Kindle paperwhite doesn't upgrade software

[Whitefox]

Hi,
my kindle paperwhite (Serial No. EY21, I'm not sure which model is, how can I find out?) can't complete a software upgrade, the progress bar fills almost at half and then stops.
At every startup it tries to upgrade and fails everytime.
I tried to let complete the process for days with the power cable connected, but nothing append.
I suppose that the update file is corrupted or not fully downloaded, my kindle sometimes freeze itself so maybe it froze during the download.
Can I try anything for repair it?

Thank you in advance for your help

[JSWolf]

Try plugging it into the USB port and see if you can see it as a removable drive and if you can see it, try a manual upgrade.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Whitefox

Hi,
my kindle paperwhite (Serial No. EY21, I'm not sure which model is, how can I find out?) can't complete a software upgrade, the progress bar fills almost at half and then stops.
At every startup it tries to upgrade and fails everytime.
I tried to let complete the process for days with the power cable connected, but nothing append.
I suppose that the update file is corrupted or not fully downloaded, my kindle sometimes freeze itself so maybe it froze during the download.
Can I try anything for repair it?

Thank you in advance for your help

Home -> Menu -> Settings -> Menu -> Device Info
There is where you will find the serial number.

Use the first 4 (or 6) characters and the table here:
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Serial_Numbers
To determine the model nickname used at this site.

Is the device Jail broken with our JB?
Do you have anything on it that can not be discarded?

If no to both -
Then try this:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=223067

If you intend to use any of our add-ins, then install our Jailbreak before you do the update.

Try doing the update by side-loading the Amazon posted update package as suggested above.

[Whitefox]

On the kindle I didn't do the JB and there aren't nothing important, so loosing the data is not a problem but I can't mount the partition, the kindle is always in the "upgrade state" when turned on, so when connected to the pc I don't see anything, even using lsusb.
I tried and I can only reboot it with the 30 seconds procedure.

The kindle is always in the state shown by the picture when turned on.

[knc1]

Let me see the entire set of messages that connecting the Kindle causes.

As in:
sudo dmesg -c
plug in Kindle
re-boot Kindle (with the cable plugged in for this test)
dmesg

Should look like this (without the re-boot in this case):

core2quad ~ $ dmesg
[563889.344015] usb 2-5: new high speed USB device number 21 using ehci_hcd
[563889.485245] scsi18 : usb-storage 2-5:1.0
[563890.485199] scsi 18:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kindle   Internal Storage 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[563890.740273] sd 18:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
[563890.744449] sd 18:0:0:0: [sde] 2797568 512-byte logical blocks: (1.43 GB/1.33 GiB)
[563890.847343] sd 18:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
[563890.847349] sd 18:0:0:0: [sde] Mode Sense: 0f 00 00 00
[563890.957353] sd 18:0:0:0: [sde] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[563891.178413]  sde: sde1
[563891.467408] sd 18:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk

But let me see yours, including the re-boot.

If the USB storage does not appear momentarily (sometimes it does before it discovers the update file), this will require serial port access to fix.
If it does momentarily appear, then we may be able to force a way to fail the update process.

[Whitefox]

The dmesg output is empty, even after the reboot.
But at least I found the serial number, it's a Kindle PaperWhite WiFi.
How should I proceed to try to fix through the serial port?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Whitefox

The dmesg output is empty, even after the reboot.
But at least I found the serial number, it's a Kindle PaperWhite WiFi.
How should I proceed to try to fix through the serial port?

It all depends on the messages output on the serial port.

Get that connected, enable a capture (log) file in minicom, re-boot it, post the log file as an attachment.

Select the 'go advanced' reply choice, and then - -
The attachment thing is the next thing below this text entry box and buttons.

[Whitefox]

The soldering was harder than I expect
At last I logged the boot of the kindle, I attached the log, in the first I didn't stop autoboot in the latter I tried.
When I tried to stop autoboot, the character I wrote became some gibberish which the console couldn't display correctly.

[nixkalo]

When I tried to stop autoboot, the character I wrote became some gibberish which the console couldn't display correctly.

Did you verify serial parameters? I think it was 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity

Try pressing different keys (several consecutive times each) and see if the gibberish that you receive in return follows a pattern. If you post the sequence of keypresses and the chars received after each keypress we might find something.

If there is no pattern in the gibberish, then I'd suspect wrong voltages or noisy cable.

HTH
Nix

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Whitefox

The soldering was harder than I expect
At last I logged the boot of the kindle, I attached the log, in the first I didn't stop autoboot in the latter I tried.
When I tried to stop autoboot, the character I wrote became some gibberish which the console couldn't display correctly.

Wrong serial line parameters, Check that you have set:
115200
no parity
eight bits
one stop bit
no hardware flow control
no software flow control
no character echo
1.8 volt interface voltage

OR

Excessive noise on serial line -
Poor:
ground connection, tx, or rx connection
or noise on the reference voltage source.

Next post:
Include details of your set-up.
What adapter are you using?
What PC and PC OS are you using?
What terminal emulator are you using?

If you can't find the bad connection, attach a close-up photo of your work.
(pick the 'go advanced' editor, scroll down past text box to find the attachment section)

Charge: 86% [###################################################:::::::]

- - - -

boot: C def:bcut:batterycut=1,version=232331

The update starts off with a battery terminal voltage at 86%
**BUT** the terminal voltage of a Li-Ion battery does not indicate its storage capacity - this is a very aged battery.

So charge the battery, use a wall charger - -
Your battery does not have enough storage capacity to complete the update process.
So keep it on the charger, it may complete if kept on external power (the charger).

[Whitefox]

I used minicom

minicom version 2.7 (compiled Sep  6 2015)

This is my serial configuration

    +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | A -    Serial Device      : /dev/ttyUSB0                              |
    | B - Lockfile Location     : /var/run                                  |
    | C -   Callin Program      :                                           |
    | D -  Callout Program      :                                           |
    | E -    Bps/Par/Bits       : 115200 8N1                                |
    | F - Hardware Flow Control : No                                        |
    | G - Software Flow Control : No                                        |
    |                                                                       |
    |    Change which setting?                                              |
    +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

On Arch Linux

Linux daneel 4.3.3-3-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jan 20 08:12:23 CET 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux

With this serial adpter http://amzn.com/B008RF73CS, I bought mine from Amazon.it
It's a 3.3V/5V Serial Adapter so I used the circuit described here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=162775 with R1 and R2 as 22kΩ

In this code the 'ü' should be 'a' and the 'ó' should be 'b', between should be 's' and 'd'

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  1  0 
uboot > üüüüüüüüüüü      ööööööóóóóóóó

I already tried to let it upgrade while charging without touching it, literally, for days but it remains in the same state. Should I try again with the serial connected?

[knc1]

Still have the pins and little jumper cables on the adapter?
If so -
remove jumper cables on adapter Tx & Rx -
now use one of the jumpers to connect Tx & Rx on the adapter together -
bring up the terminal emulator and type at it.
Do you get back the same character that you type?
(I expect that you will.)

If that seems to work -
remove the geekmaster level shifter from the connections -
set the adapter for 3.3 volt -
hook it back up to the Kindle (without the geekmaster circuit) -
Are the trash characters still gone?

If so - we will use it that way - others have without problems.

Note:
Unlike the hyperterminal/windows combination - the minicom/linux combination will not "lose" the connection when rebooting the Kindle.
So you can bring up minicom and let it go through its start-up before you have the Kindle running.
(which I suspect you have noticed)

So don't try to hit the 'type a character to stop auto boot' prompt exactly -
Reboot the Kindle -
Now hold down one of the keyboard keys, let it auto-repeat until the boot process stops -
I.E: a big stick works as well as a single character.
When you see the u-boot> prompt, just hit return -
u-boot will not do anything with a bunch of (for instance) j 's

Although your logs show that the update has successfully re-loaded the (main, 5.6.x) kernel image we will try the (old) diags kernel image.

Enter:
bootm 0xE41000
That should boot the (old) diags system.

I don't recall if the diags kernel trys to auto-update -
(That answer can be found in the logs attached to the recent fastboot recovery thread - I am too lazy to look it up.)
If it does try to auto-update, let it and hope it works.
OR
You might be looking at the 'recovery menu' now.

Let me know where we stand at this point.

[Whitefox]

Thanks! Now finally I read what I type.

I did the "bootm 0xE41000" thing but it's trying to do the update and it's stuck again .

[knc1]

When you see:

INFO: task init:1 blocked for more than 120 seconds.

It isn't going to make any more progress, you mght as well re-boot it at that point.

do this (again):

uboot > bootm 0xE41000

and try to catch this one:

INFO:eink initialized... (786432 bytes)
Press [ENTER] for recovery menu...

(This time, just hold down 'enter' key. )

Note that the screen is initialized now.
This should be the 'recovery menu' (you may have to use the screen at this point - it just depends on the price of tea in China at the time this firmware was written).

You want the 'export USB' selection (usually the 'U' command listing).

Then plug the Kindle-to-PC USB cable in -
From the PC, delete any *.bin, *.dat files you find in USB storage -
eject -
remove cable -
reboot it -
(and keep it away from any source of update files !! )

# 88 88 - I'm too old for this shit!

[Whitefox]

I did all the procedure , I also saved my documents for precaution
But now i get an awful Kernel panic