MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Kubrick: Live CD to debrick Kindle 3, 4, and Touch

ixtab · 06-17-2013, 01:26 PM

Ok, so here's a short (but very generic) follow-up to all the problems that were posted lately.

I'm sorry for not going into all the details (in fact, I can't, because I don't know why those problems happen), and: thanks again to knc1 and all the others who are helping out

I'll try to put it this way:
1. Kubrick is not a silver bullet. It's simply a software which puts the Kindle into a sequence of different operational modes, and expects it to behave like the Kindles that I tested Kubrick on.
2. As I wrote in the very first post: I cannot guarantee that it works in every single case, but it should work in most of the cases.

That said, let's step through this, one step after another (this is for K4/K5, but the overall logic is the same for the K3):

1. The first thing that Kubrick asks you to do is to reset your device, and to put it into USB downloader mode. Unless your Kindle has a hardware fault, it *must* obey that request. You are resetting the hardware, and asking it to not boot from its ROM, but from the USB connection. So the only ways that I can think of this *not* working is a broken USB cable or some other USB problem (... or a HW problem...).

2. Then, Kubrick requests the device to enter fastboot mode. On every untampered Kindle (a Kindle which did not get its internal initialization data screwed up), this should work. In short, Kubrick sends the device a simple command to boot into uboot bist, with the fastboot option. This could fail if the USB functionality is broken (see above), or if the boot loader on the Kindle has been tampered with, so that uboot bist is not functional. Neither of these should be the case on a regular Kindle.

3. Then, Kubrick will flash the diags kernel, and the diags partition, using fastboot. If the device has correctly entered fastboot mode (which it should on all regular devices... see above), this should not be a problem.

4. Then, Kubrick will use the fastboot protocol to a) set the boot mode to diags, and b) reboot the device. Again, none of these should pose a problem for a normal Kindle.

5. The Kindle should be rebooting into a "known good" state now, because it's booting into the diags partition (which has just been flashed, see step 3) using the diags kernel (which has just been flashed, see step 3). Therefore, Kubrick is not expecting any complications.

6. Kubrick is now waiting for a USBNetwork connection to the Kindle. Again, because the diags system that is running on the Kindle is known (it has been flashed in step 3), all that it checks is for the Kindle to turn its USB network on.

7. Once the diags system is reachable through USB network, all of the rest (overwriting main partition, installing jailbreak etc.) is done via SSH.

8. Rebooting is done via SSH as well.

06-17-2013, 01:26 PM	#447
ixtab (offline) Posts: 2,907 Karma: 6736092 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: K3, K4, K5, KPW, KPW2	Ok, so here's a short (but very generic) follow-up to all the problems that were posted lately. I'm sorry for not going into all the details (in fact, I can't, because I don't know why those problems happen), and: thanks again to knc1 and all the others who are helping out I'll try to put it this way: 1. Kubrick is not a silver bullet. It's simply a software which puts the Kindle into a sequence of different operational modes, and expects it to behave like the Kindles that I tested Kubrick on. 2. As I wrote in the very first post: I cannot guarantee that it works in every single case, but it should work in most of the cases. That said, let's step through this, one step after another (this is for K4/K5, but the overall logic is the same for the K3): 1. The first thing that Kubrick asks you to do is to reset your device, and to put it into USB downloader mode. Unless your Kindle has a hardware fault, it must obey that request. You are resetting the hardware, and asking it to not boot from its ROM, but from the USB connection. So the only ways that I can think of this not working is a broken USB cable or some other USB problem (... or a HW problem...). 2. Then, Kubrick requests the device to enter fastboot mode. On every untampered Kindle (a Kindle which did not get its internal initialization data screwed up), this should work. In short, Kubrick sends the device a simple command to boot into uboot bist, with the fastboot option. This could fail if the USB functionality is broken (see above), or if the boot loader on the Kindle has been tampered with, so that uboot bist is not functional. Neither of these should be the case on a regular Kindle. 3. Then, Kubrick will flash the diags kernel, and the diags partition, using fastboot. If the device has correctly entered fastboot mode (which it should on all regular devices... see above), this should not be a problem. 4. Then, Kubrick will use the fastboot protocol to a) set the boot mode to diags, and b) reboot the device. Again, none of these should pose a problem for a normal Kindle. 5. The Kindle should be rebooting into a "known good" state now, because it's booting into the diags partition (which has just been flashed, see step 3) using the diags kernel (which has just been flashed, see step 3). Therefore, Kubrick is not expecting any complications. 6. Kubrick is now waiting for a USBNetwork connection to the Kindle. Again, because the diags system that is running on the Kindle is known (it has been flashed in step 3), all that it checks is for the Kindle to turn its USB network on. 7. Once the diags system is reachable through USB network, all of the rest (overwriting main partition, installing jailbreak etc.) is done via SSH. 8. Rebooting is done via SSH as well. Last edited by ixtab; 06-17-2013 at 02:55 PM.