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

[knc1]

Originally Posted by dhdurgee

Thank you for your clarifications. Since I last posted I have read some of the earlier posts on this thread and now know that kubrick works in virtualbox hosted on linux. Given this I will attempt to use it later today on my Lenovo ideapad Z560 running linux mint x64 and see if more modern hardware makes a difference.

How difficult is it to open the K3 to change the battery? I see that I can buy a replacement battery for about $15, so if it is something a thumb-fingered user can manage without breaking anything this might be my best fallback should my next attempt with kubrick fail.

My final alternative will be to look for a replacement unit on ebay, but I would prefer to get this one back in operation.

Dave

I would go with Geekmaster's memory - it was "fastboot" mode that would re-charge the battery faster.
And the K3 does not support a "fastboot" mode.

It is easy to open - check the master index for the K3 teardown links.

A full charge on that battery should be 4.2 volts.

But with Li-Ion - that does not indicate its storage capacity - it may still have the storage capacity of a hearing aid battery.

So if an external re-charge doesn't fix the re-flash problem, maybe a new battery will do the job.

[dhdurgee]

Based on your responses in this thread I just ordered a battery for my K3. Interestingly, shortly after I ordered the battery I noticed that my K3 display showed that it had entered USB drive mode! After confirming the K3 was actually accessable I ejected it and it now displays the home page. The charge light is still amber and the battery icon shows it is charging, but this is an improvement over recent behavior.

I am unsure why my K3 is now charging and working, perhaps my z560's USB port has a bit more power than the K3 plug. In any case a new battery is on the way and I will put it in if the K3 starts acting up again.

Dave

[dhdurgee]

Looks like I spoke too soon in my last post. It did display the home page but then it froze and has stayed that way. I obtained a new battery and replaced it Monday evening and have left the unit charging since then. I attempted to reset it several times with no apparent change. I attempted to use kubrick with the same behavior as before, the flashes "complete" in only a few seconds that should take much longer. Most of the time I have it plugged in the "amber" charge light is on. When it goes out I can get it back on by unplugging for a bit and then plugging back in. Most of the time I see the device when I am plugged in as "Bus 002 Device 107: ID 15a2:0030 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.", sometimes not. The device number changes with time.

I am running linux mint 11 Katya x64 edition on the system I am running kubrick on in virtualbox with a filter making all usb devices available to it. What other steps can I take at this time? Can kubrick be run with additional diagnostics available? Where do I go from here?

If you need any further information from me to give me guidance please let me know.

Dave

PS: I decided to do a quick check since I had the K3 open and I checked the voltage on the new battery. It shows 3.37 volts, so perhaps it still needs to charge further before things will work properly. For comparison the battery I replaced read 3.17 volts, so it is better but perhaps not good enough. Is there a minimum level where things should work?

[knc1]

The minimum (the setting of the low voltage sensor) is not known.

The full charge on that battery will be 4.2 volts.

[bmcarnes]

I have three DXGs in my family. What with Amazon selling DXGs again, it'd be great to add support for them here.

Of the 3, one has died (cracked screen, useful for development until I do something that kills it completely). The others are running a heavily modified 2.5.8 and a pretty clean 3.2.1 fw, respectively.

I came to the forum looking for a clean 2.5.8 restore (that one's been getting flakey - don't know if it was one of the mods from ages ago, and don't want to push it up to 3.2.1).

I'm happy to do the work to make this part of the Kubrick family and contribute it back to the community.

Is there any reason the K2 (and the DXG in particular) were left out of the Kubrick efforts?

Years ago, I recall there were legal concerns about the copyrighted firmware. Given Kubrick's existence and http://kindle-asimov.rhcloud.com/ I've seen linked around - I'm guessing those concerns have now been put to rest, or have tacit approval from Amazon if they're used for restore/repair only?

Is there a source for a clean, unmodified K2 rootfs? I'm aware of the DXG backup - but it seems those have been taken down (for containing the machine specific bits allowing a full clone). Can someone point me to (or PM me) just the machine-independent rootfs from a K2 in general or a DXG in particular?

Thanks all. Any info or advice appreciated.

[dhdurgee]

I picked up an external charger and brought my new battery up to 3.95 volts, but kubrick is still behaving as it did in my earlier post. I am thus thinking my K3 fits kubrick's "severely bricked" category requiring manual work. I attempted to find the manual directions, but I find only the Windows version. Anyone have a link to the current linux guide to debrick a K3 manually? Thanks for your help.

Dave

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by bmcarnes

Is there any reason the K2 (and the DXG in particular) were left out of the Kubrick efforts?

Hi bmcarnes,

welcome to the forum, and sorry for the late reply.

First off, I don't own neither a K2 nor a DX(G), so that could be considered part one of the answer. But more importantly, if I remember correctly, neither the K2 nor the KDX support a user-friendly method of flashing the system via USB -- or do they? If they do, and if the required tools run on Linux, then there is indeed no reason to leave those devices out of Kubrick.

[twobob]

They dont.

[DreamworlD]

Hi guys,

I would like to ask a question concerning the debricking of Kindle K3.
I've this model, but before 2 years, an incident with the display did force me to buy a new one. I ordered one through ebay, and installed it. It is showing only half of the screen with 50% displacement of the real image. (The full story is described here with screen shots: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=2593925) Firstly I though that the video driver is incorrect. Now I am sure that this is the case, but one by one.

To make the long story short, I thought that the display that I bought is somehow defective, so I bought a new one recently, which in turns, not just give me the same result with the displacement, but also have a fuzzy lines like when a computer does have improper setup of the refresh rate. I did inspect the display it self, and it turned out that it has a i2c 64kbytes memory chip, where the firmware and all the parameters are kept.

I tried to update my K3 device, but with no success, because I've too many modifications of the firmware (so many that I've no idea anymore what I've changed, and even if I knew I wouldn't remove them). Anyway, I do not know what firmware version I am running because the version info is shown in the lower right corner, which is invisible for me, because of the misaligned display.

The only access I've is through an SSH terminal via WiFi.

My first question is how to review the K3 firmware version by using terminal?
And..
Is Kubrick able to update the kernel with the device drivers, not just the mmcblk partition? (especially when the firmware is not 3.4)

Thanks for your reply.

[knc1]

Last in, first out:

No - Kubrick only installs 3.4 - complete - kernel and system image (which contains the drivers)

And - The drivers are not your problem. The code in the eeeprom on the display cable is incorrect or missing.

What you refer to as a "mis-alignment" problem is a problem with the lower half of the display not working.
You should suspect a hardware problem - bad screen connector on mb, or bad driver hardware on mb.

Kubrick does not try to change the contents of the eeeprom on the cable.
We have a thread here on that subject.

[DreamworlD]

Originally Posted by knc1

Last in, first out:

No - Kubrick only installs 3.4 - complete - kernel and system image (which contains the drivers)

This will do the job. That means that it'll update the firmware as a whole? Is that correct? (Kernel + GNU + Framework)

Originally Posted by knc1

And - The drivers are not your problem. The code in the eeeprom on the display cable is incorrect or missing.

That is odd. Two different displays with incorrect or missing code in the eeprom... what a coincidence

Originally Posted by knc1

What you refer to as a "mis-alignment" problem is a problem with the lower half of the display not working.

Lower half of the display is working. Infact the display is split by half, and the whole image is displaced and projected on the lower half of the display. If I am able to put a negative offset for image projection on the display, that will also do the job.

Originally Posted by knc1

You should suspect a hardware problem - bad screen connector on mb, or bad driver hardware on mb.

Tested with two separated displays, taken from different hardware vendors, have different results....

Originally Posted by knc1

Kubrick does not try to change the contents of the eeeprom on the cable.
We have a thread here on that subject.

You do have a thread with instructions on how to reflash the display cable eeprom? I've stumbled on something like that before, but there were written that it is impossible, to do so from the Kindle MB. (The screen should be connected to different equipment).

[knc1]

Originally Posted by DreamworlD

- - -
That is odd. Two different displays with incorrect or missing code in the eeprom... what a coincidence
- - -

I can only respond to what you wrote:

To make the long story short, I thought that the display that I bought
is somehow defective, so I bought a new one recently, which in turns,
not just give me the same result with the displacement, but also have a
fuzzy lines like when a computer does have improper setup of the refresh rate.

And "missing" code is quite common in after-market displays.

[walter_2]

Hi all,
yesterday my KT is bricked. It shows only the start picture (the tree with gray word kindle)
and then nothing happens. After charging the whole night ... the same.
Now I tried the kubrick-cd (Version3.6). Fist step work (fastboot-mode). Then I see a screen that something is flashing. After the state goes green the KT is rebooting . I can see it an a short blank screen before the tree picture comes back. But then nothing more. The kubrick menu show the screen that kubrick is waiting for usb net. But on KT I have no chance to select something to enable usb-network. The only thing I see is the tree picture.
*** On console-2 I tried lsusb - no device (only hubs and some intel entries) ***
Any Idea what I can do now ?

[brinkop]

Hey i got a kindle fire demoversion do you got an unbrick??? cause i Need help :S withe a other kindle does it work pls send me a link or something els that can help me

thanks brinkop

[knc1]

Originally Posted by brinkop

Hey i got a kindle fire demoversion do you got an unbrick??? cause i Need help :S withe a other kindle does it work pls send me a link or something els that can help me

thanks brinkop

This forum only deals with the e-ink (grayscale) Kindles.
Nothing here on the Kindle Fire.