BlackBerry PlayBook: Force Reset, Security Wipe, Connect to Linux Via USB

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

How to Force Reset BlackBerry PlayBook

hold the volume down button and power button together for about 15 seconds

How to Reinstall Blackberry Playbook? (Security Wipe)

How to Find BlackBerry PlayBook IP Address

Blackberry Playbook ip address screen 2014-04-04
Blackberry Playbook IP address screen

How to Connect BlackBerry PlayBook to Linux

Here is how you can mount it on Linux via USB connection.

Blackberry Playbook file sharing screen 2014-04-04
Blackberry Playbook file sharing screen
  1. • plug in the USB between PlayBook and Linux machine.
  2. • on PlayBook, go to “Storage and Sharing”, set the menu “USB Connections” to “Connect to Window”. In the “File Sharing” section, turn it on.
  3. • on PlayBook, go to “About”, find the USB IP address of the PlayBook. In the About screen, the Network menu. Note, it's the USB's IP address, not the wifi ip address.
  4. on Linux, just open a folder, press Ctrl+l to show the address bar, type smb://169.254.134.77/, where the IP is the Playbook's IP.
Blackberry Playbook file sharing screen network id 2014-04-04
Blackberry Playbook file sharing screen network ID

BlackBerry PlayBook, Unable to Delete File

Summary: if you downloaded a zip file that expanded, and is unable to delete them later in your file manager, you probably have to do a security wipe.

i downloaded the python doc in pdf (http://docs.python.org/3/archives/python-3.3.2-docs-pdf-letter.zip) on PlayBook. It's a zip file. Touched the screen to unzip. They expands to tens of pdf files, clutter my files. So, i want to delete some of them. But, it says unable to delete.

fine, connect to my linux, and i though i should be able to delete them there, with rm or sudo or chmod etc. (PlayBook doesn't support linux, so you'll have to smb the USB ip, for example: smb://169.254.134.77/). Still, says perm denied. Ok, after a while finding where smb is mounted, it's at ~/.gvfs/ (press Ctrl+h to show hidden file). Then try sudo rm -rf. No go, still perm denied. Try sudo chmod 777 ., no go.

◆ xah@xah-p6813w◆ 2013-11-07 09:37 ◆ ~/.gvfs/media on 169.254.242.33/downloads/python-2.7.3-docs-pdf-letter/docs-pdf
◆ l
total 10717
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  820875 2012-04-09 16:24 c-api.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  425403 2012-04-09 16:24 distutils.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  407672 2012-04-09 16:24 extending.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  491981 2012-04-09 16:24 faq.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah   96716 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-advocacy.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  109686 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-cporting.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  121221 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-curses.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  114583 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-descriptor.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  113071 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-doanddont.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  154847 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-functional.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  134829 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-logging-cookbook.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  149790 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-logging.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  140880 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-pyporting.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  161764 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-regex.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  121969 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-sockets.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  116303 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-sorting.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  147362 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-unicode.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  136696 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-urllib2.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  140284 2012-04-09 16:24 howto-webservers.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  255306 2012-04-09 16:24 install.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah 5049392 2012-04-09 16:24 library.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  557469 2012-04-09 16:24 reference.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  475269 2012-04-09 16:24 tutorial.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  283653 2012-04-09 16:24 using.pdf*
-rwx------ 1 xah xah  240812 2012-04-09 16:24 whatsnew.pdf*

◆ xah@xah-p6813w◆ 2013-11-07 09:37 ◆ ~/.gvfs/media on 169.254.242.33/downloads/python-2.7.3-docs-pdf-letter/docs-pdf
◆ sudo rm -rf *
[sudo] password for xah:
rm: cannot remove `c-api.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `distutils.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `extending.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `faq.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-advocacy.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-cporting.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-curses.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-descriptor.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-doanddont.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-functional.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-logging-cookbook.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-logging.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-pyporting.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-regex.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-sockets.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-sorting.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-unicode.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-urllib2.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `howto-webservers.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `install.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `library.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `reference.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `tutorial.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `using.pdf': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove `whatsnew.pdf': Permission denied

◆ xah@xah-p6813w◆ 2013-11-07 09:37 ◆ ~/.gvfs/media on 169.254.242.33/downloads/python-2.7.3-docs-pdf-letter/docs-pdf
◆ sudo chmod 777 whatsnew.pdf
chmod: cannot access `whatsnew.pdf': Permission denied

◆ xah@xah-p6813w◆ 2013-11-07 09:37 ◆ ~/.gvfs/media on 169.254.242.33/downloads/python-2.7.3-docs-pdf-letter/docs-pdf

so, the problem is you have a tens of files in your PlayBook you can't delete. Search the web, there's few reports too, saying you have to security wipe. WTF?

then, perhaps i should jailbreak it, but that means who knows how many hours i'll have to put in.

BlackBerry PlayBook is the worst tablet.