PRS-300 stuck on Opening Book, 'Hack 300' fix not working

[greenclaws]

Hi guys, I think my PRS-300 is totally kaputt.
It keeps showing Opening Book without going further. I press Reset then Power Switch and it resets. Then I press reset to make the screen go corrupt and keep doing that about 10 times and then it says 'Firmware update failed'. At that point is the only time that the reader responds to being connected to the PC. It has one drive that is 44k that has one file that says 'Protected!'.

I use the Hack 300 Update file that I always see in instructions for unbricking 300s such as the often quoted https://code.google.com/p/prs-plus/wiki/Unbricking and it says New Software Version 1.6.00.8004 Current version 0.0.00.0000. I click Update and it goes through installing things. Then it says it's finished and it's safe to disconnect. At this point the reader resets..... and goes back to saying 'Opening Book' and being totally unresponsive. All it will respond to then is exactly what I have just described. During all this the reader is fully charged but the whole time that the reader says 'Opening book' it is accessing the drive and the orange light flashes. So if I leave it a day I have to charge it again.

I can't do a hard reset because the thing won't turn off, when it seems to run out of juice it still displays the Opening Book screen but the lights don't blink any more. If I do the 'reset > turn on > down arrow and 0 simultaneously' thing it doesn't do anything.

I'm not sure how to proceed in fixing it, does anyone have any experience in this specific symptom? Thank you for any help you can give...

[greenclaws]

If I press the reset button and insert the USB cable, I can see that the two drives in the e-reader exist to the pc using the windows disk management program. However, they are shown as having 'no media' and so I can't try to fix or format them.

[Mark Nord]

Hi and welcome to MR greenclaws.

Sorry to read about your problems.

There isn't much left to add to your procedure described in your first post.

What puzzles me is

I can see that the two drives in the e-reader exist to the pc using the windows disk management program.

As the 300 has no external cardslot, but it might be the SETTINGS partition.

I can't do a hard reset because the thing won't turn off, when it seems to run out of juice it still displays the Opening Book screen but

it is turned off (after a reset), but a e-ink display will not clear when the power is shut off.

You might try to alter the hard-reset procedure:
reset
already hold down the two (2) buttons "arrow-down" and "0" while power on, and hold them down until (hopefully) the reset all screen comes up.

[greenclaws]

Hello Mark, thank you for your reply.

The first drive (partition?) is called 'Sony PRS-300 USB Device'. The second one is called 'Sony PRS-300 Launcher USB Device'. Both say 'no media inserted'. I seem to remember when it was actually working that one had the manual and drivers on, the other one was everything else.

As for resetting, I've tried your method and nothing happens.

* Push reset with pin > simultaneous down arrow and 0 button and keep held does nothing at all.
* Push reset with pin > power button > simultaneous down arrow and 0 button held makes the reader soft reset due to the reset, power combo, goes back to Opening book and does nothing.
* Push reset with pin > down arrow and 0 button held, then power button soft resets then goes to Opening book the same as above.

I've seen other people on the forums with the exact same problem as me before and they were told to contact Porkupan and then never shared what he said xD, or Mark you tell them to do the steps that I have said in my first post and they don't come back and share what happened either. I'm totally perplexed as what to do now, besides wait for an answer to my PM to Porkupan

[greenclaws]

Now I can connect the reader to the PC and access the drives properly. I've put the original firmware on the drive but still when I disconnect it from USB it just says 'Opening book...' and won't reset or update. Can I use the fact that I can actually access the drive now to my advantage?

[greenclaws]

Now I can get as far as there being the PRS-300 flasher on the screen and I have the following options:

load test firmware
save firmware images
flash the image


I choose Flash The Image and it runs for a while then just says

/tmp/self_upgrade/new_opt.300.img
MD5 failure

I checked the MD5 and it matches so there's no reason for it to say that.

Please can someone help? I'm probably in the home stretch here xD

[Mark Nord]

So there is progress....

Flash-Script will do the following
Copy new_opt.300.img to /tmp/ - a not exported non user visible part of the readers internal file-system
compare both by checking the md5 checksum
actually rewrite "flash" the firmware

So a MD5 failure may point to corruption of new_opt.300.img while copied form /Data/ (the readers exported part of IM) to /tmp/
or a incompatible MD5 command.

But to just understand your progress:
You managed to run the Hack 300 Update file - and actually installed a 505 fw ?
And now you can't install the original one, right?
Using which FW-image? The one from the PRS+ project or a porkupan/boroda version from the-ebook.org ?

If you got the 505 fw up, it should boot through and offer a main-menu. Though eating up battery, due to incompatible power-management.

If the reader is still stuck on "opening book" page, there is a massive problem with the readers-filesystem or the database.

Have you already done a backup of your content? And re-formated / chkdsk the drive named READER?

[greenclaws]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I ran the hack file and installed the 505 bios but it only goes into the menu and then automatically pops up the firmware upgrader the first time the usb is disconnected after a full format of the main drive. A quick format doesn't work. I have formatted the drive many times and chkdisked it too while trying to flash the proper 300 firmware.

Would it be relatively safe for me to use command prompt to recreate the master partition record using diskpart and see if that fixes that particular problem?

The 300 firmware I am using is the one called 'Uninstaller 300.zip' from the prsplus google code site.

[Mark Nord]

You are welcome.

installed the 505 bios but it only goes into the menu and then
automatically pops up the firmware upgrader the first time the usb is disconnected after a full format of the main drive.

After format of the main drive there shouldn't/couldn't be a firmware-updater as the updater is a AUTORUN program based on "autrun.js" and "autorun.xml" in /Sony Reader/software/

Would it be relatively safe for me to use command prompt to recreate the master partition record using diskpart and see if that fixes that particular problem?

Can't recommend this, as I'm absolutely out of my depth, but as the drive presented as "READER" to the host is only the branch \Data\ of the readers file-system, I'm not sure if you can reach the master partition record via USB.
Most probably you would have to use a startup/autorun script to let it be done by the readers embedded Linux.

[greenclaws]

I should rephrase,
It only goes into the menu and then automatically pops up the firmware upgrader if the drive has had a full format before putting the firmware upgrade back on. It will only do this once, after that it goes back to 'Opening book...' and the drive needs a full format again before putting the firmware on again for the menu and firmware upgrade menu to appear again.

[Mark Nord]

Ok, so I'm out of ideas.

You might want to try with a different fw-version from porkupan/boroda:
Check here at the-ebook.org
or with the PRS+installer image.

[greenclaws]

I've tried the PRS+ image before and it gives me a warning that my firmware version is 1.1.something and it requires 1.0.something and that it will have to flash my firmware to the correct version. It then get about half way through doing something then just freezes and wrecks the firmware. I have to use the Hack 300 to fix the firmware back to the way it was.

I have tried a different original firmware from the http://projects.mobileread.com/reader/users/porkupan/ folder and it had the same MD5 error. I have been totally careful with the downloading of the firmware and check the MD5 on the computer. I even once generated a new MD5 file using the checking program and tried that and still an MD5 error.

I am out of ideas too, it's so weird!

[kartu]

Hi greenclaws,

sorry to hear you have problems.
What happened shortly prior to this problem, did you install some firmware?

Please use PRS+ installer to dump current firmware (it's somewhere in expert options). All partitions that are available. This might give us an idea of what's going on.

And, by the way, copying the file that gets md5 error back to /Data (internal memory) under a different name and comparing it to the right one would also help.

[greenclaws]

Hello Kartu, thank you for joining this thread!

I don't know what happened to it in the first place as the ereader is my mother's. She's not in any way technically minded so probably what happened is it was accessing a book when running low on battery? When she gave it to me saying it didn't work, it said 'firmware update has failed', before that it was working properly for years. A long time ago I did put PRS+ on as she wanted a clock and the pages were refreshing slowly. It was taken off again soon after, I forget why. So I have done this before successfully in the past

How do I access the file that gives the MD5 error? Is it in the /tmp/ directory? Or do I copy the one from /Sony Reader/ back to the desktop and compare that to the one I have downloaded?

[Mark Nord]

ow do I access the file that gives the MD5 error? Is it in the /tmp/ directory?

You will have to edit flash_opt.300.sh in /Sony Reader/

Code throwing the error is here (assuming : unistaller package)

Spoiler:

if [ -f $TMP_IMG -a -f $TMP_MD5 ]
then
   # cp -f $SD_IMG $TMP_IMG
   REAL_MD5=`/usr/bin/md5sum $TMP_IMG | cut -f1 -d\  `
   TEST_MD5=`cut -f1 -d\  $TMP_MD5 `

   if [ $REAL_MD5 = $TEST_MD5 ]
   then
      echo "Mounting SD card image" >> $W_LOG
      mount -o loop -t cramfs $TMP_IMG /tmp/img_mnt >> $W_LOG 2>&1
      # mount --bind /tmp/img_mnt/bin /bin >> $W_LOG 2>&1
      # mount --bind /tmp/img_mnt/lib /lib >> $W_LOG 2>&1
      # mount --bind /tmp/img_mnt/usr /usr >> $W_LOG 2>&1
      mount --bind /tmp/img_mnt /opt >> $W_LOG 2>&1
      echo "Done mounting SD card image" >> $W_LOG
      UMT=1
   else
      echo "MD5 check failure [$REAL_MD5 != $TEST_MD5]" >> $W_LOG
      echo -n "9 $TMP_IMG MD5 failure." > $RESFILE
      exit 1
   fi
else
   echo "Image or md5 not found" >> $W_LOG
   echo -n "10 Image or MD5 not found on card." > $RESFILE
   exit 1
fi

While copying the files is done in /Sony Reader/software/autorun.js

Spoiler:

target.doDigit6 = function()
{
    //this.trace("[autorun] begin five\n");
    try {
		// this.screenshot ();
        err = this.prepareMcopy();
        if (err)
            return this.showMsg(err+"\n"+this.prompt);

        this.showMsg("Copying image files into memory...");

		// this.screenshot ();

        this.runCommand("mkdir -p /tmp/self_upgrade");
        if (!this.copyFile(this.driveroot+"/new_opt.300.img","/tmp/self_upgrade/new_opt.300.img"))
            return this.showMsg("error copying new_opt.300.img to /tmp/\n"+this.prompt);
        if (!this.copyFile(this.driveroot+"/new_opt.300.md5","/tmp/self_upgrade/new_opt.300.md5"))
            return this.showMsg("error copying new_opt.300.md5 to /tmp/\n"+this.prompt);

        if (!this.copyFile(this.driveroot+"/flash_opt.300.sh","/tmp/script.sh"))
            return this.showMsg("error copying flash_opt.300.sh to /tmp/\n"+this.prompt);
        this.showMsg("Flashing new Fsk filesystem.\nThis might take a few minutes.");
		// this.screenshot ();

        this.runScript();
        var res = this.fileToString("/tmp/result.log");
        if (!res)
        {

But while checking the code of the various scripts I came to the conclusion that the hack300Update most probably not only rewrites the FSK-partition but also the Rootfs. (cramfs.Rootfs.img)

So proper restoration will need to replace both partitions.

Which the PRS+ installer is trying to do:

Spoiler:

target.actions.backup = {
	confirmMessage : "CONFIRM_BACKUP_ALL",
	perform : function() {
		initTools();
		var fskPath = getUnusedFilename("/Data/" + versions.ebook.firmware + ".fsk");
		var rootPath = getUnusedFilename("/Data/" + versions.ebook.firmware + ".root");
		var root2Path = getUnusedFilename("/Data/" + versions.ebook.firmware + ".root2");
		var bootPath = getUnusedFilename("/Data/" + versions.ebook.firmware + ".boot");

		print(L("SAVING") + " BootImg...");
		exec("cat /dev/mtdblock9 > " + bootPath);

		print("OK Rootfs2...");
		exec("cat /dev/mtdblock13 > " + root2Path);

		print("OK Rootfs...");
		exec("cat /dev/mtdblock14 > " + rootPath);

		print("OK Fsk...");
		exec("cat /dev/mtdblock15 > " + fskPath);

		println("OK \n " + L("ALL_PARTITIONS_SAVED"));
	}
};

target.actions.flashRoot = {
	confirmMessage : "CONFIRM_FLASH_ROOT",
	perform : function() {
		initTools();
		print(L("COPYING_IMAGE"));
		var path = FIRMWARE_PATH + versions.ebook.model + "/" + versions.installer.firmware + ".root";
		var md5path = path + ".md5";
		copyFile(path, "/tmp/Rootfs.img");
		print("OK");
		flashImage(getFileContent(md5path, "--error--"), "Rootfs");
	}
};

but obviously lacks the the image "Rootfs.img"

So after hack300Update Rootfs and FSK will be the ons for a 505.
After Un-Installer Rootfs is still 505 and FSK for the 300 which will prevent the device from proper starting.

@Kartu: makes this any sense?
And if so, can you please provide a Rootfs.img?