Bricked Sl5500?

[EdbO]

Maybe this can be the problem??

https://www.oesf.org/forums/inde...?showtopic=9491

I had no trouble with flashing my Zaurus. And I flashed my Zaurus many times  

[lardman]

but maybe there should be md5 signatures provided so we could check integrity before flashing...

There are. In the directory where you found the files... called md5sums.txt


Si

[macroexp]

Yeah I found the md5sums, checked my files, and they match. I used the Z to put the files on the CF card, and "sync"ed and umounted the card before removing it.

I dunno, I think I did everything more than right...

[tontonrico]

Hi,

I just try to flash my SL5500 with the OZ 3.5.2 zImage 40-24 and I did not succeed...

First thing I notice : after the download the zImage_collie-40-24  is named zImage_collie-40-25. Not a problem, the md5sum is correct.

After the md5sum verification of the inird.bin too, I decide to flash. When the lights goes off, I follow the instructions to reboot the beast, but nothing happen, black screen, that's all.

I decided to re-flash  with sharprom 3.10. All is fine.

Is there a problem with the zImage 40-24 ?

See you

[krudedawg]

Ok.... I've had my Z (5500) for 1-1/2 yr or more, and have seen this with both OZ and Sharp roms.  I think it's hardware, and isn't indicative of a corrupted flash.  I think it may have something to do with the Battery, as the way I've recovered in the past (besides flashing sometimes) was to remove the battery...reinstall the battery, let it charge (left it alone for a day or so to bring my frustration level down), reset, then turn it on.  It has worked for me, but I think one of the most important things I did was to relax, not stress to much about it, take a break from it, then come back nice and calm and went through the steps carefully (not to forget that I need to reset, and not to forget to switch the switch back to 'normal operation').

[Olad]

I tried everything said in all the forums (all the battery stuff... etc), and none of it worked for me. So I got on IRC and asked about it - someone (I don't remember who) said that they had heard that on the collie only the 64-0 and like one (or perhaps two) other memory distribution configurations worked. So I bought myself a CF reader (woohoo for Christmas money!) and tried re-flashing with the 64-0 file. Viola, it works.

[attica]

OK, not sure if this will address anyone's problem here, but IIRC someone earlier mentioned using a 256M CF (macroexp?).  Anyway, I'm trying to use a Viking 256M CF, and having all kinds of trouble.  I used to have a 128M CF that I lent out, and I used to flash like mad w/ it.  Then I "upgraded" to the 256M, but wasn't flashing (had my Z dialed in).  But I digress - I think the 256M CF is giving me grief - I just didn't make the connection because I'd had the 256M for a long time before I tried to flash w/ it.

After trying to flash a recently purchased SL-5000d, and pretty much bricking it, I started nosing around to figure out what the problem was.  First thing I checked were the files that I downloaded from openzaurus.org.  I noticed that when downloading the files via Safari (Mac user), the download would complete "successfully", but would be the wrong size and MD5sum.  So, I really started getting picky about my MD5s (wget worked so much better than a browser, BTW), checking them all the time.

I found that copying my files from the Desktop to the CF via the GUI (i.e. drag and drop) would hose the files - bad checksums on the files copied to the CF.  Copying them via "cp" in Terminal - same thing.  I ended up tarring everything up, and copying the tarfile - that seemed to work (using "cp" in terminal - why that worked and the individual ROM files didn't still confuses me):  The MD5sum of the tarball was the same on my HD as the CF.  Untarring everything and the files had the right MD5sums - hurrah.  I flash the unit, certain that my woes are behind me, but it still won't boot.  Completes the flash process in just under 3 minutes, but still no dice.  WTF?

Then I check the MD5sums of the files on the CF - bad.  Again, WTF?  Just flashing and both initrd.bin and zImage are wrong.  #$^%, even the tarball I moved over there previously was bad.  I copy files over to the CF, and they are good - flash the unit and they aren't.



  Unlike SD, I don't know how to make CF read-only - if that would even work anyway for flashing.  But tomorrow, I'm going to buy a 128M CF, and see what happens...

[attica]

OK, things not going like I expected.  I copy over the flash files to the (brand new Sandisk 128M) CF and the checksums are correct.  I umount the CF, then remount the media - checksums are off.  Is this expected behavior?  I'm trying to flash w/ them anyway, but don't have high hopes that they'll succeed.

No dice - as expected.  Here's an example of what I'm talking about.  First, let's see what the md5sums.txt file has to say:

$ cat md5sums.txt |grep "64-0"
5957ac2f2c057e6f002e92e4bf9c76c1  zImage_collie-64-0

Then I copy this zImage file to the CF:

$ cp zImage_collie-64-0 /Volumes/NO\ NAME/zImage

Then md5sum both the original file on my HD, and the copy I just put on the CF:

$ md5sum zImage_collie-64-0 && md5sum /Volumes/NO\ NAME/zImage
5957ac2f2c057e6f002e92e4bf9c76c1  zImage_collie-64-0
5957ac2f2c057e6f002e92e4bf9c76c1  /Volumes/NO NAME/zImage

Everything looks good.  Now I umount the CF, then mount it again, and re-run the previous command:

$ !!
md5sum zImage_collie-64-0 && md5sum /Volumes/NO\ NAME/zImage
5957ac2f2c057e6f002e92e4bf9c76c1  zImage_collie-64-0
c71d3e18a027d7ef8abbb5a6bbf1eeb7  /Volumes/NO NAME/zImage

Is it any wonder that it isn't flashing right?  Perhaps the change is occurring when I mount the CF on my laptop.  I'll try mounting it on another box and see what it thinks the md5sum is.  Well, it's different.  So everytime I mount and/or umount this CF, the md5sum changes on the flash files.  How can I succeed?

Can someone check to see if their successful flashing does or doesn't confirm that this is really my problem?  I'd love to know.

TIA.

[attica]

I'm at a loss - dunno what to say.  The culprit was my Mac.  <gulp>

I tried on a whim copying to other media types, like my USB Cruzer drive.  Md5sums stayed the same after repeated mount/umounts.  Put the cardreader on a windoze box, put the Cruzer on the windoze box, copied the files from the Cruzer to the CF.  Flashed.  Works.

/me runs off to the Apple forums to b!tch.