Kindle Fire gets root access
Bug, feature, or ‘don’t really care’?
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You’d have to think that Amazon doesn’t really care whether people give themselves root access to its e-readers, since the Kindle Fire has been “rooted” two days post-launch.
A post to the XDA Developer forum signed death2all110 demonstrates that someone using the Android Debug Bridge and SuperOneClick 2.2 can get root access to the Kindle Fire.
It’s also necessary to have installed and used the ADB SDK, the post states, after which the adb_usb.ini file needs to have the 0x1949 address added.
By editing the USB driver info file, android_winusb.inf, allowing installation of apps from unknown sources, and killing the ADB server, a user can install SuperOneClick. After that, all that’s needed is to run the software to select the “root” option.
As one comment to the post observed, the Kindle is easy to root as well, which makes one wonder whether Amazon is particularly worried about how people treat their readers after purchase, irrespective of the company’s official statements.
With root access enabled, all that’s required to side-load Android apps from the USB is to enable the USB in ADB – running “adb devices” – and then load the package’s .apk file by running “adb install <app>.apk”. ®
COMMENTS
Ed? Anyone awake?
> You’d have to think that Amazon doesn’t really care whether people give themselves root access
According to a dodgy rag I read from time to time, Amazon has publicly stated that they don't care.
See http://www.reghardware.com/2011/09/29/amazon_accepts_kindle_fire_android_tablet_will_be_rooted/ for details.
Vic
Common sense really
In the real world only a few percent of buyers will be interested in obtaining root.
You can either spend loads of money on coders to keep changing your OS to try and stop the few who want it, or save that money and use it as a selling point to the tech savvy who want root and resent other companies who try to control the hardware which they have sold.
It's an unwinnable battle anyway, as everything gets jailbroken regardless of how much you spend trying to stop it. I think Amazon's stance on this is a very shrewd move.
one assumes their take on it is there's no point worry about it as most of their customers don't care and spending hundreds of thousands if not millions to prevent a small percentage of users rooting it is a waste of good money.
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