Chapter 11. Advanced Topics
140
Warning:
Flashing your player is somewhat dangerous, like programming a mainboard
!
BIOS
,
CD/DVD
drive firmware, mobile phone, etc. If the power fails, the chip breaks
while programming or most of all the programming software malfunctions, you’ll have a
dead box. We take no responsibility of any kind, you do that at your own risk. However,
we tried as carefully as possible to bulletproof this code. There are a lot of sanity checks.
If any of them fails, it will not program.
Warning:
After flashing Rockbox, never try to ROLO the Archos firmware version
!
1.32b! This version is a flash update itself. If it is applied when Rockbox is flashed,
you’ll end up with a garbled flash ROM and hence a dead box.
There’s an ultimate safety net to bring back boxes with even completely garbled flash
content: the
UART
boot mod, which in turn requires the
serial
mod. With that it’s
possible to reflash independently from the outside, even if the flash ROM is completely
erased.
If the first
≈
2 KB of the flash ROM are flashed OK,
Minimon
can be used for
the same purpose.
11.5.2. Terminology and Basic Operation
Firmware:
The flash ROM contents as a whole.
Image:
One operating software started from there.
The replacement firmware contains a bootloader and two images. The first image is
the
permanent
rescue software, to be used in case something is wrong with the second
(main) image. In current firmware files this first image contains
Bootbox
(see wiki for
details). The second image is what is booted by default. The current firmware files
contain a copy of Rockbox 3.2 in the main image. It can easily be updated/replaced
later.
The bootloader allows to select which image to run. Pressing
Left
at boot selects
the first image.
Up
selects the second image, which will also be booted if you don’t
press any button. The button mapping is only there for completeness.
Right
selects
the built-in serial monitor called
Minimon
. You should know this in case you invoke it
by accident. Minimon won’t display anything on the screen. To get out of it, perform a
hardware shutdown of your player.
11.5.3. Initial Flashing Procedure
You only need to perform this procedure the first time you flash your Ondio. You may
also want to perform it in case the update procedure for the second image recommends
it. In the latter case do not perform the steps listed under “Preparation”.
Preparation
You should perform a backup of the current flash ROM contents, in case you want to
restore it later. Select
System
→
Debug (Keep Out!)
→
Dump ROM contents
.
You’ll notice a few seconds of disk activity. When you connect your player to the PC
The Rockbox manual
(version 3.14)
Archos Ondio
