I just want to give a big
to all involved in Kindle unbricking/development here! I successfully unbricked my Kindle Touch last night after a month of bricked-ness by following the instructions here. I wanted to share my story and the issues I ran into in case it might help someone else along their way.
Here's what caused the problem:
An update was available for my modded Kindle (5.0.3), but the update wouldn't complete successfully. I tried to un-mod my Kindle so that I could get my update to no avail, so I resorted to restoring from backup files. Unfortunately, I didn't backup mmcblk0p1 as an image -- I just had backups of /bin, /lib, etc., so I tried to restore them over ssh. Kindle bricked as soon as I did "
sudo rm -r /bin" (stupidest move ever, I know
). And
then I broke the diags with fastboot. I know, I'm not worthy of sudo.
Here's How I Fixed It (Running Ubuntu 12.04)
Instructions Used
Small debricking guide for “noobs” (
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=180789) (skipped the Windows drivers stuff - fastboot from Linux)
-and- This thread (
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=170929, thanks!!)
Summary:
- Boot to fastboot with MfgTool (through Windows XP VM)
- Flash diags, diags_kernel, and kernel with fastboot (through Linux)
- Boot to diags with MfgTool (could also be done with fastboot)
- Enable USB drive: Transfer mmcblk0p1.img
- Enable USB networking: Use ssh to dd mmcblk0p1.img to partition
- Disable diags through diags menu
- Success! I now have a fully functional Kindle (5.0.0) again! (Also, updated to 5.1.0 and then 5.1.2 with no problems).
Issues Along the Way
Issue #1: Couldn't get MfgTool running (needed Windows).
Solution: Running Windows XP on VirtualBox (sudo apt-get install virtualbox).
The only additional VirtualBox configuration needed was enabling USB and file-sharing:
- Install Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (search Google, Oracle website)
- Add <user> to vboxusers group (
sudo usermod -aG vboxusers <user>) (relogin or restart Ubuntu after)
- Add filter for Kindle in Recovery Mode in VM USB settings so that VM can see it
- Install VirtualBox Guest Additions on VM (not necessary, but nice to transfer files to/from VM)
Issue #2: Had to find fastboot.
Solution: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=174923
Issue #3: gitbrew website (stores many images) is down.
Solution: Other links on the threads that I used for instructions.
Diags_kernel, diags (+ssh) partition: Mediafire links from the "Small debricking guide for “noobs”".
kernel (main), system (main partition): Geekmaster's first post on this thread: "Download Mirror (all relevant K5 images)" - 5.0.0 images
Issue #4: Broke diags with fastboot (didn't realize images were in archives. Yes, another dumb move on my part).
Solution: Extract image files from the archives before flashing with "
sudo ./fastboot flash <partition> <image>".
Issue #5: USB networking configuration does not persist on Ubuntu (probably some DHCP daemon or similar resetting it).
Solution: Once "
sudo ifconfig usb0 192.168.15.201" is run, use the connection as a template to create a saved wired network connection.
I used these settings:
Address: 192.168.15.201
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.15.244
After I got USB networking set up, I followed the "Small debricking guide for “noobs”" instructions, starting from step 6 (ssh), and after the reset my Kindle was successfully unbricked. Thanks again!