Kindle Voyage display problem

[Atter]

Originally Posted by knc1

All lower case as posted above or all UPPER CASE as I suggested?
PS: It is the only thing you should be able to do to it - its cyrptographically signed.

- - - -

My touchscreen pointer ( http://KayNine.Info ) needs a walk, back in a bit.

Lower case like this: update.bin

Nice doggy!

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Atter

Lower case like this: update.bin

Nice doggy!

Thanks.
Now what has changed, if anything, about re-booting it into 'main'.
Before it was "hung" and non-responsive.

[Atter]

Originally Posted by knc1

Thanks.
Now what has changed, if anything, about re-booting it into 'main'.
Before it was "hung" and non-responsive.

To be honest nothing at least in the usage. It still boots but after the boot it immediately shows the screensaver and thats all. It won't wake up for the power button.

I've compared the original boot process and the one after the "update" and i've found the following differences:

U-Boot version changed:

U-Boot 2009.08-lab126 (Aug 07 2014 - 00:52:13)

This info message is gone:

info asr_setup:winmgr_running=true. winmgr is ready::

But a new info came in:

[  179.273854] ath6kl: temporary war to avoid sdio crc error

New messages:

info blanket_f:unloading blanket module:screensaver:
info blanket_f:module already unloaded:ad_screensaver:
info blanket_f:module already unloaded:ad_screensaver_active:
info blanket_f:loading blanket module:screensaver:
.
.
info mesquite:started::
info mesquite:read_in_counters:REBOOTS=0, REBOOT_LIMIT=1, RESTARTS=0, RESTART_LIMIT=5:
info monitor:writing_file:file=/var/run/upstart/mesquite.restarts:

That's all. I think it's a hardware fault somehow, but i can't figure out which part of it. The motherboard / Display / Battery?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Atter

Maybe you missed my last sentence: Thats where i'm now. I think it should be a hardware fault, but i don't know which one...


If a boot CD or virtual machine works then i can do it.
But if it needs serial communication i don't know how to install my USB-TTL cable driver into the linux. And if it would be a VM then i don't know if the USB passthru will or will not work

Any recent LiveCD will recognize it.

You will need at least 3Gbyte of writable space, so if going the LiveUSB route - pick a large USB stick.

VB? Not sure about that, you could try.

Here is what needs to be done (and why not Windows):

If the device will not auto-export the USB storage (special offers devices will not without access to the search bar) -
Then you'll have to use the 'Export USB' command (which you should be well practiced with at this point ).

The Linux distro will probably auto-mount the USB storage when you plug in the Kindle.
Bring up a file manager (if it didn't pop up by itself) - -
Right click the Kindle storage device - -
Select the 'unmount' choice, not the 'eject' choice (Windows does not make that distinction) - -
'tail' the dmesg file - the Kindle will show as a SCSI (sd?) device -
As in:

[1688912.200026] usb 2-5: new high speed USB device number 28 using ehci_hcd
[1688912.341674] scsi24 : usb-storage 2-5:1.0
[1688913.341251] scsi 24:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kindle   Internal Storage 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[1688913.356329] sd 24:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
[1688913.360485] sd 24:0:0:0: [sde] 2797568 512-byte logical blocks: (1.43 GB/1.33 GiB)
[1688913.470754] sd 24:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
[1688913.470759] sd 24:0:0:0: [sde] Mode Sense: 0f 00 00 00
[1688913.580762] sd 24:0:0:0: [sde] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[1688913.802078]  sde: sde1
[1688914.090924] sd 24:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk

In the above example, the raw storage device was: /dev/sde
The single partition was: /dev/sde1
The 'unmount' (spelled: umount) command dismounted the single partition, but the raw storage device is still available.

OK - now ...

We want a complete copy of the exported storage device -
So make the current directory a writable directory with lots of space.

Bring up a terminal and with substitution of the '/dev/sde' in this example with whatever '/dev/sd?' letter your dmesg showed - -

sudo dd if=/dev/sde of=usb-raw.img bs=4096

wait -
Compress the raw image (zeros compress real nice) - -

gzip usb-raw.img

The file will now be compressed and renamed as: usb-raw.img.gz

Push that file to some network location that I can grab a copy of it.
The file does not contain any personal information, so it need not be a secure location.
PM me (and NiLuJe) where to grab it.

- - - -

FAT32 does not 'erase' the files stored on it - just changes their directory name.
The original factory files should still be on it, and if lucky, we can recover them.
Thank you, Bill Gates.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Atter

To be honest nothing at least in the usage. It still boots but after the boot it immediately shows the screensaver and thats all. It won't wake up for the power button.
- - - - -
That's all. I think it's a hardware fault somehow, but i can't figure out which part of it. The motherboard / Display / Battery?

It may just be busy.
Perhaps trying to recover the flash device from errors.

We know (now) that it is a S.O. device, and I now expect that it was a demo unit with a lot of power-on time.

Keep it on external power whenever not using the Kindle-to-USB cable.

I'll wait until I can look at what was left behind on the USB storage.

[NiLuJe]

@knc1: B013 is indeed the WiFi KV. AFAIK, it's I18N, so, no specific region in the wiki .

[knc1]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@knc1: B013 is indeed the WiFi KV. AFAIK, it's I18N, so, no specific region in the wiki .

Wifi chip needs to be set-up to match its transmitter to the local Wifi allocations.
But perhaps the 3.0.x kernel (now) has general purpose chip drivers that can be set to any region.

- - - -

I don't have any idea what happened to the filesystem on mmcblk0p2.
It could be that the device had different sized partitions.
I can't be sure, because I haven't seen a complete capture log of the up(down)grade.

Ah, did you notice that the factory install image successfully downgraded 5.6.5 to 5.5.0?
That file was from our kpool archive server kv section.
And we have similar 'downgrader' packages for the PW3 and KT2.
I'll check my (very) old PW1 (which was a demo all its life) and see if I can get the initial install off of it still.

- - - -

And there was another interesting thing during the MadMAXXX recovery -
There was an update_*.bin file with only a partial (128 bytes) signature rather than the full (256 bytes) - -
The updater detected the 'short signature' but instead of skipping the install, it only skipped the signature check. Interesting.

[Atter]

I've sent you the dump!

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Atter

I've sent you the dump!

I have it working, will take about an hour with my connection.

By the way - Thanks a lot.

I have learned:
1) I should have asked for your device's model at first reply.

2) There is something funky about that factory install package, it should not have touched mmcblk0p2 (diags).
Maybe it changed the partition boundaries.

3) I should have asked you to keep a complete capture log of that update process (it would have told us what was happening).

4) That update package can 'downgrade' a series 5 kindle -
previously thought to be impossible.
We will have to look into that, now we see that it can be done.

- - - -

The problem is not the battery, but leave it on a wall charger anyway.

No indications that the flash chip has gone bad.

Not the touch screen - because you can use the touch screen for the Recovery Menu.

That factory install replaced the ('main' OS) u-boot, uImage (kernel/initramfs), and file system (mmcblk0p1).

That is pretty much everything, except ...
There is some device and personal local information stored outside of the partitioned area.
We may have to look for the problem source there.

Perhaps the traces left behind on USB, user storage will give me an idea or two.
Right now I can't think of why it is not working.

When you opened it up and put the serial port connections on it - -
I assume you looked at it - did you notice any signes that it had been worked on before?

Right now: Duh....

[knc1]

The USB storage area file system is corrupt.

Enter the 'Recovery Menu' -
use the 'Format USB storage' (or similar name) on the device -
then reboot.

Don't try to re-format it from Windows, it uses some non-MicroSoft configuration options.

- - - -

/var/local (mmcblk0p3) may be corrupt also.

What with the unexpected changes to mmcblk0p2 -
we may have to intentionally use that 'Erase MMC' option and then re-load it with fastboot.

So make sure you have a copy of the GRAYSCALE Kindle (not the fire (Android)) fastboot for your PC and that it is working with your Kindle before doing the 'Erase All' trick.

Note: If (it is very much a 'last choice' thing) this has to be done, it will be the first time in forum history that it was done intentionally - all others, it was unintentional.

[Atter]

Thanks Knc1!

I've ordered another Voyage which is in working condition but i can experiment on it february 8th week.
Then i'll open it up, make a backup and use it to recover this one
And i can check if the display is really working (replacing the motherboards).

My toughts about the backup procedure:
1. Take the working Voyage and do a factory restore from the GUI.
2. After reboot, backup the following partitions with a Linux machine:
diags_kernel: diags_kernel.img
kernel: main_kernel.img
system: mmcblk0p1.img
diags: mmcblk0p2.img
3. Flash the backup images with fastboot to the faulty Kindle.

Is there a manual how to backup these images?
Can i still use Geekmaster's getkernels script to get the main_kernel and diags_kernel?
And what about mmcblk0p1 and mmcblk0p2?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Atter

Thanks Knc1!

I've ordered another Voyage which is in working condition but i can experiment on it february 8th week.
Then i'll open it up, make a backup and use it to recover this one :)
And i can check if the display is really working (replacing the motherboards).

My toughts about the backup procedure:
1. Take the working Voyage and do a factory restore from the GUI.
2. After reboot, backup the following partitions with a Linux machine:
diags_kernel: diags_kernel.img
kernel: main_kernel.img
system: mmcblk0p1.img
diags: mmcblk0p2.img
3. Flash the backup images with fastboot to the faulty Kindle.

Is there a manual how to backup these images?
Can i still use Geekmaster's getkernels script to get the main_kernel and diags_kernel?
And what about mmcblk0p1 and mmcblk0p2?

#0) Before anything else (well, you have to pick language and select set-up wifi/register continue later) -
Make a copy of the raw storage (this time we should capture the current factory install image as a deleted file).
You mentioned already reading my step-by-step to grab a forensic image. That is #0 thing to at first power-on.
Then I or Niluje will compare that one with the Oct., 2014 one to see what has changed that might have trashed the 'diags' filesystem.

#1) No
The mmcblk0p1 image is more useful jail broken.
We can always get a non-jail broken image from Amazon with KindleTool.

#2) Yes.

#2.1) Make a copy of the device/personal information outside of the partitioned area (do not distribute, or copy to another device).
dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=/mnt/us/some-name.img bs=4096 count=32

#2.2) Just for curiosities' sake you might want a copy of /var/local (/dev/mmcblk0p3)
That is persistent temporary storage. Annotations, Bookmarks, misc. system settings.
Not intended to be distributed, Not required to run, the system will re-create if missing.

#3) Almost.
The main system image (/dev/mmcblk0p1) is too large for fast boot.

#3.1a) If you don't want the restored device to be jail broken:
Do just like you did before signing in here -
Use the recovery menu to install an Amazon posted update file.

#3.1b) if you do want the restored device to be jail broken:
From 'diags' -
dd if=/mnt/us/some-named-mmcblk0p1.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p1 bs=4096

#4) Somewhere there is.
But it is just using dd to copy from (if:in-file) to (of:out-file) in eraseblock chunks (bs=4096).

#5) Yes.
The posted one will copy additional memory, less than a full erase block, but of all 1's (a flash drive's version of blank).
So just ignore that - the fastboot installer will also.

#6) by now (after 0..5) you can answer this one yourself.
Use dd, in-file (if=) either /dev/mmcblk0p1 or /dev/mmcblk0p2 out-file (of=) some distinctive name as /mnt/us/distinctive-name bs=4096

- - - -

PS: The touch screen **must** be working - your using it with the Recovery Menu.
Don't chance breaking tiny connectors by swapping motherboards.
Note: a broken tiny connector is probably your original KV's problem - too many hands in the internals.

Although your original KV can not run until you re-initialize USB storage.
The condition it is in, the system can't detect that it needs to be rebuilt during boot and yet it can't use it at run time.
Your most likely in a file system error loop.

- - - -

:offtopic: I wonder how many readers realize how difficult it is to repair a computer system from 6 or more time zones away?

[knc1]

With a couple weeks to read the above post, we need a musical intermission in this thread.

One of the greatest keyboard riffs ever.

[Atter]

Thanks Knc1!

I'll get beck to you when i have the new Kindle in hand.
Until then i'll read through how to backup the working one to be prepared when the time is come