Kubrick: Live CD to debrick Kindle 3, 4, and Touch

[kingjohn]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I think ALT+F5 or something will drop you to a shell prompt in Kubrick.

Use `dmesg` to log various high-level messages including detection of USB devices.

Is the Kindle actually being detected?

Kindle was on the charger for 2 days now... should be full (after some time, the light went off.... and came on again after replugging)


Currently I don't need to press the on button and then the magic key anymore... kubrick recognizes the kindle as soon as I plug it in.
strange.....

If the kindle is switched off and no cable connected, I cant make it boot in any way... so pressing a button doesn't help. display and light stay both off.
(with display off I mean: it still says: please be patient while your kindle is starting" )

dmesg displays a lot of things. What should I look for?
but it for sure will be recognized, otherwise kubrick would not say: "device ready", would it?

afterwards, on the fastoot page, it still says "waiting for device".....



edit:
dmesg: finds apart from many other things this:
NS Blank CODEX
Freescale SemiConductor Inc

is this the kindle?

This now shows also up in Windows. I managed to install the libusb-win32-bin-1.2.6.0
driver somehow.....

If I switch back and forth with power and magic button, in windows, I still get an unknown USB device
, that has VID_0000&PID_0000
This device has stopped, according to windows.....


could it be that there is some important data gone on the kindle?

[Zenobia77]

Originally Posted by kingjohn

Kindle was on the charger for 2 days now... should be full (after some time, the light went off.... and came on again after replugging)


Currently I don't need to press the on button and then the magic key anymore... kubrick recognizes the kindle as soon as I plug it in.
strange.....

If the kindle is switched off and no cable connected, I cant make it boot in any way... so pressing a button doesn't help. display and light stay both off.
(with display off I mean: it still says: please be patient while your kindle is starting" )

dmesg displays a lot of things. What should I look for?
but it for sure will be recognized, otherwise kubrick would not say: "device ready", would it?

afterwards, on the fastoot page, it still says "waiting for device".....



edit:
dmesg: finds apart from many other things this:
NS Blank CODEX
Freescale SemiConductor Inc

is this the kindle?

This now shows also up in Windows. I managed to install the libusb-win32-bin-1.2.6.0
driver somehow.....

If I switch back and forth with power and magic button, in windows, I still get an unknown USB device
, that has VID_0000&PID_0000
This device has stopped, according to windows.....


could it be that there is some important data gone on the kindle?

it seems i'm also on the same situation

after several test i've managed from kubrick to manually load the fastboot with drivers with imx_usb command. And now Kindle seems replying to fastboot commands!
my question is now, which command can i enter from kubrick to flash the diags kernel? i can't find the mmcblk image in the CD drive...

alternatively, i could not find a way to install on ubuntu Yifan Lu fastboot, so i can't connect to the kindle after manually load the imx_usb fastboot... could you please instruct me on where to downlaod it and install it? (i'm a bit noob i know... all i've found is an OSX package, and links to another package that does not reply when trying to wget it)

thanks

[Zenobia77]

Just a little update, i've manually added the diags and diags kernel images on the kubrick iso, then i can run the fastboot commands for flashing...

the download part of the command works fine, but unluckily the writing part seems to stuck

is that meaning the fastboot cannot access the kindle drive?

[knc1]

Give us the full text of the command(s) you are using.
We can not answer without sufficient context.

[Zenobia77]

sure thanks

once kubrick start up, i press alt+f5 for entering command line

then i put the kindle to downlaod mode
running dmesg i see NS Blank CODEX

then i run from /media/cdrom/kubrick# the command
./imx_usb resources/imx_usb_img/fastboot_standalone.bin

after that i can see with dmesg kindle with id vendor 1949 product d0d0

(before i've copied mmcblk0p2_ssh.img and diags_kernel.img into the kubrick directory from Ubuntu)

fastboot command now seems to reply

then i run ./fastboot flash diags mmcblk0p2_ssh.img, and here comes the issue as download goes fine but then stuck on writing.... the same if i run ./fastboot flash diags_kernel diags_kernel.img

if could help, setvar command seems to work as i could set the bootmode variable to diags

[kindleheadache]

OK so after reading this entire thread I am going to give some tips that might help Kindle Keyboard(K3) owners debrick successfully. I have been working on one for about a week now and learned a couple things. I haven't had a full success yet but I have seen it come back to life briefly before refreezing. The kindle was in the classic freeze and when connected in windows would connect and disconnect every 90 seconds or so in a loop and show as SE blank RINGO. One thing to note is that when in this mode the battery will not charge no matter how long you leave it on the charger. You need a donor kindle keyboard to keep a full battery ready for you to do the debricking process. At least that was true in my case.

When using kubrick in the main mode with instructions and clicking next I found something out. You can not rely on the prompts when putting into USB download mode. Any type of reset or timeout will give you the "Device is ready" and allow you to hit "Next". These false positives then give you the quick responses on the kernel and then the main partition with out actually doing anything. The best option here to guarantee you are in USB download mode is to go to a shell by pressing Alt+F2. Login in to that and run k3flasher manually for part of the debricking process.

Once logged in to the shell type:
cd /media/cdrom/kubrick - This command will put you in the directory to run k3flasher

Then type this after you have connected your K3:
./k3flasher resources/ramkernel/mx35to2_mmc.bin info

The output will either say that no usb device was found or your serial number and wifi mac address. If no usb device is found then hold the power button on your kindle till the orange light goes out. Rerun the command (if you hit the arrow up on your keyboard it will autofill). Keep holding the power button over. k3flasher will now show that it is waiting for a device. Now continue with the steps to get it into USB downloader mode. Sometimes I would have to repeat the process several times till I actually got it just right and the serial number and mac address would display. Once those are displayed you are in the right mode and ready to flash.

Once you do see that it is connected, quickly press Alt+F1 to get back to the main kubrick and try and get through the process. if it fails to complete then I would go back to the shell and start over with getting it back into USB downloader. This was the only way I could be positive I had the kindle ready for the flashing of the kernel and main partition.

To test if the kernel was flashing correctly I also have done it in the shell by manually running k3flasher. I would type the command in and then hit ctrl+c to cancel the command just so it was in the command log so I could just arrow up till the command I needed autofilled. This was important for me because it is alot to type.

Once I knew it was in the correct mode I would use the following command to manually flash the kernel:
./k3flasher resources/ramkernel/mx35to2_mmc.bin program kernel resources/devices/k3/main_kernel

You can then watch the output and see that it is actually flashing.

I never figured out a way to invoke a manually flash of the main partition because it is controlled by a script and the main partition is in a compressed file. So after a successful kernel flash I would go back to Alt+F1 and flash the main partition using kubrick.

There may be other hardware issues with the kindle I am working on but these things helped me get it going long enough to deregister it and do a factory reset before it froze up again. I have flashed it about 5 times getting a little closer each time. I am hoping since I was able to get it back to a clean slate that this last flash will do the trick.

Once you complete a flash and hold the power for the 30+ seconds to hard reset connect it back up to kubrick and go to the shell (Alt+F2) and type lsusb. This will list usb devices attached. When I look after a good flash and reset I usually don't see anything listed here with the kindle connected. I think it is because it is rebuilding the OS internally and so nothing shows up. I don't know for sure but when this happens for me I plug it into a wall charger and just let it set till it reboots and yes it can take a long while to do that.

Hopefully some part of this helps someone and if I discover anything more that might be helpful I will post it.

[knc1]

Better yet, Kubrick is in a public repository, so submit patches.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by kindleheadache

... I never figured out a way to invoke a manually flash of the main partition because it is controlled by a script and the main partition is in a compressed file. ...

Compressed files and scripts are not magic, so they are not what prevents flashing the main partition.

As stated plainly in many places, including the simple debricking thread which kubrick automates, the main partition is too big to flash with fastboot, and needs 'dd' (manually or in a script) to write firmware to that main partition.

If you wish to actually understand how and why this process works, read the "simple debricking" thread. And yes, public contributions are welcome to shared things like kubrick, if you find a RELIABLE "better way". Beware that kubrick frequently reports "success" even when flashing fails -- the only way to know is if it finished flashing much too soon. Better error detection would be a welcome fix, if you feel up to the challenge.

[kindleheadache]

I wish I knew enough about programming to submit a patch. If I figure out any code that would help I will definitely do so. I haven't delved into Linux in many many years and only now to try and fix this kindle. I saw a lot of the same symptoms I was having in posts as I read through everything and figured I would share my results and work a rounds to try and get a hopefully successful debrick on a k3 with these problems.

[kindleheadache]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Compressed files and scripts are not magic, so they are not what prevents flashing the main partition.

What I meant is I could not figure out how to do it in the command line. It was not as straight forward for me to figure out as the kernel. I am sure there is a way to do it in the command line but I don't know how to do it. That is why I would just switch back to the main kubrick and let it do its thing with the main partition.

I am learning as I go with this. I just liked how it was very verbose in the command line to see what was actually going on when I flashed the kernel that way.

[eschwartz]

Kubrick will ssh into the running diags system on the Kindle, in order to run the `dd` command which flashes the unlzma'ed and untarred "resources/devices/k5/main_partition.tar.lzma" rootfs image to /dev/mmcblk0p1

It's all basically just what the Simple Debricking thread details, but automamted.

[kindleheadache]

I am working on a k3 not a k5 though. I think they are different in how they flash. Maybe I am wrong thinking that.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by kindleheadache

I am working on a k3 not a k5 though. I think they are different in how they flash. Maybe I am wrong thinking that.

What gave you the idea they are different? They are the same in how they flash. The main partition is too big for fastboot. Even the OTA scripts use the 'dd' command.

[kindleheadache]

I mean the method used. k3flasher vs fastboot. I thought the commands would be different between the 2 methods.

[eschwartz]

Then you use resources/devices/k3/main_partition.sfs and instead of unlzma/untarring an ext3 partition, you will extract it from a squashfs.

Same difference -- it's way too big for k3flasher/fastboot/whatever to transfer over a USB Downloader connection, you will need to save it to the userstore and have the Kindle itself write it via `dd`.


It doesn't matter what tool you use to connect to the Kindle, k3flasher, mfgtool, fastboot, it's all the same -- the goal is always to get a working diags partition with USBNetwork installed, by which to ssh into the Kindle and write the main partition.

You are overthinking this.