Kindle 2 tethering: It's not what you think

So it seems there are some debug commands inside the Kindle that can allow it to browse the web over USB networking which, in theory, could allow you an alternative way to buy books from the Kindle store. Note: This is not a way to tether the Kindle to your laptop and share its 3G network connection. Only God can do that.

Actually, you’d probably have to change the firmware drastically, not a prospect anyone is relishing.

This detailed post describes how it’s done here’s how to get your Kindle into debug mode if you’d like to play around with it more

Reboot your Kindle:

First, Click “Menu”, then pick “Settings”
Now, Click “Menu”, then pick “Restart”

Enable debug mode:

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From the Kindle’s home screen, type something to get the search box to pop up.
Hit the DEL key to clear the content of the search box.
Hit Sym and select the Semicolon (;) using the 5-pad.
Type debugOn
(You should now see ;debugOn)
Click the enter key.

Congratulations. You’ve turned on Debug mode. From here on in, you can probably do all sorts of things to render your Kindle 2 useless.

To verify that debug mode is on, run the private debug tools “help” command.

From the Kindle’s home screen, type something to get the search box to pop up.
Hit the DEL key to clear the content of the search box.
Hit Sym and select the ` using the 5-pad. (It’s the next-to-last thing on the middle row)
Type help
(You should now see `help)
Hit the enter key

The rest of the meat is over at fsck. Check it out if so inclined.