Jailbreak 5.6.5

[wpd]

I did not have a 1.8V serial usb when I started this, so I thoroughly rogered the kindle before I actually saw the kindle commandline. The kernel booted, but warned that no kinit could be found.

Breaking into recovery still worked, so

• enter into recovery abc menu
• format user partition
• expose fat partition
• upload amazon supplied 5.6.5 update
• install update from user partition

Got me back a working, but still jailed kindle at the latest firmware.

Uboot to the rescue: setting the boot argument to mount the root partition together with init=/bin/sh gave me root access. Remount rw, repasswd root, and all was well.

In the process I did try uboot/bist/fastboot uploading of other ppls partitions and kernels. The MMC in the PW3 seems too new for older kernels, and this will give mmc0 unrecognized EXT_CSD errors (-22) errors.

Hope this provides breadcrumbs for others in the same straits.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by wpd

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I thoroughly rogered the kindle before I actually saw the kindle commandline.
- - - -

Would you please translate / provide details of what you mean by that sentence?

Knowing what you tried that did not work for you might well save other people from making the same mistakes.

[wpd]

Originally Posted by knc1

Would you please translate / provide details of what you mean by that sentence?

Knowing what you tried that did not work for you might well save other people from making the same mistakes.

I had a couple of 3.3V serial usb dongles at hand, and tried to make a connection anyway. I tried connecting it straight through, tried a fet based level shifter and a two transistor based level shifter. All from spare parts, and all failed. I rebooted the kindle by removing the battery to ensure I had a clean reboot.

Constant removal of battery during operation, or some "keypresses" may have reached the kindle and somehow destroyed the root partition. When I finally got the serial prompt I saw a bootup procedure, uboot, kernel booting and finally "kinit not found". At that point booting stopped.

I finally received a proper level converter (TI TXB0108), and with the recovery menu still accessible could format the user partition, add the amazon complete update, and start the update from recovery.

[wpd]

Originally Posted by wpd

In the process I did try uboot/bist/fastboot uploading of other ppls partitions and kernels. The MMC in the PW3 seems too new for older kernels, and this will give mmc0 unrecognized EXT_CSD errors (-22) errors.

The remedy for this is to ensure that you have a kernel that supports the newer hardware.

• Retrieve the latest amazon firmware for the all_new_paperwhite kindle
• Retrieve uImage from update using kindletool
• Upload uImage using fastboot, with kindle in fastboot

[knc1]

Hardware issues with the low voltage serial port adapter.
Something for people to check if they can't communicate with the Kindle.

- - - -

Off-topic :
Isn't your Nokia9500 also 1.8 volt?
Or is it something else?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by wpd

The remedy for this is to ensure that you have a kernel that supports the newer hardware.

• Retrieve the latest amazon firmware for the all_new_paperwhite kindle
• Retrieve uImage from update using kindletool
• Upload uImage using fastboot, with kindle in fastboot

Remember to move the kernel modules from one rootfs image to the other image when you move the kernel.
It is possible to have a kernel-level mis-match if you don't do that.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by wpd

- - - -
Hope this provides breadcrumbs for others in the same straits.

Yes, nice procedure summary.
Since it depends on u-boot, that or a very similar one should work on any Kindle model.

Thanks.

[wpd]

Originally Posted by knc1

Off-topic :
Isn't your Nokia9500 also 1.8 volt?
Or is it something else?

LOL -- I loved those nokia communicators. Excellent phones, even if pulling it out instantly made you a complete tool/utter nerd to the ppl around you. Good ereader for the time.