Original "Simple" debricking methods for K5-Touch, K4-Mini, & K3-Keyboard

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by hawhill

The Freescale i.MX31 architecture should be usable with ATK, too. Also, ATK provides RAM kernels mx31_mmc.bin as well as mx31_sd.bin (I suspect the latter might be the right one, but it's left to someone with such a device to try out and read data). I guess they use the mDDR RAM interface, too.

Thanks for this information. It looks promising.

I still need the "magic key" for them. I tried a bunch of stuff unsuccessfully and did not get them into USB Downloader mode. There are a lot more keys to try though.

[qlob]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Because K3 success reports are new a relatively rare compared to K4/K5 reports, I am adding a K3 label to make them easier to find in the success report list.

Both of your debricking reports were posted to a thread about K3 debricking tools, but neither of them actually stated the model of your kindle so I had to rely on the thread title to determine that.

I added "K3" to your second report. Thanks.

Oh sorry about that, i thought i clarified that later in thread.

[qlob]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Thanks for this information. It looks promising.

I still need the "magic key" for them. I tried a bunch of stuff unsuccessfully and did not get them into USB Downloader mode. There are a lot more keys to try though.

This is just a random guess here, but does the K3 vol - key have the same key code as one of the keys on the DX or DXG? If so, you could try that...

EDIT:actually, maybe not since they are diferent processors.....

[geekmaster]

As I understand it, the "magic key" is wired directly to a pin on the CPU SoC chip. Each kindle uses a different key. I did try keys known to be used on other models (Vol- and Home and 5-way Down Arrow). They did not work, so it must be something else. Or the timing with when to press and release it may be different. It will take some people some to to complete these experiments (WHEN they get worked on again)...

The thing to look for is a different USB VID/PID after hard rebooting (with magic key pressed). The DX/DXG may have a different VID/PID from the other kindles in USB Downloader mode.

[bhaak]

Even though I successfully debricked my Kindle after the failed update with Amazon's 5.1.0 update package (most probably not their fault but because of tinkered with root partition) I wasn't able to get a working 5.1.0 by using the official update packes with the debricked 5.0.0.

It would install the update but after reboot it would go to the "Your Kindle needs repair screen" after a while. Strangely, using a USB cable would still work and after removing it, it would go straight to the normal home screen.

So I thought, try out the forensic 5.1.2 images, flashed the kernel and the mmcblk0p1 5.1.2 (main+jb+kjb+ssh) image. But this time it even just went to a black screen after reboot.

Any ideas what's up with that? Oh, and BTW, I always cleared the /var/local partition.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by bhaak

Even though I successfully debricked my Kindle after the failed update with Amazon's 5.1.0 update package (most probably not their fault but because of tinkered with root partition) I wasn't able to get a working 5.1.0 by using the official update packes with the debricked 5.0.0.

It would install the update but after reboot it would go to the "Your Kindle needs repair screen" after a while. Strangely, using a USB cable would still work and after removing it, it would go straight to the normal home screen.

So I thought, try out the debricking repair 5.1.2 images, flashed the kernel and the mmcblk0p1 5.1.2 (main+jb+kjb+ssh) image. But this time it even just went to a black screen after reboot.

Any ideas what's up with that? Oh, and BTW, I always cleared the /var/local partition.

Some of the older kernels are missing the last 64 bytes. But even adding those in can make the new firmware updates fail because when they check the firmware MD5 they may check EXTRA padding that may be different depending on what was installed before and how much extra stuff was written AFTER the firmware (or not written).

If the amazon updates check too far past the end of the REAL firmware, they could add unknown values to their computation, causing them to falsely decide that they will not install. ixtab and I discussed this and we are not sure yet just how to deal with that problem because we do not know what range of mmc will be checked in any given FUTURE firmware update.

It has worked for many people to install 5.0.0 and update from there, but the 5.0.0 kernel is probably 64-bytes too short (the flash header firmware length field needs the length of the flash header added to it).

The new 5.1.2 versions should be complete so they SHOULD work.

[flashmozzg]

I debricked to 5.0 with files from noobs guide .pdf and successfully updated to 5.1.0, jailbreaked, and then updated to 5.1.2.

[glon]

First of all, good morning to you all good people.

I was so happy when I saw this thread. My good old Kindle 3 was laying bricked (Please wait a moment while your Kindle starts up, forever) in the box for far too long Of course, to make things interesting, the problems had to appear.

I installed the ATK, plugged in my device and tried to get into the USB Download Mode. Nothing happened. Even after few attempts I still couldn't get through the first window of the ATK (No USB detected! Please check your connection and Try again).

Accidentally I pushed power slide very quickly, in the way I normally wake up the screen. Windows blessed me with a new device discover (MX35). Drivers found, device installed and I finally got to the next part of unbricking process. It was too easy to be true, of course, because I'm still not in the USB Download Mode, so "Connection error. Please reset the board and make sure the board in bootstrap mode." don't surprise me at all (sometimes it gets through to "Waiting for USB Connection" when I quickly push power before clicking Program). What I don't know is why I can't get into that mode?

Kindle is fully charged (two days), I even borrowed another one to see if I'm pushing magic combination in the right order. I was close to flash that working Kindle in frustration I also tried to remove the battery, then placed it again and boot.

I'm out of ideas. God isn't cruel enough to damage the hardware of my Kindle when it was laying in the box in my cupboard. I think.
I ask for help or suggestions. Once in a blue moon my pride can accept such a thing

Thank you in advance, gentlemen.

[bhaak]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

It has worked for many people to install 5.0.0 and update from there, but the 5.0.0 kernel is probably 64-bytes too short (the flash header firmware length field needs the length of the flash header added to it).

The kernels were fine and the updates were successful as such. Only the KT would not boot into the home screen.

I found the real reason after booting into diag and looking up the archived logs in /var/local/log. I found segmentation faults and crashes of fc-cache because it indexed fonts on /mnt/us/fonts (where I put the custom fonts for 5.0.x)! Since 5.1.0 there is a /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-lab126-altfonts.conf that points to /mnt/us/fonts!

But I already know from my work with HackedUpReader that the stock libfreetype shipped with the KT is rather limited and crashes with several fonts. Most notably the regular DejaVuSans font.

Who would have thunk that the issue was lying in my user partition?

Now that we know how to crash the Kindle Touch with a simple font, who's writing the first jailbreak by putting a file into /mnt/us/fonts?

[Stea1th]

I got a demo Kindle Touch (K5) 3G that had a demo loop running removed by using the unbricking method and wiping the whole thing.

[geekmaster]

We have another success report in the form of a karma comment:

Simple debricking...
Jul 31st, 2012 05:13 AM
nineathena

Och, this HELPED. You rock.

It is repeated here so it can be added to the success report links.

[geekmaster]

I added a "Past and Future History" section to the end of the first post in this thread. Click the "Show" button, and enjoy!

[rbl]

Does anyone have a link for the kindle 3 root file system (mmcblk0p1-k3g-3.3.zip)? The Gitbrew website doesn't work for me.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by rbl

Does anyone have a link for the kindle 3 root file system (mmcblk0p1-k3g-3.3.zip)? The Gitbrew website doesn't work for me.

No need to cross-post. As I mentioned in your other thread, gitbrew is down right now, so try again later.

[eureka]

Originally Posted by bhaak

Since 5.1.0 there is a /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-lab126-altfonts.conf that points to /mnt/us/fonts!

Yes, there is it and in good purposes.

Originally Posted by bhaak

Now that we know how to crash the Kindle Touch with a simple font, who's writing the first jailbreak by putting a file into /mnt/us/fonts?

Thanks for sharing the idea (not me, though).