Any detailed help for Usbnetwork? Strange things keep happening

[evianluw]

Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2 (Japan)
System: 5.4.2
Status: Jailbroken; USBNetwork, MRI, Kindle Explorer and some other small hack installed

Issues:

1.

It was a long time ago (maybe 1 or 2 years) when I got the kpw2 jailbroken and installed these hacks. I had a hard time toggling USBNetwork and find someone's guide to use SSH over wifi, using the "authorized_key" (like this one). It worked at first.

Then strange things happened: the kindle couldn't connect to PC by usb. Just charging. No matter what OS (Win xp,7,8,10 or Ubuntu&Fedora) and cable I use.

I can't remember well what's the cause, and it remains the same now. I thought maybe it has stayed in usb-ssh mode, but it didn't shows up in windows network adapter, connecting to 192.168.15.244 in SCP/SSH no luck, and using some command lines in Linux showed no usb0 or something like that... I just gave up.

2.

However, with Personal Documents I can still read the books in kindle fine. Kindle Explorer ensures the ability to edit files. And another weird thing also helps me: I can access the files over wifi-ssh, although I've already deleted the authorized_key file in kindle and use no privatekey.ppk in my computer. I just toggle the USBNetwork on, and type in kindle's ip address in WinSCP, username root, no password. I don't know if this is normal behavior. Using putty's SSH command line is also okay.

But I've always been wanting to update (after hearing jailbreak survives the update with some bridging), and if the update will disable jailbreak at first, I will not be able to transfer the bridging file to the kindle. So I still want to fix the usb issue if there's any hope.

Note:

the config file in the kindle shows SSH over wifi is disabled (the introductory texts have been deleted):

KINDLE_IP=192.168.15.244
USE_WIFI="false"
USE_WIFI_SSHD_ONLY="false"
USE_OPENSSH="false"
QUIET_DROPBEAR="false"
TWEAK_MAC_ADDRESS="false"

And in the attachments: there's the screenshot with the text showing up after I toggle usbnet on, and another one is the usbnet/etc directory files with these I-don't-know-what-it-means files. Maybe they'll give some information.

[HarryT]

Questions about non-standard Kindle firmware belong in the developer forum, whence I'm moving this.

[encol]

For the first issue: you have to toggle usbnet down to see the kindle as mass storage. Also check your usb cable

[knc1]

USB networking WILL NOT toggle with the USB cable plugged in.

[evianluw]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Questions about non-standard Kindle firmware belong in the developer forum, whence I'm moving this.

Sorry about that.

[evianluw]

Originally Posted by knc1

USB networking WILL NOT toggle with the USB cable plugged in.

Yes, and I've toggled without USB cable plugged in, still no luck.

Originally Posted by encol

For the first issue: you have to toggle usbnet down to see the kindle as mass storage. Also check your usb cable

Never worked. I've used every USB cable I have, and the cables are fine, still my computer doesn't recognize Kindle, neither as USB storage nor SSH device.

[encol]

when you toggle down usbnet, what message you get if you show usbnet status?

[knc1]

Well, let me try another of the obvious possibilities -

Check your firmware version -
Is it what you expect or did it update on you?
The reason:
USBnetworking is one of those that has to be re-installed after each Amazon update.

Oh, heck, don't bother, just re-install it being sure to remove the current one's configuration file first (it is normally left behind and you didn't show enough of the file system tree to know if that is part of the problem - such as a keyname flagfile).
I.E: One directory level above what you showed, see if you put a file named 'auto' in that directory (that could be what happened and the off-site directions you linked to mention it).

If you can't reach the user's USB storage, your fall back is to use the newest JB on the device.

Did you mention having kTerm?
You should be able to use 'wget' (or 'curl') to download the package directly to the Kindle (/mnt/us/mrpackages).

PS: As someone already suggested - you might be running 'diags' system rather than the 'main' system or running the 'demo' system.
Was this ever a "demo Kindle" ?

[evianluw]

Originally Posted by encol

when you toggle down usbnet, what message you get if you show usbnet status?

When I press the toggle button (to stop USBNet):

N switching from usbnet to usbms

N stopping sshd

The last line of the code doesn't seem to stop. Then I press the show status button:

N * USBNetwork: disabled (usbms, sshd down) *

[evianluw]

Originally Posted by knc1

Well, let me try another of the obvious possibilities -

Check your firmware version -
Is it what you expect or did it update on you?
The reason:
USBnetworking is one of those that has to be re-installed after each Amazon update.

Oh, heck, don't bother, just re-install it being sure to remove the current one's configuration file first (it is normally left behind and you didn't show enough of the file system tree to know if that is part of the problem - such as a keyname flagfile).

If you can't reach the user's USB storage, your fall back is to use the newest JB on the device.

Did you mention having kTerm?
You should be able to use 'wget' (or 'curl') to download the package directly to the Kindle (/mnt/usr/mrpackages).

PS: As someone already suggested - you might be running 'diags' system rather than the 'main' system or running the 'demo' system.
Was this ever a "demo Kindle" ?

Well, actually I can reach the USB storage by wifi-ssh... so I'll install the kTerm first in case anything goes wrong then I'll go reinstall USBNet. Thanks for the tip — a terminal on the kindle would be #1 useful but I didn't discover this.

I don't know how to tell whether it's in the diag mode or not, however, as far as I know, all the features except for USB connecting are working fine. I'm sure this kindle was bought all-new, I opened up the seal. Not even with special offer.

[knc1]

I updated my post.
In the directory above the one you showed, see if you put a file named: 'auto' in that directory.
If so - get rid of it.

[evianluw]

No, just 'DISABLED_auto'.

[knc1]

Delete the /usbnet directory and sub-tree.
Delete the /extensions/usbnet directory and subtree.
Copy the most recent version of USBnet from NiLuJe's snapshot thread into /mrpackages.
Be certain to use the file with you device's nickname in its filename.
Exit from your ssh (or scp or sftp or whatever you used) session.
Now trigger MrPI to install the most recent version.

None of the above should make any difference to kTerm.
You may want to use kTerm rather than an ssh session (although, because of the way the Linux filesystem layer works, you should be able to delete code that you are executing at the time).

[evianluw]

Originally Posted by knc1

Delete the /usbnet directory and sub-tree.
Delete the /extensions/usbnet directory and subtree.
Copy the most recent version of USBnet from NiLuJe's snapshot thread into /mrpackages.
Be certain to use the file with you device's nickname in its filename.
Exit from your ssh (or scp or sftp or whatever you used) session.
Now trigger MrPI to install the most recent version.

Sadly, after updating USBNet and jailbreak, my kindle still fails to connect to computer via USB. Anyway, thanks for your help. Maybe it's really a kind of hardware problem, although I am cautious with connecting the cable to the micro-USB port.

I've thought of doing a factory reset or a complete firmware flash might solve the problem, but considering losing jailbreak for a while may mean unable to jailbreak forever for me if the USB connection isn't fixed, I just give up. If you have any ideas about uploading a file to the root directory of kindle without USB connection and jailbreak, please tell me.

[encol]

WinSCP (via wifi) is still working?