Related
About 3 weeks ago, I bricked my Kindle Fire. It was a "spare" that I had, so I started messing around with it. Got TWRP installed, downloaded a couple of ROMS, and attempted to install them. (fortunately, I made a backup of my base Amazon 6.2)
To make a long story short, the fire got stuck. I was able to adb and various other things on this forum to keep things going, but after a while, Kindle Fire Utility (adb, nothing) could see the device. I thought for sure I had an expensive paper weight.
Enter the factory cable. Because SkOrPn was in the middle of a move, my cable didn't get here right away. Then there were some issues with my PayPal address, which SkOrPn went out of his way to fix. Today, I got the cable at my office.
Looked at the cable. Thought I had been send an unmodified cable. Saw no evidence that anything had been done to the cable. An absolutely perfect professional job.
Couldn't wait to get home. Got home. Plugged cable in Fire, then in Laptop. Nothing. Now what? I thought it was supposed to boot the bootloader? adb didn't see the device. Drivers good, it sees my other Fire. I guess I was one of those 1% that hard brick the fire with no chance of getting it back.
Did a few searched on the forum. Found how to install TWRP on my device. I thought I had it already? Ran the commands. Nothing. Switched to regular cable. Nothing. I figured I was screwed. I unplugged the Fire. connected the factory cable. Ran the command. THEN hooked up the cable. JOY JOY JOY!! i GOT TWRP loaded!!!!
Restored my previously saved image, and now I have a working Kindle Fire. NOW i'm going to install some other ROM on it.
The moral is, never give up. Buy a factory cable!!! One of the things I've ever spent $15 or so on. And I recommend SkOrPn as your source. Quality work, great customer service!!!
Step-by-step
1) Make sure you have some charge left in your bricked Kindle. (one of my mistakes
2) Download "Kindle Fire Utility" or other utility that has the fastboot.exe command available.
3) Download twrp-blaze-2.0.0RC0.img (just google it)
4) Without connecting anything, run the command:
fastboot.exe -i 0x1949 boot twrp-blaze-2.0.0RC0.img
5) Connect the factory cable to your Kindle Fire
6) Connect the factory cable to you PC
7) Wait about 10 seconds.
8) DONE!!!!
Sorry for the long post. My wife doesn't understand why this would make me so excited. But you all would, I'm sure.
SteveM
a very nice post for people who have bricked their kindles and need a factory cable!
Thanks for the kind words Steve. I hope this cable gives you confidence in flashing your Kindle long into the future. Glad it worked out for you.
Oh, and you did not see any evidence of modification because I do not modify the cable, I just cut off the original micro connector and install my own, already modified of course with a resistor and all I have to do is re-solder the 4 wires back onto their original pins and then fill the entire casing with 400 degree SureBonder PDR Hot Glue (the worlds strongest known hot glue, according to them anyway lol)... That way it looks and feels like a true manufactured store bought cable. However, doing it my way is still in fact more work, but the end result clearly justifies it.
Anyway, again glad I could be of service to you and my fellow XDA friends.
Where do I run the command from?
The3rdEye said:
Where do I run the command from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23747804&postcount=3
smoen02 said:
About 3 weeks ago, I bricked my Kindle Fire. It was a "spare" that I had, so I started messing around with it. Got TWRP installed, downloaded a couple of ROMS, and attempted to install them. (fortunately, I made a backup of my base Amazon 6.2)
To make a long story short, the fire got stuck. I was able to adb and various other things on this forum to keep things going, but after a while, Kindle Fire Utility (adb, nothing) could see the device. I thought for sure I had an expensive paper weight.
Enter the factory cable. Because SkOrPn was in the middle of a move, my cable didn't get here right away. Then there were some issues with my PayPal address, which SkOrPn went out of his way to fix. Today, I got the cable at my office.
Looked at the cable. Thought I had been send an unmodified cable. Saw no evidence that anything had been done to the cable. An absolutely perfect professional job.
Couldn't wait to get home. Got home. Plugged cable in Fire, then in Laptop. Nothing. Now what? I thought it was supposed to boot the bootloader? adb didn't see the device. Drivers good, it sees my other Fire. I guess I was one of those 1% that hard brick the fire with no chance of getting it back.
Did a few searched on the forum. Found how to install TWRP on my device. I thought I had it already? Ran the commands. Nothing. Switched to regular cable. Nothing. I figured I was screwed. I unplugged the Fire. connected the factory cable. Ran the command. THEN hooked up the cable. JOY JOY JOY!! i GOT TWRP loaded!!!!
Restored my previously saved image, and now I have a working Kindle Fire. NOW i'm going to install some other ROM on it.
The moral is, never give up. Buy a factory cable!!! One of the things I've ever spent $15 or so on. And I recommend SkOrPn as your source. Quality work, great customer service!!!
Step-by-step
1) Make sure you have some charge left in your bricked Kindle. (one of my mistakes
2) Download "Kindle Fire Utility" or other utility that has the fastboot.exe command available.
3) Download twrp-blaze-2.0.0RC0.img (just google it)
4) Without connecting anything, run the command:
fastboot.exe -i 0x1949 boot twrp-blaze-2.0.0RC0.img
5) Connect the factory cable to your Kindle Fire
6) Connect the factory cable to you PC
7) Wait about 10 seconds.
8) DONE!!!!
Sorry for the long post. My wife doesn't understand why this would make me so excited. But you all would, I'm sure.
SteveM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there,
Where should I run that command from??
Here´s my case, I hope you could help me..
I need urgent help. Just got my kindle todasy and went through tutorial to use the rooting utitily. My kindle got stuck at loading screen and wouldn´t shut shutdown. I waited until the battery ran out. Waited for few more minutes and plugged in the data cable. The kindle now won´t stop blinking and does not get reckgonized by the pc. I did waited for the battery goes dead again, recharged then for about 30 min and nothing has changed. The loading screen keeps blinking and nothing seems to be happening. Please advise!!
andersonrel said:
Hi there,
Where should I run that command from??
Here´s my case, I hope you could help me..
I need urgent help. Just got my kindle todasy and went through tutorial to use the rooting utitily. My kindle got stuck at loading screen and wouldn´t shut shutdown. I waited until the battery ran out. Waited for few more minutes and plugged in the data cable. The kindle now won´t stop blinking and does not get reckgonized by the pc. I did waited for the battery goes dead again, recharged then for about 30 min and nothing has changed. The loading screen keeps blinking and nothing seems to be happening. Please advise!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh boy... I'm going to hope that it was a timing issue and our posts got crossed, because I answered your question for another user just above your post.
Regardless, the answer to that question isn't going to help you. You need this...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1621146
Never let your battery die like you did. You can always force a shutdown by keeping the power button pressed down for 20-30 seconds.
EDIT: I'd been meaning to post this guide for a while...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1623244
and I missed the part of your post about being "stuck at loading screen" the first time I read it. I suggest you read this guide...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1552547
make sure the device drivers are working (part 2) and learn some fastboot commands (part 3) so you can reset the bootmode on your device back to normal and reboot it.
kinfauns said:
Oh boy... I'm going to hope that it was a timing issue and our posts got crossed, because I answered your question for another user just above your post.
Regardless, the answer to that question isn't going to help you. You need this...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1621146
Never let your battery die like you did. You can always force a shutdown by keeping the power button pressed down for 20-30 seconds.
EDIT: I'd been meaning to post this guide for a while...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1623244
and I missed the part of your post about being "stuck at loading screen" the first time I read it. I suggest you read this guide...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1552547
make sure the device drivers are working (part 2) and learn some fastboot commands (part 3) so you can reset the bootmode on your device back to normal and reboot it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help. I tried to run a fastboot command and get msg: ´cannot run, adbwin.dll missing´... Now I´m really not sure what it´s missing anymore..
I´m going also leave it charging for longer and it seems to be a known issue, right?
My kindle continues not being reckognized and keeps on flashing the kindle Fire/Android Logo. When I unplug it it stops flashing and I won´t get any sigh of life, even after pressing the button for longer than 30s.
I managed to find the driver on device manager and uninstalled it, thinking that maybe it would help finding the device again, but it didn´t...
Recomendations please?
andersonrel said:
Thanks for your help. I tried to run a fastboot command and get msg: ´cannot run, adbwin.dll missing´... Now I´m really not sure what it´s missing anymore..
I´m going also leave it charging for longer and it seems to be a known issue, right?
My kindle continues not being reckognized and keeps on flashing the kindle Fire/Android Logo. When I unplug it it stops flashing and I won´t get any sigh of life, even after pressing the button for longer than 30s.
I managed to find the driver on device manager and uninstalled it, thinking that maybe it would help finding the device again, but it didn´t...
Recomendations please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, if the device isn't booting up, it won't charge. Like the guide I posted above says, the device needs to load up a ramdisk before it will charge. If all you see is that KF/Android logo, then it's still in the bootloader and it's not charging your battery.
First, you'll have to get your drivers in order so you can send the device fastboot commands. I suggest you disconnect the KF from your computer and make sure it's turned off. Use the KFU driver install file and get it to install the drivers again onto your machine. I'm not sure if it will help, but it wouldn't hurt to reboot your computer after that. When it's back up and running again, open up the device manager. When you connect the KF back up to your computer, it should automatically power up again... look at what device comes up as it boots. The first thing you see (hopefully) is "Android Phone -> Android ADB Interface" appear. If you see that, you can be reasonably sure you can send it fastboot commands.
You'll have to issue the "fastboot oem idme bootmode 4000" on the command line. It will tell you that it's waiting for device... The next time it loops back around in its boot up process, it will send the command and hopefully get the bootmode back to normal. Then hook it up to your stock AC wall charger and if you are lucky it should continue to boot and charge your battery.
There's a lot of "hopefully" things that have to go right for this to work. You've got a few compounded issues that are giving you problems and all of them have to get fixed for the battery to start charging again.
andersonrel said:
Thanks for your help. I tried to run a fastboot command and get msg: ´cannot run, adbwin.dll missing´... Now I´m really not sure what it´s missing anymore..
I´m going also leave it charging for longer and it seems to be a known issue, right?
My kindle continues not being reckognized and keeps on flashing the kindle Fire/Android Logo. When I unplug it it stops flashing and I won´t get any sigh of life, even after pressing the button for longer than 30s.
I managed to find the driver on device manager and uninstalled it, thinking that maybe it would help finding the device again, but it didn´t...
Recomendations please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To fix the "cannot run, adbwin.dll missing", shift + right click on the folder containing adb.exe and select something like "Run as Command"
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire using xda premium
soupmagnet said:
To fix the "cannot run, adbwin.dll missing", shift + right click on the folder containing adb.exe and select something like "Run as Command"
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I´m gonna try this and will post results. Thanks a lot.
kinfauns said:
Unfortunately, if the device isn't booting up, it won't charge. Like the guide I posted above says, the device needs to load up a ramdisk before it will charge. If all you see is that KF/Android logo, then it's still in the bootloader and it's not charging your battery.
First, you'll have to get your drivers in order so you can send the device fastboot commands. I suggest you disconnect the KF from your computer and make sure it's turned off. Use the KFU driver install file and get it to install the drivers again onto your machine. I'm not sure if it will help, but it wouldn't hurt to reboot your computer after that. When it's back up and running again, open up the device manager. When you connect the KF back up to your computer, it should automatically power up again... look at what device comes up as it boots. The first thing you see (hopefully) is "Android Phone -> Android ADB Interface" appear. If you see that, you can be reasonably sure you can send it fastboot commands.
You'll have to issue the "fastboot oem idme bootmode 4000" on the command line. It will tell you that it's waiting for device... The next time it loops back around in its boot up process, it will send the command and hopefully get the bootmode back to normal. Then hook it up to your stock AC wall charger and if you are lucky it should continue to boot and charge your battery.
There's a lot of "hopefully" things that have to go right for this to work. You've got a few compounded issues that are giving you problems and all of them have to get fixed for the battery to start charging again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried to connect to a different pc. It does get recognized on device manager (as kindle) for few seconds and then it dissapears again...not sure what to do now in order to charge it...any suggestions?
Hey guys thanks for all the help so far, i bricked my kindle to the point of no shell after i tried to reflash the stock rom and was stuck in no mans land. So i ordered skorpn's factory cable (thanks again for sending it up north of the border) and when i plug it into the pc it loads the "kindle fire" screen ans stays there. It shows up in device manager but not when i look for it under adb devices and device won't be found in fastboot. Tried reinstalling the drivers and still no luck. Any ideas how i can get this thing back to the point of usability? Thanks for any help you have
andersonrel said:
I tried to connect to a different pc. It does get recognized on device manager (as kindle) for few seconds and then it dissapears again...not sure what to do now in order to charge it...any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fix your drivers. Read this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=23747671
djsaxon said:
Hey guys thanks for all the help so far, i bricked my kindle to the point of no shell after i tried to reflash the stock rom and was stuck in no mans land. So i ordered skorpn's factory cable (thanks again for sending it up north of the border) and when i plug it into the pc it loads the "kindle fire" screen ans stays there. It shows up in device manager but not when i look for it under adb devices and device won't be found in fastboot. Tried reinstalling the drivers and still no luck. Any ideas how i can get this thing back to the point of usability? Thanks for any help you have
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, fix your drivers:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=23747671
Then:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25400963
kinfauns said:
You'll have to issue the "fastboot oem idme bootmode 4000" on the command line. It will tell you that it's waiting for device... The next time it loops back around in its boot up process, it will send the command and hopefully get the bootmode back to normal. Then hook it up to your stock AC wall charger and if you are lucky it should continue to boot and charge your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I gave this a shot and it said: "finished. total time: 0.080s"
but it's still just flashing the android logo with kindle fire underneath.
maw230 said:
Well I gave this a shot and it said: "finished. total time: 0.080s"
but it's still just flashing the android logo with kindle fire underneath.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because you have an entirely different problem.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25400963
soupmagnet said:
That's because you have an entirely different problem.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25400963
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you.
hey i can't doing that, when i type that code "fastboot..........img" cmd say <Waiting for devices> ?
jakelongryan said:
hey i can't doing that, when i type that code "fastboot..........img" cmd say <Waiting for devices> ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are several reasons why you would get the typical "waiting for device" message, so...
...here is a step-by-step guide instruct you in getting it working properly, quickly and efficiently.
Step 1. Start a new thread in the Q&A section.
Step 2. Explain in GREAT detail exactly what your problem is.
Step 3. Explain in GREAT detail exactly how your problem started.
Step 4. Explain in GREAT detail exactly what you have done to remedy the situation on your own.
Step 5. Explain in GREAT detail exactly what the device does and everything you see from the moment you press the power button until the problem presents itself.
Step 6. Wait patiently until someone of appropriate knowledge is kind enough to lend a hand.
soupmagnet said:
There are several reasons why you would get the typical "waiting for device" message, so...
...here is a step-by-step guide instruct you in getting it working properly, quickly and efficiently.
Step 1. Start a new thread in the Q&A section.
Step 2. Explain in GREAT detail exactly what your problem is.
Step 3. Explain in GREAT detail exactly how your problem started.
Step 4. Explain in GREAT detail exactly what you have done to remedy the situation on your own.
Step 5. Explain in GREAT detail exactly what the device does and everything you see from the moment you press the power button until the problem presents itself.
Step 6. Wait patiently until someone of appropriate knowledge is kind enough to lend a hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great advice and exactly what im gonna do. been searching for 2 weeks now reading and learning and still stuck so be looking out for my thread
Okay, I have been through this board several times and googled it, but maybe I am not searching for the right thing and I would find it hard to believe that my situation is unique. Anyways I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
On to the issue, I connected my kindle fire tried to install TWRP, but it froze and I was stuck on the Kindle Fire Logo so after exhaustive searching I went with the USB Shorting Trick, so then I was able to get TWRP up and running. The only issue is that now I can only get the kindle fire to boot up when connected via USB and using Firekit LiveUSB. One out of 25 times I can actually get it to go into ICS, but as soon as I power it off, then there is no power light and it won't reboot unless using Firekit LiveUSB.
Anybody have any ideas or solution that has worked.
Thanks in advance.
thequietone said:
Okay, I have been through this board several times and googled it, but maybe I am not searching for the right thing and I would find it hard to believe that my situation is unique. Anyways I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
On to the issue, I connected my kindle fire tried to install TWRP, but it froze and I was stuck on the Kindle Fire Logo so after exhaustive searching I went with the USB Shorting Trick, so then I was able to get TWRP up and running. The only issue is that now I can only get the kindle fire to boot up when connected via USB and using Firekit LiveUSB. One out of 25 times I can actually get it to go into ICS, but as soon as I power it off, then there is no power light and it won't reboot unless using Firekit LiveUSB.
Anybody have any ideas or solution that has worked.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you opening up the case each time you use usbboot?
What Firekit script are you using to boot the device?
What happens when it fails to fully boot in to the system?
Is your battery charged?
usbboot only loads a bootloader into memory temporarily. Once you've got the device booted, you need to flash a new bootloader permanently onto the device. I suggest FFF 1.4a...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1632375
usb boot only
Nope I only opened the case the one time, now it's closed and it won't boot without being plugged in and executing usb_install_fff_twrp or usb_boot_twrp. I have tried flashing with TWRP several times fff 1.4a to no avail when it goes to reboot, it won't show anything on the screen and there is no power light on, yet I know the device is working because I can connect the USB and run one of the usb scripts and it works.
I am using Firekit LiveUSB 1.1.
I am not sure how to answer the fully boot into the system since nothing happens, no power light and nothing on the screen when I attempt to turn it on.
I have flashed it several times with TWRP and I would have thought that a reboot when TWRP says it's done would have worked.
The battery is fully charged.
Get it booted temporarily disconnect the battery then reconnect it let it continue to charge via usb maybe it will correct your problem. Or replace your system with something stock like without going fully stock paul has a new release http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1439916 good luck
usb boot only
So unplugging the battery while plugged in via USB doesn't work, however I am able to get it to boot into ICS I just have to unplug the USB right after the script says Flash FFF... That would lead me to believe it's a problem with the boot loader, but I have tried several times to flash it with fff-u-boot_v1.4a.zip with no luck.
thequietone said:
Nope I only opened the case the one time, now it's closed and it won't boot without being plugged in and executing usb_install_fff_twrp or usb_boot_twrp. I have tried flashing with TWRP several times fff 1.4a to no avail when it goes to reboot, it won't show anything on the screen and there is no power light on, yet I know the device is working because I can connect the USB and run one of the usb scripts and it works.
I am using Firekit LiveUSB 1.1.
I am not sure how to answer the fully boot into the system since nothing happens, no power light and nothing on the screen when I attempt to turn it on.
I have flashed it several times with TWRP and I would have thought that a reboot when TWRP says it's done would have worked.
The battery is fully charged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The fact that you are able to use those scripts indicates you are in usbboot mode (4003) or the hardware is defaulting to usbboot on its own which probably indicates that something about your bootloaders is a little off...
Try using the "fix all" script (I don't recall the exact name). This will return your partition table back to stock and then flash both the 1st and 2nd stage bootloaders.
Also try flashing FFF 1.4a again with TWRP and take note of the output it gives you if it fails.
usb boot only
Successfully ran the usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp
Then installed fff 1.4a and the output was
finding update package...
opening update package...
installing update...
FireFireFire 1.4a Originally By Pokey9000 and Modified by Hashcode
Checking sha1sum of boot loader file...
Check passed.
Attempting to Write Bootloader...
Done!
E:Cannot load volume /misc!
Did a reboot and it still only will boot back up with the USB
thequietone said:
Successfully ran the usb_fix_parts_and_install_fff_twrp
Then installed fff 1.4a and the output was
finding update package...
opening update package...
installing update...
FireFireFire 1.4a Originally By Pokey9000 and Modified by Hashcode
Checking sha1sum of boot loader file...
Check passed.
Attempting to Write Bootloader...
Done!
E:Cannot load volume /misc!
Did a reboot and it still only will boot back up with the USB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See if you can set the bootmode back to normal and reboot it. Running as root...
Code:
usbboot /root/firekit/aboot.bin /root/firekit/u-boot.bin; fastboot oem idme bootmode 4000; fastboot reboot
usb boot only
Tried connecting to PC running UBUNTU and ran the USBBOOT command and got nothing, so I powered off and ran the command and then reconnected the cable and ran the USBBOOT command and got the <waiting for device> after the sending image to target, then few seconds later got the FAILED (remote failure)
thequietone said:
Tried connecting to PC running UBUNTU and ran the USBBOOT command and got nothing, so I powered off and ran the command and then reconnected the cable and ran the USBBOOT command and got the <waiting for device> after the sending image to target, then few seconds later got the FAILED (remote failure)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ever have Hashcode's CWM recovery installed on your device or have you always used TWRP?
Have you run those Firekit scripts again after you installed FFF 1.4a?
The only other thing I can think of is that your device's bootmode is set to USB boot and that's why it doesn't load up the bootloader already installed on your Kindle Fire. It's seems to be waiting for you to use usbboot to send it a bootloader. Get to TWRP again, flash FFF 1.4a and run these adb command to set the bootmode to 4000 and reboot...
Code:
adb shell idme bootmode 4000
adb reboot
The problem is I can't get FFF 1.4a installed. When I try to do it via TWRP which is the only utility I have tried it appears to load successfully, but when I do the reboot, the screen won't come on and there is no power light. So I hold down the power button for the 20 seconds then run the FireKit commands hook up the USB and it boots back up, but won't boot on it's own.
Have you found a fix yet? I may have a solution from my experience with mine, which was bricked beyond imaginable (don't ask how ). I was able to install FFF+TWRP and restore to stock perfectly fine.
It boots into ICS if I connect the USB cord. From there I am able to run everything, including ADB commands etc, however from trying to flash FFF 1.4a to resetting the boot mode has failed. Was even able to boot from USB with FFF 1.4a.
So the short story it's still not working. If you power off, it won't come back without the help of doing a usb boot.
thequietone said:
It boots into ICS if I connect the USB cord. From there I am able to run everything, including ADB commands etc, however from trying to flash FFF 1.4a to resetting the boot mode has failed. Was even able to boot from USB with FFF 1.4a.
So the short story it's still not working. If you power off, it won't come back without the help of doing a usb boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You didn't answer the question of whether or not you've used Hashcode's CWMR.
From TWRP, run these commands...
Code:
adb shell idme ?
adb shell parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 unit b print
and paste the output here.
Also, if you can load ICS, download/install smirkit...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1500935
and try to install FFF 1.4a that way. Using smirkit will raw write the bootloader image directly onto the partition.
Here is the screen shot. Couldn't get smirkit installed.
Did this ever get resolved? I am in the same boat. The only way I could get my KF to boot up was to use the USB short trick, but now, it won't let me go back to turning it on the normal way. It requires USB boot every time. Please help!!!
Still Unresolved
Nope I am still having the same issue. Right now, I just try to keep it charged hoping it won't die, because if it does then I have to USB boot to get it back up and running
dmp2007 said:
Did this ever get resolved? I am in the same boat. The only way I could get my KF to boot up was to use the USB short trick, but now, it won't let me go back to turning it on the normal way. It requires USB boot every time. Please help!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
shoot, I was going to flash the bootloader tonight hoping that would fix it, but it looks like you've already tried that and it didn't work. Did your, or anyone else's, happen to stop responding to touch after the usb short as well? Using USB boot, i can get to the unlock (or recovery, touch doesnt work there either), but the screen doesn't respond to my touch. I know it isn't freezing because the clock still updates.
I haven't heard of it responding to touch. Mine works perfectly except for always having to USB Boot if it dies or if someone holds down the power button too long.
QUOTE=dmp2007;28967427]shoot, I was going to flash the bootloader tonight hoping that would fix it, but it looks like you've already tried that and it didn't work. Did your, or anyone else's, happen to stop responding to touch after the usb short as well? Using USB boot, i can get to the unlock (or recovery, touch doesnt work there either), but the screen doesn't respond to my touch. I know it isn't freezing because the clock still updates.[/QUOTE]
I too get this, I've been through what feels like every thread on here about this, only a few of these show up as the 'usb boot only' though and they all end in no answer. I have tried all forms of partitioning up to and including dd'n the p1.img over top of xloader and p2.img on top of bootloader.
With usb, i can go back fully stock (however, even fully stock wont boot without usb boot.. so its got to be busted xloader or bootloader), i can get TWRP installed, any ROM and its all usable.. until as OP said.. power out or reboot needed. It's bothering me enough just wanting to fix it I keep rebreaking perfectly good installs thinking some nugget I found/missed re-reading endless posts is the one.. just in case someone else comes through with this, here are my findings:
happened to me as originally I bricked to the point had to crack it open and short it to get it to boot via usb, finally working well using liveUSB firekit. However, from that point on, would NEVER boot on its own, and would NEVER shutdown/reboot without needing 20-30s of power button molestation. perhaps this is left over issue of the pin short... dunno
Once i figured out I could usbboot, basically went on with everything as normal. recovery, roms, back to stock, back to rom, etc etc. What seemingly never works, or simply oui can never get to, is the bootloader. All indications that I have known/been able to check seem to think its iinstalling, perhaps we are just never making it to it (xloader death)
So then I went crazy and tried everything from adb/fastboot raw on Mac, windows and linux, setting bootmode to 4000 every way with every tool listed on this site possible.. no joy.. usbboot is a must. Tried zeroing the mmcblk0p1/p2 and writing good versions on top, nothing.
Current state.. if I, via adb/fastboot/twrp/recovery do a reboot or shutdown.. the kindle shuts down screen and led's only (sometimes even leaving the green power light on, but almost ALWAYS just all black, but not off) .. dmesg notes that its stuck in a usb connect/disconnect loop, with an error:
new high-speed USB device number 33 using ehci_hcd
unable to get BOS descriptor
New USB device found, idVendor=0451, idProduct=d00f
New USB device strings: Mfr=33, Product=37, SerialNumber=0
Product: OMAP4430
Manufacturer: Texas Instruments
USB disconnect, device number 33
rinse, repeat, about every 3 seconds.
As you can see, BOS descriptor can't be found.. which is just a little stupid because the port its plugged into is 2.0
bcdUSB 2.00
but maybe there is still something there? not changing any port though, usbboot has no problem.
I sniffed the traffic of the usb bus while plugging in the USB cable after shutting down via 30 second hold, and its pretty much the same thing, just bouncing the connection before it has time to get started.. so it seems to be hitting this "issue" both on shutdown/reboot and startup. As I can't really tell, with usb being the only way for me to talk to the KF, I can only assume after a hard shutdown when I push the button again its probably doing the same thing (no lights, no screen), but I can confirm once I plug in the usb and it tries to boot itself.
Only sort of difference is sometimes it can go down into the dark reboot and I am able to run usbboot and it comes back up (usb never unplugged) but its been sporadic so I haven't chased it.
At this point I just want to figure out exactly what bit needs flipped in the front somewhere so I can reboot my KF like all the cool kids so I'll probably keep hacking on this issue until I really really brick it or hopefully help comes along or I figure it out myself. One good sign is I know have completely working dev/hack environments on OSX, win7, liveusb ubuntu AND linux mint debian so, I guess that is something.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE USBBOOT ONLY PEOPLE!! one love. =P
I got this kindle fire that I am trying to fix for my kid. I don't know what firmware was in. The KF has never been rooted. We tried to call Amazon for a replacement, but since I didn't remember which email account was tied to this KF and I couldn't find the Serial Number either, I got stuck with it. If could make this device to boot one more time to see the amazon account or the serial number that will be great.
Well anyways, these are the symptoms. After lots of hours of reading about bricked Kindle Fires I decided to order a factory cable suspecting the problem was a low battery KF going into a 5 second loop. The process went good. I was able to flash FFF 1.4a and TWRP 2.2.2.1 by going into fastboot mode, but the problem is that the KF does not want to start in recovery mode, nor in normal mode.
At this point, I think I can rule out a battery low problem, but I am not sure.
No matter what I do, I cannot enter to adb mode, and this is the real problem I don't seem to find an answer. If there was a way that I could upload the firmware from fastboot mode or a tool that forces recovery mode.
As I said this KF was always stock until today that I tried to unbrick it by installing the FFF and the TWRP. The TWRP never started.
As I said earlier my only objective at this point is to recover the serial number or the account email associated with my KF.
Question 2, how can I revert to the stock bootloader if everything else fails?
Any suggestions, links, ideas will be welcome.
gwmadrigal said:
I got this kindle fire that I am trying to fix for my kid. I don't know what firmware was in. The KF has never been rooted. We tried to call Amazon for a replacement, but since I didn't remember which email account was tied to this KF and I couldn't find the Serial Number either, I got stuck with it. If could make this device to boot one more time to see the amazon account or the serial number that will be great.
Well anyways, these are the symptoms. After lots of hours of reading about bricked Kindle Fires I decided to order a factory cable suspecting the problem was a low battery KF going into a 5 second loop. The process went good. I was able to flash FFF 1.4a and TWRP 2.2.2.1 by going into fastboot mode, but the problem is that the KF does not want to start in recovery mode, nor in normal mode.
At this point, I think I can rule out a battery low problem, but I am not sure.
No matter what I do, I cannot enter to adb mode, and this is the real problem I don't seem to find an answer. If there was a way that I could upload the firmware from fastboot mode or a tool that forces recovery mode.
As I said this KF was always stock until today that I tried to unbrick it by installing the FFF and the TWRP. The TWRP never started.
As I said earlier my only objective at this point is to recover the serial number or the account email associated with my KF.
Question 2, how can I revert to the stock bootloader if everything else fails?
Any suggestions, links, ideas will be welcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to ask this question but do you know how to access recovery by using the power button to get the boot menu then selecting recovery? If you are using the boot menu to attempt to access recovery and its not cooperating it`s possible that points to a broken bootloader or a broken recovery. When you flashed both fff and twrp did you see that it sent and physically wrote each one? maybe explain how you flashed them so we can see if a error was made there. What level do you believe the battery is at? Possible it could be playing a role in your present issue.
Thepooch said:
I hate to ask this question but do you know how to access recovery by using the power button to get the boot menu then selecting recovery? If you are using the boot menu to attempt to access recovery and its not cooperating it`s possible that points to a broken bootloader or a broken recovery. When you flashed both fff and twrp did you see that it sent and physically wrote each one? maybe explain how you flashed them so we can see if a error was made there. What level do you believe the battery is at? Possible it could be playing a role in your present issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done a lot of experiments with my SGS2 about installing ROMS using ODIN or CWR, backing up my own images and making backups. Most of the work I do though is in CWR. I haven't dealt with TWR yet. I also installed ICS on my HP Touchpad. So, even though this is the first time I deal with the KF, I already some experience working with ROMS and images.
Back to the process. I installed the FFF using the Kindle Fire Utility. The KF was forced to fastboot mode via the factory cable. At first I could see on the KF splash screen with the black and orange logo, and now the KF is booting using a Black and Blue kindle fire logo with 1.4a on top. At the bottom of the splash I see instructions of the bootloader selector indicating to press the power button and select the mode that I want to boot. Either Normal Mode or Recovery Mode.
I flashed the TWRP 2.2.2.1 in fastboot mode using my command prompt by putting this code:
Code:
fastboot -i 0x1949 flash recovery [path]\openrecovery-twrp-2.2.2.1-blaze.img
I was following the instructions on this guide.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1638452
I got stuck on step 3 after attempting to boot into recovery mode.
I can select which boot mode I want to go, but none of them work. I only get on the bottom of the screen saying Booting... and then the KF shuts down.
I suspect the battery had a good level of charge, but I can't tell for sure.
Thanks for everything.
Download TWRP again, check the md5, reinstall, and post whatever error messages (if any) that are in your command window here.
In the meantime, enter the following command and let me know what happens after you reboot.
Code:
fastboot oem idme bootmode 5001
fastboot reboot
soupmagnet said:
Download TWRP again, check the md5, reinstall, and post whatever error messages (if any) that are in your command window here.
In the meantime, enter the following command and let me know what happens after you reboot.
Code:
fastboot oem idme bootmode 5001
fastboot reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All commands were successful.
When I'm doing instead of the fastboot reboot is to remove the factory cable. Shutdown the KF by holding the power button. Then I connect a regular USB cable. The KF starts the boot process. It enters the first splash screen. Then it moves to booting, but the booting fails. The only thing that I see is that the button light turns from green to yellow and then it shuts down. And the boot process starts again going into a boot loop.
gwmadrigal said:
All commands were successful.
When I'm doing instead of the fastboot reboot is to remove the factory cable. Shutdown the KF by holding the power button. Then I connect a regular USB cable. The KF starts the boot process. It enters the first splash screen. Then it moves to booting, but the booting fails. The only thing that I see is that the button light turns from green to yellow and then it shuts down. And the boot process starts again going into a boot loop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What happens when you change the bootmode to 5001?
soupmagnet said:
What happens when you change the bootmode to 5001?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It accepts the command.
The command prompt responds saying something like it took 0. something seconds to execute the command.
Thanks for reading my thread.
If upon rebooting, the result is the same after changing the bootmode, it is possible the bootloader isn't working properly. If that's the case, flashing a new bootloader (with md5 verified) might not work, but it's worth a shot.
If that doesn't work, you should be able to change the bootmode to USBboot (4003) and use Firekit to replace the bootloader, but that's speaking theoretically. I've never tried it so I couldn't tell you whether it would work or not. But then you could always pull the back cover off the device and use the shorting trick to use Firekit in USBboot.
If installing a bootloader with the Firekit doesn't work, you're likely looking at a hardware issue, and there's not much we can do about that.
soupmagnet said:
1. If upon rebooting, the result is the same after changing the bootmode, it is possible the bootloader isn't working properly. If that's the case, flashing a new bootloader (with md5 verified) might not work, but it's worth a shot.
2. If that doesn't work, you should be able to change the bootmode to USBboot (4003) and use Firekit to replace the bootloader, but that's speaking theoretically. I've never tried it so I couldn't tell you whether it would work or not. But then you could always pull the back cover off the device and use the shorting trick to use Firekit in USBboot.
3. If installing a bootloader with the Firekit doesn't work, you're likely looking at a hardware issue, and there's not much we can do about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2 sounds too complicated. I will need to read more.
I'm at work. I am going to try number 1 when I get home.
One more question, how can I revert the KF so when the it boots it shows the original orange white logo?
Thanks for everything.
gwmadrigal said:
2 sounds too complicated. I will need to read more.
I'm at work. I am going to try number 1 when I get home.
One more question, how can I revert the KF so when the it boots it shows the original orange white logo?
Thanks for everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have any questions about using Firekit, don't be afraid to ask.
Get your device working properly before attempting to revert the bootloader back to stock. Contrary to what you may think, the custom bootloader is much better for you in this situation.
gwmadrigal said:
All commands were successful.
When I'm doing instead of the fastboot reboot is to remove the factory cable. Shutdown the KF by holding the power button. Then I connect a regular USB cable. The KF starts the boot process. It enters the first splash screen. Then it moves to booting, but the booting fails. The only thing that I see is that the button light turns from green to yellow and then it shuts down. And the boot process starts again going into a boot loop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect your battery is still depleted because it still sounds like a 5 second boot loop. Try this hold the power button down till it`s off and plug it to your pc for a few hours to see if you cannot get some power to your battery.
Thepooch said:
I suspect your battery is still depleted because it still sounds like a 5 second boot loop. Try this hold the power button down till it`s off and plug it to your pc for a few hours to see if you cannot get some power to your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that would be the case if the device just rebooted. The OP is saying the device shuts down when FFF starts to load the operating system (Booting...) or recovery, which is why I think it is either the bootloader or some hardware issue.
soupmagnet said:
If you have any questions about using Firekit, don't be afraid to ask.
Get your device working properly before attempting to revert the bootloader back to stock. Contrary to what you may think, the custom bootloader is much better for you in this situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried reloading the u-boot using fastboot and the upload was successful. But it's doing exactly the same.I guess my only question right now, do you know of any good guide that I should start reading to get my feet wet on what the firekit is and how to get started?
Thepooch said:
I suspect your battery is still depleted because it still sounds like a 5 second boot loop. Try this hold the power button down till it`s off and plug it to your pc for a few hours to see if you cannot get some power to your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have nothing to lose. This KF is already bricked. I can certainly try anything. Which cable do you suggest I use? the Factory cable or the USB cable?
I think I answered my own question now. Using a regular USB cable puts the KF in the bootloop. I will use the factory cable instead. I shut down the KF, put the factory cable connected to my computer and the KF. Right now the KF is in the KindleFire splash screen waiting for fastboot commands of for me to use the button to tell it which mode to boot. I will leave it plug overnight.
Thanks for replying on my thread and trying to help me.
soupmagnet said:
I think that would be the case if the device just rebooted. The OP is saying the device shuts down when FFF starts to load the operating system (Booting...) or recovery, which is why I think it is either the bootloader or some hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I posted a video in utube of what the KF is doing, so you can see what I'm seeing.
Link
Thanks for coming back several times to reply on my thread.
That looks like your battery. From what I can tell, the device is just rebooting, not shutting down.
Unplug the device and hold the power button to perform a hard shutdown.
Plug the device in (it should power up on it's own) and hold the power button to shut it down again.
Leave it plugged into the computer until sometime tomorrow and try again.
Same thing I was thinking 5 second bootloop Thank you the video was very helpful to see just how its acting. Use stock cable to charge not factory.
OKay. I'm glad I came to check the thread one more time before going to bed. I removed the factory cable and put the regular usb instead. The KF was rebooting. I shut down the KF by holding the power button without unplugging the cable. Now the KF appears to be shut down, but the cable is still plugged. The yellow light does not appear as it normally would if it was charging though. I don't know if this is normal.
gwmadrigal said:
OKay. I'm glad I came to check the thread one more time before going to bed. I removed the factory cable and put the regular usb instead. The KF was rebooting. I shut down the KF by holding the power button without unplugging the cable. Now the KF appears to be shut down, but the cable is still plugged. The yellow light does not appear as it normally would if it was charging though. I don't know if this is normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're fine let it rest.
Hi there!
I think I may have bricked my Fire TV Stick 1 (bought at launch in Germany)...
Current situation:
- stick turns on, shows white amazon logo on black background
- continuously rebooting; ~5s black screen, ~5s amazon logo
After months not having it used, I found out I may be able to root it by now. So I did research over the vast amount of threads and posts and was overwhelmed by the information... So I tried to get started but struggled to find the right steps and therefore maybe failed.
I updated it to 5.0.5 (stock) and tried King Root, then Kingo Root, which was a success.
I tried to use the TWRP 3.0.0-7 v2 zip and used the sh command from the respective thread (I thought that was it, since all my devices before used either TWRP or CWM).
To this point, all went through and I wanted to reboot into recovery, but there was only this generic (stock?) red text recovery screen. I waited to be sure, nothing happened and I unplugged it to reboot.
It booted fine and I reflashed the TWRP zip, in case I didn't do it properly. Again it did as expected.
I then pushed the latest prerooted 5.2.0.1 zip and rebooted to recovery, but again this generic screen, so I unplugged it early, I think.
From there on, I got stuck at the white amazon logo, see above.
I did not unlock the bootloader, adb shell confirmed it not being unlocked before.
During bootloops, I did not manage to get any control via adb or fastboot.
So, is it bricked once and for all? If not, how can I save it?
I don't care about anything stored on it.
I also have a Y-USB-OTG cable and connected a keyboard before, but could not interfere yet.
(If bricked, would a Teensy be of any use? I have one from CCast rooting days)
Thanks for reading and in advance.
I had same problem with my fire stick when used the USB power of my TV.
Did you try to power the fire stick TV with the power point and USB adapter?
l_aios said:
Hi there!
I think I may have bricked my Fire TV Stick 1 (bought at launch in Germany)...
Current situation:
- stick turns on, shows white amazon logo on black background
- continuously rebooting; ~5s black screen, ~5s amazon logo
After months not having it used, I found out I may be able to root it by now. So I did research over the vast amount of threads and posts and was overwhelmed by the information... So I tried to get started but struggled to find the right steps and therefore maybe failed.
I updated it to 5.0.5 (stock) and tried King Root, then Kingo Root, which was a success.
I tried to use the TWRP 3.0.0-7 v2 zip and used the sh command from the respective thread (I thought that was it, since all my devices before used either TWRP or CWM).
To this point, all went through and I wanted to reboot into recovery, but there was only this generic (stock?) red text recovery screen. I waited to be sure, nothing happened and I unplugged it to reboot.
It booted fine and I reflashed the TWRP zip, in case I didn't do it properly. Again it did as expected.
I then pushed the latest prerooted 5.2.0.1 zip and rebooted to recovery, but again this generic screen, so I unplugged it early, I think.
From there on, I got stuck at the white amazon logo, see above.
I did not unlock the bootloader, adb shell confirmed it not being unlocked before.
During bootloops, I did not manage to get any control via adb or fastboot.
So, is it bricked once and for all? If not, how can I save it?
I don't care about anything stored on it.
I also have a Y-USB-OTG cable and connected a keyboard before, but could not interfere yet.
(If bricked, would a Teensy be of any use? I have one from CCast rooting days)
Thanks for reading and in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess you did not read enough.
At this point in time you can only root (kingoroot or kingroot) and replace root with SuperSu on a Firestick. TWRP (recovery) can not be installed because it was not released by rbox as of yet, that particular recovery\pre-rooted image is for firetv1 upgraded to OS5 and not for firestick.
Sorry man.
Have you tried to connect to a computer via USB and run kingoroot or kingroot for windows (whatever you used)? It is a small chance that will recover but it is a slim one....
mjnman said:
I had same problem with my fire stick when used the USB power of my TV.
Did you try to power the fire stick TV with the power point and USB adapter?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could not remember, so I just retried it with two different chargers and two different cables (both used to power my Nexus 5).
Unfortunately resulting in the very same loop... But thanks nonetheless.
bula1ca said:
I guess you did not read enough.
At this point in time you can only root (kingoroot or kingroot) and replace root with SuperSu on a Firestick. TWRP (recovery) can not be installed because it was not released by rbox as of yet, that particular recovery\pre-rooted image is for firetv1 upgraded to OS5 and not for firestick.
Sorry man.
Have you tried to connect to a computer via USB and run kingoroot or kingroot for windows (whatever you used)? It is a small chance that will recover but it is a slim one....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dang... Usually I don't make mistakes this dumb. Guess I learned my first lesson. I'll try to trace my mistake though, for future attempts.
I rooted it with the Kingo app, I think, and got that typical "stuck at 90%" and rebooted it like others did. It rebooted fine and Kingo verified it rooted.
I did not use Windows, I use Ubuntu, occasionally with Wine, yet I had no luck passing USB devices to it. (And always these missing libs...)
Normally, adb and fastboot (console) work fine (i.e. with my phone).
Now I have no chance to interfere with the bootloop, I think.
IIRC, sometimes I could spam commands and at one point adb was stuck at "waiting for device".
I tried to reproduce it just now, but could not get it again.
So, should I try adb or fastboot on another computer to be sure?
Would King(o) for Windows be of any help at this point? If so, what would be my best bet to catch it at some point I can recover it?
Is there any other way I could try? From my nooby perspective, could the bootsplash be an entrance for fastboot? Could it be just stuck trying to access erroneous partitions?
At this point I would try the most crazy and risky idea, since it is unusable anyway.
Thanks both of you for your answers.
l_aios said:
I could not remember, so I just retried it with two different chargers and two different cables (both used to power my Nexus 5).
Unfortunately resulting in the very same loop... But thanks nonetheless.
Dang... Usually I don't make mistakes this dumb. Guess I learned my first lesson. I'll try to trace my mistake though, for future attempts.
I rooted it with the Kingo app, I think, and got that typical "stuck at 90%" and rebooted it like others did. It rebooted fine and Kingo verified it rooted.
I did not use Windows, I use Ubuntu, occasionally with Wine, yet I had no luck passing USB devices to it. (And always these missing libs...)
Normally, adb and fastboot (console) work fine (i.e. with my phone).
Now I have no chance to interfere with the bootloop, I think.
IIRC, sometimes I could spam commands and at one point adb was stuck at "waiting for device".
I tried to reproduce it just now, but could not get it again.
So, should I try adb or fastboot on another computer to be sure?
Would King(o) for Windows be of any help at this point? If so, what would be my best bet to catch it at some point I can recover it?
Is there any other way I could try? From my nooby perspective, could the bootsplash be an entrance for fastboot? Could it be just stuck trying to access erroneous partitions?
At this point I would try the most crazy and risky idea, since it is unusable anyway.
Thanks both of you for your answers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you still have root? Is your stick responding to the su command?
If so read this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/help/guidance-recovering-bootloop-firetv-t3446902
If not:
Try kingoroot for windows however it is a slim change in my opinion as you wrote a FireTv image to your FireStick.
Copy and paste from: http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/guide-fire-stick-replace-king-o-root-t3440923
"IF YOU RUN INTO SOFTBRICK ISSUE (stuck at fire tv logo)
Make sure you have ADB drivers properly installed in your windows pc/laptop.
connect a genuine usb lead to the firestick/pc.
download the windows version of KINGO ROOT and install it.
open KINGO ROOT on the pc with Fire Stick connected up to pc and tv.
wait for the button to pop up and click root.
if you dont see AFTV or get enable debugging in the KINGO ROOT program on pc/laptop please unplug the stick from usb and replug it back in.
if this still wont work restart the pc/laptop or try another pc/laptop.
you should after clicking root boot back up into your homescreen, if it doesnt boot back into your homescreen automatically, wait around 5 minutes and unplug usb and re-plug it again. "
bula1ca said:
Do you still have root? Is your stick responding to the su command?
If so read this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/help/guidance-recovering-bootloop-firetv-t3446902
If not:
Try kingoroot for windows however it is a slim change in my opinion as you wrote a FireTv image to your FireStick.
Copy and paste from: http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/guide-fire-stick-replace-king-o-root-t3440923
"[...]"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the links, but from what I see, I need to get past the bootloader splash for adb to work. I'm stuck at the white "amazon" splash, not the colored "FireTV Stick" splash after the amazon one.
Sorry for not making it clear (and for that amount of text that maybe hid it)...
From what I understand and recall, I did only flash the recovery, right? Or does it automatically flash the zip I pushed to internal storage?
And what confuses me, the first attempt booting into recovery AFTER flashing the wrong one I got the former mentioned screen with red text. Reboot worked and the Stick was running. So I did retry and got the same red text after rebooting to recovery. I assumed it did not flash again and unplugged it earlier than the first attempt. Since then it got stuck at the white bootsplash.
Since I am still a noob, it seems to me the system wasn't touched, maybe a faulty recovery integrity forcing the bootloader to loop.
l_aios said:
Thanks for the links, but from what I see, I need to get past the bootloader splash for adb to work. I'm stuck at the white "amazon" splash, not the colored "FireTV Stick" splash after the amazon one.
Sorry for not making it clear (and for that amount of text that maybe hid it)...
From what I understand and recall, I did only flash the recovery, right? Or does it automatically flash the zip I pushed to internal storage?
And what confuses me, the first attempt booting into recovery AFTER flashing the wrong one I got the former mentioned screen with red text. Reboot worked and the Stick was running. So I did retry and got the same red text after rebooting to recovery. I assumed it did not flash again and unplugged it earlier than the first attempt. Since then it got stuck at the white bootsplash.
Since I am still a noob, it seems to me the system wasn't touched, maybe a faulty recovery integrity forcing the bootloader to loop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no idea what you did however it will not automatically flash your zip, problem is you installed TRWP that was not meant for Firestick and overwrote its booting sequence. You most probably would had recover from your first attempt by re-installing a new image but once you tried to install it again it most probably finished writing the whole thing and damaged booting sequence.
bula1ca said:
I have no idea what you did however it will not automatically flash your zip, problem is you installed TRWP that was not meant for Firestick and overwrote its booting sequence. You most probably would had recover from your first attempt by re-installing a new image but once you tried to install it again it most probably finished writing the whole thing and damaged booting sequence.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, sad thing I got the wrong device, should have taken my time even more...
I googled the screen I got to two times before getting stuck:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=65968901&postcount=60
First time I waited approx. 15 minutes before pulling the plug to reboot. Since I noticed no difference I tried again and got the same screen. But this time I pulled the plug earlier, <1 minute.
I'd like to add that my bootloader was locked. Can I damage the booting sequence by corrupting the recovery or was my mistake that major to be able to do that?
I googled some key combinations to get into recovery or to bypass it, but I don't know if I get the right keys.
With my remote control I don't think I have enough time to hold the keys. Additionally I have a USB keyboard (Cherry KC1000; if possible, which keys btw?) and may be able to connect it via powered Y OTG cable.
So if anyone got any further input or ideas for me to rescue my FTVS, I'd be glad to receive it.
Thanks to all.
Anyone else maybe an idea?
The thing is, I cannot believe it is unsavable.
To summarize the current state (please see full details above):
- stuck in bootloop, white amazon logo
- flashed wrong recovery, after first flash the system booted, after second flash it got stuck (characteristics above)
- never flashed anything other than recovery
Strange thing it booted in first place, but now it refuses. Also I got the screen I mentioned above and unplugged as described above.
Can I possibly bypass the recovery check and try to boot directly to system? Or maybe interrupt for fastboot access?
If connected to PC, can you see it thru 'lsusb'? Or 'dmesg | tail'?
Kramar111 said:
If connected to PC, can you see it thru 'lsusb'? Or 'dmesg | tail'?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried both
watch -n 0.5 'dmesg | tail'
and
watch -n 0.5 'lsusb'
but with no identification whatsoever.
I double-checked with my Nexus 5 on the same port with the same cable, it identified fine.
One last bump for ideas before putting it into the trash.
I purchased a used Fire TV 2nd gen online but when I boot it up, it goes into some kind of kiosk slideshow for 1st gen Amazon Echo devices that I can't exit.
It boots normally at first with the Fire TV logo an all but there's no config screen or anything. It boots to a white AMAZON ECHO screen with pics of the original Echo device then goes into a slide show showing all the various features of Amazon echo. The remote doesn't sync and the device will only show up on the Fire TV remote app for a few seconds before disappearing after boot. I can plug in a physical keyboard and if I press the ESC key, the screen will go black for a second before re-starting the slide show from the beginning. So far I've not been able to find any other keyboard functions that react, only the ESC key so far.
If I had to guess, I'd say it probably has a much older version of the OS on it as the slide show is for the older generations of Echo.
I'm assuming this used to be some kind of demo device, maybe from Best Buy or something but does anyone know how to get out of this slide show so it can be used as a normal device or is this thing just useless? Suggestions?
Hannover2k said:
I purchased a used Fire TV 2nd gen form ebay but when I boot it up, it goes into some kind of kiosk slideshow for Amazon Echo that I can't exit.
It boots normally at first with the Fire TV logo an all but there's no config screen or anything. It boots to a white AMAZON ECHO screen with pics of the original Echo device then goes into a slide show showing all the various features of Amazon echo. The remote doesn't sync and the device will only show up on the Fire TV remote app for a few seconds before disappearing after boot. I can plug in a physical keyboard and if I press the ESC key, the screen will go black for a second before re-starting the slide show from the beginning. So far I've not been able to find any other keyboard functions that react, only the ESC key so far.
If I had to guess, I'd say it probably has a much older version of the OS on it as the slide show is for the older generations of Echo.
I'm assuming this used to be some kind of demo device, maybe from Best Buy or something but does anyone know how to get out of this slide show so it can be used as a normal device or is this thing just useless? Suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just as an update, I found that if I plug in a USB keyboard, pressing ALT+ESC will pop up a menu telling me to press the home button if I wish to return to the home screen. No remote works with it yet so that doesn't help much. Pressing ALT+Space will bring up what appears to be the FireTV search keyboard but typing doesn't bring up anything, it just echos what I type and there's no 'ENTER' key to submit anything.
If I do this immediately after the slideshow comes up, it will prompt that there's no network connection and take me to the network settings menu. I tried plugging in a LAN cable but the device doesn't seem to pull up an IP address. I manually entered an IP but was unable to find it on the network. Even tried using the APPS2FIRE app to see if it could see it in the search but it doesn't. I connected it to wifi successfully but same issue, it doesn't seem to actually pull an IP address as I can't see it on my network when I scan for it. The network settings know when the LAN is plugged in and removed though.
Plugging in USB A-A doesn't seem to do anything. I tried running the Unbrick batch file from one of the other posts but it's intended to work on non-rooted devices with the jumper trick, I think, and while it does kick off the script, it stops at 0% and never does anything. I'm sure this is an older OS that can still be rooted but I just don't know how to get to anything in it since I can't get into ADB.
Any suggestions would be appreciated though!
Hannover2k said:
I'm sure this is an older OS that can still be rooted but I just don't know how to get to anything in it since I can't get into ADB.
Any suggestions would be appreciated though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can't get device to show up on adb devices via terminal/command prompt or access settings menu I don't think there's much you can do.
1.Try doing a scan with Fing Network Tools and see if IP shows.
2. Try downloading and installing FireTV remote App on your phone and connecting if it finds stick.
Without adb being activated on the stick, and settings menu unavailable to enable adb there is not much else for it m8, these ebay sticks are dodgy to say the least I've been stung a few times. Even bought one and opened it to find the heat shield casing missing and clk broke lol
Bertonumber1 said:
If you can't get device to show up on adb devices via terminal/command prompt or access settings menu I don't think there's much you can do.
1.Try doing a scan with Fing Network Tools and see if IP shows.
2. Try downloading and installing FireTV remote App on your phone and connecting if it finds stick.
Without adb being activated on the stick, and settings menu unavailable to enable adb there is not much else for it m8, these ebay sticks are dodgy to say the least I've been stung a few times. Even bought one and opened it to find the heat shield casing missing and clk broke lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give those a shot. I tried the jumper technique from the Unbrick Fire TV 2 post and was able to get partway through that process and to the prompt where it tells me to remove the jumper and press enter but it gets an error after copying the files, just before it should boot to twrp. something about the source path being empty. I can post a pic if that's helpful. I think may have forgotten to run the disable modemmanager command so I'll give that another try later. I didn't realize you had to run that every time you reboot linux. I know just enough to be dangerous with it.
Hannover2k said:
I'll give those a shot. I tried the jumper technique from the Unbrick Fire TV 2 post and was able to get partway through that process and to the prompt where it tells me to remove the jumper and press enter but it gets an error after copying the files, just before it should boot to twrp. something about the source path being empty. I can post a pic if that's helpful. I think may have forgotten to run the disable modemmanager command so I'll give that another try later. I didn't realize you had to run that every time you reboot linux. I know just enough to be dangerous with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah great have a look here too
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1zYtqmf4RfLOkrPyPjf1C0CjAZf_0E1JohIlTyVY5kGs/mobilebasic
Files here
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/mobile/folders/1GbMTBHuFhwT_uyZaJs0ApsG_RQ5Wg_7F
Should work :good:
Bertonumber1 said:
Yeah great have a look here too
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1zYtqmf4RfLOkrPyPjf1C0CjAZf_0E1JohIlTyVY5kGs/mobilebasic
Files here
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/mobile/folders/1GbMTBHuFhwT_uyZaJs0ApsG_RQ5Wg_7F
Should work :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I can't use those methods. While I can get into the network settings, I can't get into any other settings. I never I never left it connected to wifi so I've been using a LAN cable to test. Booting without the LAN causes it to get an error and takes me to the network settings but I can't get to anything else from there.
Been messing with the jumper method from https://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/unbrick-fire-tv-stick-2-anti-rollback-t3986303 but not having any luck yet as per the attached pic. Also tried the unbrick method which gets stuck at 000000200: 0% every time. Just for the heck of it, I shorted DAT0 and ran it and it popped up an error saying it can't locate a 'system' partition. The unit still boots up with the fire tv logo and goes into that demo mode so I'm sure there's a partition present. This is really a challenge! Running out of things to try though.
Hannover2k said:
Unfortunately I can't use those methods. While I can get into the network settings, I can't get into any other settings. I never I never left it connected to wifi so I've been using a LAN cable to test. Booting without the LAN causes it to get an error and takes me to the network settings but I can't get to anything else from there.
Been messing with the jumper method from https://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/unbrick-fire-tv-stick-2-anti-rollback-t3986303 but not having any luck yet as per the attached pic. Also tried the unbrick method which gets stuck at 000000200: 0% every time. Just for the heck of it, I shorted DAT0 and ran it and it popped up an error saying it can't locate a 'system' partition. The unit still boots up with the fire tv logo and goes into that demo mode so I'm sure there's a partition present. This is really a challenge! Running out of things to try though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may have a stick that cannot be rooted/modified via amonet, one with dl mode disabled. These devices around December 2019 started to appear on the market and there's no way round them.
Bertonumber1 said:
You may have a stick that cannot be rooted/modified via amonet, one with dl mode disabled. These devices around December 2019 started to appear on the market and there's no way round them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The device is a Fire TV 2nd gen Sloane so I would expect it to work like others I've rooted, but that kiosk os might do just what you said and disabled DL mode. I'll still play with it a bit but not sure what else can be done. Maybe some new method will come along in the future so I'll just hold on to it.
Thanks for all the input though. Greatly appreciated.
Hannover2k said:
The device is a Fire TV 2nd gen Sloane so I would expect it to work like others I've rooted, but that kiosk os might do just what you said and disabled DL mode. I'll still play with it a bit but not sure what else can be done. Maybe some new method will come along in the future so I'll just hold on to it.
Thanks for all the input though. Greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry mate my bad I thought it was a stick you had I was helping some other guy in firestick tank forum and got mixed up.
Try the short method again only when you get the error :
Leave dc power on (plugged into box)
Remove USB a to USB a cable
Close terminal
Open new terminal up in amonet once again
Run the boot-rom step again BUT hit enter TWICE
Then plug USB cable back in
Pull the dc power and plug it in again
The script should go through
I followed this from another member and it always works for me, has worked on numerous Sloanes. Give it a go, worth a shot mate
Bertonumber1 said:
Sorry mate my bad I thought it was a stick you had I was helping some other guy in firestick tank forum and got mixed up.
Try the short method again only when you get the error :
Leave dc power on (plugged into box)
Remove USB a to USB a cable
Close terminal
Open new terminal up in amonet once again
Run the boot-rom step again BUT hit enter TWICE
Then plug USB cable back in
Pull the dc power and plug it in again
The script should go through
I followed this from another member and it always works for me, has worked on numerous Sloanes. Give it a go, worth a shot mate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, it's worth a try. Just to clarify, when you say to press enter twice, do you mean to press it twice at the prompt where it tells you to remove the short and press enter?
Hannover2k said:
Thanks for the info, it's worth a try. Just to clarify, when you say to press enter twice, do you mean to press it twice at the prompt where it tells you to remove the short and press enter?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey @Hannover2k, yeah the Sloane is stubborn to root, just keep at it, once you see ***remove short and hit enter** and get an error try leaving it switched on but remove USB, then run the script again and hit enter again after you hit it once, disconnect/reconnect the dc power and plug USB in without the short (if displaying remove short) . Should go through
Another thing...
This what happened to me the other day. If your preloader is gone (it's displaying remove short when there is no short). Disconnect power, disconnect USB, run the the script and connect power and wait 50-70 seconds then plug USB back in.
As I said these Sloanes are tough but you should get it, using the short "jumper" method m8
Bertonumber1 said:
Hey @Hannover2k, yeah the Sloane is stubborn to root, just keep at it, once you see ***remove short and hit enter** and get an error try leaving it switched on but remove USB, then run the script again and hit enter again after you hit it once, diconnect/reconnect the dc power. Should go through
Another thing...
This what happened to me the other day. If your preloader is gone (it's displaying remove short when there is no short). Disconnect power, disconnect USB, run the the script and connect power and wait 50-70 seconds then plug USB back in.
As I said these Sloanes are tough but you should get it, using the short "jumper" method m8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry is I'm missing something here. I've been trying to do your method and while I've been getting different error messages and results, I'm still not quite sure I'm doing it right.
After I get the first error after removing the short, you mention above to remove the USB then run the script again, etc. At what point do I plug the USB cable back in? Do I plug the USB back in after removing the power? When I do remove the power, do i need to reconnect the Jumper before plugging it back in?
Sorry if I'm lame, I've just done this jumper thing 100 times and can get many different results but not the one we're looking for! lol
UPDATE: Holy cow, I got it to work the very next time after posting the message! Here's what I did:
1) Ran the script, connected jumper and powered on the device.
2) Got error message.
3) Unplugged USB then re-ran script, pressing enter again after running the command.
4) Plugged USB back in.
I did not reconnect the jumper. When the USB cable was re-connected it did display a message to remove the jumper and press enter, however I did not have to do that. All kinds of stuff started flying all over the screen, then it got to;
Clearing Preloader Header
Flashing Tee
Flashing Bootloader
Flashing Unbrick Image
Flashing Boot
Booting to TWRP
I'm literally grinning ear to ear right now! Thanks for all your help with this! Even if it doesn't work at this point, I'm very happy to have gotten this far!
I can get these kiosk devices for $20 each. Box only, no power or remote. Does anyone think it would be worth it to buy a few of them and try to sell them off with refreshed imaged on them? There's a lot available so just wondering.
Hannover2k said:
Sorry is I'm missing something here. I've been trying to do your method and while I've been getting different error messages and results, I'm still not quite sure I'm doing it right.
After I get the first error after removing the short, you mention above to remove the USB then run the script again, etc. At what point do I plug the USB cable back in? Do I plug the USB back in after removing the power? When I do remove the power, do i need to reconnect the Jumper before plugging it back in?
Sorry if I'm lame, I've just done this jumper thing 100 times and can get many different results but not the one we're looking for! lol
UPDATE: Holy cow, I got it to work the very next time after posting the message! Here's what I did:
1) Ran the script, connected jumper and powered on the device.
2) Got error message.
3) Unplugged USB then re-ran script, pressing enter again after running the command.
4) Plugged USB back in.
I did not reconnect the jumper. When the USB cable was re-connected it did display a message to remove the jumper and press enter, however I did not have to do that. All kinds of stuff started flying all over the screen, then it got to;
Clearing Preloader Header
Flashing Tee
Flashing Bootloader
Flashing Unbrick Image
Flashing Boot
Booting to TWRP
I'm literally grinning ear to ear right now! Thanks for all your help with this! Even if it doesn't work at this point, I'm very happy to have gotten this far!
I can get these kiosk devices for $20 each. Box only, no power or remote. Does anyone think it would be worth it to buy a few of them and try to sell them off with refreshed imaged on them? There's a lot available so just wondering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Hannover2k Yeah that's you got it sorted then, I tried to explain that method but didn't do a very good job of it lol, make sure you push pre-rooted rom and supersu 2.82 zip to /sdcard, and flash.
Please Remember and note that you cannot flash unsigned zips such as magisk to the Sloane as you're bootloader remains incarcerated , if you're device has cleared preloader and you've entered into twrp it should work
Ps. if you can get a Sloane for that price pm me and we'll sort something, doesn't matter about power cables, remotes etc
Bertonumber1 said:
@Hannover2k Yeah that's you got it sorted then, I tried to explain that method but didn't do a very good job of it lol, make sure you push pre-rooted rom and supersu 2.82 zip to /sdcard, and flash.
Please Remember and note that you cannot flash unsigned zips such as magisk to the Sloane as you're bootloader remains incarcerated , if you're device has cleared preloader and you've entered into twrp it should work
Ps. if you can get a Sloane for that price pm me and we'll sort something, doesn't matter about power cables, remotes etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After flashing the pre-rooted image the first time, everything seemed to work except whenever I restarted via the settings menu, it would show the TWRP pre boot screen but allowing it to continue to boot normally would result in a boot loop. Performing a power cycle would cause the device to skip over the TWRP menu and boot right into the device.
Tried clearing the SD partition and dalvik to free up space as it was only showing about 1.2gb free after the flash. Got the free space back but still the same boot issue after flash, though it did work after a power cycle as opposed to restarting, which I rarely do anyways.
Remembering the Kiosk was for the original echo devices, I got to thinking about it having an older OS again and maybe not liking being flashed directly to the latest version so I re-flashed it to v5.2.6.7_r1. It would boot loop after the TWRP pre login screen but after the first loop it would boot properly. Went ahead and flashed it back to 5.2.7.3_r1 and everything seems to be working perfectly now. Restarts properly and all functionality seems to be present.
I really appreciate your assistance with this. I had them send me another one so I can try this method once more and if it works again, I'll definitely let you know and we'll work something out.
-Han
Hannover2k said:
After flashing the pre-rooted image the first time, everything seemed to work except whenever I restarted via the settings menu, it would show the TWRP pre boot screen but allowing it to continue to boot normally would result in a boot loop. Performing a power cycle would cause the device to skip over the TWRP menu and boot right into the device.
Tried clearing the SD partition and dalvik to free up space as it was only showing about 1.2gb free after the flash. Got the free space back but still the same boot issue after flash, though it did work after a power cycle as opposed to restarting, which I rarely do anyways.
Remembering the Kiosk was for the original echo devices, I got to thinking about it having an older OS again and maybe not liking being flashed directly to the latest version so I re-flashed it to v5.2.6.7_r1. It would boot loop after the TWRP pre login screen but after the first loop it would boot properly. Went ahead and flashed it back to 5.2.7.3_r1 and everything seems to be working perfectly now. Restarts properly and all functionality seems to be present.
I really appreciate your assistance with this. I had them send me another one so I can try this method once more and if it works again, I'll definitely let you know and we'll work something out.
-Han
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The recovery partition maybe corrupted.
You may try updating twrp to the latest 3.0.05 from Sloane Twrp recovery page.
There you can download the file from here :
https://www.mediafire.com/file/brae6r8lu1np5jm/firetv2_recovery_v6.zip/file
,push it to Sloane /sdcard and run command
from pc
adb shell
Then run:
sh /sdcard/firetv2_recovery_v6.zip
Reboot
That should fix it.
As soon as you update TWRP
Reboot and flash the pre-rooted firmware and supersu 2.82.zip
Then wipe cache, dalvik
Let it boot up and then factory reset (data, dalvik, cache)
Reboot and it should be okay
Bertonumber1 said:
The recovery partition maybe corrupted.
You may try updating twrp to the latest 3.0.05 from Sloane Twrp recovery page.
There you can download the file from here :
https://www.mediafire.com/file/brae6r8lu1np5jm/firetv2_recovery_v6.zip/file
,push it to Sloane /sdcard and run command
from pc
adb shell
Then run:
sh /sdcard/firetv2_recovery_v6.zip
Reboot
That should fix it.
As soon as you update TWRP
Reboot and flash the pre-rooted firmware and supersu 2.82.zip
Then wipe cache, dalvik
Let it boot up and then factory reset (data, dalvik, cache)
Reboot and it should be okay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. The image I installed already had that version of TWRP installed on it but like I said in my last comment, flashing to an older rom then re-flashing back to the latest one seems to have resolved the issue.
No more Kiosk mode, though I wish I could have gotten a look at those files just to see what was going on there.
Anyways, all good now and I have another one of those kiosk units I'm going to try the process again on and if it works, I have access to a lot of these devices so I may refresh them and sell them cheap.
Thanks again for everyones input! Still surprised I got it working normal again.
Bertonumber1 said:
@Hannover2k Yeah that's you got it sorted then, I tried to explain that method but didn't do a very good job of it lol, make sure you push pre-rooted rom and supersu 2.82 zip to /sdcard, and flash.
Please Remember and note that you cannot flash unsigned zips such as magisk to the Sloane as you're bootloader remains incarcerated , if you're device has cleared preloader and you've entered into twrp it should work
Ps. if you can get a Sloane for that price pm me and we'll sort something, doesn't matter about power cables, remotes etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good news!
I was given a 2nd unit with the same 'issue' and was able to get it to start taking the image within a couple mins. The guy who has them can't do anything with them and has lowered his price per unit so are these worth anything to anyone?
Again, it's the box only, no power cords or remote but I don't expect that to be an issue for someone looking to replace one.
I hope I'm not breaking any rules by asking that but I'm open to any thoughts on this.
-Han
Hannover2k said:
Good news!
I was given a 2nd unit with the same 'issue' and was able to get it to start taking the image within a couple mins. The guy who has them can't do anything with them and has lowered his price per unit so are these worth anything to anyone?
Again, it's the box only, no power cords or remote but I don't expect that to be an issue for someone looking to replace one.
I hope I'm not breaking any rules by asking that but I'm open to any thoughts on this.
-Han
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Bertonumber1
Sus_i said:
@Bertonumber1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I've already replied via pm to @Hannover2k I've already bought one with power brick and remote for Roger @Sus_i hannover2k only has the Sloane itself AFAIK I got the full shebang for £27 so it's all good perhaps @Hannover2k can provide a spare and that's us got a couple to got to work on in the name of furthering development
Bertonumber1 said:
Yeah I've already replied via pm to @Hannover2k I've already bought one with power brick and remote for Roger @Sus_i hannover2k only has the Sloane itself AFAIK I got the full shebang for £27 so it's all good perhaps @Hannover2k can provide a spare and that's us got a couple to got to work on in the name of furthering development
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hannover2k said:
Sorry is I'm missing something here. I've been trying to do your method and while I've been getting different error messages and results, I'm still not quite sure I'm doing it right.
After I get the first error after removing the short, you mention above to remove the USB then run the script again, etc. At what point do I plug the USB cable back in? Do I plug the USB back in after removing the power? When I do remove the power, do i need to reconnect the Jumper before plugging it back in?
Sorry if I'm lame, I've just done this jumper thing 100 times and can get many different results but not the one we're looking for! lol
UPDATE: Holy cow, I got it to work the very next time after posting the message! Here's what I did:
1) Ran the script, connected jumper and powered on the device.
2) Got error message.
3) Unplugged USB then re-ran script, pressing enter again after running the command.
4) Plugged USB back in.
I did not reconnect the jumper. When the USB cable was re-connected it did display a message to remove the jumper and press enter, however I did not have to do that. All kinds of stuff started flying all over the screen, then it got to;
Clearing Preloader Header
Flashing Tee
Flashing Bootloader
Flashing Unbrick Image
Flashing Boot
Booting to TWRP
I'm literally grinning ear to ear right now! Thanks for all your help with this! Even if it doesn't work at this point, I'm very happy to have gotten this far!
I can get these kiosk devices for $20 each. Box only, no power or remote. Does anyone think it would be worth it to buy a few of them and try to sell them off with refreshed imaged on them? There's a lot available so just wondering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to add my Order of Operations to this post. I also bought one of these "Kiosk" boxes without remote or power supply for $13 off of eBay. Great deal, I thought, if I can get it to root. It appears that the order in which you perform the steps is unique to your setup. After trying all the above suggestions with no success (similar errors as listed above), here's what worked for me:
1. Plug in male-to-male USB cable between FTV2 and Linux box
2. Short DAT0 pin on FTV2 board
3. Connect FTV2 AC power
4. Run script
5. Remove short, press enter once when prompted
After TWRP installed (and I figured out how to use it), I was successful in having a usable FTV2 with all of the perks this process brings. Thanks to all who contributed to make this possible, and an extra big thanks to @Hannover2k for being the first to try this on these specifically-challenged boxes. It was a huge help!