Rooted Kindle Fire 2nd Generation (2012-12-24)

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So, I got this KF less than 24-hours ago and just gained root.
How I did this was not easy, painful, alarming and just plain scary, actually. But, I'm persistent and I have a 30-day return policy. :silly:

Anyway, I'm using Windows 7 X64-bit. I was kind of disappointed when I learned my Kindle Fire was a 2nd Generation (which I learned as I was following the 1st Generation root guide) because it had not been rooted yet and no guides were available.

At one point, I thought I had bricked it as the screen went black. I couldn't power down or anything and I ended up calling Amazon. They instructed me to hold the power button for 20 seconds until it shuts off, then plug in my power source and start it up. It fixed it and everything has been smooth since.

Ok, enough of that, here's how I gained root:

On the Device:

From the home screen, pull down the Notification bar and press "More..." on the top right corner of the settings bar.
Navigate to Device -> "Allow Installation of Applications" and set to "On".
Click Back then Security -> "Enable ADB" and set to "On"
Plug the Kindle Fire factory USB cord into the device and into the computer.
Hold down the power button and choose "Shut Down"
Push the power button again to Power on the device.

Now, assuming you have the android sdk in your system and drivers are all installed and adb recognizes the device
You can open a command prompt window from the folder where adb is located by holding SHIFT and right-click anywhere is the folder then choose "Open command window here". In the command prompt type:
Code:
adb devices
press enter and it should see your device.
If no devices are listed your drivers are not properly installed.

Once that was done, I proceeded...

The first thing I had tried was the Kinde Fire Utility
That was a complete waste of time and did nothing.

Then I tried another method that I had found on another forum HERE

At first, I kept getting errors:
Code:
shell@android:/ $ rm -r /data/local/tmp
rm -r /data/local/tmp
rm failed for /data/local/tmp, Permission denied

So, I tried @sparkym3's method that same thread linked me to HERE.

That's when my device started flickering like crazy. I slowly navigated to the "Restore to Factory Defaults" in the Device option of the Settings menu. The device restored and everything looked fine until, out of nowhere, the screen flickered a bit, then went black. I could clearly see the device was on but, nothing was on the screen. When I pressed the power button it would blink green but, nothing would happen. So, I called Amazon's Kindle support line @ 1-866-216-1072 (I write that number because it is very difficult to find on their website).
They instructed me to hold the power button in for 20 seconds, they even counted with me, until the device shut off. Then, they had me plug the device into the wall using the plug (which did not come with the device, mind you) and power the device back on.
It worked and my device was fixed and then they told me to leave it alone and let it fully charge, which I did.

I decided i was just going to wait for someone else to root and not worry about it yet but, curiousity got the best of me and I decided once more to try the method listed HERE, which to my amazement, now worked. :victory:

The screen started to flicker a bit as I was going through the steps and I rebooted the device once more when all the steps were completed. I opened the superuser app and made sure it was updated. I downloaded and installed Titanium Backup from their website and allowed su permissions. The device is rooted and everything is working.

I hope this helps to those who wish to root their Kindle Fire (Non-HD) 2nd Generation.

**Also, as a note, my device is running the latest version 10.2.1.
And, I apologize for my poor spelling.
****
Once rooted, I installed "ES File Explorer" from their website and set the prefrences for root.

Then I followed THIS GUIDE and installed Google Play Store.

(2012-12-24) UPDATED ROOT FOR v10.2.4
 
Last edited:

uToTMeH8

Senior Member
Dec 6, 2011
361
115
MA
I think there will be a lot more people in the 2nd Gen forum since the Cyber Monday sale. I figured I would save $70 and have a ghetto Nexus 7. Really wish I had done more research before I bought it because I had no idea there was even a 2nd generation Kindle let alone a locked bootloader. :mad:
 
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davedophin

Senior Member
Sep 23, 2010
78
9
I used the qemu method from the hd fire, worked like a charm, but only on 32bit windows. Now I have play store and so on but I am still thinking about returning it and going for the nexus 7.

Gesendet von meinem HTC Desire mit Tapatalk 2
 
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Torpedro1978

Senior Member
Oct 4, 2009
53
8
Salzburg (AT)
I used the qemu method from the hd fire, worked like a charm, but only on 32bit windows. Now I have play store and so on but I am still thinking about returning it and going for the nexus 7.

Gesendet von meinem HTC Desire mit Tapatalk 2

Rooting my kindle with the quemu method worked for me also, and i used Win8x64.
Only thing not working as expected is google calendar, it only uses the Amazon Version and this cannot sync multiple calendars like on my Galaxy R.
 
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Reactions: BookCase

akira02rex

Senior Member
Nov 7, 2010
1,564
348
I bought one as well about a month ago, not knowing there was a "2nd gen" version. Boy was I shocked.. I returned it the next day. F'ing BS Amazon! You guys spend more money learning how to lock down these devices and stifeling development than it is worth.
 

433Mhz

Senior Member
Nov 12, 2009
212
72
I bought one as well about a month ago, not knowing there was a "2nd gen" version. Boy was I shocked.. I returned it the next day. F'ing BS Amazon! You guys spend more money learning how to lock down these devices and stifeling development than it is worth.

yeah **** them for selling a subsidized device and trying to get their money back...

stop whining if you are too lazy to inform youtself.
 

chronicfathead

Senior Member
Mar 23, 2008
741
225
Sleaford, Lincs
I have just been bought one as a Christmas gift. I am more than happy with a £99 Kindle with 1gb ram and 1.2ghz dual core processor.

People are starting to root them, which opens them up slightly, which is a bonus. I've been burned with my Atrix, but I'm still happy with my £99 colour tablet.

I'm also quite confident that Amazon hasn't gone out of its way to lock the Fire down more than the Fire v1, so it should just be a matter of time before it's cracked wide open.

Sent using my Jelly fingers.
 

chrisw05

Senior Member
Dec 30, 2007
65
1
Well its been awhile since i have been here on the xda forums all they way since the touch pro 2 or tilt 2 whatever one came out last. Ordered my kindle fire 2 for whatever the discount price was last week and payed for overnight shipping got all excited the night before it shipped reading all the new roms i was gonna flash the next day and bam its the updated version so no go for roms but i did get rooted with the qemu method after a couple tries. biggest hurdle i has was when it says you may have to unplug your device and plug it in every time i had to do just that.
 

HellSassa69

Senior Member
Mar 4, 2009
115
7
Thanks I got my Kindle fire 2 rooted now (bought it on the last weekend cybermonday deal).

Am I right that atm there are no custom roms for the fire aviable? So the only option is to sit tight or take action and develope a methode myselfe?
 

johnnysnavely

Member
Jul 22, 2011
43
0
Permissions problem - how did you fix it?

I am getting the permissions problem you had - driving me nuts! Any idea how to fix that?


So, I got this KF less than 24-hours ago and just gained root.
How I did this was not easy, painful, alarming and just plain scary, actually. But, I'm persistent and I have a 30-day return policy. :silly:

Anyway, I'm using Windows 7 X64-bit. I was kind of disappointed when I learned my Kindle Fire was a 2nd Generation (which I learned as I was following the 1st Generation root guide) because it had not been rooted yet and no guides were available.

At one point, I thought I had bricked it as the screen went black. I couldn't power down or anything and I ended up calling Amazon. They instructed me to hold the power button for 20 seconds until it shuts off, then plug in my power source and start it up. It fixed it and everything has been smooth since.

Ok, enough of that, here's how I gained root:

On the Device:

From the home screen, pull down the Notification bar and press "More..." on the top right corner of the settings bar.
Navigate to Device -> "Allow Installation of Applications" and set to "On".
Click Back then Security -> "Enable ADB" and set to "On"
Plug the Kindle Fire factory USB cord into the device and into the computer.
Hold down the power button and choose "Shut Down"
Push the power button again to Power on the device.

Now, assuming you have the android sdk in your system and drivers are all installed and adb recognizes the device
You can open a command prompt window from the folder where adb is located by holding SHIFT and right-click anywhere is the folder then choose "Open command window here". In the command prompt type:
Code:
adb devices
press enter and it should see your device.
If no devices are listed your drivers are not properly installed.

Once that was done, I proceeded...

The first thing I had tried was the Kinde Fire Utility
That was a complete waste of time and did nothing.

Then I tried another method that I had found on another forum HERE

At first, I kept getting errors:
Code:
shell@android:/ $ rm -r /data/local/tmp
rm -r /data/local/tmp
rm failed for /data/local/tmp, Permission denied

So, I tried @sparkym3's method that same thread linked me to HERE.

That's when my device started flickering like crazy. I slowly navigated to the "Restore to Factory Defaults" in the Device option of the Settings menu. The device restored and everything looked fine until, out of nowhere, the screen flickered a bit, then went black. I could clearly see the device was on but, nothing was on the screen. When I pressed the power button it would blink green but, nothing would happen. So, I called Amazon's Kindle support line @ 1-866-216-1072 (I write that number because it is very difficult to find on their website).
They instructed me to hold the power button in for 20 seconds, they even counted with me, until the device shut off. Then, they had me plug the device into the wall using the plug (which did not come with the device, mind you) and power the device back on.
It worked and my device was fixed and then they told me to leave it alone and let it fully charge, which I did.

I decided i was just going to wait for someone else to root and not worry about it yet but, curiousity got the best of me and I decided once more to try the method listed HERE, which to my amazement, now worked. :victory:

The screen started to flicker a bit as I was going through the steps and I rebooted the device once more when all the steps were completed. I opened the superuser app and made sure it was updated. I downloaded and installed Titanium Backup from their website and allowed su permissions. The device is rooted and everything is working.

I hope this helps to those who wish to root their Kindle Fire (Non-HD) 2nd Generation.

**Also, as a note, my device is running the latest version 10.2.1.
And, I apologize for my poor spelling.
****
Once rooted, I installed "ES File Explorer" from their website and set the prefrences for root.

Then I followed THIS GUIDE and installed Google Play Store.
 

akira02rex

Senior Member
Nov 7, 2010
1,564
348
yeah **** them for selling a subsidized device and trying to get their money back...

stop whining if you are too lazy to inform youtself.

You still don't get it. Its not worth the time and money they put in to lock it down just as it is with every other phone or tablet put there. It ends up getting unlocked anyway - so what good did all of that do for them? NOTHING

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 

Hearnbiz

Senior Member
Jun 1, 2012
375
320
Palm Coast
You still don't get it. Its not worth the time and money they put in to lock it down just as it is with every other phone or tablet put there. It ends up getting unlocked anyway - so what good did all of that do for them? NOTHING

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

It may be worth the time and money to Amazon because the longer it takes us to crack the bootloader the longer gen 2 owners will be getting all their apps and content from Amazon app store $$$$. They make it difficult buying them several extra months worth of elevated revenue. So far it seems to working as there are no custom roms and barely a solid root method :( Lucky for me I have the 1st gen rooted on custom rom:) sorry for the salt :p but I was thinking of getting a gen 2 so that's why I've been lurking over here.
 

jodykw1982

New member
Dec 1, 2012
3
0
Unsuccessful Root

I've got the Kindle Fire 7 HD, system version is 7.2.1_user_2040020.

I've tried the qemu root method which says it roots the device at step 5 but any app that tries to get root access like ES File Explorer is unable to do so.

I then tried this method:
----------------------------------------
adb shell
rm -r /data/local/tmp
ln -s /data/ /data/local/tmp
exit

adb reboot

adb shell
echo 'ro.kernel.qemu=1' > /data/local.prop
exit

adb reboot

adb shell mount -o remount,rw /system
adb push su /system/xbin/su
adb shell
chown 0.0 /system/xbin/su
chmod 06755 /system/xbin/su
rm /data/local.prop
exit

adb reboot

adb install Superuser.apk

------------------------------------------

Every command takes and I don't get any permission denies but in the end no app is able to get root access.

Anybody have success rooting this device?
 

pLiDeX

Member
Dec 2, 2012
14
3
I also bought it with the Cyber Monday deal thinking I could flash it :(

When you guys say to do the qemu method you mean the one in this thread?

What drivers should I use? I have installed the drivers that come with KFU and I was able to flash my brother's KF1, I see that in that topic's attachments there is a zip of the KF HD drivers, are those the same drivers that I already have? If not, which one should I use?

Thanks
 

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    So, I got this KF less than 24-hours ago and just gained root.
    How I did this was not easy, painful, alarming and just plain scary, actually. But, I'm persistent and I have a 30-day return policy. :silly:

    Anyway, I'm using Windows 7 X64-bit. I was kind of disappointed when I learned my Kindle Fire was a 2nd Generation (which I learned as I was following the 1st Generation root guide) because it had not been rooted yet and no guides were available.

    At one point, I thought I had bricked it as the screen went black. I couldn't power down or anything and I ended up calling Amazon. They instructed me to hold the power button for 20 seconds until it shuts off, then plug in my power source and start it up. It fixed it and everything has been smooth since.

    Ok, enough of that, here's how I gained root:

    On the Device:

    From the home screen, pull down the Notification bar and press "More..." on the top right corner of the settings bar.
    Navigate to Device -> "Allow Installation of Applications" and set to "On".
    Click Back then Security -> "Enable ADB" and set to "On"
    Plug the Kindle Fire factory USB cord into the device and into the computer.
    Hold down the power button and choose "Shut Down"
    Push the power button again to Power on the device.

    Now, assuming you have the android sdk in your system and drivers are all installed and adb recognizes the device
    You can open a command prompt window from the folder where adb is located by holding SHIFT and right-click anywhere is the folder then choose "Open command window here". In the command prompt type:
    Code:
    adb devices
    press enter and it should see your device.
    If no devices are listed your drivers are not properly installed.

    Once that was done, I proceeded...

    The first thing I had tried was the Kinde Fire Utility
    That was a complete waste of time and did nothing.

    Then I tried another method that I had found on another forum HERE

    At first, I kept getting errors:
    Code:
    shell@android:/ $ rm -r /data/local/tmp
    rm -r /data/local/tmp
    rm failed for /data/local/tmp, Permission denied

    So, I tried @sparkym3's method that same thread linked me to HERE.

    That's when my device started flickering like crazy. I slowly navigated to the "Restore to Factory Defaults" in the Device option of the Settings menu. The device restored and everything looked fine until, out of nowhere, the screen flickered a bit, then went black. I could clearly see the device was on but, nothing was on the screen. When I pressed the power button it would blink green but, nothing would happen. So, I called Amazon's Kindle support line @ 1-866-216-1072 (I write that number because it is very difficult to find on their website).
    They instructed me to hold the power button in for 20 seconds, they even counted with me, until the device shut off. Then, they had me plug the device into the wall using the plug (which did not come with the device, mind you) and power the device back on.
    It worked and my device was fixed and then they told me to leave it alone and let it fully charge, which I did.

    I decided i was just going to wait for someone else to root and not worry about it yet but, curiousity got the best of me and I decided once more to try the method listed HERE, which to my amazement, now worked. :victory:

    The screen started to flicker a bit as I was going through the steps and I rebooted the device once more when all the steps were completed. I opened the superuser app and made sure it was updated. I downloaded and installed Titanium Backup from their website and allowed su permissions. The device is rooted and everything is working.

    I hope this helps to those who wish to root their Kindle Fire (Non-HD) 2nd Generation.

    **Also, as a note, my device is running the latest version 10.2.1.
    And, I apologize for my poor spelling.
    ****
    Once rooted, I installed "ES File Explorer" from their website and set the prefrences for root.

    Then I followed THIS GUIDE and installed Google Play Store.

    (2012-12-24) UPDATED ROOT FOR v10.2.4
    2
    How I re-rooted the KF2 after much aggrivation and little sleep

    Does the above work On 10.2.4?

    Actually, I just re-rooted but, was not that simple. Had to do some manual commands using adb to push su and whatnot. Took several fails, too.

    Credits to all of XDA-devs

    First thing you have to do tho is: Navigate to your Android SDK folder and download the newer drivers for the KF2 then update the drivers in Windows. Launch "Android SDK Manager" then click Tools then "Manage Addon Sites". In the next window, click the tab at the top titled, "User Defined Sites". Then, click "New" and add this line:
    Next: install the Gen 2 drivers and anything else you are missing from the Android 4.0.3 package.
    5cc788fa93aee237cc095f51949a50fa.png


    Then: Using "Device Manager" in Windows, update the drivers for your Kindle and reboot your computer.

    Then, do this: Root_with_Restore_by_Bin4ry_v18

    Then use this: tf101_ics_root.zip

    Then download this:


    Then: unzip or unrar that and take "Superuser.apk" from the system\app folder and "su" from system\bin and paste them in the
    "adt-bundle-windows\sdk\platform-tools" directory.

    Then while in "adt-bundle-windows\sdk\platform-tools", hold "Shift" while right-clicking anywhere in the folder that is empty and choose, "Open Command Window Here"

    In the Command Window:
    Code:
    adb devices
    
    adb shell
    
    rm -r /data/local/tmp
    ln -s /data/ /data/local/tmp
    
    exit
    
    adb reboot
    
    adb devices
    
    adb shell
    echo 'ro.kernel.qemu=1' > /data/local.prop
    exit
    
    adb reboot
    
    adb devices
    
    adb shell mount -o remount,rw /system
    adb push su /system/xbin/su
    adb shell
    chown 0.0 /system/xbin/su
    chmod 06755 /system/xbin/su
    rm /data/local.prop
    exit
    
    adb reboot
    
    adb install Superuser.apk

    You should now be rooted. Open the superuser app and make sure it's up to date and working.

    If after any of these commands you get "permissions denied" you have to start over.

    Once Rooted, Follow this thread to prevent future updates from Amazon: How to prevent uncommanded updates from amazon

    I'll attach that "Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip" at the bottom here:
    md5: b3c89f46f014c9df7d23b94d37386b8a
    1
    I think there will be a lot more people in the 2nd Gen forum since the Cyber Monday sale. I figured I would save $70 and have a ghetto Nexus 7. Really wish I had done more research before I bought it because I had no idea there was even a 2nd generation Kindle let alone a locked bootloader. :mad:
    1
    I used the qemu method from the hd fire, worked like a charm, but only on 32bit windows. Now I have play store and so on but I am still thinking about returning it and going for the nexus 7.

    Gesendet von meinem HTC Desire mit Tapatalk 2
    1
    If today your still having problems, download Root with Restore by Bn4ry and use the old (#5) method

    Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA-Developers mobile app
    2 years later lol

    Sent from my SM-G930T using XDA-Developers mobile app