Please help with debricking

[kbreads]

Hello All,

I have a K3 that is stuck in a reboot loop (boy under tree appears, the progress bar moves about 25% and then it reboots). Before posting here is what I tried:

1. Live CD (Kubrick). It goes through all the steps without errors but does not solve the problem. So I tried it again. No luck.

2. I downloaded the ATK and tried to program the MMC/SD. Kernel is downloaded fine, but the rootfs image does not finish. I get the "Flash Program failed: connection error!" message.

3. Back to my linux machine, I tried the k3flasher

	
	
k3flasher$ sudo ./k3flasher mx35to2_mmc.bin program 0x00041000 kernel.bin 
k3flasher$ sudo ./k3flasher mx35to2_mmc.bin program 0x003c1000 rootfs.bin

Both commands complete without erros, but I still have no luck. Still stuck in the reboot loop.
My md5sum are:

k3flasher$ md5sum kernel.bin 
ec5a0a88f358636e958b10b70c8872f9  kernel.bin
k3flasher$ md5sum rootfs.bin 
3a4755179cb484ed0c0831e3ba2eb3af  rootfs.bin

Can anyone please help?

Many thanks,
KB

[knc1]

First off - Kubrick has already tried (and failed) at using those programs.

Second - Where did you get your rootfs.bin and kernel.bin (no direct links to the files, just the site, please) and what where the actual filenames?

Third - How long did you let the battery charge before you started (any) of the flash programming steps and what did you use for a charger?

Fourth - What Kubrick options did you use?
I.E: Did you try to clear local storage or not?

- - - -

PS:
Next time, if Kubrick doesn't fix it the first time its run - **STOP** - and call for help.

[hawhill]

Well, how got the K3 into that reboot loop? The answer would help to diagnose the problem.
And how long did Kubrick take to flash?

When the progress bar gets to 25%, chances are that the root filesystem (and of course, kernel, eink data and so forth) is just fine. It might stumble over other issues. Invalidating the user partition would be my next take on it, so the Kindle reformats it.

[kbreads]

Thanks for the reply.

I got kubrick from here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=206064

I got the kernel and rootfs images from here:
http://pastebin.com/Wdw4L7yT
(which was a link from https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/K3noobdebrickatk)

Battery: the battery is full. I know this because I let it charge on a different kindle overnight, and then attached it to the broken kindle.

Kubrick ran for several hours. (I would say greater than 2 hours). I followed the instructions on the screen (ie. I did not explicitly clear local storage, and I do not know how)

How do I proceed next?

Thank again.
KB

Originally Posted by knc1

First off - Kubrick has already tried (and failed) at using those programs.

Second - Where did you get your rootfs.bin and kernel.bin (no direct links to the files, just the site, please) and what where the actual filenames?

Third - How long did you let the battery charge before you started (any) of the flash programming steps and what did you use for a charger?

Fourth - What Kubrick options did you use?
I.E: Did you try to clear local storage or not?

- - - -

PS:
Next time, if Kubrick doesn't fix it the first time its run - **STOP** - and call for help.

[knc1]

Post the actual filenames you used?

What was the battery capacity reported as from the battery report run on the "good" Kindle before you put it back into the "broke" Kindle?

[kbreads]

Originally Posted by knc1

Post the actual filenames you used?

What was the battery capacity reported as from the battery report run on the "good" Kindle before you put it back into the "broke" Kindle?

kernel-3.0.2-factory.img.gz (from http://www.mediafire.com/?k45j3h4zg0cap7q)
mmcblk0p1_3.0.2.zip (from https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwJ...jVuM0FXUzd4d00)

Battery capacity: It was 100%. I think it measured 4.2 V.

[hawhill]

Sounds good. I'd suggest to write some garbage onto the flash at where the user partition starts. I'd need to look up the exact offset, and I'll do it, but not before a night's worth of sleep. In some version of k3flasher I actually implemented network block device (NBD) server interface, so you could actually access and format the user partition. Needs a bit of expertise, though.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by kbreads

Battery capacity: It was 100%. I think it measured 4.2 V.

I assume from that answer that you did not run the battery report.

Capacity is the amount of storage capacity the battery is holding (in maH).

Terminal voltage **does not** indicate capacity in Li-Ion batteries, it only indicates the terminal voltage.

- - - -

Why am I asking, before giving any advice?
See: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...49&postcount=3

[hawhill]

@kbreads:
Flash a bunch of zeroes or other garbage (like, say, a cat photo JPEG) to offset 0x2adc8000. That would be the beginning of partition 4 of the flash. There's a partition header located, that when mangled triggers the kindle to reformat the user partition.

Of course, this leads to you losing all the data on your user partition. If you want to backup, then dump from there a number of 0xc3a37e00 bytes. It will take a looooooooooooooong time.

Also, you might want to try to do the same to the /var partition, which is stored in partition 3. Dump some zeros or garbage to offset 0x2a5c8000. Note that this is a rather short partition, only 4MByte, so don't flash too much garbage there.

[kbreads]

Thanks. I will try that.
Quick question though: what size of garbage do I flash to address
0x2adc8000 and 0x2a5c8000.

Originally Posted by hawhill

@kbreads:
Flash a bunch of zeroes or other garbage (like, say, a cat photo JPEG) to offset 0x2adc8000. That would be the beginning of partition 4 of the flash. There's a partition header located, that when mangled triggers the kindle to reformat the user partition.

Of course, this leads to you losing all the data on your user partition. If you want to backup, then dump from there a number of 0xc3a37e00 bytes. It will take a looooooooooooooong time.

Also, you might want to try to do the same to the /var partition, which is stored in partition 3. Dump some zeros or garbage to offset 0x2a5c8000. Note that this is a rather short partition, only 4MByte, so don't flash too much garbage there.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by kbreads

Thanks. I will try that.
Quick question though: what size of garbage do I flash to address
0x2adc8000 and 0x2a5c8000.

Some small multiple of the flash eraseblock size.
blocksize=4096 count=4
should do the job.

- - - -
Wheee! 66 66
I gotta get a life.

[hawhill]

My suggestion was a cat photo JPEG. Be sure to chose a healthy, good looking cat.

(SCNR. What knc1 said - but 4kByte is probably enough.)

[kbreads]

Originally Posted by hawhill

My suggestion was a cat photo JPEG. Be sure to chose a healthy, good looking cat.

(SCNR. What knc1 said - but 4kByte is probably enough.)

Thanks once again for your help.
Unfortunately flashing those partitions did not help.

Anything else I can do?

k3flasher$ 
k3flasher$  dd if=/dev/zero of=4kbimg.img bs=1024 count=4

k3flasher$  sudo ./k3flasher mx35to2_mmc.bin program 0x2adc8000 4kbimg.img 
I: found suitable device
E: wrong transfer length, wanted to receive 8 bytes but received 4 bytes.
I: above error can be ignored, it's due to the device being in ROM kernel mode
I: RAM kernel should be running now. Trying to re-open device: .
I: got it.
D: flash_program: 0x2adc8000 4kbimg.img 0x00000000
I: continue flashing at address 0x2adc8000 offset 0x00000000
I: flashing 0x00001000 (=4096) bytes
I: downloading 0x00001000 (=4096) bytes, starting at 0x2adc8000
I: different block, read before flash disabled
I: writing 0x00001000 (=4096) bytes to address 0x2adc8000, waiting for completion...
I: wrote 0x00001000 (=4096) bytes, waiting for completion...
I: flashing of 0x00001000 (=4096) bytes complete
I: offset 0x00001000 continue_address 0x2adc9000 100.00%


k3flasher$    sudo ./k3flasher mx35to2_mmc.bin program 0x2a5c8000 4kbimg.img
W: cannot find device (is it in USB loader mode? are you root?) - waiting for it...............
I: success.
I: found suitable device
E: wrong transfer length, wanted to receive 8 bytes but received 4 bytes.
I: above error can be ignored, it's due to the device being in ROM kernel mode
I: RAM kernel should be running now. Trying to re-open device: .
I: got it.
D: flash_program: 0x2a5c8000 4kbimg.img 0x00000000
I: continue flashing at address 0x2a5c8000 offset 0x00000000
I: flashing 0x00001000 (=4096) bytes
I: downloading 0x00001000 (=4096) bytes, starting at 0x2a5c8000
I: 0x2a5c8000 verified
I: offset 0x00001000 continue_address 0x2a5c9000 100.00%

[knc1]

Originally Posted by kbreads

Thanks once again for your help.
Unfortunately flashing those partitions did not help.
- - - -

Did you follow the flashing with disconnecting the Kindle and then doing a full re-boot?
(That hold power switch for greater than 20 seconds thing.)

Also, expect it to take a relatively long time to re-boot -
It has to completely re-format those two partitions.

[kbreads]

Originally Posted by knc1

Did you follow the flashing with disconnecting the Kindle and then doing a full re-boot?
(That hold power switch for greater than 20 seconds thing.)

Also, expect it to take a relatively long time to re-boot -
It has to completely re-format those two partitions.

I did. It starts up after a reboot, proceeds to about 25%, stall and then automatically reboots. This goes on and on.

Just to recap, I flashed the kernel and the rootfs using the live CD.
Then as mentioned above wrote 4kb of zeros to 0x2adc8000 and 0x2a5c8000.

Answering your other question, kubrick cd ran for 4 hrs 21 min to finish.