Reflashing To Another Rom

[sentinel]

Hi,

I installed pdaXrom on my 5500, and attempted to flash back to another ROM.

I've been unable to do this (even back to the Sharp v.1 rom).

I guess some of original code in the flash memory has been overwritten. Question is - is it possible to flash back - and if so, how do I do it ?

Thanks
Neil.

[anunakin]

Hi,

I installed pdaXrom on my 5500, and attempted to flash back to another ROM.

I've been unable to do this (even back to the Sharp v.1 rom).

I guess some of original code in the flash memory has been overwritten. Question is - is it possible to flash back - and if so, how do I do it ?

Thanks
Neil.
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Have you formated you CF Card? On 5500 only woks in CFs with original filesystem

[sentinel]

Well, maybe I should rephrase my question.

I can flash the 5500 with a FAT16 card, but nothing other than pdaXrom will boot.

tkcROM never gets past the INIT message, and a sharp rom just dumps me back in a minimal shell.

Currently, I can only flash back to pdaXrom.

[anunakin]

Well, maybe I should rephrase my question.

I can flash the 5500 with a FAT16 card, but nothing other than pdaXrom will boot.

tkcROM never gets past the INIT message, and a sharp rom just dumps me back in a minimal shell.

Currently, I can only flash back to pdaXrom.
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Tried use reset button and remove batery for more then  5 mins?  

Checked MD5SUN of ROM files? on CF?

[sentinel]

Hi,

I removed the battery for a  long time, but this made no difference when I tried to reflash. (This time to the cacko rom).

It seems that any other rom I flash with starts the boot process, then just hangs.

I was wondering if pdaX overwrites some of the partition info in the flash memory, as this is the only system that will boot now.

I have read other posts, and for other Zaurus models it is stated that a NAND restoration can be done. However, (and I could be totally wrong here) I don't think there is a similar process for the 5500.

I'm very confused.

Thanks
Neil.

[lardman]

Flashing an ospack is as close as you'll get with a 5500, however if pdaXrom has overwritten part of the flasher you won't be able to do this and will need to send it back to Sharp.

It sounds as if the kernels are flashing ok, but something is going wrong with the initrd.bin files. I'd double check their md5sums.


Si

[sentinel]

I checked the md5 sums, and they are correct.

I suspect it probably has overwritten the flashing code (can anybody confirm this ?).

In this case, I'm probably stuck with pdaXrom - If so, I need to get it to work.

I had various problems using pdaX on my 5500 with just about every CF or SD card that I tried keeps coming up with error messages or kernel panics after I have formatted them to ext2. This would often just freeze the Z, and require a hard reset.

I had a suspicion that this could be due to the fdisk or mkfs tools within the pdaX 5500 distro, as I was using a ext2 formatted card that I created with the tkcRom. This worked fine until I decided to reformat it under pdaX and start afresh. I've never got it (or any other card) working since that point.


Anybody experienced anything similar ?

[lardman]

It seems odd that part of the flashing works (the kernel from the sounds of it)....


Si

[Miami_Bob]

Did you resize the usable memory before flashing pdaXrom.

Don't know if this applies to the 5x00 but some clamshells had troubles if memory size had been modified.

Have you tried NAND flash back to a copy of your old working ROM? That was what the clamshells required, if I recall correctly.

[sentinel]

I don't think the NAND restore option is applicable to the 5500.

Also, I don' t think it is possible to resize the memory on the 5500 - or if it is, it is not a straightforward process.

Can anybody comment ?

[lardman]

There is no NAND restore for the 5500.

I don't think the flash partitions be resized (I guess it might be possible, but you'd be fiddling with the bootloader/flasher & kernel partitions too).

You say the flashes worked ok, but they just don't boot? I'd be tempted to think that if the flashing appears to work (takes 5 min or so as per the usual), and the kernel is changed (you get a different splash screen, etc.), then this means both parts have flashed ok. You might then look into whether this has something to do with bad flash cells.

If you're on the Sharp image (you said you got a login prompt for that one), try running /etc/init.d/qpe start (iirc) and see what it says.


Si

[nothing]

I had the same problems with OZ, and OSPAK was my salvation.

Try this from ZUG

[sentinel]

I can't seem to flash to any Sharp Ospack right now. The orange & green lights flash on then off.

However, any initrd.bin + zImage seems to flash OK. Just won't boot.

[sentinel]

OK, assuming that I'm stuck with pdaXrom, can anyone confirm whether fdisk on 5500 distro is broken  ?

Every sd or compact flash card I've tried to create a ext2 filesystem on ends up screwed up. Coincidence ?

When I try and mount these on my mac using ext2 tools, I always get the error "Bad Super Block: Magic Number Wrong".

I'm going to try and format them back to FAT16 filesystem, then reformat them  back to ext2 from OSX. See if this makes any difference.

[Cresho]

flash using fat16 off a cf and nothing else.

I remember going through this problem with oz.  after reflashing my z with original sharprom such as 3.13, it would hang during the boot process.  I then just removed battery, hit reset and tried again after a day to see if it would just boot up.  then boot fine.  or other occasions, just keep reflashing up to 3 times continuously hoping it would force the ospack.  After that, left my z alone since i was kinda afraid of damaging it.

Don't go too advanced on this.  keep it simple.  fat16 and cf-nothing else.