Kindle touch screen rotating hack

[A-I]

Originally Posted by turambar

Well, I have my kindle working again! Replacing mmcblk0p1 and clearing of mmcblk0p3 did it.
Thanks to geekmaster and his great debricking posts!

That's great! I am more of a novice at KT tinkering, and I'm having problems getting the dropbear to show up on Windows7. Here are my steps so far following the instructions from
simple kindle touch (and k4nt) debricking method and
Select Boot for K4 and Touch (and diags RUNME.sh)

1) I've downloaded the KindleSelectBoot (MfgTool) and mmcblkOp1-kt-5.0.0.img (~350Mb) files.
2) Hooked up my KT to my Windows7 PC, and placed the KT into recovery mode with the MfgTool (Kindle diags)
3) Then on the KT, System Diags-->U) USB device mode. And on Windows7 opened the Kindle (J: ) drive window.
4) Copied over the mmcblkOp1-kt-5.0.0.img to the Kindle (J: ) drive.
5) On the KT, selected Q) to continue, which closes the Kindle (J: ) drive.
6) On the KT System Diags-->N)-->U)-->Z)-->X), which gets me nothing. KT is back at the U) Utilities screen, and nothing popped up on Windows.

7) I open back up the Kindle (J: ) drive and the mmcblkOp1-kt-5.0.0.img file is still there, but there is also the USBnet.xml file.
8) I select X)Exit-->X)Exit-->X)Exit to get back to the top of the System Diags menu
9) I then select D)Exit,Reboot,orDisableDiags-->R)RebootSystem-->Q)To continue. And get nothing.

The KT screen is locked at the System Diags menu again, and I can still go back to the diagnostic USB recovery mode by doing the PowerKey->MagicKey->releasePowerKey->releaseMagiceKey.

10) I then select S)DeviceSetting-->Q)to reboot, the KT reboots. But nothing still.

11) I then Stop the MfgTool and reselected the profile to "Kindle fastboot" , PowerKey->MagicKey->releasePowerKey->releaseMagiceKey, and then select Start on the MfgTool (in Kindle fastboot). Nothing still.

Am I missing a step or doing something wrong?
I have to file my tax return now, but I will try other steps and respond.
Thanks in advance for any response for my call for help.

[turambar]

actually, I have used only MfgTool to get into diags mode, copied mmcblk0p1-kt-5.0.0.img to kindle via usb device mode and used data.tar.gz and RUNME.sh method to replace mmcblk0p1 partition. For that, i used data.tar.gz posted in Select Boot thread (which creates RUNME.done file to ensure RUNME.sh is executed only once) and this RUNME.sh:

#!/bin/sh
mntroot rw
dd if=/mnt/us/mmcblk0p1-kt-5.0.0.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p1 bs=4K
mntroot ro

But before I used that, I have checked if kindle reboots back to diags mode and not to main mode. As I have tried different things, I do not remember now exactly how I did that. Maybe by using ENABLE_DIAGS file (look here), or maybe it stayed in diags by itself until I haven't changed it back to main with MfgTool (this is more likely, as at the end I needed to change mode back to main to get kindle boot into main system normally, but check it for yourself).
I have also needed to erase /var/local partition, which I did with this RUNME.sh:

#!/bin/sh
mntroot rw
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk0p3 bs=4K
mntroot ro

[A-I]

Still no dice. I will add that my KT was already jailbroken with yifan lu's method. Here are more steps that I've tried in the MfgTool (diags mode):

1) Copied data.tar.gz to the Kindle (J: ) drive (where all the other folders are like audible, documents, music, etc are), and rebooted in diags mode. The data.tar.gz file does not show, which I assume is a good thing.

2) Copied the RUNME.sh into the Kindle (J: ), and rebooted in diags mode.

#!/bin/sh
mntroot rw
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk0p3 bs=4K
mntroot ro

Got RUNME.out, RUNME.done. The RUNME.done is empty, and the RUNME.out shows

system: I mntroot:def:Making root filesystem read-only

Deleted the RUNME.out and RUNME.done.

3) Copied the RUNME.sh and the mmcblk0p1-kt-5.0.0.img file into the Kindle (J: ) with the RUNME.sh

#!/bin/sh
mntroot rw
dd if=/mnt/us/mmcblk0p1-kt-5.0.0.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p1 bs=4K
mntroot ro

Reboot in diag mode. Same RUNME.done and RUNME.out as before, but the mmcblk0p1-kt-5.0.0.img file is still there. Deleted the RUNME.out and RUNME.done.

4) Stop the MfgTool diag mode. Change to Kindle main mode. Reboot. Start the MfgTool main mode. "Your Kindle Needs Repair" message still comes up.

5) Stop the MfgTool main mode. Reboot to MfgTool diag mode. The same mmcblk0p1-kt-5.0.0.img, RUNME.done, RUNME.out, RUNME.sh are all still there.

Can anyone spot what I am doing wrong? Thanks.

[turambar]

On windows, you need to change RUNME.sh file to unix coding. It can be done with PSPad text editor in format menu.
And, don't know if that matters, but I did the mmcblk0p1 replacement first.

Writing of mmcblk0p1 took few minutes on my kindle, so it should stay for some time on boot screen (with tree). Before you boot to main mode again, delete the RUNME.sh file also, or it will be executed on reboot.

[thatworkshop]

I read somewhere in forum that accelerometer is disabled with update 5.1.0. Now, I accidentally ran across this setting in /var/local/xorg.conf :

Option      "NoAccel" "true"

Does it have anything to do with accelerometer? I changed it to false anyways but didn't try it yet! what do you think?

[NiLuJe]

@cscat: Nope, probably related to the 2D rendering. What section is it in?

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by A-I

Still no dice. I will add that my KT was already jailbroken with yifan lu's method. Here are more steps that I've tried in the MfgTool (diags mode):
...
Can anyone spot what I am doing wrong? Thanks.

This is not a debricking thread, so I missed this post until now. Did this ever get fixed?

[pwright2]

As a noob I would postulate that nearly any thread over 4 pages becomes a debricking thread.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by pwright2

As a noob I would postulate that nearly any thread over 4 pages becomes a debricking thread.

So I suppose that I need to read ALL active threads over 4 pages then, if I want to try to help EVERYBODY...

Hopefully, more people will post their requests for debricking help in the simple debricking thread, now that it is a sticky.

[pwright2]

Unfortunate but true. Perhaps your ambition to help EVERYBODY is an overreach. OTOH, those of us who need help really do appreciate it.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by pwright2

... Perhaps your ambition to help EVERYBODY is an overreach. OTOH, those of us who need help really do appreciate it.

Yes, I overreach, but how else can we stretch ourselves? Health professionals tell us that stretching is good for us (both physically and mentally).

The world is full of underachievers. Most people can reach much farther than they think, if they just stretch a little. Being an overachiever means that you must fail once in a while, but failure occurs much less often with practice. If you do not fail often enough, it means that you are not trying hard enough.

In school, I sat front row center, and I asked MANY questions. I always did all extra credit. I always got a perfect score. It is nothing to be proud of. It is a way of life.

It is good to know that I am not alone. Makers and producers give consumers interesting things they can use to "kill time", other than just being a "cog in the machine", and watching TV and making babies. Some of us producers try to educate consumers, so that those consumers can learn to make and do as we do. How can ANYBODY value their own limited precious time on this Earth SO LITTLE that they feel a need to "KILL TIME" itself?

That is why I like to publish little things that I have learned along the way, so that others can learn HOW I learn, so they can learn new things too, without having to be taught by others.

And I firmly believe in the Golden Rule (treat others as you wish to be treated). Although all the good things I have done for people my entire life have rarely been returned to me in kind, I can only hope that when I REALLY need help, others will be there to help me.

If you cannot help ME, then please help others. "Pay it forward" is a good and noble goal, to make the world a better place for ourselves and for future generations.

[thatworkshop]

Sorry to post in an old thread.
Has anyone with older firmware (say 5.0.1) had any success with Inverted Portrait mode? As it's mentioned in other threads all other modes work except this. In fact, in the file '/etc/xdg/awesome/lab126_orientation.lua', there is a clue. I tried to uncomment the line when it says "-- [DOWN] = true" but it doesn't seem to be affective. Can anyone please do a quick doublecheck for me?

Off-topic: And by the way, in my experience, the screen refresh is messed up in FW 5.1.0 and up... Reading books seems faster in good old 5.0.1. I'm not unhappy with not upgrading my firmware!

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by cscat

Sorry to post in an old thread.
Has anyone with older firmware (say 5.0.1) had any success with Inverted Portrait mode? As it's mentioned in other threads all other modes work except this. In fact, in the file '/etc/xdg/awesome/lab126_orientation.lua', there is a clue. I tried to uncomment the line when it says "-- [DOWN] = true" but it doesn't seem to be affective. Can anyone please do a quick doublecheck for me?

The supported orientations are specified in the application registry (appreg.db), independently for each application, in the "supportedOrientation" property. They are enforced by the ScreenRotationService implementation. There's a bit more voodoo happening as well (and I don't know how exactly it works for WAF apps), but that's the idea. Check the "all rotations" patch source (FW 5.1.x, obviously) for a few more clues.

Originally Posted by cscat

Off-topic: And by the way, in my experience, the screen refresh is messed up in FW 5.1.0 and up... Reading books seems faster in good old 5.0.1. I'm not unhappy with not upgrading my firmware!

Most of the people (including myself) say the opposite: subjectively, reading generally got better with 5.1.x. And I don't think it's a wise choice to keep an old version: you stay with all the bugs, security holes, and missing features - and you're probably cutting yourself off from much of the development here, which naturally is targetted at the most up-to-date versions. But in the end, you're of course free to do whatever you want

[thatworkshop]

Update: Can you post results of the following command when you rotate your Kindle?
/usr/bin/lipc-get-prop com.lab126.winmgr accelerometer
It shows U, R, and L correctly but when in Inverted Portrait, it doesn't update!!!

Originally Posted by ixtab

The supported orientations are specified in the application registry (appreg.db), independently for each application, in the "supportedOrientation" property.

Danke! Don't know why I asked such a silly question before investigating any further.

Originally Posted by ixtab

Most of the people (including myself) say the opposite: subjectively, reading generally got better with 5.1.x. And I don't think it's a wise choice to keep an old version: you stay with all the bugs, security holes, and missing features - and you're probably cutting yourself off from much of the development here, which naturally is targetted at the most up-to-date versions. But in the end, you're of course free to do whatever you want

I did this mainly because in 5.1.0, WAF apps were so unstable, and annoyingly sometimes as soon as the keyboard was shown on the screen, the WAF would crash. Also, when I was browsing in WiFi, it was crashing a lot. I know it's not wise, but it was just getting on my nerves!

[thatworkshop]

Originally Posted by Mehdi

I also made an extension to lock/unlock the orientation (simply sets orientationLock based on orientation), I could put that up somewhere...

It'd be very much appreciated if you could share. Thanks!

[from another thread]

Originally Posted by yifanlu

-To enable accelerator (no point except allow the Kindle to see rotate event, it does nothing with those events though), edit "/etc/upstart/makexconfig" and on line 120, edit "IS_ACCEL=0" to "IS_ACCEL=1"

Is there a way to enable/disable (or pause/resume) accelerometer WITHOUT needing a reboot (after making this change in makexconfig)?