PRS-T1 How to boot recovery PRS-T1?

[benze]

Hi,

I just got my PRST1 yesterday and am trying to root it. I am a newbie to this. I've gone through the wiki page, and have tried to reboot in recover mode as indicated, but I must be doing something wrong as I am just unable to get it to that state.

I have tried turning the device off, and holding down the menu and home (middle and right-most) buttons while turning on the device. I see the status bar hit 100% and have released the buttons. The light on the power button is flashing yellow. The device then continues to restart its boot sequence (the status bar starts over) and the light turns red and the device completes its boot sequence.

If I try to hold the buttons down longer, it just keeps recycle the status bar from 0 ->100% over and over again.

If I try to plug the unit into the PC at this point, I don't get any Gadget Serial adapter in the device manager (I have even forced a rescan to no avail).

I have also tried ebook_msc with no success either.

./ebook_msc.exe name "PRS-T1" um recovery
Sony Reader MSC utility 1.06 (c) 2009 Igor Skochinsky, Vladimir Boroda
avail: 0
openDrive [\\.\E:]: 1
usbInitCheck: 0

It reboots the unit, but upon reboot, it restarts as normal. Once again, no option for a Gadget Serial.

It is a brand new PRST1 with firmware: 1.0.04.12210

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Eric

[jarsto]

My question for you would be: do you have anything for your Reader to do in recovery mode?

If I try to do a recovery boot without either a microSD card with the rescue image on it in the reader, or a root package waiting to the be executed on the internal storage partition I get exactly the behaviour you describe.

As I understand it (which isn't necessarily 100% correct I must admit) the PRS-T1's recovery mode isn't exactly a fully integrated separate start-up mode. Instead it just tries to load a different firmware image and/or execute a script left for it. If you have no rescue mode firmware image on the microSD, and no root package script in the internal storage there is nothing for the recovery mode to do with your reader. So it either reboots to normal (after you release the buttons) or keeps trying to find the script and failing (while you keep holding the buttons).

[benze]

Ahhh.... That would definitely explain the behaviour. I was not sure if I needed a separate microSD card to run the Backup/Recovery, so simply copied the "OS Firmware" to the root of the device, not understanding that it _had_ to be on an external microSD card. I know that in Android, there is an /sdcard/ mount point by default (the user space), so I understood the instructions to mean to copy the data to that space.

I will have to hunt down an sdcard and see if I can make this work.

Thank you so much for the clarification!

Eric

[bookp]

If that is true, why does the Wiki say you can connect to your PC, install drivers, and send shell commands while your device is "in Recovery Mode"? Are the following instructions complete ?

From the Wiki:

Boot into Recovery Console
Many sections on this page assume you
know how to remotely boot into the
recovery console before typing commands.
This is one of many ways to do it (here via
basic telnet-style console on a PC linked to
PRS-T1 via USB cable) with the PRS-T1.
1. Install a terminal emulator such as
PuTTY (Windows) or minicom (Linux)
on your PC or other device.
2. Put your PRS-T1 into recovery mode.
There are 3 ways to achieve that:
Open preinstalled Test Mode app via
launcher and press "Reboot
(recovery)"
Via ADB shell or in Terminal Console
app type "chgboot recovery &&
reboot"
Be sure that there is no SD Recovery
image on external SD card and press
and hold Home + Menu buttons
while rebooting
PRS-T1 will reboot and as soon as progress
bar "Opening Book" is at 100% with power
light flashing, it's ready:
1. Connect USB cable to PRS-T1 and PC.
2. In Windows, agree to install standard
device driver and note the associated
COM port e.g. "COM10" (also visible
in Device Manager), open PuTTY,
switch to "Serial" connection type,
and change name of "Serial line" to
match COM port e.g. "COM10". Open
the connection.
3. In Linux, start minicom with option -s
and set the serial device name (Serial
port setup->Serial Device) according
to the found one (see kernel
messages with 'dmesg' command),
most probably /dev/ttyACM0, turn
echo off via Ctrl+A Z E
4. Press enter -> Login prompt appears,
type "root". The # prompt should
appear. You can now remotely control
the PRS-T1 e.g. in order to resize
system partition as explained below.
5. in order to leave recovery mode, just
type "reboot" at the recovery console.

[benze]

I'm not sure either. I read through those Wiki instructions too and was uncertain about them:

2. Put your PRS-T1 into recovery mode.
There are 3 ways to achieve that:
Open preinstalled Test Mode app via
launcher and press "Reboot
(recovery)"
Via ADB shell or in Terminal Console
app type "chgboot recovery &&
reboot"
Be sure that there is no SD Recovery
image on external SD card and press
and hold Home + Menu buttons
while rebooting
PRS-T1 will reboot and as soon as progress
bar "Opening Book" is at 100% with power
light flashing, it's ready:

- Holding Home + Menu does not seem to work for 1.0.04.12210. Maybe for an older firmware version?

- I'm not sure what the ADB shell is, and quite frankly, until I can get the PC to recognize it as a serial device, I have no idea how to install the necessary driver and communicate to with with a Term Console.

- I have no idea how to get to Test Mode via launcher. I do not even know what "launcher" is defined as being on a stock T1. I understand what it would be in the context of an Android device, but I don't know where/how to access it via the Sony interface.

If anyone knows, please let me know!

THanks,

Eric

[altruizine]

The Wiki instructions may be a bit misleading.

I also had trouble entering recovery mode at first. This started working only later on, I believe after I rooted and installed rupor's app2sd package. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that the recovery boot image is only in that package.

Maybe some devices ship with a recovery image out of the box, and some don't?

[rupor]

Apps2SD has nothing to do with recovery. It does not have proper "OS Firmware" in it. You probably meant my backup/rescue package. Using HOME+MENU could be tricky at times - requires proper timing. IMHO the easiest way is "ebook_msc.exe name "PRS-T1" um recovery". Test mode is an app which is always installed (by Sony) and it allows reboot in recovery mode - doing analog of "chgboot recovery && reboot". If you have a rooted device and are using ADW Launcher - you would know what to do

All devices have Linux recovery kernel image on them and all are capable of entering this mode out of the box (device do not have to be rooted). It is what happens next - as jarsto explained. Not only you should have proper image (on SD or in internal memory) which allows you to open terminal connection to the device, this image must be of a proper version and your computer must be capable of recognizing USB serial gadget (not a problem under Linux, requires installation of proper INF file under Windows).

All of that has nothing to do with ADB - which indeed need to be installed on the device by using Apps2SD (or some other way) but is not required to connect to device in recovery mode. Recovery mode is not debug mode - it is entirely different. Different kernel is booted and regular system and /data partitions are not mounted allowing device firmware to be recovered or upgraded.

[benze]

Originally Posted by rupor

IMHO the easiest way is "ebook_msc.exe name "PRS-T1" um recovery". Test mode is an app which is always installed (by Sony) and it allows reboot in recovery mode - doing

All devices have Linux recovery kernel image on them and all are capable entering this mode out of the box (device do not have to be rooted), it is what happens next - as jarsto explained. Not only you should have proper image which will allow you to open terminal connection to the device, this image must be of a proper version and your computer must be capable of recognizing USB serial gadget (not a problem under Linux, requires installation of proper INF file under Windows).

So I'm confused now. You seem to indicate that out of the box, it has Test Mode built in, however, without your rupor-rescue.7z additional package, nothing happens. I have not yet had a chance to test the theory (I do not have a micro SD handy), so I have to get my hands on a microSD to see. Is there any way to boot into that firmware without using a microSD?

But this would imply that it does not have a test mode built in, but rather just a hook to load/boot another firmware.

As I initially indicated, I have tried "ebook_msc.exe name "PRS-T1" um recovery" but all that did was reboot the unit in exactly the same state. (Again, I do not have the OS Firmware on the microSD card).

Thanks,

Eric

[rupor]

@benze

You are mixing recovery mode and testing mode - both built in

Testing mode is an app (or set of apps)
Recovery mode is a special boot used in recovery and upgrade process of the device.

My rescue package allows you to enter recovery mode. You could do the same (but with different functionality) without rupor rescue if you place rescue.updater file (available as part of AMR and APPS2SD packages - sdcard\tmp\rescue.updater) at the root of internal memory and boot into recovery mode.

In all cases if you are using Windows - you need to install INF file for serial gadget.

To tell you the truth - I am not really sure I could explain your desire to do all that given the level of your knowledge and understanding. You could brick the device easily and all of this is totally unnecessary for "am trying to root it". Normally you just install AMR follwing WiKi instructions and you got yourself fully functional and rooted device.

[benze]

Originally Posted by rupor

@benze
Testing mode is an app (or set of apps)
Recovery mode is a special boot used in recovery and upgrade process of the device.

Ahhh - thanks for the clarification. I didn't realize that there were two terms being used.

To tell you the truth - I am not really sure I could explain your desire to do all that given the level of your knowledge and understanding. You could brick the device easily and all of this is totally unnecessary for "am trying to root it". Normally you just install AMR follwing WiKi instructions and you got yourself fully functional and rooted device.

Well, to be honest, right now I just wanted to make a clean image of the unit as it came out of the box so that if I ever wanted to restore a clean version of it, I would have a full image I could dd back to the device. However, I need to be able to get access to the unit via serial to do a dd (or RoadKill, etc), and from what I can tell, the only way was when in Recovery Mode. Which according to the Russian Translated page, was using the recovery-firmware on the microSD.

Of course, putting the firmware on the microSD makes things significantly safer; if ever you screw up, pop the SD and it should boot clean.

But I guess what I still don't understand is if both recovery mode and test mode are both built in, why do I need separate firmware? Is there no way to reboot the device into either recovery or test mode without making any changes to the device's files?

Thanks for the info! I'm new but learning quick.

Thanks,

Eric

[rupor]

I do not think Sony expected people to make backups - that should answer the why question. So if you want unmodified device - use SD card. Makes sense?

[uboot]

@brenze: For recovery mode you need 2 things: a recovery kernel and a recovery root file system.

Recovery kernel is installed on all stock readers.

But recovery root file system is not.

Either it can be in a file in internal memory - by rooting this gets installed automatically - or you need a special update.img file on external sd card. SD rescue works like that, but SD rescue image is not appropriate if you want to enter recovery console. You need a special update.img file that only provides console access via USB serial connection, but in contrast to sd rescue images does not format internal memory, etc.


So what we need to enter recovery console on un-rooted devices is either

* A special file that has to be put into internal memory (like rescue.updater mentioned by rupor) or
* A special recovery sd card image (like http://sonyfmngr.sourceforge.net/Rel...upor-rescue.7z)

I also think it is possible to boot a complete android image via sd card update.img! But I haven't tried that yet.

Please correct me if I am wrong...

Wiki article has been updated: https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/PRST...covery_Console

[bookp]

Please try to create a complete Android image, if you find the time and motivation. It might help people like me whose Reader is bricked but still checks for SD cards.

[uboot]

I don't see the point - if your reader checks sd card as you said, then it is able to boot into recovery mode and you should be able to apply one my sd recovery images as well as do it manually via rupors recovery sd card image.

Maybe it didn't work for you because the reader doesn't like your sd card - try another one and try to format from within the reader via settings menu before copying sd recue onto it.

[ebmr]

Originally Posted by uboot

@brenze: For recovery mode you need 2 things: a recovery kernel and a recovery root file system.

Thanks for your information that cleared things up, but what kind of file is rescue.updater now? A ramdisk image or a kernel module? So it seems that the recovery kernel (on the device) would look for the file rescue.updater to be available.

Another question, just curious: Where does rescue.updater come from? Are sources available?

EDIT: It seems that first of all rescue.updater is OpenSSL encrypted. Does anyone know what encryption method and what key to decrypt?

EDIT2: The same questions apply to PRST1 Updater.package.