comment by ktaube 5 days ago
Comment by dust-jacket 5 days ago
Comment by Xerox9213 5 days ago
Comment by ktaube 5 days ago
Comment by pastage 5 days ago
Feels like you have my problem: "I can not be bother to switch from another app".
When every one wants their e-reader with custom setup you get that long list of options. Since the beginning of computing I have always wanted a custom UI on apps, i.e. add an icon here that does these three things in the app, or "add this view to that window". Even browsers plugins have a hard time getting it right.
Comment by ornornor 5 days ago
I had the same problem with the missing Home Screen view and that solved it: you can see all your books no matter how deeply nested they are
Comment by chocochunks 5 days ago
Comment by nighthawk454 4 days ago
Comment by skydhash 5 days ago
There’s no benefits if you get your books from the stores. But if you manage your ebook library yourself, koreader is great.
Comment by wolvoleo 5 days ago
Comment by joshstrange 5 days ago
KOReader is finicky to configure but once you have it set up its hands down the best experience. I use BookShelf as my main UI and BookEnds to configure the header/footer. I also use KOAssistant which lets you select text and chuck it at an LLM to explain/translate/custom-prompt/etc.
It was so nice when reading the Horatio Hornblower series where the old references or nautical terms were foreign to me. Just select a phrase, hit Explain, and in seconds get an LLM response right there on my kindle. Just like how the dictionary works (though obviously the LLM isn’t running locally).
With BookOrbit tracking my reading/annotations and providing my ebooks I’ve reached my perfect reading setup. Using Claude to configure some ESP32-based e-Ink screens to rotate book quotes I’ve personally highlighted in KOReader is peak self-hosted, super custom just tor me.
I’m so glad my coworker encouraged me to go down this route!
Comment by mantesso 5 days ago
but will it explain without giving spoilers?
Comment by joshstrange 5 days ago
I’ve thought for a while about writing something that only gives the model access to the book as far as you are. Maybe some king of RAG but with page numbers associated so you can filter “< $currentPage” and being able to ask questions “who is this again?”, “how are they related to X?”. The “world knowledge” is the main thing I’d have to be wary of. It’s going to know Harry is a wizard before you get to that part in the books (albeit that’s early, just making a point).
For the Horatio Hornblower series it was mostly older English phrases that had the feel of a “saying” but I couldn’t be sure of the meaning. Getting a response like “in the late 1700’s this phrase was used to mean…” was really cool, better than having to pull out my phone or just guess.
Comment by exhumet 5 days ago
Comment by joshstrange 5 days ago
[0] https://github.com/joshstrange/bookorbit-mcp
[1] This isn’t a “thing”, just Claude code on the CLI that has access to my obsidian notes, home assistant, Unifi, bookorbit, etc. My own, very limited “Claw”. “Speaking” home assistant automations into existence is a whole other topic I could on and on about.
Comment by timvdalen 5 days ago
The only thing I'd maybe like is syncing reading progress with TheStoryGraph, but I can't imagine what else I might want.
Comment by globular-toast 5 days ago
- More frontlight options. Ability to toggle on/off easily using corner taps,
- More page layout and typography options e.g. custom fonts,
- Ability to load from Calibre over WiFi (I never plug mine in via USB).
Worth nothing that KOReader doesn't replace the default Kobo firmware. It's easy to install and you launch it from the Kobo firmware so it's easy to quit and go back to normal.
Comment by timvdalen 5 days ago
Ah, that's definitely something I missed, sounds like a good reason to give it a try!
Comment by kioleanu 5 days ago
Comment by domh 5 days ago
Comment by kioleanu 5 days ago
- DRM support (via a Plugin)
- Dark mode on an older device
- SSH Server
- Custom dictionaries
Next on my list is to find a plugin that can transform imperial to metric for when I’m reading American books
Edit: oh and also something that syncs my progress on books not bought from Amazon on multiple devices
Comment by criddell 5 days ago
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And kilometers to go before I sleep,
And kilometers to go before I sleep.Comment by lgvld 5 days ago
Comment by benterris 5 days ago
- Fully customizable status bars, top and bottom (I like book progress at the top, chapter progress at the bottom, various indicators like remaining time, brightness level...)
- Custom dictionaries (like reader.dict, very complete), and choice over how to display them
- Advanced typography stuff (override publisher font if you like, add all the ligatures...)
- Fully customizable gestures (jump anywhere, recent locations, skim book, bookmark page, adjust brightness...)
- Book map: see a schematic view of the whole book, with chapters / subchapters length (gives me a feeling of how much I've read and is left to read, as would a real book)
- Page number / count that "just works" (epubs on kobo don't count actual page flips which I find annoying)
Comment by ornornor 5 days ago
Better page flip area options
Active corners that can do custom things and with layers
More text layout options (although the stock kobo firmware is decent at that already)
It’s a bit cumbersome to setup but once you’re done it pays back in how pleasant it makes the device to use.
Comment by thefunnyman 5 days ago
Comment by j45 5 days ago
Comment by dizhn 5 days ago
Comment by floam 5 days ago
Comment by aaarrm 5 days ago
It felt really nice to type on but my issues were adjacent to the that
Comment by irthomasthomas 5 days ago
Comment by dizhn 5 days ago
Comment by timvdalen 5 days ago
Comment by slau 5 days ago
Yes, Kobo can potentially read EPUBs natively, however the support is intentionally gimped to try and push you towards KEPUB/their own store.
Comment by timvdalen 5 days ago
Comment by criddell 5 days ago
They only don't get paid if you choose to not pay them.
Comment by ornornor 5 days ago
The only thing I’m missing now is a stylesheet or something to make a spot on the right edge be free of text as that’s where my external page turner clips (for hands free reading) and it hides part of the book’s text otherwise. If anyone has any clue on how to do it, lmk!
Comment by dizhn 5 days ago
Comment by cavoirom 5 days ago
Comment by kioleanu 5 days ago
What’s funnier is that both my son and my wife have the Paperwhite 10th generation, but only my wife’s device has dark mode. Same exact device, different software depending on when it was bought.
The second major reason for Jailbreaking is that KOReader can do DRM through a plugin so I was finally able to loan out ebooks from my library. No need for a new device, the 10 year old one works extremely well with the right software
Comment by okeuro49 5 days ago
Can't you update it to the latest firmware?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...
Comment by kioleanu 5 days ago
Comment by Footprint0521 5 days ago
That’s what I did before I looked into KOReader and now I’m sad I did
Comment by fn-mote 5 days ago
Also, if the rest of the software world is any guide, turning an LLM loose on it would find a new jailbreak in short order.
Comment by criddell 5 days ago
Comment by kioleanu 5 days ago
Comment by mlitwiniuk 5 days ago
Comment by Cider9986 5 days ago
Comment by mlitwiniuk 5 days ago
Comment by ntonozzi 4 days ago
Comment by Lammy 5 days ago
Otherwise Tailscale (the company) will be collecting your behavioral metadata every time you use your Kindle (what other hosts it connects to, on what ports, connection open and close timestamps, etc): https://tailscale.com/docs/features/logging#opt-out-of-clien...
Yes obviously the actual connection contents are encrypted, but ”just metadata” tells a whole heck of a lot about you: https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2013/06/09/using-metad...
Comment by imrozim 5 days ago
Comment by madeforhnyo 5 days ago
Comment by imrozim 3 days ago
Comment by parolee 5 days ago
Comment by noahbp 4 days ago
Despite my best efforts, the original tailscale-go was simply not going to work, since it used too much RAM, even when I followed some of the tips for stripping the unneeded parts of the binary. Thankfully there was an open-source port to Rust, which more effectively used memory: https://github.com/GeiserX/tailscale-rs
What was surprising to me is that every Kindle released since 2019 has, at minimum, 512 megabytes of RAM, and therefore plenty of memory for tailscale-go to use.
Comment by lzampier 4 days ago
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Comment by Wolfbeta 5 days ago
sing-box
Comment by larodi 5 days ago
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Comment by larodi 5 days ago
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Comment by totetsu 5 days ago
And then I see my koreader calibre is pointing at localhost:8081.. so maybe there was a proxy?
It’s been a while since I set it up. But it’s possible
Comment by mintflow 5 days ago
Still not want to jailbreak it because experience is good and I just share some books to the phone app and it get synced to the kindle device
Love tailscale though, perhaps Need buy some full open source ebook reader with tailscale installed
Comment by noduerme 5 days ago
Comment by Kudos 5 days ago
Comment by dewey 5 days ago
Comment by noduerme 5 days ago
Comment by lostlogin 5 days ago
Between the two of them, it rules out most the devices I have or what like.
Comment by noduerme 4 days ago
He convinced me with these words that the false equivalence was in fact a lie that the Chinese government wants Europeans and Americans to believe. And I came to see that he was right.
I'll note that I was, at one point, scared and chased out of the United States, had my apartment surveilled and broken into, and police going through my trash cans, all because of a novel I wrote and posted online. When I met my Tibetan friend I had been exiled from the US for nearly 8 years, and had no trust in it. That conversation, and living in several authoritarian countries, was the starting point of changing my mind about there being no difference.
Comment by punnerud 5 days ago
Comment by ustad 5 days ago
Comment by mctt 5 days ago
Might be this.
Comment by punnerud 3 days ago
Comment by 1shooner 5 days ago
Comment by LilBytes 5 days ago
Comment by ghkdqhrbals 4 days ago
Comment by peter_retief 5 days ago
Have one that is managed by a school from 10 years ago and they failed to release the device.
I am a fan of alpine Linux which i think may work well on an old Chromebook.
Any suggestions/links welcome
Comment by farfatched 5 days ago
If you want to boot a Linux distribution, try https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/
Comment by mr_sturd 5 days ago
The devices page on their wiki shows compatibility with specific devices - https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices
Comment by fn-mote 5 days ago
This means you cannot install the alternate OS setups mentioned in sibling comments.
Throw it away.
ETA: info correct as of a long time ago. I have done no new research.
Comment by peter_retief 4 days ago
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Comment by Groxx 5 days ago
Also I really don't see how this meets "unreadable". It's very plain and normal, at least on mobile. (Which is a compliment to the site)
Comment by davidwritesbugs 5 days ago
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Comment by vachina 5 days ago