How to root a Kindle Fire (and install custom ROMs)
What you'll need.
Firstly, I need to start out saying if you can afford to donate to the developer (Vashypooh on XDA) do it. Without his code your life would be a living hell trying to get this rooted.
With that said, let's get started with the guide.
This guide assume you have basic technological knowledge, and your kindle fire already has USB debugging, and 3rd party apps enabled.
To start you're going to need to download Kindle Fire utility and extract it to your desktop. From there open up "Install_drivers.bat". This will install the necessary drivers for the utility to communicate with your Kindle.
After your drivers are installed go into your device manager to make sure your kindle fire show up as "Android ADB interface". To do this follow these steps.
Assuming the previous steps were successful you can close the device manager and go back to the Kindle Fire Utility folder.
Open "run.bat". Once the command prompt window is open make sure that it says "ADB status online". I cannot stress how important this is!!! This is the confirmation that your kindle is setup properly.
If the previous is true, choose option 3. This will copy over a .apk file that will root your device.
After you've completed this and Kindle Fire Utility says everything is ok, press any key and it will close the window. After you do this restart your Kindle and you should see the "Superuser" application has been added to your device. This is confirmation that your fire has been rooted successfully.
How to install custom roms
This assumes you already have a ROM saved on your SD card.
Connect your Kindle to your computer and go back into Kindle Fire utility. This time select option 5 at the menu.
This will install TWRP recovery onto your device. This process is fairly straight forward, and it will tell you when it's completed. So after this process is finished you should reboot and see this.
Press the power button to go into recovery.
Once you're in you're going to want to click the backup button to make a full backup.
Once you're finished with the backup go Wipe>System and then click the Cache button once the system wipe is complete.
Press the install button and choose your .zip. In this tutorial we're using This ROM.
Once you've touched your .zip and pressed the "Flash" button your kindle will do all the work. All you need to do is reboot and you're enjoying your new ROM!
If you get any errors during the install process 99% of the time it's nothing. If there's a problem contact the ROM developer for assistance.
Sorry for the camera screenshot, for some reason no screenshot apps work on this rom.
- Kindle Fire Utility
- Windows (If you're on a mac/linux use a VM)
Firstly, I need to start out saying if you can afford to donate to the developer (Vashypooh on XDA) do it. Without his code your life would be a living hell trying to get this rooted.
With that said, let's get started with the guide.
This guide assume you have basic technological knowledge, and your kindle fire already has USB debugging, and 3rd party apps enabled.
To start you're going to need to download Kindle Fire utility and extract it to your desktop. From there open up "Install_drivers.bat". This will install the necessary drivers for the utility to communicate with your Kindle.
After your drivers are installed go into your device manager to make sure your kindle fire show up as "Android ADB interface". To do this follow these steps.
- Click your taskbar
- Right click "My computer"
- Click on manager
- Go to device manager in the right hand column.
Assuming the previous steps were successful you can close the device manager and go back to the Kindle Fire Utility folder.
Open "run.bat". Once the command prompt window is open make sure that it says "ADB status online". I cannot stress how important this is!!! This is the confirmation that your kindle is setup properly.
If the previous is true, choose option 3. This will copy over a .apk file that will root your device.
After you've completed this and Kindle Fire Utility says everything is ok, press any key and it will close the window. After you do this restart your Kindle and you should see the "Superuser" application has been added to your device. This is confirmation that your fire has been rooted successfully.
How to install custom roms
This assumes you already have a ROM saved on your SD card.
Connect your Kindle to your computer and go back into Kindle Fire utility. This time select option 5 at the menu.
This will install TWRP recovery onto your device. This process is fairly straight forward, and it will tell you when it's completed. So after this process is finished you should reboot and see this.
Press the power button to go into recovery.
Once you're in you're going to want to click the backup button to make a full backup.
Once you're finished with the backup go Wipe>System and then click the Cache button once the system wipe is complete.
Press the install button and choose your .zip. In this tutorial we're using This ROM.
Once you've touched your .zip and pressed the "Flash" button your kindle will do all the work. All you need to do is reboot and you're enjoying your new ROM!
If you get any errors during the install process 99% of the time it's nothing. If there's a problem contact the ROM developer for assistance.
Sorry for the camera screenshot, for some reason no screenshot apps work on this rom.