Rooting Kindle Fire bricks videos
Sting in the tail for fondleslab tinkerers
Kindle Fire users may have to damp their enthusiasm for rooting their devices: unless they’re prepared to chase up some other fixes and put up with some inconvenience, rooting the device kills video access.
The mini-fondleslab was rooted pretty much simultaneously with its launch, with a combination of the Amazon SDK, a suitable USB connection, and SuperOneClick 2.2.
Statements previously made by Amazon staff seemed to indicate the vendor was taking a fatalistic attitude to rooting, on the basis that “it’s going to happen anyway, why try to stop it?”
However, a reader complained to El Reg that video access is blocked on rooted devices: “it no longer lets me access any of the videos I purchased from Amazon or any of their Amazon Prime videos.
“I called customer service, and they verified that Amazon’s policy is not to let customers access their videos once they root the device.”
Wandering around Android forums confirmed this, but luckily for users, also provides the fix.
The problem, according to Phandroid.com, is that rooting the device creates a superuser binary as /system/bin/su and/or system/xbin/su. If the binary exists, the Kindle Fire won’t run video.
Phandroid.com offers the workaround of using an app called OTA RootKeeper, which backs up the root binary and temporarily “unroots” the device, allowing Amazon Video to run.
It is, of course, a little inconvenient merely to play a video, but better than having video bricked on the Kindle Fire.
That leaves the question of the apparent disconnect between Amazon’s statements to the media back in September. The Register has requested comment from Amazon.
Press reports notwithstanding, readers should still remember that both the warranty and various software license agreements are breached by rooting: you do so at your own risk. ®
COMMENTS
@AC 23:22GMT - As a freetard I would love
to pay for a product that does what I want. Problem is there are no such products that respect end-user fundamental digital freedoms so we end up buying what we can play with and we're ready to make sacrifices for that. For your information, those countless hours we spend tinkering with those devices are good exercise for our brains and keep Alzheimer's away, compared to sitting on a couch and indiscriminately consuming whatever is being shoved into us.
Everybody has the right to spend his money the way he chooses so what exactly is your problem here ?
I don't know the details, but at first glance it seems that a very simple workaround exists - rename the binary and/or move it to a different directory. I don't know if su checks on its own location and name, so that might be an issue. It doesn't seem likely that the OS is going to take the time to look throughout the system for any binaries with a particular pattern that implies 'su' potential in the file.
Or better still, buy a tablet that isn't a POS in the first place.
It's electronics!
Just make what people want! It ain't brain surgery. If people are rooting your device you better scratch you head and figure out why. Perhaps next month you might not be selling any devices.
Every USB device I have ever been handed since usb first existed, I have pointed either midnight commander or ztree at and started digging to learn, how does it work, what's the dir layout, what kind of executable files keep it going, how are they compiled, how can I tweak the theme, sounds, etc, How can I back up the entire thing for possible Rollback. Because more than likely, I don't like the theme, don't like the sounds, and want to see if there are more things the device is capable of, and I am scared my data might disappear with all the crazy government laws and cruft going on.
Nothing is stable anymore, one day the book is yours the next day it's deleted. One day your mp3 player works, next day it's bricked, one day the GPS is great, next day it's bricked. Dear manufacturers of electronic devices, MAKE what people want, quit putting so much damn protection and secrecy in. It's NOT healthy.
But can it run custom ROMs that's the question?
Im hoping for a rapid port of CM then I'll get one.
