Double boot on X5 ?

[Mad Big Sausage]

Cheers and thanks

[RaeNye]

Edit: attachment removed since a stable version is posted further in the thread.
Edit: attachment was not working, hopefully OK now.

Alpha testers required!
(no compilation needed for Windows users)

Prerequisites:

• X5/X5L main unit
• X5 remote
• intrepidity

Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to install and test this new version of the dual bootloader.

To install, use mkboot to combine the bootloader binary with any OF version and proceed like any firmware upgrade.

The attached file contains x5-dual-bootloader.testing.bin (bootloader binary), mkboot.c (source) and mkboot.exe (precompiled to Windows).

Boot sequences to verify:

• a short main-unit POWER press - RB
• a long main-unit POWER press - OF
• a short remote-unit POWER press - RB
• a long remote POWER press - OF
• a remote POWER press while remote HOLD is on - OF
  (actually you won't see it since the OF shuts down quickly)

Important:
If anything goes wrong (doesn't boot, stuck, etc.), reset the unit with a reset pin, connect USB cable and reflash a stable firmware. It is advised to do so even if all seems OK until I collect reports from more people.

Disclaimer:
I have not tested this code on my X5 since it's dead, but I believe it works. Even if it doesn't, you can restore a stable firmware via USB mode.

[Eriol]

Disclaimer:
I have not tested this code on my X5 since it's dead, but I believe it works. Even if it doesn't, you can restore a stable firmware via USB mode.

No offense Rae, but HOW did you kill it?  I kinda wanna know that before I put yer stuff on my X5. 

[RaeNye]

I've been testing all previous dual bootloaders on my unit without problems.

The first time I killed my X5 was by trying to use the charge LED as a HDD activity indicator in RB, and it was completely my fault; this was fixed by disconnecting the battery and resoldering it.

The second (and current) time, it just stopped responding with no good reason in middle of playing a song. The RB version on it had no expermental changes on it (I don't consider album-art et al. as things that can harm my device) so I have no clue why it died, but rarely it shows backlight flickers.

[Llorean]

Maybe the soldering has either worked lose, or wasn't quite as spot on as you'd hoped initially?
That'd be my first thing to check, at least.

[Astar]

can't download attach. Always have broken zip-archive.
can anybody mail me with it? (astar|at|arisegames.com)

[RaeNye]

Astar: Try downloading again, I changed the extension and it now downloads OK.

Llorean: I opened it up again to verify this. Soldering seems OK. Anyway, I sent it to the lab.

[webmeister]

the attachment works now


here my results:

• a short main-unit POWER press - RB -> ok
• a long main-unit POWER press - OF -> ok
• a short remote-unit POWER press - RB -> ok
• a long remote POWER press - OF -> ok
• a remote POWER press while remote HOLD is on - OF -> short press: RB / long press: "iAudio" splash screen and "Hold", shuts down quickly

[RaeNye]

Thanks for testing!

It still doesn't work as expected but at least it is stable.
I'll try to check why and will upload more versions to test.

Edit: please try these 4 versions and tell me what effect do they have
(most probably neither will crash, but might not boot the correct firmware)

[attachment deleted by admin, too old]

[Astar]

one comment about first test-attach.
* long-press power on remote-unit  - x5 turn off (ignoring hold state),  without any "Shutting down" message

[RaeNye]

Astar: you mean bootloader-1.bin ?

[webmeister]

I've tested your 4 new bootloaders, but there was no difference to the first bootloader (x5-dual-bootloader.testing.bin).

[RaeNye]

Very eerie
these were subsequent sanity checks, with bootloader-4 the most obvious -- boot OF given any length of remote POWER press (hold or not).

Could you please check all behaviours?

[Astar]

i mean x5-dual-bootloader.testing.bin

[noblerogue]

Sorry if this is a tad off topic, but I'm really curious about a precompiled boot loader mentioned earlier. Would it be so simple to flash the firmware using that file and have it work? I have an extremely limited technical understanding in general, btw