Database Users

Article regarding buying the Kindle Fire as non-US user

Hi all,
i wrote an article about the Kindle Fire for non-US customers, explaining what works out of the box and what kind of options you have if you want to make use of the full potential of the device.
http://smartphoneblogging.com/2012/03/review-kindle-fire-how-usable-is-it-outside-of-the-us/
this is not meant as an faq for technical stuff like rooting, but more of a overview of whats possible with this tablet. this is hopefully interesting for people thinking about getting a kindle fire which don't live in the USA and are not familiar with Androids possibilities.
Please let me know if there are any questions...

Edited first post as the URL has changed...

Hi
That is a very good article, and something I have been looking for as I live in UK.
You state:
Amazon pushes out updates to the Kindle Fire pretty often, which would normally be a great thing, but not so much if you are using a rooted device with the stock ROM. Updates are forced and there is no way to deny them, other than using the Kindle Fire only offline which of course makes no sense. The problem is that each update will break your root access so you have to wait for the community to again root the new version and provide an walkthrough for it. This cat and mouse play can get very annoying. Chances are that you don’t really need to stick with the stock Kindle Fire ROM anyway as most Amazon services can’t be used outside of the US. This is where custom ROMs come in handy
Does this mean that if you keep the stock ROM updates can still be pushed to the device but by changing the ROM it will freeze the pushed updates or is there no way that these can be stopped currently?

meso100 said:
Does this mean that if you keep the stock ROM updates can still be pushed to the device but by changing the ROM it will freeze the pushed updates or is there no way that these can be stopped currently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's right. Keeping the stock ROM will mean OTA updates will be pushed to your device, and you might lose root.
With a custom ROM like the CM7 or CM9 Rom this will not happen, as you basically have a different device with that ROMs.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

Thanks for your help.
I have bookmarked your website for future reference and liked it on G+
Nice one!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Thanks for the feedback!
meso100 said:
Thanks for your help.
I have bookmarked your website for future reference and liked it on G+
Nice one!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thank you so much for writing this article. =]
This will come in handy when I move out of the states shortly. lol

Cheshire.Love said:
Thank you so much for writing this article. =]
This will come in handy when I move out of the states shortly. lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. As far as i know you should be able to use your Kindle Fire normally outside of the US, if it has been activated using a real US Amazon account with a real credit card. All services should work.
But of course this won't last if you move to another country permanently (change address) and don't use your US credit card anymore...

The only thing missing now is an official CM9 build and hardware acceleration. Hopefully we will see this soon as it would really push the kindle fire capabilities.

Just got a Kindle Fire! Some Q's

Ordered a kindle for 190$ free shipping off ebay, should be here by tomorrow or wensday
Just a few Questions...
1) Im aware google play isnt on the kindle fire. I KNOW you can install it and im planning on using the kindle fire utility. But I also heard of many people saying the apps say its not compatible?? Is this on basically all the games? Amazon apps store is good enough for me but I really enjoy Draw something on my android phone.
2) I know you can use launchers... so can I basically run ICS without having to flash anything? I know not actually ICS, but Will it actually work like a normal android tablet?
3) Is their any other cool things I can do with it?
Thanks for the answers

1. Yes, a lot of things don't work by default, but there is an easy work around for it to give you access to more.
2. If I understand this question correctly, yes. You will be able to install whatever launcher you want and configure it however you want and it can work like a normal Android Tablet.
3. Well ICS is actually working pretty well on the Kindle Fire if you get into flashing ROMS. Other than that there's plenty of games and emulators if you're into that.

Jake33108 said:
1. Yes, a lot of things don't work by default, but there is an easy work around for it to give you access to more.
2. If I understand this question correctly, yes. You will be able to install whatever launcher you want and configure it however you want and it can work like a normal Android Tablet.
3. Well ICS is actually working pretty well on the Kindle Fire if you get into flashing ROMS. Other than that there's plenty of games and emulators if you're into that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whats the easiest work around? I've been searching for a few hours and I want to get the most out of google play on my kindle fire without installing a bunch of stuff.. Its not that im lazy, but im a pretty casual user and wouldnt want to risk bricking anything.

Here's a link to a thread about it for CM7 and here's one for ICS. If you're staying rooted stock I'm not sure what you'll need to do.

Jake33108 said:
Here's a link to a thread about it for CM7 and here's one for ICS. If you're staying rooted stock I'm not sure what you'll need to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm... So it will work with any ICS rom?
Thinking in to it installing ICS would be nice to use it like a normal tablet

Yeah, that's for any ICS. Hardware acceleration isn't working for ICS yet so some videos don't work, but other than that ICS runs great.

Jake33108 said:
Yeah, that's for any ICS. Hardware acceleration isn't working for ICS yet so some videos don't work, but other than that ICS runs great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does youtube/netflix work?

HD youtube doesn't, some videos do. Netfilx does not yet, but devs are hard at work on getting it working and will have HWA relatively soon, although it could still be a number of weeks.

Jake33108 said:
HD youtube doesn't, some videos do. Netfilx does not yet, but devs are hard at work on getting it working and will have HWA relatively soon, although it could still be a number of weeks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ouch, I use Netflix all the time but I guess its a trade off for now.. Same thing with flash?
Could Netlix work if it just didnt play in HD?

Same thing with flash, I would suggest just using a CM7 rom until HWA gets fixed then, Netflix and other videos are working for them.

Jake33108 said:
Same thing with flash, I would suggest just using a CM7 rom until HWA gets fixed then, Netflix and other videos are working for them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any suggestions?
Most stable/smooth would be what im looking for

Sorry, I'm no help with that, I've been running ICS since the day I got my Fire.

Juicy555 said:
Any suggestions?
Most stable/smooth would be what im looking for
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would check out the "master list" maintained by stiffmast3r
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1467013
I think I am running Skimp Killah, but I have been switching pretty consistently.

AOKP for Gtab AOKP | smb1002/Viewsonic G-Tablet (May 24 | Build 37 | 4.0.4)

If anybody interested in testing the AOKP port to Gtablet, the link is below. It is the AOKP forum. I tested it and I am very satisfied with it. I tested all the ICS versions from different teams but this one is the most stable and functional. Very happy with it.
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/23048-aokp-smb1002viewsonic-g-tablet-may-24-build-37-404/

tibinet said:
If anybody interested in testing the AOKP port to Gtablet, the link is below. It is the AOKP forum. I tested it and I am very satisfied with it. I tested all the ICS versions from different teams but this one is the most stable and functional. Very happy with it.
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/23048-aokp-smb1002viewsonic-g-tablet-may-24-build-37-404/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just flashed build 37 to my Gtab, and it appears to be alot faster and more fluent, than TeamDRH's latest build, (Beta 1.2) which I've been running up until now.
I appreciate their hard work, but found the relatively frequent ROM-slowdowns, to be unbearable. But considering the "no help"-policy Nvidia and Viewsonic seems to have instigated regarding the Gtab, I really do find their work amazing and a crucial step on the way in the further development for the Gtab.
I do have a few questions, which you may or may not be able to answer, however:
1) How come, when I flash gapps, Youtube doesn't appear to be installed?
2) When I search for Youtube in the Play Store, it doesn't show up.
- I'm assuming that this has something to do with the way the ROM authenticates/identifies itself to the Play Store.
- On a sidenote, a few other apps also do not show up, even when searching specifically for them. (LBE Privacy Guard among others)
- I yanked a copy of the youtube.apk from my phone, and while it's not tablet optimized, it works without any apparent problems, so it's not because it doesn't work.
3) The USB-connection, only consists of MTP or Camera-options (like the TeamDRH-ROM) and I seem to be unable to get the Gtab to present itself as a Mass Storage Device, so I might access the internal memory.
(Only way of doing this is booting to Clockworkmod and mounting the internal memory as USB-share)
I appreciate and applaud your effort in bringing AOKP to the Gtablet.

I dont know the exact answers as I just put the link here, I have nothing to do with development. I found this link by mistake and I wanted to share it with people. If you want answers, put your questions directly on the forum rootzwiki .
BTW, I do it in the same way as you (according to problems).

tibinet said:
I dont know the exact answers as I just put the link here, I have nothing to do with development. I found this link by mistake and I wanted to share it with people. If you want answers, put your questions directly on the forum rootzwiki .
BTW, I do it in the same way as you (according to problems).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doh... Dunno how I missed that.
Off to rootzwiki we go...

WOW AOKP to the GTAB
Hello just a few days ago I posted a (Q) in that forum asking if it was possible at all to develop an AOKP rom on the Gtab, then yesterday I basically found out that there was a 4th ICS rom for our devices and it was a AOKP port lol It was just crazy how that happened.
I did wonder, however, why the developer of the rom did not post it here or sdroid. thank you to OP for posting this but i'd mch rather have the developer to ask questions to bout the rom, but I guess Ill just have to head over to rootzWiki.
Anyway, this is pretty awesome that someone made this happen. I dont have AOKP on any other devices but i knew of the rom, and its awesomeness. Its a sick rom and im pretty excites. I think it may run as good if not slightly better than the other 3 ics roms, I just hope they continue to make it better with each release because it has potential.
I recommend that ppl should go check it out.

Hmmmm... might have to check this out...
Thanks for posting it. I never would have known.
Sent from my SN10T1 using Tapatalk 2

installed this last night because im an aokp fan.. seems pretty good... but for me i have the same problems ive had on every ics rom for this tablet. super laggy and sounds terrible? am i the only one who has terrible sound on ics roms? ive gone back to gb every time within a day or two because of the sound.. its just crappy, low volume and distorted sound? gb rocks in comparison.. really bums me out... i keep hoping one of these ics roms will run like they do on my phone, but not even close yet.

pqrs said:
installed this last night because im an aokp fan.. seems pretty good... but for me i have the same problems ive had on every ics rom for this tablet. super laggy and sounds terrible? am i the only one who has terrible sound on ics roms? ive gone back to gb every time within a day or two because of the sound.. its just crappy, low volume and distorted sound? gb rocks in comparison.. really bums me out... i keep hoping one of these ics roms will run like they do on my phone, but not even close yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Team DRH next release, sound issue is suppose to be one of the main things to be addressed...

Info for OP. Credits to user jjewell.

this should be in the general selection; you did not make this, you are only informing people.

Build 40 is out, I'm really glad there's still development for ours gtabs

Is this for bootloader 1.1 or 1.2?

bigtex06 said:
Is this for bootloader 1.1 or 1.2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that it does not matter on ics ROMs. What is important is that your system partition be enlarged to 250MB and the easiest way to do that is to use the nvflash. See my easy guide http://raywaldo.com/2011/01/nvflash-for-dummies/
Sent from my Nook Tablet using xda premium

It is for BL 1.1.
I am unable to install it under BL 1.2

tsukaza said:
It is for BL 1.1.
I am unable to install it under BL 1.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you expand the system partition as I said?
Sent from my Nook Tablet using xda premium

raywaldo said:
What is important is that your system partition be enlarged to 250MB and the easiest way to do that is to use the nvflash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will need more actually. Full gapps + the face detection code that is installed will use up 262+ MB.

rajeevvp said:
It will need more actually. Full gapps + the face detection code that is installed will use up 262+ MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Team drh has posted a new nvflash that makes system partition 300mb. People who are having trouble should try it out.
http://www.teamdrh.com/DRH-Downloads/Full_Stock_NVFlash_CWM_5504_300mb_system.zip
Sent from my Nook Tablet using xda premium

ernest-sora said:
Build 40 is out, I'm really glad there's still development for ours gtabs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, its out, but there is a problem with downloading from google player. so I wait for now...

Since this is based off the kernel of DRH ans their drivers, what's the difference between the two? Is this more stable/faster? What are the benefits to this ROM over DRH?

switching from stock ROM to ....

I fed up with Amazon's way of customizing Kindle Fire, I've had it and I want to switch!
I'd rather go w/ CM 7,9,10 I don't really care, but I dont think it's working reliable yet
I'd rather go w/ ICS or JB if possible but that's probably too hot for oh greatest Amazon Kindle Fire...
so, anyways what ROM majority people are using out there that just works and now as slow as stock?

a1exus said:
I fed up with Amazon's way of customizing Kindle Fire, I've had it and I want to switch!
I'd rather go w/ CM 7,9,10 I don't really care, but I dont think it's working reliable yet
I'd rather go w/ ICS or JB if possible but that's probably too hot for oh greatest Amazon Kindle Fire...
so, anyways what ROM majority people are using out there that just works and now as slow as stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean not too hot. CM7/9/10 Roms run great on the Kindle Fire. No lag at all and some of the CM9 Roms get in the 4000s in quadrant scores.
If you want recommendations please read the 20 other threads asking the same thing.

a1exus said:
I fed up with Amazon's way of customizing Kindle Fire, I've had it and I want to switch!
I'd rather go w/ CM 7,9,10 I don't really care, but I dont think it's working reliable yet
I'd rather go w/ ICS or JB if possible but that's probably too hot for oh greatest Amazon Kindle Fire...
so, anyways what ROM majority people are using out there that just works and now as slow as stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
I just got a used Kindle Fire yesterday, promptly rooted it and installed AOKP but I just read on their blog that they are discontinuing support for the Kindle Fire. So I am looking for alternate custom ROMs.
Thanks.
Denis

Is there a method that I can use to root/unlock my AKF using MAC instead of Windows? (I dont have Windows anymore)

Kindle Fire Jem Roms

I still got
cm-11-20141112-SNAPSHOT-M12-jem
and
cm-12.1-20161016-NIGHTLY-jem
I'm done with this device, but seems that a lot of people having trouble finding a good Android rom for it. I've tested bunch of other roms such as Candy 5 and Lineage 14 but none of them runs smoothly as CM11.
CM12 is a bit laggy compared to CM11 but both are pretty usable. If you don't mind older 4.4 then use CM11. If you don't mind a bit lag use CM12.
My dad, however (the device is my dad's) manage to get it into bootloop multiple times with CM11, I don't know how; probably because bunch of "booster" craps he installed there, while on my test with daily regular use for about two weeks or so, seems to be VERY stable.
The device itself however, is waaay too old and outdated for more hardware intesive like 3D games and such. I cannot even get the dynamic background on Retroarch, so I don't bother trying it at all. For other casual stuffs, just some very rare occasional hangs while watching youtube, but that's all as far as I can remember. Chrome works well too. 1080p movies can play well with MXPlayer pro.
But in the end rather than get naggings by my dad about the bootloops, I decided to restore it to stock and let him get the apps from amazon appstore. Just so you know that not everybody get the same smooth experience as I do. As my experience goes, CM11 is the best rom for this device. But not to my dad.
Both roms (CM11 and 12) are intended for 8.9" kindle fire JEM (NOT tate)
With that in mind, I have no more use for the roms. So rather than being left to dust and forgotten, any idea where I can upload these roms so it stays online forever? They're about 200 megs each, so about 500 megs.
If there's no good free space/file transfer service, I'm uploading these to Degoo, since I don't use it at all despite its generous space, and probably will forgot about it in the future and it'll stay there forever.

stubbe said:
I still got
cm-11-20141112-SNAPSHOT-M12-jem
and
cm-12.1-20161016-NIGHTLY-jem
I'm done with this device, but seems that a lot of people having trouble finding a good Android rom for it. I've tested bunch of other roms such as Candy 5 and Lineage 14 but none of them runs smoothly as CM11.
CM12 is a bit laggy compared to CM11 but both are pretty usable. If you don't mind older 4.4 then use CM11. If you don't mind a bit lag use CM12.
My dad, however (the device is my dad's) manage to get it into bootloop multiple times with CM11, I don't know how; probably because bunch of "booster" craps he installed there, while on my test with daily regular use for about two weeks or so, seems to be VERY stable.
The device itself however, is waaay too old and outdated for more hardware intesive like 3D games and such. I cannot even get the dynamic background on Retroarch, so I don't bother trying it at all. For other casual stuffs, just some very rare occasional hangs while watching youtube, but that's all as far as I can remember. Chrome works well too. 1080p movies can play well with MXPlayer pro.
But in the end rather than get naggings by my dad about the bootloops, I decided to restore it to stock and let him get the apps from amazon appstore. Just so you know that not everybody get the same smooth experience as I do. As my experience goes, CM11 is the best rom for this device. But not to my dad.
Both roms (CM11 and 12) are intended for 8.9" kindle fire JEM (NOT tate)
With that in mind, I have no more use for the roms. So rather than being left to dust and forgotten, any idea where I can upload these roms so it stays online forever? They're about 200 megs each, so about 500 megs.
If there's no good free space/file transfer service, I'm uploading these to Degoo, since I don't use it at all despite its generous space, and probably will forgot about it in the future and it'll stay there forever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These roms are already on XDA.

Pix12 said:
These roms are already on XDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay then I'm deleting these roms. It's just that most people on the CM for Jem thread are having difficulties finding the download links.
If it is available here, there's no use of me keeping them. I've converted my dad's Kindle Jem back to stock anyway.

stubbe said:
Okay then I'm deleting these roms. It's just that most people on the CM for Jem thread are having difficulties finding the download links.
If it is available here, there's no use of me keeping them. I've converted my dad's Kindle Jem back to stock anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://web.archive.org/web/20161224214824/https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=jem
Sent from my PH-1 using XDA Labs

sd_shadow said:
http://web.archive.org/web/20161224214824/https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=jem
Sent from my PH-1 using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow archive.org works with files too huh. I never realize that before.
Thanks!
In that case, is there any way to get the latest liquidsmooth rom for jem?
I might try it once again see if it's more stable than CM.
I've tried both direct link to
http://www.drdevs.com/devs/teamliquid/Milestone/Kindle_Fire_HD_8.9/
and XDA thread
https://forum.xda-developers.com/kindle-fire-hd/8-9-development/rom-liquidsmooth-v3-1-t2822230
but shown
Hrm.
The Wayback Machine has not archived that URL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't seem to find other link besides that drdevs.com one

stubbe said:
Wow archive.org works with files too huh. I never realize that before.
Thanks!
In that case, is there any way to get the latest liquidsmooth rom for jem?
I might try it once again see if it's more stable than CM.
I've tried both direct link to
http://www.drdevs.com/devs/teamliquid/Milestone/Kindle_Fire_HD_8.9/
and XDA thread
https://forum.xda-developers.com/kindle-fire-hd/8-9-development/rom-liquidsmooth-v3-1-t2822230
but shown
I can't seem to find other link besides that drdevs.com one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many download sites don't allow remote indexing or whatever Wayback machine needs to copy the site and files.

sd_shadow said:
Many download sites don't allow remote indexing or whatever Wayback machine needs to copy the site and files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aww okay then
thanks BTW

Further to this post
i have all cyanogen/lineage (including Temaseks) roms for kindle firehd 8.9 (12-14)
not wanting to mirror them without the devs permission but if anyone needs them @ tag me and i can pm a mega.nz link to my cloud.
I also have working KFHD FirstAide and KFHD SRT1 and 2 as well as stock 8.5.1 and boot.imgs for anybody struggling to find working links
Respect

@Bertonumber1 Like o get a hold of those roms for the 8.9 jem. Have a few and like to pass to younger grandkids so they can tear them up wile learning