Kenwood Keg problem

[flyguy111971]

I've owned a Kenwood KHD-CX910 for six years but I wanted to hack it since I don't know when my original hard drive is going to fail.  I tried applying the hack tools to my original 10 GB DMS and updating the hack. The system no longer responded, so I unplugged the unit from my head unit (KDC-X869) and it only recognizes it as AUX1 anymore. I went back and reformatted each partition (SYS and DATA) and reapplied the original firmware (unhacked) from the PMM options. I'm getting the same response as before.

Red Light - Steady
Green Light - Steady, then constantly blinking...and blinking...and blinking

That's all it does and it's been an hour now.

Did I ruin my Keg by inproperly applying the hack? Did I create a brick? I'm frustrated because the unit doesn't even recognize my Keg anymore. Thanks for all your help!

[sbingner]

kinda sounds like firmware application or something -- load up the level 10 rc scripts from http://downloads.phathack.com/bushing/rc_pairs.zip

[flyguy111971]

Ok, I did an overwrite of the rc.sh and rc.sig that's on my PHTSYS drive. I put it back into my keg and it did the same thing...Steady Red light, 3 slow blinks of the green light, then a constant blinking of the green light for infinity. I eventually took it out a while later and I don't see any logfiles in the PHTSYS directory. Did I follow this process correctly?

[VorTechS]

Yep, now take a look in PHTSYS, there should be a log file, could be called log_file.txt I forget.
Attach it so we can take a look.

[markbowen]

Chances are the hack did not properly complete, and it is stuck in a loop until it does.  However, older Kenwoods also sometimes require a reset to properly recognize the Keg the first time it is connected or reconnected.  I think it even mentions that in the manual.  I had an X969 that required it. 

You've got a tiny button on the control faceplate of the X869.  After connecting the Keg, press that button (you will need a pen or paper clip) to reset.

[flyguy111971]

ya, it definitely is stuck in a loop. I ended up taking it out an hour later. I have no log files though on the PHTSYS directory....just the original files that were present when I put the DMS in.

As far as the reset goes, I've tried that. The panel shuts off and restarts. It still says "AUX1" instead of recognizing it before with the old "EXT HDD".

As stated previously, I put the rc.sh and rc.sig level 10 rc_repairs in the PHTSYS directory before sticking the DMS back in my car. I unplugged the Keg before doing so and plugged it back into the unit again.

I'm a bit lost. I'm wondering if I'm missing a step here...

[sbingner]

try copying currentsetup.xml to bootload.log and see if that ends up with data in it...

You may need to corrupt your ramdisk.sig by copying one of the other .sig files over it

[flyguy111971]

sorry but this is starting to get a bit technical for me. So i should create another file called bootload.log and copy the contents of currentsetup.xml into it? Do I currupt the ramdisk.sig with another random .sig file at the same time? What kind of order do i do this in? After all of this I need to stick that in my Keg and wait and see what happens? this is a little over my head....

[flyguy111971]

Ok....i created a bootload.log file and copied currentsetup.xml into it. I inserted it into the Keg and got the infinite green lights again....but I did get something out of it. Here it is...

BOOT0-0: OK
BOOT0-1: OK
BOOT0: Successful
BOOT9: Successful
BOOTB: Successful
BOOTF: Successful
BOOT*-X: Failed

[sbingner]

As I suspected, you need to rename ramdisk.sig then copy linux.sig over ramdisk.sig

After this, it will boot up and complete the patch process... then you can put the original ramdisk.sig back, or not as you prefer.

[flyguy111971]

Ok, I renamed ramdisk.sig to ramdisk.bak and copied linux.sig to ramdisk.org. This fixed the problem and I got my original unhacked Phatbox back!

Now, I went back to my original goal of hacking the box. I got the same problem where the hack didn't apply and went ahead and followed the recommended procedure of unplugging the box as described in the Hack Tools documentation. After plugging it back in I got the same loop problem(infinite green lights and unrecognized on the Kenwood receiver), but this time I corrupted the ramdisk.sig again, turned the stereo on again and miraculously I heard the sweet words of "Your Phatbox is now unlocked". It took some work, but I did it.

Thanks for helping out!

[VorTechS]

Hmmm, still needing to corrupt ramdisk, I thought the hack did that itself....?
I'll add another feature into the hack tools to 'corrupt ramdisk' when a failed hack is detected....

[sbingner]

Don't do that, you won't know where it failed... you would need to know it failed AT that point, which is only possible with bootload.log

[VorTechS]

...so I can analyze bootlog.log and if that failed entry exists, I can try the ramdisk corruption?

[sbingner]

the new scripts do that... that's where it needs to stay... windows has no true knowledge of the state of the dms. 

If tthat happens to fail once in a while... we can troubleshoot that.  Perhaps he used an old version of the scripts somehow.  A suggestion/option to do it might make sense tho... but nothing automatic... if you do that and they try to run it on unhacked drive to test it they will be really confused.

[VorTechS]

Okay, I'll ignore it for now - and then look at it for 2.13.
Still got some other issues to look at for 2.12 anyway....