Rooting the Amazon Fire Tablet From My Mac

Kindle Fire... Rooted from my Mac using http://blog.actlocalmedia.com/2011/11/developing-on-kindle-fire.html and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1296916.

You need to have the Android SDK installed. To do that, go download the SDK at http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html. Unzip it and install it to a location in your home directory. I put at ~/android-sdk-macosx.

Then you need to update the SDK by running the following command: 

~/android-sdk-macosx/tools/android update sdk --no-ui

That update can take quite some time. Sit back and relax while you watch a free Amazon Prime streaming TV show like Serenity or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

You can add the path to the adb command by editing your ~/.bash_profile and adding a path statement like the following.

export PATH=${PATH}:~/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools

Edit the ~./android/adb_usb.ini and add a line at the end with "0x1949". Then plug in the Fire (you have to have your own mini usb cable to plug it into your workstation). Then tell the Kindle to "Disconnect" so it is no longer sharing files over USB. Then run "adb kill-server" on the mac to to restart things. Once that is done you can check to see if you are able to see the device by running "adb devices". If a device is listed you are good to go!

Now you need to install the ZergRush hack to root your Kindle. This is quite simple really. Download it from here https://github.com/downloads/revolutionary/zergRush/zergRush.zip and unzip it.

Copy zergRush to your Fire with the following command:

adb push ~/Downloads/zergRush /data/local

Then go into the adb shell and run the command by doing the following:

adb shell
chmod 755 /data/local/zergRush
/data/local/zergRush

You will see a bunch of out put on the screen that is very creatively worded. When it is done, it will end the shell session. Go back with the "adb shell" command again and issue the id statement. You should get the following output.

# id
uid=0 gid=0

I will install all the Google Apps including the Google Market later. Using a launcher like Go Launcher or ADW Launcher I should be able to use the Fire as a normal Android device and have access to all my Market apps just like I do on my HTC Evo. The best of both worlds. By the way, Serenity looks awesome streaming on my Kindle Fire :)