Three Dots O' Doom

[froydman]

I'm hoping that we've still got some experts 'round here for this problem.

Forgot to mention the first time around (out right, rather than inferred): this is for a pocket edge.

I had finally gotten around to trying the Allmine golden update, so I reverted back to Dingo, installed Ermine, Installed Allmine. The problem was that I couldn't add things to my library (whcih had been backed up, but was stored on the SD Card). Since everything was backed up, and most everything was already on my full size edge, I figured no problems I will just start over and not mess around with the library being on the card. Start from scratch as it were.

I started the reflash to Dingo but something went horribly awry. Needless to say my device stopped on the three dots o' doom.

Of course, the first thing everyone will ask is whether I've done the menu+rotate reflashing...and the answer yes, O lordy, yes. A thousand times. And just now I tried it for the thousandth and first time. No go.

The second thing: did you try the serial cable fixes? Yes, both the one suggested by Nikkie and the more involved situation given by VCINC regarding the tftp pushing and the like. Sadly, it is still a no go. I'm capable of hardware manipulation, but I'll be completely honest in not understanding what the blue blazes is going on in the terminal output. Half a gazillion things seem to be going wrong there, so I'm hoping for a little bit of a nudge in the right direction if'n folks would be so obliged.

I've uploaded my terminal output screen from the point of "Run boot_user" at the End of VCINC's instructions with the terminal.

I've already lost the last three months of data trying to get this to work (let's not talk about linux installs borking my win8 install, that's today's project while hopefully getting some pointers from any good folk still on the board), and I'll be doggoned if I won't get this thing working again.

Oh, one last thing about the behavior: it stops at the three dots. However, the terminal still recognizes that the USB is plugged in or unplugged and notifies thusly there. It's like it is not launching into the android screen.

Oh, I lied before about the one last thing: Adb shell access will not work. Just to take care of that option right up front.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and if you ever make it up northern mn way, I'll buy a beverage of your choice for you.

[vldmr]

Looks like your usb stick that you try to update from does not have partition table, which seem to be the case with all newer usb sticks, and looks like startup script is looking for update.zip file only in first partition:

/etc/init.d/edge_user: searching for update.zip on /dev/sda1 : device not found
/etc/init.d/edge_user: searching for update.zip on /dev/mmcblk0p1 : device not found
/etc/init.d/edge_user: searching for update.zip on /dev/mmcblk0 : device not found

Since you mentioned you use linux, try creating partition table on usb stick using something like gparted, create vfat file system on first partition, place your golden update.zip there and try updating again. Seem like it should work

[froydman]

*weeps with joy*

That was it! Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I formatted that $(#&'n drive. I would have never guessed it was the USB going uppity.

It's throwing on the Dingo update now, I'll post again if that works all the way through. I'm sure that was it, though, as the update software screen is showing, and hasn't shown for the last couple weeks.

On the plus side, the whole debugging terminal situation strikes me as very cool. I learned a lot of things through this experience, so all in all it was beneficial. Enjoyable? No. Beneficial? Yes.

I owe you several beverages, Vldmr.

[froydman]

Curses. I spoke too soon. Still hanging at the end.

On the other hand, if I follow the insturctions of doing it twice for Dingo, maybe it'll work.

[froydman]

All righty, well now we're making some headway in the updating. I tried Dingo a few times automatically, but it was no go. I'm babysitting it through the terminal readout now, and I've attached the file for what I'm seeing. Each time it comes up with the Continue use of Arbitrary erase counter, I click yes...because I'm a fool. Or so I assume. Right after it tries verifying it says,

crc FAILED (android_ubi.img.crc, 0xdifferent address each time)
ubi_burn failed for android_ubi.img.crc

It then tries it again, saying

crc OK (android_ubi.img.crc)

As you can see in the terminal output. A couple things here:
Is this normal behavior and the reason why Dingo requires the two-fer reinstall?
If I keep at it, will the install eventually take? It seems one of the reasons the install would pause may be when it asks for ubiformat to continue?

I'm not sure. Any additional thoughts are appreciated!

[froydman]

wooohoooooooo!

Vldmr, thank you for your help. The last few times I tried dingo, it didn't take for whatever reason (there was some hang up, as pointed out before). This time, I went through and babysat it in the terminal and answered those questions each time it came up.

The first time through dingo install, it stopped on extracting content. That's where I assumed it would, as it stood and waited with no update for about 20 minutes. I hit the reset button, and ran through the install again.

This time it paused and asked that question I previously mentioned in the terminal just the once, and then it checked out and went through and finished installing. It was sheer joy to see the terminal report that the system requested shut down.

Now it's up and running with Dingo!

Goodness, I love the amount of information on this forum!

Thanks all. If I run into any other problems I'll let you folks know.

[froydman]

Again, I speak too soon....the ereader screen is now frozen in the hibernate show.

[ivanjt]

I know you said that you are working on a PE but you also have a full size Edge.

Now, are you certain that you are using the correct version of Dingo - they are almost the same size in the zip?

A couple of other things. Have you tried a different USB stick - not all work with the update process and several people found anything over 4GB in size was problematic.

The other thing is to make sure it is formatted as fat32 and not as a large floppy.

[froydman]

Hi Ivanjt ! Yes I double checmed those files. I've got the android side running ermine and I believe I am at the point Vcinc was at with the ereader side not running or changing. I will post more tomorrow after more testing!

[froydman]

Victory is mine! After looking at the device long and hard this morning, deciding whether or not I wanted to start all over with the updates and babysit the terminal to see if something new and/or different came up, I noticed that the eInk screen was still displaying "Your device is hibernating" (well, maybe noticed is not the word, it finally clicked maybe?)...the screen it had pointed out since I had attempted swapping out circuit boards.

Background: I had picked up two WSOD devices this summer on the cheap to cannibalize the batteries in them since mine had died. I figured maybe if I could just replace the board I'd have a working device, etc. etc. So I swapped out (no go, the WSOD is from the board...plus side is that I've got two devices with excellent unused screens).

Anyway, back to the point. It then occurred to me that the easiest thing to do would be to check the cable connections. The little ribbon cable (the one with just the flip up connector on the board) wasn't in all the way.

Device: fixed, functioning, and upgrading to allmine as we speak.

Vldmr and Ivanjt, I appreciate your willingness to suggest things that otherwise would have probably been overlooked. I really like the fact that even with these readers being officially shut out of the marketplace, this community is one of the best support spots out there.

Thank you all again!

[ivanjt]

It is interesting that you have found what I said quite some time ago that the WSoD was caused by the video sub circuit not being able to sustain high frame rates and/or over driving.

Also if you had said you had changed boards - I assumed you had just opened the unit to get at the serial plug - I would have said to check that all the cables were seated solidly. It is one of the first things that my techs learn or they don't continue working for me.

[froydman]

Hi Ivanjt,

Yeah, it was something that hadn't even occurred to me when I posted about the screen going down (that day was hectic with computer re-installs). The cables were the last thing on my mind for this problem when I posted about it. I just assumed (heh, and we all know what THAT does) that it was a continuation of software problems based on the background problems that Vcinc had when he was posting about his issues.

It was a case of not enough time and knowing too much...I overlooked the very obvious answer to the problem. On the plus side, when I got around to it I didn't spend too much time running through other solutions multiple times. My inherent laziness (check the easiest solution first) actually came in useful for once.