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

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by kindleheadache

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

It has to fit in RAM to use fastboot or k3flasher. the main partition is too big to fit, so we must 'dd' it to the main partition (from userstore or via 'nc' over SSH).

[knc1]

The Kindle OTA update process is a good example of how to get 20 pounds of sh.. in a 5 pound bag.

[kindleheadache]

Thanks for the information. The charging light works now and changed to green but the kindle is still froze. I keep getting closer to it hopefully being functional again. Are there any other portions of the kindle keyboard that can get corrupt but reflashed other than the kernel and main partition?

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by kindleheadache

Thanks for the information. The charging light works now and changed to green but the kindle is still froze. I keep getting closer to it hopefully being functional again. Are there any other portions of the kindle keyboard that can get corrupt but reflashed other than the kernel and main partition?

Yes. If eMMC is erased, serial port debricking may be your only hope.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=134637

[SuperRed38]

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?

"NS Blank Codex" is your Kindle. It's usually called this when the Kindle is in a low-level state like diags mode (if you don't know what that is, ignore it). Try running down the power until you're sure that your Kindle's battery is totally dead if that's even possible. Then, charge it for around 48 hours. That's what worked for my Kindle.

[kindleheadache]

Well progress is being made on the kindle keyboard. After the last flash it now boots up but will freeze again shortly after any key presses. Good part is that I have been able to reboot it after each freeze which I have not been able to do before. Hoping that this next flash will work out all the stuff that is causing the freezes. Pretty sure the eMMC is intact since I have gotten this far.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by kindleheadache

- - - - -
Pretty sure the eMMC is intact since I have gotten this far.

Most likely it is not.
What you describe is the mapping out more of the bad erase blocks each time you re-flash it.
With luck, after one of the flashes you will have enough good erase blocks left to hold the firmware.

[kindleheadache]

I was wondering if it mapped out the bad blocks during the process. Thanks for the info. It does explain the way it is coming back.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by kindleheadache

I was wondering if it mapped out the bad blocks during the process. Thanks for the info. It does explain the way it is coming back.

Some small limited in number, after all it isn't an SSD.

But it does sound like each time you flash it, there are more working blocks.

[geekmaster]

A really thorough flash utility would do a flash integrity test and figure out a safe place to store all the critical pieces, or at least map out all the bad blocks before flashing anything. But that would take a lot of time and folks would think their kindle died without an onscreen progress report. I suppose would could write a kernel to do that but it would need to force the internal flash processor to do things it currently does not attempt. (eMMC flash chips have their own embedded processor, perhaps running its own linux or similar OS).

[kindleheadache]

Well here is a little progress update. I decided to run k3flasher off a thumbdrive within Kubrick and see what happened if I flashed 3.0.2 kernel and main partition. It flashed and took just short of 3 hours. I am able to navigate the menus with no freezing but once I start reading the Kindle User Guide it will freeze after several pages and am I still able to reboot after every freeze. Can a memtest be ran to check the eMMC or DDR? I am thinking that something on the board has a failure and I am probably better off just buying a replacement motherboard and moving on but I don't want to miss something that could maybe get it working again.

A big Thanks to those that made Kubrick and k3flasher and those on the board for getting me this far though.

Update: After the last reboot I am able to go through menus and am 50% done flipping through the User Guide with no freezes. I think it may be back in working order. Now to just manually update with the files from Amazon and see what happens.

Update: Nope still freezing. Went to unlock to continue with Guide and had to reboot it. I think this reboot being needed was caused by the battery being low or near dead. I think the battery may not be reporting the correct charge state. Now that it has charged for sometime and I got a green light I have been able to continue through the User Guide.

8/3 Update: I now have a fully functional Kindle Keyboard again. It has 3.4.2 on it and has not froze in the last day. Thanks again for the tools and help from the board.

[LERL]

I am not sure whether my Kindle Touch is a complete brick .Looks in good condition and I replaced the battery.
Have tried to use Kubrick but get stuck at the setting fastboot where it just says waiting for device. I have spent more time than I should reading posts and trying options.
When connected to a Windows P?C it is detected as a HID device so is not completely dead. When using the mfgtool it does detect the device and will usually say it has completed loading fastboot but the device is not detected.

I apologise if I have asked in the wrong place but any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by LERL

I am not sure whether my Kindle Touch is a complete brick .Looks in good condition and I replaced the battery.
Have tried to use Kubrick but get stuck at the setting fastboot where it just says waiting for device. I have spent more time than I should reading posts and trying options.
When connected to a Windows P?C it is detected as a HID device so is not completely dead. When using the mfgtool it does detect the device and will usually say it has completed loading fastboot but the device is not detected.

I apologise if I have asked in the wrong place but any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Try a different USB port. Some computers have multiple USB chipsets driving different ports and the chipset may affect fastboot compatibility. USB3 ports are more problematic that USB2, in my experience. Also, try a different computer. Some computers are more "kubrick-compatible" than others (also from personal experience).

And of course, try different USB cables as well. And keep your kindle fully charged. A hard reset when partially charged may help it charge faster.

[LERL]

Thanks for your reply geekmaster. I have tried three different PC's booting from Kubrick and Windows XP and 10. Also different cables after leaving charge for long periods.
I have a good working of Windows and dos but not Linux. Is there anything else I can do to wake this thing up or check its status? Are we screwed if we cannot get it inti fastboot mode?
Can it be queried from a Linux environment?
Regards from New Zealand
lerl

[geekmaster]

MfgTool (see my "Select Boot" thread) can replace fastboot mode, but somebody needs to promote an effort to get such features configured for supported Kindles.