Inkwell
Inkwell turns a jailbroken Kindle Paperwhite 3 into its own little Linux computer, with an AI agent that runs offline and Doom on e-ink.
- Custom firmware
- Stable
- Medium brick risk
- Reversible
This project hasn't been claimed by its maintainer yet, so its details come from the community. Is it yours? Claim it
Inkwell 1.1.0 adds an e-book reader, arXiv papers for offline reading, chess, a terminal and coding with Quill.
New
- Books reads EPUB, PDF, MOBI, FB2 and text files from the
documentsfolder through MuPDF, with eight font sizes, a table of contents, bookmarks and a Columns mode for two-column PDFs. - arXiv fetches a paper by its number, shows its abstract and saves the PDF for reading offline.
- Chess plays against a built-in engine at three levels.
- Terminal runs a shell with Python 3, and
sshreaches the computer on the USB cable. - Quill in the terminal. Typing
quillthere starts a coding assistant that writes, runs and fixes code. It uses Qwen2.5 Coder 0.5B when that model is installed. - The Kindle sleeps after 15 minutes without a touch in any app, the clock sets itself over Wi-Fi, Settings draws the battery over the last day, and apps on the home screen can be dragged into a new order.
Fixes
- Quill's letters now show while you type.
- A tap in the same place as the last tap in another app no longer lands on the wrong control.
- The games' pixel font draws A, C, G and S correctly.
Install
- Unzip
Inkwell-1.1.0.zipand copy itslinuxanddocumentsfolders to the top of the Kindle's drive. - Eject the Kindle, open the library and tap Inkwell: install.
To update from 1.0.0, copy the new linux/alpine.img over the old one in the normal Kindle UI. Your notes, books and settings live outside the image and stay.
Files
Inkwell-1.1.0.zipholds the system image, the boot script, the install scriptlets and Quill's quick model.smollm2-360m-q4_0.ggufis Quill's optional smart model, andqwen2.5-coder-0.5b-q4_0.ggufis the optional coding model. Put either inlinux/modelson the Kindle's drive.SHA256SUMSlists the checksums.
Before you start
- How hard is it?
- EasyCopy a file or use a web page. No extra software.
- What you need
- A USB or MIDI cable
- Comfort with the command line
- A computer
- Another hack installed first
- Can it break my device?
- Small chance of trouble, with a way to recover.
- Can I undo it?
- Yes. You can go back to the official software.
Did it work for you?
Did Inkwell v1.1.0 work on your Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3?
No reports yet for v1.1.0.
One-tap reports from owners. Bricked reports are checked before they count.
Compatibility
Devices: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3.
No compatibility information yet.
Getting started
From the project's README ("Install"):
You need a Kindle Paperwhite 3 (the 7th generation, from 2015) that is already jailbroken. kindlemodding.org explains how to jailbreak it, for example with WinterBreak. Inkwell was built and tested on firmware 5.16.2.1.1, and it needs about 1.5 GB of free space.
- Download Inkwell-1.1.0.zip from the latest release and unzip it. It contains two folders, linux and documents.
- Connect the Kindle to your computer with a USB cable, so it shows up as a drive.
- Copy both folders to the top of the Kindle's drive. The documents folder already exists there, so let your computer merge the two.
- Eject the Kindle and unplug it.
- Open the Kindle's library and tap Inkwell: install.
The Kindle reboots, shows the Inkwell splash for a moment and opens the home screen within about 20 seconds. From then on it starts Inkwell every time it boots.
Risk and recovery
- Brick risk
- Medium
- Reversible
- Yes
- Requires opening the device
- No
From the project's README ("Going back to the normal Kindle"):
- Once: in Settings, tap Open the stock Kindle UI once. The Kindle reboots into its own UI, and the next boot is Inkwell again. Pressing the power button while the Inkwell splash is showing does the same thing.
- For good: go back to the normal UI once, then tap Inkwell: off in the library. Inkwell: start turns it back on.
- Uninstall: in the normal UI, tap Inkwell: uninstall. That removes the boot hook, and you can then delete the linux folder from the drive.
Releases
| Version | Name | Released |
|---|---|---|
| v1.1.0 | Inkwell 1.1.0Latest | 19 October 2026 |
| v1.0.0 | Inkwell 1.0.0 | 17 October 2026 |
Credits, license and support
- License
- MIT