K3 Noob's guide to debricking through ATK :D

[trex_daemon]

With the risk to repeat myself (as I've posted also in the main thread for debricking the kindle), as that thread took another direction and nobody answers my question, I will post here my problem again.
Si dear moderators, please forgive me for this, I really do not want to flood the thread.

So, my problem is, my uncle has tried to update duokan on his kindle, and some reason it got stuck at the loading screen. I've suggested him to enter the debugging mode by holding the 'enter' key (it's a kindle wifi) and from there, to mount the USB and try to copy to duokkan files again, or delete them. Unfortunately, due to ingonrance, he has pressed button 'I' which has formatted the partiitons.
Now the kindle is here, and I wanted to debrick it.
First, I've downladed the rescut kernel and rootfs, compiled k3flasher under linux, and restored the kenrel and rootfs. From this point , after switching power, the green led does not turn on any more, and the kindle does not boot either. Also, the MAC and serial number has been erased, it looks like.
Then I've create da backup from my identical working kindle, and tried to flash all the files, except the rootfs. They completed without error, but the kindle seems dead also. The screen doesn't change at all, and I cannot even enter the debug screen.
Any help would be appreciated. The kindle is alive, as I can flash with k3flasher any time I want.

[qlob]

The kindle cannot boot without a rootfs. flash the rootfs

[olag]

Originally Posted by olag

So now I have a different problem and was trying to search the forum to see if it is talked about somewhere else and seems the forum search doesnt like the string in quotes "Failed to initial flash"


So after getting to the Flash Tool and setting the settings (i.e. Operation type, settings and image), the blue bar grows and then in the bottom window it says:

"Failed to initial flash or Do not suport this Flash, please reset the target"

Any idea what the problem is now?
Thank again.

Originally Posted by olag

So after spending lots of time going through the different forum posts I honestly can't tell if the people with the same issue ever got there device working. I have tried all the things posted.

1. tried to flash the bootloader posted (unzipped and renamed partitiontable-header-uboot.img.gz posted by hawhill). I thought this was just what i needed as i realize that when i followed the K3noobdebrickatk guide in the given order for setting ATK settings selecting MMC/SD sets the Address to 00000000 and realize that I didn't notice this until after the Program button was pressed. Though even on that first occurance I'm pretty sure it error-ed out as I didn't even know what a success looked like until browsing a different forum stream.
On a related note there is the bootloader 3.3 but no 3.0. Yet given that i couldn't even get the 3.3 to program without the "Failed to initial..." error I guess it's kinda moot for the time being.

2. Tried switch the battery with my wife's working kindle because my device did do the connect/disconnect from computer thing that was mentioned earlier in the posts. (yet then realized it was mentioned that this connect/disconnect is normal i think due to inactivity on the line.

So I'm pretty much at my end and would greatly appreciate any other suggestions.

Did anyone ever find a successful way to debrick after getting this error?

[qlob]

Not that I know of... sorry..

[hawhill]

It might be somewhat analogue to the case with k3flasher when it constantly reboots, and won't even last long enough to fully load the RAM kernel. I think we were feeling that these cases are mostly bad hardware, which in the most simple case might be an empty drained battery (might never come up again, try to load it for *days*!), but might be more serious hardware defects OTOH.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by hawhill

It might be somewhat analogue to the case with k3flasher when it constantly reboots, and won't even last long enough to fully load the RAM kernel. I think we were feeling that these cases are mostly bad hardware, which in the most simple case might be an empty drained battery (might never come up again, try to load it for *days*!), but might be more serious hardware defects OTOH.

For "De-Brick a DX(G)" project, I had to read a lot of code in a lot more detail than I ever wanted too.

Bottom line:
We could create a "Charger Bin" to run in the limited space of the on-board ram (without starting the external mDDR ram) that would run the battery management chip.

Since the battery management is done off-SoC the Freescale code is not written to control it.
Which means that chip might be in any state at all without the kernel (or u-boot) controlling it.

The other choice is to remove the battery and use an "Amazon Approved" external charger to bring it back up.
Not a very "user friendly" solution - saying they have to tear their Kindle apart to re-charge the battery.

Same problem when using the ATK (same "ram kernel" - no battery management).

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

...
The other choice is to remove the battery and use an "Amazon Approved" external charger to bring it back up.
Not a very "user friendly" solution - saying they have to tear their Kindle apart to re-charge the battery.

Same problem when using the ATK (same "ram kernel" - no battery management).

When I bricked my K4 before we had USB Downloader mode, I ordered another K4, and although the batteries were securely glued in, I got them back-to-back and used a pair of tweezers to connect the dead K4 battery to the new K4, which I used as an "Amazon Approved" battery charger. I copied images from my new K4 which I then used to debrick the dead K4, while yifanlu and I developed and tested the USB Downloader mode over a week-long series of IRC sessions. I needed to get USB Downloader mode working because I had accidentally ripped the serial I/O pads off the bricked K4 motherboard (at both sides of the series resistors). But now everybody gets to benefit from my hard work on that one.

On the K3 and DX kindles, you can easily swap batteries (no glue), so much easier. But you need more than one. I only have about 150 kindles (many with broken screens). The kindle cluster supercomputer is looking like a good idea here... I wonder if we need a firmware hack to run them without a battery (power bus connected directly to internal battery connector).

[knc1]

If VBUS is greater than 4.something, the fireware assumes its on external power,
So perhaps nothing else needed.

[(-_-)]

Well, it booted...




No serial number.
Can't find our wifi network.

Doesn't seem possible to jailbreak, update button is always greyed out.
Same thing happens with Amazon's official updates.
http://amzn.to/gixsAQ
Maybe because of the serial number, it thinks that the .bin files are not compatible with this model?



Any way out of this?

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by (-_-)

Well, it booted...
---
No serial number.
Can't find our wifi network.

Doesn't seem possible to jailbreak, update button is always greyed out.
Same thing happens with Amazon's official updates.
---
Maybe because of the serial number, it thinks that the .bin files are not compatible with this model?

Any way out of this?

The serial number prefix is needed to recognize update packages. You at least need the first four characters of the serial to match the update package so you can install it.

You can set serial number, mac address, pcbsn and mfg code from fastboot, or diags "idme -d" (on a K4/K5). Does a K3 support fastboot? I do not remember. Is there a diags menu to change those idme vars?

Without a matching serial and mac, you cannot use 3G...

And with no wifi mac, no wifi...

EDIT: At least you could boot. On my K4 with corrupted idme vars, u-boot cannot init DRAM until it knows the pcbsn (so I had to force it with a custom u-boot that hard-coded my idme vars). Apparently, there were K4s that used different DRAM initialization...

The serial should be on your original kindle box (or in your amazon account). The wifi mac address should also be on an FCC sticker somewhere. The wifi mac may also be visible in the logs or network devices page in your wifi router if it has not been rebooted recently. As a last resort, an amazon tech could look it up in their database. The pcbsn and mfg code could probably be safely copied from another kindle of the same model.

[hawhill]

I guess the non-working jailbreak and updates is due to that the firmware images floating around in the web are mostly already jailbreaked. I guess installing some custom update (say, USB networking - but again, that might already be installed) would show that.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by (-_-)

Well, it booted...




No serial number.
Can't find our wifi network.

Doesn't seem possible to jailbreak, update button is always greyed out.
Same thing happens with Amazon's official updates.
http://amzn.to/gixsAQ
Maybe because of the serial number, it thinks that the .bin files are not compatible with this model?



Any way out of this?

That looks like the "device specific" portion of the firmware got overwritten with zeros.

That part of the firmware image is available for some models.

Check in your on-line Amazon account records, see if the serial number of the device is recorded there.

[enriquemt]

Originally Posted by olag

Did anyone ever find a successful way to debrick after getting this error?

I am having the same problem, what can we do? would it be a good idea to try to load the boot image before kernel and rootfs?

thank you

[(-_-)]

Thanks for replies

Originally Posted by geekmaster

You can set serial number, mac address, pcbsn and mfg code from fastboot, or diags "idme -d"...

Windows Vista 32 bit


Trying to get into fastboot, but mfg tool can't see it.
(I did power switch+volume thing)
Tried libusbwin32 inf wizard, it installed a driver.
Still not there.

I used mfg tool before with a K5, inf wizard driver let me do it then.

[geekmaster]

Oops... MfgTool is K4/K5/PW only. You have a K3, right? In that case, you need the USBNet hack to get SSH. Not sure if a K3 supports the "-d" paramater on idme. Hmm... I updated my post suggesting MfgTool. K3 does not use MfgTool (ATK instead).