PW1 Brick Recovery - Rescue Pack installed, stuck on Tree/Logo Screen

[AirRaven]

Hey,

This is, obviously, self-inflicted - I was attempting to install the Screensaver Hack's Python package on my (downgraded) 5.3.9 Paperwhite 1 using MRPackageInstaller, and the installation process hung for upward of ten minutes - having taken leave of my senses, I decided to force-reboot the Kindle at that point to try and escape that process.

The result's that my Kindle's now hanging on the Kindle Logo/Tree screen with a spinning progress wheel underneath it - with no progress beyond that. I've already tried discharging/fully recharging my battery- obviously, that wouldn't have helped in this case, but it cropped up in every prior thread I could find as the first thing that ought to be tried.

I'd just installed the Rescue Pack package a single reboot before this happened, and I was hoping to be able to activate that - but the Kindle doesn't show up as an accessible drive in Windows Explorer. It's clearly recognised as a USB Storage device, and shows up in Explorer as a grayed-out drive, but attempting to open it doesn't seem to make anything happen. Thus, I've no immediately obvious way of getting into Diags mode/forcing a factory reset, since they require the ability to push files to the device to activate.

However, since something is being recognised at the other end of the USB link, I went and booted into Linux to check some logs. Here's the output of /var/log/syslog upon plugging in the Kindle:

Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu kernel: [  600.398194] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu kernel: [  600.532601] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1949, idProduct=0004
Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu kernel: [  600.532611] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu kernel: [  600.532617] usb 1-1: Product: Amazon Kindle
Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu kernel: [  600.532622] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Amazon
Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu kernel: [  600.532626] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: B0241502247402Q0
Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu kernel: [  600.536671] usb-storage 1-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu kernel: [  600.537055] scsi host10: usb-storage 1-1:1.0
Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 7: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:04:00.0/usb1/1-1"
Aug  4 20:04:07 ubuntu mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 7 was not an MTP device
Aug  4 20:04:08 ubuntu kernel: [  601.536494] scsi 10:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kindle   Internal Storage 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Aug  4 20:04:08 ubuntu kernel: [  601.537770] sd 10:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
Aug  4 20:04:08 ubuntu kernel: [  601.546385] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
Aug  4 20:04:08 ubuntu systemd-udevd[4074]: error: /dev/sdc: No medium found

Is there any way forward possible here without a serial cable? Perhaps a way of forcing it to mount the device manually?

I mean, I'm probably out of luck here given the nature of what caused this in the first place- but it would be nice to know for certain.

[NiLuJe]

If nothing ends up showing up as a usable USBMS device (which happens, depending on the timing/extent of the damage), you're probably out of luck.

The Coward's Rescue Pack might have helped, but, then again, maybe not, because, even with a hard-reboot such as this one, that shouldn't have screwed things up to that extent (*especially* in the case of Python, since that doesn't even ever touch the rootfs, so, all MrPi did was mount it rw & sync it, which should be pretty harmless), which, to me, has a slight whiff of hardware wonkyness. That, and the fact that you never ever hit the 'Your Kindle Needs Repair' screen, too.

Unlike hard-rebooting during a factory update, which *will* definitely screw things up, most of our custom packages should be pretty forgiving, barring external issues. (Not that I'd recommend doing hard-reboots just for fun, but, in this case, shouldn't have torn the house down :/).

See what @knc1 will have to say about the hardware side of things, .

[knc1]

Corrupted USB storage area.
Put it on a wall charger (**NOT** a PC - a wall charger - it makes a difference - the file system recovery can not run while the area is connected to a PC) -
Let it sit there and run until it fully recovers the USB file system.

Note: The above may take days - so just leave it alone.

[AirRaven]

Originally Posted by knc1

Corrupted USB storage area.
Put it on a wall charger (**NOT** a PC - a wall charger - it makes a difference - the file system recovery can not run while the area is connected to a PC) -
Let it sit there and run until it fully recovers the USB file system.

Note: The above may take days - so just leave it alone.

Ah! That's what it's doing?

If that's the case, I'll try leaving it plugged in for a week or so. If I don't see much progress by then, I'll have to admit defeat.

Appreciate the heads-up there! At least it's cause for hope.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by AirRaven

Ah! That's what it's doing?

If that's the case, I'll try leaving it plugged in for a week or so. If I don't see much progress by then, I'll have to admit defeat.

Appreciate the heads-up there! At least it's cause for hope.

Of course I am only guessing, but read this recent thread (still on the first page of the index):
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=262862

The thing that I am going by is that storage device discovery has found the "faked" USB storage media, but that the file system discovery has not (yet) been run.

Considering how the automation is set up -
The Kindle is programmed to rebuild /mnt/us when/if errors are detected;

A reasonable explanation is that the storage media does not have an error free file system on it (or any file system at all).

Plus, this is an PW-1 (I.E: An older machine), lots more opportunities to develop bad blocks in the flash storage.
And if you where just hit by an OTA update to 5.6.1.1 (which involves some big files) -
now is when the storage hardware problems would be found.

[AirRaven]

Originally Posted by knc1

Of course I am only guessing, but read this recent thread (still on the first page of the index):
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=262862

The thing that I am going by is that storage device discovery has found the "faked" USB storage media, but that the file system discovery has not (yet) been run.

Considering how the automation is set up -
The Kindle is programmed to rebuild /mnt/us when/if errors are detected;

A reasonable explanation is that the storage media does not have an error free file system on it (or any file system at all).

Plus, this is an PW-1 (I.E: An older machine), lots more opportunities to develop bad blocks in the flash storage.
And if you where just hit by an OTA update to 5.6.1.1 (which involves some big files) -
now is when the storage hardware problems would be found.

In this case, I'd just used this trick to downgrade from 5.6.1.1 to 5.3.9 - the first thing I did after jailbreaking was install and activate Backdoor Lock, without ever turning on Wi-fi - I'd be surprised if it had even had a chance to download the update. I do wonder if that particular downgrade process not have introduced some problems, though- suppose being the guinea pig for this sort of thing can't hurt if that process broke something.

For clarification, as well - I was using MRPackageInstaller to install the Python package and Screensaver Hack package at the same time, queued up - I assume that it was the Python package that caused it to hang, since the display stuck on that package's installation screen at the point where things screwed up.

But, yes. That thread looks exactly like the problem I'm experiencing right now- very reassuring! I'll report back if it works, in case anyone runs across this thread in the future looking for a solution.

Thanks!

[knc1]

Originally Posted by AirRaven

In this case, I'd just used this trick to downgrade from 5.6.1.1 to 5.3.9 -
- - - -

It is good to hear independent confirmation of that "HowTo" post.
Nice to know that there isn't an inadvertent deadly typo or missing step.

Although be sure to post an update here if you find a definite problem with the procedure.
Our readers are our best Q.A. staff.

- - - - -

After these messages:

Aug  4 20:04:08 ubuntu kernel: [  601.536494] scsi 10:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kindle   Internal Storage 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Aug  4 20:04:08 ubuntu kernel: [  601.537770] sd 10:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
Aug  4 20:04:08 ubuntu kernel: [  601.546385] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
Aug  4 20:04:08 ubuntu systemd-udevd[4074]: error: /dev/sdc: No medium found

You should be able to copy whatever is on the storage media with:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=brokeUSB.bin bs=4096

That will be a big file, the entire USB storage area.

But if the problem can be found in the MBR, Partition table, or Directory, then adding a count=32 to the above command should capture all of that.

If you have the disk space on your Linux machine, it might be instructive to keep a copy of whatever it is that has the machine caught in a 'fix-up' loop.

If you have the time and space to do the above, PM me, I can give you a place to sftp it to where NiLuJe and I can look at it.

- - - -

IIRC - the dmesg stopping at that point means the drive was detected, but no partition table could be found by the FAT32 driver.
But we have forensic tools that can determine the contents without the aid of the partition table (and/or directory) in the file you create from it.

[NiLuJe]

IIRC, that's also what happens when volumd hasn't yet come up or is being obtuse, so there's another layer of software wonkyness in the layers of stuff potentially going wrong .

Another thing to take into account: there's also the collection db schema changes between major FW versions that do *NOT* handle downgrades well. Although my guess is, that would have caused an issue later in the boot process, but, still.

[knc1]

With that funky FUSE set-up, there are probably a lot of things that could result in not being able to see the media on the device.

One of the reasons I would like to see what is really on the storage medium while the start-up is misbehaving.

Even having a "can't read it now" result might tell something.

[AirRaven]

Originally Posted by knc1

You should be able to copy whatever is on the storage media with:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=brokeUSB.bin bs=4096

That will be a big file, the entire USB storage area.

But if the problem can be found in the MBR, Partition table, or Directory, then adding a count=32 to the above command should capture all of that.

If you have the disk space on your Linux machine, it might be instructive to keep a copy of whatever it is that has the machine caught in a 'fix-up' loop.

If you have the time and space to do the above, PM me, I can give you a place to sftp it to where NiLuJe and I can look at it.

Just gave it a try. No luck, unfortunately:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdc of=/media/ubuntu/DED5-B8A5/KindleBak/brokeUSB.bin bs=4096
dd: failed to open ‘/dev/sdc’: No medium found

Edit: Identical result with count=32 appended, as well. I don't expect there'll be much luck there, by the look of things.

A glance at the thread linked earlier with a similar issue suggests that leaving my Kindle plugged in for the next month or so is the best option - I'll be leaving it like that, worst case.

In the meantime, I guess it's a chance to go back to my old Kindle 3. I've missed actual page-turn buttons. Appreciate the help given so far!

[AirRaven]

The Kindle's been charging/running for five days so far, with no luck - I'll be leaving it for another week out of curiosity, but I suspect that the situation isn't salvagable.

I don't suppose there's a specific model of serial adaptor that I could try going for (purchasable in the UK), is there? Quite curious about trying to get serial access now, after all this fuss- it's a fraction of the cost of a new Kindle, and having the ability to unbrick it again in the future if I screw about too much would be worth the investment. I've seen a few around, but I worry I might not be able to get something with the right voltage and accidentally fry the circuit.

Apologies for asking something that's been asked countless times before, but it's not immediately clear what model of cable would be necessary elsewhere, particularly for the PW1!

[knc1]

The missing connector info:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=228044
Although mounting the connector is easier, making up the mating cable end without the help of a robot is next to impossible.

The cable info:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=170566
FTDI has distributors on your side of the pond - just search for the cable by name.