Glo unable to do a facotry reset after disk image copy

[leftright]

What I did to brick my Glo.
Copied across a earlier firmware as per instructions.
Didn't delete upgrade file in root.
Switched Glo on, get to the wifi screen, enter router code, "success" but a few seconds later it says "connection error".
Restart, same thing.
Factory reset it hangs at the same place.

Connected Glo to pc for desktop activation, when I clicked on Kobo desktop for activation it also gave "network error" and froze windows, I had to do a forced pc shutdown.

Removed SD card and re-imaged it, It hangs at exactly the same place.
Factory reset with new image, hangs at the same place.
Disconnect battery and reconnect, same problem.

I have successfully imaged the card twice previously with no issues.

If I connect the Glo to my pc (not Kobo desktop) the Glo appears as a drive and I can see the files on the Glo. Would it help if I placed the "upgrade" folder and a firmware in the Glo's directory to force it to upgrade ?.

any ideas ?. before I bin the thing.

I read in another post that its possible to bypass the registration process, is this still possible with the Glo ?.

[davidfor]

This could be a faulty SD card. There have been several reports of behaviour like this that were fixed with a new SD card.

[leftright]

I bought a new SD card, copied image across, no luck, the Glo hangs at the same place, identical behaviour to previous SD card.

Well, its bin time.

Thank you for your assistance.

[Zorka]

Originally Posted by leftright

I bought a new SD card, copied image across, no luck, the Glo hangs at the same place, identical behaviour to previous SD card.

Well, its bin time.

Thank you for your assistance.

Not sure where you're from, but you can always put in in my bin

[frostschutz]

try with an intact image ?

[leftright]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

intact image ?

Not quite sure what you mean by that.

It's my understanding that a reader which has a imaged card should boot and load whatever firmware is on the card without any issues, there should be no setup screen at all. This is what I noticed when I imaged the card two years ago, twice I did that with no issues. Now with a imaged card it always goes to the setup screen, it shouldn't do this which makes me think that there's a hardware issue somewhere which won't let the unit read whats on the disk.

The unit was working fine with the latest version firmware and somehow I bricked it when I tried to install a earlier firmware, or perhaps just coincidence ?.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by leftright

Not quite sure what you mean by that.

It's my understanding that a reader which has a imaged card should boot and load whatever firmware is on the card without any issues, there should be no setup screen at all. This is what I noticed when I imaged the card two years ago, twice I did that with no issues. Now with a imaged card it always goes to the setup screen, it shouldn't do this which makes me think that there's a hardware issue somewhere which won't let the unit read whats on the disk.

The unit was working fine with the latest version firmware and somehow I bricked it when I tried to install a earlier firmware, or perhaps just coincidence ?.

The image files I've seen have not been boot and go. That type of image would involve leaving personal information in the image which is fine for my backups but not for a file going to another person. The process I use to generate an image file involves a factory reset, registering, updating firmware, etc. and then signing out to replace the database with a blank database. This will require you to setup the reader with your information.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by leftright

Not quite sure what you mean by that.

It's my understanding that a reader which has a imaged card should boot and load whatever firmware is on the card without any issues, there should be no setup screen at all. This is what I noticed when I imaged the card two years ago, twice I did that with no issues. Now with a imaged card it always goes to the setup screen, it shouldn't do this which makes me think that there's a hardware issue somewhere which won't let the unit read whats on the disk.

The unit was working fine with the latest version firmware and somehow I bricked it when I tried to install a earlier firmware, or perhaps just coincidence ?.

I think what @frostschutz means is did you take the image from your current possibly faulty card, or get a fresh known to be good image? If you took it from the card, then you might have copied corrupted data over that is preventing the boot. If you took the image a while ago, or it is one you got from me or someone else, then it should be OK. I can see I sent you one the other day, so I assume that is what you are using. And assuming you wrote it to the card correctly, it should be OK. One thing to try is a manual factory reset. This can fix some strange behaviour after restoring an image.

[leftright]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I think what @frostschutz means is did you take the image from your current possibly faulty card, or get a fresh known to be good image? If you took it from the card, then you might have copied corrupted data over that is preventing the boot. If you took the image a while ago, or it is one you got from me or someone else, then it should be OK. I can see I sent you one the other day, so I assume that is what you are using. And assuming you wrote it to the card correctly, it should be OK. One thing to try is a manual factory reset. This can fix some strange behaviour after restoring an image.

I imaged from the file you sent me as per the instructions. I also tried manual factory resets with no luck.

Thanks for your input. Time for a new ereader :-)

[frostschutz]

You should write a known-to-be-good image to the card (and maybe tell us how you are doing this exactly, which programs / commands / steps etc.).

Also verify that it has been written correctly (sometimes there are faulty cardreaders / USB hubs / etc. on PC, too - or even new SD cards can be faulty).

I don't know what software there is in Windows to do this, in Linux you can use dd to write the image, and cmp to read-compare-verify it.

Then if setting up WiFi or whatever does not work, sometimes this is a router issue, but as long as the device exports storage to USB, you should be able to do offline registration (KoboReader.sqlite) and/or update firmware version to latest by dropping the KoboRoot.tgz onto the user partition directly.

If all else fails you should be able to add some debug scripts to the Kobo rootfs, like a dd read test of the mmcblk0 sdcard device. Or use PC cardreader to get mods like KSM + KoReader etc. going, circumventing the Kobo nickel platform almost entirely, if that is what is causing the issues.

As long as you have access to the SD card there's a lot of ways to handle a misbehaving device. It's hard to imagine a specific hardware fault. I mean sure, wifi chip could go bad or whatever, but still... you should decide that this is the case only after you've confirmed it (if the router is seeing a connection attempt from Kobo, it might not be setup correctly but hardware itself should be confirmed to work).

[leftright]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

You should write a known-to-be-good image to the card (and maybe tell us how you are doing this exactly, which programs / commands / steps etc.).

Thank you for your interest. In all cases I have followed the relevant guides: Windows 7: USB img tool: Mini partition tool. I have imaged the same card twice two years ago with the same pc with no issues, the reader worked flawlessly with the new image both times.

How it began, I copied a earlier firmware to my reader. I didn't delete the upgrade folder in reader.
Disconnected Reader from PC, on reader the 4 squares scan, language screen > select english; time > set; Wifi screen > enter code "Success" connecting to network 5 seconds later "connection error"; Reader off/on it reverts to 4 squares loading screen.

Initiate factory reset, hourglass/reset loading screen then 4 square blocks and EXACTLY the same error as described above.
Another factory reset the exact same error.
Tried a different router same error.
Disconnect reader's battery and leave it disconnected for a few minutes > replace battery terminal > factory reset > hourglass/reset screen > 4 squares screen and exact same error as above.

Received and unzipped image from David; Removed Card from reader, used Mini partition tool to delete all partitions and format 4 gig card to FAT32;
USB image tool > click on SD card > restore > navigate to image > double click on file; USB image tool completes image with no issues.

Insert card in reader; 4 squares loading screen > exact same screens and error as above; Factory reset > same screens and error.

Buy new 4 GB card; image as above; Insert new card into reader > same 4 squares screen and error as above. Factory reset > hour glass/reset screen > exact same screens and error as above.

EDIT: today I used the Image writer recommended in your memory upgrade procedure. no luck same error.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by leftright

How it began, I copied a earlier firmware to my reader. I didn't delete the upgrade folder in reader.
Disconnected Reader from PC, on reader the 4 squares scan, language screen > select english; time > set; Wifi screen > enter code "Success" connecting to network 5 seconds later "connection error"; Reader off/on it reverts to 4 squares loading screen.

From that error, I don't think there is actually anything wrong with the device. See my post in your other thread about the best firmware version. You will probably need to do a manual update before attempting to do the setup, or use the Kobo desktop application.

[leftright]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

As long as you have access to the SD card there's a lot of ways to handle a misbehaving device. It's hard to imagine a specific hardware fault. I mean sure, wifi chip could go bad or whatever, but still... you should decide that this is the case only after you've confirmed it (if the router is seeing a connection attempt from Kobo, it might not be setup correctly but hardware itself should be confirmed to work).

I went back to basics, carefully and methodically;
Copied image to card.
Downloaded original 3.19.5xxx firmware > copied 3 files to .kobo directory.
Unplugged from pc and it bloody well works. It connected to wifi, all went well, latest firmware installed and normal, how the heck...

Thank you all for your prodding and suggestions.

[BloodRagg]

Originally Posted by leftright

What I did to brick my Glo.
Didn't delete upgrade file in root.
Switched Glo on, get to the wifi screen, enter router code, "success" but a few seconds later it says "connection error".
Restart, same thing.
Factory reset it hangs at the same place.

Sounds like they changed things on the remote side, that would explain the connection error.
Old firmware still has the old connection.

Who told you to delete the update folder ? Why would you purposefully want to use an old kernel with new firmware ? If you want instability, that's the way to go.

[leftright]

Originally Posted by BloodRagg

Who told you to delete the update folder ?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=224127