Question about dangers of FLASHING the ROM

[Fraggy]

Hi there,
 
I'm looking for info on the dangers of flashing the Zaurus's ROM.
 
Very soon (within 2 weeks) I'll be the proud owner of a brand new Zaurus SL-5500.      
 
I'd like to get the most out of the Zaurus (I want to try everything possible with it (software-wise), to satisfy my hunger for more knowledge about the newest technologies, however, I am scared * s h i t l e s s * (pardon the language) for the flashing process.  

I once made a perfectly sane PC totally unusuable by flashing it's BIOS: the flashing process got interrupted. Repairing the BIOS (having it reprogrammed by a company who has the necessary tools for this) is fairly simple and inexpensive, except that I can't find such a company in my vicinity. (I live in Argentina and I'll have it reprogrammed in Holland, where I originally come from, during my next holliday trip).  
 
Well, I'm affraid a similar situation might arise for my Zaurus. Since the Zaurus is very hard to find, production of SL series is discontinued, the models are ONLY available in Europe because special companies imported them from Japan and "converted" them, I can imagine that if I "break" my Zaurus, then I've got a *very serious* problem.
Sending a broken unit to overseas for repair is not an option, because it will get confiscated by the Argentinian customs who will make you pay outrageous amounts of money just to "retreive" your "package" (They made me pay 100 u$d for my 1Gb HDD that was extremely important for me because it contained valuable data). I'm not looking forward for a similar situation for my Zaurus.
 
So before I actually am going to flash my Zaurus, I want to know exactly what my risks are. What is the worst that can happen in a "flash-accident"?
Sharp's manual states "Aborting or unplugging AC adapter during the update may cause fault, or damage affecting the Zaurus." Right! But what do they mean exactly by "affecting the Zaurus"?  

Is it possible that the Zaurus gets damaged in such a way that you can't reflash it again yourself, I mean *so badly* that you really need to return the device to SHARP so that they repair it for you??  
 
I'd be very happy if anyone could answer this question.

Thanks in advance,
 
Greetings,
 
Jean-Marc.

[lardman]

Assuming you just flash initrd.bin (root filesystem) and zImage (kernel image) then even if it does go wrong you should be able to just have another go without worrying about it. On the other hand, if something goes wrong while you're flashing an ospack style image (the Sharp images) then you can also kill the flashing software meaning that you'll have to send it off somewhere).

Other than that, I wouldn't worry too much, just make sure you've got the power plugged in and that you have some way of reformatting (and copying a new set of files across to) the CF card on the off chance that you've screwed up in some way - normally corrupt downloads (these generally refuse to flash, or only flash half the files - the kernel normally gets flashed as it's smaller and less likely to be corrupted - however this does mean that your Z won't boot until you reflash it with a non-corrupted initrd.bin) - so that you can try again.


Si

[Guest]

What do you mean exactly by "ospack style image"? The rom images provided by Sharp themselves ("firmware" updates, so to speak)?

I've been asking around and I've been given the following info (please do comment on it if you think it is erroneous!!!):

- Somebody with seemingly a lot of flashing expertise / experience told me that the ROM and the reflashing program were located in different places, from which I deduct that flashing could * N E V E R * damage the device.

- A person from Sharp's official Zaurus support told me that the worst thing that could happen was that the device would enter a "frozen" state until reflashed correctly. I suppose the person was talking about the ROMS released by Sharp.

Both above statements seem to be in contradiction with Lardman's answer, so I'm still a bit confused here...   Lardman, are you sure it is possible to damage the flashing software?

Perhaps a dose of more specifical technical details about the Zaurus's ROM/RAM architecture would help clarify some things here: anybody can provide more detailed info on this subject???  

And my worst worry is a power loss during the flashing, because that happens spontaneously in the country I'm living in, so when I'd upgrade to the last Sharp rom, I'd have to pray my  a r s e  off that please "don't let the lights go down in the next few minutes" (or alternatively get my hands on a solid UPS).

I'll buy a media (CF/SD/MMC) reader/writer for backups & stuff so that part doesn't worry me too much, but the possibility to kill the flashing software DOES worry me...
So suppose my SL-5500 does have the latest sharp rom and I want to install OpenZaurus, then this does not affect the flashing software?  

The more details I get the more care I can take...

Thanks in advance to all who are willing to contribute to this thread.

JM.

[Mickeyl]

What do you mean exactly by "ospack style image"? The rom images provided by Sharp themselves ("firmware" updates, so to speak)?

The ROM images by Sharp are 'ospack style images' as opposed to 3rd party ROMs.

- Somebody with seemingly a lot of flashing expertise / experience told me that the ROM and the reflashing program were located in different places, from which I deduct that flashing could * N E V E R * damage the device.

This is wrong for your device. It is right for other devices. Your device contains a sensible part of the flash updater in erasable parts.

- A person from Sharp's official Zaurus support told me that the worst thing that could happen was that the device would enter a "frozen" state until reflashed correctly. I suppose the person was talking about the ROMS released by Sharp.

To my knowledge, this is not correct for the SL-5500. You can brick your Sl-5500 permanently (as in ship it to Sharp who reflash via JTAG). It is very unlikely to happen though if you flash 3rd party images because these don't touch the area I talked of above.

[Fraggy]

Thanks for your support guys!

so basically I can play safely with "software updates" (installing OSses and Whatever Linux distros ) but I just have to be more carefull with "hardware" updates (the Sharp roms).

Okidoki, so I guess now I got the knowledge I need

Many thanks!!!!

JM.

[lardman]

so basically I can play safely with "software updates" (installing OSses and Whatever Linux distros smile.gif) but I just have to be more carefull with "hardware" updates (the Sharp roms).

Well the Sharp ospacks are also just software updates, they just rewrite the flashing software too for some reason. You can actually extract the initrd.bin and zImage files from the ospack using a program called romburst (and you'll be left with a couple of extra bits which are presumably the flashing software, etc.

You should be fine flashing initrd.bin (filesystem images) and zImages (kernels), which must match (versions) one another. In truth though, you'll not want to flash a Sharp ROM after you've tried some of the other ones which are available.

Have fun,


Si

[Fraggy]

The standard Sharp ROM looks cute...

... but once I saw screenshots of OZ, with it's colorfull desktop backgrounds and the transparent menus, oh my God!

And even before that I already figured that 3rd party goodies would be (or surely become!) a lot more interesting than Sharp's own stuff. Hey, hey the power of Open Source

I read some guy flashed his Zaurus DAILY, due to the fact that he "just got" the big Z. It's a bit like a honeymoon I guess, the addictive gameplay with the newly aquired toy, until the newness wears off and the raw physical attraction is replaced by true and long lasting love, hehe. (Until you run off with a new model, hahaha!).

Well, anyway, thank you very much for your advice, I now feel much more comfortable with the idea of flashing.

Can't wait to get my hands on the big Z

JM.