Unable to enter fastboot mode on PW2

[Egor]

Hello,

My Kindle PW2 stopped booting for some reason and tricks like reboot, hard reset, connecting to PC, charging etc. did not help. So I tried to re-flash it using TTL converter and soldering, but I got an issue when I was following the manuals. When I type bist in Putty, it goes into bist mode, but then I type fastboot and it hangs. By hangs I mean that it does not show any messages except battery voltage (so no Connected or USB speed HIGH messages). But more interesting, that if I connect both TTL converter and USB cable to my Kindle and PC, I get the successfull connection, but for 10 seconds only (then it goes back to bist automaticaly). Tried this on Windows and Ubuntu - result the same.

Could you point me, what can be the reason of such behaviour, please?

Appreciate your help!

Best regards,
Egor.

[knc1]

You are starting the fastboot server on the client (target) machine and it is reminding you that the battery is running down unless you get your a... in gear and do something.

Something like: now start the fastboot application on the host (provider) machine (your pc).
There are two ends to the communication, you have only started one of them.

Remember, the Kindle require a special build of fastboot, not the Android fastboot.

[coplate]

Here is a link that has some fastboot downloads.

I remember it was a pain to get it working on windows.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=169645

--> https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=2001687

[Egor]

Originally Posted by knc1

You are starting the fastboot server on the client (target) machine and it is reminding you that the battery is running down unless you get your a... in gear and do something.

Something like: now start the fastboot application on the host (provider) machine (your pc).
There are two ends to the communication, you have only started one of them.

Remember, the Kindle require a special build of fastboot, not the Android fastboot.

Hi knc1,

Unfortunately, when I start fastboot on PC (I tried both Ubuntu and Windows fastboot), it stays in '<waiting for device>' mode and never connects to the kindle.

[Egor]

Originally Posted by coplate

Here is a link that has some fastboot downloads.

I remember it was a pain to get it working on windows.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=169645

--> https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=2001687

Hi coplate,

Thank you for sharing this. I already have fastboot for Windows from this forum and also I've tried fastboot on Ubuntu - both hangs in '<waiting for device>'. So maybe there is some issue on Kindle side?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Egor

Hi knc1,

Unfortunately, when I start fastboot on PC (I tried both Ubuntu and Windows fastboot), it stays in '<waiting for device>' mode and never connects to the kindle.

What does lsusb -v have to say about the devices available, both before and after you connect the waiting Kindle to the PC with a known good USB cable?
What does the "tail" of dmesg have to say immediately (and I mean immediately) after making the USB connection between the waiting Kindle and the PC?

"Known good" :: means has both the power pair and the data pair are included in the cable and both pair known to be working.

What vendor/device ID(s) is the fastboot on your PC built to recognize?

You post that you tried both Ubuntu and Windows - -
Are both of them running on bare metal or are either (or both) of them running in a VM?
What version of Windows?
What version of Ubuntu?

[Egor]

Hi knc1,

Thank you for your questions.

I will provide the detailed report in several hours.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Egor

Hi knc1,

Thank you for your questions.

I will provide the detailed report in several hours.

I stop in here at various time each day but there are often times when I am not here for hours.

What you describe happening, is a description of the Kindle running its fastboot routine.
All we have to figure out is why it is not being recognized over the USB cable.

There are other fastboot users active here, so don't be surprised if somebody else picks up the troubleshooting with you.

[Egor]

Hi Guys!

Sorry, it took me for a while to setup everything correctly, so let me post the history - it may be useful for someone.

Issue 1:
I have found out that the fastboot entering issue was caused by Windows. So every time, when I move Kindle PW2 (connected via both USB and TTL) to fastboot by bist fastboot command, it tried to install a new device and kicked off the kindle from fastboot.
Resolution 1: I fixed this by switching to Ubuntu.

Issue 2:
Now I'm able to enter fastboot, but ./fastboot *command* hangs with <waiting for device>
Resolution 2: I used sudo ./fastboot *command* and it works

Issue 3:
I do the following commands:

sudo ./fastboot flash diags mmcblk0p2.bin
sudo ./fastboot flash diags_kernel diags_kernel.img
sudo ./fastboot flash kernel main_kernel.img
sudo ./fastboot setvar bootmode diags
sudo ./fastboot reboot

And see positive feedback from Kindle:

bist > fastboot 
Entering fastboot mode... 
USB speed: HIGH 
Connected to USB host!
USB speed: HIGH 
Connected to USB host!
downloading
..done 
flashing diags to MMC1, partition 0
Battery voltage: 4016 mV 
downloading 
done 
flashing diags_kernel to MMC1, partition 0
done. 
Battery voltage: 4019 mV 
downloading 
done 
flashing kernel to MMC1, partition 0
done. 
resetting ...

However, then I do not see DIAGS menu, the kindle just loads as usual and asks about entering into bist or recovery menu.
I have an assumption, that my kindle does not go into diags mode for some reason. I have started to test this assumption and see the following:
While in uboot, I do idme and see

bootmode: ota

Then I do idme bootmode diags and see

setting 'bootmode' to 'diags'

but idme still returns

bootmode: ota

If I try to execute: bootm 0xE41000, Kindle goes to reboot, but it still doesn't load DIAGS menu. Instead I see the following:

mmcblk0: error -110 transferring data, sector 1044480, nr 32n cm0
mmcblk0: retrying using single block read
...
kinit: Cannot open root device dev(179,2)
kinit: init not found!

Also I run sudo ./fastboot check diags and it returns:

checking 'diags'...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.000s

Not sure what it means, maybe it can be useful for you.

Resolution 3 (in progress): I think that my Kindle cannot boot DIAGS mode for some reason or it cannot switch the boot mode to DIAGS. Any ideas how to fix it?

Thank you for your help!

[knc1]

Most likely:
You are using the wrong files.

Where did you get the image files that you installed using fastboot?
Include link(s) in your answer.

[Egor]

I used these files: https://ixtab.tk/kindle-touch-images/PW2/

[knc1]

From the screenshot you posted, the eMMC device on your Kindle is trashed (not actually recording what is written to it).
You need to either replace the device or replace the entire motherboard.
We have a thread here on how to replace the device.

Meanwhile, try booting main from your u-boot (to get you out of the ota mode).
bootm 0x041000

(Hmm...
Which probably will no longer work, since you flashed a main kernel that does not match the main file system.
No great loss, the device is junk anyway.)

[Egor]

bootm 0x041000 posts a lot of this:

[   21.402209] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 1044488
[   21.408149] Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0p4, logical block 1
[   21.415130] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 1044496
[   21.421068] Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0p4, logical block 2
[   21.428024] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 1044504
[   21.433962] Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0p4, logical block 3
[   26.864101] mmc0: Timeout, intmask=0x00100000
[   26.873573] mmcblk0: error -110 transferring data, sector 1044480, nr 8, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x80b00
[   32.306857] mmc0: Timeout, intmask=0x00100000
[   32.313793] mmcblk0: error -110 transferring data, sector 1044480, nr 8, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0
[   32.323728] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 1044480
[   37.752692] mmc0: Timeout, intmask=0x00100000
[   37.759620] mmcblk0: r/w command failed, status = 0x80900
[   37.765114] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 1044481
[   37.771056] Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0p4, logical block 0
BOOTING DEFAULT.
IP-Config: no devices to configure
kinit: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
[   44.209555] mmc0: Timeout, intmask=0x00100000
[   44.219042] mmcblk0: error -110 transferring data, sector 700780, nr 2, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x80b00

So I have to replace eMMC?

[Egor]

Upd: mmc and mmcinfo returns the following:

bist > mmc rescan
Card did not respond to voltage select!
bist > mmcinfo
Card did not respond to voltage select!
Device: FSL_ESDHC
Manufacturer ID: 0
OEM: 0
Name: Revision: 0x0
Tran Speed: 0
Rd Block Len: 0
MMC version 0.0
High Capacity: No
Capacity: 0
Bus Width: 1-bit
Current Partition for boot: Not bootable
Current boot width: 1-bit SDR

[knc1]

It sure looks dead to me, it will not return built-in device information it is so dead.

If you don't have the special tools to replace the eMMC chip, they you could try selling it for parts - somebody might buy the touchscreen.