help me get out of fastboot kindle nontouch please

[yifanlu]

Please do not touch fastboot if you do not know enough about it. I don't even know enough about it, therefore I haven't messed with it. Last time I heard, Kindle's fastboot is implemented incorrectly and none of the options work. However, I have not confirmed it for myself because I have a working Kindle that I don't want to destroy.

[geekmaster]

I do not understand it well yet either.

I think fastboot mode is different from USB/HID mode. I downloaded a Windows command-line tool from freescale that lets me push code from host PC into kindle RAM when it is in USB/HID mode, and execute that code. Their example shows using uboot.bin.

fastboot is more for flashing new firmware without needed signed update packages.

AFAIK.

yifanlu is welcome to correct me here.

[giorgio130]

Hi all! I can confirm the binary I shared is for 64 bit installs. As I said I didn't test that though cos I don't have a new Kindle. So I can't help, sorry...

[B164D]

OK, let me give some feedback on this. I was using a 32-bit Ubuntu 11.10 which gave the error above. Thank you to geekmaster for telling me I needed a 64 bit version. I made a cd for ubuntu-10.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso got it running, from the cd, on my son's Dinopc Gallant AMD 955 with CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition with Motherboard: Asus M4A87TD USB3. The Kindle was connected to the computer with the cable supplied with the Kindle. I extracted fastboot to the Ubuntu folder, since I couldn't copy it into the home folder. I opened up a terminal and the dialogue was as follows:-

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo ./fastboot setvar bootmode main
setting 'bootmode' to 'main'...
bootmode main:
finished. total time: 0.013s
ubuntu@ubunt:~$

The screen on the Kindle then changed to the low battery warning screen. I disconnected the kindle from the computer and put it on charge at the mains. A few minutes later and the screensaver showed up and I was able to use it again. It's exactly as it was before I enabled fastboot.

giorgio130, thank you, your program works. This should help a lot of bricked Kindles come back to life. Would it be possible to compile it to work on 32-bit machines?

[geekmaster]

How do I get fastboot to see my kindle?

When I plug it in and turn it on, VirtualBox sees it as "Freescale...Blank CODEX [0001]", and 64-bit Ubuntu sees it as "/dev/bus/usb/001/005x" (the x is increments each time I power on the kindle".

I am trying to use the fastboot from giorgio130 above.

fastboot just sits "<waiting for device>".

I want to write the idme vars that got trashed by a diags glitch.

What should I do here?

[B164D]

Although I could "see" the Kindle in Puppy's HardInfo and Win7's Device Manager showed it as faulty I couldn't see it as a usb drive. I didn't need to do anything to help giorgio130's fastboot program "see" the Kindle. It just worked. After connecting the Kindle to the computer the led on the Kindle had come on a steady amber. I pressed the on/off button until it went out then released the button - the led immediately came back on. I don't know if that's important but I opened up a terminal after doing that. I also wonder if this would have worked if the Kindle's battery had been completely discharged.

[geekmaster]

I wonder if this is another Ubuntu issue. I got this "<waiting for device>" message on a working kindle with yifanlu's fastboot for kindle also.

My ubuntu 64 (linux mint 11) hardinfo does not show the kindle. virtualbox sees it, and xp in a vm sees it as a USB/HID device.

I am curious just how fastboot knows which USB device to use -- or is this some kind of HID device like in Windows?

Do I need to install a HID driver or something, like I did in Windows?

Here are compiled fastboot programs for 32-bit linux, osx 10, and Windows:
http://koushikdutta.blurryfox.com/G1/

At least Windows sees it as a proper usb/hid device...

EDIT: I had to install a bunch of crap from the android sdk just to get a missing dll. Now that the windows fastboot is running, the kindle USB/HID device disappears about 1 second after a reboot. Must be a dead battery.

Will this thing take a charge in this mode? The new kindles do not seem to charge in usbnet or usbd drive mode, so perhaps usb hid mode also does not charge. It was plugged in overnight and the LED did not go green.

[giorgio130]

It's not "my" fastboot program, I just compiled yifanlu's code and shared the binary if someone wants to make a 32 bit version I also shared the compile command some posts ago! geekmaster I'd try and see if something changes using a liveCD (or liveUSB for what matters) instead of Virtualbox... Glad it worked for B164D!

[yifanlu]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

How do I get fastboot to see my kindle?

When I plug it in and turn it on, VirtualBox sees it as "Freescale...Blank CODEX [0001]", and 64-bit Ubuntu sees it as "/dev/bus/usb/001/005x" (the x is increments each time I power on the kindle".

I am trying to use the fastboot from giorgio130 above.

fastboot just sits "<waiting for device>".

I want to write the idme vars that got trashed by a diags glitch.

What should I do here?

You are either in USB download mode or fastboot mode. Not both. If you're in USB download mode, the fastboot tool is of no use. It's named fastboot tool not USB download tool. If you're in fastboot mode, you need to install the fastboot drivers on windows. (don't ask me. I don't use windows).

[geekmaster]

I do not understand the difference between fastboot and usb hid mode. How are they activated, and how can I tell the difference?

This is one of those things I am kinda "noobish" at.

I got the AdbWinApi.dll "driver" from the android sdk. The cooglecode fastboot.exe works now, but my kindle battery seems to be mostly dead now. It does not seem to be charging in this mode. I had it plugged into an adapter overnight.

TIA.

[yifanlu]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

I do not understand the difference between fastboot and usb hid mode. How are they activated, and how can I tell the difference?

This is one of those things I am kinda "noobish" at.

I got the AdbWinApi.dll "driver" from the android sdk. The cooglecode fastboot.exe works now, but my kindle battery seems to be mostly dead now. It does not seem to be charging in this mode. I had it plugged into an adapter overnight.

TIA.

If fastboot can see your device, then you're in fastboot mode. The only way of getting into fastboot is writing "fastboot" into the bootmode var of IDME. This is either using the "idme" command from a shell, in uboot, or in fastboot itself. The diags menu allow has an option "reboot into fastboot" which does this for you, and that is the cause of OP's problem. Because once the "bootmode" var is written, it is in the MMC and doesn't "reset" on boot.

[geekmaster]

It is in USB/HID mode. I suppose that the only realistic way to recover this is by using the JTAG interface (4 small pads near the CPU).

The serial port is an unpopulated printed connector outline at the board edge, near the bottom. The GND pad at the top looks different from the others. RxD is the center pad. TxD is the bottom pad. It looks like that connector for the Touch would fit here. The pin spacing was identical to the wire spacing on an old 4-pin IDE cable. I peeled off a strip of 3 wires, and without separating them, I stripped and solder-tinned the ends, then clipped them to about 1 mm of wire showing. I added a little extra solder to the serial pads on the board, then touched the 3 wires to the pads and touched them with my hot soldering iron to bond the wires to the pads. I also used my 2-resistor and 3-diode level shifter circuit to make my usb serial adapter work with my k4nt. It allowed me to see the error message about serial number = "1" and board ID = "1" and u-boot "bailed!" because it cannot init ram on an unknown board type.

Some day when I want to learn more about JTAG, the 4 pads near the CPU will need to be investigated.

[thatworkshop]

Just to revive this interesting thread, could anyone finally run fastboot to change idme?

[geekmaster]

On my k4nt, I no longer have working serial RxD, so I cannot type any commands in uboot or bist. Instead, I force commands using custom u-boot images, that I run in USB Recovery mode (USB HID).

In particular, I have a u-boot that sets fastboot mode. When I reboot into fastboot mode, I can change idme vars, flash partitions, etc.

From fastboot, I successfully flashed a linux kernel and then was able to boot to diags mode, where I can get SSH.

Unfortunately, some bug in diags or in my hardware occasionally (4 times so far) makes the next boot think it "found" a packet of idme vars that needs to be flashed. After flashing, all the idme vars are "1" again, and it cannot boot. On this k4, diags mode is not stable.

But, I was able to boot into diags mode more than once after fixing the bad idme vars.

So now I know enough about USB (HID) Recovery and fastboot to at least use both of them to get into Diags mode and get SSH, even when this k4 is pretty horribly bricked (bad idme vars AND bad linux kernel AND no serial RxD).

So, it is yielding to my will (due mostly to extreme effort). But I am learning...

I still have to find out where the dastardly "malformed idme var flash packet" is hiding and kill it, so it stops killing my idme vars.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

I still have to find out where the dastardly "malformed idme var flash packet" is hiding and kill it, so it stops killing my idme vars.

I think I killed the "bad flash packet". I zeroed out all the "user" partitions and let the kindle rebuild them on next bootup. I copied the main and diag partitions, and main and diag linux kernels, from my good k4nt to my bricked k4nt. All worked but registration with amazon. After an amazon tech reassociated my serial number and wifi MAC address, registration worked and all is well. Now that it is upgraded to 4.0.1, I have not seen any more MMC corruption problems.

I am working on a tool to automate and simplify this repair procedure. Read more here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...48&postcount=4