Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Readers > Amazon Kindle > Kindle Developer's Corner

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 05-02-2019, 06:51 AM   #1
Gyiyg
HOOH
Gyiyg began at the beginning.
 
Gyiyg's Avatar
 
Posts: 5
Karma: 10
Join Date: Apr 2019
Device: PW3
Serial jailbreaking help

Hey all. I recently decided to try and serial jailbreak my PW3 running a firmware that's too new to software jailbreak, and I've run into a little snag. Following this thread I got to the point where the PuTTY window shows the boot instructions and such, but I can't seem to interrupt the boot process before it boots normally.

I'm assuming PuTTY is supposed to send my inputs from the keyboard as terminal commands to the serial port, but nothing I press seems to do anything.

The connections I'm using are admittedly a little slipshod but I figure if it's showing the terminal on PuTTY it's connected well enough to work, but of course, it doesn't seem to be working 100%, but it makes me think it's something software-related.

I'm not at the computer that I've been using to do it right this moment, but I can furnish screenshots/pictures if requested.

Many thanks!
Gyiyg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-03-2019, 02:43 PM   #2
vchjs
Junior Member
vchjs began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 1
Karma: 10
Join Date: Apr 2019
Device: pw3
I had the same problem, but i was using minicom(as against putty) within a terminal window on a linux graphical desktop. No matter what I pressed the autoboot couldn't be halted(even though the terminal displayed all key-presses).

By running minicom on one of the text-only TTY sessions, I was finally able to see the effect of key-presses over the serial connection(i.e. stop autoboot, run commands etc ). Hope this helps someone stuck similarly.
vchjs is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 06-17-2019, 07:05 AM   #3
SenorClean
Member
SenorClean began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 16
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jan 2019
Device: Kindle 3, PW3, PW4(Bricked)
I've had this happen to me with 2 causes:

One time was just a bad ground connection - especially tricky on the 'tropicalised' gooped pw4. I found I can see the serial output with gnd disconnected but it won't talk in the other direction..

But also - I bought a cheap 1v8 TTL adapter from aliexpress and it doesn't seem to send my keystrokes properly, so I've gone back to my ftdi one with a voltage regulator.

Good luck.
SenorClean is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-27-2020, 06:12 PM   #4
lordeagle
Enthusiast
lordeagle began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 27
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jun 2020
Device: Kobo Libra H20, Kindle PW3, PW2
I have also the same issue PW3, cheap 1v8 TTL adapter form aliexpress and it seems not to be able to send any commands.
I have this board: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000...629e11c1YE1P96
is it the one that caused trouble too for you @SenorClean?

Do I have any chance to verify that I am able to send keys in general?
lordeagle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-27-2020, 06:23 PM   #5
SenorClean
Member
SenorClean began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 16
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jan 2019
Device: Kindle 3, PW3, PW4(Bricked)
Quote:
Originally Posted by lordeagle View Post
I have also the same issue PW3, cheap 1v8 TTL adapter form aliexpress and it seems not to be able to send any commands.
I have this board: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000...629e11c1YE1P96
is it the one that caused trouble too for you @SenorClean?

Do I have any chance to verify that I am able to send keys in general?
The one I bought (which didn't work) wasn't the same - it was this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32572439616.html

They do seem to be a bit fickle, might be worth trying another if you can find one.
SenorClean is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 10-28-2020, 02:46 AM   #6
lordeagle
Enthusiast
lordeagle began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 27
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jun 2020
Device: Kobo Libra H20, Kindle PW3, PW2
Quote:
Originally Posted by SenorClean View Post
The one I bought (which didn't work) wasn't the same - it was this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32572439616.html

They do seem to be a bit fickle, might be worth trying another if you can find one.
Thanks for your reply. I remember having searched many hours just to find this board. Since many vendors do not ship to my country (Switzerland). So if someone has a concrete link with a board that is still for sale and works - that would be highly appreciated information.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vchjs View Post
I had the same problem, ..
By running minicom on one of the text-only TTY sessions, I was finally able to see the effect of key-presses over the serial connection(i.e. stop autoboot, run commands etc ). Hope this helps someone stuck similarly.
I'am also using 'minicom' on a UI session (Linux Mint 19.3). But I don't fully get what you meant by a text-only TTY session. I used the CTRL+ALT+F3 combo to switch to a headless mint terminal and it didn't work better from there. But maybe you could share a little in detail how you started a text-only session.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SenorClean View Post
One time was just a bad ground connection - especially tricky on the 'tropicalised' gooped pw4. I found I can see the serial output with gnd disconnected but it won't talk in the other direction..
maybe I just have this issue with the ground. Or in general a connection problem caused by 'primitive' soldiering. Having lost the serial pin on a PW2 by trying to soldier them to a wire, I chose a simpler approach this time on the PW3. Actually, I just used sticky tapes. I thought that this should be enough for the short interaction with the serial port.
But the ground is at least somehow working: if I remove it completely I can't read anything with minicom. Having it sticked as shown in the picture, finally let me at least 'read' the console.
Click image for larger version

Name:	kindleSoldiering.jpg
Views:	156
Size:	531.2 KB
ID:	183031
lordeagle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-28-2020, 01:03 PM   #7
lordeagle
Enthusiast
lordeagle began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 27
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jun 2020
Device: Kobo Libra H20, Kindle PW3, PW2
I've just done the job again on another PW3 which is already jailbroken (back where it was possible with 5.9.6 on it).
It is a little easier to fiddle with, since I can connect to the kindle on SSH via USbNET ... and get the serial-debug port output simultaniously via the TTL board mentioned above.
So I'm ready and connected, can quickly reboot the device via SSH and trace the RX/TX traffic with minicom. But still I am unable to send keys ... any hope or tests that I can do from the working SSH shell?
...otherwise I must assume that the TTL adapter is the problem.
lordeagle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2020, 02:30 PM   #8
lordeagle
Enthusiast
lordeagle began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 27
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jun 2020
Device: Kobo Libra H20, Kindle PW3, PW2
Just wanted to share that the mentioned board works: and finally I got my PW3 jailbreaked.

Some thoughts on it:
  • use needles and sticky tapes is a very easy and safe way to get a stable RX-TX connection (which I couldn't establish before with soldiering or direct taping wires to the board)
  • Only attaching RX was and hitting reboot is enough to see serial output on minicom ( so you could go step by step ). Despite all other tutorial; I never unmounted the battery; did never establish a power connection (the board has already a 1.8 V selector); funny fact - the RX/TX connection still worked after I detached the ground (maybe unsafe but seem not to be a strict pre-condition)
  • the TX line is here to send key-commands, so if you can't interrupt at boot ... this connection is not yet working
  • 'minicom' is a great and super easy tool for serial commandlines under linux/mint/ubuntu and the like (much easier than putty since it is able to handle usb-board and/remove flawlessly - displaying a nice disconnection message when unplugged.
  • the mentioned serial adapter from aliexpress is cheap and does the job flawlessly: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000...629e11c1YE1P96
  • after having run the basic jailbreak I installed the latest 'jailbreak hotfix' from the snapshots thread .... after that look into the latest factory jailbreak threads to know which version of KUAL you need to install. Puzzled me a little since the older JB tutorial were not aware of issues that will arise with FW >5.9.6

Click image for larger version

Name:	kindle-serial.jpg
Views:	139
Size:	274.3 KB
ID:	183234
lordeagle is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
PW4 PW4 Serial Jailbreaking (OTA updated) matko Kindle Developer's Corner 53 11-17-2023 03:34 PM
Tools Serial Jailbreaking your fw >= 5.6.x Kindle for Dummies grant2 Kindle Developer's Corner 563 12-13-2022 08:12 PM
Jailbreaking a PW4 with G001 serial number thechordmaster Kindle Developer's Corner 31 03-19-2019 12:31 AM
How much would people pay for easy serial jailbreaking their paperwhite? coplate Kindle Developer's Corner 3 02-21-2018 12:45 PM
Serial Jailbreaking FW >= 5.6.1.1 knc1 Kindle Developer's Corner 6 08-14-2017 08:38 AM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:52 PM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.