[Fire HD 6 and 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] elementcarbon12:
I've seen too many threads mentioning 5.3.1 and implying that 5.3.1.1 is the same.

Even if that is the case, all the tutorials I have read left me scratching my head at various points. So here is a walkthrough of what I just went through to root my Kindle fire HD 6

It's now running 5.3.1.0 and will stay there for the time being (unless I can get solid answers on 5.3.1.1).

I started with this tutorial thread but I found it easy to make mistakes and I ended up bricking my device (fortunately the unbrick iso is very good and the tutorial video is excellent).

So here is my procedure. Doing this on Windows is probably less involved thanks to the bat file in one of the steps.

Start by getting the stuff you will need together.

You will need ROMs from here.

Specifically, the 4.5.3 and 5.3.1.0 ROMs.

The 4.5.3 file name is update-kindle-20.4.5.3_user_453011120.bin

The 5.3.1.0 file name is update-kindle-20.5.5.2_user_552153420.bin

Note: The version number on that second file makes no sense to me, and I made a mistake trying to flash the wrong one in TWRP. Here is the correct name for reference. You might change the file names to reflect the version number.

Go ahead and change the extension of the 5.3.1.0 bin file to zip instead. TWRP will need it this way.

Download the stock recovery image. There is a link at the bottom of the second post in the tutorial thread I linked above. Or you can just click here.

Grab the WindowsAutoTWRP_v03.zip from the tutorial thread (or click here).

It has the Windows ADB executable and drivers in it so it will save you some hassle on a Windows machine.

For Macs, I found a video from RootJunkie.com that linked to tools at http://rootjunkysdl.com/files/?dir=Adb%20Fastboot%20Files. I was able to do everything from my Mac with these.

As a side note, the video I found these on was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv0VcNM8IAw, but it's not important to watch.

It will help to gather zips and APK files you will need right now as well.

Get a copy of ES file explorer, Kingroot (I used the APK, but if you have a windows system, it might be easier to use the Windows version instead), and an android launcher of some sort.

For additional images, you will need the following:

From the tutorial thread: make_space_v02.zip

Supersu.zip linked at https://download.chainfire.eu/696/SuperSU/UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.46.zip

Xposed which if you follow the link from the tutorial through the forum thread should lead you here: http://dl-xda.xposed.info/framework/sdk22/arm/. I grabbed xposed-v87-sdk22-arm.zip

flash Pico (Uni) GAPPS for 5.1 which again, if you follow all the links, will take you here: https://basketbuild.com/filedl/devs?dev=osm0sis&dl=osm0sis/gapps/tk_gapps-modular-pico%28uni%29-5.1.1-20150920-signed.zip.

Make sure you have all the files gathered in one place, it's really helpful.

If you are using a Mac, you will also need Android File Transfer at https://www.android.com/filetransfer/.

Something optional that might help is a USB OTG cable or one of those USB drives that support USB OTG with its own micro USB connector. It's not necessary but it might help if you need to get files to your tablet in TWRP.

At this point, I'm going to go into Mac instruction mode. If you know that the Windows command prompt is sort of like the terminal application on OS X, that you don't use ./ path specifies on windows, etc, you should be able to come up with some

Once you have everything in place, shut down your Kindle Fire 6.

On your computer, open a terminal window and get to where you unzipped your ADB tools.

The simple way is to type cd followed by a space then drag the folder with your tools from finder to the terminal widow so you get something like cd /users/me/abd

The actual path will be dependent on your system.

This terminal window should remain open for the entire process. It will make life easier.

Hold volume up and turn the Kindle Fire on. You should enter recovery.

Back at your computer type ./adb devices

Your kindle should show up there. When it does, go back to your tablet and select "apply update from ADB".

Then, from the terminal, enter ./adb sideload 4.5.3 file name is update-kindle-20.4.5.3_user_453011120.bin

If you just type ./adb sideload then drag the file into the terminal window, it will fill the name and path out for you.

Note that this all seems kind of like the video I linked above but we are downgrading to 4.3.5 instead as the tutorial thread says we should.

Once that's done, you end up back at the recovery screen. I went ahead and did a wipe data/factory reset. I don't know if this is necessary though.

When you get into 4.5.3, you need to shut down wifi if you are not prompted through new device setup.

If you are prompted, just skip it.

You may need to enable debugging. Go to setting, device options, find the serial number field and tap it 7 times.

Open the now revealed developer console and toggle "enable ADB" so it's on.

Install the APKs you downloaded earlier.

Use ./adb install <name of ES file explorer apk>

If you're on Windows, you can go ahead and run the Windows root util.

If you are on a Mac, install the Kingroot APK using the ./adb install command.

If you go the APK route, Kingroot requires a wifi connection. This will expose you to Amazon's OTA updates. You will need to watch your Kindle carefully at this point.

The download with probably download but as long as you don't let it sleep, it should not reboot and install.

Kingroot may take a couple of tries to get root.

As soon as it does, turn off wifi!

After that, open ES file explorer, give it root permissions, then navigate to the root folder, then to cache. Look for a bin file there. If there is nothing, you didn't get the OTA update pushed to you. If you did, delete it. See post 5 in this thread: https://xdaforums.com/kindle-fire-hdx/help/deleting-downloaded-update-t3100573

To prevent any OTA relapses until we can go further, use ES file explorer to rename /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip. I replaces the first o and last p with _ characters.

It should be safe to turn on wifi at this point.

If you deleted a bin file in /cache, you aren't out of the woods yet. The Kindle could still reboot on you and it will give you the red ! but I found booting into recovery then just rebooting the Kindle caused it to work itself out after a couple tries.

We should be good to go for TWRP at this point.

In the terminal type ./adb shell

When the shell opens type su

Grant the shell permissions on the Kindle

Type exit twice.

On a Mac, we cannot run the bat file included in the WindowsAutoTWRP_v03.zip file.

But here are the commands to enter manually:

./adb devices

./adb install gscript-android.apk

./adb shell "mkdir /sdcard/gscript"

./adb push gscript /sdcard/gscript/

./adb shell "cp /sdcard/gscript/flash_453_stay.sh /data/local/tmp/"

./adb shell "ls /data/local/tmp/"

./adb shell "su -c 'chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/flash_453_stay.sh'"

./adb shell "su -c 'sh /data/local/tmp/flash_453_stay.sh'"

Once complete open ES file explorer again

DELETE sdcard/gscripts/s5.4.1_113_stock_recovery_uboot.zip!!!!!!!

It's too easy to mistakenly flash this in TWRP and it WILL brick your kindle.

We will now copy those zip files we downloaded earlier onto the Kindle.

I used the Android file transfer unity to put them in the scripts folder but copying them to Downloads on the Kindle might be easier.

If you are a command line type of person, you can also use the adb push command.

You want to copy over the following:

The 5.3.1.0 file name is update-kindle-20.5.5.2_user_552153420.bin

5.5.2_1534_stock_recovery_uboot.zip

UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.46.zip (or whatever the current version you downloaded is)

make_space_v02.zip

xposed-v87-sdk22-arm.zip (or whatever the version you downloaded is. The version could have changed after I wrote this.)

tk_gapps-modular-pico(uni)-5.1.1-20150920-signed.zip (again, based on what version was available when you downloaded it)

It might be a good time to sideload that extra launcher you downloaded earlier. I didn't need it, but you might.

Again the command is ./adb install <apk file name>

In the terminal, type ./adb reboot recovery.

You *should* end up in TWRP.

These next steps are important to do in one go. Don't exit TWRP until you have installed all the zip files you copied over.

The order in the tutorial thread is the 5.3.1.0 system image, the recovery image, the make_space zip, the Supersu zip, the xposed zip, and the tk_gapps-modular-pico(uni)... zip.

Do all this from the Install menu in TWRP. I did not try to queue up all the zip files at once, I don't know if that would work.

If you forgot to copy a file, TWRP should allow you to copy files via a USB cable to your tablet.

If you do this on a Mac and Android file transfer craps out on you as it did with me, that is where the USB OTG cable comes in handy. But lets hope you copied everything or that the USB connection doesn't crap out on you.

Select the wipe menu, then advanced wipe. Check the cache and dalvik cache. Once done use the back arrow and swath the "swipe to factory reset" slider.

If you are brave, you can just reset and wait through the fire logo.

If you are trying to follow along with the tutorial I linked, reboot while holding volume up to see what recovery you land in. If it's not TWRP, proceed.

When you finally get to Android, you can use ES file explorer as one way to check for root privileges. I'm sure there are others.

I'm no expert, but if you run not problems with the Kindle Fire HD 6 (4th gen) and you started with 5.3.1.1, I can tell you some of the pitfalls I ran into and how I got out of them.