[E3-hacking] Fw: I found Cliff Lawson old website about Amstrad
Nick Griffin
span1922 at live.com
Sun Apr 7 21:43:59 BST 2019
Werid no one ever thought of backing up the firmware before putting new firmware on it,what would happen if you didn’t work.
You don’t have anything on the program you made pblq..?
This is the bit I want to get working..
“readflash <filename> <offset> <length>
Reads data from the NAND flash (very, very slowly)”
What's the offset and length, I don’t know what that means..?
Spanner..
From: David Given<mailto:dg at cowlark.com>
Sent: Sunday, 7 April 2019 17:37
To: Discussion of the Amstrad E3 emailer hardware/software<mailto:e3-hacking at earth.li>
I don't think I had anything written down --- this was all years ago, remember. I have managed to dig up this old Getting Started page, with instructions on reflashing the E3 with Linux: https://wiki.earth.li/E3_Getting_Started<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://wiki.earth.li/E3_Getting_Started&data=02%7c01%7c%7c0e1a78592f874400258108d6bb774552%7c84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7c1%7c0%7c636902518268872757&sdata=jSA8dIr7CFXUXgZwB59gzrKtzW7KRwpMzxRnlplSnv0%3D&reserved=0> Remember that we were all interested in running stock Linux on the machine rather than hacking the built-in firmware. Those instructions are all based around pbltool, which was the other tool for talking to PBL and which I'd completely forgotten about, but should work fine. Bear in mind that this will replace the stock firmware.
Regarding forums... I've never met a forum yet which was as easy to use as email, let alone coming close to the convenience of getting messages delivered directly to my inbox. (If this had been a forum I would never have seen your posts!)
Have you seen the mailing list archives at https://www.earth.li/pipermail/e3-hacking/<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://www.earth.li/pipermail/e3-hacking/&data=02%7c01%7c%7c0e1a78592f874400258108d6bb774552%7c84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7c1%7c0%7c636902518268882768&sdata=qH/ycQtfYV6AwdUsRX94KqcBx3jpohM0Pscv9V5mZQg%3D&reserved=0>?
On Sun, 7 Apr 2019 at 17:15, Nick Griffin <span1922 at live.com<mailto:span1922 at live.com>> wrote:
I need help with PBLQ I don’t understand its commands and options what am I as pose to know how to use it, when there are no instructions on how to use it, all it has is a read me,please can David Given help me because he made it..?? or anyone who has used it…??
Like “ writeflash <filename> <offset>” I don’t understand what is offset and length is ,is length the size of the NAND..????
I am don’t know about pbl commands..??? Has anyone used this program before,I just hope I am not talking to myself or I will go mad…lol
”live at commodoreos<mailto:live at commodoreos> ~
READY.
pblq -h
pblq: Amstrad PBL boot load client v0.3.pre1.
(C) 2005 David Given.
Usage: pblq [<options>] <command...>
Options:
-h Displays this message
-v Switch on verbose mode (what that)
-r Reuse an already existing connection
-e <model> Set which emailer model to use (what Mode do not understand)
-p <port> Sets the serial port to use
-s <rate> Sets the slow baud rate
-f <rate> Sets the fast baud rate
-m <size> Sets the maximum packet size (0=ask PBL)
Commands:
ping Pings the device, testing communication
term Start simple serial terminal (is this like Putty, when I reset the email there is no txt just binary.)
bless <filename>
Makes a PBL image bootable (does this copy PBL to your PC as a bootable image or something)
execute <address>
Executes an on-device program and enters the terminal (not sure need more explaining)
checksum <startaddress> <length>
Calculates the checksum of an area of memory ( not sure is the binary code,so need the code for the area in the Memory so it can grab it)
read <filename> <startaddress> <length>
Reads data from RAM into the specified file ( Reads data from the memory and copies into a file,so you can copy it back)
write <filename> <startaddress>
Writes data from the specified file into RAM ( same as above but the opposite)
readflash <filename> <offset> <length>
Reads data from the NAND flash (very, very slowly)( not sure need help with offset and length do not understand)
writeflash <filename> <offset>
Writes data into the NAND flash ( same as above but the opposite)
Addresses should begin 0x if you want them in hex. ( hex ok so starts with 0x so 0x1234567)
WARNING. Use this program at your own risk. The author accepts no responsibility
for any damage this program may do to your hardware. You have been warned!”
This needs a manual on how to use it properly,some I understand not all. I have notice there is not a lot of info on flashing the emailer and its not explained well, its like you put it up to show you have hacked it, but how do you expected to do it yourself, I have looked there is nothing on how to read the NAND from the E3,please someone make a walkthrough or explain offset and length..?
Not beaning funny but posting on here is hard, I have never used email so much,well I don’t use email, I know people on here don’t like Facebook so what about a Forum so all info can be in one place not scattered over different websites, it very hard to look up any thing in the Mailing list Archive because it has no search options so you have to press on each thread one by one.
Would you be happy If I make a forum for the Emailer, no point me making one if no one uses it..?? I am proberly 8 years to late…lol, I am good at making them, I make one for TheC64 Mini. http://thec64community.online<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http://thec64community.online&data=02%7c01%7c%7c0e1a78592f874400258108d6bb774552%7c84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7c1%7c0%7c636902518268902778&sdata=Uu4HkXdGmCj9HpotHubvvHsTlC4MPczZd9Baa10CkfY%3D&reserved=0>
I think I know why you made the E3 Hacking Mailing list because you could at the time look at it on the Emailer by redirecting the emails to your email addy on Amserve.… 😊 would of cost a bomb to look at it at the time at 20p a collection. I only connected email once a day when I was using it and that was about £6.20 a month so it cost about £75 a year just to have it turn on…lol
Thanks..
Spanner..
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