What can I do with my semi-functional PW3 motherboard to help people out?

[coplate]

So I have this motherboard that is water damaged, and I will be replaceing.

Now that I have it out of the case, I notice a lot of pads that aren't populated and I haven't seen mentioned in the threads I have read.

For example, they have the following three switches unpopulated:

"USB Boot"

"Reset"

"On/Off"

I have manually bridged the "On/Off" switch, and it does work like hitting the main power button.

I have not touched the reset button, and I've never worked with USB boot, but I know the other kindles use that to flash, using a process like press home and power at the same time.

Can I use this to do any research that will help anyone out?

[encol]

It would be great if we can use these switches to put a PW3 into USB downloader mode,
perhaps we can use Kubrick on them?

[coplate]

Originally Posted by encol

It would be great if we can use these switches to put a PW3 into USB downloader mode,
perhaps we can use Kubrick on them?

I'm more than happy to try.

In the older usb downloader mode, does the device restart into that mode, or just change the usb protocol?

[coplate]

I also am about half finished getting the kindle to send all the X11 commands to my desktop x11 server instead of localhost. so I can use this motherboard headless.

[knc1]

All of the touchscreen devices share those pads, only the physical location on the board varies.
Post #3 is probable the information someone needs.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=249979

= = = =

You can't prove a negative.
Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it isn't there, just that you didn't see it.

[coplate]

If I do manage to trigger USB boot, is it just a matter of restarting the device to get it back into normal mode?

[encol]

Originally Posted by coplate

If I do manage to trigger USB boot, is it just a matter of restarting the device to get it back into normal mode?

I don't know, but it is reasonable that restarting puts again the device in normal mode.
Other devices (like tablets) acts this way.

"Kubrick-enabled" kindle owners can give us an answer

[knc1]

You have to change the USB boot jumpers back to "normal" before you re-boot.

The i.MX6 requires a special layout boot file to boot from USB.
See the reference manual attached somewhere along that thread.
Buildroot(.org) build system will build the i.MX6 USB boot format file for you.

[coplate]

Thanks everyone.

If anyone has something else they want me to try in addition to usb download mode, let me know.

As it is right now, I cannot get the device to boot while fully removed ( logic board and extra battery only ). - So I may have to hook it back up to at least the power button to see if it makes much of a difference.

My spare battery might be totally drained, or the device may just not boot up if all the devices are unhooked?

I've got it plugged into the wall, it it boots up I should get wifi connection

Or I may have some something totally frying it.

[knc1]

On an i.MX6 device -
USB boot != USB downloader mode

Both phrases are exact descriptions.

[coplate]

Originally Posted by knc1

On an i.MX6 device -
USB boot != USB downloader mode

Both phrases are exact descriptions.

So I clearly don't know the difference, let me read some more.


But I'm here to offer, if anyone has anything specific they want me to try, because they don't have a PW3, let me know.

Main warning though, the touchscreen doesn't work so I can't do anything that relies on that.

[encol]

Originally Posted by knc1

On an i.MX6 device -
USB boot != USB downloader mode

Both phrases are exact descriptions.

Knc1, you think it's possible to boot from a bootable USB stick, with some Linux distribution on it?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by encol

Knc1, you think it's possible to boot from a bootable USB stick, with some Linux distribution on it?

That is pretty ambitious, I have no way to even guess.

That sounds more like a NFS boot case (the Kindle's do (should) network boot), the newer (than PW1) devices either over USB or WiFi.
At least from the initramfs (the code to setup the root filesystem over NFS is in the code).

Booting from USB stick would be done by the SoC's rom code.
I.E: The first thing loaded and run would be another boot loader (u-boot, red-boot, etc.).
The USB boot file that Buildroot can build, builds u-boot to do the next stage loading.
See: Buildroot.org
(And reading a lot of the ARM reference manual wouldn't hurt your prospects.)
I am pretty sure it is attached to that "KT2 exposed" thread.

[coplate]

Some more news.

I cannot seem t reliably boot up without a screen - or at least I cannot get it to come up as a usb rdnis gatdet or connect to my wifi.

When I hook the screen back up, I can use the on/off pad to boot it back up, with the power button, FL/hall and touch cables all unhooked.

I ordered a serial breakout, and will try some more when I get that, but current;y it doesn't look like I can boot it headless.

powerbookmedic looks like it has '3g' screens for $10, and wifi screens for $15, anyone know if I can hook a wifi logic board to a 3g screen?

[coplate]

Here is what it shows up as on windows when I reboot it and plug in USB while headless:

==================================================
Device Name       : Amazon Kindle
Description       : Kindle Internal Storage USB Device
Device Type       : Mass Storage
Connected         : Yes
Safe To Unplug    : Yes
Disabled          : No
USB Hub           : No
Drive Letter      : F:
Serial Number     : <My Serial >
Created Date      : 5/5/2017 12:30:12 PM
Last Plug/Unplug Date: 3/30/2017 11:32:15 PM
VendorID          : 1949
ProductID         : 0004
Firmware Revision : 1.00
USB Class         : 08
USB SubClass      : 06
USB Protocol      : 50
Hub / Port        : 
Computer Name     : 
Vendor Name       : 
Product Name      : 
ParentId Prefix   : 
Service Name      : USBSTOR
Service Description: @usbstor.inf,%USBSTOR.SvcDesc%;USB Mass Storage Driver
Driver Filename   : USBSTOR.SYS
Device Class      : 
Device Mfg        : Compatible USB storage device
Power             : 2 mA
USB Version       : 2.00
Driver Description: USB Mass Storage Device
Driver Version    : 10.0.14393.0
Driver InfSection : USBSTOR_BULK.NT
Driver InfPath    : usbstor.inf
Instance ID       : USB\VID_1949&PID_0004\G090G10562340DMX
Capabilities      : Removable, UniqueID, SurpriseRemovalOK
==================================================

And heres what it shows up as on ubuntu VM

T:  Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1949 ProdID=0004 Rev=01.00
S:  Manufacturer=Amazon
S:  Product=Amazon Kindle
S:  SerialNumber=<My Serial >
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr=2mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage

On both of them, nothing is mounted

And in my system log

May  5 18:37:59 osboxes kernel: [  427.308731] usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
May  5 18:37:59 osboxes kernel: [  427.648952] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1949, idProduct=0004
May  5 18:37:59 osboxes kernel: [  427.648955] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
May  5 18:37:59 osboxes kernel: [  427.648956] usb 2-1: Product: Amazon Kindle
May  5 18:37:59 osboxes kernel: [  427.648957] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: Amazon
May  5 18:37:59 osboxes kernel: [  427.648957] usb 2-1: SerialNumber: <My Serial >
May  5 18:37:59 osboxes kernel: [  427.658349] usb-storage 2-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
May  5 18:37:59 osboxes kernel: [  427.658438] scsi4 : usb-storage 2-1:1.0
May  5 18:37:59 osboxes mtp-probe: checking bus 2, device 3: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:11.0/0000:02:03.0/usb2/2-1"
May  5 18:37:59 osboxes mtp-probe: bus: 2, device: 3 was not an MTP device
May  5 18:38:00 osboxes kernel: [  428.664112] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kindle   Internal Storage 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
May  5 18:38:00 osboxes kernel: [  428.664956] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
May  5 18:38:00 osboxes kernel: [  428.706297] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

Would we guess I'm in one of the download modes, or it just crashed booting up, and if I had a serial cable I'd get enough information to see something like

System halted XXXXXXXXX REason YYYYYYY