[Q] Kindle Fire rooting got ugly - Kindle Fire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

ladies and gentlemen. i start this thread after months of being at my witt's end with my first generation kindle fire.
upon recieving my fire last december as a christmas gift from my father in law i coundn't wait to jump at the chance to root it and see what she can REALLY do. burritoroot at the time was the tool of choice to do it, and so i climbed about the band wagon. When the fire's software updated automatically it locked me out of root access (auto update was not a welcome surprise for an avid jailbreaker) i reluctantly picked myself out of the silicone mudd that the laughing folks at amazon had thrown me in while stealing my lunch money and wiped the sweat from my brow and returned to google to get myself back where i belonged, rooted, and easily enough, burrito root2 had dropped just in time to let me dance about with glee in the wonderful world of roothood once again until of course another update.
my bloodthirst for rooting had begun to wain as the new update left all me favorite tweaks still available even without having to get my hands dirty with root access. (google play and my custom skin with the eye candy of ice cream sandwich remained leaving me satisfied)
a few months went by and a stood mild mannered not willing to delve deeper into system files until the filthy root lust reared its ugly head again. this time flaunting a new shiny toy in front of my keen childlike eyes. Free. In-App. Purchases. I smoothly popped open my laptop in hopes to find burrito root three to give me that hot fix i needed. much to my dismay the rules had changed. doing this job would require a whole new batch of tricks. so i took the bait and downloaded KFU .0.9.6 and grabbed my usb cord in hopes that in a few minutes i'd be back balls deep in the 6.3.1 system files of my kindle fire. but of course this would not be the case. after installing the proper drivers to make device manager say what it is supposed to say, KFU wouldnt even notice my kindle was online on my windows 7 64 bit laptop. running as admin yielded different results, as it said adb was online but when asked to do anything it said it couldnt find the hard drive in question. nor the specified path. whats more it behaved the same way without the kindle even connected.
i went to bed to watch netflix on the device and decided to try again the next day. this time with my windows 7 64 bit desktop computer that i had used to root the item before (as well as a motorola backflip that i used for work at the time, but that is another tale.) i downloaded another copy of KFU .0.9.6, decompressed its files and placed it in drive C like a good boy. plugged the usb cord in and crossed my fingers. without a doubt things were working differently. not necessarily smoothly. but differently. kfu was reading the fire and so i chose option 2. the screen went black.
and i waited. and waited. my impatience got the better of me and i decided to start over thinking that things had frozen and become unresponsive. only to find my kindle would only boot to the unfainting orange and white kindle fire screen. frustrated i read as many forum support pages as my brain would allow. for weeks i did this until i found myself getting to frustrated knowing i'd have to finally resort to the inevitable. buying a factory cable.
so when i had some free cash on paypal i went to ebay and found one fro a chinese seller for 8 bucks shipped. eagerly i waited for a week until final arrival. i plugged it in just waiting for all my troubles to just vanish. nothing. i cant find it doing much of anything different. kfu is of course finding adb offline, and windows device manager is calling the device the same thing but stating the obvious (this device doesnt seem to start up properly) on a whim today i plugged it into my laptop. similar story. for about three minutes or so while it just sat rebooting itself every 10 seconds or so before i did more than plug the thing in. that changed when i hooked it up to a charger though. i'll keep you posted though.
my question though is where exactly am i going wrong? is the factory cable supposed to do something different right away? maybe i shouldve bought a factory cable from here to debunk that theory... i will of course appreciate any help i can get with this. luckily my wife's kindle still works so we arent completely tabletless. but being in maintenance by trade i know that $200 is a little steep for a masonry brick.
any wise guides apreciated.
-HJD

Part of it sounds like a flat battery but I think you caught that. The main problem I think you have on top of the battery thing is a broken shell which is exactly what a factory cable is for. I found a couple small things with the approach to using a factory cable that can help. First start with the device off plug to the device end then the pc side, it should boot static at the logo if it kicks into fastboot then recovery and bootloader can be sent to the device rooting stock is obsolete, simply do a full wipe when in recovery minus external storage/sdcard and flash a rom. About the very worst thing you can do is unplug the kindle in middle of a bootloader flash despite your thorough post I can't tell you if thats the case. The second way that helps get it into fastboot I have found is merely going through the paces shift+right click on the tools folder in kfu, select open command window here execute
Code:
fastboot -i 0x1949 getvar product
then plug the kindle in with your cable if the terminal throws product: kindle your are indeed in fastboot at least its been effective for me at that point you can use kfu to send fff and twrp. Mount your sdcard in twrp, transfer rom.zip and gapps zip, then unmount and unplug, wipe and flash away.
If your having trouble with drivers or the situation is worse like as in a broken bootloader then you will need Soupkit to rescue your device http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1850038.

If the kindle is still at the orange and white KindleFire screen here's what you can try which has worked for me and a couple others at this point:
Plug in the kindle to the computer via a normal usb and turn it on (it should be at the KindleFire boot screen)
Boot up KFU, it probably won't see the device, but this is FINE!!!
Select the option to install TWRP, it should push it to it.
when the Kindle reboots it should be in recovery mode, if not try using KFU to boot it into Recovery mode.
If you get this far use KFU to download the latest amazon update. Find this update.zip and in recovery mount the kindle and move the update.zip to the root of the sdcard. Then try to install the zip and it should put you back to stock which then you can try rooting it again or you can leave it alone lol. You might run into an issue in recovery flashing the zip, if you do here's what you can do to fix that:
unmount data, system, cache BUT leave sdcard mounted
do a factory restore, wipe dalvik cache and cache
fix the permissions in twrp
then attempted to flash the update.zip
Now if you weren't able to get it into recovery or if TWRP failed instead use KFU to try and install FireFireFire. Again, KFU will most liekly NOT see your device, this is FINE, go ahead and try it. Remember use the normal usb cable for this. If you get FireFireFire installed then you can go ahead and try recovery TWRP at that point which then follow the steps I posted above. Hope this helps!

Do a full wipe before flashing.

looks like we got it guys! thank you so much. as for now it back to factory with the inclusion of fff and twrp. couldnt be happier at this point.:good::good::good:

Related

[Q] Beyond frustrated, would like to hire some help

I'm not a stupid person, but I am a slightly distracted widowed father of a three-year-old, and I've become so frustrated that I can't think straight!
I'm not a developer, but I've always easily rooted my devices by following the instructions. Until the Kindle came along.
I had all kind of trouble, wrong drivers, general mistakes, etc. Finally, everything appeared to be working, and then I had a hard drive crash during the root process. TWRP was installed, but, apparently, nothing else.
Took it to a second computer, downloaded KFU, installed drivers, ran. Partial success. TWRP appeared to be running smoothly. Downloaded ROM (Don't even remember which, Kindle has been thrown in drawer for weeks!) ROM appeared to install, but wouldn't boot. Here's where I got extra-stupid:
Obviously, something is already wrong with my Kindle, but at least I can see it in device manager. At least I can access it through KFU. For some insane reason, I began trying everything I could think to do, and eventually got TWRP into a recovery bootloop. Yay, me!
Now, I've screwed around on multiple computers, in Windows and Ubuntu. I'm completely confused as to which drivers are loaded where, Kindle shows up in Device Manager as a phone, but does not show up as a drive in Windows Explorer, and KFU, while it runs just fine, alternates between between telling me that it's "waiting for device," or "the system cannot find the drive specified."
Help on the Forums has been wonderful, but I am beyond that. My last post was answered with "Which drivers have you installed?" Well, crap! I don't know. I probably knew a month ago when the problem started, but I can't think rationally (where the Kindle is concerned, I seem to do OK in real life) anymore!
Now, I know that I've got so much crap going on, that most of you don't want to trash up the forum by trying to address my multiple issues. Please do not post "Have you tried the search tool?" Re-read my far too long post. I don't even know what the crap to search for anymore!
So, finally, here's my question? Anybody want to try their hand at fixing my F-'d up Kindle? It's not doing me a bit of good as is so, even if I mail it to someone and they just keep it I haven't really lost much!
All I want is a nice, stable (STABLE!) Gingerbread or ICS ROM that my little boy can watch Netflix on. I'll gladly pay anyone a reasonable amount to anyone willing to take this problem off my hands...
If you have TWRP installed can you mount the USB drive in it and then flash what you want?
When I mount usb storage in twrp, it does allow me to access the device on the computer, which is much better than I was getting. When I run KFU it still stated that it cannot find the device. If I run Kindle Unbrick, it open the command line, then just hangs up.
RobWoodall said:
When I mount usb storage in twrp, it does allow me to access the device on the computer, which is much better than I was getting. When I run KFU it still stated that it cannot find the device. If I run Kindle Unbrick, it open the command line, then just hangs up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to run KFU... Just copy FFF to the Kindle and flash from TWRP. Then copy what rom you want and Flash from TWRP.
And, make sure you flash the FFF version (1.4a) in this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1632375
Your download should be named: fff-u-boot_v1.4a.zip.
You will see some notes in that thread about NOT flashing this file, but those are for an older zip. This is a flashable .zip ... I just installed (flashed) it last week from TWRP.
(P.S.) Your KF is not in as bad of shape as you might think. This is a quick fix with the right setup.
I had a similar problem. First you should download Kindle Fire Drivers(the one that came with KFU didn't work...) and install it. Then in TWRP mount the SD card. Update the drivers using that Kindle Fire Driver folder(I will upload it and give you the link). Then with KFU press 1(bootmode) and then 1 again(normal). I think this should get you out of bootloop. If that doesn't work, just flash the Kindle Fire Stock Rom.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda premium
When I said install Kindle Fire Drivers I meant download. Then manually install the drivers(My Computer, right click,
properties, hardware, and open up device manager. If you get android device or something, click on it. If you see Kindle with a ! then click on update drivers and select the kindle fire driver folder. If you don't see kindle, or if you see Android device, then uninstall. Then go to disk drives and find your kindle fire and uninstall. Close and re-open, and you should see Kindle! Then update the drivers. Open up KFU and change bootmode to normal. Do a 20 sec. hard reset and see if it boots. If your trying to install a Custom ROM(ICS or honeycomb) put the .zip file on you kindle fire. Then open up TWRP and choose Wipe, and Factory Reset. Then wipe Cache and Dalvik Cache. Then go to install and select the ROM. After install the boot may take awhile. You said you tried this but you got stuck in bootmode, so make sure you follow these instructions. Make a backup if you ever want to go back. Move the backup to your computer as it takes up almost 1.5gb of space. Please inform me if this doesn't help. Sorry if I'm not good at giving instructions,but I'm only 14.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda premium
Here is the Link for the folder. Just unzip and update your Kindle Fire with it: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?lnx766ac84o7q1i
RobWoodall - hang in there, because a lot of us were exactly in your shoes. For the life of me I can't get most of the ubuntu stuff to work, and windows was a bit of a nightmare for drivers until sorted out. I bootlooped, thought I bricked, etc etc but all sorted out in the end.
The fact you can see it in device manager is good. What you need to do is to replace the drivers with the 'Android Composite ADB Interface' - this video may help you out
I'm sure folks here will try to help you out without taking your money
Thanks, but I don't seem to be able to find a current version of FFF. Probably because I'm not thinking clearly.
tedr108,
Thanks, but the link appears to be unavailable at this time. I'm not hopeful, as I have been quite able to install ROMs. For all I know they are running perfectly. My most immediate problem seems to be that I'm trapped in a bootloop, and no matter what I do, the Kindle always boots into TWRP. Apparently I'm in boot mode 5001, and I should be in mode 4000 or some such. KFU should be able to change the boot mode, but it only gives me "waiting for device."
RobWoodall said:
Thanks, but I don't seem to be able to find a current version of FFF. Probably because I'm not thinking clearly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the latest copy of FFF 1.4A that I have.
Dropbox link (while Rombot is down):
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/41149741/KFire-Android/fff-u-boot_v1.4a.zip
md5sum: 419c53b922c963082454b14b7de75a90
Edit: Tera Tike is on the ball! (Thanks I almost never ready this forum)
josepho1997,
Thanks. Downloaded and installed perfectly. Unfortunately, the Kindle will still only boot into TWRP recovery. Apparently I'm in boot mode 5001, and should be in 4000 or 4001 or something. It's really getting frustrating!
Use sudo command in ubuntu power it off type sudo fastboot getvar product plug your kindle in it should return kindle as a response your kindle then your kindle will be in fastboot then type sudo fastboot oem idme bootmode 4000 hit enter then type sudo fastboot reboot it should boot in normal mode
Nevermind, someone beat me to it...
RobWoodall said:
josepho1997,
Thanks. Downloaded and installed perfectly. Unfortunately, the Kindle will still only boot into TWRP recovery. Apparently I'm in boot mode 5001, and should be in 4000 or 4001 or something. It's really getting frustrating!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems that your system is bad.
Tera Tike,
Thanks! I think I love you! Worked perfectly. I'm now running CM7 Barebones, because that's the last ROM I had tried to flash. Now that I understand the process, I'll certainly experiment with other ROMs, but Bare Bones looks pretty darn good after staring at the TWRP menu for a month and a half!
P.S. Nope! My system wasn't bad, the operator was!!! LOL!
Thanks, Hashcode! I got the file from Tara Tike. Fantastic work! That simple option to reset bootmenu on the first page was all I needed all this time!
RobWoodall said:
Tera Tike,
Thanks! I think I love you! Worked perfectly. I'm now running CM7 Barebones, because that's the last ROM I had tried to flash. Now that I understand the process, I'll certainly experiment with other ROMs, but Bare Bones looks pretty darn good after staring at the TWRP menu for a month and a half!
P.S. Nope! My system wasn't bad, the operator was!!! LOL!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great!!! Hashcode FFF is the best!! Now enjoy your hard work!
Thanks, Hashcode for all you have done for us Fire users!!
I really appreciate everyone's help! I've been sharing the nook with my three-year-old. He's a pretty smart kid but, once he learned how to change icons and wallpaper, install and uninstall apps, it's a completely different experience every time I turned it on. I bought the Kindle so I could have MY OWN tablet!
If anyone is still reading this thread, please give me some recommendations for ROMs. I typically only use Google Play Books, Contacts and Calendar, Aldiko Reader and Netflix. I'm not in the market for fastest or fanciest, but most stable. I don't care if it's Gingerbread or ICS (Heck, even Honeycomb if it's stopped sucking!) So what do you all say?
What's the most stable ROM out there for a person who needs Google compatibility on the Kindle Fire?

[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!!

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.

Cannot start Fire TV 2 - TWRP settings that may help?

Hi there
I have an Amazon Fire TV 2 (4K) which I have rooted with rbox's pre-rooted ROM with custom recovery etc. All has been going well and I have been working on perfecting my Kodi install when this morning I snagged the power cord and the Fire TV fell about two foot off my sofa on to my carpeted floor. I honestly didn't think there would be a problem, but the unit restarted and got stuck on the white Amazon logo.
I left the unit completely unplugged for an hour and tried again, but it was still stuck on the white Amazon logo. I still have recovery so I immediately backed up my system in full onto my microSD card, then tried wiping just the cache (to make my life easier if this worked). The process seemed to work except for a message in red which said "unable to locate boot partition", but sadly when I rebooted I was still stuck on the white Amazon logo. I then tried a full factory reset, which ran without error, but still left me stuck on the Amazon logo. I then flashed the pre-rooted ROM (sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4), which also seemed to work, but still resulted in me being stuck on the white Amazon logo.
Is it possible that some small part of the machine broke in that short, fairly soft fall? Or is there something else I can try via TWRP?
If the hardware is at fault, I would prefer not to return it to Amazon rooted and with the stock firmware installed, so would I be able to wipe it 100% if necessary. I do hope it doesn't come to that, but if anyone has any ideas, I would be very (very) grateful.
Peter
In the last sentence I meant to say, "I would prefer not to return it to Amazon rooted and with the custom recovery installed..." Just in case that was confusing. Still keen to find an answer if anyone can help!
Left the Fire TV unplugged all night. No difference today. Looks like I'll have to return it to Amazon with the glaringly obvious recovery mode staring them in the face when they come to test it out. I just hope they don't balk on issuing a replacement. It would have been nice to be able to try out a few more methods before giving in, but I see my post has not rung a bell with anyone.
Now that you've flashed a pre-rooted rom over your old one, can you unplug everything (including sd card, hdmi cable, power, ethernet) and leave them unplugged for an hour or so, then try again?
Thank you for your response. I shall certainly give that a shot and report back afterwards.
Hello again. I left my Fire TV completely unhooked from all peripherals for well over an hour, but still stuck on gruesome white logo. For good measure, I tried reinstalling my backup. Ran without issue, but still stuck on logo. Then reflashing pre-rooted ROM, but again stuck on logo.
Is it possible that a tiny memory module of some kind was dislodged in the fall? It seems so strange that it still powers on and I can still reinstall from SD card etc.
I would much prefer to exhaust all options if possible. Unless there is a foolproof way to confirm hardware failure.
pfhastie said:
Hello again. I left my Fire TV completely unhooked from all peripherals for well over an hour, but still stuck on gruesome white logo. For good measure, I tried reinstalling my backup. Ran without issue, but still stuck on logo. Then reflashing pre-rooted ROM, but again stuck on logo.
Is it possible that a tiny memory module of some kind was dislodged in the fall? It seems so strange that it still powers on and I can still reinstall from SD card etc.
I would much prefer to exhaust all options if possible. Unless there is a foolproof way to confirm hardware failure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyone have any further thoughts?
pfhastie said:
Anyone have any further thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/firetv-2-unbrick-image-t3313349
Thank you, sir. I'll be honest I came across that article on my travels in search of an answer, but assumed it was for people who didn't have recovery. I shall certainly give it a shot and let you know my results.
Good morning. I was too tired to try this out last night.
Having read through the entire FireTV 2 Unbrick Image thread it is not 100% clear exactly what steps I should take to run the process. Once I unzip all the files do I simply drop them all in the root folder on my SD card (in the Fire TV)? And do I then attach the Fire TV to my Windows PC via USB?
Lastly, if I already have recovery, do I really need to go through this process, which may very well lead to further issues, only to get me back to square one and the recovery I already have?
I'm so sorry to have to pester people about this, but without your help I would be lost.
OK, my brain is waking up. As far as the files go, I just put the unbrick.img on my SD card, then run the remaining files on my Windows PC and connect my Fire TV via A-A USB cable. OK, I can do that.
But does it all just lead to the same recovery?
pfhastie said:
Good morning. I was too tired to try this out last night.
Having read through the entire FireTV 2 Unbrick Image thread it is not 100% clear exactly what steps I should take to run the process. Once I unzip all the files do I simply drop them all in the root folder on my SD card (in the Fire TV)? And do I then attach the Fire TV to my Windows PC via USB?
Lastly, if I already have recovery, do I really need to go through this process, which may very well lead to further issues, only to get me back to square one and the recovery I already have?
I'm so sorry to have to pester people about this, but without your help I would be lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read step 2 here (http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-root-the-amazon-fire-tv-2/) to prepare your computer/laptop and firetv unit then download the following:
•FireTV 2 Recovery Installer
•FireTV 2 Recovery
•Unbrick Images (md5sum: 5e774497b3bad5c47d1c744410f6db12)
Extract all 3 zip files to the same directory. Follow link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/firetv-2-unbrick-image-t3313349
---------- Post added at 11:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:19 AM ----------
pfhastie said:
OK, my brain is waking up. As far as the files go, I just put the unbrick.img on my SD card, then run the remaining files on my Windows PC and connect my Fire TV via A-A USB cable. OK, I can do that.
But does it all just lead to the same recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
READ POST: "Extract all 3 zip files to the same directory." and yes it will
I truly appreciate your help.
OK, so I have placed the file "ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma" on the microSD Card and returned the microSD card to the Fire TV. I ran "unbrick_firetv2.bat" on Windows, then connected my Fire TV to my PC via A-A USB cable. Windows recognised that there was a device, but did not successfully load any drivers ("Device driver was not successfully installed - MT65xx Preloader - Device Unplugged") and the Command Window in Windows simply states "Waiting for preloader" and nothing else happens.
I already have ADB drivers on my machine which was working with my Fire TV before the problem began (15 Seconds ADB Installer 1.4.2), so how can I get my Fire TV to communicate with my Windows PC in order to initiate the process? Or is the trouble I am having indicative of a hardware problem?
I await any and all input.
pfhastie said:
Good morning. I was too tired to try this out last night.
Having read through the entire FireTV 2 Unbrick Image thread it is not 100% clear exactly what steps I should take to run the process. Once I unzip all the files do I simply drop them all in the root folder on my SD card (in the Fire TV)? And do I then attach the Fire TV to my Windows PC via USB?
Lastly, if I already have recovery, do I really need to go through this process, which may very well lead to further issues, only to get me back to square one and the recovery I already have?
I'm so sorry to have to pester people about this, but without your help I would be lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) create a folder on your desktop
2) unzip all three files in this new created folder
3) connect your firetv through an A-A cable without power cord connected
4) Run unbrick_firetv2.bat for Windows or unbrick_firetv2.sh for Linux or OSX
5) power on your firetv unit
6) let the process run
Note: you need to install the proper drivers before you do any of above steps. Follow step 2 in this link: http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-root-the-amazon-fire-tv-2/
Hello again. I did all the steps outlined above. The main factor I was missing was installing the MTK65XX Preloader USB VCom drivers.
This proved to be the usual despairing pain, but I got there in the end, installed the unbrick image, then reconnected the Fire TV and booted into recovery without issue. I then flashed the pre-rooted ROM without issue, but - so very sadly - I am still still stuck on the white Amazon logo.
Can I safely assume now that my unit is simply broken? If so, how can I delete all signs of the recovery and root, so I might say to Amazon it didn't start after a factory refresh?
pfhastie said:
Hello again. I did all the steps outlined above. The main factor I was missing was installing the MTK65XX Preloader USB VCom drivers.
This proved to be the usual despairing pain, but I got there in the end, installed the unbrick image, then reconnected the Fire TV and booted into recovery without issue. I then flashed the pre-rooted ROM without issue, but - so very sadly - I am still still stuck on the white Amazon logo.
Can I safely assume now that my unit is simply broken? If so, how can I delete all signs of the recovery and root, so I might say to Amazon it didn't start after a factory refresh?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you used unbrick.img or unbrick+ramdisk.img? BTW what version of prerooted img did you use? Maybe that is the cause, could be corrupted.
I used "unbrick.img" because I have a microSD card and it took half an hour as opposed to two. The pre-rooted image I used was "sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4", which I have had in a folder on my PC for over a month and have used successfully several times before so I don't think that is the issue.
If there are no other options, I think it's time to get a replacement, but how do I wipe recovery and root so I don't have to explain myself to Amazon?
pfhastie said:
I used "unbrick.img" because I have a microSD card and it took half an hour as opposed to two. The pre-rooted image I used was "sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4", which I have had in a folder on my PC for over a month and have used successfully several times before so I don't think that is the issue.
If there are no other options, I think it's time to get a replacement, but how do I wipe recovery and root so I don't have to explain myself to Amazon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the long way.......it is just two hours.
bula1ca said:
Try the long way.......it is just two hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do appreciate you trying to help, but this all so tricky and time-consuming. I already had recovery, I then installed recovery again with the unboot image. What difference could installing recovery the slowest way make?
OK, I am trying the long way now. I suppose I said I wanted to exhaust the possibilities.

Categories

Resources