No end of my pain! Flashing 5600, failing, no joy

[tumnus]

I don\'t know why all this NAND backup and flashing is necessary and it\'s just asking for trouble. AFAIK, NAND flashing flashes absolutely everything, including the bootloader, which is a Bad Idea™ IMHO.

I would only recommend flashing using the updater.sh, zImage.bin and initrd.bin files with the OK+Cancel Maintenance Menu. This is practically fool proof and doesn\'t overwrite anything that could turn your precious into an expensive paperweight.

If you want to make sure you can get back to your previous setup, you only need to make a tar of /home and ensure you\'ve got the zImage.bin and initrd.bin files for your current ROM, which is what Sharp supplies the 5600 ROMs as.

[Anonymous]

Hi,
 So if you flash the sl-5600 using this, lets say to put a different rom , OZ , zynergy, and the flash failed for some reason, by having these files, you should easily be able to reflash to standard rom?

Thanks

[Greg2]

I don\'t know why all this NAND backup and flashing is necessary and it\'s just asking for trouble. AFAIK, NAND flashing flashes absolutely everything, including the bootloader, which is a Bad Idea™ IMHO.

I have to agree with this 99.9%

@ havoc, I\'m sorry this happened

@ Guest, Normally you can return to Sharp rom with Maint. Menu.

That being said, after what has happened here (because of a little impatience) I have made my personal nand backup file. I had never been in the service menus before this because this procedure is not clearly documented yet. This nand file is 66.1mb and the normal backup file is 27.5 mb. With these 2 files I can now restore everything including the bootloader to it\'s present state.

Now as zbones has posted I could not possibly give this file out, but the next time I have a clean flash I will make one that I can.

The other problem here is the fact we now have two SL-5600 Nand files, two different cpus IMO would make for two different Nand Files?

My problem is I use a 56k dailup, and for me to upload a 66 meg file with  photos showing the menus with a very clear set of instructions would take a very long time.

Now to sum this all up, if someone has a high speed connection, a 5600, and is willing to do this I think this would be a great idea.

My two cents

Greg

[havoc]

I don\'t know why all this NAND backup and flashing is necessary and it\'s just asking for trouble. AFAIK, NAND flashing flashes absolutely everything, including the bootloader, which is a Bad Idea™ IMHO.

I would only recommend flashing using the updater.sh, zImage.bin and initrd.bin files with the OK+Cancel Maintenance Menu. This is practically fool proof and doesn\'t overwrite anything that could turn your precious into an expensive paperweight.

If you want to make sure you can get back to your previous setup, you only need to make a tar of /home and ensure you\'ve got the zImage.bin and initrd.bin files for your current ROM, which is what Sharp supplies the 5600 ROMs as.

As has already been pointed out, \"that horse done left the barn!\"

More and more, I\'m getting the impression that there may be an underlying hardware issue with my 5600.  The initial C+D+Reset flash attempt I made should have correctly flashed the ROM even though that is not the \"correct\" procedure for the 5600, it still should have worked.  When it failed to flash the ROM correctly, it should have failed to a safe state, and I should have been left wondering why the ROM had not been replaced with OZ.

The NAND restore was a last-ditch effort to recover the unit.  Being that no SL-5600 SYST5600.DBK was available on the net (according to the Gospel of Google), I used the C700 NAND backup out of desperation.  I think it was already too late at that point, so it was going to have to make it\'s pilgrimage to Romeoville, IL, either way.

None the less, future Seekers of the Zaurus will have a clean NAND backup in case they find themselves as desperate as I was at that moment.  I\'ll leave as much machine specific info with the file as possible, and all due warnings.

[kurochka]

I decided to share my 5600 NAND backup file with the community.  It is 250 CPU, basic the Kompany ROM with no additional software.  The size of the file is 67Mb.  I have just made it and have not tried restoring from it.  I could not upload it to the Download section here (maybe there is size limitation).  Please post here if you have web space on http or ftp server to post this file.  I do not want to disclose my email to everybody in the world.

[Greg2]

kurochka

I would suggest sending a pm to offroadgeek for instructions.

Thanks

Greg

[kurochka]

I\'ve sent the file (NAND 5600/250 backup) to havoc.  He promised to put it on his own site.

[havoc]

Okay, kurochka, you can find the link to the NAND image here:
http://www.galacticslacker.com/perl-bin/re...e?folder=Zaurus

Please review the wording and let me know of typos, misspellings, errors or any additions or modifications.

I wonder if anyone will be brave enough to try it after reading our disclaimer?

[havoc]

Yahoo!  My Z SL-5600 will be back tomorrow after it\'s quick pilgrimage to Romeoville, IL!

I only had the silly thing for a few days before I bricked it and had to send it back, but I\'m SO looking forward to getting it back.

[bastichelaar]

I did the same thing with my c860... Is there a rescue procedure or something? Or do I have to attach it to a serial cable to read the output?

[Inuyasha]

Since I\'m fooling around with creating a custom ROM, I will post a NAND image of the default ROM (1.32) setup in it\'s default settings before doing a thing with it (before even resetting it), and will post it in a few days (possibly tonight depending on how much time I have). Then once that\'s done I\'ll go grab the default ROM\'s root and go wild with making a new ROM...

But the NAND backup should be coming sometime soon. I\'ll post link when I have it, since it can\'t hurt to have more than one NAND backup.