Rust (and Slint) on a Jailbroken Kindle
by homarp on 5/27/2026, 7:51:47 PM
https://sverre.me/blog/rust-on-kindle/
Comments
by: sandreas
This is cool, thanks for sharing. I recently compiled Rust / Slint on a LicheeRV Nano, which is RISC-V 64bit musl[1]. It's a little portable audio player I'm working on, the compile process is done via custom Cross docker image.<p>Currently I'm evaluating Battery Pal[2], because the TP4057 Module was not stable enough to power USB-C to 3.5mm Adapters reliably. So far it seems to work as expected.<p>1: <a href="https://github.com/nanowave-player/nanowave-ui" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/nanowave-player/nanowave-ui</a><p>2: <a href="https://pnlabs.ca/batterypal/" rel="nofollow">https://pnlabs.ca/batterypal/</a>
5/27/2026, 9:26:30 PM
by: hardwaresofton
This is awesome! How reliable are kindle jailbreaks/avoiding updates, etc?<p>Have opted for other devices like the xteink (or a boox in the future) due to what seemed like a relatively small ecosystem around “aftermarket” kindle modifications.<p>The kindle would be a great option if it could be reliably jailbroken and loaded with custom software
5/27/2026, 9:29:16 PM
by: ilvez
Would be so nice to use those previous Paperwhites for something like this as well. Instead I just lose them while travelling. Just lost my last 2019/smth edition. 3rd one with such fate..
5/28/2026, 11:18:57 AM
by: FlyingSnake
Great article. Hacking old kindles is fun! I encourage everyone to give it a try. The retro feel of eink makes it special for me.<p>I wrote about my experience in cross compiling zig on an old kindle some time ago.<p><a href="https://samkhawase.com/blog/zig-kindle-gdb/" rel="nofollow">https://samkhawase.com/blog/zig-kindle-gdb/</a>
5/27/2026, 10:10:38 PM
by: _hzw
I am working on a self-hosted library server for jailbroken kindle and opted for using pure Rust for the KUAL app to sync books and annotations with the server.<p>It's just running `cargo build --release --target armv7-unknown-linux-musleabihf` with a .cargo/config.toml:<p>``` [target.armv7-unknown-linux-musleabihf] linker = "rust-lld" rustflags = ["-C", "link-self-contained=yes"]. ```<p>the downside is I can't use any c-deps. :)
5/28/2026, 6:02:36 AM
by: homarp
the code: <a href="https://github.com/sverrejb/slint-kindle-backend" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/sverrejb/slint-kindle-backend</a>
5/27/2026, 7:53:00 PM
by: DoctorOW
This looks cool, and one of the first posts I've seen on HN in a few months where I genuinely wanted to try it.
5/27/2026, 9:23:15 PM
by: voidUpdate
Is there a list somewhere of jailbreak-able kindles? I've been thinking of getting one to toy with for a while, but I don't want to accidentally get one that is more heavily locked down, or that we cant run our own code on for some reason
5/28/2026, 6:58:54 AM
by: KolmogorovComp
Tangential, how does slint fare compared to Druid/egui(?)
5/27/2026, 10:59:01 PM
by: ElenaDaibunny
zig as a cross-compile backend for rust is so good.
5/28/2026, 2:59:34 AM
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5/28/2026, 6:33:11 AM
by: IshKebab
Good work! I guess you need to leave it plugged in?
5/27/2026, 9:24:47 PM
by: nelox
[flagged]
5/27/2026, 10:29:53 PM