[E3-hacking] Fw: I found Cliff Lawson old website about Amstrad
David Given
dg at cowlark.com
Sun Apr 7 22:22:20 BST 2019
readflash won't work. I'm not kidding about it being slow --- it's only a
few bytes per second. PBL doesn't have a command to read data, so what pblq
does is to tell it to checksum one byte at a time, and it figures out what
the byte is from that. It's strictly a hack.
On Sun, 7 Apr 2019 at 22:44, Nick Griffin <span1922 at live.com> wrote:
> 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 <dg at cowlark.com>
> *Sent:* Sunday, 7 April 2019 17:37
> *To:* Discussion of the Amstrad E3 emailer hardware/software
> <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> 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 ~
>> 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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>>
>
>
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│ how to use my telephone." --- Bjarne Stroustrup
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