Unboxing the Kindle Fire. When the Kindle Fire arrived, I spent a few minutes configuring it and exploring its default features and capabilities. First, download the latest driver package from Intel. It’s currently at version 1.0.6.245 and can be downloaded from the following link: Intel(R) Tools that Use Minimal ADB and Fastboot Kindle Fire root and tweak. But when I learned that Kindle Fire refurbs were going for $1. How to Easily Execute ADB Commands on Android Using a GUI Based Tool.Sometimes Android USB devices won’t connect to a Windows system. For attempts at connecting via the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), bad Android USB drivers that load in. 264 Responses to How to Root & Convert Kindle Fire HD 8.9 into Pure Android Tablet! I couldn’t resist snapping one up and finding out what I could make it do. Turns out, it wasn’t hard to morph it into a relatively full- featured general purpose Android tablet, complete with Google services and apps. Note: Subsequent to the original publication of this article, Amazon released version 6. Kindle Fire. The rooting and tweaking process described below works for version 6. If your tablet is already rooted at firmware version 6. I soon discovered through a settings option (Settings > Device > System Version), that a firmware update to version 6. I performed the update, which installed Kindle Fire firmware v. Android 2. 3. 4. Additional screenshots showing the device’s initial startup and settings can be viewed in the complete rooted Kindle Fire screenshot tour, here (startup) and here (settings). Kindle Fire v. 6. The table below summarizes the Kindle Fire’s key features and specs. AC adapter; also chargeable via USBWi- Fi connectivity. Supports 8. 02. 1. WEP, WPA, and WPA2 security. USB port. USB 2. 0 micro- B connector. Audio. 3. 5 mm stereo audio jack; top- mounted stereo speakers Content formats supported. Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non- DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, and VP8. System requirements. No computer required. Size. 7. 5 x 4. 7 x 0. Weight. 14. 6 oz. Price$1. 99. Converting the Kindle fire into a genuine Android tablet. Before proceeding, I feel I must make a confession: despite my having used Linux exclusively as my desktop OS for the past decade, and my having become an avid Android user over the past year, this project was to be my first rooting experience. So the first thing I did was get a quick introduction to rooting and familiarize myself with the associated lingo. CAUTION! Rooting your tablet may render it inoperable and may void its warranty. The Kindle Fire Utility (KFU) pulls together all the bits and pieces needed to automate the process. Ordinarily, I would have preferred to roll up my sleeves and perform the process manually, using various Linux tools, but as this was my first rooting attempt I didn’t want to screw it up due to some newbie blunder. So, I downloaded KFU from the XDA Developers forum and installed it on an available Windows system. Eventually I found an explanation for why this was happening. It turned out that I had previously installed Samsung’s USB drivers and support for accessing my Samsung tablets and smartphone, and that consequently the drivers obtained with KFU weren’t being installed or utilized properly. The suggested remedy was to delete the previously installed Samsung KIES tools and drivers, and then let KFU install a fresh set of support for accessing the Kindle Fire. That did the trick; a screenshot of the proper driver installed on my Windows 7 system is here. That way, if Windows decides to hunt for drivers on its own you can prevent it from installing generic driver and point it instead to KFU’s “drivers” folder. In summary, the procedure I think works best is to: (1) run KFU’s install. Kindle Fire Utility’s main menu(click image to enlarge)At this point, I selected KFU’s option number 2 for installing permanent root with superuser, then option 3 for installing the TWRP recovery support, and then option 5 for installing the latest Fire. Fire. Fire bootloader. A series of screenshots showing what KFU did in response to those three menu selections appear in the complete rooted Kindle Fire screenshot tour, here. After those functions were completed successfully, I selected KFU’s option number 6 to install “extras,” which includes the Google Android Services Framework, several Google apps (Play, Calendar, Contacts, Voice, Sync), a preferred Facebook app, and Go Launcher EX, a replacement for the Kindle Fire’s default homescreen launcher. After KFU’s tasks were finished, I hit Enter on the PC’s keyboard to exit KFU, and the Kindle Fire rebooted without incident. Now, however, the tablet’s screen displayed the Fire. Fire. Fire bootloader’s triangular yellow logo (leftmost photo, below) during the boot process. Different versions of the Fire. Fire. Fire bootloader display various unique logos during boot, as shown in the three photos below. Left to right: older to newer Fire. Fire. Fire bootloader logos. As of June 2. 01. Fire. Fire. Fire bootloader is at version 1. Kindle Fire logo (rightmost photo, above); it also indicates its version number in the upper right- hand corner of the screen while the bootloader is running. Version 1. 4. A lets you choose between three boot options, via a menu at the bottom of the screen. Getting to know TWRPAs just mentioned, assuming you have installed the v. Kindle Fire, the device will now display a white/blue Kindle Fire logo while the bootloader is preparing to load the system after powerup or reboot. For the first few seconds of the bootloader’s operation, the following message will also show up at the bottom of the screen: “Press power button for boot menu.” If you press the tablet’s power button a couple of times while that message is present, a menu will appear at the bottom of the screen, offering three boot options. It looks like this: Normal boot. Reset boot mode. When the menu appears, tapping the power button will cycle among those three choices; initially “Recovery” is preselected, as shown above. Selecting “Recovery” launches the TWRP recovery console rather than booting the tablet into its normal Android operating system. Here’s a screenshot showing the TWRP recovery console’s main menu: TWRP recovery console main menu(click image to enlarge)As you can see from the screenshot above, TWRP provides options for installing a system image, backing up the current system image, “wiping” the device, mounting/unmounting the device’s system and data partitions, modifying system partitions, other advanced options, and rebooting the tablet. Although TWRP’s options can seem intimidating, it’s said that once you have TWRP installed on the device, there’s not much you can do to “brick” it — unless, of course, you mess around with TWRP functions you don’t understand or use it absentmindedly. Needless to say, the first time I encountered the TWRP console, I hastened to use its Backup function to archive the Kindle Fire’s initial system, data, and boot partitions. Later, when I had the Kindle Fire connected to my system in a mode in which I could transfer files between it and the PC, I copied the TWRP- generated backup over to my PC for safekeeping. That opportunity presented itself automatically. Since KFU had just installed Go Launcher EX (through option 6 of KFU’s main menu), the next time I booted up the Kindle Fire and slid the golden arrow to the left to unlock the homescreen, the tablet prompted me to indicate which app should be used for managing the homescreen. Here’s that prompt: Choosing an alternative homescreen launcher. After tapping the checkbox beside “Use by default for this action,” I tapped “Go Launcher EX” to select it as the Kindle Fire’s preferred homescreen manager. From then on, the alternative launcher and homescreen manager replaced the Kindle Fire’s bookcase- style look and feel. This transformation is shown in the pair of homescreen screenshots below. Kindle Fire homescreen before and after activating GO Launcher EX(click images to enlarge)If you ever want to restore the default Kindle Fire launcher, just go to Settings > Applications > Go Launcher EX and tap the “Clear defaults” button. Then, the next time you reboot the device, you’ll be prompted to choose the launcher you want to use, as above. Choose the standard “Launcher” and you’ll be back in Bookshelf City. Stocking up on apps. Next, since Google’s Android Services Framework supposedly was now installed in the Kindle Fire, I tapped the left- most app- icon on the new Go Launcher EX homescreen (see thumbnail at right; click to enlarge it), in an attempt to gain access to Google’s Android apps market. I was immediately prompted to sign into Google’s Android Services Framework. The screenshots below show the beginning and end of that process. Additional screenshots for the intervening steps are available on this article’s comprehensive screenshot tour page, here. Signing into Google Services and visiting Google’s Android market(click images to enlarge)Ultimately, I installed over 1. I sideloaded from my ever- expanding archive of Android apks. The first app I always add to my Android gadgets, and one that’s required for the next phase of my Kindle Fire’s look and feel transformation, is the superb ES File Explorer app. Among its numerous capabilities, this handy app supports root- specific actions, such enabling write access to system- level files, on rooted Android devices; other important capabilities include the ability to copy files to/from LAN shares (samba) and Drop. Box cloud storage accounts, perform app backups, and much, much more. The stock Kindle Fire has a nasty habit of stepping through a sequence of wallpaper images, rather than sticking with a single favorite image. So to work around that, the solution I used was basically the one found here. The tweaks made up to this point resulted in the transformation shown in the following three screenshots. Left to right: initial homescreen; after replacement launcher; after customized wallpaper(click images to enlarge)Populating the homescreen with apps and folders. We’re nearly done. I like organizing all my apps and bookmarks into folders on the primary homescreen, which makes it quicker and easier to perform a desired function without having to page through numerous homescreens. So, my next step was to install and configure the highly flexible Android Folder Organizer app, as I do on all my Android devices. Then, I used Folder Organizer to organize the Android apps I had installed on the Kindle Fire into 1.
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August 2017
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