Broken after strange NFC behavior

[the-voidl]

I received my Kickstarter-begged Solokeys some while ago, but first initialized them a few days ago.
I was wondering if they also work with my LineageOS smartphone and did some tests and downloaded some apps to it. But all the keys (USB-A/C, Hacker/closed) behaved strange: The phone was repeatingly vibrating (recognizing an NFC tag) in an interval of 0.5s. But from time to time it worked in a test app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.cotech.hw.fido.example&gl=US).

Today as I wanted to logon to my PC and plugged the (USB-A closed) key in the USB port it was not recognized and the LED stayed off. It also doesn't work on my phone any more. Also tried different PCs.

Is there a way I can still assert that the key is broken or not? Or do I have to get a replacement?

[huaracheguarache]

I've not really had any issues with NFC, but my primary key just died today. Just like in your case the LED doesn't light up. I also get the following error messages in dmesg:

[ 7761.659378] usb 2-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 74 using ehci-pci
[ 7765.968410] usb 2-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -32
[ 7769.339534] usb 2-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 75 using ehci-pci
[ 7774.478582] usb 2-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 7774.663596] usb 2-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 7774.831577] usb 2-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 76 using ehci-pci
[ 7774.910615] usb 2-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 7775.098602] usb 2-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 7775.207907] usb 2-1-port4: attempt power cycle
[ 7775.787673] usb 2-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 77 using ehci-pci
[ 7776.207660] usb 2-1.4: device not accepting address 77, error -71
[ 7776.271650] usb 2-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 78 using ehci-pci
[ 7776.695701] usb 2-1.4: device not accepting address 78, error -71
[ 7776.696023] usb 2-1-port4: unable to enumerate USB device

[the-voidl]

Checking dmesg, I got similar messages:

[ 9650.251891] usb 1-5: new full-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 9655.518553] usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 9655.755171] usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 9655.988466] usb 1-5: new full-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
[ 9656.111871] usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -71

But sadly nothing more...

[dguerri]

Same problem here with a LE Solo V2 Hacker C.
I tried NFC first, it worked for the first 2 times (although not reliably), then nothing. Not even the tag is working now.

Plugging it in a laptop, it doesn't “turn on” and on a Mac there is no activity on the USB bus.
Any advice? Any way to perform hardware reset or something?
Is there a way to debug without buying expensive boards/cables?

[huaracheguarache]

I just hope that there's not a flaw in the design that occasionally causes the device to become bricked when NFC is used.

[hlieberman]

I'm afraid I'm in the same boat. I don't have a tag-connect cable, so I can't easily debug it -- but it's a bit concerning that it's not properly registering with USB. I suspect there's no way to fix that without a tag-connect debug cable.

[huaracheguarache]

I just had a second Solo2 key die after using the NFC functionality. I'm concerned that there's either a bug in the software that sometimes bricks the key when NFC is used, or that there's a bug in the hardware that does the same.

[huaracheguarache]

@dguerri I have the 13 Mini as well. Have you checked if the key is able to boot into bootloader mode? Hold all 3 buttons for 5 seconds as you plug in the key, and you should see the LED flash once and that the key enumerates in dmesg.

I must say I'm really frustrated at the total lack of interest from the developers (except @manuel-domke, who's not a developer per se, but he provided me with some good tips on the Solokeys Matrix). You really don't care at all any more, do you? How do you expect to bring the product to the general market after you've finished the pre-orders? I will never recommend the Solo2 to anyone unless the devs actually show a serious interest in fixing all the flaws in the firmware.

[dguerri]

Yep, bootloader mode seems to activate but I will be able to test it with the cli only later today.

Yeah, lack of an official reply is frustrating.

Hopefully we will be able to unbrick the keys via bootloader.

[dguerri]

Bad news, for me at least.

One key seems to switch to bootloader mode but it's not detected by my laptop.

The other one (the oldest I got) doesn't even switch to bootloader mode.

:(

[dguerri]

It's bad news because I start to think it's an hardware problem

[the-voidl]

I plugged in my broken key while holding all 3 buttons.
It registers itself as NXP USB Composite Device but still shows the same error in dmesg when my OS tries to enumerate:

[  785.165629] usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[  785.395642] usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[  785.625573] usb 1-5: new full-speed USB device number 19 using xhci_hcd
[  785.749013] usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[  785.978931] usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[  786.085730] usb usb1-port5: attempt power cycle
[  786.488917] usb 1-5: new full-speed USB device number 20 using xhci_hcd
[  786.489137] usb 1-5: Device not responding to setup address.
[  786.695780] usb 1-5: Device not responding to setup address.
[  786.902229] usb 1-5: device not accepting address 20, error -71
[  787.025448] usb 1-5: new full-speed USB device number 21 using xhci_hcd
[  787.025631] usb 1-5: Device not responding to setup address.
[  787.232002] usb 1-5: Device not responding to setup address.
[  787.438523] usb 1-5: device not accepting address 21, error -71
[  787.438650] usb usb1-port5: unable to enumerate USB device
[  905.144000] usb 1-5: new high-speed USB device number 22 using xhci_hcd

[acopylove]

Is there any encouraging news with this NFC breakdown? Was someone able to recover their keys?