Tethering your Kindle 2

04 March 2009

UPDATE: There's now a bunch more at http://blog.fsck.com, including bits about how you might get yourself a telnetd, root shell and other fun bits.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've spent far too much of the past week playing with my lovely new Kindle 2.

As I've been exploring the device, I ran across igorsk's blog post about the debugging commands on the first Kindle. They're still there....with a few additions. One of those additions is a command to enable USB networking. It seems fairly clear to me that it's there as a debugging and development aid.

If you follow the steps outlined below, you should be be able to set up your Kindle to use your laptop or desktop computer's internet connection. Please don't be surprised if Amazon remove this feature (or make it more easily accessible) in a future Kindle firmware update. If you follow my instructions and your Kindle bursts into flames or shatters into a million pieces, please accept my condolences, but don't think for even a moment that I'm responsible for you breaking your new toy. ;)

This is not a tutorial about how to use the Kindle 2's Sprint connection from your computer. I don't know that it's possible to do so without making changes to the Linux installation on the Kindle. I do know that abusing the Kindle's Sprint modem like that would upset Amazon a great deal. Bear in mind also that Amazon know where you live. They know your Kindle's serial number and thanks to the built in GPS, they know where you are right now.

Now that I have the cranky-sounding warnings out of the way, it's time to get down to business.

For today's experiment, you will need:

One Amazon Kindle 2
One computer (the instructions assume you're using a mac)
One Amazon Kindle MicroUSB cable

Make sure your Kindle is not connected to your computer.

Reboot your Kindle:

First, Click "Menu", then pick "Settings"
Now, Click "Menu", then pick "Restart"

Enable debug mode:

    From the Kindle's home screen, type something to get the search box to pop up.
    Hit the DEL key to clear the content of the search box.
    Hit Sym and select the Semicolon (;) using the 5-pad.
    Type debugOn
    (You should now see ;debugOn)
    Click the enter key.

Congratulations. You've turned on Debug mode. From here on in, you can probably do all sorts of things to render your Kindle 2 useless.

To verify that debug mode is on, run the private debug tools "help" command.

You should now see a list of commands. We're interested in two of them: `usbNetwork and `usbQa.
Click to close the menu.

    From the Kindle's home screen, type something to get the search box to pop up.
    Hit the DEL key to clear the content of the search box.
    Hit Sym and select the ` using the 5-pad. (It's the next-to-last thing on the middle row)
    Type usbNetwork
    (You should now see `usbNetwork)
    Hit the enter key

If you were to stop here, the Kindle would be in USB network mode but wouldn't be set up to try to talk to the Internet over that interface

    Type something to get the search box to pop up.
    Hit the DEL key to clear the content of the search box.
    Hit Sym and select the ` using the 5-pad. (It's the next-to-last thing on the middle row)
    Type usbQa
    (You should now see `usbQa)
    Hit the enter key

Now it's time to plug your Kindle 2 into your Computer. If I have to talk you through plugging in a USB cable, you should probably stop reading here.

Once you plug in your Kindle 2, you should see something like this:

Click Network Preferences. (Adjust accordingly for Linux or Windows)

Next, you should see something like this:

Configure your computer with a static (manual) IP Address:
Type 192.168.15.200 into the IP Address field.
Click "Apply" in the lower right-hand corner.

Congratulations. You've set up a network connection between your computer and your Kindle 2.

You can test the local network connection by popping up a terminal and using ping
Type ping 192.168.15.244

If things are working right, you should see something like this:

Assuming that's working right for you, the last step is to set up Internet Sharing so that the Kindle can use your computer's network connection to talk to the outside world. On a Mac, that's pretty straight forward. Open up System Preferences and click on Sharing. You'll want to set up a config something like this:

And that's about it. If you open up the Kindle Store, you'll be able to browse and buy books. (You'll also note that the Kindle's wireless indicator shows empty boxes. The EVDO is turned off automatically as you bring up USB networking).

When you want to use the Kindle 2 in disk mode again, you'll need to get it out of USB Network mode. There's likely a way to get the device back onto wireless without restarting, but restarting is easy enough that I haven't gone exploring.

First, Click "Menu", then pick "Settings"
Now, Click "Menu", then pick "Restart"

Good luck!

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