Messages

1

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / Bricked Sl5500?

« on: March 03, 2005, 05:08:06 pm »

I'm at a loss - dunno what to say.  The culprit was my Mac.  <gulp>

I tried on a whim copying to other media types, like my USB Cruzer drive.  Md5sums stayed the same after repeated mount/umounts.  Put the cardreader on a windoze box, put the Cruzer on the windoze box, copied the files from the Cruzer to the CF.  Flashed.  Works.

/me runs off to the Apple forums to b!tch.

2

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / Bricked Sl5500?

« on: March 03, 2005, 04:51:32 pm »

OK, things not going like I expected.  I copy over the flash files to the (brand new Sandisk 128M) CF and the checksums are correct.  I umount the CF, then remount the media - checksums are off.  Is this expected behavior?  I'm trying to flash w/ them anyway, but don't have high hopes that they'll succeed.

No dice - as expected.  Here's an example of what I'm talking about.  First, let's see what the md5sums.txt file has to say:

$ cat md5sums.txt |grep "64-0"
5957ac2f2c057e6f002e92e4bf9c76c1  zImage_collie-64-0

Then I copy this zImage file to the CF:

$ cp zImage_collie-64-0 /Volumes/NO\ NAME/zImage

Then md5sum both the original file on my HD, and the copy I just put on the CF:

$ md5sum zImage_collie-64-0 && md5sum /Volumes/NO\ NAME/zImage
5957ac2f2c057e6f002e92e4bf9c76c1  zImage_collie-64-0
5957ac2f2c057e6f002e92e4bf9c76c1  /Volumes/NO NAME/zImage

Everything looks good.  Now I umount the CF, then mount it again, and re-run the previous command:

$ !!
md5sum zImage_collie-64-0 && md5sum /Volumes/NO\ NAME/zImage
5957ac2f2c057e6f002e92e4bf9c76c1  zImage_collie-64-0
c71d3e18a027d7ef8abbb5a6bbf1eeb7  /Volumes/NO NAME/zImage

Is it any wonder that it isn't flashing right?  Perhaps the change is occurring when I mount the CF on my laptop.  I'll try mounting it on another box and see what it thinks the md5sum is.  Well, it's different.  So everytime I mount and/or umount this CF, the md5sum changes on the flash files.  How can I succeed?

Can someone check to see if their successful flashing does or doesn't confirm that this is really my problem?  I'd love to know.

TIA.

3

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / Bricked Sl5500?

« on: March 02, 2005, 10:39:01 pm »

OK, not sure if this will address anyone's problem here, but IIRC someone earlier mentioned using a 256M CF (macroexp?).  Anyway, I'm trying to use a Viking 256M CF, and having all kinds of trouble.  I used to have a 128M CF that I lent out, and I used to flash like mad w/ it.  Then I "upgraded" to the 256M, but wasn't flashing (had my Z dialed in).  But I digress - I think the 256M CF is giving me grief - I just didn't make the connection because I'd had the 256M for a long time before I tried to flash w/ it.

After trying to flash a recently purchased SL-5000d, and pretty much bricking it, I started nosing around to figure out what the problem was.  First thing I checked were the files that I downloaded from openzaurus.org.  I noticed that when downloading the files via Safari (Mac user), the download would complete "successfully", but would be the wrong size and MD5sum.  So, I really started getting picky about my MD5s (wget worked so much better than a browser, BTW), checking them all the time.

I found that copying my files from the Desktop to the CF via the GUI (i.e. drag and drop) would hose the files - bad checksums on the files copied to the CF.  Copying them via "cp" in Terminal - same thing.  I ended up tarring everything up, and copying the tarfile - that seemed to work (using "cp" in terminal - why that worked and the individual ROM files didn't still confuses me):  The MD5sum of the tarball was the same on my HD as the CF.  Untarring everything and the files had the right MD5sums - hurrah.  I flash the unit, certain that my woes are behind me, but it still won't boot.  Completes the flash process in just under 3 minutes, but still no dice.  WTF?

Then I check the MD5sums of the files on the CF - bad.  Again, WTF?  Just flashing and both initrd.bin and zImage are wrong.  #$^%, even the tarball I moved over there previously was bad.  I copy files over to the CF, and they are good - flash the unit and they aren't.



  Unlike SD, I don't know how to make CF read-only - if that would even work anyway for flashing.  But tomorrow, I'm going to buy a 128M CF, and see what happens...

4

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / oz 3.5.1 mis-flash

« on: October 01, 2004, 11:08:40 am »

download the very latest sharp rom as an Ospack.  

Flashed with the complete Ospack (be warned, it's my understanding that flashing with an Ospack updates the boot software, so a bad flash can be fatal, anybody who cares to correct me, be my guest)

Re-flashed with 3.5.1

That's all it took for me.  My wild guess would be that if the actual boot loader is updated, then perhaps there is some incompatability between the bootlaoder of whatever sharp rom you and I flashed last and what 3.5.1 needs.


Anyway, give it a try and if it works for you too, then there's a pretty goodcahnce that we've found a real fix, and the real problem.

Hrm.  I tried an older version of Ospack, but not the latest.  I'll dig into that after I figure out how to reboot without going into Diag mode.  Heh.

Hopefully this works - not just for me, but could provide more insight to this particular problem...

5

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / oz 3.5.1 mis-flash

« on: October 01, 2004, 11:06:15 am »

on menu one near the bottom there is field that indicates re-boot. If set Z will reboot into diag. Otherwise a reset should result in a normal boot.

Let know - I can experiment as well.  You should never have to reflash.

Dan

Cool.  Per my previous post, I'll be checking into that this afternoon.  I'll let you know how it works out.

6

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / oz 3.5.1 mis-flash

« on: October 01, 2004, 11:04:42 am »

I think you need to clear the boot flag and then reset...

you may also need to pull the AC plug for it to take place...

don't do it until someone else confirms these steps as my Z is now on it's deathbed after screwing around in the Diag Menu. (you've been warned)

I've looked and looked and not been able to find any documentation on exactly how to use this menu (or to properly get out of it)

good luck

Haha - yeah, I've been warned ;-)  Funny how I did most of my reading about this menu *AFTER* dicking around with it for a while.  Who knows - I may have bricked it myself...  Ah well, I learn better that way.

I'll look again for a boot flag to clear this afternoon.  I saw a post about removing the battery and leaving the unit unplugged for 24 hours, so I'm letting it sit for the moment.  If that doesn't work (and I'm not all that hopeful - it seems to easy), then I'll look for the boot flag.

Thanks for the tip.

7

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / oz 3.5.1 mis-flash

« on: October 01, 2004, 11:00:21 am »

When in the D+P menu and you run the key test does the on/off (cancel) key work properly?

My experience is everything except that key works.

Dan

When I did this test, all keys, including the on/off key worked fine.  I was hoping it was something simple like this, but no dice...

8

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / oz 3.5.1 mis-flash

« on: September 30, 2004, 01:23:45 pm »

Well, I managed to get into the D+P diag menu, but am not sure if any of the messages were telling me something was wrong or not...  Some of them (like the key test) I figured out, but a few of the others (like Aging), I didn't really understand what it meant.


Is there a special way to get out of the diag menu, or do I have to re-flash when completed (am trying that right now)?

9

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / oz 3.5.1 mis-flash

« on: September 29, 2004, 05:54:34 pm »

VERY.

10

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / oz 3.5.1 mis-flash

« on: September 29, 2004, 03:24:50 pm »

Thanks for the fast response.

I'm stumped at this point.  I can flash all I want - both OZ and sharp ROMs complete the flash process, but I can't boot the Z after either one.  The battery light does not come on when the unit is plugged in either (after flashing, that is).

I'm just using the standard flash method:

insert CF
press/hold C+D
press reset button

Both battery and e-mail light up for about 4 minutes
hit reset again
close battery compartment
click lever to "normal operation"

unit is unresponsive to anything, unless I go through the flash process again.  Did this with an older Sharp ROM this last time, and still have the same result.  I'll keep messing with it, but it's definitely weird.

11

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / oz 3.5.1 mis-flash

« on: September 29, 2004, 02:42:47 pm »

Hey all - new to the list, longtime Z user.

Decided to try 3.5.1, but had the wrong initrd.bin file on the CF when flashing.  Flash process seemed to go as normal, it wasn't until I tried to reset, when I discovered that the unit is completely unresponsive.  Then I backtracked and discovered that I had left an old (3.3.5) initrd.bin on the CF with the new zImage (3.5.1).

Am I fscked?