Article URL: https://tailscale.com/blog/jailbroken-kindle-proxy-tun-modes Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49093569 Points: 65 # Comments: 8

If you managed to put Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle before it updated too far ahead, you got something pretty great, even if it wasn't the full Tailscale experience. But good things come to those who wait (or dig around on GitHub). Open-source developers have improved the Tailscale experience on one of the weakest computers you own. If your Kindle is jailbroken, an updated version of Mitanshu Sukhwani's Tailscale implementation offers a few new things: Let’s dig into each one and how to set them up. As before, this is community code working on a very unofficial device state; bring your patience along. The last time we wrote about Tailscale on a Kindle, the client was basic, but it worked. The Kindle showed up on your tailnet, complete with a green dot in the web admin console. You could reach the Kindle by its Tailscale IP address. You could even SSH into the Kindle over Tailscale, which was handy for further tinkering. But “reachable via Tailscale” is not the same as “routing all incoming and outgoing traffic across your tailnet,” it turns out. Tailscale on a jailbroken Kindle is typically forced to run in userspace mode, which means it cannot use the device's own network routing layer, known as TUN mode. You could start Tailscale, and then start an app like KOReader, but when you tried to connect to another Tailscale device, like your Calibre server at 100.x.y.z, it would go like this: An update to the Kindle KUAL app by greywolf1499 provides different modes that work around this. Now, when you try to reach another Tailscale IP address on your Kindle, it can go like this: This Tailscale proxy offers two modes, SOCKS5 and HTTP CONNECT, for apps that may prefer one or the other. This opens up a good bit more utility for your more-connected Kindle. Is that last one all that practical? Not really. But is there a pleasant warmth, knowing that you've added the least likely thin client to your what-if kit? For some types, types I know quite well: yes.