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

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

...
Meanwhile, in the Ukraine . . . .
Dah, what's a department of justice?

Demonoid was in the Ukraine when it got busted. But they were much more visible and annoying to the media empire.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Demonoid was in the Ukraine when it got busted. But they were much more visible and annoying to the media empire.

The major reason I suggested ex.ua was that it seemed a very "low key" file sharing site.
In this game of "dodge the bullet" I did not think many governments would be shooting in that direction.

[mand]

Hi folks I really hope you can help me with one or two details, or I have to spend on a new Kindle and I really prefer the keyboard so that's the K3 which is the most expensive... I am not well either so please make it REALLY basic meaning EMBARRASSINGLY basic!!

I'm using Windows 7 on a laptop.

-- Following the debrick method at https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/K3noobdebrickatk ( me being a noob and all). Step 3 says:
'When installing on a Win 64bit system it is possible that the USB drivers needed for this process will not install. The easiest option is to utilize a Windows 32bit system instead. '
How do I utilise a Win 32 bit system? (Don't laugh.)

-- Next... I don't know (don't laugh) how to unzip files that don't end with .zip. I inherited this laptop (wouldn't have moved to Win7 for years otherwise) and WinRAR comes up, not something I'm used to. The mmcblk0p1 files needed are .zip.001 and .zip.002. I did try renaming with an extra .zip extension, didn't work. Then I thought of taking the .001 off before trying to unzip, would that be silly? Also I tried to download them again but now the download page gives me 'The file you attempted to download is an archive that is damaged or possibly encrypted. ' and wants me to have a premium account. Is this something I did (trying to re-download) or something I can avoid?

So let me know what I need to tell you for you to explain to me... and many thanx in advance.

[Mike76]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

It was reported that the 4.0.0 image contains a screensaver hack that needs to be removed so you can update the firmware. You should be able to rename the "800x600" folders to do that manually... You should be able to connect to amazon. Perhaps you need to factory reset and re-register?

I've tried it: reverted the screen_saver folder, deleted the symlink, etc., but nothing has changed (except one thing, now it has the original screensavers again). Is it possible that K4NT 2011 (B00E) kernels are not fully compatible with the new K4NT 2012 (B023)?

[NiLuJe]

@Mike76: Err, meaning you flashed a K4B (2012) with 4.0.0? That's ballsy, given the fact that they shipped on 4.1.0 .

Regardless, as always, check the logs (;dumpMessages in the searchbar / showlog on the CLI) to see what the update is choking on .

[geekmaster]

Mediafire has changed its policies regarding multi-part zip files (which were too large to upload as a single file by their previous limits). Alternatively locations to host the larger files are being considered. Also, alternative methods for large files hosted at Mediafire.

Please PM me with URLs to mirrored files, so they can be added to the pastebin and its mirror.

[Mike76]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@Mike76: Err, meaning you flashed a K4B (2012) with 4.0.0? That's ballsy, given the fact that they shipped on 4.1.0

Yes, I know it wasn't too smart job, but I haven't found any 4.1.0 images.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by mand

Hi folks I really hope you can help me with one or two details, or I have to spend on a new Kindle and I really prefer the keyboard so that's the K3 which is the most expensive... I am not well either so please make it REALLY basic meaning EMBARRASSINGLY basic!!

I'm using Windows 7 on a laptop.

That (win-7) will limit how much help I can be, but if willing to take your answers in parts....

Part by me and part by someone else....

Originally Posted by mand

-- Following the debrick method at https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/K3noobdebrickatk ( me being a noob and all). Step 3 says:
'When installing on a Win 64bit system it is possible that the USB drivers needed for this process will not install. The easiest option is to utilize a Windows 32bit system instead. '
How do I utilise a Win 32 bit system? (Don't laugh.)

You might have one, but maybe you do not.
Can you translate from Win-XP to Win-7 (I can't)?

Start -> Control Panel -> System
The "General" tab which describes your system should tell you if it is a 32bit or a 64bit version of Windows.

Originally Posted by mand

-- Next... I don't know (don't laugh) how to unzip files that don't end with .zip. I inherited this laptop (wouldn't have moved to Win7 for years otherwise) and WinRAR comes up, not something I'm used to. The mmcblk0p1 files needed are .zip.001 and .zip.002. I did try renaming with an extra .zip extension, didn't work. Then I thought of taking the .001 off before trying to unzip, would that be silly? Also I tried to download them again but now the download page gives me 'The file you attempted to download is an archive that is damaged or possibly encrypted. ' and wants me to have a premium account. Is this something I did (trying to re-download) or something I can avoid?

Save the first copy of those files you downloaded, they are probably alright.
That mirror site only allows ten downloads a week, the files are being relocated to another file host.
Until those file get moved somewhere, they are the only copy you will be getting this week.

Removing the .001 and .002 was probably the "right thing to do" -
at least that would be my (non-Windows user) guess.
Unless the remaining parts of the filenames where the same.
You need both files present to un-zip a multi-part zip file.

The image files will probably not use the zip compression once they are moved to other hosting.
You would be doing yourself a favor to install 7zip:
http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Notice that here, again, you need to know if you have a 32bit or 64bit version of Windows.

Originally Posted by mand

So let me know what I need to tell you for you to explain to me... and many thanx in advance.

OK -
That leaves you with enough answers to at least get started.
Someone else can take over from here.

[geekmaster]

Winzip and 7zip both increment the file extension when extracting the next part of a multi-part zip file. You just need to extract the first file and it will automatically do the rest. The file names were correct as downloaded. Renaming them may prevent correct extraction.

[knc1]

And WinZip does not handle *.tar.gz worth a sh..

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

And WinZip does not handle *.tar.gz worth a sh..

I use 7zip when in Windows. It is free, and works with just about any common type of compressed file. But Winzip seems to be more popular, unfortunately...

In linux, I usually extract files with tar or zcat.

[qlob]

I count 114 sucessful debricks up there. If we use the "1 in 10 people report back," rule, thats roughly 1200 debricks or so.

Not bad. Keep up the good work guys (& gals)!

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by qlob

I count 114 sucessful debricks up there. If we use the "1 in 10 people report back," rule, thats roughly 1200 debricks or so.

Not bad. Keep up the good work guys (& gals)!

Actually, the "image download / success report" ratio shows that only one percent report their success, which is close to what psychology tells us should be expected. So perhaps 12,000 might be a closer estimate for Kindles debricked. Remember that people have to go to the trouble of registering here to post a success report, and a LOT of people avoid that for sites that require email confirmation.

So, "over ten thousand served" could be a valid subtitle for this thread.

I even got a PM from somebody who said they were referred to this thread from Amazon.com.

[qlob]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Actually, the download ratio shows that only one percent report their success, which is close to what psychology tells us should be expected. So perhaps 12,000 might be a closer estimate for Kindles debricked.

Even better.

[adi23]

I have totally debricked my kindle touch after was completely
erased, and i want to thank you guys for the help, especially to eureka for the new cutom u-boot (with fastboot included).

I will write the steps i have followed:

First of all i must say that my kindle was completely erased, kernels, u-boot, partitions.

1. I have attached a serial cable in order to diagnose the problems (i think this can be done also without having a serial).

2. I have tryed to load the custom u-boot(fastboot, main, diags) with MfgConfig tool, and becouse i had attached the serial i was able to see that my idme vars board id and S/N were deleted, and becouse of that u-boot couldn't initialize the RAM in order togo further.

To solve this issue i have downloaded the u-boot source code and modified it in order to set my idme vars back (recovered from a previous log). After i have loaded my custom u-boot with MfgConfig all my idme vars were recovered, and now the problem was that i had no kernels, so the boot process go further.

3. I wanted to flash my kernels back with the fastboot tool but now the problem was that fastboot it's included in u-boot bist that was deleted too on my kindle. So from this point i had no options to flash back my kernels until eureka provided a cutom u-boot with fastboot included (Thank you very much for this, fantastic work ).

Now with the new custom u-boot i was able to flash back my diag kernel and partition in order to enter the diags menu (after i remaked all partitions from the recovery menu that i was able to access it from the serial console).

After the reflash i was able to get my kindle to the diags menu ( by loading diags with MfgConfig). After this, i have accesed the linux command line window (D.Exit Reboot or Disable Diags -> ..Go to login promt).

After login i have used the linux terminal to reflash my main kernel and partition:

dd if=/mnt/us/mmcblk0p1.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p1 bs=4K
dd if=/mnt/us/kt_5.1.2-kernel_main of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=4096 seek=65
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk0p3 bs=4K count=1K

I must say that i haven't used ssh in order to do this (had some problems).

After a little research i have found that /mnt/us it's actually mounted to the windows partition (partition 4 that it's visible on windows after you put your kindle in USB mode in order to copy files). So i have just copyed the image files to the kindle (without using the ssh) and used the dd commands.

Also i had problems to reflash my main kernel with fastboot, so i needed to reflash both (the main kernel and main partition with dd).

After this i was able to start my kindle in main with the MfgConfig tool, but without Mfg, my kindle wasn't able to start alone as it should. (This becouse u-boot probbably was corrupted or deleted too).

4. The last step i have reflashed my u-boot with fastboot (i have used the main u-boot bin provied in MfgTool). After this i have verifyed all my idme vars and they were the same as original, so everything was ok.

After reflashed u-boot i was able to start my kindle from the power button without any help of MfgTool or other tool. After several tests, i can say now my kindle it's as new, and everything it's working as expected.