New pdaXrom installer (to have just Root partition)

[Ashley]

I\'ve just realized that attachments are NOT shown if you are not logged as a user! So, to be able to see attachments and download them you must log in!

[maslovsky]

BTW, it would be nice if Cacko could fix their 750 kernel to include the jffs2 fix directly. Is there any way to let them know about this?

I will.

[OpKnight]

Ashley,  just tried your pdaXrom patch and it worked perfectly on my SL-760!  This is what the ROM was missing...  since I prefer to install the apps internally and not on the slower SD / CF cards which are better suited for data storage.  now I finally do not have to limit what applications I install.  Thanks again for your great contribution to the pdaXrom project!  

[Ashley]

Thanks, OpKnight. I thought so, it was a pity to waste the nand due to partitions and limits. I thought it even before installing the very first version of pdaxrom (2003 cacko x11 roms mounted root as a compressed loop, just like qtopia, and it was needed, but not now). And I agree with you, nand is muuuuch faster than flash cards...

[ced]

is it possible to that for the SL5600 for the default rom? or am I missing something?

[maslovsky]

is it possible to that for the SL5600 for the default rom? or am I missing something?

That should be possible, the internals of 5600 are very similar to C devices.

BTW, how\'s your ROM port project? Did you try to flash your 5600?

[ced]

euh... I haven\'t flash it, I\'ve been playing around with the qt3 library, I\'ll try to fry my Z this afternoon.
Sorry for the delay maslovsky... ;-)

[Zazz]

Has anyone else ever tried this on a C860? For me the new installer stopped with the message:

Flash pattern NOT recognized. Cannot patch flash.

I browsed a little through updater.decoded to figure out what went wrong and eventually found that if I change MTDCMD from 0X209F4 to 0X20A0C it would work, and in fact it did so without bricking my precious.  I did this from a shell prompt. Is there any documentation about things like the scrambled updater.sh format or the boot process in general?

I assume that an almost full partition is bad for wear levelling, all writes can only be distributed among the few free blocks, so that\'s another good reason to have only one partition.

[Ashley]

Has anyone else ever tried this on a C860?

Not yet, I presume. You seem to be the first...

For me the new installer stopped with the message:

Flash pattern NOT recognized. Cannot patch flash.

Fortunately, I wrote a pre-patch check routine to ensure that can be done without risk :wink:

I browsed a little through updater.decoded to figure out what went wrong and eventually found that if I change MTDCMD from 0X209F4 to 0X20A0C it would work, and in fact it did so without bricking my precious.

As there are so few differences between 760 and 860, I didn\'t thought this to be one, but actually it is. Thank you for testing, investigating and posting the actual 860 mtdparts offset! I\'m going to update this on the installer, very easy.

Is there any documentation about things like the scrambled updater.sh format or the boot process in general?

I posted source from endecsh, the encoder-decoder app, in previuos downloads. I don\'t know why Sharp made this silly encoding to installer.sh. The boot process is somehow described in several topics, this one has some info we know as well, but I don\'t know any complete reference (wiki, howto...)

I assume that an almost full partition is bad for wear levelling, all writes can only be distributed among the few free blocks, so that\'s another good reason to have only one partition.

You must be right  , that is something I never thought  :wink:

[Ashley]

At last I found a few minutes of free time...

Here is the pdaxrom modified installer fixed for 860s (just added 1 line :roll: )

Ash

[fabianE]

Hello Ashley,

I have just tried the new_installer-0.3.tar.gz but it says \"flash pattern not recognized. Cannot patch flash.\" I used the pdaxrom 1.05, copied the content of your first patch over it and updated that with the content of new_installer-0.3.tar.gz.

Did I miss something or is there something wrong with the new_installer-0.3.tar.gz?

Thanks for your effort.

Regards,

Fabian

[Zazz]

In the updater after the error message was issued, ecape to the shell and compare the contents of mtdnand and mtdtweak. The error means that the installer got the MTDCMD offset wrong, and from the position of a common string in mtdnand and mtdtweak you should be able to calculate the correct offset. If you are adventurous (brick risk), you can then edit the offset in updater.decoded and run the updated script directly from the shell prompt. Post the new offset and your exact model specs. Good luck.

[Ashley]

Hi!

Fabian, what model do you have? As far as I know nobody has tested this installer with a 700. In the rest japanese models it works.

Have you tried what Zazz says? If so, can you post and attach mtdnand contents or your actual offset?

[fabianE]

Hello Ashley,

I forgot to mention that I have a 860 (that\'s why I tried your third patch). As far as I understand the other postings it should work. I haven\'t tried what Zazz said since I don\'t want to take the risk of bricking my precious unit :-)

Greetings,

Fabian

[Ashley]

Strange.

Zazz, can you test the installer 0.3 in your unit? (Edit it to just check if you want, without installing ) I just added a line wich changes MTDCMD to the offset you told me. Maybe there are two 860 versions?

Fabian, can you post mtdnand anyway, without trying to patch your z? (you can dump it even with a running system)