Well, I finally found time to write a little howto on using your pendrive with the PlayBook. I’m sorry about the delay on publishing this, but i was out of home for a few days and couldn’t find time to write the howto.
Well, let’s go to the howto. Things you will need:
– BlackBerry PlayBook
– Root access to your PlayBook (thanks to dingleberry 
)
– Female USB A to micro USB cable and a soldering iron OR USB OTG cable (for example this one will work: Micro USB OTG Cable)
– A pendrive
Now i will try to make instructions as short and clear as possible. Just let me know if something is unclear. I would also like to let you know that i have only tested this on a 1.8.xxx PlayBook version, so results on OS2 are unknown (i haven’t got access to a PlayBook with OS2 and i’m not wishing to upgrade mine at the moment). Please keep this in mind when trying to use this method.
First step – The USB OTG Cable
Get a USB OTG cable or just find a Female USB A to micro USB cable, open the micro USB side and solder pins 4 and 5 of the micro USB port together (this is what turns the USB port into host mode). The photo shows the first version i used. Then i decided to get a nice USB OTG angle cable as you can see in the first photo of the post. If you are interested in one of those, just let me know.
Second step – Console commands
When you have your USB OTG cable, you can proceed to run the commands to load the necessary kernel drivers. The nice part is that everything is already on the PlayBook, so you don’t really need to upload anything. The commands you will need to run are the following:
slay io-usb
slay devb-umass
sleep 2
RIM_usbmgr-Winchester -m0s
io-usb -domap4430-mg ioport=0x4a0ab000,irq=124
sleep 2
waitfor /dev/io-usb/io-usb 4
devb-umass cam pnp blk automount=+hd6t6:/accounts/1000/shared/usb:dos,automount=+hd6:/accounts/1000/shared/usb:dos
The only line you really need to pay attention to, is the last one. It shows where the pendrive will be automatically mounted after you connect it. You can specify different mount points for different partitions just separating them by comas (in my example command, hd6t6 and hd6 shown)
The other commands just kill the USB server running and start it with the required commands to be able to run the USB port as a host port. There is also a command to load the kernel driver (io-usb domap….).
Last step – Connect your pendrive
If all went well, you should now be able to connect your pendrive and access contents on the mount folder you selected. Please keep also in mind that you must first create this directory for the automount to work. I also noticed that sometimes the kernel modules does produce a bus error and crashes. If that happens, just try to run all the commands again.
I really expect to be able to improve this method or provide a ready app to execute all the process, but at the current time, this has no ETA. If you want, you can follow me on @guillemmateos and i will tweet any finding or progress I make about this.
If you have any suggestions or are able to get different OS versions working with this method I’d be really happy if you could post it here and let me know.
Thanks!
junio 9th, 2012 10:05
Yes, can I also please have a more detailed instruction. I would love to be able to do this. Thaanks
junio 11th, 2012 1:27
Nuevo Site para PlayBook con mas de 7000, aplicaciones convertidas de Android. http://goo.gl/y265a
julio 26th, 2012 12:55
Please more details . Is the commands on DOS or what
agosto 17th, 2012 3:38
I already got a OTG cable from the market & it fits into the microUSB slot/port.But no respond from the palybook.Could you please guide me where to write the commands?This may help me to solve the problem of USB stck.
Your detailed information could help me.
Once again thank you for your help & support.
agosto 28th, 2012 4:04
Please,more detailes for me.
Where to write the commands.
Thank you.
octubre 25th, 2012 6:31
where to write command plsz help
noviembre 6th, 2012 2:09
Muy bueno tío, solo necesito saber si funciona con el OS 2.0 y si tienes el tuto en español, que me ayudaría mucho. Buen trabajo! Muy bueno!
noviembre 20th, 2012 2:54
Hola, mientras sea una versión del OS 2 que te permita el Jailbreak, debería funcionar. El tuto lo tenía en Español pero me lo cargué accidentalmente. En cualquier caso, con el Google Translate lo apañas en un momento.
noviembre 20th, 2012 2:54
You need to write the commands in the console after jailbreaking.
noviembre 20th, 2012 2:55
You need to execute the commands provided on the console after jailbreaking. If not, nothing will happen.
noviembre 20th, 2012 2:55
At the console, after jailbreaking
diciembre 19th, 2012 8:24
Please detailed info requested
enero 3rd, 2013 2:48
This “tutorial” is rubbish, you need to download Dos Box from blackberry apps and you need a keyboard i.e. a blackberry mini keyboard or a shitty chinese one that you can enter the values, ok s follow commands as shown above in the near enough non existant tutorial, then mount the cable you got and put the usb stick in, after you type EXIT in dos mode in dos box screen restart the blackberry playbook and then try the drive, but you have to make a folder in the blackberry playbook….. What jailbreak, you on crack??this is blackberry playbook and its based on windows 8 system, not a fucking shitty (eye) phone!!
J
junio 14th, 2013 10:41
Hello,
Please i am interested in rooting my Blackberry Playbook 64G with OS 2.1, so that i can be using pen / flash drive on it.Is it possible? If so, how can i go about this? I am newbie, i know little or no idea in IT / software. Can you help me out.
I will be expecting your response.
junio 14th, 2013 10:45
Further to my last comment. I have OTG ready but how to root the BB Playbook is the problem i am having now. Please help me out!
agosto 23rd, 2013 3:15
Why not write an App for this so could all use it easily ?
agosto 31st, 2013 5:48
please explain with pictures?
marzo 11th, 2015 7:25
I have a playbook when connect otg show but not responding pen drive
So please help me process
septiembre 30th, 2021 4:37
I think you need to be more explicit in these instructions. Foe example, what’s OTG? And” When you have your USB OTG cable, you can proceed to run the commands to load the necessary kernel drivers.” WTF! U think you should dumb this info down a bit, right?
How do you load kernel drivers? How do you access this on the playbook?
I see these comments are 5-7 years old too.
Are you still reading the feed back here?