Unable to update Kindle Keyboard to 3.4

[CapnGoat]

Hello everyone,

Amazon released Kindle Software 3.4 today and I wanted to update my Kindle Keyboard 3G (US/B006). The update however failed with a U007 error.

I've been using Duokan on my Kindle for about a year and was very happy with its custom screensavers that didn't require a jailbreak but about half a year ago I became greedy I wanted to have those custom screensavers on my normal Kindle OS, too. I also read this interesting article on how to install Luigi Rizzo's standalone Kindle terminal and decided to give it a try.

I jailbroke my Kindle with the 0.10.N jailbreak. I installed the USBNetwork and then the ScreenSaver hack (I'm not sure what version any of those were at the time), the latter, I believe, failed but my greed wasn't big enough to figure out how to fix that, I was already nervous enough to jailbreak my Kindle in the first place.

A few weeks later I realized that the jailbreak had disabled my 3G card. I'm very dependent on the 3G functionality in my Kindle Keyboard and thus uninstalled the USBNetwork hack and the jailbreak. 3G worked again and I thought that was it.

And today, as I said in the beginning, Amazon released Kindle Software Update 3.4, which I tried to install but it failed with a U007 error.

I figured something must have not worked correctly with the jailbreak uninstall. I downloaded the 0.10.N jailbreak and tried to uninstall whatever was left on my Kindle. I got another U007 error. I tried to install the jailbreak but got a yet another U007 error.

I removed Duokan, made a factory reset on my Kindle and tried again and again. I also tried just restarting with the un/install .bin on my Kindle but just got an "Update Error: 3" message, which didn't bring me any closer to solving this problem.

I've been searching for a few hours now and all I could find were suggestions to reinstall the jailbreak (which I'm trying but it fails), making sure I install the correct jailbreak (k3g-3.2.1, still failing) and emptying the fonts folder (I never touched the fonts hack, therefore I don't have a fonts folder).

The "Update Error: 3" search brought me to a few tutorials on how to debrick a Kindle. My Kindle itself works perfectly fine, it's just unable to update its software. I wouldn't call that a bricked Kindle. Besides, restarting the Kindle with the un/install .bin on it was bound to fail, as I've read in other threads.

I'm stumped. Could anyone of you kind souls help me?

[krzyk]

I had the same problem yesterday. I ended up doing this:
- Uninstall Duokan
- Uninstall hacks (USBNetwork, Fonts, ScreenSavers etc.)
- Uninstall Jailbreak using latest uninstaller
- Backup all my books (to Calibre)
- Do a factory reset
- Update to 3.4 (finally worked!)
- Recover books from Calibre

I was hoping that I can avoid factory reset, but unfortunately nothing else worked for me.
One thing different from yours is the fact that during my fight I have installed the latest jailbreak again (previously I had an old jailbreak which I uninstalled to no avail). Maybe try to install latest JB and one of the hack to confirm that JB is there, and then uninstall it and redo the factory reset.

[CapnGoat]

Originally Posted by krzyk

Maybe try to install latest JB and one of the hack to confirm that JB is there, and then uninstall it and redo the factory reset.

That's exactly what I've been trying to do. But it always fails to install the jailbreak. I already tried 0.11.N (which, as far as I can tell, is the current jailbreak version) but haven't had any luck with it either.

The Kindle doesn't have a jailbreak installed at the moment. I'd argue to call it a vanilla Kindle despite its weird jailbroken-like behavior because I did uninstall the jailbreak, as I mentioned, a few months ago and by that definition it should be a vanilla Kindle once more.

I will try to do a few more factory resets, in hope it will fix whatever is making my head hurt.

[Helgetus]

The jailbreak is not the problem but one or several hack. Mine had SS, font and Keaboard hack installed. I uninstalled everything and the jailbreak. Only the keyboard hack would have been enough.
After that the update installed and I had to load the new jailbreak. Look for the jailbreak version 3.2.2!

[CapnGoat]

Originally Posted by Helgetus

The jailbreak is not the problem but one or several hack.

As per your suggestion, I downloaded the uninstaller for the USBNetwork and ScreenSavers hacks, the only two hacks that I had installed once (the latter failed to install though), but these, too, ended in U007 errors.

Originally Posted by Helgetus

Look for the jailbreak version 3.2.2!

The only current jailbreak I'm able to find is version 0.11.N with the 3.2.1 suffix (update_jailbreak_0.11.N_k3g-3.2.1_install). Are you sure you meant 3.2.2?

The factory resets don't seem to work either. The Kindle Software 3.4 update keeps failing with that mocking U007 error.

[dwig]

Have you confirmed that there are no books being indexed?

I don't know about v3.4, but the earlier updates would fair if there was an indexing process running in the background.

[CapnGoat]

Originally Posted by dwig

Have you confirmed that there are no books being indexed?

After the factory reset I'm left with the 2 default dictionaries (Oxford and New Oxford American) as well as the "Kindle User's Guide, 3rd Ed.". I had previously backed up my books that I had stored on the Kindle and haven't moved them back yet.

As far as my search, for what indexing would look like on a Kindle, conducts indexing would only happen after registering/setting up the Kindle. After the factory reset I decided not to do that until I found a way to update to 3.4 because I assumed that along the way I would be asked to make factory resets multiple times. Reregistering every time would be a very tedious task.

I will register my Kindle now and see if the update requires a registered Kindle to work. If that is in fact the case, I'd be surprised that Amazon would do such a thing.

Edit: Just as I suspected, registering didn't change anything either. I still end up with the U007 error.

[NiLuJe]

@CapnGoat: Because you did a factory reset.

Put the linkjail folder from the latest version back on your Kindle manually. Restart your Kindle. Uninstall your stuff.

If the official update still fails after that, (which wouldn't surprise me given the crap^Wstuff you had installed), check the logs (;dumpMessages) right after the official update.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by CapnGoat

...
As far as my search, for what indexing would look like on a Kindle, conducts indexing would only happen after registering/setting up the Kindle. ...

The indexing I am referring to is the word search index creation that the Kindle does every time a new book is added and every time a change is made to the "My Clippings.txt" file (e.g. setting a manual bookmark, adding a note, ...). To tell if there is a background indexing process ongoing you simply do a Search from the Home screen, searching for some unfindable string (e.g. "qwqwqw", ...). The Kindle will, after a pause, report the number of hits (zero in this case) and will note the number of as yet unindexed documents.

If a number other than zero unindexed documents is reported highlight that number and click to get a list of the unindexed documents. Delete these documents before attempting a firmware update.

[CapnGoat]

Originally Posted by dwig

To tell if there is a background indexing process ongoing you simply do a Search from the Home screen, searching for some unfindable string (e.g. "qwqwqw", ...). The Kindle will, after a pause, report the number of hits (zero in this case) and will note the number of as yet unindexed documents.

This was the result that I received:

Search Results: All 0 Items
No Items

There was no mention of any unindexed documents nor was there something along the lines of "0 unindexed documents". I conclude that I don't have any unindexed documents on my Kindle.

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Put the linkjail folder from the latest version back on your Kindle manually. Restart your Kindle. Uninstall your stuff.

You said to "put the linkjail folder back". I never had the folder on my Kindle in the first place (as far as I know) but I put it on there now and followed your suggestion. The result, unfortunately, stays the same: U007.

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

If the official update still fails after that, (which wouldn't surprise me given the crap^Wstuff you had installed), check the logs (;dumpMessages) right after the official update.

The log ;dumpMessages created is 1.5mb big. I found a repeating line "Battery sufficient for update (43%)" and cut at the second-to-last instance of that line, which should be the last 2 updates that I tried (uninstall the jailbreak and install 3.4). I hope this helps.

[NiLuJe]

@CapnGoat: Yup, you never had a linkjail folder, true: because you're using Yifan's jailbreak, not mine. Trouble is, it's still installed, but the system seems to be in a slightly (well, more than slightly, actually) broken state, so it's doing stuff wrong.

Restart, and try to uninstall it, then restart again before trying to installing an up to date jailbreak.

And by 'Restart', I do mean a proper full reboot of your device. Unless you messed with your Kindle over SSH, or managed to install two jailbreaks concurrently, that should help clear things up, although it appears to be slightly more dire than that: you should still be able to run custom updates properly.

[CapnGoat]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@CapnGoat: Yup, you never had a linkjail folder, true: because you're using Yifan's jailbreak, not mine.

I could've sworn I installed 0.10.N, not 0.5.1. But since the evidence is apparently on your side I'm not going to question it.

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

Restart, and try to uninstall it, then restart again before trying to installing an up to date jailbreak.

I'm afraid that this didn't work either. Here is the new log.

The first instance of "Battery sufficient" describes an uninstall without prior restart.
The second one describes the restart.
The third one describes my second attempt of uninstalling Yifan's jailbreak, after the restart.
I stopped at this point since the uninstall failed and the next results will just be yet more failures.

[NiLuJe]

@CapnGoat:

Okay, unzip this (emergency.sh) on the root of your Kindle, then restart. That should create a 'jb_emergency.log' file on the root of your Kindle. The content of this file should help determine the extent/cause of the issues, which will then help come up with a way to fix it.

[CapnGoat]

Here is the jb_emergency.log file.

[NiLuJe]

@CapnGoat:

cat: can't open '/etc/uks/*.pem': No such file or directory

That's... bad. But nicely explains why it's utterly broken .

Basically, you need to restore the default /etc/uks folder.

I see that it looks like you still have usbnet installed... That might be easier to investigate/fix over SSH... Put back the usbnet folder from the latest usbnetwork packages to 'revive' it .

I'd be curious as to what is/where the kiterm init script came from, because I don't think luigi's original stuff included one...