If you can still boot to a root prompt on the Kindle, it turns out that the battery check can be bypassed in the software instead of hardware. Posting a comment I made on Neil's blog here for posterity in case anyone else is searching:
It turns out that
/etc/rc2.d/S50battcheck offers all sorts of possibilities for skipping the battery check. I elected to simply change the two lines reading "
_SKIP_CHECK=0" to "
_SKIP_CHECK=1" - worked a treat.
Here is some partial output from
/var/local/log/really_long_name.gz before the change when starting with a dead battery:
Code:
init: Entering runlevel: 2
...
system: I S50battcheck:def:running
system: I S50battcheck:def:current voltage = 3738mV
system: I S50battcheck:def:gasgauge capacity=2% volts=3794 mV current=179 mA
system: W S50battcheck:def:battery low. Not booting
...
system: I S50battcheck:def:current voltage = 3882mV
system: I S50battcheck:def:gasgauge capacity=4% volts=3864 mV current=363 mA
system: I S50battcheck:def:battery sufficient, booting to normal runlevel
init: Switching to runlevel: 5
and here is the output after editing
/etc/rc2.d/S50battcheck as described above and rebooting:
Code:
init: Entering runlevel: 2
...
system: I S50battcheck:def:running
system: I S50battcheck:def:skipping battery check
init: Switching to runlevel: 5