Just days after the Amazon Kindle Fire HD started shipping, some of the first customers figured out they could root the tablet and install the Google Play Store.

Now there’s an easier way to root the tablet… and a method for installing Gmail and other Google apps without even bothering to root the Kindle Fire HD.

Qemu Root

Qemu automated root

Xda-developers forum member sparkym3 has released a tool called Qemu automated root that makes the process of rooting the Kindle Fire HD much simpler.

Instead of installing the full Android SDK and typing a series of commands in a terminal window, you can just download and unzip the tool, click the RootQemu.bat file, and follow the on-screen instructions.

You may need to install the Kindle Fire HD ADB drivers first, but sparkym3 makes those available too.

Installing (some) Google Apps without root

If you’re not sure you want to root the Kindle Fire HD, you can still install some apps that are normally unavailable on Android tablets.

That includes Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube and Currents… but not the Google Play Store or Google Talk. At least, not yet.

Xda-developers forum member abhijitxp has put together versions of these Google apps designed to play well with the Kindle Fire HD, along with instructions for installing them on the tablet.

Bear in mind that this isn’t a perfect solution. You can’t login to Google Maps, for instance, and it won’t be able to detect your location.

But at least you don’t have to root your tablet and risk accidentally deleting something important from the /system/ directory.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

6 replies on “Easier method for rooting the Kindle Fire HD (or installing gApps without root)”

  1. @Anusha – As far as I know, there’s no hack for the bootloader, so you can’t really do anything that a factory reset wouldn’t fix. Getting “root” is like getting an administrator password, it doesn’t fundamentally change the OS.

    1. yes, it will require that you install the custom rom. but changing a rom requires pretty much an unlocked bootloader. fortunately, this recently happened

Comments are closed.