Alternate "Simple" debricking methods for K5-Touch, K4-Mini, & K3-Keyboard

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by simone.cervellat

Hi guys, My Kindle 3 started displaying images with pixels missing, wrong tonality etc.. the text was fine though, so I figured the kernel was corrupt and that I could go trough the unbricking process to restore the original files,

I did the procedure with the 3.0.2 version following the debricking for noobs article on the wiki and now my kindle is just displaying the last screen it displayed(usb connected to the computer, witha bad usb image and good text as explained before) and does not want to reboot.

when I release the power switch the green light turns on and stays on forever but nothing else happens..

I am charging it as I write this to see if the debricking process drained the battery...

do you have any other suggestions?

Usually when this happens either people flashed the wrong image to the wrong location, or used a corrupt image. Perhaps you should download the 3.0.2 images again. Flash both the kernel and main partition. Be sure to unzip the multi-part zip file for the main partition before flashing...

[simone.cervellat]

I checked everything you said except one thing: I used the locations without the 0x in front because ATK was showing the 0x outside of the dialog box.

My computer doesn't seem to rcognize kindle when I plug the usb cable in, will it work anyway when I start ATK ang go in USB mode on the kindle (slide 30 sec +1 sec vol -)?

[qlob]

Originally Posted by simone.cervellat

I checked everything you said except one thing: I used the locations without the 0x in front because ATK was showing the 0x outside of the dialog box.
My computer doesn't seem to rcognize kindle when I plug the usb cable in, will it work anyway when I start ATK ang go in USB mode on the kindle (slide 30 sec +1 sec vol -)?

Yes. Good luck!

[qlob]

Originally Posted by knc1

And you do not want to copy mmcblk0p4 (that is what you see over your usb connection when the Kindle is acting like a storage device).

[noob_question]
Why don't we back it up? I lost an album I put on my Kindle, that I had no where else, and some custom Launchpad configs, etc... (I know, I know, backup my stuff.)
[/noob_question]

[knc1]

Originally Posted by qlob

[noob_question]
Why don't we back it up? I lost an album I put on my Kindle, that I had no where else, and some custom Launchpad configs, etc... (I know, I know, backup my stuff.)
[/noob_question]

I did not write: "Do not back it up."
I wrote: "Do not copy it like you do the others."

That is:
You do not want to do a copy like: dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p4 of=/mnt/us/ ..something..

Hints:
/dev/mmcblk0p4 is a storage media DEVICE.
/mnt/us is a storage media FILE SYSTEM.

Question:
What DEVICE is the backing storage media for this FILE SYSTEM?

If the storage DEVICE was a floppy disk drive ;
If the FILE SYSTEM was a FAT32 file system recorded on that floppy disk ;
Would there be room to copy the contents of the DEVICE into that FILE SYSTEM?

Ans: No.

The device layout is like:

| MBR | Partition table | File Directory | File storage space |
|                     Device data                             |

You can't copy all four parts into just one of those parts.
I.E: The whole can not be copied into only a part of the same whole.
Not my rule, just a physical reality.

/mnt/us viewed from within the Kindle's operating system (which is what you are doing within PuTTY)
And the root of the user storage area as seen over the USB cable when plugged into your computer is one and the same thing.

Back it up by copying it over the USB cable with the Kindle in USB storage device mode.

- - - -

I added all of the extra detail in the above for other readers in the future - this question comes up a lot.

[qlob]

Originally Posted by knc1

I did not write: "Do not back it up."
I wrote: "Do not copy it like you do the others."
That is:
You do not want to do a copy like: dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p4 of=/mnt/us/ ..something..
Hints:
/dev/mmcblk0p4 is a storage media DEVICE.
/mnt/us is a storage media FILE SYSTEM.
Question:
What DEVICE is the backing storage media for this FILE SYSTEM?
If the storage DEVICE was a floppy disk drive ;
If the FILE SYSTEM was a FAT32 file system recorded on that floppy disk ;
Would there be room to copy the contents of the DEVICE into that FILE SYSTEM?
Ans: No.
The device layout is like:

| MBR | Partition table | File Directory | File storage space |
| Device data |

You can't copy all four parts into just one of those parts.
I.E: The whole can not be copied into only a part of the same whole.
Not my rule, just a physical reality.
/mnt/us viewed from within the Kindle's operating system (which is what you are doing within PuTTY)
And the root of the user storage area as seen over the USB cable when plugged into your computer is one and the same thing.
Back it up by copying it over the USB cable with the Kindle in USB storage device mode.

Ah. Thanks. I thought there was some unknown rule about backing up the userstore, becuase i used k3flasher to backup my kindle, and saw the "we do not backup the userstore" message.

[knc1]

Naw.
Only thing "special" about it is that you don't need to do more than an "xcopy" on it from you pc.

[qlob]

Originally Posted by knc1

Naw.
Only thing "special" about it is that you don't need to do more than an "xcopy" on it from you pc.

unless you cant access it.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by qlob

unless you cant access it.

Well, in that case, then it is a different case than the one I answered above (which was a device that was working normally).

There are a number to courses that can be taken, depending on the details of how it is that you "can't access it".

Open a thread on the subject, it really isn't a de-bricking question and it may take more than a few posts to figure out what you need to do.

[geekmaster]

I have a Paperwhite. If somebody can suggest something to try to get into diags or USB Downloader mode (or fastboot mode), I want to hear your suggestions. ENABLE_DIAGS does not boot to diagnostics.

All suggestions are welcome. I need diagnostic mode to use my "secret" jailbreak method.

[knc1]

Sounds like time to explore what resources are available on the motherboard.
High resolution pictures would help (yours or someone that has done a teardown).

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

Sounds like time to explore what resources are available on the motherboard.
High resolution pictures would help (yours or someone that has done a teardown).

I heard that the back might be glued on with dabs of epoxy, like my K5 demo units were, from somebody who tried to open a Paperwhite today. You can pry the flexible back off the hard epoxy, but it damages the slide tabs near the top...

Hmm... The PW does not even have a back cover. All one piece, with the front bezel inset into it. The case feels a bit flexible though, both for added grip and for corner shock protection... But how to open???

Did Bill Detweiler do a teardown yet? Seeing the inside tabs would give a clue how to open it.

I suppose we will need a serial port to get the first firmware images to study, just like we did with the K5...

[knc1]

Heat gun.
The epoxy should be a thermal release type.

Try some of the iPhone teardowns that used a heat gun for more info.
(I don't have one - haven't done it myself)

[knc1]

Here is another brain-fart, earlier today:

When the LED is off, it does look like a slot . . .

Which might be because it is combined with a phototransistor or photodiode.

Which means it might need an IR signal to get it into service mode.
(The UARTs on the machine have a mode to accept signals from an IR detector.)

[twobob]

which is cool