:help: Paperwhite 11th: Fix a series of mistakes

[autogris]

Hi, I'd jailbroke PW 11th (G002DK) succesfully with LanguageBreak on a 5.16.2.1.1 firmware. Everything went smoothly, I'd installed KUAL, MPRI, until I've decided to install USBNetwork and mess with some minor configurations on root filesystem. After rebooting Kindle stops at the last 3% or something of loading bar on boot, then enter a bootloop until finally showing the "Your Kindle Needs Repairing". I can access the mount partition with usb cable during the loading period. Let me explain what exactly I did before rebooting and causing this error:

1. Installed USBNetwork and connected with ssh as root
2. Edited the following files:
* /var/local/java/prefs/geninfo with the following content https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...35&postcount=5
* /usr/share/webkit-1.0/pillow/javascripts/search_bar.js (changed const STORE_ID = 'app://com.lab126.store'; replacing store with browser)
* /var/local/system/locale (changed two instances of en_US.utf8 to en_GB.utf8)
3. Exited ssh session, went to settings menu, device, restart
4. Noticing the bootloop, I've panicked and instead of putting LanguageBreak hotfix binary to try to restore something broken, I've I placed the vanilla 5.16.2.1.1 firmware binary instead. System was "upgraded", there was a little message under the tree *** 5.16.2.x ***, probably from the JB firmware. The bootloop persisted identically, still.
5. Still not thinking clearly I've made a second mistake, I've dropped the jailbreak exploit (dictionary with that shell gawk script and .pem files) into the mount root, without going through the entering demo mode and all the process required in the instructions. Under the tree image shows now *** JAILBREAK ***
6. I've thought, well, maybe changing the locale required me to put the hotfix with the corresponding en_GB. Dropped the LanguageBreak hotfix*en_GB into the mount root. Error message telling it could not be updated. Bootloop again.
6. The error is the same in every single attempt I've described (reboot loop at the last few % of the progress bar)

Can you help me unbricking this? Thanks!

[autogris]

I've had a hard time finding information for Paperwhite 11th specifically, and its not clear to me which models are similar enough to try equivalent solutions, and sometimes the coding scheme for models makes it confusing for newbies like me. Here are some additional points/questions:

* there is no way to boot in some maintenance mode for this model, since it lacks any special partition for recovery, right? So any solution that involves mfgtool/fastboot/dd'ing a vanilla factory partition into the device disk won't be possible.
* since it get stuck at the final process of booting (around 97% or something), I guess it is not all lost, the main components of the system seems to be running before halting.
* my device is not registered, this probably prevents trying to install over a different jailbreak like WinterBreak. Maybe the "fake registration" at geninfo file I've edited before booting turned it into "registered" effectively. Anyway, if possible, jailbreaking over this would make things worse?
* I couldn't seem to find a way to factory reset this model, is there none?
* By having overwritten the LanguageBreak JB with a vanilla firmware have I turned things unfixable? It seems to still be running some LB scripts, as the message with ** at boot time indicate.
* Are there any relevant logs to troubleshoot booting stored at usb mount partition? Couldn't find any, but maybe there is something I missed.

[shamanNS]

If it still exports storage via USB cable you can trigger a factory reset by creating and empty file with filename "DO_FACTORY_RESTORE". If doing that make sure it doesn't add ".txt" extension.

So, create that file at top level of kindle drive > eject > press & hold power button on Kindle for >15 second to force a reboot.

[autogris]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

If it still exports storage via USB cable you can trigger a factory reset by creating and empty file with filename "DO_FACTORY_RESTORE". If doing that make sure it doesn't add ".txt" extension.

Thank you! I was going to try that as the last resort, I've seen it mentioned with different models and was unsure if it applies to my model. Still, I'm interested in understanding better what could have happened here and what other options do I have, specially ones that don't erase my library. I'm new to jailbreaking and kindles altogether, but have a good familiarity with linux systems, maybe understanding a little better things surrounding my model, its unique jb limitations and the situation in general will help me in the future also (for instance, when reinstalling JB, what I shouldn't do again, which of those edits caused the brick or if I missed a step that should have been done when editing filesystem files by ssh)

[Frogm4n]

The fake registration info is from 13 years ago. It's not common to do any more and is likely very, very, out of date. You can just use most Kindles without registering at all. When you get to the part of set up where it has you select a wifi network, hit back, and then a Skip option is available. Select that and it'll just take you to the main UI. A Scribe needs to be registered, but others should be fine without.

[autogris]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

The fake registration info is from 13 years ago. It's not common to do any more and is likely very, very, out of date. You can just use most Kindles without registering at all. When you get to the part of set up where it has you select a wifi network, hit back, and then a Skip option is available. Select that and it'll just take you to the main UI. A Scribe needs to be registered, but others should be fine without.

You are right, I totally missed checking how old these edits suggestions were. I was using jailbroken kindle normally without registration before all this happened, but one thing that bothered me was the missing option of Wikipedia (requires registered device), so I searched for a solution and I found that post, and took the opportunity to change time format to 24h and modify the functionality of the store button to browser, but I guess those too were very old hacks I didn't consider were no longer working and could possibly break the system. Apparently there is no modern way to activate wikipedia without registered devices then.

[shamanNS]

Fake register will not get you working Wikipedia searches anyways (and it never could do that).

[autogris]

Good to know. The thread discussing the hack didn't offered a clear answer if wikipedia would be enabled after this, I thought it would as long wifi was on and updates disabled, but it seems that the requests go through amazon infrastructure itself. Insisting in also changing the locale (for 24h clock format) and changing the store button action would then be a bad idea in PW5, I suppose?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

The fake registration info is from 13 years ago. It's not common to do any more and is likely very, very, out of date.

FWIW, still current in 2020.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=22

[autogris]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

FWIW, still current in 2020.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=22

Here the file is set to read only and immutable, then there is this "restart framework" command. I didn't do anything like that, could this be the cause of my brick? Maybe not issuing a "restart framework" (don't know what it does) put the system in some sort of unclean state at boot time, mismatch some cache at boot... also, I didn't remounted the root filesystem as writable, but strangely all the changes were written back then. Trying to understand what I did wrong in the first place.

[j.p.s]

Setting readonly just prevents the reginfo being removed when wifi is enabled. The restart framework just saves having to reboot.

But doing winterbreak after a fake registration is probably a bad idea since winterbreak requires a real registration.

[autogris]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Setting readonly just prevents the reginfo being removed when wifi is enabled. The restart framework just saves having to reboot.

But doing winterbreak after a fake registration is probably a bad idea since winterbreak requires a real registration.

So restart framework is just the same effect of manually rebooting? I did a little search here and saw it mentioned as necessary on a totally different hack.

I wonder if this edited file being removed by not being turned into read only caused some sort of mismatch with the system state. Anyways, as pointed out early I won't redo that if I get to fix this mess, considering it won't enable Wikipedia, which was the main reason for doing it.

In case no one have the answer on how to fix this mess without factory resetting, I'm still divided if I should try Winterbreak for a more update firmware base, or stick with the assured method of LanguageBreak. Have not seen any downside to WinterBreak, but still not sure, its quite hard to keep track of all conversations here in the forum.

[autogris]

This post (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?t=3658130) suggests me it is a bad idea to reset a jailbroken kindle. I was about to do a DO_FACTORY_RESET method as described here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/ne...eply&p=4482251. Now I'm confused, is it risky? Should I run a vanilla firmware update via sideloading first before doing this?

[DNSB]

The process I used on a PW4 was to install the sideloaded firmware and then delete the remnants of the jailbreak. It seemed to work and I haven't noticed any issues.

[autogris]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The process I used on a PW4 was to install the sideloaded firmware and then delete the remnants of the jailbreak. It seemed to work and I haven't noticed any issues.

Thanks! I will try to find out all files related to LanguageBreak