eBay Find - 2nd Gen Kindle Fire

[storm-chaser]

Going to be rooting and installing a custom ROM from XDA developers. These little devices are a fun way to browse the web. I've always like the styling and the ability to totally customize these older tablets.

I paid $18 for this one and it appears to be in good condition. Will update this thread with more pictures and data once I take ownership.

 

[freakdiablo]

Have fun. These little fires are actually pretty cool, little quad core tablets on the cheap that aren't from some no name brand with zero support or mod community.

 

[storm-chaser]

My 2nd Gen Kindle Fire showed up today! Plan is to charge it up and start modding! Here are a couple low quality pics... stay tuned for updates.




EDIT: Mods can you please move this to the tablets sub forum?

https://forum.xda-developers.com/kindle-fire-hd/fire-2-development

 

[ihrsetrdr]

I got a couple 8" Kindle Fire tablets, were given to us by my son and one from wife's grandson. I'd like to do a custom ROM, have thought about it for years but never made a move. I did do a minor hack to get Google Play on both Kindles, so I could get normal apps rather than the Amazon branded.

 

[storm-chaser]

First step is getting the device to boot into "fastboot" mode. This can be done with a factory USB cable, or, in my case, by rooting the device first, and then issuing a couple commands via the ADB interface.

SO,
1) Device has been rooted via Kingroot
2) Issue command: adb shell su -c "reboot bootloader"
3) Next step is to download the appropriate drivers, right now the device is just listed in Device Manager as "otter2-prod-04"



What Fastboot mode looks like on the tablet:

 

[habbajabba]

Is that a quad-core 1.2? My acer iconia b1-730 is a dual core atom at 1.6max. Found a root link off reddit and removed everything google except for the TTS engine and GSF. Weird cause I thought it didn't have gps but now I'm glad it does. The TTS engine btw did not work until I updated it through yalpstore. Same thing with my car dvr system. It doesn't make calls of course and I mistakenly removed the default contacts apk. Any 3rd party contact/dialer apk's now no longer work. I was using 'simple contacts' just for a proper list but have now switched to using it on my newer cell instead.
I run L Speed on my acer to try to optimize the hardware. T/S is a little laggy but other than that works excellent with the AIO Launcher.
My only suggestion is to get some Liquid Glass Protector from Cell Helmet. It works great at protecting the screen. That and a pelican 1055 case.

 

[storm-chaser]

Thanks for the suggestions. This is the dual core 1.2ghz variant. I am also on the lookout for one of the later quad core kindle fires.

Looks like I am running into my first major issue. My Kindle Fire is version 10.5.1, the latest OS. Unfortunately, the custom bootloader requires an earlier version of the OS because Amazon fixed the loophole with this current release.

I am looking into ways to downgrade to an earlier OS so I can apply the 2nd bootloader. Only time will tell if this is possible..

 

[habbajabba]

Probably a bad suggestion but would a full reset take it back to an earlier version? For $18 maybe the user upgraded it and the device is still capable of resetting to the original older version. I bought a brand new galaxy S5 a few years ago from an att store and got reamed thinking that it was so popular it would be easy to root. If I had grabbed it when released it would have rooted, but 6 months later it was updated and I got that POS paperweight. When I grabbed the Acer Iconia, I could not actually find an actual root until after I bought it. I payed $120 off ebay for a new one and it still came with a slight little screen blemish (hazy white spot) towards the bottom. Very minor. The cameras totally suck but as a tablet it works great.
TBH, anything from amazon is a nogo for me. I can't really compare an Android device with version 4.4.2 (hackable and rootable), to a very proprietary kindle 'fire' os. I bought a dedicated ebook reader once with a b/w screen for $80 and the complete pos OS died after less than a year as if it was designed that way. They have kits on ameridroid for tablets which are totally funky but other than your std android v442, most everything now is system.d'd, selinux,d, boot-locked, carrier locked etc.. It's nice to find good hardware which hasn't been ruined by Hemorrhoid 8. The optimal OS is Lineage. Just look at the devices they support and get one of those if you can. Lineage updates weekly.

 

[storm-chaser]

Well I have a little bit of good news. I was able to get the driver issues sorted out and the Kindle 2 is now communicating with Microsoft Windows the way it should.

Here is where we are at. Unfortunately all the links to custom ROMs are broken at the moment so Im working to find a secondary download location.

Looking good in device manager, now:


This is how we can tell fastboot is working:

 

[habbajabba]

Still need root right?

 

[storm-chaser]

Still need root right?

I have rooted the tablet already and most custom ROMs come that way as well.

That being said, I have located a custom ROM and amazingly the download links still work.

I installed TWRP as the 2nd bootloader. However, when I go to install the ROM I run into this error:

 

[storm-chaser]

Well folks, we are up and running with Android 4.2.2! I finally found a custom ROM that actually worked with my version of TWRP.

I had to go back to a custom ROM that was 5+ years old, but it still works perfectly on this little tablet. Pics to follow!

First I had to format the data partition, then do an advanced cleanup on the cache.

I used the following commands to "push" the needed files to my tablet:

adb push baked_otter2_bb-9_20130514.zip /sdcard/

adb push gapps-jb-20130301-signed.zip /sdcard/

Then used TWRP to flash the ROM and then flashed Gapps (Google Play)

Then a reboot, and bam! We're IN!!!

 

[storm-chaser]

 

[storm-chaser]

Well, I found the TWRP Version 2.7.0.0 recovery image that works with my Kindle Fire.

Performing this upgrade allowed me to install a more up-to-date ROM.

So I downloaded a well developed late version ROM and installed that as well as the updated Google Play image file.

So far so good. And NOW is when I start benefiting from it.

Hope to have this tablet for many years to come! more pics to follow

 

[habbajabba]

Make sure you keep the default keyboard installed should you ever decide to encrypt the device itself. A user installed keyboard will not be found at boot if device is fully encrypted and the default system one is missing. If you install a keyboard to system (I use anysoft keyboard) it should be fine to remove the default one. Even a full reset does not bypass the encryption.

 

[storm-chaser]

Well I found some issues with the previous ROM, specifically, I couldn't view videos in full screen mode, and games were randomly crashing. So I found yet another ROM to try out.. I promise we will make this right, and hopefully soon! Trial and error mode right now.

 

[storm-chaser]

 

[habbajabba]

Pretty cool you can run some old cmod roms. I just realized my Acer Iconia One has backup/recovery capabilities too. The original reddit post containing the links to the rooting software runs like twrp with the backup/recover cmds included. Plus to go back to default, it lets me install the full rom zip right from the sdcard itself. Bricking is impossible. I'm in the process of getting a one+ 3T and bumping lineage os 15.1 but with no gapps. Hopefully I won't have too many ap problems with no gapps. The One+ is supposed to support resurrection remix but to be quite honest I do not intend on spending days and hours worrying about every little xposed module, hack, etc.. I just want it lean, secure, and mostly up to date. Lineage os 15.1 is oreo 8 so that should be fine. There are a few apk's I would like to use that won't update, install or run (device not compatible) under droid 422/444 which is annoying. The protonmail (for one) apk on my acer complains about google play store missing but still runs. But the latest tutanota apk won't install at all. It is truly ridiculous for a supposed secure email ap to require the playstore.

 

[storm-chaser]

Yes it is truly amazing to see what you can do with these old tablets. As a Christmas gift, my sister purchased me a Motorola Xoom II. Unfortunately it has a locked bootloader, so no go on a custom ROM.

Need to start the search for my next tablet project. Want it to be a quad core and obviously needs to have an unlocked bootloader.