Firmware flashing error: Invalid ROM or PMT address [SOLVED]

[DonOregano]

Oh, what have I done now?!

I was flashing TP2 and Android onto my gemini, and there was an error halfway through. So I tried again, and again, and again. But I keep getting "Invalid ROM or PMT address", no matter what I do.

If I remove the flash tool and the firmware directory and start over I first get another error message, something very unhelpful about "MSP ERROE Code: 0x00"
But if I then try again I get the Invalid... error again

I've tried to do an AndroidOnly flash, but then I get an error message about the partition table being wrong, and that I should select "Firmware Upgrade" and try again. Which I obviously already had selected...

What do I do? Do I need to do a reformat, somehow? And how do I do that safely?

Thanks
Lars

[DonOregano]

Oh, and to clarify, the device is now bricked :-(

I can boot into recovery, but other than that I just get motionless planets forever.

[iusethis]

A few of us have encountered what seems to be the same issue, caused by an interrupted flashing session. Restoring the NVRAM (from a backup) seems to solve the problem.

https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35207

[DonOregano]

I just did a new readback, and the newly downloaded NVRAM0 file exactly matches my backup. Should I still try to restore NVRAM?

I tried anyway, and I just get more ERROR : STATUS_ERR (-1073676287), MSP ERROE CODE: 0x00. What I did was to just edit the scatter file, and do a download of only the nvram partition.

[DonOregano]

An Update: I have still had no success :-(

I am in contact with planetcom support, so hopefully they will be able to help me out. I am very tempted to try formatting the device and reflashing NVRAM too, but I will try to refrain from doing that, and instead trust that support will give me options that are likely to actually work...

[shuntcap]

I had the same problem and did exactly as you are contemplating.  I formatted the entire flash, then modified my scatter file to rewrite the NVRAM partition from my backup copy.  Then I used the download only option to reflash the entire device (including NVRAM).  Worked fine.  But I would be interested in hearing what Planet advises.

[DonOregano]

Wow, that is even more tempting now... But I will hold off until I hear from support again.

But out of cursiosity, could you give some more details on exactly the steps you took? Just to avoid any ambiguity in case I don't get anything useful from support.

I formatted the entire flash

Do you mean you selected the "Format" tab, and with the defaults selected (Auto format flash, Format while flash, and no validation) pressed Start?

modified my scatter file to rewrite the NVRAM partition from my backup copy.

You changed the "nvram" partition (aka SYS20) to have "file_name: NVRAM0" and "is_downloaded: true"?

Then I used the download only option to reflash the entire device (including NVRAM).

And used this scatter file (with the NVRAM0 file moved into the firmware directory, so that it could be found) with the "Download Only" option selected to download the firmware to the gemini?

[Ifanafi]

Experienced flashing-interruptus after getting copy of NVRAM.

Unable to re-start the update process with the same drivers and flashing tool.

Deleted all update downloads, deep cleaned registry and rebooted laptop.

Disconnected (frozen) Gemini.

Downloaded updates and installed them.

Connected Gemini and updated began anew... and successfully.

Perhaps that helps.

Ifanafi

A few of us have encountered what seems to be the same issue, caused by an interrupted flashing session. Restoring the NVRAM (from a backup) seems to solve the problem.

https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=35207

[DonOregano]

Perhaps that helps.

Nope, I have tried wiping everything and starting over, even running on a fresh Ubuntu install, and nothing I do helps. I need to do a reformat, but I am a bit scared of it, which is why I am hoping for more details from @shuntcap and/or info from tech support.

[shuntcap]

Wow, that is even more tempting now... But I will hold off until I hear from support again.

But out of cursiosity, could you give some more details on exactly the steps you took? Just to avoid any ambiguity in case I don't get anything useful from support.

I formatted the entire flash

Do you mean you selected the "Format" tab, and with the defaults selected (Auto format flash, Format while flash, and no validation) pressed Start?

modified my scatter file to rewrite the NVRAM partition from my backup copy.

You changed the "nvram" partition (aka SYS20) to have "file_name: NVRAM0" and "is_downloaded: true"?

Then I used the download only option to reflash the entire device (including NVRAM).

And used this scatter file (with the NVRAM0 file moved into the firmware directory, so that it could be found) with the "Download Only" option selected to download the firmware to the gemini?

Don, you are correct on all three counts; however, I agree that you should wait until you hear from Planet before trying.  This definitely unbricked my device, but I wasn't involved in the Gemini development process and I'm new to the MediaTek platform, so it's possible I've missed something someone else will find later.

[DonOregano]

however, I agree that you should wait until you hear from Planet before trying.

Meh, all they are saying is that I should try to flash from Windows... I guess I'll try it from a virtualised windows, since I do not have a physical windows machine available. We'll see how that goes.

[DonOregano]

Another update for anyone in the same situation:

As I said before the PlanetCom tech support told me to try to flash from a Windows machine, using virtualbox since I have no access to a physical Windows box. They also said that reformatting was probably not needed, and if the Windows flash did not work that I would have to send in my device.

With very low expectations I set up a Windows 7 vm (using KVM/virt-manager) and attempted to flash. I only got more error messages...

Well, fuck it, I thought. Lets reformat (as per shuntcap's instructions), so on my Linux box I formatted and tried to flash. More error messages!! Something about bad XRAM or something like that. But as a very last attempt, I tried reflashing from the Windows machine, and lo and behold! It worked! The Gemini now booted into Linux!

However, I realized that I had forgotten to add the NVRAM to the Windows flash, so I tried another flash from Linux (where I had the NVRAM backup), and now it worked without a problem!

The moral of the story? The flash tool seems to be a very fickle beast...

Thanks for the help, everyone!

[shuntcap]

Another update for anyone in the same situation:

As I said before the PlanetCom tech support told me to try to flash from a Windows machine, using virtualbox since I have no access to a physical Windows box. They also said that reformatting was probably not needed, and if the Windows flash did not work that I would have to send in my device.

With very low expectations I set up a Windows 7 vm (using KVM/virt-manager) and attempted to flash. I only got more error messages...

Well, fuck it, I thought. Lets reformat (as per shuntcap's instructions), so on my Linux box I formatted and tried to flash. More error messages!! Something about bad XRAM or something like that. But as a very last attempt, I tried reflashing from the Windows machine, and lo and behold! It worked! The Gemini now booted into Linux!

However, I realized that I had forgotten to add the NVRAM to the Windows flash, so I tried another flash from Linux (where I had the NVRAM backup), and now it worked without a problem!

The moral of the story? The flash tool seems to be a very fickle beast...

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Glad that worked for you.  Yes, the flash tool is quite fickle.  If it weren't, we wouldn't be chatting here.

[jakfish]

I see from a PC update that hard copy manual is now available for the Gemini. I'll be very interested to read the How to Flash chapter, especially the Troubleshooting subsection.

There may not be enough trees to print all the necessary pages.

Jake