yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
VPN type ad blockers are a way to edit the hosts file without root. (The hosts file is a lookup table that is checked first before sending the URL off to a DNS server for it's numeric address.) If the domain name is found in the hosts file, the address specified there is used and no further domain name lookup is carried out. Android requires root privileges to modify the hosts file, but using a VPN adds it's own hosts file to the DNS resolver path. This new hosts file is completely modifiable by us 'regular' users.

I did a bunch of searching for the domains that needed to be blocked, and I came across the same list of 5 on a couple of threads involving Fire TVs. I tried them out on my freshly reset HD 8 and that list works well to block the updates and as a side benefit, it also prevents the lockscreen ads from ever downloading so there aren't any. This worked even without trying to block them after a fresh reset on a tablet that was previously receiving them. (Woot!)

Oh, the open source VPN ad blocker I'm using is the good old DNS66, available on github or at the author's site, or from F-Droid. I've already prepared a drop in txt file to import the domains to block so there won't be any typos.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Ye hath little faith!
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] jhford:
I've been using Nexus 7 (2013) 4G/LTE (deb) tablets for years which I have rooted and installed custom ROMs for years. I'd like to buy another small tablet (8" max) which I can also root and ROM with more ram, better battery life, and a more modern CPU. Any ideas? Thanks
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] scoobyjenkins:
I like this navbar, it can hide itself or stay on and the buttons can be customised however you want, including the launching of an app like a custom launcher, works well for me with the default navbar hidden by the toolbox on my son's Kindle Fire HD 7. There's lots of other customisation options too and it's a free app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ace.jun.simplecontrol
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
I guess I'm old skool. Ideally, I just want to hide the home button in the navbar, and replace it with a button that looks the same but can be programmed to launch my app of choice - in this case, just the Nova Launcher. I know, it sounds pretty simple, but I've been trying dozens of apps. Some come real close, but I haven't found one that is simple and does just that. I tried SimpleControl. After I shut off all the bells and whistles that I didn't want or need, it just didn't do what I wanted. I'm glad it works for you and you found a simple solution. Alas, my search will continue for the time being. I think I'd rather give in to a gesture navigation app than be forced to pay money for an app that turns out to have a fatal flaw and doesn't do what I want.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Datastream33:
Ideally, I wish Tasker was free. We could just create a new UI and overlay it over the home button. Just wish Automate had that same feature. :(

But, yeah... I feel your pain. It's tough to find a trustworthy app that performs what we're after.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Haha. So now I know what you've been doing since that screenshot of your update. If you do too much to the navbar, FireOS just replaces it with it's default. Hiding it doesn't work well with the app drawer in Nova. Disabling it causes overscan problems, and sometimes it returns to default. I haven't found an overlay that works.

Did I bite off more than I can chew?
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
Thanks for a great app recommend!

What I could not achieve with Simple Control's options was

- when the two buttons on the far left and right are disabled (so only back, home, and recent remain), to get the three remaining buttons to come closer together (instead of taking up the whole length of the bar evenly), and

- when the home button is remapped to start Nova Launcher, to get the home button to retain its simple white circle icon (instead of always displaying the rather extravagant Nova icon).

In short, I could not bear to look at three wide apart buttons, one of which was Nova.

My compromise was a floating button, which is discreet enough and can be moved around any time (without going into the app's options). I let the floating button, from the right edge, supplement the Fire's native navigation bar instead of supplanting it. I have disabled all but the home (Nova) button on the floating button. It is essentially a two-click path to Nova. I don't know how long I will want to keep the app on the table as I understand ads are coming on this unpaid version.

If anybody knows how to achieve the two bulleted items, please advise.

Again, thanks to sccobyjenkins.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Datastream33:
Haha, yeah. In addition to looking into navbar apps, also been busy trying various things in Automate. Shell commands, awaiting keypresses, reading logs, etc. Seems you've also been busy my friend!

Wait hold up, the navbar is being reverted now? Hmm...

This whole situation is just tough.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
Thanks for the great explanation. The "good old" has a nice ring to it, maybe "just what you need and low impact on performance."

A few questions please.

1. If your tablet is already on v7.3.2.2, how do you get confirmation that the 5 URLs blocks further firmware update?

Wouldn't that look exactly like Amazon's having no update at this time? Or is there some step preliminary to an actual download (of firmware), and you can see that the 5 URLs block that? I would imagine blocking the 5 on a sub-7.3.2.2 machine may provide another (more reassuring) confirmation though this would involve exposing a good sub-7.3.2.2 to an unwanted update.

2. Does DNS66 interfere with a "regular" VPN client, e.g. Wiregard?

I would assume that DNS66 is made of (in terms of function) a VPN client and server. Thus if you run DNS66 and e.g. Wiregard, there would be two VPN clients running? It seems to me the traffic should go app (e.g. Web browser) > DNS66 client > DNS66 server > Wireguard client > tunnel. In short, the DNS66 client should come first? Would the tablet know to do this?

3. Does DNS66 interfere with SSH?

I use Termux to create an SSH tunnel to remote locations so that RDP and VNC clients could go through it. Here the traffic should look like (I believe) RDP/VNC client > DNS66 client > DNS66 server > 127.0.0.1:xxxx (i.e. the entry point of the SSH tunnel)? The tablet would know to do this?

I am a non-computer person and just follow instructions on Web sites to do these things, and so my questions may be wide of the mark. Thanks very much!
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Okay, I'll do my best to answer...

1) When you've properly blocked the updates, clicking on the "Check for Updates" button will return "Update Failed".

2) Yes. You can only use one VPN client at a time. You would have to take the URL's in the block file and enter them into your router's blocking in order to use another VPN and still block them.

3) DNS66 doesn't interfere with any URL's that it's not set to block, so SSH and RDP should work, but I haven't tried using SSH or RDP through it yet. If it does interfere, then it's back to the router as in 2) above.

It's still a work in progress, so I'm not giving out the URL's yet. You can find them like I did, but it's not guaranteed to work yet.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
I forget what caused it to revert, but it's happened multiple times and I didn't keep notes about it. I've got so many navbar apps installed, and most of them are deactivated, but I think I need to take accurate notes on what I've tried and the results so I can look it all over and come up with a solution. Damn, it's been a long time since I kept notes in school, but It'll make things much easier.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
Thanks very much again!

That would include entering the URL at the VPN server?

If my setup looks like:

Tablet (housing VPN e.g. Wiregard client) > router 1 > tunnel crossing Internet > router 2 (OpenWrt housing VPN server) > Internet.

Then the router where the URLs should be banned would be router 2? (I think so, but I've been wrong so many times when I thought the thing crystal clear. I may enter URLs in router 1 just in case I forget to start any VPN in the tablet.)

Thanks for the caution on the 5 URLs.

I've banned (at the router) some dozen URLs (found on this bulletin), and yes I got "Check for updates failed"!
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
I was reading your setup, but I'm not sure exactly what you're doing. It's probably something simple that makes sense, but my head was going to explode if I thought about fixing the Amazon tablet any more. I had to bail for the night.

Anyway, you probably would want to block the addresses as close to the tablet as possible, but if you have multiple connection points or some other situations would warrant it also, you could always block those addresses on all your routers. That would be safest.

I'm sure the address list will grow over time as they add more or change their updating sites, so that will require us all being on the lookout for an update sneaking through and reporting it so we can block the new URL(s). Better yet, it would be great if we can just block the updating app itself, regardless of the URL it requests. I'm looking into No Root Firewall by Grey Shirts for this.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
Yes indeed blocking at all points should be the safest. Thanks.

I want to report that this "side benefit" was replicated in my tablet too. But this morning an ad came through. So I immediately ran the "check for update" test and got another "failed." Thus it would appear that update check fail and ad blocking do not always go together.

The setup I'd want is actually to block updates but allow ads. I like looking at ads, knowing that I'd never buy.

If all update related URLs were blocked, how would the tablet know that a new one had been added? Where could it learn that from?

We could let "all update related URLs" be "all URLs contacted by a Fire tablet when you unbox it and turn it on." If all these are blocked, the tablet could not go out anywhere and so could not learn anything new?

The tablet is preset to try certain new URLs but only after a certain date so that people monitoring traffic before that date could never find out about them?

Anyway please don't let my questions add to the pressure. Thanks.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
We may have different ad sources blocked so that would explain the ad that got through to your tablet. Yes, the ad blocking and update blocking are two different things, but I have no interest in wasting my time and bandwidth downloading and watching ads so I just consider it an added benefit that I didn't have to go looking for a separate way to block lockscreen ads.

I get your point about how would the tablet know where the new update site was, but Amazon has so many communications going on that can't be blocked if we want the tablet to function that there is probably some unknown mechanism to sneak an update through a back door that we can't block. I wouldn't put it past them

My block list now has 6 URL's because somehow my tablet had 22 minor updates it wanted to install when I thought I had them all blocked. I reset the tablet and imported my new blocklist and so far, so good. Update failed and no updates waiting, but who knows tomorrow.

I found a nice gesture app that would be perfect for the launcher replacement, but it doesn't operate in landscape mode! How lazy can one be to neglect landscape mode when making a navigation ap? If I'm watching a movie, and it ends, I'd like to be able to just close it and not have to go into portrait mode to do it. Sheesh!!🤨
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
Simple Control, after some tweaks on opacity (called "Color") etc., gave me far more (aesthetically) satisfying results. Shots below show the "floating button," before and after touching (the button before, on France Gall's back). I filled all 5 slots with something or another so I don't get a long, mostly empty bar (top to bottom: Split screen, back, Nova, recent, power). I used the Toolbox (page 2, "System UI" box, "Navigation bar" tab) to hide Fire's native navigation bar (swiping the bottom edge of the screen restores it for a moment, but I don't see myself using it if the floating button is up). I have not seen any ad from Simple Control for some 24 hours.

Maybe all this is old news, and any nav bar with a floating button could give similar results. But I thought the shots may help a newbie (like me) to visualize. Thanks to scoobyjenkins again.

Shots are of this delightful video.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] andrwprk:
How does one block these IP addresses? I've searched this thread but haven't found any app suggestions or the like. Apparently my FIOS router can't do it? According to google searches anyway.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Hang tight. Instructions will be forthcoming. I'm in the process of figuring it all out now. I'm almost done.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Y-Zee:
Hey Guys,

i saw the list of supported Devices and i am wondering why the Fire HD10 7th Gen is not compatible.

is there a workarround that can help me install google play store on that damn thing :D
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
But the Amazon Fire 10 (2017) Suez IS supported. You must've missed it.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] FizonHeXd:
what does this mean
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Scottiehollywood:
I have an HD 10 plus and I didn't update it. I have Nova launcher running and I'm using toolbox v27. I installed the play store and downloaded chrome no problem. Gmail and Drive don't work saying the play services are wrong. What can I do to fix this? Thank you
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] dev1ous_34:
This is my first comment in this forum.

I bought Amazon Fire HD 10 11th gen 3 months ago. Shop owner enabled the WiFi, and I didn’t know that I shouldn’t update my tablet to 7.3.2.2. Unfortunately I brought it home with 7.3.2.2 update.

Previously I had around 25gigs of files and apps, best smooth experience I had then. I used to play light game like Clash of Clans or Clash Royale, even I tried ePes 2021 which ran perfectly without lagging.

Since last month, even Clash of Clans or Clash Royale is lagging like hell. While watching youtube, its lagging while switching the app or sometimes stuck.

I tried to restricted some of the background process by limiting it to max 1 process from developer option. I had to do this. Then cleaned my storage, now around more than 15GB are free. But still lagging.

I know Amazon is trying to slow down the device by uprating. But day by day, I cant even do normal work. I'm a custom Rom user, but there is no way to unlock bootloader of this tablet so that I could at least permanently do some changes with root access.

What should I do now?
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Erenkasymaliev:
Hi friends, my tablet is running Fire OS 7.3.2.2

I've installed Nova Launcher but it doesn't work properly and I can't remove Fire updates. Amazon Toolbox didn't fix it. Any ideas what to do?
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] nomadicdev:
any chance the python for changing the launcher can be released? I dont use windows and wont run non open sourced executables. I dont want to use nova, and dont use google services. Lawnchair launcher works perfectly, but I just need to fix the home button.

on 7.3.1.8 -8" 2020
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Hi, welcome to XDA.

That means that Google Services didn't install properly. If you got no other errors installing it, just try leaving it sit for an hour to update itself and then try updating whatever it wants but don't update any Amazon installed services. What exactly doesn't work on your tablet?
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Welcome to XDA.

It's the same as the previous reply. Try leaving it sit for an hour to update itself and try again. If that doesn't work, try flushing the cache with Toolbox and launching playstore again. Allow it to update what it wants, but don't update any Amazon apps.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Limiting the background processes to 1 can make it very laggy because it has to reload from scratch every time you launch something. There's a reason that's hidden in the developer options! Remember that you're dealing with limited RAM (<2GB) so if you have many background apps running it will slow down, but it will still manage the RAM better if left to default process limit.

I would rerun Toolbox on it and disable Amazon bloat that may have been turned back on with the update. 7.3.2.2 re-enables a bunch of things, but now some can't be turned off again. (Fire Launcher, lockscreen ads, and OTA Updates.)

You can only do so much. The Fire tablets are low-budget, low RAM devices. They aren't gaming machines. If you can't make it fast enough, you can always buy something with a little more RAM, or maybe you can find a refurb on Amazon Warehouse with an older f/w version on it.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Yep. That's 7.3.2.2. I'm working on a post about the available options with the latest firmware. There are some workarounds that can ease the pain of it. I'll post my findings soon.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] dev1ous_34:
I limited the background process so that only 1 app could run perfectly

I mean in real time.

I know this device is low budget and low RAM, I didnt buy this tablet to play games, but normal tasks became so tough.

It got 3GB version, but all the time 2GB is using, 1.8GB is using by system while I dont have any app which could run in the back.

I just pray, you guys find a way to rollback to previous version
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Well, here's the update page on the Linux port progress: https://datastream33.wordpress.com/2021/11/16/fire-toolbox-port-tracker/

I don't know if he even updates that page anymore because the project is further along than what it says there.

From trying out an early test build in March, I know that he has that part of it working already, but the Toolbox isn't complete yet and it's not likely to be released until it is done.

If you don't want to use Windows (even in a virtual machine), you must have a friend who uses Windows that could be convinced to let you run Toolbox on their machine.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] nomadicdev:
the whole point, is that I dont want to run an exploit or code without knowing what exactly it's doing
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Sohirim:
Is there any toolbox update in the near future for the latest Amazon update?

And do I have a chance if I updated m fire hd 8 on the latest version to reset to an older? Like a old windows installation, or am I fu**ed? :)
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] begunfx:
Hi all. I have a fire tablet 10 (pre Fire OS 7.3.2.2). I've also installed the Nova launcher. I'm planning on using this tablet as a smart home tablet that will be on all the time (running The Home Remote app). Is there a way either with the Fire Toolbox or another way) to prevent the tablet from turning off the display/going to sleep? Thanks in advance for the help!
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
No updated version coming out soon I'm afraid. V.27 just came out.

You can reset it all you like, but you're stuck with the new f/w version like the rest of us. Amazon prevents rollbacks. I'll be posting something to help out with this problem as soon as I write it up. I've been experimenting with workarounds and have a solution that works fairly well (at least for me). Hopefully I'll post by the weekend what I've gathered together in workarounds and we can all contribute other ways and other options.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Well, you realize that leaving the display on 24/7 will cause burn-in very quickly. You could run it very dim to mitigate this, though. I have a program I run to keep the display lit when I want it not to shut off. It's called Backlight Manager. I've never let it run for 24 hours or longer so I don't know if it's suitable for your purposes, but it does have an option to set a different brightness level when it's running that works pretty well. Maybe it'll work for you or maybe one of the other similar apps will work.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] begunfx:
Thanks @blaacksheep I'll give that a try. I was able to permanently keep it awake via the developer options, but yeah I would like to not have burn-in. Just trying to figure our a good compromise that keeps the tablet from sleeping on the time since it's supposed to be a smart home tablet etc.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] DB126:
Bad practice; you're also forcing continuous reloads of beneficial/required background processes for the foreground app. Likely have something else going on with/within the device consuming scarce resources. Identifying and eradicating on (unrooted) Amazon devices can be a challenge. Good luck.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
There is probably an easier way, but the way I handle it is to turn off automatic updates in Play Store and just check and manually update apps as needed. To turn off auto updates open the Play Store, tap your avatar in the upper-right, tap Settings, tap Network Preferences, tap Auto-update apps, and finally tap Don't Auto-update apps. To check if updates are available, tap your avatar in the upper-right, tap Manage apps & device, under Updates available tap See details, and finally tap on any app that you want to update but don't update any Amazon-installed apps. If you do they'll break. Resist the urge to tap Update All. I have not found any way to individually set apps to auto-update.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] klink1948:
Thanks for the reply.

I always turn off auto updates when I get a new device. Monday I has 15 updates waiting for install. I just wish there was a way to get rid of the google version of Alexa.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] begunfx:
I actually found a better solution (just thought I'd share). I'm not using a browser-based smart home solution (I'm using HomeRemote - Android App), so Fully-Kiosk Browser won't work, but I tried their "Single App" version (even though they said it wasn't developed to work with Fire OS) and it works great! I thought I'd take a chance on it anyway. Don't see any issues so far.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Yeah, I hear you. I just looked at my tablet and it had >20 updates waiting. I just tapped 17 of them and walked away.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Yeah, most aps in the Playstore say they may not be optimized for your device. They usually work fine. It's just because Fire tablets aren't Google certified devices.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] dev1ous_34:
Can someone post a geekbench result who got before 7.3.2.2 firmware? I wanna compare with my current 7.3.2.2 firmware.

I dont rely on these benchmarking apps, but it gives a basic result
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Spiralexe:
anyway to disable this? found this image on reddit not mine but same issue
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Erenkasymaliev:
New stock of Amazon Fire HD8 coming with pre-installed OS 7.3.2.2

this problem will now appear more often

Hope ur solutions will fix it. we a waiting ur post
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Later this week. :) It's not a cure, but it does help.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Datastream33:
Well, managed to get Automate to read logs and detect when Fire Launcher is started. However, completely forgot that there is a 7 second delay activity block upon hitting the home button. So, not very useful... :(