[HN Gopher] Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle
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Let's put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle
Author : Quizzical4230
Score : 193 points
Date : 2025-12-08 16:34 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (tailscale.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (tailscale.com)
| Havoc wrote:
| > 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
| jsheard wrote:
| 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.
| tfsh wrote:
| +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.
| graemep wrote:
| I use the Calibre support, but did not know you could
| install additional software that easily!
| finalarbiter wrote:
| 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 Kindle is likely always [1] a
| better deal.
|
| [0] as of today, 12/8/25, the "base model" Kindle 11th
| Generation is priced at $109.99 USD, and the respective
| Kobo Clara BW is $139.99 USD.
|
| [1] I say "likely always" to cover my bases. To my
| knowledge Calibre supports Kindle, just not as well as
| Kobo. That said I have found that the KOreader app is more
| than powerful enough for my use case (reading my own epubs,
| using dictionaries, etc.)
| jsheard wrote:
| That doesn't always hold, if you want _color_ e-ink then
| Kobo is currently the cheaper option.
|
| Kindle Colorsoft (7" 16GB) - $250
|
| Kindle Colorsoft (7" 32GB) - $280
|
| Kobo Clara Color (6" 16GB) - $160
|
| Kobo Libra Color (7" 32GB) - $230
|
| The Libra also supports a stylus (sold separately) while
| the Colorsoft doesn't, that's reserved for the much
| bigger and pricier Kindle Scribe.
| ekropotin wrote:
| How is situation with latency on these readers?
|
| I've just acquired the latest gen Kindle and I'm
| absolutely blown away by how fast it is.
| gcr wrote:
| do you mean latency on a color screen? (my experience
| with color eInk is that it adds quite a lot of latency)
| dotancohen wrote:
| And colour E-Ink devices also have horrible contrast.
| ekropotin wrote:
| Ah, sorry for confusion. I meant to ask about non-color
| version of Kobo.
| jrm4 wrote:
| Also consider koreader instead of the stock reader app.
| cyberpunk wrote:
| I kinda love that buried in the koreader menu somewhere
| is an option that drops me at a linux shell. I have no
| use really for this feature, but i like it. Good for
| those times you absolutely have to crank out some awk on
| the plane or whatever. :)
| kaladin-jasnah wrote:
| Kobo is great. I use Plato and KOReader on mine. They worked
| better than the original reader software for reading manga.
| whoisburbansky wrote:
| The only (tiny) issue I've had with Tailscale on Kobo has
| been that the tailscale daemon prevents me from using the
| Kobo in Mass Storage Mode while it's active, so I have to
| disable/quit KOReader to be able to plug it in again, which
| is admittedly not frequently warranted anyways.
| enthdegree wrote:
| 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
| BL2, nor an authorized BL2 image to upload. See here:
| https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient/issues/1332
|
| Kobo devices have root exposed but don't let users boot their
| own kernels (and the kernel they ship was not compiled with
| kexec either).
|
| I really don't know the reason so many devices these days
| don't have an unlock method. It seems predatory. Who knows
| where in the chain this happens... maybe it's Kobo, or maybe
| MediaTek won't sell you their SoCs for mass-market devices
| unless you lock them.
| monerozcash wrote:
| Can you just access /dev/mem or load a kernel module? Is
| there a SELinux policy stopping that?
|
| If you can do either of those, it should be trivial to get
| kexec working by just loading it as a module.
| enthdegree wrote:
| As far as I know, yes, it's possible. No SELinux. Kernel
| is a branch from 4.9.something pretty far off mainline
| with a few proprietary binary blob modules. As far as I
| know the real impediment here is lack of demand.
| j45 wrote:
| Older Kobos sound ok though?
| maximilianburke wrote:
| I used to like my Kobo a lot but recently it's got some
| pretty severe unreliability issues, usually around reading
| non-Kobo epubs and PDFs. Like, if I open of those files, the
| device usually crashes and when it recovers after a reboot,
| the file disappears.
| dotancohen wrote:
| Same with the Barnes and Noble Nooks. I've never rooted one,
| but via ADB one can install a launcher and most Android
| applications run. I've used four generations of Nooks to run
| AnkiDroid.
|
| Just beware to check what version of Android the Nook is
| using before you buy, and what your app needs.
| Havoc wrote:
| I was more after a eink display in a shape that is cheaper
| than new boards for a DIY project
| ycombinatrix wrote:
| Been there before with the OG pixel.
| cyberax wrote:
| 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.
| marinhero wrote:
| Excellent. This plus OPDS will make for easier transfer of files
| locally.
| atrus wrote:
| Or even not locally!
| _fzslm wrote:
| You can also run Syncthing on a jailbroken Kindle. That opens up
| a world of possibilities!
| epiccoleman wrote:
| Whoa, now that sounds like the use case I've been looking for
| since I jailbroke mine.
|
| I have calibre set up to just email books to my Kindle, but
| that's an extra layer of indirection that I really don't need.
| I'll have to check that out.
| zikduruqe wrote:
| If you have calibre, just turn on the wireless connection and
| have your Koreader connect to it.
|
| https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/calibre
| Cherub0774 wrote:
| Personally I'm most fond of Calibre + Calibre-Web, which
| masquerades as the Kobo Store and lets you use the built-in
| Kobo syncing mechanisms with your Calibre library instead
| of having to do it all within Koreader.
| boneitis wrote:
| I too have heard about syncthing for the first time today but
| from a different submission[0] you might care to be aware of.
|
| Although, I realize Android != Kindle's OS, so I'm not sure
| how much concern there should be.
|
| [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46184730
| "Syncthing-Android have had a change of owner/maintainer"
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| What kernel version is it running?
|
| I wanted to add an old paperwhite to a kubernetes cluster and the
| ancient kernel held me back.
| humanfromearth9 wrote:
| Same for me. I wanted to use it for HPC...
| vessenes wrote:
| 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.
| svat wrote:
| Oh that sounds cool! What do you do now instead?
| yegle wrote:
| Now do Tesla! I had to resort to running an oauth-proxy to access
| my Plex on Tesla.
| switz wrote:
| I have tailscale running on my robot vacuum. It's my own little
| autonomous mesh vpn node that lets me connect back to my home
| network when I'm on the go.
| eyjafjallajokul wrote:
| Please share more details! This sounds so cool!
| switz wrote:
| You can root certain models of robot vacuums and then ssh
| into them. Most run some variant of linux. Then just install
| tailscale. There are a few blogs out there of people who have
| done it[0][1].
|
| It's taking a cloud-based product, de-clouding it, and then
| connecting it to your own private 'cloud'. Pretty cool all
| things told.
|
| [0] https://kazlauskas.me/entries/tailscale-doesnt-quite-suck
|
| [1] https://tailscale.com/blog/tailscale-sucks
| citruscomputing wrote:
| Oh, this will be very useful. My current solution is incredibly
| hacky, I run an unauthenticated SSH server on the Kindle (key-
| based wasn't working), port scan to find it, and SFTP new files.
| At home, at least, I have a static IP. The whole system falls
| apart enough that I usually just connect to calibre's remote
| server and send books that way, though. I wonder what the battery
| impact of running tailscale on a Kindle is.
| fodkodrasz wrote:
| This is pretty interesting write-up*, though I'm not sure my
| employer would be happy with me putting out EULA-violation
| instructions to our company homepage.
|
| * - at least for me, as the bugs in the stock reader drive me
| nuts, and have been waiting for this opportunity for a while
| carlosjobim wrote:
| 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!
| fodkodrasz wrote:
| 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.
| beepbooptheory wrote:
| Love the splash Jameson quote in the first pic.
|
| > If everything means something else, than so does technology
| jll29 wrote:
| Kudos to all involved in freeing up Kindles around the world.
| d1egoaz wrote:
| I thought this was a random blog post, but it's coming directly
| from Tailscale, https://tailscale.com/blog/tailscale-jailbroken-
| kindle
| wrxd wrote:
| 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.
| veverkap wrote:
| Do you have any more information about this?
| Larrikin wrote:
| 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.
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