PRS-T1 No root after rooting?

[joanno]

I bought my PRS-T1 some weeks ago and one of the first ideas was to root the device using minimal-root. It worked fine but now battery life war quite short - after about 15 hours in standby mode it was empty. Because of that and because of the firmware update now available, i decided to unroot, update the firmware and root again. Bad idea...

Unrooting worked, but the firmware update did not complete. It told me at the end that it was waiting for the reader to reboot but the reader did not respond anymore. It just showed a static arrow symbol. The reset button worked and the reader bootet up to the point where the progress bar is full and then froze. Cold reset did not change anything.

The only way known to me to recover this was to install the rescue firmware image from SD card. This worked ok and the reader rebooted to the home screen so at least I can read books now. But it kept two very annoying habits: The worse battey life and the crash if you try to shut it down completely.

Battery live seems to be only a problem of resetting the battery stats and so i tried to root the device again. The process worked fine but - as expected - it did not switch off automatically at the end. So I pressed the reset key, the reader rebootet and... showed the Sony home screen again! I can install whatever root package available, I always end up at the Sony home screen not being able to access anything as root.

Does anyone have a good idea on how to get root back? Or to unroot in a way to get the device working normal again? Any help appreciated...

...joan

[spindlegirl]

I rooted my T1 yesterday (or rather my husband did), and after a day of "ooh Shiny", I asked him to un-root it following the instructions that are HERE.

So far it works well.
Yes, I changed my mind, even after having gushed only 12 hours ago.... but, that's life.

[camperbc]

Joan, I currently have the EXACT same problem as you, after rooting and firmware updates. The fully charged battery drained completely in just a few hours last night (on standby, wifi off) and it refuses to shut off. I decided to start from scratch. I performed the SD card rescue, but still could not shut the ereader down. Then I decided to try the hard reset, which indeed got everything right back to square one. Now we are getting somewhere! A fresh slate. Except... I STILL cannot shut down the device! Can anyone out there suggest why it will not shut down, and tell me how to remedy it? Seems odd that Joan and I have the very same issues!

I have been discussing this topic, but so far no success as to how to fix it. Looking forward to any input; very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Glen

[slvrsplsh]

I have the "No Shutdown " problem too. I started after I tied to do a shutdown while charging. Now it won't shutdown AND I have a super short battery life. In addition, I can't perform a hard reset. Thanks in advance for any help you can render.
Dave

[slvrsplsh]

I don't know if this will help with the trouble shooting, but here goes. Last night I tried to calibrate the battery meter. This requires a file deletion in "/data". I went to delete the file and "/data" was empty. There were no files or sub-directories.

[porkupan]

If you are trying to apply the rescue set, and the switch to recovery mode is not working, you can always reset manually (stick a pin into the RESET hole), and force the recovery mode by pressing and holding the HOME and MENU buttons during the power-up sequence.

[Harry_Haller]

Originally Posted by joanno

I bought my PRS-T1 some weeks ago and one of the first ideas was to root the device using minimal-root. It worked fine but now battery life war quite short - after about 15 hours in standby mode it was empty. Because of that and because of the firmware update now available, i decided to unroot, update the firmware and root again. Bad idea...

Unrooting worked, but the firmware update did not complete. It told me at the end that it was waiting for the reader to reboot but the reader did not respond anymore. It just showed a static arrow symbol. The reset button worked and the reader bootet up to the point where the progress bar is full and then froze. Cold reset did not change anything.

The only way known to me to recover this was to install the rescue firmware image from SD card. This worked ok and the reader rebooted to the home screen so at least I can read books now. But it kept two very annoying habits: The worse battey life and the crash if you try to shut it down completely.

Battery live seems to be only a problem of resetting the battery stats and so i tried to root the device again. The process worked fine but - as expected - it did not switch off automatically at the end. So I pressed the reset key, the reader rebootet and... showed the Sony home screen again! I can install whatever root package available, I always end up at the Sony home screen not being able to access anything as root.

Does anyone have a good idea on how to get root back? Or to unroot in a way to get the device working normal again? Any help appreciated...

...joan

Perhaps you have installed a micro SD Card with the OS Firmware (Unrooting process with sd-rescue). In this case you have to root your device without the SD Card or rename the folder of the firmware before rooting.

Harry

[joanno]

Thanks very much for all your support!

At least I can tell that the battery problem solved itself. It seems that after some charge and discharge cycles the battery meter recalibrates itself back to normal values. It took about 8 cycles charging from dead-as-a-dodo to 100%, but the battery meter is now back to normal again and shows no significant decrease after about 4 days. It was a sudden change, there was no improvement in usage time. It just went back to normal after charging. And guess what: Its shutting down properly again!

@slvrsplsh: Did you try deleting the file using a root explorer? At first I tried to find it on the READER and SETTINGS drives but its an internal file. Since my device didn't root anymore I had no way to delete the file.

@Harry: Thanks for the tip! Indeed I was keeping the OS Firmware on the SD card to be able to rescue any time. I will try rooting it without SD card as soon as I picked up some courage again...

...joan

[camperbc]

Hi Joan,

It is great to hear that your reader has stopped behaving badly! I can only hope that mine will follow suit. I still cannot shut my reader down, and although I had believed my battery drain issue was beginning to resolve itself, it is still draining far too quickly. (mind you, I have only gone through two full drain/full charge cycles so far)

It is quite peculiar how your reader has suddenly started to shut down correctly. Strange yet encouraging, as I suppose it's feasible that this could happen over time with mine also, because we seem to have experienced the exact same issues, brought on by the same set of circumstances.

I'm afraid poor Uboot may soon be running out of patience with me; he has graciously been trying to limp me through this problem, but so far without any success. I sometimes feel like such a dunce when trying to follow his instructions.

I am curious; did you use the wall charger, or just plugged into the computer?

I will let you know how I have made out, after some more full drain/recharge cycles!

Glen

[uboot]

Don't worry. It's not patience I run out of, but wisdom on how to help There's really a long learning path for users without any linux knowledge that want to deal with crazy stuff like rooting an embedded linux device. It took me years to get here and I still don't really know enough considering the risks I am taking when playing around with the reader internals...

[camperbc]

Uboot, what do you make of Joan's situation? In seemingly having the exact same issues as mine, her reader somehow fixed itself simply by her fully draining and charging the device eight times! Seems like a super-easy fix, especially after all the nonsense going on with my endless rooting/unrooting, rescues, recoveries, and so forth. I'm going to attempt to do the very same thing as Joan; fully drain/charge multiple times and just see what develops. Wouldn't it be just priceless if mine too ended up fixing itself! Almost seems too good to be true... but hey, if it worked once who's to say it won't work again?

Glen

[uboot]

the reader tries to estimate battery runtime by gathering statistics. if it is flashed while not fully charged it gets confused. but after some fully charge / recharge cycles it will have gathered enough training data to be re-calibrated.

[camperbc]

Uboot, what do you make of Joan's ereader finally being able to shut down without freezing, after the battery drain issue was resolved? ie what is the connection between the battery needing recalibrating, and the reader's inability to shut down without freezing up?

Now get a load of this... (drum roll, please!)

After three full battery drain/charge cycles, my battery seems to be holding a charge just as well as when I first got it.

AND... are you sitting down?

I just shut my ereader down without it freezing up!! I am dumbstruck. Speechless. Ecstatic!

I think I'll just monitor the battery situation over the next few days, and ensure that it continues to shut down properly, then I guess I'll attempt a re-root.

Uboot, I just want to take a second again to let you know how much I appreciate how you took the time to do whatever you could, to offer your advice in an all-out effort to get my reader up and running again. Most people would not have been nearly so dedicated to helping me out, so it really means a lot to me. I don't know if I'm out of the woods yet, or if it is just a freak thing that all appears to be well, but I will keep you posted of my progress over the coming days. I just may need your assistance yet again!

Thank-you,
Glen

PS: And thanks to you too, Joan, for taking the time to post on here, telling us what you did to get your reader back to normal again; much appreciated!

[camperbc]

Hi Uboot,

Just an update. As I stated earlier, once my battery issues were resolved, (by fully draining/charging a few cycles) which also somehow fixed the shut-down troubles, (freezing up) I have since re-rooted, and everything is running smoothly again. No troubles at all; the battery goes forever on a charge. Not sure that I understand the connection between the battery needing recalibration and the reader's inability to shut down without freezing up, but there you have it... Once the battery problem was fixed, I was back in business.

I want to thank you again, Uboot, for kindly taking the time to offer your assistance; much appreciated!

Glen

[uboot]

You're welcome