Bootldr updater image - for easy one-step installation!!

Hi all,

I created a serloadable mini image that installs the hh.org bootldr 
directly into flash and if you have a CF Card the bootldr will 
automatically install an image with the name of simpad-rootfs.jffs2 from 
the top-level of the CF upon reset.

So if you have a CF Card it is possible to install the new bootldr and a 
rootfs image in just "one" easy step (well actually three ;-)):

1. Copy jffs2 image to CF and name it "simpad-rootfs.jffs2"
2. serload the blupdater.img and reset
3. After the bootldr is successfully installed - disconnect serial 
connection and reset again

If you have a CF Card in the PCMCIA slot of the pad then bootldr 
installs and boots the new image automatically.
This does take some time, so don't forget AC Power - I force you to plug 
it in anyways, since my image won't continue to install if you don't ;-)

If you want to see what's happening on a serial console, then connect a 
terminal program at 115200 8N1 WITHOUT Hardware flow control before 
doing step 3.
If you connect while step 3 is in progress the bootldr gets some input 
and drops to a boot> prompt. Then you will have to either reset again or 
install manually.

Oh yeah, at the moment THIS ONLY WORKS ON 32MB DEVICES - SL4/SLC.

Yesterday a friend and i tried it on a CL4/T-Sinus pad and it is now 
bricked. When JTAG is connected we will do some more tests. But as 
Walter mentioned in a previous post the bootldr that is now available 
only sets up 32MB of flash and doesn't automatically detect the 16MB 
Flash in the device. After we manually deleted the partitions that were 
setup we created a new partition table with the correct information - 
bootldr started writing at 0x0000 though, which of course overwrote the 
bootldr. I am not sure why this happened. the bootldr partition should 
have been protected, but there seems to be a major bug in there that 
caused it to start at the beginning of flash. Unfortunately, we were so 
happy that the flash process was successful that we overlooked this 
"small" detail and resetted the pad after installation. ;-) - "May I 
introduce myself - my name is JTAG."

So the way it looks somebody will have to comment out that IPCOM stuff 
and compile a bootldr version for 16MB devices.

So for those SL4/SLC Simpaders out there that would like to get a 
preview of opensimpad 0.9.0 you can. But I repeat - this is a preview - 
it's not the final release!
As Walter also pointed out the bootldr cannot boot CE images. This is 
probably less a bootldr problem (bootldr has CE booting functionality 
built-in) than the fact that the CE images were customized for use with 
the original Siemens bootloader.

Here are the temporary links to the images:

http://opensimpad.org/bootldr-simpad/blupdater.img
http://opensimpad.org/bootldr-simpad/opie-image-simpad-20041201014448.rootfs.jffs2 

http://opensimpad.org/bootldr-simpad/gpe-image-simpad-20041206203752.rootfs.jffs2 


I have extensively tested this on my SL4, so there should be no problems 
in normal circumstances. I do md5 checks of the bootldr image and the 
installed mtd and if that fails the siemens bootloader partition (that i 
wisely backup in ram) is reinstalled. So i imagine i do enough sanity 
checking for it to work correctly.
For those who want to see what's going on before actually trying - you 
can admire my limited scripting skills: 
http://opensimpad.org/bootldr-simpad/linuxrc

For manual installation of the rootfs images do the following at the 
boot> prompt after successful installation of the bootldr:

Manual CF installation:
boot> copy hda1:/simpad-rootfs.jffs2 root

if that fails try: (but the copy command usually mounts CF automatically)
boot> pcmcia insert 0
boot> vfat mount /
boot> copy hda1:/simpad-rootfs.jffs2 root

Manual serial installation:
boot> load root
then upload  rootfs via ymodem

After manual installation finishes run boot> boot to boot the system.

Well, that's enough from me for now. Sorry for this mega post.
It would be nice if someone can compile a bootldr version for 16MB 
devices and my friend and will test it.

Chris


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