Bricked Kindle Basic (2014)

F_9 · 11-10-2016, 05:41 PM

Hello

I bricked my kindle. All what I did was... deleting /bin folder on root.

It's a long story. Pretty stupid anyway, huh? Kindle worked for some time after this incident, so I tried to ssh into it. I had a back up, so I thought that maybe I will be able to copy contents from /bin on backup to /bin on my kindle. But instead I connected to it normally and it froze on usb screen (it was happening to me a couple of times before). I could only restart it (turn off screen/restart window showed up after pressing power for longer time, so it wasn't completly stuck). Anyway.

Now it's stuck on boot screen with tree, without progress bar. Completly stuck, no auto reboots or things like that.

I looked up this forum, but I'm not in 100% sure what to do. I charged it for about 2 days, led is still orange, but I heard that is normal. I tried DO_FACTORY_RESTORE metod, but kindle doesn't want to show up as usb drive, no matter if I'm connecting it to linux (both VM and installed on real machine) or windows (maybe I dont't have proper drivers). I had Crowards Rescue Pack installed (even rescued my kindle once thanks to it), but this time kindle just doesn't want to boot into diagnostic menu. I don't know how to do a fastboot on KT2, I couldn't find any info.
Does it mean that I will have to open my kindle, and try to restore it via ttl and uboot? Is there any hope for it?

Thanks anyway.

Sorry for my grammar, I tried.

Cinisajoy · 11-10-2016, 05:48 PM

Please give the first 6 of the serial number if possible.
Put the kindle on a wall charger until more help arrives.

knc1 · 11-10-2016, 05:49 PM

You could try fastboot, and keep us advised of how that goes.
Search for a thread with 'fastboot' in its title, it is very detailed.
You will see that it was done on a different device, but the only difference with yours is the name of the files to use.

If that does not work, it is serial port restore time.
We have threads on that.

When, if, you run into a menu with the choice 'Erase All' -
Do not try it to see if it really works, it does.

F_9 · 11-10-2016, 05:52 PM

Serial Number: 90C6 07
Ok, so I will try to find some more info about fastboot.
Thanks.

knc1 · 11-10-2016, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by F_9

Serial Number: 90C6 07
Ok, so I will try to find some more info about fastboot.
Thanks.

No, do not do that.

Find the thread here that gives you step by step details.
And you must follow them exactly.
Do not think in abbreviations of what they tell you to do.

No deleting system directories along the way.
PS: Did you notice that the root file system was 'read only'?
Guess why.

F_9 · 11-10-2016, 06:04 PM

No I know :P
Ok so I will try to find this thread.

F_9 · 11-16-2016, 03:15 PM

Ok.
I hope this thread isn't too old yet.
I bought the usb-uart adapter. I made the level shifters. And now I can communicate with my kindle! I was able to go to the recovery menu. And I haven't chosen "Erase MMC" option!
And now, as much as I know, I should boot my kindle in fastboot mode and flash the system image via usb.
Can I flash my old backup image? Or maybe I should download factory images and flash them instead?

PS: I have just noticed, that I wrote 'No' instead of 'Now' in my last post. Sorry.

F_9 · 11-18-2016, 02:37 PM

It works again!
Summary: I copied the system partition image to internal memory and flashed it using dd. At first it didn't wanted to work, kindle was showing the repair screen and such, so I flashed the settings partition too. And now I have my kindle back.
But it seems that not everything is ok.
Every time I log in via ssh, it prints error: "stored failed to start. Reboot limit reached REBOOTS=2, REBOOT_LIMIT=1". I cannot find the way to reset the reboot count, but it's only a matter of time probably.
Another thing is the fact, that it sometimes boots to about 90% of the progress bar, and then reboots. Sometimes it will even show main menu for a little while.
And it seems that I have a badblock or something on diags partition. There are two files named like "?????????????????????????????????".
Anyway.
Thanks.

eschwartz · 11-26-2016, 11:00 PM

There is a reboot counter in "/var/local/upstart/lab126_gui.restarts" -- the contents of that file record the number of times the Kindle has unsuccessfully rebooted. After a couple of times, it goes to the repair screen.

The only way to get back out, is to overwrite the contents of that file, with the number "0" (right now it probably has a "2").

...

So assuming your Kindle is otherwise fine, that should fix it. As for the potential bad block, I cannot say... the Kindle should automatically detect broken storage blocks and remove them, but really, the diags partition shouldn't be getting frequently modified, enough to wear out the blocks, anyway???

wheex · 12-01-2016, 04:37 AM

Hello, I have a Kindle KT2 I successfully jailbreak it, and after jailbreak I updated with an OTA update and it won't boot up any more. I got boot loop and after a few tries the screen show Repair Needed, Repair Code:2. I tried the DO_FACTORY_RESTORE method but it didn't helped. I tried to search over the forum how can I boot in fastboot mode but I did't find any information for KT2. Can somebody help me how to repair the device?
Thanks

wheex · 12-02-2016, 06:34 AM

I took a apart the KT2 and prepared for serial restore, I did more research, and I found on the KT2 wiki that is based on the "wario" (Paperwhite 2) platform, with which is binary compatible so my question is: can I can use the PW2 diag image and kernel https://ixtab.tk/kindle-touch-images/PW2/diags/ or I can use the default factory installed one? I extracted the rootfs.img from update_KT2_5.6.0_initial.bin how can I flash it?

F_9 · 12-04-2016, 03:31 PM

@wheex I'm not the expert here. You should probably create a new thread. Only way to boot KT2 to fastboot mode, is to change special variables using uboot and env (if I remeber correctly). Good that you have took it apart. At first I would try to boot into recovery mode. You can do it by changing proper values in uboot (I don't remeber them).
But as I said. I'm not an expert. You really should create a new thread.
I remember that I flashed the partitions using usbnet from diags. I used dd and cc commands, but I don't remeber configuration. You can probably find it here, on forum. Using PW2 image is probably not a good idea, really. As far as I know both KT2 and PW2 firmwares have similarities, but... It's just not going to work, I think. I flashed my own backup.

@eschwartz
Thanks for a response. I fixed all of these problems accidentally. WinSCP started going crazy once and it seems, that it has deleted some files from var/local. Kindle restarted, showed *GANDALF* for a little while and asked me for my language. All settings were gone forever, but it fixed all these restarts (I couldn't find this file BTW) and a couple of input/output errors. One more thing: has anyone found a way to make these debug_cmds.json work on newer firmwares? I'm asking, because I saw a thread, where someone couldn't make them work. I think that I have found a fix, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

And sorry for a late response all.

11-10-2016, 05:41 PM	#1
F_9 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2016 Device: KT2	[SOLVED] Bricked Kindle Basic (2014) Hello I bricked my kindle. All what I did was... deleting /bin folder on root. It's a long story. Pretty stupid anyway, huh? Kindle worked for some time after this incident, so I tried to ssh into it. I had a back up, so I thought that maybe I will be able to copy contents from /bin on backup to /bin on my kindle. But instead I connected to it normally and it froze on usb screen (it was happening to me a couple of times before). I could only restart it (turn off screen/restart window showed up after pressing power for longer time, so it wasn't completly stuck). Anyway. Now it's stuck on boot screen with tree, without progress bar. Completly stuck, no auto reboots or things like that. I looked up this forum, but I'm not in 100% sure what to do. I charged it for about 2 days, led is still orange, but I heard that is normal. I tried DO_FACTORY_RESTORE metod, but kindle doesn't want to show up as usb drive, no matter if I'm connecting it to linux (both VM and installed on real machine) or windows (maybe I dont't have proper drivers). I had Crowards Rescue Pack installed (even rescued my kindle once thanks to it), but this time kindle just doesn't want to boot into diagnostic menu. I don't know how to do a fastboot on KT2, I couldn't find any info. Does it mean that I will have to open my kindle, and try to restore it via ttl and uboot? Is there any hope for it? Thanks anyway. Sorry for my grammar, I tried. Last edited by F_9; 11-18-2016 at 02:38 PM.

11-16-2016, 03:15 PM	#7
F_9 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2016 Device: KT2	Ok. I hope this thread isn't too old yet. I bought the usb-uart adapter. I made the level shifters. And now I can communicate with my kindle! I was able to go to the recovery menu. And I haven't chosen "Erase MMC" option! And now, as much as I know, I should boot my kindle in fastboot mode and flash the system image via usb. Can I flash my old backup image? Or maybe I should download factory images and flash them instead? PS: I have just noticed, that I wrote 'No' instead of 'Now' in my last post. Sorry. Last edited by F_9; 11-16-2016 at 03:19 PM.

12-01-2016, 04:37 AM	#10
wheex Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2016 Device: Kindle KT2	KT2 bricked Hello, I have a Kindle KT2 I successfully jailbreak it, and after jailbreak I updated with an OTA update and it won't boot up any more. I got boot loop and after a few tries the screen show Repair Needed, Repair Code:2. I tried the DO_FACTORY_RESTORE method but it didn't helped. I tried to search over the forum how can I boot in fastboot mode but I did't find any information for KT2. Can somebody help me how to repair the device? Thanks

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11-10-2016, 05:48 PM	#2
Cinisajoy Just a Yellow Smiley. Posts: 19,161 Karma: 83862859 Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Texas Device: K4, K5, fire, kobo, galaxy	Please give the first 6 of the serial number if possible. Put the kindle on a wall charger until more help arrives.

11-10-2016, 05:49 PM	#3
knc1 Going Viral Posts: 17,212 Karma: 18210809 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Central Texas Device: No K1, PW2, KV, KOA	You could try fastboot, and keep us advised of how that goes. Search for a thread with 'fastboot' in its title, it is very detailed. You will see that it was done on a different device, but the only difference with yours is the name of the files to use. If that does not work, it is serial port restore time. We have threads on that. When, if, you run into a menu with the choice 'Erase All' - Do not try it to see if it really works, it does.

11-10-2016, 05:52 PM	#4
F_9 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2016 Device: KT2	Serial Number: 90C6 07 Ok, so I will try to find some more info about fastboot. Thanks.

11-10-2016, 06:04 PM	#6
F_9 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2016 Device: KT2	No I know :P Ok so I will try to find this thread.

11-18-2016, 02:37 PM	#8
F_9 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2016 Device: KT2	It works again! Summary: I copied the system partition image to internal memory and flashed it using dd. At first it didn't wanted to work, kindle was showing the repair screen and such, so I flashed the settings partition too. And now I have my kindle back. But it seems that not everything is ok. Every time I log in via ssh, it prints error: "stored failed to start. Reboot limit reached REBOOTS=2, REBOOT_LIMIT=1". I cannot find the way to reset the reboot count, but it's only a matter of time probably. Another thing is the fact, that it sometimes boots to about 90% of the progress bar, and then reboots. Sometimes it will even show main menu for a little while. And it seems that I have a badblock or something on diags partition. There are two files named like "?????????????????????????????????". Anyway. Thanks.

11-26-2016, 11:00 PM	#9
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	There is a reboot counter in "/var/local/upstart/lab126_gui.restarts" -- the contents of that file record the number of times the Kindle has unsuccessfully rebooted. After a couple of times, it goes to the repair screen. The only way to get back out, is to overwrite the contents of that file, with the number "0" (right now it probably has a "2"). ... So assuming your Kindle is otherwise fine, that should fix it. As for the potential bad block, I cannot say... the Kindle should automatically detect broken storage blocks and remove them, but really, the diags partition shouldn't be getting frequently modified, enough to wear out the blocks, anyway???

12-02-2016, 06:34 AM	#11
wheex Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2016 Device: Kindle KT2	I took a apart the KT2 and prepared for serial restore, I did more research, and I found on the KT2 wiki that is based on the "wario" (Paperwhite 2) platform, with which is binary compatible so my question is: can I can use the PW2 diag image and kernel https://ixtab.tk/kindle-touch-images/PW2/diags/ or I can use the default factory installed one? I extracted the rootfs.img from update_KT2_5.6.0_initial.bin how can I flash it?

12-04-2016, 03:31 PM	#12
F_9 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2016 Device: KT2	@wheex I'm not the expert here. You should probably create a new thread. Only way to boot KT2 to fastboot mode, is to change special variables using uboot and env (if I remeber correctly). Good that you have took it apart. At first I would try to boot into recovery mode. You can do it by changing proper values in uboot (I don't remeber them). But as I said. I'm not an expert. You really should create a new thread. I remember that I flashed the partitions using usbnet from diags. I used dd and cc commands, but I don't remeber configuration. You can probably find it here, on forum. Using PW2 image is probably not a good idea, really. As far as I know both KT2 and PW2 firmwares have similarities, but... It's just not going to work, I think. I flashed my own backup. @eschwartz Thanks for a response. I fixed all of these problems accidentally. WinSCP started going crazy once and it seems, that it has deleted some files from var/local. Kindle restarted, showed GANDALF for a little while and asked me for my language. All settings were gone forever, but it fixed all these restarts (I couldn't find this file BTW) and a couple of input/output errors. One more thing: has anyone found a way to make these debug_cmds.json work on newer firmwares? I'm asking, because I saw a thread, where someone couldn't make them work. I think that I have found a fix, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel. And sorry for a late response all.

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