K4 How I bricked and unbricked my K4

[Rauhfell]

This is my second Post in this Forum an I want to share my experiences with bricking and UNBRICKING my kindle 4NT. Yes, I unbricked it, and it couldn`t have been done without the magnificent information and resources provided by this forum. A huge thanks for that.
Because I am a total idiot in technical things and programming I ran into several main obstacles. I guess, reading so many posts of desperate Brick-Owners, it is nonetheless worth sharing my solution to solve some of these problems.
Because: I did it! I unbricked the otherwise dead and frozen kindle 4. This is my story.
It has two parts, because there were all in all two major projects I got involved in, first resulting in bricking the kindle, second in revive it. If you are only interested in the UNBRICKING-solution, jump forward to read Part 2 (one minor exception though: in Part one you may find it interesting to read how to connect to your kindle via USB-Network (Point 5), a procedure that also comes into play in Part 2)

Part one: Bricking the Kindle 4

1. I wanted to rebuild the wonderful „Literary Clock Made From E-reader“, introduced and provided with all the resources by tjaap on instructables (https://www.instructables.com/Litera...From-E-reader/)
2. Therefore I jailbroke my kindle and installed the usbnet hack (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=88004) - always make sure you install the right packages for your specific version of the kindle
3. worked like a charme
4. of tremendous help installing the resources of the above mentioned litclock was this video by 1informatica (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HflHaklYDWg)
5. Here is the one point though of the entire, usually selfexplenatory process worth mentioning: How to connect your Computer via USB-Network to your kindle. (I spent days to understand this process - and you really have to understand it): When you establish a usb-network with your Kindle you have to actively distribute its IP-addresses: one to your computer and one to your kindle. The word IP-adress might make you think of Internet, server, blablabla. But in this case it is completely irrelevant what your computer does in the Internet, what WIFI— or Ethernet-Connection it has established. Just focus on the miraculously established USB-Ethernet connection that appears after you have (installed the USBnet-hack and) done these prompts on the Kindle 4: „;debugOn“, then „~usbNetwork“, then „;debugOff“. After you have given these prompts, there is - in any OS - a new USB-network-connection established, usually called: „RNDIS/Ethernet Gadget“. I have done this in Windows, in two Linuxes and in several Mac OSXes. It worked and the following process is always the same: You have to edit this newly established connection MANUALLY (this is an option in all OSses) and give it for my kindle 4 (it’s different from Kindle 3!) these IP-addresses: 192.168.15.201 for your Computer-Ip-address, 255.255.255.0 as netmask and 192.168.15.244 as Router/Gateway, which is your kindle. Again: This only affects this particularly USB-Network and is completely independent of your computers Internet- and Router-settings. But you have to do it, otherwise you cannot reach your kindle. (It took me a while to comprehend this.)
6. Now you can - with „putty“, in windows and linux, with „Terminal“ in MAC OSX, use this „RNDIS/Ethernet Gadget“-connection to login into your Kindle. Login as „root“, password is - always, I guess - „mario"
7. I followed the instructions of 1nformatica (see above) to insert the right files into the right places.
8. Nothing happened!
9. I DID’NT know and STILL DON’t know how to start the literature clock on a kindle 4, which has no physical keyboard to push buttons.
10. What I did: I used the USB-Network-connection to the kindle, navigated via Terminal to the „timelit“-directory created by me (where the files of the literature-clock now were) and executed „startstopclock“-sh-file with the sh-command.
11. Kernel-Panic!!
12. This is how I broke my kindle 4. It ended up in a spontaneous Reboot and was then stuck with the „Amazon-Screen“: „Your Kindle needs repair, contact the Amazon-support!“ I always could reboot, but I always landed there.

Part two: Unbricking the Kindle 4

1. I discovered KUBRICK
2. I downloaded the two necessary files necessary to flash an USB-Stick: One to actually flash it ( kubrick-usb-base.zip), one „boot.iso“, that contains the Kubrick-Program. Last one is simply inserted into the already flashed USB-Stick.
3. I worked on a MAC and used BalenaEtcher to flash the USB-Stick. This free program (https://etcher.balena.io/) is usually used by me to flash a stick for the Raspberry-Pi-OS.
4. Worked like a charme
5. when I inserted the flashed USB-Stick to my Mac and made it booted I got stuck with a message that „Kubrick“ cannot boot on several Macs. „Be patient“, it said, but nothing else happened.
6. I called the cavalry! Meaning: I involved, all in all, 4 different Macs of all ages, one Windows-Machine, two Linux-Machines (which were actually on partititions of the Windows-PC).
7. On all Macs (Intel, with and without Bootcamp installed, M1-Chip) I got stuck with the Kubrick-„Be patient“-Message. Same on the Windows-Machine.
8. I started up Linux: Pop_Os and investigated the „boot.iso“-file of Kubrick. Meaning: I unpacked it into a fresh folder. Most of the files there covered the boot-Process of the USB-Stick, but one folder, labeled „Kubrick" contained a „Kubrick.sh“.
9. I am still in Pop_os. I started Kubrick.sh in a terminal with: „sh ./install Kubrick.sh“.
10. Boom!
11. Worked. I now followed the instructions given in Kubrick. They are fully self-explanatory. It installed the Diags-System
12. But it always got stuck, when Kubrick waited for the USBNet-connection to my kindle to establish. I did it several times, always got stuck.
13. I switched to Kubuntu, did all the same, but always got stuck with a USB-connection that could not be established.
14. I switched back to Pop_Os.
15. Tried the same, got stuck. The Network-Connection-Manager of Pop_Os always disclaimed a broken USB-Connection.
16. But investigating the Network settings of Pop_os while running Kubrick (waiting for the USB-connection that never happened) I discovered that a USB-Net has actually been established.
17. Knowing what I know of Part One, Point 5 of my story above, I manually edited this network-connection with the Ip-addresses and Gateway-information necessary.
18. Boom!
19. I installed putty with „apt install putty“ and I could putty into my Kindle with the usual credentials as root.
20. Now I did several things, e.g. I emptied the var/local and even put an empty file Do_Factory_Restore with „touch" in the root directory. This all, while running Kubrick was „waiting for USB-Network“ and the Kindle showing the Diags-System.
21. I disconnected my kindle from the computer and forced it into a reboot.
22. Bam!
23. I got my kindle running, fresh like new, no books, no jailbreak, nothing on it anymore. Just the firmware of it was still the 4.1.4. Apart from that it was like new, meaning, I had to set Language, Wifi, Amazon-account again.
24. BTW: the old Kindle cannot handle Amazon`s new method of logging in, meaning, with your password alone you cannot connect, and there is no field to insert the 6-digits Verification Code that you receive on your phone, when you try. What succeeds is that you enter your password again and give the six digits you received on your phone without space behind your password.
25. Boom, Bang, Boom: My Kindle is running.

BUT I STILL DON’t KNOW HOW TO START THE LITERATURE CLOCK WITHOUT A PHYSICAL KEYBOARD ON MY KINDLE.
That was my story so far. Greetings and thx to this Forum for your wonderful support, even if you don’t know you supported. A lot. I give you that.

[avni]

just want to mention Balena etcher kills drives sometimes use a diffrent software

[Rauhfell]

Might be. Never had problems though - and we are talking about flashing a 2Gb Usb-Stick, a loss I could survive.