Help unbricking PW1

[dom123dom]

I was pretty excited to have fixed my PW2 recently with help from posts in these forums and I really enjoyed the soldering challenge and getting into the kindle's serial console. So much so I bought a 'broken' PW1 to play with.

It is an EY21 model.

The symptoms are:
- screen looks fine, just a standard amazon screensaver on it

- no response from power button

- plug in power to wall, I get an orange light so I left it on the wall charger overnight, has made no difference.

- plug into PC via USB, I got "installing NS Blank Codex" one time, subsequent USB connections don't show this. I plugged it into a different PC and also got a one time message of "installing NS Blank Codex".

- Connected up a serial port, plug into wall charger (orange light), press power button and I get the following in the serial console:

 U-Boot 2009.08-lab126 (Jan 08 2013 - 21:47:48)

CPU:   Freescale i.MX50 family 1.1V at 800 MHz
mx50 pll1: 800MHz
mx50 pll2: 400MHz
mx50 pll3: 216MHz
ipg clock     : 66666666Hz
ipg per clock : 66666666Hz
uart clock    : 24000000Hz
ahb clock     : 133333333Hz
axi_a clock   : 400000000Hz
axi_b clock   : 200000000Hz
weim_clock    : 100000000Hz
ddr clock     : 800000000Hz
esdhc1 clock  : 80000000Hz
esdhc2 clock  : 80000000Hz
esdhc3 clock  : 80000000Hz
esdhc4 clock  : 80000000Hz
MMC:  FSL_ESDHC: 0, FSL_ESDHC: 1
Board: Unknown
Boot Reason: [POR]
Boot Device: MMC
Board Id:
S/N:
Invalid board id!  Can't determine system type for RAM init.. bailing!
DRAM:   0 kB
Using default environment

I don't know the history of the device, it doesn't look like it's had a serial port on it before but it does look like some scratches and fingerprints on the metal parts under the case.

Any ideas what I could do next? I'm happy to read up and experiment, that's why I bought it so I can learn just not sure what my step should be....?

P.S. I mostly work on windows but i do have a raspberry pi as well if I need to do stuff under linux.

[knc1]

That reads/sounds like a victim of "Erase All".

We have a long, detailed thread on how to recover a victim of "Erase All".
We also have detailed postings on replacing the eMMC chip with a new one, which makes it even blanker than "Erase All" does.

Step 1:
Get the system to identify its own RAM chip and initialize it so you can use more than the few hundred bytes of RAM built into the SoC chip.

Note: Eliminate the need to translate to/from Windoze by running a complete Linux installation (such as a Linux LiveCD), not just another embedded (ham stringed) embedded system.

[dom123dom]

Originally Posted by knc1

That reads/sounds like a victim of "Erase All".

We have a long, detailed thread on how to recover a victim of "Erase All".
We also have detailed postings on replacing the eMMC chip with a new one, which makes it even blanker than "Erase All" does.

Step 1:
Get the system to identify its own RAM chip and initialize it so you can use more than the few hundred bytes of RAM built into the SoC chip.

Note: Eliminate the need to translate to/from Windoze by running a complete Linux installation (such as a Linux LiveCD), not just another embedded (ham stringed) embedded system.

Thanks, I have been reading through a long thread on this and definitely have a steep learning curve ahead but I enjoy learning and am pretty determined so hopefully I can get there eventually...!

I will go investigate creating a Linux Live CD as my first port of call.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by dom123dom

Thanks, I have been reading through a long thread on this and definitely have a steep learning curve ahead but I enjoy learning and am pretty determined so hopefully I can get there eventually...!

I will go investigate creating a Linux Live CD as my first port of call.

Not needed.
Ask google, there are hundreds already available on the net.


for example: https://livecdlist.com/

[dom123dom]

Originally Posted by knc1

Not needed.
Ask google, there are hundreds already available on the net.


for example: https://livecdlist.com/

Thanks again, I now have Ubuntu booted on my spare laptop off a USB key.

I'll go hunting for the erase all thread next...

[knc1]

Originally Posted by dom123dom

Thanks again, I now have Ubuntu booted on my spare laptop off a USB key.

I'll go hunting for the erase all thread next...

I think it was started by MadMax

[dom123dom]

Originally Posted by knc1

I think it was started by MadMax

Is it this one you are thinking of?
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=269099

I've installed ubuntu in virtualbox instead of usb key, I think that might be easier for me having write access and being able to install apps etc. I have the USB key as backup as well in case.

[dom123dom]

Being a noob I will try to remember to log everything here for someone else to use for help later...

So far:
- download ubuntu iso from https://www.ubuntu.com/
- download virtual box from https://www.virtualbox.org/
- install virtualbox
- create a new vm and select ubuntu, point it at the iso you downloaded.
- use teraterm to figure out which COM port on your PC the USB to TTL uses (COM3 for me)
- go into virtual box VM settings and change the serial port 1 to use COM1 as port number, port mode as host device and path/address as COM3 (us ethe COM port identified as being used by your serial adapter)
- install putty into ubuntu (terminal, sudo apt-get putty)
- modify putty connection to use serial and 115200 as baud rate, setup a log file for later reference
- The serial port should be on /dev/ttyS0 from your Ubuntu (linux) guest

---------

OK so now I have a Ubuntu guest connected by serial to my kindle pw1...time for some more reading to figure out what next. I have read about fastboot a little but can't find any step by step guide for that at the moment....


p.s. i'm running Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS in case it matters.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by dom123dom

Is it this one you are thinking of?
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=269099

I've installed ubuntu in virtualbox instead of usb key, I think that might be easier for me having write access and being able to install apps etc. I have the USB key as backup as well in case.

That is it.
The thread has a lot of noise posted to it, which can be ignored, but among all of the noise, all of the info is there (discovered as we needed it).
All of the attached terminal interaction log files can also help staying grounded in what was being done.

It would be nice if someone was to extract the information from the noise (maybe to a wiki page here) but that has never happened.

The procedure(s) described are the same for all devices running firmware series 5.x (original KT or newer) EXCEPT for the KOA2 and the PW4 (which have the "Androidized" file system layout without the dual boot feature).

Yeah, right, the most expensive devices are (currently) the least maintainable. Way to go Jeff Bezos.
(yup, i know his office is subscribed to my posts, we have a one way communications link here.)

[dom123dom]

Hmm I'm a little lost, reading through stuff but not really getting anywhere. The simple debricking guide is all Windows based and the threads for eraseall are a bit incomplete.

[dom123dom]

Originally Posted by knc1

That is it.
It would be nice if someone was to extract the information from the noise (maybe to a wiki page here) but that has never happened.

If I can figure it out I'd be happy to write it up in a nice easy to follow step by step procedure.

I'll read through it all again and see if I can work it out, all rather new to me but I'm determined to get it over the line!

[dom123dom]

Busy week at work but now it's the weekend so I can play with this again

I decided to solder on some headers as my soldering is a bit crap and kept popping off, that's now done so back to the software side of things...

[dom123dom]

First step appears to be getting the kindle into Fastboot mode.

I have found some tools for this here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=225030

Now to figure out how to use them...

[dom123dom]

I am stuck...how do I get this to fastboot?

In Maxx's thread knc1 asked the question I am asking myself...how do i get it into fastboot mode?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...61&postcount=9

In his case:
"I connected the serial port and startet Putty. At first i got a black screen without information. After pressing Enter i will get the "uboot >" on screen.
with "bist fastboot" i get into the fastboot mode."

However I am not seeing the same behaviour, mine attempts boot spits out the below and then nothing, pressing enter does not return anything from the cli.

If I disconnect the power and reconnect power it issues the below on the serial again.

U-Boot 2009.08-lab126 (Jan 08 2013 - 21:47:48)

CPU: Freescale i.MX50 family 1.1V at 800 MHz
mx50 pll1: 800MHz
mx50 pll2: 400MHz
mx50 pll3: 216MHz
ipg clock : 66666666Hz
ipg per clock : 66666666Hz
uart clock : 24000000Hz
ahb clock : 133333333Hz
axi_a clock : 400000000Hz
axi_b clock : 200000000Hz
weim_clock : 100000000Hz
ddr clock : 800000000Hz
esdhc1 clock : 80000000Hz
esdhc2 clock : 80000000Hz
esdhc3 clock : 80000000Hz
esdhc4 clock : 80000000Hz
MMC: FSL_ESDHC: 0, FSL_ESDHC: 1
Board: Unknown
Boot Reason: [POR]
Boot Device: MMC
Board Id:
S/N:
Invalid board id! Can't determine system type for RAM init.. bailing!
DRAM: 0 kB
Using default environment

[knc1]

Did you notice the build date(s) of the u-boot(s)?
That might well have something to do with the difference in operation.

You objective at this point is the same as before - get the SoC to run its own external RAM.

Check the thread posted by the person who replaced their eMMC with a larger one to see what they had to do at this point (the previous error messages are probably why the SoC's code can't start the external RAM).
See how the other thread fixed those at this point.