Debricking Amazon Echo / Booting Debian

[whatever_42]

Hey,

I am afraid I kinda bricked my Echo. I followed the guide https://labs.mwrinfosecurity.com/blog/alexa-are-you-listening and everything worked. However, then I tried to make it more userfriendly and tried to install an SSH client using opkg, which apparently ruined some files. Currently I am able to boot the Echo and it also sets up it's own Wifi but connecting it to my actual wifi does not work.

Is there anyway to overwrite the internal memory/flash with the image provided https://github.com/echohacking/wiki/wiki/Echo there? So far I have only been able to use their Debian image to interrupt the boot process but unable to boot the actual Debian. It keeps telling me that it did not find the file /boot/uImage . I am not sure if this is due to the SD card reader. Uboot tells me that it is also unable to read the partition table of mmc dev 0 (which appears to be the SD card).  I was hoping to boot this Debian and then make a backup from the internal storage and afterwards to just overwrite the eMMC. Any ideas would be highly appreciated.

[asianrocker]

You should ask on where you follow your links. I read the link however and what is the point of doing that? Seems so messy to do and for what?

You probably miss a step or connected in wrong place. Who knows.

Most people here are clueless on software part of echo what more a hardware hack. that honestly doesn't make sense to me.

[mike27oct]

OP. contact Echo support, they might be able to help you.  My guess:  kiss your Echo goodbye.  Anyone who does what you did must face the consequences.

[renegade600]

you may want to go to the xda forums.  they are the experts when it comes to fixing bricks.  in addition you may want to go to the site you get the info from and ask there.

[whatever_42]

So in the meantime I managed to fix the Echo. Unfortunately it required a second Echo because I needed to dump the image of the main partition. The image can be dumped and written back to the Echo with the diag partition that is also present on the Echo. The image can be transfered via screen and the zmodem. This is rather slow which is why i would recommend compressing the image.

The image also seems to be somewhat region-gated? I tried the English image and it didn't fix the Echo. But a second German image did. In case anybody needs help debricking theirs, I'll be happy to help.

[asianrocker]

Meanwhile, is there a GOOD reason for doing this?  Illuminate me.

[whatever_42]

I am working at a government facility and we are trying to showcase, that devices in general do not have to be nice and are susceptive to manipulation. So no, this is not for my own personal use.

[edimarcr]

So in the meantime I managed to fix the Echo. Unfortunately it required a second Echo because I needed to dump the image of the main partition. The image can be dumped and written back to the Echo with the diag partition that is also present on the Echo. The image can be transfered via screen and the zmodem. This is rather slow which is why i would recommend compressing the image.

The image also seems to be somewhat region-gated? I tried the English image and it didn't fix the Echo. But a second German image did. In case anybody needs help debricking theirs, I'll be happy to help.

I have an Echo Show 5 that won't boot up. Do you know of any solutions for this device? I understand that they are very different devices, but I decided to ask for help because Amazon does not offer support for this type of problem. I have already tried using the device's own Factory Reset feature and without success.

[renegade600]

I have an Echo Show 5 that won't boot up. Do you know of any solutions for this device? I understand that they are very different devices, but I decided to ask for help because Amazon does not offer support for this type of problem. I have already tried using the device's own Factory Reset feature and without success.

the thread is seven years old.   Best to start your own.   You said amazon will not support it.   They will support it unless you made unauthorized modifications to it or it was reported stolen and bricked.    If you need help to get it to boot, and it's not stolen, you need to post more info as to the problem and because you posted in this thread, if you made any modification that could have caused it not to boot.