Last week I posted a video showing how to jailbreak Kindles and install KOReader using the new Vera jailbreak, and so far I’m liking it a lot, but the Kindle’s annoying screensaver ads made me not want to use the device, and KOReader’s default homescreen and library view is pretty inelegant.
The first thing I wanted to do was figure out how to get rid of the hideous screensaver ads. I know it’s silly, but the ads are the thing I hate most about Kindles, having to see them every single time you turn on your Kindle, and having to swipe the screen to get past them is the worst. Actually, the swiping requirement disappeared after jailbreaking, but I still hated seeing the same ugly ad over and over again, and I’ve already paid Amazon like 5 times to remove ads on previous Kindles and I’m not doing it again.
Anyway, getting rid of the screensaver ad is really easy on jailbroken Kindles. This is what you do:
How to Disable Ads on Jailbroken Kindles
1. Download the Disable Ads scriplet.
2. If your Kindle is running KOReader, exit KOReader to go to the main Kindle interface (or your computer won’t detect your Kindle as a USB drive).
3. Put the downloaded disable_ads.sh file in the documents folder on your Kindle.
4. Disconnect your Kindle from the computer, go to the library, and click the Disable Ads file. Your Kindle will reboot and then it should be ad-free. You can delete that file after it’s finished.
After that’s done, you can enable the option to show book covers from the stock user interface if you want to (by default it will show random screensaver images). Go to Settings > Screen and brightness > Show covers on lock screen.
You can also set KOReader to show book covers on the sleep screen, or use custom images instead. In KOReader, hit the gear settings icon, then go to Screen > Sleep screen > Wallpaper to set it up. You can also edit the message that appears on the sleep screen.
How to Install Simple UI on Jailbroken Kindles
1. Download the Simple UI plugin from GitHub, and extract the zip file.
2. Again, if your Kindle is running KOReader, exit it so your computer will detect your Kindle when you plug it in with the USB cable.
3. Put the simpleui.koplugin folder inside the “plugins” folder on your Kindle that’s located inside the koreader folder on your Kindle’s drive.
The next time you launch KOReader on your Kindle you’ll be asked to configure the plugin to your liking. See the Simple UI GitHub page for directions and explanations on how everything works.
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