To get Amazon Fire 5th gen tablet rooted in Galway City...

The Belcher

Does anyone know if there is somewhere I could get the Amazon Fire 5th gen tablet rooted in Galway City? The Amazon launcher is terrible, I want to put a standard Android launcher on it. I know I can install launchers without rooting it but you cannot set them as a default option on start up. I have tried to root it myself but cannot get the drivers to load on my Windows10 laptop. Any help appreciated.

biko

Can you try using a mate's computer instead?

I don't know anyone who specifically roots phones but assume most tech places will give it a go as it's usually not hard to do.

duridian

The Belcher wrote: »

Does anyone know if there is somewhere I could get the Amazon Fire 5th gen tablet rooted in Galway City? The Amazon launcher is terrible, I want to put a standard Android launcher on it. I know I can install launchers without rooting it but you cannot set them as a default option on start up. I have tried to root it myself but cannot get the drivers to load on my Windows10 laptop. Any help appreciated.

I was in same boat as you yesterday, but now have a nicely Google-fied Fire running the Google Now Launcher and pretty much all Google's apps and services.

You actually do not need to root to make the Fire less Amazon-ey, but to kill of the Amazon launcher does require a special boot image. Here's the full rundown of what I did with mine.

You will need this driver for Windows 10 to work with Kindle Fire 2015 and ADB, Fastboot etc.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/android-sdk-manager/redist/kindle_fire_usb_driver.zip

The driver link is from Amazon themselves on their site:
https://developer.amazon.com/public/resources/development-tools/ide-tools/tech-docs/05-setting-up-your-kindle-fire-tablet-for-testing

Before you go about changing launcher (which is a PITA but do-able without rooting) you should first of all go about getting Google's Services and Playstore working.

Ultimately the only way to get rid of the Fire Launcher is to use some jiggery pokery which I will try to explain to delete it.
BUT IF YOU DELETE FIRE LAUNCHER WITHOUT ANOTHER LAUNCHER INSTALLED OR IF YOU UNINSTALL THE ONLY REMAINING NON-FIRE LAUNCHER THE TABLET WILL GO BANANAS AND IS TRICKY TO RECOVER! So please be aware of this before you go about doing this modification.

Here's the XDA page with info on getting Google services etc on the Fire.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/general/installing-google-framework-playstore-t3216122

I actually used a hybrid of these tools and my own method to do this, which I will describe as best I can.

0. I assume you have updated to Fire OS 5.0.1. If not please do so before proceeding.

1. Get your drivers installed.

2. Grab the "Amazon-Fire-5th-Gen-Install-Play-Store.zip" from the XDA page I linked above.

3. Unzip this and rename the resultant folder from "Amazon-Fire-5th-Gen-Install-Play-Store" to "amz" or something nice and short. Move this "amz" folder to the root of your C: drive, so that it is c:\amz

4. I noticed that the Playstore app and the Google Play Services app provided by the "Amazon-Fire-5th-Gen-Install-Play-Store.zip" are months old. So I suggest you grab most recent versions of these two apps from APKMirror to replace them.

(Most recent as of 28/11/2015) Playstore is at http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-store/google-play-store-6-0-0-android-apk-download/

and Play Services is at http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-services/google-play-services-8-4-89-2428711-236-android-apk-download/

It is important that you only get a version of Play Services 8 or newer ending in -236 as this is the correct DPI and correct build for the Fire tablet and Lollipop Android. Versions for other DPI or non-Lollipop versions of Android can cause problems.

Place these newer apks inside the c:\amz folder.


5. On the Fire, enable developer options.
Settings > Device Options > tap on Serial Number 7 times in succession.
Now below serial appears Developer Options > Enable ADB
Back to main Settings > Security > enable Apps from Unknown Sources.

6. Open a command prompt on your Pc and change directory to c:\amz
Copy/paste and press enter after each line.

cd c:\amz

7. I used manual commands based on the batch file from rootjunky, but modified to reflect the newer APK files.
First command lne is just to make sure the PC and Fire are talking.

adb devices

It should return some string of letters/numbers as an identifier for the Fire and you can proceed.
If it doesn't then the drivers aren't installed or not working.

Wait for a success message from each of the following install commands before going on to the next. The shell commands may or may not give feedback. I think second one does and the first doesn't. They relate to granting special permission to Google Services, without which it won't work, and the other command gets rid of any Amazon lockscreen advertising.

adb install com.google.android.gms_8.4.89_(2428711-236)-8489236_minAPI21(armeabi-v7a)(320dpi).apk

adb install GoogleLoginService.apk

adb install GoogleServicesFramework.apk

adb shell pm grant com.google.android.gms android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS

adb install com.android.vending_6.0.0-80430000_minAPI9(nodpi).apk

adb shell pm hide com.amazon.kindle.kso

and then reboot

adb reboot

8. Now at this point you should be able to test out the Playstore and see if it works. This should allow you to install most all of the Google apps except Google+ which is listed as incompatible (even though it works if you sideload). If you need Plus you can grab it from http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google/google-6-8-0-107974459-320dpi-android-apk-download/ , place it in c:\amz and sideload it. Again make sure to get a version that is meant for 320DPI or nodpi (universal).

adb install com.google.android.apps.plus_6.8.0.107974459-414637008_minAPI19(armeabi-v7a)(320dpi).apk

9. Before going about changing launcher, install your launcher of choice from the Playstore. I for example used the Google Now Launcher, but it is supposed to be okay with any alternative launcher like Nova, Apex, Go Launcher etc., etc.

10. For this step I am just going to copy/paste the instructions from XDA at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=63601630&postcount=58

Essentially it involves temporarilty booting from a modified boot image which allows you to removed the Fire Launcher app.

Working Launcher replacement thanks to @diegocr and @Awesomeslayerg ! Here's the steps:
See @diegocr post at http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...8&postcount=23 and download "boot-firelauncher.img"
Enable USB debugging
Install your launcher of choice!
On your computer, run
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
Once your tablet reboots in to fastboot, run on your computer (if you are not in the same directory as boot-firelauncher.img, put the full path):
Code:
fastboot boot boot-firelauncher.img
Tablet will reboot
Once booted open an adb shell:
Code:
adb shell
To back up the existing app, run:
Code:
cp /system/priv-app/com.amazon.firelauncher/com.amazon.firelauncher.apk /sdcard/Download/com.amazon.firelauncher.apk
Then nuke it!
Code:
rm /system/priv-app/com.amazon.firelauncher/com.amazon.firelauncher.apk
Now, run to restart your device:
Code:
reboot

Confirmed working on my tablet with FireOS 5.0.1.

Enjoy!

11. One last thing you may wish to do is disabling the automatic over the air updates from Amazon. The reason being that you could wake up some morning to find that Amazon has unbeknownst to you updated Fire OS on your tablet, which would probably reinstate the Fire launcher. I reckon it is better to wait a while until the likes of the devs on XDA have had a chance to play about with any new version of Fire OS, especially so as to ensure that you will be able to use whatever launcher you like on the new version. Also if you do decide to go about rooting the tablet, this will prevent the root access being removed by an OTA.

adb shell pm hide com.amazon.otaverifier

adb shell pm hide com.amazon.device.software.ota

adb shell pm hide com.amazon.settings.systemupdates

That's about it. Hope this helped you get a nice Googley Fire like it did for me.

Oh P.S., On desktop computer, even though Google Play is installed and running on the Fire, it doesn't show up in the Play Store list of "My Devices". Interestingly it does show up in Android Device Manager, if you install that, and locating/ringing the device works.

duridian

I just noticed while browsing on my phone that the boxes in my last post look strange on the touch version of boards. If you are unable to see the contents of the boxes properly please switch to the desktop version or turn on the new beta version of boards.

The Belcher

duridian wrote: »

I just noticed while browsing on my phone that the boxes in my last post look strange on the touch version of boards. If you are unable to see the contents of the boxes properly please switch to the desktop version or turn on the new beta version of boards.

Thanks duridian for you help, I will give it a go midweek. Too hungover today to attempt it

duridian

The Belcher wrote: »

Thanks duridian for you help, I will give it a go midweek. Too hungover today to attempt it

Haha. Probably wiser to keep away from Fire today then in case you ignite! LOL

The Belcher

duridian wrote: »

Haha. Probably wiser to keep away from Fire today then in case you ignite! LOL

I cannot thank you enough for your time to write up that excellent post for me.
I installed google play last night, took me a few goes as the first two times it wouldn't let me sign in to an existing account. Eventualy I got it working though, I found it needed a few hours after installation to work more or less fully. The odd app won't install correctly for me but I am delighted. I installed the launcher image there and perfect first go. I am doing my sister a favour as it is a Santy present for her daughter and she is used to regular android launcher from a previous kids tablet so I really wanted to do this for her. Thanks a million, I'd have been lost without you as my head was fried from the stress

duridian

Delighted to hear it went well for you.

It took a little while for it to work right for me as well. I suspect it has to download some other libraries or support files in the background after the initial placement of the Google Services and Play Store, and that this is probably why it won't let you sign in at first.

It really is a neat little device once it has the Google stuff up and running.

Quackster

The Belcher wrote: »

I cannot thank you enough for your time to write up that excellent post for me.
I installed google play last night, took me a few goes as the first two times it wouldn't let me sign in to an existing account. Eventualy I got it working though, I found it needed a few hours after installation to work more or less fully. The odd app won't install correctly for me but I am delighted. I installed the launcher image there and perfect first go. I am doing my sister a favour as it is a Santy present for her daughter and she is used to regular android launcher from a previous kids tablet so I really wanted to do this for her. Thanks a million, I'd have been lost without you as my head was fried from the stress

Ditto! Picked one of these up at the weekend in Argos and it was an absolute blessing to find all the info I needed here in one post!