Kindle 3 frozen, would connecting on serial help?

[fe_lix_]

Hello,

My Kindle 3 WiFi froze while reading a large book 10MB mobi. It froze on the current page. I tried to reset it with the 15 seconds sliding and it rebooted but it crashed during that phase and the device is blocked on the middle of the starting loading bar.

I have tried to remove the battery, to turn it off and off, to reset it with 15secs technique. The screen doesn't react and i am unable to see any device in my /dev.

Only the LED seems to be working properly (Green on, Green blinking, Orange on charge).

The kindle had been jailbreaked a year and a half ago and I have never looked any update.

Do you think trying to connect on the serial port would be of any help?

I ask that because buying that cable is 40 euros expense, half the price of the device.

Thank you.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by fe_lix_

Hello,
- - - -
Do you think trying to connect on the serial port would be of any help?

I ask that because buying that cable is 40 euros expense, half the price of the device.

Thank you.

The serial port gives you access to both the bootloader command line and the kernel's operator console.
Always nice things to have, sometimes even required to have.

There is a connector on the K3 provided by Amazon for the purpose.
I suspect because they use it themselves.

As to the cost of the 1.8 volt serial cable . . . .

You might be able to find a substitute for the cable as a "cell phone data cable" in some surplus outlet store.

If your electronics background is not up to the selection/conversion task - then web search for someone's description of how to do it.
Be careful - there are a lot of such things for making a substitute for a 3.3 volt serial cable - avoid those.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by fe_lix_

... the device is blocked on the middle of the starting loading bar. ... The screen doesn't react and i am unable to see any device in my /dev. .. Only the LED seems to be working properly ...

To me, those things seem to be incompatible with each other.

If your device is "blocked" (bricked), then without using a serial cable, just exactly HOW did you determine that you are "unable to see any device in my /dev"?

Enquiring minds want to know...

[hawhill]

and the 15s (also try to give it even more) should work in any case, I think. It should trigger an external circuit. I can't see how a cable could help if you cannot reset the device.

But: if it's really the case that the device _always_ shows the loading bar (there is none in the bootloader stage!), not even switching to something different, even when you positively managed to unplug and replug the battery - then the screen, its controller or the according cables seem to be broken. (Slight chance might be that even the bootloader is broken and its assistence is needed to present the boot screen. I don't think serial console would help there, since it is handled/set up by the boot loader.)

[fe_lix_]

First, thank you all for your answers.

@knc1 : I look into making a cable myself. I'll look for new material.

@geekmaster : Well, I made the list of everything I had in /dev/disk/by id, uuid, path and label and linked every single device to something different that the kindle.

After your question, I looked a bit deeper and found this in the dmseg :

[105628.104580] scsi 14:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kindle Internal Storage 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[105628.145553] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk

There is a /dev/sdd, but no partition on it.

@hawhill : I have tried over and over, maniacally the 15s,20s ... 1 min technique

The fact is that the picture on the Kindle never change, it is at all time stuck on the loading bar at half. It NEVER shows a menu or moves or anything.

Sadly, I believe that your diagnostic is correct as I can't get the device to do other things that LED life signs and presence of /dev/sdd.

I'll try to tamper with the storage device to see if I can get anything out of it.


Do you think I shoul try to format the partition?

Thanks again.

[fe_lix_]

Very happy, cause I successfully mounted the Kindle partition. No change with the screen though.

[pakelika]

hey Guys....

I also got a broken k3 lying around here and want to know if it can be fixed with a serial adapter...

At first I have to say, i never used a kindle before... i got mine from a friend who just bought a new one.... so i dont know how a kindle is supposed to be recognized on a pc, for now it is "se blank ringo" with no drivers ofc.

My friend told me that the battery was total empty when it happend. He connected it to the charger and tried to start it again, the result was a crash at the loading screen at around 50%... (no reset helped!)

sounded like a bad battery to me.. i bought a new one and replaced it... but with the new Battery not even the charging light showed up... so i guess the battery was alrdy delivered dead? (best Chinese quality ).... because when i use the old battery at least the orange charging light is on.. and it even goes of after a few hours of charging.....

So I have a dead kindle with only an orange light while charging... never showed a green light to me :/

Any Ideas ?!

I have Ubuntu as well on my PC if u want me to run some commands in the terminal... I'm more or less family with it, but i would appreciate if you name the commands by name if you want me to check something

BTW felix... i found a German onlineshop which sales the adapter for 19.99eur (plus shipping).... i even think its the exactly the same as seaniko7 used in his Video...

by the way.. is there any written how-to to the video from seaniko7 ?

Greetz Pake

EDIT: kindle was jailbraked before



http://de.rs-online.com/web/p/kommunikation/7158525/

[fe_lix_]

@pakela Thanks for the link. I'll buy it from there, they also have a store in spain.

What you should do if you wanna try see if you computer can see it is :
1. Plug the kindle in
2. use the command : dmesg

You should see something like this :
[105628.104580] scsi 14:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kindle Internal Storage 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[105628.145553] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk

This means that the kindle is the data drive of the kindle is /dev/sdd. And in that case you should have a partition named /dev/sdd1.

if you wanna mount it, as root type : mount /dev/sdd1 /where/you/want/to/mount/it

But if you have the same problem as me, the only thing that would help would be to connect with a serial cable and try to restore the kindle os with some image you can find on the internet.

As I mentionned in my previous posts, I am not sure the screen will ever work again though. So I try more for the sake or hacking the kindle than of having it as working device again.

Tchüss.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by fe_lix_

As I mentionned in my previous posts, I am not sure the screen will ever work again though. So I try more for the sake or hacking the kindle than of having it as working device again.

Tchüss.

So don't throw it away if the screen is broke.
There are a lot of uses for a "headless" Linux device. Turn it into a local server or router (or ...).