Kindle Hung after downgrade

[knc1]

Originally Posted by bloodien0se

Hey Guys,

Been away for the past day and a half or so. I've noticed a lot of work has gone into the guide and main thread, but haven't seen if there's been any suggestion for the issue that jprince and I have landed on where we are stuck in error code 2/boot loop without ability to access storage after the first DO_FACTORY_RESTORE attempt.

If there's any ideas on how to fix without resorting to serial port at this point, let me know.

Have both of you filled out a trouble report form?
See first post of this thread.
(and don't make me search this thread myself, not when you know if you have done it or not )
That is one way to be certain you don't get missed.

[bloodien0se]

My post is here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...28&postcount=3
jprince's similar situation is here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...2&postcount=13

In short, I have a very new PW3 (G090G1 Kindle PaperWhite 3 (2015) WiFi) with Special Offers that was set up and connected to Amazon account but not much else prior to starting. Battery was just about full, tons of free space.

Did a factory reset via the menu. I set my language and skipped the rest of setup.

I downloaded the update_PW3_5.6.1.1_initial.bin image, confirmed MD5 hash, copied to the device and started the update.

It started bootlooping with the messed up resolution but I could see storage briefly so after about an hour I put the DO_FACTORY_RESTORE file on the device. Shortly after the bootlooping landed on the Error 2. New instructions suggest I should have unplugged and forced a reboot prior to this step, I did not.

This is where I am now. It will bootloop a bit with this messed up resolution and ultimately end up on the error 2 every time, without storage ever being accessible.

If there's no resolution outside of serial that's fine by me, I have a MicroFTX on the way, but if there is a solution I'd be happy to give it a shot.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by bloodien0se

My post is here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...28&postcount=3
jprince's similar situation is here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...2&postcount=13

In short, I have a very new PW3 (G090G1 Kindle PaperWhite 3 (2015) WiFi) with Special Offers that was set up and connected to Amazon account but not much else prior to starting. Battery was just about full, tons of free space.

Did a factory reset via the menu. I set my language and skipped the rest of setup.

I downloaded the update_PW3_5.6.1.1_initial.bin image, confirmed MD5 hash, copied to the device and started the update.

It started bootlooping with the messed up resolution but I could see storage briefly so after about an hour I put the DO_FACTORY_RESTORE file on the device. Shortly after the bootlooping landed on the Error 2. New instructions suggest I should have unplugged and forced a reboot prior to this step, I did not.

This is where I am now. It will bootloop a bit with this messed up resolution and ultimately end up on the error 2 every time, without storage ever being accessible.

If there's no resolution outside of serial that's fine by me, I have a MicroFTX on the way, but if there is a solution I'd be happy to give it a shot.

Reboot twice and downgrade again.

[NiLuJe]

@bloodien0se: The fact that it bootloops *to the updater* (if I followed correctly) is highly unusual, and would point at some storage wonkyness...

The fact that it only started to do so *after* a DO_FACTORY_RESTORE even more so...

Just to confirm something about the "error 2" thing: that's indeed an updater error, right?
I can't recall if the "Your Kindle Needs Repair" screen started to use error codes at one point, too... (There used to be, but it was verbose, telling you roughly what failed to start, not a numerical code).

EDIT: Whee, just saw the pictures, my bad, scratch the updater thing . So, a YKNR error... Potentially less weird. Although that screen looks way out of whack indeed.

EDIT²: After a wee bit of investigation, that verbose indication I was talking about is still here, it's just encoded in that numeric error code. Yay for simplicty...

Anyway, that appears to mean "the framework (repeatedly) failed to start". Which isn't that great of a surprise, we kind of expected that. But, good to know that it's not something earlier (bringing up the framework is roughly the final part of the boot process, albeit the most time consuming one).

The main issue is that, at that point, the userstore should be ready (and potentially exportable), but we hit an Amazon sneakyness: when the framework fails to start, the system begins by simply trying to restart it. If, after a certain number of attempts, that didn't help, it then tries to reboot the device. But, again, it only does that a limited amount of time. Once that limit has been passed, it simply gives up and shut downs.
Where exactly you are in that process is hard to tell (you'd need shell access for a definitive answer), although by the time we get a YKNR report on the forum, you can be pretty sure it's in the final stage.

You can (quickly) get in when it's in the first stages of such a loop, but once you've passed the limits, you're potentially screwed.

The Rescue Pack was designed to help in the first stages of the loop, and the Coward's Rescue Pack for the final stage.

I'm afraid that without those, if you don't manage to sneak in access to the userstore during a hard-reboot, the only solution left is the serial port :/.
(And, given the current state of affairs, there's no real way you could have had the RP/CRP installed beforehand, so that's just theoretical musings).

----

As for why this happened in the first place, that's another mystery entirely. The few ideas I had would have been rendered moot by the factory reset done beforehand.
And that screen looks way way weird.
What's potentially left is minute hardware inconsistencies, since you mentioned yours was fairly recent...

Hopefully the new package we've just made available for the PW3 will be less wonky...

[bloodien0se]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@bloodien0se: [color="DarkGrey"]
As for why this happened in the first place, that's another mystery entirely. The few ideas I had would have been rendered moot by the factory reset done beforehand.
And that screen looks way way weird.
What's potentially left is minute hardware inconsistencies, since you mentioned yours was fairly recent...

Hopefully the new package we've just made available for the PW3 will be less wonky...

Appreciate the musings. I'll either serial or find myself with a new one.

[axda]

For black PW3 is it OK to use 5.7.4 instead of 5.6.1.1? wondering if it's safer for black PW3.

[knc1]

We think 5.7.4 should be used for both the Black and the White PW3 models.
The pw3-factory-5.7.4 came from a Black PW3.

We would really like to hear the results from someone that has used it before we pull down that 5.6.1.1 factory version.

[jprince]

Thanks for looking through the provided info submitted everyone. Hopefully it helps with weeding out future update issues.

Quick question: I've looked through a fair bit of the documentation in threads. It's not very clear, but getting out of this reboot sequence through using the serial port—does that essentially follow the instructions for jailbreaking one that way? i.e. editing the passwd file, removing the req for a root password, and rebooting will get it to boot in a mode that will get it to mount again on your computer?

It doesn't seem like that'll get it out of what's causing it to hang, but I haven't seen how to get it reset in a way that backtracks a bit.

I'm assuming I just haven't happened upon which post outlines what more you should do via serial.

Thanks for any hints!

[knc1]

Originally Posted by jprince

Thanks for looking through the provided info submitted everyone. Hopefully it helps with weeding out future update issues.

Quick question: I've looked through a fair bit of the documentation in threads. It's not very clear, but getting out of this reboot sequence through using the serial port—does that essentially follow the instructions for jailbreaking one that way? i.e. editing the passwd file, removing the req for a root password, and rebooting will get it to boot in a mode that will get it to mount again on your computer?

It doesn't seem like that'll get it out of what's causing it to hang, but I haven't seen how to get it reset in a way that backtracks a bit.

I'm assuming I just haven't happened upon which post outlines what more you should do via serial.

Thanks for any hints!

Correct - a variation on the procedure in the 'Serial JB' thread.

I do not think anyone has written up that variation yet.
Only big deal is to use KindleTool to open up the update_*.bin file for the downgrade of your device, and dd the rootfs file onto mmc0blk1 then reboot.

OR -
just escape from the boot sequence into u-boot and get u-boot to install the downgrade update_*.bin for you.

Like I wrote, a variation on the procedure but I don't have time to write-up the details.