Problem

There is an error in the RunDebian.sh that prevents checking for the existence of debian.ext3.

The RunDebian.sh script uses the following line of code to check if the debian.ext3 file is in the same directory as RunDebian.sh:

if [ -a debian.ext3 ]

This check fails with an error, on the kindle as well as on my Linux computer. The following line of code worked successfully:

if [ -f debian.ext3 ]

You can reproduce the issue as follows (replace all paths with real file paths):

mkdir test
cd test
cp /path/to/debian.ext3 . #copies debian.ext3 file to current directory
cp /path/to/RunDebian.sh . #copies RunDebian.sh to current directory
chmod a+x RunDebian.sh
./RunDebian.sh

After running the above commands, you will receive the following error (note that a slightly different error occurs on the kindle because it does not use /bin/bash, but /bin.sh):
[*] Looking for Debian...
./RunDebian.sh: 8: [: -a: unexpected operator
[!] Could not find Debian image!

Solution:

I was able to make that line of code work by replacing the -a flag with -f:

if [ -f debian.ext3 ]

Replace line 8 in the original RunDebian.sh script with the line above, and re-run it in your test directory, and you will see that it works.

Problem

The RunDebian.sh file contains several lines that call for parts of the root filesystem to be mounted to the chroot environment. However, the mount points it points to do not exist.

Upon running RunDebian.sh, the following errors are thrown:

[*] Looking for Debian...
[*] Found Debian image!
[*] Mounting rootfs...
mount: mount point /mnt/debian does not exist
[*] Preparing Filesystem...
mount: mount point /mnt/debian/dev does not exist
mount: mount point /mnt/debian/proc does not exist
mount: mount point /mnt/debian/sys does not exist
[*] Preparing Network...
cp: can't create '/mnt/debian/etc/hosts': No such file or directory
cp: can't stat '/etc/resolv.conf': No such file or directory
[*] Starting Shell...

chroot: can't change root directory to /mnt/debian: No such file or directory
[*] Unmounting rootfs...
umount: /mnt/debian/dev: not found
umount: /mnt/debian/proc: not found
umount: /mnt/debian/sys: not found
umount: /mnt/debian: not found

Solution (sort of...)

I incorporated the following lines of code into my fork's version of RunDebian.sh to check for the existence of the mount point directories /mnt/debian , /mnt/debian/dev, /mnt/debian/proc, and /mnt/debian/sys:

if [ -d /mnt/debian ]; then
    echo "[*]Mount point exists for debian"
else
    echo "[*]Creating mount point for debian"
    mkdir /mnt/debian
fi
if [ -d /mnt/debian/dev ] && [ -d /mnt/debian/proc ] && [ -d /mnt/debian/sys ]; then
    echo "[*]Mount points exist for proc sys and dev"
else
    echo "[*]Creating mount points for proc sys and dev"
    mkdir /mnt/debian/dev /mnt/debian/proc /mnt/debian/sys
fi

Unfortunately, after incorporating that check, there are more issues related to mounting, so it appears there are more underlying issues in mounting. I haven't had time to check those, but here are the new errors:

[*] Looking for Debian...
[*] Found Debian image!
[*] Mounting rootfs...
[*]Creating mount point for debian
[*]Creating mount points for proc sys and dev
[*] Preparing Filesystem...
mount: mount point /mnt/debian/dev does not exist
mount: mount point /mnt/debian/proc does not exist
mount: mount point /mnt/debian/sys does not exist
[*] Preparing Network...
cp: can't create '/mnt/debian/etc/hosts': No such file or directory
cp: can't stat '/etc/resolv.conf': No such file or directory
[*] Starting Shell...

chroot: can't execute '/bin/bash': No such file or directory
[*] Unmounting rootfs...
umount: /mnt/debian/dev: not found
umount: /mnt/debian/proc: not found
umount: /mnt/debian/sys: not found

It seems you forgot to add a license, unless I'm mistaken. A LICENSE.md file would do :)

Debian.ext3 is about 1.5GB for me, but seems to be at least 1gb of 0-padding. I haven't been able to move debian.ext3 to my root partition since mv /mnt/us/debian.ext3 / results in my KT2 running out of space.

Should the original image be made with a lower amount of blocks (say 300) when making the empty file with dd?

This is a shot in the dark, but could it be that one is the kindle with integrated ads on the homescreen, and one is not?

Problem

This is similar to Issue #3

The script uses if [ -a RunDebian.sh ] which returns an error of:
./UpdateInitScript.sh: 2: [: -a: unexpected operator

It should be:
if [ -f RunDebian.sh ]

Proof of Concept

Strip down the UpdateInitScript.sh to look like this:

#!/bin/sh
if [ -a 'RunDebian.sh' ]; then
    mv RunDebian.sh /bin/debian
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "[*] Installation succcessful..."
    else
        echo "[!] Debian init script installation failed!"
        echo "Are you root?"
        exit 5
    fi
else
    echo "[!] Debian init script does not exist!"
    echo "Please put RunDebian.sh in the root directory of the Kindle."
fi

Then do the following:

mkdir test && cd test
cp /path/to/RunDebian.sh .
cp /path/to/UpdateInitScript.sh .
./UpdadeInitScript.sh

You will receive the unexpected operator error.

Solution

Change it to:

if [ -f RunDebian.sh ]

Hi,

It looks like the instructions for how to install debian are cut off.

They stop during the "Downgrade your Kindle's operating system" section after explaining how to find your device's model and don't get to how to do the downgrade. I can kind of see how things would progress from looking at other rooting guides, but it's pure guesswork. (especially given all the different models and revisions)

There's also little explanation on how to use the files in the repo. I can kind of guess at it from reading them (it looks like one has to be run on a debian system, and two other have to be somehow copied to and run under the kindle's linux?)

A bit more explanation in this area would be really helpful.

Thanks for putting this together,
-Matt

First of all, the size of count is too large to fit in/in. But in the test, it was found that the soft connection with ln -s can also be mounted.
Second, because of http://ftp.us.debian.org/, the debian download directory becomes http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/.
Third, because of the Ubuntu line version, unmount becomes umount.
All changes I will upload.
Please change the suffix.

MakeImage.txt

ps: google translate. . . . . .

Is this only possible for a certain set of Kindles?