Thanks geekmaster for more instructions. Looking over the amount of work you've been doing on this, I wonder if you ever sleep? ;-)
I've had a quick run with some of the stuff described on this thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=169645
Specifically I thought I'd test out the /usr/sbin/factory_reset approach, but it did not work. The RUNME.sh appears to have been executed as the Kindle showed two output files - RUNME.done and RUNME.out - but it did not display the text message and it is back to the "...needs repair" screen.
This would indicate that there must have been a fairly serious problem with the firmware update and probably the only way to fix it will be via the replacement drive image.
I'll play a bit more later, but thanks heaps once again for your work and, equally importantly, for taking the time to document it here and respond to people in such detail.
Cheers.
John