Flash for the Players?

[Ice[K-9]]

Great Thanks!

[Dr5150co]

I am trying the flash on my Studio 20.
Boot reports firmware 5.08
HW info reports 5.08 & that I have a flashable ROM. 

But when I try to run the flash I get a wrong version error message.

Help?

[[IDC]Dragon]

Dr5150co,

what do you get in the debug hardware info screen for RomCRC?
Perhaps you have such a strange boot ROM, too. Like Frederik in the mailing list, see here:
http://www.rockbox.org/mail/archive/rockbox-archive-2004-12/0397.shtml

Jörg

[Dr5150co]

HW Info Details are:
ROM 5.08
USB:neg
ATA: 0x300m
Mask: 0000
Flash: BF,D6
RomCRC: 222F

[[IDC]Dragon]

That's the standard one, you should be able to flash.
Are you sure you do everything correct? What exact error do you get?

Jörg

[Dr5150co]

I have loaded the  current build (not Daily Build)  the rest of the Drive is blank at the moment (It was time for a Format anyway).
I have downloaded the flash for players file & placed the files in the root of the drive.

I have gone into info & saved a backup of the current rom to file.

When I browse plugins & try to launch the firmware_flash.rock I get the message "Wrong Version" nothing else.
The backup ROM can be found at http:\\rassoft.com\ROM\ROM_Backup.zip

[[IDC]Dragon]

Thanks, I see the problem now.
The flash of your player is versioned 5.08, so far we've only seen players going up to 5.06.
The plugin looks at this number in flash and in the new file, to determine the model you're running it on and whether they match. This is a safety feature, to prevent people from flashing files which are not for their model and so ruining the box.
I will relax this check, try again tomorrow.

Jörg

[skram0]

Cool. Flashed mine without problems. Had all the required chips and whatnot.
Thanks to all who were involved. 

Although my boot time is still about 7 seconds, it's nicccccceee to be able to just tap the power on. I guess my delay is the hard drive spin up time? When I boot holding "-" for the stock firmware boot, it takes about 9 seconds. Which if I was using the original firmware, it'd be about 10 or 11 for the added 1 or 2 seconds for holding the power on button longer.

I tried deleting the .rockbox directory and the archos.mod file, but it booted and said it couldn't find the .rockbox directory and that it was unfinished or something, but then continued to the rockbox OS. So I put them back. Since it was flashed into the ROM, I didn't think it still needed rockbox files from the hard drive?

Oh, and now that I know my player can take the flash, is there anyway to only flash with the rombox and not include the stock archos flash (via "-")? Would this increase any memory buffers at all or speed up the boot? Maybe the rombox by itself won't need to be compressed?

[[IDC]Dragon]

I tried deleting the .rockbox directory and the archos.mod file, but it booted and said it couldn't find the .rockbox directory and that it was unfinished or something, but then continued to the rockbox OS. So I put them back. Since it was flashed into the ROM, I didn't think it still needed rockbox files from the hard drive?

The only file you save is archos.mod, the firmware. The other stuff is used at runtime. To still have Rockbox when booting with '-', you'll again need it. So I suggest to keep it, unless you specifically want Archos firmware with '-'.

Oh, and now that I know my player can take the flash, is there anyway to only flash with the rombox and not include the stock archos flash (via "-")? Would this increase any memory buffers at all or speed up the boot? Maybe the rombox by itself won't need to be compressed?

Rombox is by nature never compressed, else it coudn't run directly in flash. There's plenty of space in case of the Player, nothing is saved by omitting Archos. You'd want it as a backup firmware, in case you flashed a bad Rockbox version.

Jörg

[Dr5150co]

IT'S ALIIIIIVE!!!!  Muha ha ha ha!

Ok the flash worked with the newest rock.

I love it so much nicer not having to wait on the old ROM first.

things seem a bit snppier as well.

Very good work!

[dwight_s]

I have a Studio 10, but the BootRom reports as No.  I cant use the current flash because it is looking for the _norom version of the flash file.  I know the flash for the player is still very new.  I did not know if it was in the works for a _norom version of the flash for players.

[HW Info]
ROM: 5.08
USB: neg
ATA: 0x300m
Mask: 0000
Flash: BF,D6
BootROM: no

Thanks for any feedback,
Dwight

[[IDC]Dragon]

Your're the first to discover a romless Studio model. Jens and I were wondering if such exists (so far only seen on Recorder V1 models) and decided to not proactively making a _norom file.

It's no general problem to make such. The flashing risk is a bit higher, since you can't boot it from serial if something goes wrong, even if technically skilled enough to do these mods.

Jörg
 

[dwight_s]

I appreciate the prompt response and had wondered about the higher risk, knowing there was no backup method if something went wrong.  Not a big deal, rockbox still works great.  Keep up the good work.

[canvin]

i've also a no boot rom on my player...so please make a firmware _norom.bin. Thanks a lot, and good works for all that. you rocks.

[amiconn]

In order to build a _norom variant of the player firmware, I'll need a ROM dump of such a box. The description how to do this is found in the wiki: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/FlashingRockbox#Flashing_procedure

dwight_s, canvin: Could any of you make such a dump and send it to me? arnold-j AT t-online DOT de

Jens