Directions:

1. Download the ZEN V Plus firmware 1.32.01 here. It’s last update was in 07, so I don’t think there’s going to be a newer version, but if there somehow is, follow the “DIY” instructions in the next section to do it manually.
2. Make a copy of the ZENVPlus_PCFW_L22_1_32_01.exe file you just downloaded. Name it ZENV_Patch.exe.
3. Patch ZENV_Patch.exe with this IPS file using any IPS patching utility.
4. Run ZENV_Patch.exe and let it reboot your Zen V.
5. Now, you should be getting an error on the device. THIS IS NORMAL. The firmware update should fail and put you in recovery mode.
6. In recovery mode on the Zen, choose “Reload Firmware”
7. Now, on your PC, force quit ZENV_Patch.exe and open up ZENVPlus_PCFW_L22_1_32_01.exe
8. Wait until the update is done, and your Zen V is now a Zen V Plus!

DIY

Now, how does this work? Well, basically the first “firmware update” with ZENV_Patch.exe makes the device think it’s a Zen V Plus, and the second update with the official file actually copies the firmware on. ZENV_Patch.exe is just the Zen V Plus updater hex-edited to run on the Zen V. You can make your own ZENV_Patch.exe by taking the official update, opening a HEX editor, and replacing every instance of “C.r.e.a.t.i.v.e. .Z.e.n. .P.l.u.s” to “C.r.e.a.t.i.v.e. .Z.e.n” (Please note that the periods represent the ASCII character 00 (null)). After doing so, the updater will accept the Zen V.

Now, maybe one day, I’ll port RockBox or something to it…

Part 1: Prerequisites

• Get a root shell of your Kindle. If you don’t know, Google “usbNetworking”
• A Linux computer for compiling code
• Amazon’s sources for your version of the Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200203720
• An ARM cross-compiler. You can compile Amazon’s code, or if you’re lazy, use CodeSourcery’s precompiled toolchain: http://www.codesourcery.com/sgpp/lite/arm
• The following packages, get them from your distro’s repo: libncurses-dev (for menuconfig), uboot-mkimage (for making the kernel image), and module-init-tools (depmod)

Part 2: Compiling the kernel

1. Extract the source to anywhere. If you can’t decide, use “~/src/kernel/” and “cd” to the source files.
2. Now, you need to configure for the Kindle, type “make mario_mx_defconfig“
3. Edit the “.config” file and look for the line that starts with “CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE“. We don’t need that, delete that line or comment (#) it out.
4. Here’s the part were you make all your modifications to the kernel. You might want to do “make menuconfig” and add extra drivers/modules. I’ll wait while you do that.
5. Back? Let’s do the actual compiling. Type the following: “make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=~/CodeSourcery/Sourcery_G++_Lite/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi- uImage”. This will make the kernel image. I assume you installed CodeSourcery’s cross compiler to your home folder (default). If your cross compiler is elsewhere, change the command to match it.
6. Compile the modules into a compressed TAR archive (for easy moving to the kindle): “make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=~/CodeSourcery/Sourcery_G++_Lite/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi- targz-pkg” (again, if your cross compiler is installed to a different location, change it).
7. For some reason, depmod refuses to run with the compile script, so we’re going to do it manually. Do the following “depmod -ae -F System.map -b tar-install -r 2.6.22.19-lab126 -n > modules.dep” Change 2.6.22.19-lab126 to your compiled kernel version.
8. Open modules.dep up with a text editor and do a search & replace. Replace all instances of “kernel/” with “/lib/modules/2.6.22.19-lab126/kernel/” (again, use your version string). I’m not sure this is needed, but better safe then brick.
9. Now copy arch/arm/boot/uImage, linux-2.6.22.19-lab126.tar.gz (or whatever your version is), and modules.dep to an easy to access location.

Part 3: Installing on Kindle

1. Connect the Kindle to your computer, and open up the storage device. Copy the three files you moved from the previous part to your Kindle via USB.
2. This part is mostly commands, so get a root shell to your Kindle, and do the following commands line by line. Again, anywhere the version string “2.6.22.19-lab126” is used, change it to your kernel’s version. Explanation follows.

mv /mnt/us/linux-2.6.22.19-lab126.tar.gz /mnt/us/modules.dep /mnt/us/uImage /tmp

mv /lib/modules /lib/modules.old

cd /tmp & tar xvzf /tmp/linux-2.6.22.19-lab126.tar.gz

mv lib/modules /lib/

chmod 644 modules.dep

mv modules.dep /lib/modules/2.6.22.19-lab126/

/test/flashtools/update-kernel-both uImage

sync

shutdown -r now

Wow, that’s a lot of commands. What did that do? Well, line by line:

1. Move the files we compiled to the temp folder. That way, we don’t have to clean up.
2. Back up the old kernel modules
3. Go to the temp folder and untar the modules
4. Install the modules
5. Correct the permissions for the modules.dep file (in case something happened after copying from your computer)
6. Move the module dependencies list to it’s correct folder.
7. Flash the kernel (I don’t know why it has to be flashed twice to two different partitions, but if you don’t, it won’t load, maybe sig checks?)
8. Make sure everything is finished writing
9. Reboot

ASCIIMan Project Page

P.S: I updated Josh again, I converted the whole project to NetBeans, my new found love.

Also, I documented the whole thing, so: JoshDoc.

-Doesn’t crash if no geolocation is found

-Multiple commands separated by period.

-Update shout

-Update Twitter/Facebook

-Removed debug logging (it showed things down a bit)

-Commands that begin with “set” ignores the word “set”, this way your sentences can flow better.

Some new commands:

Set a shout

Status is “I’m shopping”

Update Twitter, facebook, or both

Show twitter

Show facebook

Show twitter and facebook

Multiple commands

Search around me for “best buy”. Set status to “buying a new computer”. Show twitter & facebook. Checkin to result 0.

Remember, you can always throw in extra words outside of quotes. Only the first word, quotes, and (if no quotes), the last word are read.

http://www.yifanlu.com/p/tweetbot

So, the only features are: search foursquare, checkin to foursquare, and greet the user. To use it, you need to set up two twitter accounts, one for the client (you will tweet commands from here) and one for the server (the server will use this account to tweet). Make the client follow the server and the server follow the client. Make sure your twitter client supports geotags. If your tweet doesn’t have a geotag, the listener will crash. (I know, stupid)

Again, you MUST have a geotag with every tweet.

http://www.yifanlu.com/p/tweetbot

To search, tweet:

Search for “restaurant”

Note: You MUST put the quotes for the search to work. For all commands, the server only reads “key” words. That’s the first word and any word in quotes. You can type in

Search for some shitty “restaurant” up in this bitch

and it’ll work just fine. For search, if you don’t have any words in quotes, then you’ll just get a list of 10 closest venues.

Now, the server will return top ten results near you, in two tweets (a random character appearing at the end of server tweets is not a bug, I did that because Twitter rejects any two tweets that are identical).

0: Random Chinese Restaurant

1: Some Mexican Restaurant

2: Another Crappy Restaurant

and so on, to check in to “Another Crappy Restaurant”, tweet

Checkin 2

If you know the name of the venue, you don’t have to search, you can just tweet.

Checkin to “another crappy restaurant”

That’s basically it.

Now, about the spaghetti code, here’s some of the things I used: depreciated methods, tons of try-catch just to bypass errors (no actual error handling), bad variable name and no documentation, bad code flow, usage of Runtime.getRuntime().exec() to call cURL because I was too lazy to write a proper HTTP controller which is a security and stability issue, use of reflections with data across the internet, and so much more. My hope is that someone will take it and fix it up or something, because I’m too tired to do anything about it.

Google Apps User Registration Script

1. I stopped being cheap and finally bought www.yifanlu.com
2. Thanks to WPTouch, the site can be viewed on the iPhone & Android with ease
3. Added a contact form
4. Made tweaks here and there in the designs, fixed some typos & style errors

Also, quick update: I’m still working on that Facebook app, with all the homework and exams, I barely have any free time, however, here’s some screens on Facebook.

More information in Facebook.