Kubrick: Live CD to debrick Kindle 3, 4, and Touch

[Xn2]

Recently purchased a K5 online.
long story short.
The internal memory has bad sectors about 2k of them somewhere @ the 695MB sector onwards and 3 bad sectors at the end.

is there any way to make this kindle touch work with this internal memory?
even if i can only use 650MB out of the 3.2+ available Gigs.

Some extra Details

due to the issues with the internal storage I have not been able to successfully run Kubrick on it. (At least that is what i think is the fault)
I can enter diags and what not. I can run mfgtool.exe and it boots to the main interface where i can see the device info etc except dictionaries is corrupted and i can't read the stored book. (3 folders are corrupted)
every restart, reboot/factory setting brings me back to the diags.

I have tried reformating and repartitioning the bad sector sections away but all in vain. Keep ending up and getting stuck at Movinand test failed and then i will have to reset and use mfgtool to get back to square one.

is there any way to make this kindle touch work with this internal memory?
even if i can only use 650MB out of the 3.2+ available Gigs.


Equipment:
Kindle Touch. Model No : D01200 aka K5
FW: 5.0.4, non JailBroken
PC: Windows 7 Home x64bit

[knc1]

There are a few things you need to keep in mind:

• Keep the device on external power!
  A wall charger is best choice.
  I can't stress this enough, if you lose power while the eMMC is doing one of its read/erase/re-program cycles internally - the device will self-destruct.
• The flash memory as used on the Kindle requires a special set of options for its format.
  The Windows formatter does not support those options, so don't use it. You will only make your problems worse.
• The storage area of a flash memory is not organized the same as that of a spinning rust storage device.
  There is no relationship between the erase block location and the storage block order.
  The relationship changes with every "write" (flash devices do not support a "write" operation - their internal micro-controller is faking it).
• The boot-up procedure of the Kindle will detect if the USB storage area is formatted, and if not, format it (with the proper options).
  Use this feature, you have two choices:
  
  • Select 'format USB storage' (or whatever similar menu entry you have) from the diags menu.
    Keep it on external power and repeat until no errors exist (the eMMC's internal micro-controller will deal with blocks that fail ecc checks).
    You have to repeat this because you only have access to a limited number of erase blocks and the entire set of internal erase blocks have to be cycled.
    Did I mention? Keep it on external power ALL OF THE TIME.
  • Use special Window's tools to access the raw storage area of USB storage (a very poor choice) or run a Linux LiveCD on your PC so that you can corrupt the USB storage area format and then let the device re-boot (and re-format the area).
    Directions for forcing a USB storage re-build can be found in the original de-bricking threads.
• Keep the Kindle on external power!

You will probably find that all of this is a waste of time.
Most likely, you now have a used touch screen for sale.

[Xn2]

Originally Posted by knc1

There are a few things you need to keep in mind:

• Keep the device on external power!
  A wall charger is best choice.
  I can't stress this enough, if you lose power while the eMMC is doing one of its read/erase/re-program cycles internally - the device will self-destruct.
• The flash memory as used on the Kindle requires a special set of options for its format.
  The Windows formatter does not support those options, so don't use it. You will only make your problems worse.
• The storage area of a flash memory is not organized the same as that of a spinning rust storage device.
  There is no relationship between the erase block location and the storage block order.
  The relationship changes with every "write" (flash devices do not support a "write" operation - their internal micro-controller is faking it).
• The boot-up procedure of the Kindle will detect if the USB storage area is formatted, and if not, format it (with the proper options).
  Use this feature, you have two choices:
  
  • Select 'format USB storage' (or whatever similar menu entry you have) from the diags menu.
    Keep it on external power and repeat until no errors exist (the eMMC's internal micro-controller will deal with blocks that fail ecc checks).
    You have to repeat this because you only have access to a limited number of erase blocks and the entire set of internal erase blocks have to be cycled.
    Did I mention? Keep it on external power ALL OF THE TIME.
  • Use special Window's tools to access the raw storage area of USB storage (a very poor choice) or run a Linux LiveCD on your PC so that you can corrupt the USB storage area format and then let the device re-boot (and re-format the area).
    Directions for forcing a USB storage re-build can be found in the original de-bricking threads.
• Keep the Kindle on external power!

You will probably find that all of this is a waste of time.
Most likely, you now have a used touch screen for sale.

Thank you for the info Knc1
much appreciated.
prior to 2 weeks ago I had zero knowledge and took a while to get used to the terminologies and tools being stated and mentioned in the forums...

i used checkflash 1.16 to check. I guess that may not be the best option or tool.
I am not very familiar with ssd and flash drive's.

I will follow through your advise and re-read through that particular thread.
while the battery gets charged.

I do have a linux desktop, will attempt recovery etc via that later on.

some extra info:
With the amount of time spent thus far it is probably wise to just swap the screen haha.

I am actually attempting an upcycling project as such I managed to secure a couple of K5's on the cheap (total < 20USD)
3 are plain dead (screen and hardware is somewhat kaput) but the batteries are healthy
1 has a faulty screen
1 has faulty Hardware and bloated Battery (this k5 that I am trying to fix*)
-*Battery has already been swapped with a known healthy one.

also
What do you mean by

Originally Posted by knc1

... run a Linux LiveCD on your PC so that you can corrupt the USB storage area format and then let the device re-boot (and re-format the area).

Do you mean I corrupt the area on purpose?
once again thank you for your help thus far.

And yes I will keep it on External power!

[knc1]

Exactly.

Let's assume a Linux PC and a 'normal' Kindle -
(You will have to adapt for your own situation.)

Connect Kindle to PC with USB cord.

Depending on your Linux distribution's flavor of automation -
It should 'auto-mount' and is likely to pop up a file manager.

In a PC terminal, do:
dmesg

The last few lines will tell you what device the system assigned.
For instance:
/dev/sde (raw storage) and /dev/sde1 (first partition).

**EJECT** the Kindle's storage appearance (file manager or command line).

The first portion of /dev/sde contains the DOS label with mbr and partition table - corrupt those, as in:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sde bs=4096 count=16
Note that we are writing to the raw storage device, not the partition.

Remove USB cord between Kindle and PC -
Put USB cord back between Kindle and wall charger (because USB ports have been known to power off after a delay) -
re-boot (press and hold power button 30 seconds or more) -
wait.
the start-up routine will discover that USB storage is not formatted and will re-format it.
if the format routine runs into errors - it will restart.
if you have 2K bad erase blocks, expect about 2K restarts.

rinse, spin, repeat until it can re-format the USB partition without generating any restarts.

= = = =

If you work cheap, say $50/hour or less, then you can do the above more than once.
Otherwise, it isn't worth it, sell it for parts.

[Xn2]

I definitely work cheap... haha

Was not able to do the following...

Originally Posted by knc1

Select 'format USB storage' (or whatever similar menu entry you have) from the diags menu.

Nevertheless I Upgraded to Ubuntu 15.10 and went the desktop way.
managed to fix another K5 with faulty screen using this method.

So at the very least this hasnt been a complete waste of time.
and if this doesnt work for the "original" K5 at least I can Frankenstein its screen over to it.

Thank you very much for all the help thus far @Knc1

[kevinyan]

Dear all kindle experts

I have a kindle 4th gen D01100, it is stuck on the boot up screen (a person reading his book under a tree). Normally there will be a loading bar at the bottom of the screen but there is not for mine, it just stuck at this image. Even even I unplug the charging cable, or reset it by holding the power key, screen flashes and reboots itself but cant get pass this booting image.

So I found Kubrick on google and followed its flashing wizzard on a USB stick. I suppose I have done all the preparation right if I could load the Kubrick on the usb stick. I am using Live CD Iso image for K4 and KT, unziped this iso under the efi/boot/ directory on the usb stick. I boot up with usb stick, run Kubrick wizzard, at the first time I got stuck on the "device is preparing to go into fastboot mode", then I charged it for about 30 min and I am lucky that it get passed the fastboot mode window, then the wizzard trys to restart my device into "diagnostic mode", and had some selection from 1 to 4, my device did restart itself but was stuck at the boot up screen, it could not get pass that to get into the diagnostic mode. Leaving wizard waiting for device to respond, and could not go on from there. I had charged the device overnight, and still the same result.

My assumption is that the battery is bad maybe. Please give me some advise to repair this kindle.

Thanks
Kevin Yan

[Xn2]

Originally Posted by kevinyan

Dear all kindle experts

My assumption is that the battery is bad maybe. Please give me some advise to repair this kindle.

Thanks
Kevin Yan

I had similar issues when I first started fixing my kindle.
I had to open it up and Found out that the battery was bloated.
I recommend getting either a new battery or swap it out with a battery that you know is definitely working first.

Since it seems you can go through the kubricks screens, you can Try Kubricks again after that.

You might want to try Mfgtool.exe and boot into kindle mains too.

I let the experts in here guide you more. Do read the forums and threads first tho.

[Xn2]

Sadly after half a dozen tries it ended up getting access denied!
oh well...
Eventually just swapped screens. Swapping screen took about an hour in total! lol :P

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by ixtab

...[*]Can (optionally) install the device jailbreak (K4/KT); the K3 image always includes the jailbreak. ...

For some reason, after flashing my demo K3 devices with kubrick, I still had to install the jailbreak before mkk would install without failing. The jailbreak included in kubrick seems to not work on these K3 demo devices. Same problem with a couple of B008 wifi-only K3 (non-demo) devices.

[LERL]

I am using a dvd boot of disk of Kubrick 3.6 and all is ok for the first step and I press the power home button sequence then but putting device into fastboot mode fails. The device is a Kindle Touch. Is there any more I can do? I apologise if this question has been asked before but would really appreciate some assistance.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by LERL

I am using a dvd boot of disk of Kubrick 3.6 and all is ok for the first step and I press the power home button sequence then but putting device into fastboot mode fails. The device is a Kindle Touch. Is there any more I can do? I apologise if this question has been asked before but would really appreciate some assistance.

Are you sure you got the device into USB Downloader mode? It helps to plug in the USB cable, hold the power button until the LED turns off, press HOME button, release power button. You can do this while kubrick is running, and you should see the status change.

If you ARE doing this and still having problems, try a different USB cable.

If you still cannot get it to work, try the older "Simple debricking" method linked in the first post (which uses MfgTool to get into different boot modes).

[Stultus]

I have an old K4 I had jail broken a couple years ago that I was cleaning up to give to the kids. I let it patch (bad idea!) and now the power button won't power the device down. If I press it long enough it will trigger a reboot.

I successfully used Kubrick to wipe everything it could, but this behavior continues with the power button. Everything else works great, so I'd hate to scuttle this for parts.

Can anyone recommend a more stringent solution to wipe/format the device and get it back to an unmodified state?

Many thanks in advance.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Stultus

I have an old K4 I had jail broken a couple years ago that I was cleaning up to give to the kids. I let it patch (bad idea!) and now the power button won't power the device down. If I press it long enough it will trigger a reboot.

I successfully used Kubrick to wipe everything it could, but this behavior continues with the power button. Everything else works great, so I'd hate to scuttle this for parts.

Can anyone recommend a more stringent solution to wipe/format the device and get it back to an unmodified state?

Many thanks in advance.

There is not a more stringent solution.
KUBRICK is just a graphic front-end to the tools that replace the firmware completely.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Stultus

I have an old K4 I had jail broken a couple years ago that I was cleaning up to give to the kids. I let it patch (bad idea!) and now the power button won't power the device down. If I press it long enough it will trigger a reboot.

I successfully used Kubrick to wipe everything it could, but this behavior continues with the power button. Everything else works great, so I'd hate to scuttle this for parts.

When you say "the power button won't power the device down", that doesn't sound like you are referring to the screensaver mode.

The Kindle cannot be powered off, it never has. What you are seeing is perfectly normal.
You can cheat by running the `poweroff` command from a shell prompt. But that functionality is deliberately not included anywhere in the UI.

Your normal, expected options are limited to "screensaver" and "reboot cycle".

[Stultus]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The Kindle cannot be powered off, it never has. What you are seeing is perfectly normal.

Thank you; apparently I'm an idiot. I've been using PWs so long I forgot the older version didn't have this functionality. In that case I got to use Kubrick just for the fun of it!