Upgrade Aura 2 v2 failed: 4.2.8110 to 4.18.13737

[very_rude_Turnip]

Hello!

Today I tried to update my Kobo Aura 2nd edition v2, but it went horribly wrong and I'm looking for advice.

Fortunately I had a dd dump of the sdcard so I restored it, but I want to try again.

I know quite a bit about embedded systems and linux, but not too much about how these Kobos work. I've also not visited the forum probably two years.

I'm a privacy extremist. I don't ever let my device connect to wifi and never will. I do all of my syncing of files via USB and an rsync script I wrote.

I simply unzipped the kobo-update zip file to my mounted .kobo directory and let the device upgrade. I suspect there may be some intermediate upgrades required, but I don't know which ones.

After I installed the upgrade files and unplugged my USB port, the Kobo looked like it was doing it's upgrade, but it ultimately failed and I ended up with a black screen after boot.

I had no modifications to my OS files which I recall.

Any advice?

[very_rude_Turnip]

I did a factory reset by holding the power button while having USB power applied and the system is booting with a default config/no registration. So the OS is fine, it just didn't like my old configuration for some reason.

So I guess the upgrade was indeed successful. There's just something wrong with the profile/settings migration.

[very_rude_Turnip]

Oh, I was wrong!

When I did the factory reset, it didn't just wipe my configuration, it actually restored the old original OS version (4.0.7523 in this case). That's weird! It must save a copy of the original firmware version on the sdcard somewhere.

Interestingly, it did not wipe out some custom directories I had on the sdcard. That's not a very good factory reset in that case.



I tried another upgrade just now. I deleted my custom ebook on the device and there was no registration. The device was in first-time setup mode and I installed the upgrade files. The system upgraded and once again I have a black screen.

There's something wrong with this process or the kobo-update-4.18.13737.zip file I downloaded. I did download it twice and compared sha256s and they were the same.

Either some intermediate upgrade is required or the upgrade is broken. The system was as factory-reset as I know how to make it and it still failed the upgrade.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by very_rude_Turnip

Oh, I was wrong!

When I did the factory reset, it didn't just wipe my configuration, it actually restored the old original OS version (4.0.7523 in this case). That's weird! It must save a copy of the original firmware version on the sdcard somewhere.

If you look at the internal uSD card, you'll notice that there are two Linux partitions, one of which, going by memory, is labelled Recovery.

Originally Posted by very_rude_Turnip

I tried another upgrade just now. I deleted my custom ebook on the device and there was no registration. The device was in first-time setup mode and I installed the upgrade files. The system upgraded and once again I have a black screen.

There's something wrong with this process or the kobo-update-4.18.13737.zip file I downloaded. I did download it twice and compared sha256s and they were the same.

Either some intermediate upgrade is required or the upgrade is broken. The system was as factory-reset as I know how to make it and it still failed the upgrade.

Interesting. Which version of the kobo-update-4.18.13737.zip file did you download remembering that the Aura 2 comes in two versions which require different firmware downloads (if the 7th character of the serial number is a 2, you need the mark 7 firmware otherwise you need the mark 6 firmware). If I documented it correctly:

the mark 6 update file had a SHA256 of:
FE351E7830A7740A95905700660CEB72F0792E264D35996C52AF636E21530AB1

while the mark 7 update file had a SHA256 of:
4372EA6C038F9452CA1B034FAD40CC904189086C55F48A66EA83C0762B37A8BE

I will admit to getting a chuckle out of your privacy beliefs. Basically, when I'm feeling paranoid, I connect to WiFi at a local hotspot, register with a throwaway email address since Kobo does not appear to do any checking (imapseudonym@erehwon.net is an example). Once that's done, turn off wifi, disable the automatic sync and forget about it.

[very_rude_Turnip]

I am confused.

Both the Wiki here:https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kob...eleases#Mark_7

And Geek1011's site here: https://pgaskin.net/KoboStuff/kobofirmware.html

Say that I have a Mark 7 device...

Geek1011's site says that if the "7th digit of your serial number" is a 2, it's a Aura 2 v2, but that's confusing. The serial number I have is 13 characters, and the 7th char is a 0, and the 8th is a 2. The problem is he said "digit", not "character", and he's a dev so I assume he said what he meant and the N at the front of the serial number doesn't count. Either way, geek1011's description wasn't very good.

But taking the back side of the case off pretty much seals the deal. I have an IMX6L SoC. That means I have an Aura 2 v2, not an Aura 2 v1.

What is interesting is that my current firmware is version 4.2.8110.

Looking at my notes file, I previously downloaded and installed the image using this URL: "http://download.kobobooks.com/firmwares/kobo6/December2016/kobo-update-.zip"

Which says kobo6.

I know the Wiki is out of date, and it has other mistakes such as the minimum software level, but now I'm wondering what firmware I'm actually supposed to be running.

[very_rude_Turnip]

I just successfully upgraded to 4.18.13737 using the mark 6 zip.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by very_rude_Turnip

I am confused.

Both the Wiki here:https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kob...eleases#Mark_7

And Geek1011's site here: https://pgaskin.net/KoboStuff/kobofirmware.html

Say that I have a Mark 7 device...

Geek1011's site says that if the "7th digit of your serial number" is a 2, it's a Aura 2 v2, but that's confusing. The serial number I have is 13 characters, and the 7th char is a 0, and the 8th is a 2. The problem is he said "digit", not "character", and he's a dev so I assume he said what he meant and the N at the front of the serial number doesn't count. Either way, geek1011's description wasn't very good.

But taking the back side of the case off pretty much seals the deal. I have an IMX6L SoC. That means I have an Aura 2 v2, not an Aura 2 v1.

I stand by my use of the 7th CHARACTER being a 2 for a Mark 7 device. As for the SoC, the mark 7 devices use an i.MX 6SLL -- the one in my Clara HD is labelled as MCIM6V7VD10AB which NXP identifies as a commercial grade i.MX 6SLL (the first V) with an EPDC controller (the 7 following the first V). A chip labelled as MCIM6L7 OR MCIM6L8 is a i.MX 6SoloLite (SL) with an EPDC controller.

Originally Posted by very_rude_Turnip

What is interesting is that my current firmware is version 4.2.8110.

Looking at my notes file, I previously downloaded and installed the image using this URL: "http://download.kobobooks.com/firmwares/kobo6/December2016/kobo-update-.zip"

Which says kobo6.

I know the Wiki is out of date, and it has other mistakes such as the minimum software level, but now I'm wondering what firmware I'm actually supposed to be running.

From your chip marking and serial number, mark 6. You have an Aura 2 v1.

Good luck!

[very_rude_Turnip]

The wiki said the Aura 2v1s had a "i.MX507"s in them. That might be true for some models, but that's not what I've got.

I have an i.MX6. Specifically a MCIMX6L7DVN10AB. So, the wiki device page needs to be updated.

The "7th digit of your serial number" in my case is indeed a 2. The problem here is the mis-statement. Further the serial number may be in hex, or otherwise definitely includes hex a-f characters, so the use of the term "digit" is specific and wrong in either case. Words have meaning and in this case they are not correct. I just got unlucky.

It seems like I have mark 6 device. Both geek's firmware site and the wiki fell short in being accurate.

[PeterT]

So update the wiki

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Which version of the kobo-update-4.19.13737.zip file did you download remembering that the Aura 2 comes in two versions which require different firmware downloads (if the 7th character of the serial number is a 2, you need the mark 7 firmware otherwise you need the mark 6 firmware).

Just a quick correction for those who may be thinking there is now a 4.19 firmware available. There's not, this is a typo and the current firmware is still 4.18.13737.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by very_rude_Turnip

The wiki said the Aura 2v1s had a "i.MX507"s in them. That might be true for some models, but that's not what I've got.

I have an i.MX6. Specifically a MCIMX6L7DVN10AB. So, the wiki device page needs to be updated.

Yes, it appears that the Wiki page is wrong for what is in the Aura Edition 2 version 1. But, that part number is not an "i.MX 6SLL". Which means it didn't match either CPU variants mentioned on the Wiki page.

The "7th digit of your serial number" in my case is indeed a 2. The problem here is the mis-statement. Further the serial number may be in hex, or otherwise definitely includes hex a-f characters, so the use of the term "digit" is specific and wrong in either case. Words have meaning and in this case they are not correct. I just got unlucky.

As the person who reported this detail about how to identify the version 2 devices, it is definitely the 7th character. I don't remember if it was me that first used "digit" instead of "character", or a later transcription error by someone else. But, the serial number is not hex, and the place to look at it is in the version file on the device. This will show it as a string.

It seems like I have mark 6 device. Both geek's firmware site and the wiki fell short in being accurate.

The only supported methods to update the devices is over WiFi from Kobo or using the Kobo desktop application. Any other method is not supported and you use them at your own risk. Just as using any unofficial source for information.

I have fixed the Wiki page. Though, I think it still has the wrong CPU name for the version 1 device. From memory, someone identified it as a variant of the i.MX 6, but, other than it not being a i.MX 6SLL, I don't remember which.

[geek1011]

The upgrade path I take from a factory reset of my Aura2v1 is: 4.*.***** > 4.7.10075 > 4.12.1211 > 4.18.13737.

About the digit vs character, my thinking was based on how I was parsing it in my tools (and that a character is an int). I'll update the note soon.

In addition, it isn't the end of the world (at least so far) if you update with the wrong hardware zip, as long as it isn't between too many versions. All that will happen is the kernel and uboot won't be updated, which may mean you miss out on a bugfix or two or that the soft reset acts funny. I regularly do this when testing the recent mark7-only versions. I wouldn't recommend it though, so just upgrade randomly.

And yes, the wiki is quite out of date. Most people seem to go to my site anyways, as I recently overtook the wiki page consistently in Google, and the unique pageviews per week have been increasing rapidly since the first week of September. Based on normalized numbers from https://kfwproxy.geek1011.net/stats (hits+misses)/85/(for÷(24×7)) and my logs (to get rid of bots and account for the increase and people refreshing constantly), I'm currently at just under 8.5K views per week, with an average of 5K/week over the last month and a half.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Just a quick correction for those who may be thinking there is now a 4.19 firmware available. There's not, this is a typo and the current firmware is still 4.18.13737.

Thanks, Jon. I've corrected that typo.