Sony Mylo Development

[mogorman]

I am looking into opening up the sony mylo.  I have a copy of the qpe binary that appears to validate the firmware image before it flashes the unit, i was wondering where i would get started disassembling the arm binary so that one could create their own firmware images.

[speculatrix]

Hi,
I didn't see this post before. I don't have a mylo, there are some good forums out there on it, but I'll add my own ideas. There are dumps around of the mylo's run-time file system.

I would start by using strings to see if there's any recognisable text, or at least a header indicating a .tar.gz or something. I'd try decompressing with gunzip, bunzip, and unpacking with tar or cpio or unzip etc.

Being Sony, I imagine that they'll have used a basic encryption or crude scrambling scheme which might be guessable, simply XOR with 255 or something?

It might be worth reading the opentom website as that explains how the TomTomGO boots from the ttsystem file on the SD card, just to see if it gives inspiration.

Finally, if anyone else is considering hacking the mylo, I note that there's a two-for-one offer at the moment:
http://www.pocketables.net/2007/07/sony-style-japa.html
I think that Sony are getting rid of them as they seem to be rationalising onto the PSP as their handheld communication device.

The Mylo is still an interesting device for Zaurus owners as it runs Qtopia, has Skype and other useful programs which would make the Zaurus much more useful, so please do try and crack the image, mogorman, as your efforts will be applauded!

Paul