Subject: [E3-hacking] Small update

From: David Given <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 22:46:23 +0000

I've figured out how to get PBL to program the NAND flash, and have
added the appropriate stuff to pblq to make it all work... it's request
0E, of course, except it behaves rather oddly until you realise that it
only works on 8kB chunks.

Unfortunately, it will only *program* the flash, not *erase* it. Which
means that it can change a 1 to a 0, but not back to a 1 again... and
since my test file consisted of about 70kB of zeros, this means that at
least part of my flash is empty.

(Interestingly, the Amstrad firmware still boots --- except without the
splash screen. Obviously, that first chunk simply contains the splash
screen code, and chains on to the next chunk, which must take some time
to decompress. Now I've overwritten the magic in the first chunk, PBL is
skipping on ahead.)

So if anyone can figure out how to make PBL erase a flash sector, all
the tools we need will be in place to actually run stuff!

Incidentally, would it be worth setting up a wiki or hieraki or
something for the project?

-- 
+- David Given --McQ-+ 
|  [email-masked]    | Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
| ([email-masked]) | 
+- www.cowlark.com --+

---

From: Otaku <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 23:18:40 +0000

>  added the appropriate stuff to pblq to make it all work... it's
>  request 0E, of course, except it behaves rather oddly until you
>  realise that it only works on 8kB chunks.
>
>  Unfortunately, it will only *program* the flash, not *erase* it.
>  Which means that it can change a 1 to a 0, but not back to a 1
>  again... and since my test file consisted of about 70kB of zeros,
>  this means that at least part of my flash is empty.
>
>  (Interestingly, the Amstrad firmware still boots --- except without
>  the splash screen. Obviously, that first chunk simply contains the
>  splash screen code, and chains on to the next chunk, which must take
>  some time to decompress. Now I've overwritten the magic in the first
>  chunk, PBL is skipping on ahead.)
>
Nice work.. I'm playing with an alternative approach on the E3 - it 
looks to me as if the programming sequence used via the modem (which is 
a YModem download of an lz compressed image ) might actually be 
accessible via the serial port too.. If anyone knows different, I'd 
appreciate the heads-up.. :)
I'm guessing that a lot of the code is common between the emaillers..

>  something for the project?

Hrmm - I'm going to have takingthingsapart.org up and running next week 
sometime.. I'm planning to shove up all the stuff I've got on the E3 
there, along with some other projects.. Y'all are welcome to use that 
space for E2 stuff too..
Cheers
    Jake