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Old 03-02-2012, 08:21 AM   #91
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Quick question: is it weird that my Kindle appears to leave fastboot mode (confirmed via hardware id) when I unplug the USB cable, or restart the computer? (plug it back in, no longer shows up on the device manager at all until I go through that whole process) It's thwarting my efforts to use the linux tool to communicate with it, since the MfgTool is PC only. I'm trying to figure out whether my lack of ability to communicate with it via the fastboot tool is due to it being in a weird state, or due to the binary I downloaded not working properly on my particular windows distribution.
I have noticed a tendency for the kindle to drop out of fastboot mode when you unplug the USB cable too. The definitive way to find out how fastboot works is to read the source code (fastboot.c) in the GPL source code from amazon, if you want to know the answer to your questions.
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Old 03-03-2012, 09:58 AM   #92
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Thanks geekmaster, good to know. I'd like to mention that we don't have any evidence yet of fastboot tool working correctly on the PC - the binary hostar posted just gives "<waiting for device>" for me, and hostar mentioned to me that he or she got the same results on their device. So if anyone can verify whether or not the PC version works, that would be a valuable clue. Since my Kindle seems to *always* drop out of fastboot on unplug or reboot, using the linux fastboot tool isn't an option for me.
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Old 03-03-2012, 10:08 AM   #93
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Oh yes, besides installing a virtual Linux on my PC bootcamp partition. But that's a whole other deal that I hope I don't have to do!
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Old 03-03-2012, 10:57 AM   #94
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If you are having problems running linux in a VM, you could instead boot a LiveCD distro (like Puppy Linux) from CD or DVD (or even USB stick) and run fastboot from a USB stick or from a mounted hard drive.

This would be a lot easier for windows users if somebody would test and/or debug the cygwin version of fastboot (and post instructions).
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Old 03-06-2012, 02:21 AM   #95
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Ok, I just spent a bunch of hours getting Ubuntu running inside vmware on Windows XP. Fastboot tool (the binary on this thread) behaving as expected. Kindle in fastboot mode, shows up as Lab126 Kindle in the Removable Devices menu. However switching from Windows to the virtual machine seems to involve virtually unplugging it: "A USB device is about to be unplugged from the host and connected to this virtual machine." And unplugging it invariably makes my Kindle leave fastboot mode, so it's not too surprising that we're still <waiting for device> in Linux. Like murz_07, my Kindle never shows a green light in fastboot mode, no matter what combination of presses. Unlike him, the Kindle does not show up in the lsusb list on the linux side. I also get the message, after about a minute "USB connection to Kindle 126 unsuccessful. Driver error." I think I'm in a really bad spot. Any ideas for things to try? Is there any point to trying VirtualBox?
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Old 03-06-2012, 07:00 AM   #96
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Ok, I just spent a bunch of hours getting Ubuntu running inside vmware on Windows XP. Fastboot tool (the binary on this thread) behaving as expected.
- - - -
I think I'm in a really bad spot. Any ideas for things to try? Is there any point to trying VirtualBox?
I can only repeat what GeekMaster told you - use a Linux LiveCD.
There are hundreds to chose from, but if you use one that you know the question answers here are familar with...

I think GM would suggest this one as a good common point of reference:
http://puppylinux.org/main/Long-Term...0WaryPuppy.htm

My own recommendation for new-to-Linux users, Knoppix Linux.
http://knoppix.net/
Which leads to a page giving you a chance to buy a copy or a list of mirror sites from which to download a free copy. Not all of those mirror sites are complete or current, use this one:
http://archive.cs.stedwards.edu/knoppix/

If unable to burn and boot from a CDrom, at the bottom of that page you will find a qemu readme (read it) and a qemu for windows directory (Knoppix will run in this copy of qemu-for-windows).

That site has only the (small) CD version, if not blind, get this one:
http://archive.cs.stedwards.edu/knop...1-09-14-DE.iso (German)
or
http://archive.cs.stedwards.edu/knop...1-09-14-EN.iso (English)

All of the above presume you have an x86{,_64} processor based machine.
If not (such as a ppc based Mac) - just post here what you need to run on.
If your running Windows on Alpha or MIPS - give up all hope.
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Old 03-06-2012, 07:43 AM   #97
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poetcop View Post
...
Kindle in fastboot mode, shows up as Lab126 Kindle in the Removable Devices menu. However switching from Windows to the virtual machine seems to involve virtually unplugging it: "A USB device is about to be unplugged from the host and connected to this virtual machine." And unplugging it invariably makes my Kindle leave fastboot mode, so it's not too surprising that we're still <waiting for device> in Linux. Like murz_07, my Kindle never shows a green light in fastboot mode, no matter what combination of presses.
...
Any ideas for things to try? Is there any point to trying VirtualBox?
As mentioned in many posts, the LED is controlled by the firmware and you cannot trust the LED on a bricked kindle.

VirtualBox works great for me, so it IS worth trying. When I had your problem of USB dropping out when switching to or from the VM, it was because my kindle battery needed recharging. From my experience, it seems to discharge the battery while sitting bricked in any mode but fastboot. You should leave the kindle in fastboot mode (but you can stop the MfgTool) for at least an hour before trying to switch the kindle USB port to linux to use fastboot.

This would all be a lot easier if we had MfgTool (or a working sb_loader) and fastboot tools that all run in ONE operating system. It is inconvenient to need both windows and linux like I have been using. To prevent dropping out of fastboot mode (IF it is still a problem after correctly charging the battery), you can set the idme bootmode var to fastboot mode and save it to the mmc storage device. After that, even a "long power hold reboot" will go to fastboot mode. This can be done many ways.

If no other way works for you, I could create a u-boot version that saves "fastboot" into the idme bootmode var on mmc. I have K4 u-boots that save bootmode to mmc, but they will not work on a kindle touch, so a new one would have to be created using the touch u-boot source code (which also works for the K4). The "SelectBoot" versions do not change the mmc contents.

Last edited by geekmaster; 03-06-2012 at 08:06 AM.
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Old 03-06-2012, 11:50 PM   #98
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Oh lordy - I just had it plugged in while in fastboot mode for half an hour, at which time it spontaneously rebooted. A couple of button presses later and we're back at "please plug me in". This thing really doesn't want to charge, except on that screen apparently. Hoping that's a software thing rather than a problem with the battery, and that I can sneak in a few fastboot commands while it's minimally charged from this screen. D'oh.

I very much appreciate your replies about my nasty case, geekmaster (and knc1 as well). If you found the time to prepare that u-boot image to auto boot into fastboot, letting me try it out with the linux tool, that would be wonderful. (and, if it's easy to do at the same time, another one to revert it back to the main default. And still interested in those "factory" and "reset" modes, again if it's just a quickie recompile.)
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Old 03-08-2012, 08:49 PM   #99
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Oh lordy - I just had it plugged in while in fastboot mode for half an hour, at which time it spontaneously rebooted. A couple of button presses later and we're back at "please plug me in". This thing really doesn't want to charge, except on that screen apparently. Hoping that's a software thing rather than a problem with the battery, and that I can sneak in a few fastboot commands while it's minimally charged from this screen. D'oh.

I very much appreciate your replies about my nasty case, geekmaster (and knc1 as well). If you found the time to prepare that u-boot image to auto boot into fastboot, letting me try it out with the linux tool, that would be wonderful. (and, if it's easy to do at the same time, another one to revert it back to the main default. And still interested in those "factory" and "reset" modes, again if it's just a quickie recompile.)
I built one, but after rebooting the touch goes to main. I think something in the kernel is resetting the bootmode or something. This will take more investigation.

I am pretty sure that method worked on my k4nt when I was first debricking it.
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Old 03-10-2012, 05:57 PM   #100
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I'm still working on getting fastboot talking to my bricked (black screen) KT. As geekmaster suggested, I'm now working with VirtualBox rather than VMware player, and it seems promising, in terms of not kicking the Kindle out of fastboot when I switch over. I might be close! But there are some things going on with the way virtualbox handles USB devices that I don't understand.

I'm running Ubuntu in virtualbox (running on Windows XP), and when I boot the Kindle into Fastboot mode it shows up in the list that comes up when I right click the USB icon in the lower right (Amazon Kindle [0001], Vendor ID 1949, Product Id: D0D0). It is listed as "Available". I have added this device to the list of USB Device filters, but left it unchecked for now. When I select the Kindle from that list, I get the tone signifying it has disconnected from XP. It is now listed as "Captured" in the virtualbox menu, and hovering over the USB icon it says "No devices attached." Nothing extra listed in lsusb, and fastboot tool says waiting for device.

Nothing seems to change when I check amazon kindle in the Settings window, except that sometimes when I go through the procedure it gets loaded as Unknown device:19490D0 with the status "Held".

So I believe that my Kindle is probably staying in Fastboot mode, but virtualbox isn't set up to talk to it. Two facts that might be pertinent: First, in the virtualbox USB Settings, both Enable USB Controller and Enable USB 2.0 EHCI Controller are greyed out, with Enable USB 2.0 Controller unchecked. Second, when I first booted to fastboot with Ubuntu up, windows asked about a new device called something like "VirtualBox device", and I downloaded and installed the driver it suggested. I feel like before that happened, I *may* have successfully had Amazon Kindle connected to the virtualbox, but then it went away when that was installed. However I'm not sure of that - the sequence of events was very fast.

Last edited by Poetcop; 03-10-2012 at 05:59 PM.
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Old 03-10-2012, 06:28 PM   #101
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Ok, update, I did not have VirtualBox Extensions installed, which you need to be able to enable USB 2.0. When I did that, and had both USB boxes checked, I succeeded in attaching the fastbooted Kindle to virtualbox! It is listed as being attached when I hover over the USB icon. However... still "<waiting for device>" And it appears to drop out of fastboot (or at least detach) in about 5 minutes. I am using the fastboot binary that was posted earlier in this thread, and I am in a very low battery (doesn't seem to be any way out of that, since it only seems to charge in "please plug me in" mode, but that amount of charge gives me a little bit of time).

Last edited by Poetcop; 03-10-2012 at 06:37 PM.
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Old 03-10-2012, 09:32 PM   #102
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This looks promising for running fastboot:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/portableubuntu/

I used a portable colinux distro before and it worked quite well. It lets you launch ubuntu inside 32-bit XP (or other windows) and runs NOT in a VM, but side-by-side with windows. I do not know how well USB support is, but I plan to test it. I am downloading it from sourceforge now.

How it works is that the linux kernel runs as a windows device driver, and all of its device drivers are stubs that request service from windows drivers. It uses the windows desktop, so linux and windows apps can run side-by-side on the desktop too.

The nice thing about this portable distro is that you just run it in windows when you want it -- no need to install it.

I will keep you posted how well fastboot runs in this portable colinux environment. I plan to run it in a 32-bit VirtualBox WinXP VM (my host PC is 64-bit linux).

Last edited by geekmaster; 03-10-2012 at 09:36 PM.
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Old 03-12-2012, 04:30 PM   #103
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Arrow fastboot for native win32 (cygwin not needed)

You can download it here, and run it at a DOS prompt:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=2000997

Each kindle needs its own set of libusb-win32 device drivers installed, to work with fastboot for windows. There are multiple ways to do this, and multiple versions of libusb drivers for windows.

You can read some details about how *I* installed them for my K4 and Touch here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=2001621

You still need to know which libusb-win32 version, and what installers to use, and more (that you can learn from the libusb websites). More information will be provided later (perhaps in a wiki page). Hopefully there is enough information at the above links for you to figure out how to use it now if you need it.

This eliminates the problem of needed Windows for MfgTool and linux for fastboot, and the problem of the kindle dropping out of fastboot mode when the USB connections is disconnected or reset (by rebooting the host PC or VM). But it has the added complication of needed Windows device drivers.

At least there are alternative methods of using MfgTool and fastboot now, so you can use whichever method works best for you.
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