H2O not booting

[boriar]

I need some help from experience user on kobo stuff.
I was installing a koboboot.tgz for ramdom screenshot (not the first one i do it) but now my kobo boot and only show a blank white screen with frontlight on and the led is blinking slowly.
I tested with push & hold power button and with pin reset = nothing different.
Also when i connect usb to pc the led left blink but i don't have access because pc don't react to it.
Some ideas?

[tshering]

You might try this. It is not yet a solution, but maybe a place to start.

Edit: Could you point me to the random screenshot KoboRoot.tgz?
Do you know the tapping method? See here.

[boriar]

Originally Posted by tshering

You might try this. It is not yet a solution, but maybe a place to start.

Edit: Could you point me to the random screenshot KoboRoot.tgz?
Do you know the tapping method?

Well, tested but nothing was changed but now when i connect to pc the led remains on. No log, no power off at all.

[tshering]

How about the tapping method? I added a link to post #2.

[boriar]

@tshering
Before anything more, thanks for your time!
I will say all steps i did before all happened:
1. I installed kobo screenshot Screensaver_kobo_glo_3120_v005b (you know it from the other thread) and don't work.
2. I build a koboroot.tgz (see attachment) with the new kobo screenshot by frostschutz and two additional files need restored after the first one: autorun.sh for nightmode and
rcS for KSM.
3. Copy koboroot.tgz in .kobo/ like any other and reboot itself.
4. KSM open and show me "handle update" and i install complete (not partial).
5. Kobo reboot and after a complet screen refresh (white-black-white) it stay blank with the blinking led.

I hope you can do something with that. BTW thanks again for your time.

Originally Posted by tshering

How about the tapping method? I added a link to post #2.

I try the tapping method (where come that method???) but nothing happen

[frostschutz]

1. the tar file in your zip is damaged somehow (tar: A lone zero block at 1230).
2. the files have the wrong permissions/properties (missing executable flag for rcS).

This is very likely to have bricked your device.

I don't think tapping works on the H2O (if it works for you, a short youtube tutorial would be great). Factory reset with the pinhole only works with a working, and unmodified, rcS script when you're still seeing the startup squares (by pressing the reset whenever the squares show up, until it shows the factory reset screen instead).

[tshering]

Originally Posted by boriar

@tshering
I try the tapping method (where come that method???) but nothing happen

Since the rcS script seems not to be executed (or at least not completely), and the tapping magic does not do anything, I guess the only remaining way is to open the device and write a new image to the internal sd.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

1. the tar file in your zip is damaged somehow (tar: A lone zero block at 1230).
2. the files have the wrong permissions/properties (missing executable flag for rcS).

This is very likely to have bricked your device.

Does rcS really need executable flag? I am asking seriously. I am no linux user at all, and have only very limited knowledge about it.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by tshering

Does rcS really need executable flag?

Yes, absolutely; remove it and you get a blank screen with blinking LED. I just tried it (my SD card is accessible through a hole in the back, so I can afford to run such experiments).

All scripts and binaries need the executable flag. There is no failsafe in place for this.

If it's missing you have to take it out, mount it (using a Linux Live CD), and chmod +x the scripts that are missing the flag. In particular you need +x on /bin/busybox (for that matter, everything in /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/sbin really), /linuxrc (should be covered by a symlink to /bin/busybox), and /etc/init.d/rcS (everything in /etc/init.d/ really).

If you have at least that much in place, the Kobo should be able to factory reset itself (unless of course a rcS modification prevents it - I think rcS is too dangerous to modify).

[boriar]

I feared.
So, where're a tutorial to open the h2o? Only get for HD.

Is possible to lose that flag in NTFS? I think it supported this advanced flags.

And question 2: Now i must open my device, is it posible to put a recovery system like i use on my laptop? You know, something like if i push pinhole run recovery partition may be with a factory reset

[frostschutz]

I posted my experience opening it:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=248214 (#40-#46)

Feel free to read the entire thread.

If you open it, the device will no longer be waterproof in any way. Still I think it's preferable to cutting a hole in the back directly which is what I attempted (and failed) to do. If you cut it while the device is closed and you cut too deep, the device is broken for good.

If you have the card in a cardreader, and booted a Linux CD, the commands are something like this:

cat /proc/partitions # find the device with sdx1 sdx2 sdx3 - for example sde
mkdir /mnt/kobo
mount /dev/sde1 /mnt/kobo
chmod +x /mnt/kobo/etc/init.d/*
umount /mnt/kobo

After that put the card back into the device and hit the reset button again...

[tshering]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Yes, absolutely; remove it and you get a blank screen with blinking LED. I just tried it (my SD card is accessible through a hole in the back, so I can afford to run such experiments).

I should have posed my question slightly differently: Have I to set the executable flag or is it enough, if I do nothing to unset it. Since I create the rcS in windows, there is no question of setting the flags. So my understanding was that any file that comes from a different file system gets the x flags automatically set (or maybe not un-set). That would mean that one has to be careful only if one creates the file under linux. Or was I only lucky in the past, and have somehow to take care of this in future.

Edit: I might have wrongly assumed that boriar created his package under windows.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by tshering

Since I create the rcS in windows

It must be set in the tar file. Find a program that lists contents of tar along with their permissions.

$ tar tvf KoboRoot.tgz 
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            7450 2014-12-22 19:44 etc/init.d/rcS

In this example, etc/init.d/rcS is -rw-r--r-- but should be -rwxr-xr-x.

Technically, uid/gid 0/0 is also wrong. Although this should be not critical.

The official firmware looks like this:

-rwxr-xr-x root/root       5187 2014-11-25 21:01 ./etc/init.d/rcS

Paths starting with ./ is also not critical, the files still end up in the same location regardless whether ./ is there or not.

[tshering]

Any file I create in windows and copy to the reader seems to end up with the flags -rwxr-xr-x. This seems to be kind of default value.

[frostschutz]

A default of the programs you use perhaps... if I upload a file with ftp (using ftp server mod) it does not have +x flags. But that depends on the FTP client as well.

If you make your own KoboRoot.tgz without having the means of unbricking, you better double- and triplecheck the resulting tar file before actually putting it on the reader. I've mentioned this before but the Kobo itself does very little in the way of sanity checking. It does not verify that the tar file is intact, nor that the files inside have proper permissions set.