[SOLVED] - 'Wi-Fi MAC Address: Unavailable' after debricking

[kaneorotar]

I updated my Kindle 3G to software version 3.4 last night and tried to install launchpad after jailbroken it. However, the 'Update Your Kindle' option remain greyed out after I put the bin file in the root folder. So I did a restart and, tada, 'UPDATE ERROR:3' and then the device stays in the 'USB Downloader' Mode with a screen showing "Your Kindle encountered an error."
In order to debrick it, I used the ATK to program the backup of mmcblk0p1 (version 3.1) and the corresponding uImage into the memory and it was able to startup again. Unfortunately, the 'Device Info' part seems to have lost during the process, resulting 'Wi-Fi MAC Address: Unavailable' and 'Serial Number: Unknown_Serial_ID'
As a result, my Kindle 3G is currently unable to scan for Wi-Fi Network or register. '411' stucks at 'Retrieving data...'
Could anyone provide any suggestion to help me solve this problem?
Thank you.

EDIT:
The problem is probably caused by flashing the kernel to 0x0 in the memory, which overwrote the device ID info part. I've managed to recover the S/N, PCB S/N and Wi-Fi MAC Address of my Kindle but still need the 'PCB CONFIG ID' of a 'B00A' Kindle (A 3G+Wi-Fi UK Model).

EDIT:
The problem is now SOLVED. After about two weeks effort, I'm alraedy desperate about the WiFi problem and decided to make one last attempt. So I copied the wifi and wifid scripts from the init.d folder to my computer and started reviewing. While nothing seems to be wrong in 'wifi', a proportion of code in the 'wifid' attracted my attention:

start)
        if ! internal_features_enabled || [ ! -f $WIFIOFF_FILE ]; then
            F=var/local/system/hid.csv ; [ -e /opt/$F -a ! -e /$F ] && cp /opt/$F /$F
            F=var/local/system/wifid.conf ; [ -e /opt/$F -a ! -s /$F ] && cp /opt/$F /$F

The file 'wifid.conf' reminded me some errors in the dumped logs and I start to wonder if it is the cause of the problem. So I went to the var folder backed up a few months ago and overwrote the existing 'wifid.conf' with the old one.
IT WORKED! The device discovered its MAC address at once and connected to the Wi-Fi hotspot is wasn't able to find.
However, during the process of registration, the familiar message prompted again: 'Your kindle is unable to connect this time...'
"OK, now maybe this is really the time to send this thing to Amazon." I thought, as my mouse pointer wandered among the backup files. Then a file called 'reginfo' came into view. It's in the var/local/java/prefs directory and the content seems to be some encrypted string. What's special about it is that there's no such file on my kindle. Therefore, without hoping much to happen, I copied it to the device and guess what? The device name changed immediately and I was able to connect to Whispernet again!

--------------------------------------------------
OK, here's the short version of the complete process:

1. Flash the 3.4-with-jb-devkey rootfs and kernel into your kindle with ATK or k3flasher.

2. Put the usbnetwork folder (usbnet) into the storage.

3. Connect via ssh and use 'idme' command to write correct serial number, MAC address and pcb serial number into the device.

4. Copy /var/local/system/wifid.conf and /var/local/java/prefs/reginfo form your backed up files to the device and overwrite the current content.

3. Restart and everything should be working.

P.S.:
1. The device S/N and Wi-Fi Mac address can be obtained from Amazon customer service.
2. The PCB S/N is printed on a tag on the back of the PCB board which will be visible if you take the back panel off.
3. 'wifid.conf' seems to be a dynamically generated file and it is possible to solve the WiFi problem by simply deleting it. (Not tested, and prefer not to test)

[(-_-)]

Same thing happened to me.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=219

Might help to read on through after there, if you have any record of what you have overwritten, you can re-add it.

[kaneorotar]

Strange, I can't seem to find the 'Edit' option to my first post. So I will just add the information at here:
Despite the version 3.1 software and the rootfs, I also programmed the 'partitiontable-header-uboot.img.gz' available at here

As hawhill mentioned in tha post, there should be a 'device ID' part in the memory and in my case I suppose that's where things went wrong. So the question is: Is there anyway to recover the device ID part of the memory?
I've previously dumped some part of the memory from the Kindle 3G and the filenames are:'mmcblk0_7688.dmp','mmcblk0p1.dmp','mmcblk0p2. dmp','mmcblk0p3.dmp'

One more interesting information:
Althought my Kindle 3 seems to be a 3G model, it has a serial number starting with B00A which is normally seen on an European Kindle 3G.

[hawhill]

Note that the uboot+partitiontable image does _not_ overwrite the ID part. It must have gotten corrupted by another occasion (you didn't make a mistake by chance and flashed a wrong, larger image to offset 0x0?).

That said, I'll dig out the exact offsets and notation of serial number and MAC address later this day (will take some more hours).

[kaneorotar]

Originally Posted by hawhill

Note that the uboot+partitiontable image does _not_ overwrite the ID part. It must have gotten corrupted by another occasion (you didn't make a mistake by chance and flashed a wrong, larger image to offset 0x0?).

That said, I'll dig out the exact offsets and notation of serial number and MAC address later this day (will take some more hours).

Great! I've managed to get my serial number from the customer service and the Wi-Fi MAC address from the MAC filter list in the wireless router. It should be possible to get the device ID part back to life if the offset addresses are known.
Thank you.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by hawhill

Note that the uboot+partitiontable image does _not_ overwrite the ID part. It must have gotten corrupted by another occasion (you didn't make a mistake by chance and flashed a wrong, larger image to offset 0x0?).

That said, I'll dig out the exact offsets and notation of serial number and MAC address later this day (will take some more hours).

Writing a rootfs to the kernel location could write too far, corrupting stuff, unless k3flasher limits named partition lengths to known maximum size limits.

[kaneorotar]

OK, so I tried to flash the 3.4+jb+keys firmware and got usbnetwork to work.
The 'idme' command worked great and I managed to write the serial number and MAC address into memory.

serial number = B00AXXXXXXXXXXX
board id = SP1B000000000000
pcb serial number = ?%*5Aea笄搢y罅?
accelerometer offset string = 庥荎(惂%q芑[
MAC address = 28EF01F3XXXX
pcb config id = *,冻IA猰
Manufacturer Code = <頮`iK瓋W~^*觶?皗

The MAC address is still displayed as 'Unavailable' after the reboot. Is it because I used upper case?
And could anyone provide me with the missing information of Kindle 3G(not 3GB)?
Namely: 'pcb serial number', 'accelerometer offset string', 'pcb config id' and 'Manufacturer Code'

[qlob]

Mac adress is all caps here... could be that it doesnt like the other corrupted strings....

[kaneorotar]

Originally Posted by qlob

Mac adress is all caps here... could be that it doesnt like the other corrupted strings....

I guess so. Are the other strings uniquely assigned to each model or ... maybe you could give me a hint about the format of them so that I can try to make it up?

[qlob]

Originally Posted by kaneorotar

I guess so. Are the other strings uniquely assigned to each model or ... maybe you could give me a hint about the format of them so that I can try to make it up?

No idea.... I will PM you my idme vars so you can look at them.

[kaneorotar]

Originally Posted by qlob

No idea.... I will PM you my idme vars so you can look at them.

Thanks for the vars. I applied few of them to my Kindle 3G but the MAC in Device Info is still 'Unavailable'. Nevertheless, I managed to verify the validity of 4 of them. 'serial number', 'board id', 'MAC address' and 'pcb serial number' which is written on a tag with barcode at the back of the pcb board.
I wonder if the others are also available as printed text 'inside' the device?
Maybe the best recovery solution is to dump the part of memory of a 'healthy' Kindle that contains the correct idme vars and flash it into the memory, followed by the sn and mac changes.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by kaneorotar

OK, so I tried to flash the 3.4+jb+keys firmware and got usbnetwork to work.
The 'idme' command worked great and I managed to write the serial number and MAC address into memory.

serial number = B00AXXXXXXXXXXX
board id = SP1B000000000000
pcb serial number = ?%*5Aea笄搢y罅?
accelerometer offset string = 庥荎(惂%q芑[
MAC address = 28EF01F3XXXX
pcb config id = *,冻IA猰
Manufacturer Code = <頮`iK瓋W~^*觶?皗

The MAC address is still displayed as 'Unavailable' after the reboot. Is it because I used upper case?
And could anyone provide me with the missing information of Kindle 3G(not 3GB)?
Namely: 'pcb serial number', 'accelerometer offset string', 'pcb config id' and 'Manufacturer Code'

MAC Vendor ID: 28-EF-01 is a "Private" registration.
Re-check your wireless logs, that may not be your Kindle's MAC.

@qlob: What is the first six (the vendor id) of your MAC address?
(the last six are a nothing special, device sequence number)

Also: The serial number is a fixed length of 16 characters, only 15 are shown above. Any chance of a typo when entering that?

[kaneorotar]

Originally Posted by knc1

MAC Vendor ID: 28-EF-01 is a "Private" registration.
Re-check your wireless logs, that may not be your Kindle's MAC.

Also: The serial number is a fixed length of 16 characters, only 15 are shown above. Any chance of a typo when entering that?

[DEL]I got the MAC address from the MAC filter list in the wireless router. As I've been able to connect to the hotspot before yesterday, I'd assume that it is the correct address.[/DEL]
I thought that part is the MAC address of the wireless network interface controller. So what does it usually look like?

The serial number indeed has a fixed length of 16 chars. I missed one when substituting it with 'X'.

Here are some errors in the log regarding the Wi-Fi problem.

.....
121025:185621 cvm[3696]: I lipc:gsp:prop=macAddress, source=com.lab126.wifid:Get string property
121025:185621 cvm[3696]: E lipc:dbuserr:name=org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:Receive Dbus error message (DBUS_MESSAGE_TYPE_ERROR): The name com.lab126.wifid was not provided by any .service files
121025:185621 root: com.amazon.ebook.pl.service.ServiceException: Failed to get String property.  ErrCode=3
.....
121025:185621 cvm[3696]: E lipc:dbuserr:name=org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:Receive Dbus error message (DBUS_MESSAGE_TYPE_ERROR): The name com.lab126.wifid was not provided by any .service files
121025:185621 cvm[3696]: E WifiServiceImpl:CurrentSSIDGet:errCode=3:Error while trying to get current ssid/network
121025:185621 cvm[3696]: I lipc:gsp:prop=macAddress, source=com.lab126.wifid:Get string property
121025:185621 cvm[3696]: E lipc:dbuserr:name=org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:Receive Dbus error message (DBUS_MESSAGE_TYPE_ERROR): The name com.lab126.wifid was not provided by any .service files
121025:185621 cvm[3696]: E DeviceInfoWidget:Error::Failed to get the MAC address
.....
121025:185629 cvm[3696]: E lipc:dbuserr:name=org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:Receive Dbus error message (DBUS_MESSAGE_TYPE_ERROR): The name com.lab126.wifid was not provided by any .service files
121025:185629 cvm[3696]: E WifiServiceImpl:CurrentSSIDGet:errCode=3:Error while trying to get current ssid/network
.....
121025:185629 cvm[3696]: I lipc:ssp:prop=scan, source=com.lab126.wifid:Set string property
121025:185629 cvm[3696]: E lipc:dbuserr:name=org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:Receive Dbus error message (DBUS_MESSAGE_TYPE_ERROR): The name com.lab126.wifid was not provided by any .service files
121025:185629 cvm[3696]: E def:jdbus::JNI ERROR: NotifySystemEvent cannot set property: source=com.lab126.wifid name=scan svalue= errcode=3
121025:185629 cvm[3696]: E SettingsView:Error::Unexpected exception when trying to scan for Wi-Fi
121025:185629 cvm[3696]: com.amazon.ebook.pl.service.ServiceException: NotifySystemEvent cannot set property: source=com.lab126.wifid name=scan svalue= errcode=3  ErrCode=3
.....

Most (all?) of the errors seem to be related to 'com.lab126.wifid'.

[knc1]

Where there is one typo, there might easily be two. . .

If this is a K3, with the only known Wifi chip on the board, then:
00-13-74 (hex) Atheros Communications, Inc.
Should be the first six (OUI) of your MAC address.

Re-read those wireless logs.
The OUI is a (relatively expensive) purchased item.

[twobob]

The name com.lab126.something was not provided by any .service files

err. I get an error like this when I manage to break cvm. would having a read through the wifi upstarts help do you think? see where the variables are referenced (they are referenced for sure to derive type of device for example from the BoardID)

Perhaps the wifi startup script just needs a read through. to my utterly inexperienced eye that looks like a "failure to launch".

In fact breaking the pop-keyboard by poor programming illegal values will result in very similar errors. and cause Lipc to terminate further programmatic access to the keyboard.

Of course the value lookup could be binary embedded elsewhere but it cant hurt to just have a check. Those are my thoughts. maybe you can fudge it.