Develop Bugs

[Q-Solved] Kindle Fire unbricking on a Mac-help request

UPDATE: I added "solved" to the title since I am now unbricked. That said, I do hope someone will pop in and tell me how to run the shell scripts on a mac...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there. I have spent several days searching xda forums, popping into the kindlefire irc channel, and searching google however have not yet figured this out, could use some help.
I have read: the Kindle Fire Beginners Guide, the Kindle Fire Unbrick thread, The Kindle Fire Utility thread (yup the whole thing), and more.
According to the Kindle Fire Beginner's Guide, only 1% of all brick situations are actually a brick, so I'm going to persevere and go ahead and ask for the help, because also according to the guide, if your fire can't be seen as a device then actually it's a brick. To quote: " unless something else was done to the device after the change in bootmode preventing access to adb or fastboot commands. Then it’s actually a brick at that point."
I can't be sure if anything else was done after the change in bootmode so I'll just explain how I got here and hopefully someone can help out.
I have a mac mini running Os x 10.6.8, and the Kindle Fire which was running stock version 6.2.2.
I used the kindlewater root method to install firefirefire and cwm recovery. Was able to boot into recovery by pressing on the power button for it to go orange and then load the recovery options.
Before doing anything at all (and in consultation with St3p_2 of this forum, one of the kindlewater developers), I decided to perform a backup in preparation for flashing a ROM.
so, I booted, went into recovery, navigated to "install a .zip" and chose "backup" at which point I got a message/nag/reminder that this was a permanent change, and I selected "ok". It did it's thing for a while, went into reboot, and I then had the firefirefire logo blinking in a very very slow loop.
It was recommended to me to perform a factory reset by holding the power button for 2 solid minutes, which should then have returned me to stock. Actually, the first time i did it for minutes I went from having a very slow blinking firefirefire to having a rather fast blinking firefirefire. Following a suggestion i then tried it with the kindlefire unplugged. This resulted in a plain black screen until the fire was plugged in again: no boot, no indication of response to use of the power button. Once plugged in, it has gone back to the rather fast blinking firefirefire logo.
I read through the Kindle Fire Utility thread, found the v0.9.2 version prepared for mac and linux, and downloaded it. Although I am not new to terminal, I am not familiar with what command language is necessary to perform the actions required by this tool. If I open the install_drivers.sh with terminal, i get this:
Reverie:~ apple$ /kindlefire/Kindle_Fire_Utility_MacLinux_0.9-1.2/install_drivers.sh ; exit;
This file will install the correct adb_usb.ini file for proper Kindle Fire detection.
cp: drivers/adb_usb.ini: No such file or directory
Done!
logout
[Process completed]
​so I tried running it in the console. I will spare you the output of the console as it appeared to be merely a printout of the actual code of the file and was quite long.
Trying to run the file runme.sh in terminal before running the install_drivers.sh in the console, I got error messages stating there is no such command, or no such file, depending on my command language.
After running the install_drivers.sh in the console, when I try to run runme.sh in terminal, i get this:
/kindlefire/runme.sh ; exit;
Reverie:~ apple$ /kindlefire/runme.sh ; exit;
---------------------------------------------------------------
Easy rooting toolkit (v1.0)
created by DooMLoRD
using exploit zergRush (Revolutionary Team)
Credits go to all those involved in making this possible!
---------------------------------------------------------------
[*] This script will:
(1) root ur device using zergRush exploit
(2) install Busybox (1.18.4)
(3) install SU files (3.0.5)
[*] Before u begin:
(1) make sure adb is in your path
(2) enable "USB DEBUGGING"
from (Menu\Settings\Applications\Development)
(3) enable "UNKNOWN SOURCES"
from (Menu\Settings\Applications)
(4) [OPTIONAL] increase screen timeout to 10 minutes
(5) connect USB cable to PHONE and then connect to PC
(6) skip "PC Companion Software" prompt on device
---------------------------------------------------------------
CONFIRM ALL THE ABOVE THEN
Press any key to continue... --- STARTING ----
--- WAITING FOR DEVICE
​Which I affirmed because all the requirements had indeed been set that way on the device before the bricking happened. After "starting" and "waiting for device" nothing happens even waiting indefinitely (more than half an hour) and then it never finds the device.
When I go into terminal and type: "adb devices" I get:
Last login: Sun Mar 18 17:08:38 on ttys001
Reverie:~ apple$ adb devices
List of devices attached
Reverie:~ apple$
​This result is the same both before attempting to use the 0.9.2 mac utility and after.
I really am stuck at this point, as everything I find with instructions on how to "unbrick" does require that the machine recognize that your kindlefire is attached. Running any of the tools I find requires that basic bottom dollar, which I don't seem to have.
That said, the behavior of "nothing at all: blank screen" when unplugged, and the behavior of "blinking firefirefire logo" when plugged in would tend to indicate that at the very least the device knows it's plugged in and getting juice, and some process is happening when that's true.
Can someone help? Is my next step to purchase a factory cable, or do I have a software solution available to me that I just didn't find in this haystack of solutions?

nothing doing when unplugged seems like a dead battery
would try to charge it with the wall charger for some hours regardless if the orange light comes up - this can last a while
furthermore i don't know which version of kfu for mac you'r using but zergrush is'nt working any more since stock rom 0.6.1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=21369040&postcount=653
for rooting use kindlewater:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1443071
as far as i know the commands need to be entered with a ./ in front ie: ./install_drivers.sh

sisterdelirious said:
Can someone help? Is my next step to purchase a factory cable, or do I have a software solution available to me that I just didn't find in this haystack of solutions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for reading my guide. I hope it helped you a bit.
Mac OS X is also my primary OS and I take my hat off to you for even trying things this way. I took the easy way out from the very beginning and just used Parallels Desktop to build Windows and Linux virtual machines. If things ultimately don't work out, you might want to try going that route as well. I believe Parallels offers a demo version if you want to see it in action. Regardless, I don't think that matters quite yet, because I tend to agree with b63 here. I think the biggest problem you have right now is a dead battery.
I've never had a dead battery, so I can't comment directly, but take a look at this thread, starting at post #226...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392693&page=23
There some back and forth for a couple of pages, but that user describes symptoms that sound very much like what you are seeing right now. I think you should try the wall charger first. Plug it in, force the Kindle Fire to turn off and just try to let it charge overnight or something. If you cannot get your KF charged with the stock wall charger, you might want to buy a factory cable. From what I gather, that user reported that his Kindle Fire booted into fastboot mode by using the factory cable even with a (nearly) dead battery. He was then able to flash the stock software, which is able to handle the dead battery situation better than some alternative ROM and have it go through the charge cycle.

Wow... so simple...
b63 said:
nothing doing when unplugged seems like a dead battery
would try to charge it with the wall charger for some hours regardless if the orange light comes up - this can last a while
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was the deal. When plugged in with the usb cord it didn't seem to be giving it power and being powerless could not be recognized by the computer. Plugged it into the wall charger and Voila! was able to start up just fine, still rooted via the kindlewater method, capable of being booted normally or booted into CWM recovery. Awesome!
I also did a quick double-check, and now that it's powered-up, running a terminal and typing "adb devices" actually returns a list with the kindle (serial number?) on it.
furthermore i don't know which version of kfu for mac you'r using but zergrush is'nt working any more since stock rom 0.6.1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=21369040&postcount=653
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read through everything and the version of kfu that was modded for mac was 0.9.2 which I mentioned in my original post. Sounds like since I was on 6.2.2 that mac version is definitely not going to help me (both kfu out of date and stock version out of date on zergrush) if I were to want it for rooting purposes.
for rooting use kindlewater:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1443071
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is the one i used. I was looking for a mac tool for post-root rescue methods...i had thought that the kfu mac version had valuable rescue/unbrick capabilities but at this point I don't remember.
as far as i know the commands need to be entered with a ./ in front ie: ./install_drivers.sh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[/QUOTE]
Thankfully, I don't need to try that. my kf got properly unbricked just by plugging it into the wall charger.

Great guide, it was the battery
kinfauns said:
Thanks for reading my guide. I hope it helped you a bit.
Mac OS X is also my primary OS and I take my hat off to you for even trying things this way. I took the easy way out from the very beginning and just used Parallels Desktop to build Windows and Linux virtual machines. If things ultimately don't work out, you might want to try going that route as well. I believe Parallels offers a demo version if you want to see it in action. Regardless, I don't think that matters quite yet, because I tend to agree with b63 here. I think the biggest problem you have right now is a dead battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your guide. I thought it was extremely well written and very helpful. It definitely helped me relax a little stress-wise while looking for a solution.
That was it (dead battery). I did try meddling around a bit with virtualbox virtual machines: a windows 7 ultimate, and a linux box that I have that does not have internet access making doing anything realtime while reading suggestions just isnt easy/feasible right now. I found that the virtualbox vms did not have access to the usb devices (flash drives, external hard drives, ostensibly if it were visible to the computer the kindle) despite my installing some optional extension packs for that purpose. I didn't explore the vms further to linux or xp simply because of the time required to install and configure a vm. I also didn't rewire my home so net access went to the linux box for the same reason... ultimately both are possible but both more hassle than it seems to be worth before simply asking the question, can it be done on a mac?
I've never had a dead battery, so I can't comment directly, but take a look at this thread, starting at post #226...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392693&page=23
There some back and forth for a couple of pages, but that user describes symptoms that sound very much like what you are seeing right now. I think you should try the wall charger first. Plug it in, force the Kindle Fire to turn off and just try to let it charge overnight or something. If you cannot get your KF charged with the stock wall charger, you might want to buy a factory cable. From what I gather, that user reported that his Kindle Fire booted into fastboot mode by using the factory cable even with a (nearly) dead battery. He was then able to flash the stock software, which is able to handle the dead battery situation better than some alternative ROM and have it go through the charge cycle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just so glad this worked. Thank you for your help!

glad to help ...
please mark the subject of the topic (edit first post) with [Solved]

Similar issue
My KF is seeming to have a similar but distinctly different issue as the OP. Because I can turn on the KF without it being plugged in, I cannot imagine that it is a battery issue.
When I plug it in to a Windows machine, the FFF bootloader comes on, the KF seems to connect, be recognized, fail at driver installation (which I have done manually, with no success), and then disconnect. This prevents me from running any sort of commands.
When I connect to my Mac, I get the FFF bootloader and then no response whatsoever.
Trying to run commands from Terminal or the Command line or using KFU on my Windows machine all result in a "waiting for device" message.
Not sure what I should do from this point to get it back to accepting adb commands. I'm confident that once I do I'll be able to save it, but at this point I'm stuck.
Any ideas?

[Q] Bricked ... tried most things ... need some guidance

Hi,
Some background - I've been tinkering with android roms on phones for a while, and thought i'd give it a go on my Kindle, which I hardly ever use with the stock rom. I have a very low level of understanding regarding rooting, etc., but generally I'm good at following instructions (until now!)
So everything was going along nicely. Because I hardly ever use the device, I decided to do a full wipe before installing the new rom. Then, when I went to flash it, it turns out that I had forgotten to copy the new rom onto the SD card. In a moment of temporary insanity, I turned the device off (don't ask me why, I can't explain it).
On restart, the device now gets stuck on the logo screen. KFU tells me that the device is online, but boot status is unkown, and it can't change the status (although it does reboot the device when I try to put it into fast boot mode- but it doesn't actually 'fastboot').
If I try to reinstall TWRP or anything else, I get the 'exec system\bin\sh failed' error. The Kindle unbrick utility is unable to help.
I did some research and it kept pointing me to a factory cable, which I duly bought off eBay. When I use the factory cable, the only difference is that the boot sequence is slightly different (different levels of backlight) and KFU can't recognise the device at all - it says its offline.
I have no idea if the factory cable I have bought is any good - it might be complete rubbish.
Can any tell me if there is a simple option I have missed? Is trying fixes through Linux the only option? Will I have to open my kindle to fix it? I've already spent a heap of time on it, and I'm just about ready to call it a paperweight. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I`m a little confused so file me in. Do you have access to recovery? with your type of error "exec system\bin\sh failed" a factory cable is indeed needed to reinstall twrp and the bootloader, unless you can access TWRP and mount your sdcard and transfer a rom. If that is not possible then you have some kind of mounting issue. So I still wonder what happened to your recovery and your bootloader? For me yet not everything is meshing to well. No bootloader, no acces to recovery, kindle just boots to logo and no further. Does the logo flicker and brighten and dim at boot? Yes very likely you will need to run linux on a live usb then run soupkit on it. Still you may still need a real factory cable not one half **s one from ebay you can find that here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392693 from user @SkOrPn no one can beat what he does I`m sorry. As for linux and soupkit the where and how is here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1850038 . Unless you get easily confused then try the iso I created with some fairly easy instructions soupkit is ran already simple create boot and use you can find that here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1413358 post # 7 make no mistake that this is only for the kindle like the last person I helped with this setup. This is your best route to get your kindle fixed sounds like it could still be a combined effort cable and soupkit .You will know when you hook your kindle up and run some of the features in soupkit if your device is truly online or if a cable is needed. If you run my iso teamviewer is also installed so it provides a nice edition for assistance if you want someone to see what you see. If you choose to run soupkit then the par for instructions differ from those of my iso.

Thepooch said:
I`m a little confused so file me in. Do you have access to recovery? with your type of error "exec system\bin\sh failed" a factory cable is indeed needed to reinstall twrp and the bootloader, unless you can access TWRP and mount your sdcard and transfer a rom. If that is not possible then you have some kind of mounting issue. So I still wonder what happened to your recovery and your bootloader? For me yet not everything is meshing to well. No bootloader, no acces to recovery, kindle just boots to logo and no further. Does the logo flicker and brighten and dim at boot? Yes very likely you will need to run linux on a live usb then run soupkit on it. Still you may still need a real factory cable not one half **s one from ebay you can find that here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392693 from user @SkOrPn no one can beat what he does I`m sorry. As for linux and soupkit the where and how is here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1850038 . Unless you get easily confused then try the iso I created with some fairly easy instructions soupkit is ran already simple create boot and use you can find that here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1413358 post # 7 make no mistake that this is only for the kindle like the last person I helped with this setup. This is your best route to get your kindle fixed sounds like it could still be a combined effort cable and soupkit .You will know when you hook your kindle up and run some of the features in soupkit if your device is truly online or if a cable is needed. If you run my iso teamviewer is also installed so it provides a nice edition for assistance if you want someone to see what you see. If you choose to run soupkit then the par for instructions differ from those of my iso.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I can't access recovery at all. When I use the factory cable, there is no flicker, but all other ways (standard cable, no cable) there is a flicker and it brightens. Either way, it just hangs on the logo.
I suspect that the factory cable is not all it should be ... I will probably try the @SkOrPn option first, then work my way through the other options you mention. I had kind of figured from reading other posts that this would be the case ...
Thanks for taking the tiime to help.

There is no flicker because your likely in fastboot the lack of recognition is drivers which can easily be solved using linux and soupkit. Otherwise straighten out your drivers in windows by running the driver bat packaged with kfu. If your on XP it`s a fight to the death to try to sort out unsigned drivers on that os. Sometimes I can get it fast other times it`s pointlessbut a huge hassle nonetheless. Attempt to fix your drivers while using the factory cable you have maybe you will get lucky.

Fixed! Thanks so much!
I used your pre-installed ISO and it was a piece of cake. Initially, I had the device connected over the factory cable and it wasn't recognising it, but when I swapped to a standard cable, suddenly I was able to reboot into recovery straight away. Rom mounted and installed, and I have a new tablet!
Definitely appreciate all your hard work!

That`s great I`m happy you had good success!!

[Q] No power after Usbboot shorting trick

While attempting to unbrick my kindle using the Linux usbboot short trick and not getting anything detected in firekit and soupkit nor win7 for that matter, my little green power light now is always off. No power via battery and worse not even usb cable to pc even lightsup. Is this totally useless, now?

Probably not. What exactly were you doing when this happened? Please be as detailed as possible.
"That's a special kind of stupid. The kind that makes me laugh."

I had cm7 on for a long time with usb mass storage working and adb etc. Then I went with an early ver. of cm9 and found no usb connection or sd mount was possible. Months later i gave to my gf who wanted photos on it. But windows has not detected it. So I tried to update with cm10 and it was advised to update my twrp to 2.2.2.1. But upon using this new version of twrp I noticed I could only restore a backup I made. That worked. But the flashing of the cm10 rom did not, The touch screen was not responding at all, there.I rebooted into twrp and retried to flash the cm10 with still no screen response so I pressed reboot and saw "bootloader" and pressed it instead of reboot or sysem or plain shutdown. Thus my brick. I read much and guess i was stuck in fastboot mode and w/o any adb detection by windows 7 went with Linux usbboot shorting trick. Made the usb stick boot up to ubuntu and tried firekit and soupkit to no avail. Always showed Waiting for device!. Of course the back was off and pin shorted on mobo. Minutes later I notice all lights of kindle fire are out. No more Triangle or anything! Pc usb cable does not power it on nor does my battery charger in ac or solo w/battery. This is what I can recall from last 3 days.

Smmoph said:
I had cm7 on for a long time with usb mass storage working and adb etc. Then I went with an early ver. of cm9 and found no usb connection or sd mount was possible. Months later i gave to my gf who wanted photos on it. But windows has not detected it. So I tried to update with cm10 and it was advised to update my twrp to 2.2.2.1. But upon using this new version of twrp I noticed I could only restore a backup I made. That worked. But the flashing of the cm10 rom did not, The touch screen was not responding at all, there.I rebooted into twrp and retried to flash the cm10 with still no screen response so I pressed reboot and saw "bootloader" and pressed it instead of reboot or sysem or plain shutdown. Thus my brick. I read much and guess i was stuck in fastboot mode and w/o any adb detection by windows 7 went with Linux usbboot shorting trick. Made the usb stick boot up to ubuntu and tried firekit and soupkit to no avail. Of course the back was off and pin shorted on mobo. Minutes later I notice all lights of kindle fire are out. No more Triangle or anything! Pc usb cable does not power it on nor does my battery charger in ac or solo w/battery. This is what I can recall from last 3 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, the reason I ask...
Your device is either in USBboot or you didn't install a bootloader properly. At first glance it seems it's the latter. In Firekit, select "usb_install_fff_twrp". If it just sits at "waiting for OMAP4 device" you'll need to use the shorting trick to detect the device and get the bootloader installed properly. Afterwards, if I were you, I would use recovery to install the latest version of FFF before rebooting.
"That's a special kind of stupid. The kind that makes me laugh."

soupmagnet said:
Ok, the reason I ask...
Your device is either in USBboot or you didn't install a bootloader properly. At first glance it seems it's the latter. In Firekit, select "usb_install_fff_twrp". If it just sits at "waiting for OMAP4 device" you'll need to use the shorting trick to detect the device and get the bootloader installed properly. Afterwards, if I were you, I would use recovery to install the latest version of FFF before rebooting.
"That's a special kind of stupid. The kind that makes me laugh."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try when the Kindle fire turns on. Rather, if it ever powers up. Thanks for your time and response.

Smmoph said:
I will try when the Kindle fire turns on. Rather, if it ever powers up. Thanks for your time and response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you misunderstood. The device already powers up (even though it doesn't seem like it), it just doesn't have a working bootloader. Without a working bootloader, the only way you can communicate with the device is to put it in USBboot.
There's a possibility it is already in USBboot (unlikely) and Firekit will send commands anyway. Otherwise, you need to use the shorting trick to temporarily put it in USBboot long enough for Firekit to work.
"That's a special kind of stupid. The kind that makes me laugh."

soupmagnet said:
No, you misunderstood. The device already powers up (even though it doesn't seem like it), it just doesn't have a working bootloader. Without a working bootloader, the only way you can communicate with the device is to put it in USBboot.
There's a possibility it is already in USBboot (unlikely) and Firekit will send commands anyway. Otherwise, you need to use the shorting trick to temporarily put it in USBboot long enough for Firekit to work.
"That's a special kind of stupid. The kind that makes me laugh."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright I will give it a go. It will have to wait till tmmrrw, tho.
Thanks

On another route, What if I buy a new KF 1st Gen. from a retail store and put this bricked one in the new box with cords, papers etc. and return it within the full refund time would I stand a chance at getting refunded? Also since it won't light up could I claim it is simply bad hardware section of the unit? Plus would it eventually get torn down ,Amazon..where they might see it was rooted and registered by me?

I have a better idea. Why don't you take some personal responsibility for a problem YOU created and either fix it yourself, send it to someone who can, or suck it up and cut your losses?
I could go on all day about the moral, let alone the practical, implications of how such a decision will impact the community as a whole, but we both know that would be a complete waste of my time.
Do as previously suggested or not, but don't complain when it becomes increasingly harder to make a device, one that you've spent your hard earned money on, your own.
"That's a special kind of stupid. The kind that makes me laugh."

KF Stuck at Logo - Sorry

I know this has been covered thoroughly in this forum multiple times, and I have really tried to read as many threads as possible before asking.
I rooted my device months ago and finally got a Nexus 7 and want to give my KF to my kids but wanted it stock first. I must have done something in TWRP that removed my bootloader.
I have tried the unbrick tool, I ordered a factory cable from Skorpn (awesome work btw) and by using KFU, my PC can finally see my Kindle.
The problem I'm having is that none of the commands are working and it looks like the bootloader is either bad or completely gone.
It used to turn on and the logo stayed bright. After I used the factory cable it now turns on, blinks, and goes dim.
All the drivers loaded correctly and KFU see's it online.
When I try to reinstall TWRP through KFU it downloads, but is stuck at waiting for device.
***********************************************
* Activating Fastboot (4002) *
***********************************************
2433 KB/s (510876 bytes in 0.205s)
- exec '/system/bin/sh' failed: No such file or directory (2) -
- exec '/system/bin/sh' failed: No such file or directory (2) -
The kindle has been told to reboot in Fastboot Mode.
< waiting for device >
After reading further, I think I formatted too much and wiped the SD card partition. It doesn't seem like there is a bootloader at all.
Did I miss something in all the reading?
Thanks.

So after doing even further reading I found
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1638452
I connected the factory cable and the logo is now staying brightly lit, so I assume it's in FB Mode.
I downloaded TWRP based on the link and FFF, but now I don't know what to do with them.
I went to ADB's site and installed SDK, but I'm not sure how to get the cmd portion to sideload TWRP and then FFF.

I'm doing my best to following along in the instructions and went to the ADB site and installed SDK.
I saved it to my C drive but when I try to do the following, along with "adb devices,
c:\Android\android-sdk-windows>
I get:
'adb' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Update:
NVM, I had it in the wrong directory.
Once I got that figured out, I did an "adb devices" and no devices came back. Of course I have the factory cable connected and I'm not sure if that matters.
Update:
Ok, now I used a standard USB and it sees my device, but now the logo went back to going dim after reboot.

So it looks like my problem is fairly common, however forum searches don't seem to be helping.
It looks like I wiped too much in TWRP.
Now that I finally figured out ADB, I'm confused about the factory cable.
When it's connected ADB does not see my device but the logo is lit bright yellow. When I use a standard cable ADB sees the device but the turns on and goes dim but the logo is still there.
I've downloaded the ZIP files for TWP and FFF, but I can't seem to figure out how to side load them no matter what I do.

I'm about to give up on this.
I decided to go the Soupkit rout and installed ubuntu 11.10 and got my PC to boot to USB.
I followed all the directions but my device is always offline. The only thing I can think of is that the 3rd step says to reboot, when I reboot Soupkit is gone and I have to download it again. When I download it, I save it, drag it to the desktop and extract it there and then run in terminal, use option 1 and then option 2.
I realize forums contain a ton of duplicate posts but I really tried to research and follow all the guides before posting.
Does anyone have any advice?
Update:
Realized I forgot to add persistence to the LiveUSB drive. I'm going to try again.

Copcheck said:
I'm about to give up on this.
I decided to go the Soupkit rout and installed ubuntu 11.10 and got my PC to boot to USB.
I followed all the directions but my device is always offline. The only thing I can think of is that the 3rd step says to reboot, when I reboot Soupkit is gone and I have to download it again. When I download it, I save it, drag it to the desktop and extract it there and then run in terminal, use option 1 and then option 2.
I realize forums contain a ton of duplicate posts but I really tried to research and follow all the guides before posting.
Does anyone have any advice?
Update:
Realized I forgot to add persistence to the LiveUSB drive. I'm going to try again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me know if this soup kit route works. we have the exact same problem going on here... ill live install ubuntu as well, Ill try my hand here shortly, and give you feedback on my testing.

leroy329 said:
Let me know if this soup kit route works. we have the exact same problem going on here... ill live install ubuntu as well, Ill try my hand here shortly, and give you feedback on my testing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No luck with adding persistence.
I get everything to to boot in Linux, followed all the instructions, but Soupkit still does not see my Kindle.
I've tried my factory cable and a regular cable. No luck
Some has changed though because now my Kindle logo light is solid bright whereas before it would blink and dim.
Good luck to you!

Well I've had a great dialogue with myself, but I fixed it by accident.
You guys do awesome work and I know its frustrating when people ask repeat questions. I thought I had truly given it my best shot before asking, but in the end it was an accident that seem to have fixed it, that and Skorpns factory cable LOL.
Right before I got ready to pitch it in the trash I figured I would try KFU one more time even though it wasn't seeing my Kindle. Device manager saw the ADB drivers in Android device though.
I plugged in the factory cable
Launched KFU
KFU said "offline"
Tried various options until I finally saw the install permanent root with superuser (option 2)
That did the trick
I then unplugged my factory cable from both the PC and KF and booted the KF into recovery
Plugged in a standard USB
I downloaded a ROM (Hashcodes and GAPPS) and side loaded them
That did it!
I'm not sure how or why since it said it was offline but it fixed it.
Can anyone shed light on why KFU said offline but it still took a root?
Also, regarding the factory cable, I read a ton of material on when to use it and why, but not really how. What I mean is when to plug in and when to revert to the standard cable. If I missed that, my apologies.

Copcheck said:
Well I've had a great dialogue with myself, but I fixed it by accident.
You guys do awesome work and I know its frustrating when people ask repeat questions. I thought I had truly given it my best shot before asking, but in the end it was an accident that seem to have fixed it, that and Skorpns factory cable LOL.
Right before I got ready to pitch it in the trash I figured I would try KFU one more time even though it wasn't seeing my Kindle. Device manager saw the ADB drivers in Android device though.
I plugged in the factory cable
Launched KFU
KFU said "offline"
Tried various options until I finally saw the install permanent root with superuser (option 2)
That did the trick
I then unplugged my factory cable from both the PC and KF and booted the KF into recovery
Plugged in a standard USB
I downloaded a ROM (Hashcodes and GAPPS) and side loaded them
That did it!
I'm not sure how or why since it said it was offline but it fixed it.
Can anyone shed light on why KFU said offline but it still took a root?
Also, regarding the factory cable, I read a ton of material on when to use it and why, but not really how. What I mean is when to plug in and when to revert to the standard cable. If I missed that, my apologies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow im def. gonna try this seeing how we have similar issues with my kindle fire being recognized with a reg usb and online in kfu but with a boot status of unknown and then not seeing it and status being offline when i plus in the factory cable. also with the regular cables it boots to the cm10 boot logo and then with the factory cable it stays at the kindlefire orange and white cable. only thing im confused on is where you say you
"I then unplugged my factory cable from both the PC and KF and booted the KF into recovery"
how did you reboot to recovery? or this was automatic after option 2? thanks and its awesome you were pretty much able to figure this out on your own. i feel i wont have the same luck

Remi85 said:
wow im def. gonna try this seeing how we have similar issues with my kindle fire being recognized with a reg usb and online in kfu but with a boot status of unknown and then not seeing it and status being offline when i plus in the factory cable. also with the regular cables it boots to the cm10 boot logo and then with the factory cable it stays at the kindlefire orange and white cable. only thing im confused on is where you say you
"I then unplugged my factory cable from both the PC and KF and booted the KF into recovery"
how did you reboot to recovery? or this was automatic after option 2? thanks and its awesome you were pretty much able to figure this out on your own. i feel i wont have the same luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I unplugged the factory cable from the PC and the KF, I could have done 1 of 2 things. Powercycle the KF and hold the power button down to get into TWRP or use a regular USB to side load a ROM and then load it.
Good luck to you, I hope you get it figured out.

Remi85 said:
wow im def. gonna try this seeing how we have similar issues with my kindle fire being recognized with a reg usb and online in kfu but with a boot status of unknown and then not seeing it and status being offline when i plus in the factory cable. also with the regular cables it boots to the cm10 boot logo and then with the factory cable it stays at the kindlefire orange and white cable. only thing im confused on is where you say you
"I then unplugged my factory cable from both the PC and KF and booted the KF into recovery"
how did you reboot to recovery? or this was automatic after option 2? thanks and its awesome you were pretty much able to figure this out on your own. i feel i wont have the same luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're getting the Kindle Fire orange and white, you haven't installed the new bootloader. Rerun KFU with the Kindle in Fastboot (using Cable) and select install FireFireFire. This will give you the bootloader to reboot to recovery.
Edit: You might as well reinstall TWRP while you're at it, just to be safe.

[Q] KF2 Empty and not recognized on windows

So I was trying to change my son's Fire 2 over to the new Kit Kat OS, and as I was downloading the necessary files to my computer, I thought I would wipe everything, since he had managed to pretty much fill it with junk, (he's 8). I have TWRP, (2.3.3.0) installed, and used that to wipe everything, including the internal storage and the format data wipe. I have done this with my Fire 1 with no issues, but this time I ran into a problem. TWRP works fine, but now windows won't recognize the tablet. When I go to mount the usb storage to copy the os files over, windows 7 cant load the device drives, and in my device manager it shows the Amazon Kindle fire 2 with the yellow exclamation mark next to it, saying that the drivers for this device are not installed. I have the SDK installed, and I have gone through and re installed the device drivers several times, and also uninstalled the kindle from the device list in manager. Nothing is working. I have attempted fastboot, but when I do try, it gets stuck at the "press the button menu" for TWRP, and after running the fastboot -i 0x1949 getvar product command, it tells me it sees an Otter2-Prod-04.
Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions on how I can get into the usb storage so I can load the OS info? Thanks for any help.

Dead?
Well, I rebooted from TWRP and it just went black. No light when the cable is plugged in, (factory cable), no twenty second reset working, nothing. IS it safe to assume I now have a pretty paperweight, and I should be looking into getting my son another tablet?

xanthian23 said:
Well, I rebooted from TWRP and it just went black. No light when the cable is plugged in, (factory cable), no twenty second reset working, nothing. IS it safe to assume I now have a pretty paperweight, and I should be looking into getting my son another tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Leave it on the charger overnight. Keep trying 20 second reboot. If you can get back into recovery you can adb sideload a rom into the device.
You've never been able to USB Mount this device from recovery.
Good luck. No reason it should be bricked....
How did you try to get into fast boot? You need a fastboot cable. This device is NOTHING LIKE the kf1.
Edit: also need to be sure exactly which kf2 you have.
--》Sent from my mind to your screen

mindmajick said:
Leave it on the charger overnight. Keep trying 20 second reboot. If you can get back into recovery you can adb sideload a rom into the device.
You've never been able to USB Mount this device from recovery.
Good luck. No reason it should be bricked....
How did you try to get into fast boot? You need a fastboot cable. This device is NOTHING LIKE the kf1.
Edit: also need to be sure exactly which kf2 you have.
--》Sent from my mind to your screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the standard cheap Kf2, no HD, just the upgrade from the first from last year, (2012), they were selling around Christmas last year. I have tried getting it to start back up, but with no success. I don't even understand why it shut down like that. I hadn't done anything to it other than reboot, which I had done successfully several times before. As for the fastboot, I may be incorrect. I ran the adb command: fastboot -i 0x1949 getvar product in CMD, and then plugged the kindle in and booted up. It showed it was an otter4 or something like that, which I thought meant it was in fastboot. At that time I was using my S4 usb cable. I'm sure I can sort out ho to sideload a rom via adb if I can ever get it started back up again. I had thought about opening it up and unplugging the battery and then re-plugging it back it to try to reset it, but I doubt it will help. Would getting a fastboot cable possibly make it start back up? If anyone has any suggestions on how I can get this thing started up again I would greatly appreciate it. I fell like crap for bricking my kids kindle, he's 8, so it's really important to him. It'll take me several months to save up to buy another one, so if I can get it running again, that would be awesome.

Here's a bit of an oddity, and maybe this spells some hope for me yet. So I plug the KF2 into the computer with the factory cable, hold down the power button for twenty seconds, let go, and then hit the power button again, for about a second, and windows makes the usb device plugged in sound, followed by a usb rejected or not recognized sound. It repeats this over and over for about thirty seconds or so and then stops. So there is something going on with the kindle, and its not flat out dead, or at least it seems. Is this a good sign? Does this help anyone to figure out what I might need to do?

So just to be sure that I was using a fastboot cable, even though I believe that my samsung s4 cable is fastboot capable, and I'm pretty sure I am using the factory cable, (it's not marked so I can't be 100% sure), I built my own fastboot cable, via instructions on how to do so on xda. (found HERE) It's doing the same thing with windows making the usb device inserted / recognized sound, followed by the usb device error sound. I'm guessing that this is a bad thing, am I correct?

One more bit of information to add to the list. I attempted to do the fastboot mode again,and decided to watch my device manager. Whenever windows chimes off that it detects a usb device, something called OMAP 4430 pops up for about a second before disappearing when the error sound comes on. I'm going to try and get a driver for that, just to see what happens. Maybe it'll help. I doubt it, but you never know until you try...

This just keeps getting weirder and weirder. So I installed the omap driver for windows and android, and now windows recognizes the device, but only for about a second. It just keeps cycling through the usb connected sound, recognizing the omap device, and then the usb disconnected sound, as though the device were being plugged in and then unplugged about every second for roughly thirty seconds. I'm starting to think there is something seriously wrong, which bites. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

That's a hard brick' we can't use the usboot/aboot utility to fix the device like you can on other omap devices because we need a certain signed file to fix the boot loader. Only amazon has that file and they aren't giving it out. There is a way to recover your device from a hard brick but you need to be good with a soldering iron and have a USB sdcard reader, the kind that kinda is like a flashdrive rather than the multi type readers and some really small wire. Kurohyou wrote a tutorial on how to fix it in the kf2 dev section, not sure if he ever added the part in on how to reflash the boot loader from Linux, but if you take this route and try to fix it I wouldn't mind helping.
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire HD running CM10.1 Tablet UI using xda-developers app

stunts513 said:
That's a hard brick' we can't use the usboot/aboot utility to fix the device like you can on other omap devices because we need a certain signed file to fix the boot loader. Only amazon has that file and they aren't giving it out. There is a way to recover your device from a hard brick but you need to be good with a soldering iron and have a USB sdcard reader, the kind that kinda is like a flashdrive rather than the multi type readers and some really small wire. Kurohyou wrote a tutorial on how to fix it in the kf2 dev section, not sure if he ever added the part in on how to reflash the boot loader from Linux, but if you take this route and try to fix it I wouldn't mind helping.
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire HD running CM10.1 Tablet UI using xda-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I have both a tf - micro sd card usb card reader, and a full sd card usb card reader. I'll have to go digging for them in the morning, but I think I can find them. I'm also really good with a soldering iron, (used to be a vcr / tv repair technician), It took me roughly two minutes to do the homemade factory cable. So I am game, especially since at this point I really have nothing to loose by trying. Would you mind posting a link to where the tutorial is? I'm going to go looking for it, but just in case I can't find it, a link would help. And thank you so much for this suggestion!

OK, I found the tutorial on how to wire everything up and what's needed. I'll have to go get some small wire and a better tip for my iron, but aside form that, the wiring and soldering seems simple enough. My problem is going to be dealing with linux. I know Windows backwards and forwards, but I have a pretty limited knowledge of linux, aside from a few things we did in school to cover general PC repair. I can get it up an running, which I will do tomorrow, but I may need some help sorting out what to do with it once I have the board lined up and ready to roll, which will have to wait till next week when I get back from a work trip. Do you know if kurohyou offers repairs? If it's not too expensive, I would be willing to pay for the fix.

He might repair it, he just made a solderless repair tool to repair them. But like I said I'm more than willing to help with the Linux side, I'm a PC tech myself and use Linux primarily, you can basically burn an ubuntu live CD or put it on a USB stick and boot into the entire os without having to install it, from there's its as simple as plugging the device into the PC, and seeing what device path it assigned to the kindle's emmc, and running a dd command to flash the boot loader back onto the device.
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire HD running CM10.1 Tablet UI using xda-developers app

stunts513 said:
... you can basically burn an ubuntu live CD or put it on a USB stick and boot into the entire os without having to install it, from there's its as simple as plugging the device into the PC, and seeing what device path it assigned to the kindle's emmc, and running a dd command to flash the boot loader back onto the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've ran a live usb version of unbuntu a few times, and in the past I have had the full version on my system, but I rarely ever used it, so I got rid of it. I have an extra 600 gig's of space just sitting around on my laptop, so I will install a full version, and get off my lazy rear and start learning linux. This should be a good first lesson. I can't do any of this until next week though, so I will be pm'ing you once I've gotten everythig hooked up and ready to go. Thanks again for the help.
I had a question about the repair though. I went through the discussion, and I may have just missed it, but did he ever figure out how to get the OS up and running? From what I could tell, he was still working on it, and hadn't managed to get a working rom loaded. I probably just either missed it, or didn't understand one of the post's.