Question: Possible to make bin for flashing out of installed system?
 

I see all of the info on howto copy your flash memory to a sd card, for booting from it. But if I want to make a bin file that would use Nokia's flasher to flash the image back to flash or SD card for me, can it be done and if so how?

Let's break this down a bit.

1. Flash the n8x0 with a brand new Nokia's Bin file.
2. Install apps that are wanted for operational system.
and/or
Copy flash to SD.
3. Make a BIN file out of Step 2. Preferably by an install file.
4. BIN File used re-flash system or SD card.

I think this would make everything allot simpler for the non-linux type user to be able to re-flash his n8x0.


Admiralcrom

P.S. I know that penquinbait has deb installers to copy system to SD. So, please no why don't you just use it answers.:( Not looking to be flamed on my first post here. :D I love his deb installer when using a fresh flashed unit.:p

Re: Question: Possible to make bin for flashing out of installed system?
 

If I understand you correctly you want to be able to run the flash program from either a bootable internal card (2GB on N810) or external flash card.

Sounds like a good idea, just I don't think anyone has done it yet.

Re: Question: Possible to make bin for flashing out of installed system?
 

Well, backing up the data on the SD card is trivial, with either tar or dd. Then to restore, you'd just mke2fs+untar, or dd the whole mess back.

If you want a magic solution, Acronis True something-or-other is said to work well. Never used it.

(I think there's some stuff from the 0xffff project related to building a Fiasco image from a booted (and configured) device, but the easy thing to do is leave the main flash basically stock with some recovery-type utilities, clone to SD, and do all your configuration there. Then, if you want a backup to restore the SD, like I said above. Worst case, if you somehow burn both the flash install (that you don't generally use) and the SD, reflash to a stock image, install the bootmenu, dump your backup onto old/new SD, and you're good to go.)

Re: Question: Possible to make bin for flashing out of installed system?
 

Yes, you can do flashable images, by hand or using 0xFFFF. You don't need to build a whole FIASCO image, just the rootfs, and if you wish initfs.
See this thread http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...ad.php?t=23604 and http://www.nopcode.org/0xFFFF/?p=docu&q=faq

Re: Question: Possible to make bin for flashing out of installed system?
 

@gemniii42 - Yes, why be limited to systems memory for flashing.

@benson @maacruz - 0xffff project is way over my head but the command lines from mtd-tools made since from the links. Thanks

So it is possible to make a BIN file but with the other forms of system transfers it is allot easier just to use the other forms... Right? (remember windows user not linux)


Admiralcrom

Slowly learning linux command line
Just like I had to do with DOS....lol
Computers I've owned in cron : Vic 20, Commodore 64, TI-99, Commodore Colt, Amiga, 286/33, 486/75, P2/1g, P4/2g, P4dual/2g, Compaq 573 laptop, n800. Still own last 3.

Re: Question: Possible to make bin for flashing out of installed system?
 

I think it has been discussed and I remembered fanoush has posted as:

===========================================
1. copy flash to mmc2

mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock4 /opt

./initfs_flasher/mkfs.jffs2 -r /opt -o /media/mmc2/rootfs.jffs2 -e 128 -l -n

umount /opt

./initfs_flasher/sumtool -i /media/mmc2/rootfs.jffs2 -o /media/mmc2/rootfs.faster.jffs2 -e 128KiB -l -n

2. to restore

./initfs_flasher/flash_eraseall -j /dev/mtd4

./initfs_flasher/nandwrite -a -p /dev/mtd4 /media/mmc2/rootfs.faster.jffs2
===========================================

Re: Question: Possible to make bin for flashing out of installed system?
 

There is no such thing as a BIN file.
The tablet has three user flashable parts without risk of bricking it beyond the user hability to fix it by reflashing: the linux kernel, initfs and rootfs. The flashable linux kernel image is a standard zImage (the kernel in compressed form). The initfs is a little ramdisk image that is loaded by the kernel at boot time to start the system, and the rootfs is the real system.
There is also a FIASCO image. That is a file which have the propietary and undocumented system parts used to boot the tablet, the kernel, initfs and rootfs, but FIASCO is a propietary undocumented file format used by Nokia to distribute the whole system. You don't need (or even can) to build a FIASCO image to backup your tablet.

You can make a simple file backup of the whole rootfs in a tar.gz archive. That backup can be used to restore the system in a linux ext2/ext3 partition in one of the mmc cards by decompressing it there, and you can configure the tablet to boot from there by using flasher3 ("flasher-3.0 --set-root-device mmc").

If you want a flashable image to write in the system flash, you have to build it using mkfs.jffs2 as explained in the mtd-tools thread, or get it with 0xFFFF. That image is a file containing a jffs2 filesystem. Usually you only need rootfs, unless you also want to play games with initfs (boot menu and such).

Really, the best idea is to boot from mmc, then you can play and do whatever you want without risk of bricking the tablet and have to reflash it. If you break the system in mmc, you can restore it in a PC with a card reader o you can boot the tablet from flash ("flasher-3.0 --set-root-device flash") and restore the rootfs in mmc from the tablet.
I even have a mmc with the original diablo system and another mmc with debian, and boot from either by swapping cards.