How to brick my Kindle Touch

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by Poetcop

The only thing that's risk free is to not jailbreak your Kindle (since even if it breaks on its own you can send it back) or use any other mods...

Many people reported bricking a kindle with NO jailbreak or mods installed, just by installing an official amazon update. Perhaps their battery charge was not enough to complete the update process -- reflashing ANY device is risky in the event that it does not complete for some reason such as interruption of power (or low battery).

So, you need to modify that to "not jailbreak NOR install official firmware updates".

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

Why don't we just tell MaPePeR that it is our intent to keep the answer to his question secret forever?

I am afraid that despite all my effort to teach him to tie his own shoelaces and wipe his own behind, he will NEVER catch on. Around here, we have adult daycare facilities for cases like this...

http://mattgemmell.com/2008/12/08/what-have-you-tried/

[ixtab]

MaPePeR:

Since you're desperately looking for one, here is a guaranteed way to brick your KT:
edit /opt/amazon/ebook/bin/init.xargs, and add a new line:

-istart brickme.jar

above the first "-istart" line. Reboot, and voilà, "Your Kindle needs repair".

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by ixtab

MaPePeR:

Since you're desperately looking for one, here is a guaranteed way to brick your KT:
edit /opt/amazon/ebook/bin/init.xargs, and add a new line:

-istart brickme.jar

above the first "-istart" line. Reboot, and voilà, "Your Kindle needs repair".

Unfortunately, your suggestion does not satisfy the requirements of the O.P. (PERMANENT bricking). As I mentioned in an earlier post, because of USB Downloader mode and MfgTool, that would require a hardware solution, for which I recommended using a special tool called a "microwave oven".

[Poetcop]

Are you sure though geekmaster? Could *you* deliberately brick a kindle so hard (superbrick) that only a custom u-boot image or serial port soldering could help it?

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by Poetcop

Are you sure though geekmaster? Could *you* deliberately brick a kindle so hard (superbrick) that only a custom u-boot image or serial port soldering could help it?

The O.P. wanted a PERMANENT brick, which means NOTHING can fix it. Surely a microwave oven can do that.

I could easily brick a kindle so that it cannot even boot to fastboot mode. Just zero out \dev\mmcblk0. Or boot fastboot and erase full mmc, so even fastboot no longer works. But then you can still debrick it from serial port, or custom bist u-boot that contains fastboot (not available yet).

Of course, perhaps thermite would be even more effective than a microwave oven for a permanent brick.

[ixtab]

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

The O.P. wanted a PERMANENT brick, which means NOTHING can fix it. Surely a microwave oven can do that.

The answer can probably be found in the SoC hardware descriptions.
In general, SoC devices use programmed registers to control their internal configuration.
Programming those registers to "self destruct" the SoC internal circuitry would probably be "PERMANENT" by any meaning of the word.

It might even be possible to just disable (brick) certain functions of the SoC -
What occurs first to me is screwing around with the programming of the various internal clock chains. (set one or more to "self destruct" speeds)

Should not need the high energy requirements of a microwave oven, just use scripting that gains (probably kernel mode) access to those control registers.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

The answer can probably be found in the SoC hardware descriptions.
In general, SoC devices use programmed registers to control their internal configuration.
Programming those registers to "self destruct" the SoC internal circuitry would probably be "PERMANENT" by any meaning of the word.

It might even be possible to just disable (brick) certain functions of the SoC -
What occurs first to me is screwing around with the programming of the various internal clock chains. (set one or more to "self destruct" speeds)

Should not need the high energy requirements of a microwave oven, just use scripting that gains (probably kernel mode) access to those control registers.

Scripting? Well, I suppose a script could use dd (like the eink algorithmic art scripts) to write a custom kernel, then use kexec to launch it.

The OP was not clear on this matter -- perhaps he is looking for a SOFTWARE solution that can permanently brick kindles, so he can install it in a kindle virus package.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Scripting? Well, I suppose a script could use dd (like the eink algorithmic art scripts) to write a custom kernel, then use kexec to launch it.

Somebody has built a copy of tcc that allows scripting in "C" that works on kindles.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

Somebody has built a copy of tcc that allows scripting in "C" that works on kindles.

Somebody built a package that contains lrizzo's old build of tcc that was not useful until all the extra missing stuff was packaged with it, and a fix was found to make it compatible with the newer kindles...

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=175834

[MaPePeR]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

The OP was not clear on this matter -- perhaps he is looking for a SOFTWARE solution that can permanently brick kindles, so he can install it in a kindle virus package.

Ok, i try to be more clear.

I'm ONLY interrested in Software solutions.

I dont want to write a "Virus".
I dont want to super-brick any Kindle.
I dont want to brick any Kindle.

I want to _know_ if it is possible to super-brick a Kindle.(This is a secondary Question)
I want to _know_ what causes a brick - to avoid that.
(Aquivalent question: How to brick my Kindle)

I want to be able to say "This will never brick your Kindle" like you(geekmaster) did.

Greetings.

Also: very mature of you to remove your "diagnosis".

[geekmaster]

You cannot permanently brick currently shipped kindles because the fuse that makes them only load signed (encrypted) firmware has already been blown to allow them to load unsigned firmware. No matter what is stored in the mmc, you can always erase it and start over using the tools the factory uses (MfgTool) to install firmware on brand-new (empty) kindles. If you still question that, you need to read the Freescale iMX508 Reference Manual, which is a free download at freescale.com (after free registration at their website).

After reading the manual, you will learn that bricking can only be permanent if the hardware itself is damaged. I consider burning fuses in the SoC to be irreversible hardware damage, as defined here.

Enough already?

[ixtab]

@MaPePeR: of course we all understood that. The problem is that your question simply cannot be answered.

You're asking for a "blacklist", but what you really want is a "whitelist". This is the same problem as anti-virus vendors have: there is a way to enumerate what will definitely brick your device (I gave you one example), but this enumeration cannot, ever, be exhaustive. And conversely, there is no way to enumerate what will not brick your device.

But, for instance, the "pwd" command should be a reasonably safe one to be on the whitelist.

[MaPePeR]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Enough already?

I understood that super bricking by software is not possible.
That makes me very happy.

But a simple "brick" is annoying enough, so i want to avoid that.

Can you give me an answer for that question, too?

And conversely, there is no way to enumerate what will not brick your device.

I know. Thats the reason i ask "How to brick my Kindle" and not "How to not brick my Kindle"

Sample answers i would expect:
overwriting firmware with dd
deleting critical files
trying to change my Kindle-Serial number (already happened somewhere in the forum...)