Flash To Other Roms From Pdaxrom Beta1

[wrc4]

I have a SL-7500C. I had a problem flashing to Cacko from my current pdaXrom beta1.

I followed the steps in Cacko's release note: Enter OK mode; resize root; Re-enter OK mode, choose Upgrade. The process succeeded without any problem. But after I flipped the battery and rebooted, my Z was still booting the old system BEFORE flashing! (Of cause with a lot of files broken and end up with a dead system)

I even tried restoring the NAND backup of my original Sharp ROM, but the result was the same. I noticed that even though I restored the Sharp ROM, the upgrade utility still show "pdaXrom1.1.0" on the menu. Does that mean some part of the Flash memory are not restored to the original state when I purchased my Z, even after a NAND Restore?

(Not sure if I should ask it here or on Cacko forum)

[apink]

I even tried restoring the NAND backup of my original Sharp ROM, but the result was the same. I noticed that even though I restored the Sharp ROM, the upgrade utility still show "pdaXrom1.1.0" on the menu. Does that mean some part of the Flash memory are not restored to the original state when I purchased my Z, even after a NAND Restore?

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I have similar questions.  I thought that a NAND restore would completely reset a Z but now am unsure if there is some resizing of root (partitioning?) that needs to be done additionally.  I did some flashing/NAND restoring lately and it did not go as I thought it would.  

I would appreciate it if someone could put together a quick summary of the different aspects of memory on a Z and how each of those parts of memory are affected when you do a NAND restore and also when you flash with a new operating system, be it cacko, OZ or pdaxrom.  I have read that flashing with OZ leaves some memory alone.  It seems that flashing with pdaxrom resets everything.    (If such a writeup has been done, please avail me of the location.  I am fairly familiar with the documentation for the Z but may have missed this somewhere.  )

[louigi600]

During the cacko install process did you repatition flash and reboot before install ? Did you reformat user flash area ?
Have you tried full erase from service menu (D+M) then doing the nand restore ?

Regards
David

[wrc4]

During the cacko install process did you repatition flash and reboot before install ? Did you reformat user flash area ?
Have you tried full erase from service menu (D+M) then doing the nand restore ?

Regards
David
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Yes, I did repartition root and reformat user area (following Cacko's release note).

Here is my flashing history:
SHARP -> pdaXrom beta1 -> Full Flash Erase -> pdaXrom beta4 -> Restore beta1 backup -> Try Cacko (Failed) -> Restore SHARP backup -> Cacko (Failed)

Do you think I should try other combinations?

Maybe the only thing I can try now is Full Flash Erase -> Restore SHARP backup -> install Cacko.

[louigi600]

I have a c760 that has flash block problems and the only boot loader that will work on it now is u-boot. The very first thing I'd check if i were you is the status of the flash on your Z.

Then I'd try that full flash erase, restore sharp image, install cacko.
Make sure you have the correct version for your hardware ... I had an adventure with this issue not letting me install correctly cackoon another Z I have.
The problem was dew to the previous owner having restored on a c860 the sharp nand image of a c760. I knew that the hardware was a 860 so I downloaded cacko or that version. The install process started bot after some steps it stopped complaining that it could not find some files. I noticed that in the path there was some 760 stuff so this got me on the way to bedug this issue.

Maybe you have a similar issue.

Regards
David

[Jon_J]

I'm going to add something to this discussion of NAND and flashing Cacko.
I've used Cacko, since I got my first Z, in January. I haven't tried any other ROMs.
What I have read about, (in the Sharp/Cacko ROM subforum), is this:
Several persons that have "bad blocks" in NAND have tried flashing the Cacko partition,
to just a few MBs larger than what is called for in the Cacko instructions.
In other words, quoted by Anton in Cacko instructions:
Cacko full:
IMPORTANT: This ROM requries a flash partition at least 32 MBytes in size!
They flashed to 35 to 36 MBytes.
Cacko Lite:
IMPORTANT: This ROM requries a flash partition at least 19 MBytes in size!
They flashed to 22 to 24 MBytes.

In other words, they flashed larger than what is needed, to avoid having the ROM written to the "bad blocks".
I hope this helps someone, it seemed to help several persons that had "bad blocks" in NAND in the Cacko forum.

Jon

[BarryW]

I'm going to add something to this discussion of NAND and flashing Cacko.
I've used Cacko, since I got my first Z, in January. I haven't tried any other ROMs.
What I have read about, (in the Sharp/Cacko ROM subforum), is this:
Several persons that have "bad blocks" in NAND have tried flashing the Cacko partition,
to just a few MBs larger than what is called for in the Cacko instructions.
In other words, quoted by Anton in Cacko instructions:
Cacko full:
IMPORTANT: This ROM requries a flash partition at least 32 MBytes in size!
They flashed to 35 to 36 MBytes.
Cacko Lite:
IMPORTANT: This ROM requries a flash partition at least 19 MBytes in size!
They flashed to 22 to 24 MBytes.

In other words, they flashed larger than what is needed, to avoid having the ROM written to the "bad blocks".
I hope this helps someone, it seemed to help several persons that had "bad blocks" in NAND in the Cacko forum.

Jon
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I've bounced back and forth quite a few times between most of the different roms.  The last time I flashed back to cacko, I used a 32Mb partition.  Didn't have any problems.  Then again, I might not have any bad blocks yet.  Right now, for me cacko has most of the features I want  Every time one of the other roms releases an update I'll try them out for a week or so.  Then I flash back to cacko.  Haven't had any problems that weren't fixable by reading the destructions again.  You might try md5ing your download.  Adding a few Mb's to your flash partition won't hurt either.

[wrc4]

I'm going to add something to this discussion of NAND and flashing Cacko.
I've used Cacko, since I got my first Z, in January. I haven't tried any other ROMs.
What I have read about, (in the Sharp/Cacko ROM subforum), is this:
Several persons that have "bad blocks" in NAND have tried flashing the Cacko partition,
to just a few MBs larger than what is called for in the Cacko instructions.
In other words, quoted by Anton in Cacko instructions:
Cacko full:
IMPORTANT: This ROM requries a flash partition at least 32 MBytes in size!
They flashed to 35 to 36 MBytes.
Cacko Lite:
IMPORTANT: This ROM requries a flash partition at least 19 MBytes in size!
They flashed to 22 to 24 MBytes.

In other words, they flashed larger than what is needed, to avoid having the ROM written to the "bad blocks".
I hope this helps someone, it seemed to help several persons that had "bad blocks" in NAND in the Cacko forum.

Jon
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I've bounced back and forth quite a few times between most of the different roms.  The last time I flashed back to cacko, I used a 32Mb partition.  Didn't have any problems.  Then again, I might not have any bad blocks yet.  Right now, for me cacko has most of the features I want  Every time one of the other roms releases an update I'll try them out for a week or so.  Then I flash back to cacko.  Haven't had any problems that weren't fixable by reading the destructions again.  You might try md5ing your download.  Adding a few Mb's to your flash partition won't hurt either.
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Tried again but still failed. Here is what I did:

1. D+M Mode -> Extra Menu -> Zaurus Test -> NAND Flash Full Erase
2. Restore SHARP ROM
3. Following exactly the steps in Cacko's readme.txt. (The root size I chose was 46, which should be big enough for any ROM)
4. After installation (No error), reboot the Zaurus. But I still got the SHARP LOGO and a lot of failures.

The most suspicious part is: Even after NAND Full Erase and NAND Restore. The OK mode still displays the following menu:

Cacko ROM Installer (SL7500 ...)

1. Install new ROM
2. Upgrade previous ROM version (only pdaXrom >=1.1.0)
3. NAND Flash Utils
4. Run console shell
5. Cacko ROM general disclaimer
6. Reoot

It looks like Cacko is there (Item 5), but what does Item 2 mean? There should be no pdaXrom around, unless Cacko has some references to pdaXrom?

I can confirm that the NAND Full Erase worked. Because after that I tried to turn Zaurus on but both LEDs were flashing (No ROM and no Bootloader?) And the SHARP ROM I restored was made before I first tried any other ROMs (including pdaXrom).

I'm totally confused. I think I might have overlooked something very apparent to others. But what could that be?

===Edit===
Before entering the update menu, there is an error on the command prompt:

modprobe: Can't locate module info

Does this matter? My module is SL-7500C (should be identical to C750), does it get recognized by Cacko correctly?

[BarryW]

Tried again but still failed. Here is what I did:

1. D+M Mode -> Extra Menu -> Zaurus Test -> NAND Flash Full Erase
2. Restore SHARP ROM
3. Following exactly the steps in Cacko's readme.txt. (The root size I chose was 46, which should be big enough for any ROM)
4. After installation (No error), reboot the Zaurus. But I still got the SHARP LOGO and a lot of failures.

The most suspicious part is: Even after NAND Full Erase and NAND Restore. The OK mode still displays the following menu:

Cacko ROM Installer (SL7500 ...)

1. Install new ROM
2. Upgrade previous ROM version (only pdaXrom >=1.1.0)
3. NAND Flash Utils
4. Run console shell
5. Cacko ROM general disclaimer
6. Reoot

It looks like Cacko is there (Item 5), but what does Item 2 mean? There should be no pdaXrom around, unless Cacko has some references to pdaXrom?

I can confirm that the NAND Full Erase worked. Because after that I tried to turn Zaurus on but both LEDs were flashing (No ROM and no Bootloader?) And the SHARP ROM I restored was made before I first tried any other ROMs (including pdaXrom).

I'm totally confused. I think I might have overlooked something very apparent to others. But what could that be?

===Edit===
Before entering the update menu, there is an error on the command prompt:

modprobe: Can't locate module info

Does this matter? My module is SL-7500C (should be identical to C750), does it get recognized by Cacko correctly?
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Don't worry about #2.  I think he's just reusing an old pdax install script.  I usually don't do a nand erase, but it shouldn't matter.

[wrc4]

Don't worry about #2.  I think he's just reusing an old pdax install script.  I usually don't do a nand erase, but it shouldn't matter.
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I just tried OZ/GPE and OZ/OPIE on my 7500. They all worked well. (Despite of some bugs like the sound is not working). What I did is restore the SHARP backup and flash the OZ ROMs directly.

I even tried flashing Cacko when I have OPIE. The result is still the same. The flashing ended successfully but when I reboot, the OZ logo showed again and the system was complaining about missing or incorrect files.

My understanding now is Cacko installer might not have correctly overwritten everything it should overwrite on my 7500.

BTW the ROM I'm using is SL-C750-Qtopia-1.23-1029311005.zip

[louigi600]

Cacko looks for model and then looks for files according to model detected.
Probably since there is no specific stuff for 7500 you could try one of these two:

1) modify the update.sh so compensate this and force to install c750 stuff even if the model is 7500.
2) first restore a c750 original rom image .... then install cacko for that version.

Regards
David

[wrc4]

Cacko looks for model and then looks for files according to model detected.
Probably since there is no specific stuff for 7500 you could try one of these two:

1) modify the update.sh so compensate this and force to install c750 stuff even if the model is 7500.
2) first restore a c750 original rom image .... then install cacko for that version.

Regards
David
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I restored a NAND backup for C750 downloaded from [a href=\"http://trisoft.de]http://trisoft.de[/url]. It totally killed my Zaurus, I had to use Fn+D+M to bring up the Service Menu and flash back to my 7500 backup. So option 2 doesn't work for me.

So the only thing to try is modify updater.sh--It doesn't look like a text file when I open it on my Windows machine. What steps should I take to modify the file?

[louigi600]

It is a normal shell script but it has been encoded. You will need an encoder/decoder.
Decode it, modify it and then recode it up.

I forgot where I downloaded it but I remember searching for updater.sh on "OE Forums".

If you can't find it I can mail you a copy  of the encode/decoder I used.

Regards
David

[wrc4]

It is a normal shell script but it has been encoded. You will need an encoder/decoder.
Decode it, modify it and then recode it up.

I forgot where I downloaded it but I remember searching for updater.sh on "OE Forums".

If you can't find it I can mail you a copy  of the encode/decoder I used.

Regards
David
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Thanks David. I found the encsh.c code you mentioned and decoded the script. It looks like there has been support for SL-7500 and the $MODEL varible has been correctly assigned. There are only two places that explicitly referred to "SL-7500" and they are identical to what "SL-C750" have.

I'll try post this in the Cacko forum and see if anyone knows this issue.