Original "Simple" debricking methods for K5-Touch, K4-Mini, & K3-Keyboard

[icantbebothered]

I jailbroke it before I joined mobileread

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by icantbebothered

I jailbroke it before I joined mobileread

EDIT: Yeah, I jailbroke mine before Edison invented the lightbulb (if you can believe that).

Before I can believe your claim, how did you Jailbreak your Paperwhite back in July (or earlier)? I do not think that even product reviewers had one yet back then. Do you work at lab126?

EDIT: And where is my karma donation from you? Isn't my comment above funny enough to earn megakarma?

[rynax]

Hi,

I have problem with this step in the noob guide:
7) Let’s copy the main partition and fix our Kindle! Type:
dd if=/mnt/us/mmcblk0p1.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p1 bs=4K

After enable usb mode and copied the mmcblk0p1.img over to the flash drive, under ssh I can't see anything
under /mnt/us?
Connect the kindle back to the computer and check the root folder, mmcblk0p1.img is there.

Also it seems I can't copy the mmcblk0p1.img through winscp as there's not enough space under /mnt/mmc or anywhere else. All the places have maximum 125MB free, and the mmcblk0p1.img is 358MB?

Best Regards,

rynax

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by rynax

Hi,

I have problem with this step in the noob guide:
7) Let’s copy the main partition and fix our Kindle! Type:
dd if=/mnt/us/mmcblk0p1.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p1 bs=4K

After enable usb mode and copied the mmcblk0p1.img over to the flash drive, under ssh I can't see anything
under /mnt/us?
Connect the kindle back to the computer and check the root folder, mmcblk0p1.img is there.

Also it seems I can't copy the mmcblk0p1.img through winscp as there's not enough space under /mnt/mmc or anywhere else. All the places have maximum 125MB free, and the mmcblk0p1.img is 358MB?

Best Regards,

rynax

WinSCP uses SSH protocol, and the root that you see is the main boot partition. Do not write anything there (unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing).

Your home folder is /tmp/root (on ramdisk), so anything written there goes away when you reboot the kindle.

From WinSCP, the USB Drive "root" is at /mnt/us. Copy your stuff there instead.

EDIT: /mnt/mmc is just an empty mount point folder on the root, which you can use to mount the diags partititon (or to mount main from diags) while in an SSH shell. You can even run programs from the other mounted partition (including the other busybox).

[icantbebothered]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

EDIT: Yeah, I jailbroke mine before Edison invented the lightbulb (if you can believe that).

Before I can believe your claim, how did you Jailbreak your Paperwhite back in July (or earlier)? I do not think that even product reviewers had one yet back then. Do you work at lab126?

EDIT: And where is my karma donation from you? Isn't my comment above funny enough to earn megakarma?

I got my kindle in June and jailbroke it a few weeks later. Hasn't the paperwhite been around for a year or two? And I don't work at lab126.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by icantbebothered

I got my kindle in June and jailbroke it a few weeks later. Hasn't the paperwhite been around for a year or two? And I don't work at lab126.

4 days.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by icantbebothered

I got my kindle in June and jailbroke it a few weeks later. Hasn't the paperwhite been around for a year or two? And I don't work at lab126.

Even the K4 and K5 were only released in December (less than ten months ago). You must be talking about the K3.

[icantbebothered]

I must be confused about what kindle paperwhite is.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by icantbebothered

I must be confused about what kindle paperwhite is.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GEKXUO

Smaller and lighter than a K5, black case and bezel, 758x1024 screen, integrated light, capacitive touchscreen, no Home button, released four days ago and new order shipments are deleayed for four weeks due to huge demand (and order limit reduced from five to two per customer).

[icantbebothered]

Yeah, I was confused.

I thougt it was just a newly arisen name for eink kindles.

[rynax]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

WinSCP uses SSH protocol, and the root that you see is the main boot partition. Do not write anything there (unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing).

Your home folder is /tmp/root (on ramdisk), so anything written there goes away when you reboot the kindle.

From WinSCP, the USB Drive "root" is at /mnt/us. Copy your stuff there instead.

EDIT: /mnt/mmc is just an empty mount point folder on the root, which you can use to mount the diags partititon (or to mount main from diags) while in an SSH shell. You can even run programs from the other mounted partition (including the other busybox).

here's the AFTER FIX working state of the Kindle Touch:

[root@[192_168_15_244] root]# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                62.2M     53.5M      5.5M  91% /
tmpfs                   124.9M      4.0K    124.9M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   124.9M         0    124.9M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/mmcblk0p3           31.0M     12.4M     17.0M  42% /var/local
fsp                       3.2G    299.4M      2.9G   9% /mnt/us
/dev/loop/0               3.2G    299.4M      2.9G   9% /mnt/base-us

BEFORE THE FIX, there was no fsp nor /dev/loop/0 mounted at all. So I wasn't able to use the mmcblk0p1.img on the Kindle I copied over via USB for dd purpose, and there's not enough space for transferring mmcblk0p1.img(358MB) via SCP to anywhere(only 124.9MB~).

So I can't do this step:

7) Let’s copy the main partition and fix our Kindle! Type:
dd if=/mnt/us/mmcblk0p1.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p1 bs=4K

So how I fixed it?
Lucky enough, the main partition was not broken, by just doing the following step, it fixed my Kindle Touch:

8) If you want to be double sure, you can also delete /var/local partition (it deletes collections). Type:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk0p3 bs=4K count=1K

My question is, what could causing the fsp part won't be mounted under diags mode?
If the main partition was broken, and the fsp part can't be mounted, then the kindle can not be restored using this diags mode method?

Another question is, what you do would fill up/break the /var/local ? It has only 31MB and half of it has been filled up, it seems it's very easy to be fed up and brick the Kindle. Know why Linux is so week on this part? One of my NAS filled up the partition with log files and it can't boot at all to even let me clear the logs.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by rynax

here's the AFTER FIX working state of the Kindle Touch:

[root@[192_168_15_244] root]# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                62.2M     53.5M      5.5M  91% /
tmpfs                   124.9M      4.0K    124.9M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   124.9M         0    124.9M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/mmcblk0p3           31.0M     12.4M     17.0M  42% /var/local
fsp                       3.2G    299.4M      2.9G   9% /mnt/us
/dev/loop/0               3.2G    299.4M      2.9G   9% /mnt/base-us

BEFORE THE FIX, there was no fsp nor /dev/loop/0 mounted at all. So I wasn't able to use the mmcblk0p1.img on the Kindle I copied over via USB for dd purpose, and there's not enough space for transferring mmcblk0p1.img(358MB) via SCP to anywhere(only 124.9MB~).

So I can't do this step:


So how I fixed it?
Lucky enough, the main partition was not broken, by just doing the following step, it fixed my Kindle Touch:


My question is, what could causing the fsp part won't be mounted under diags mode?
If the main partition was broken, and the fsp part can't be mounted, then the kindle can not be restored using this diags mode method?

Another question is, what you do would fill up/break the /var/local ? It has only 31MB and half of it has been filled up, it seems it's very easy to be fed up and brick the Kindle. Know why Linux is so week on this part? One of my NAS filled up the partition with log files and it can't boot at all to even let me clear the logs.

That df listing looks a lot like you are running the "diags" partition (which you should be, if intending to update the "main" partition).

Your machine is a "dual boot" machine. The two system are not the same, nor even close to the same size.

Try instead:
cat /proc/partitions
Which will show kernel recognized partitions (as devices) even if not mounted.

- - - -

The usual cause of filling up /var/local (which is the file system on /dev/mmcblk0p3) is book indexes (indices). Index fewer books. The "too small" /dev/mmcblk0p3 partition was a lab126 design decision.

- - - -

Your NAS can probably be put back into service, but you will probably need a to use the serial (kernel operator console) port to do it.

Plus, on something that "runs forever" your syslog configuration and log rotation configuration needs to be setup for that usage so that the current fill-up does not happen.

You should also suspect something different or additional wrong with your NAS - lack of space for log files (or even utmp) should not prevent it from booting.

[rynax]

Originally Posted by knc1

That df listing looks a lot like you are running the "diags" partition (which you should be, if intending to update the "main" partition).

Your machine is a "dual boot" machine. The two system are not the same, nor even close to the same size.

Try instead:
cat /proc/partitions
Which will show kernel recognized partitions (as devices) even if not mounted.

- - - -

The usual cause of filling up /var/local (which is the file system on /dev/mmcblk0p3) is book indexes (indices). Index fewer books. The "too small" /dev/mmcblk0p3 partition was a lab126 design decision.

- - - -

Your NAS can probably be put back into service, but you will probably need a to use the serial (kernel operator console) port to do it.

Plus, on something that "runs forever" your syslog configuration and log rotation configuration needs to be setup for that usage so that the current fill-up does not happen.

You should also suspect something different or additional wrong with your NAS - lack of space for log files (or even utmp) should not prevent it from booting.

Hi, thanks for the reply.
Yes, the df listing is result from diags mode via ssh.

The NAS, was caused by that it has 0 byte left on the disk, I took out the drive, hooked it to another machine, cleared out some logs and it booted ok. Some errors filled out the logs very quickly. Yes configuration the log could prevent it from filling up the drive. But it is true Linux will brick if there's no space left? See the Kindle and the NAS.

[rynax]

Is there a way to empty/fix the /var/local partition right from fastboot?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by rynax

Hi, thanks for the reply.
Yes, the df listing is result from diags mode via ssh.

The NAS, was caused by that it has 0 byte left on the disk, I took out the drive, hooked it to another machine, cleared out some logs and it booted ok. Some errors filled out the logs very quickly. Yes configuration the log could prevent it from filling up the drive. But it is true Linux will brick if there's no space left? See the Kindle and the NAS.

Depends on your file system and file system options.

It is also not restricted to Linux, any **disk based** operating system will "brick" if it runs out of disk space. ANY!

Linux, true to its heritage of Unix, "boots" (actually, system IPL) under the supervisor's username 'root'.
Any *nix related file system will have an area (percentage) of disk space reserved for 'root', so that the username 'root' can recover the system from "out of disk space" situations.

The system administrator (You) can defeat this by:
Running everything as the supervisor 'root' -
Optioning the file system so that space is not reserved for 'root' -
Running the system with a non-*nix file system (which does not implement the concept of a 'reserved area').

A for simple instance of #1 :
lab126 implemented the Kindle system with nearly everything running as username 'root' (a really bad idea) (tm) ;
Many other embedded linux systems make the same (simplistic) choice, likely to be the root (no pun intended) of your NAS problems.

If you don't believe that above ANY!
Fill up the entire disk of your M$-Windows box, see how long it lasts; no cheating, don't allow a dynamically sized swap file/disk.