April 2019 - e3-hacking

Some things I have found on the Amstrad E3 while I was pressing different buttons.
by Nick Griffin 01 Oct '24

01 Oct '24

I found something the other day, if you press SETUP Button then 1 then 1 again, it looks like it comes up with driver info, Picture is here.. https://imgur.com/zjJc2oT And if you press SETUP Button then 1 then 0 it has numbers on the Setup Info screen Picture here.. https://imgur.com/VpJRCRt Anyone seen theses before..? Do not know what the numbers are on the Setup Info screen is..?? Spanner..

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Re: [E3-hacking] Understanding the E3s Partitions
by Nick Griffin 12 May '19

12 May '19

“When it flash's Linux to the E3 it only uses partitions mtd0,mtd1,mtd3 and mtd4, so mtd2 and mtd3 is not used.” mtd0 - kernel mtd1 - PBL ( Maybe, I say this because Uboot is flashed there.) mtd3 - ldr ( File System..? uses mtdblock3 of mtd3) mtd4 - Root( Root File System,maybe ?? uses mtdblock4 of mtd4) What are mtd2 and mtd5 used for..?? Trying to find out what each Partition is used for? Is the Amstrad Install Script running in a Ramdisk..?? You have 2 Uboot images the same, one for flashing the other on for the install so you made it a bit like FEL mode where you hold down the FEL Button and can boot into Uboot +ramdisk from you PC thought its usb cable that powers it then you can mount the system partition to get into files and folders, that's on TheC64 Mini. Most Developing Boards now have the FEL button. Just trying to find out more ,it dumps the firmware into 6 partitions, when it dumps them, can they be put back the way they are or do they need to be converted, so what I am say, are they raw files so they can’t be used the way they are at the moment…? You can backup your firmware with this script without installing Linux on the E3,you can say no to installing it, right..?? if so I will try and see if I can back the E3 up to get the 6 backup files. P.S Have not done anything with my E2Plus yet, if I can backup its firmware and then flash it back then I can fix the dead E2s out there, but I need help. If I can backup its firmware I am willing to share it.But don’t worry my E2Plus is going no where.. 😊 Just been looking at you page Ralph,One of the problem with the E2 is it don’t run Linux, I am trying to find out more about its firmware at the moment. The E1 and E2 use the same Firmware and same CPU Sharp LH79531 ARM (L136 00B), the only difference in them is the Plus had ZX Spectrum games. So I might be able to use the firmware from the E2 on the E1. The E3 had a different CPU because it need a MMU for the Colour LCD screen so need to be more powerful than the E1,E2. Spanner..

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List etiquette
by Jonathan McDowell 01 May '19

01 May '19

I've just rejected a couple of multi-megabyte messages to the list; please don't add big attachments, there are currently 124 people on the list and I doubt they all want to receive such big emails. Post links where appropriate. (Great to see a revival of interest in the E3 though, I managed to find mine in the attic but not the PSU yet.) J. -- "Making the impossible very | .''`. Debian GNU/Linux Developer difficult" -- The OpenGALEN | : :' : Happy to accept PGP signed website. | `. `' or encrypted mail - RSA | `- key on the keyservers.

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Re: [E3-hacking] E1
by Nick Griffin 29 Apr '19

29 Apr '19

I noticed you were talking about the E1 and the Pocket Dock IT, How far did your investigations get with the E1..? Does anyone know how the Pocket Dock IT works and the slot it connects to on the E-mailer(E1/2/3) I ask this because you can use the Pocket Dock IT to copy the Configuration Change Set Up from one E-mailer to another E-mailer but has to be the same model and activated. I was wondering how it copies the setup over to the Pocket Dock IT and back, if we could interface with the dock or Pocket Dock IT we could maybe save the setup from the E-mailer or Pocket Dock IT to the PC. If the batteries in the Pocket Dock IT run out, the setup from the E-mailer gets deleted. Just a idea..?? Spanner.. http://amstrad-e3-hacking.freeforums.net/thread/6/e1

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Re: [E3-hacking] Config / content filesystem
by Nick Griffin 24 Apr '19

24 Apr '19

No still don’t load any well. Maybe Jonathan could help…????? I don’t have a clue.???? Spanner.. http://amstrad-e3-hacking.freeforums.net From: Nick Griffin<mailto:span1922@live.com> Sent: ‎Wednesday‎, ‎24‎ ‎April‎ ‎2019 ‎19‎:‎39 To: Nick Griffin<mailto:span1922@live.com> I try again with the images with the oob in them and see if that works. Spanner.. http://amstrad-e3-hacking.freeforums.net From: Nick Griffin<mailto:span1922@live.com> Sent: ‎Wednesday‎, ‎24‎ ‎April‎ ‎2019 ‎19‎:‎37 To: Nick Griffin<mailto:span1922@live.com> Yes we need Jonathan I think, he understands this more..???? I think he gave the code to remove it so you could look at the data in the files better by hex. Spanner.. http://amstrad-e3-hacking.freeforums.net From: Nick Griffin<mailto:span1922@live.com> Sent: ‎Wednesday‎, ‎24‎ ‎April‎ ‎2019 ‎19‎:‎23 To: Discussion of the Amstrad E3 emailer hardware/software<mailto:e3-hacking@earth.li> I think it needs the OOB data in the image. Just looked on the net about ,it say… How does this combination of nandsim, nandwrite and nandddump decide which ECC scheme to use? The flash is from a TI AM335 system, and as far as I know, the ECC scheme is decided by a combination of the processor and OS. How do these utilities know what to do? First of all the ECC scheme used does not necessarily have to be for all the flash erase blocks. There are ususally 3 different types of flash partitions used and for every type the method to specify the used ECC code differs: 1. The one that are accessed by the ROM bootcode 2. The ones that are accessed by the bootloader (usually u-boot) 3. The ones that are accessed by the operating system (assuming you are using Linux) In general the use of a specific ECC method is limited by the OOB size of the flash. The AM335x_U-Boot_User's_Guide (cannot post link here because of reputation) explains it in sections BCH Flash OOB Layout and the example matches to the flash chip you are using. The 64 bytes per 2k page effectively limit the usable ECC algorithms to BCH8, BCH4 or HAMMING codes. BCH Flash OOB Layout For any ECC scheme we need to add some extra data while writing so as to detect and correct (if possible) the errors introduced by the NAND part. In case of BCH scheme some bytes are needed to store the ECC related info. The section of NAND memory where addition info like ECC data is stored is referred to as Out Of Band or OOB section. The first 2 bytes are used for Bad block marker – 0xFFFF => Good block The next ‘N’ bytes is used for BCH bytes N = B * Number of 512-byte sectors in a page B = 8 bytes per 512 byte sector in BCH4 B = 14 bytes per 512 byte sector in BCH8 B = 26 bytes per 512 byte sector in BCH16 So for a 2k page-size NAND flash with 64-byte OOB size, we will use BCH8. This will consume 2 + (14*4) = 58 bytes out of 64 bytes available. ECC used by ROM bootcode The AM335x processor's ROM bootcode decides which ECC scheme to use for NAND flash depending on the mechanism expalined in the AM335x technical reference manual chapter 26.1.7.4 NAND ECC Correction The default ECC correction applied is BCH 8b/sector using the GPMC and ELM hardware. For device ID codes D3h, C3h, D5h, C5h, D7h, C7h, DEh, CEh when manufacturer code (first ID byte) is 98h the Cell type information is checked in the 4th byte of ID data. If it is equal to 10b then the ECC correction applied is BCH 16b/sector. In addition ECC computation done by the ROM can be turned off completely by using SYSBOOT[9]. This is particularly useful when interfacing with NAND devices that have built in ECC engines. Other ways to control the ECC behavior are ONFI or and I2C EEPROM but the H27U1G8F2BTR datasheet does not mention ONFI so I guess it is not supported by the flash chip. So basically BCH8 or BCH16 or no ECC mechanism is used for the first 128K the ROM bootloader reads from NAND flash. ECC used by the bootloader The bootloader decides this on his own. For example for U-boot this information is compiled into u-boot and the first level bootloader (SPL/MLO) as well. The information is controlled by U-Boot configuration settings set at compile time. Recent versions of U-boot can switch the ecc at runtime using the nandecc command. ECC used by the OS The selection is completely OS specific. For Linux embedded systems using AM335x processors I know that this information is passed into the kernel using the device tree. Which ECC method does nandsim use There is a parameter called bch which can be passed to the nandsim module to select an ecc code. From the code I guess It is initialized to zero so it won't use any ECC code. So it seems that nandsim can use BCH8 and BCH16 but only one for the whole flash that is simulated. modprobe nandsim bch=8 first_id_byte=0xad second_id_byte=0xf1 third_id_byte=0x00 fourth_id_byte=0x1d Which ECC method does nanddump/nandwrite use Again, this depends on the OS/Linux you used to dump the flash. Similar to the nandsim module real mtd drivers have ways to specify the used ECC scheme (kernel parameters, device tree). But you can instruct nanddump to ignore the ECC information, too. References * AM335x technical reference manual http://www.ti.com/lit/gpn/am3359<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http://www.ti.com/lit/g…> * bch Linux Kernel parameter for nandsim http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/drivers/mtd/nand/nandsim.c#L175<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http://lxr.free-electro…> * The AM335x_U-Boot_User's_Guide Spanner.. http://amstrad-e3-hacking.freeforums.net From: Ralph Corderoy<mailto:ralph@inputplus.co.uk> Sent: ‎Wednesday‎, ‎24‎ ‎April‎ ‎2019 ‎18‎:‎30 To: Discussion of the Amstrad E3 emailer hardware/software<mailto:e3-hacking@earth.li> Hi Nick, > I copied it twice not What's the output of copying it once? > Amstrad Delta - PBL V4.9 Build:1311 Assert Debug ICE > PBL 32MB NAND > 0MB.-->MEMv01.00.002,CopyLim=00220000h,CodeEnd=01400000h-->PBL......1MB.......2MB* What if you try reading out the flash. Do you get what you put in? `cmp foo bar' compares all the bytes in those two files and complains if any differ. Otherwise, I think you'll have to wait for someone that knows mtd to come along and offer suggestions. -- Cheers, Ralph. _______________________________________________ e3-hacking mailing list e3-hacking(a)earth.li https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.earth…

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A Idea... well I am Autistic.. :)
by Nick Griffin 15 Apr '19

15 Apr '19

I was thinking,again,I do that.. 😊 We don’t need a Emailer with the Configuration Change on, if we can backup its NAND and then Copy over it with the backup, all we need is someone with a activated emailer that works, but you would not know how long before the emailer would deactivate, ones it deactivates all you do is copy over it again with the baxckup and it be back to how it was when you copied over the NAND in the beginning, so all you are doing is taking a snapshot of someone's Emailer and coping it to yours to activate it but will have to do it every time it deactivates itself, so a bit like what you do with Windows when you have to activate it every 120 days because you are using Microsoft Toolkit. and if someone has got a emailer with games on and is activated, you can do the same thing once the games expirer, all you do is copy the backup of the NAND with the games on that have like 4 weeks remaining then you have the games back. Spanner..

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Re: [E3-hacking] NAND backup
by Nick Griffin 08 Apr '19

08 Apr '19

Whats the ams-delta-install script ..? And where can i get it from.never heard of it.remember i don't know about the flashing side to the emailer I am not aksing you to do anything i can do it just need to be pointed in the right direction. You can use a USB Stick to back it up...? Anyone have the script...? Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone. -------- Original message -------- From: Jonathan McDowell <noodles(a)earth.li> Date: 07/04/2019 21:48 (GMT+00:00) To: Discussion of the Amstrad E3 emailer hardware/software <e3-hacking(a)earth.li> Subject: Re: [E3-hacking] NAND backup On Sun, Apr 07, 2019 at 08:43:59PM +0000, Nick Griffin 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. Anyone who uses the ams-delta-install script will have a NAND backup - there are 6 partitions and it backed them all up to the install USB stick. Don't ask me what they were or if I happen to still have my copies though! I didn't spend a lot of time looking at the original Amstrad firmware, I was more focussed on getting a clean Linux install up and running. J. -- Sleep? Isn't that some inferior replacement for caffeine? _______________________________________________ e3-hacking mailing list e3-hacking(a)earth.li https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.earth…

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I found Cliff Lawson old website about Amstrad
by Nick Griffin 07 Apr '19

07 Apr '19

I found Cliff Lawson old website about Amstrad.. 😊 The files work on there too, so if you need to download something for you PPC640… 😊 https://web.archive.org/web/20100111065846/http://web.ukonline.co.uk:80/cli…<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://web.archive.org…> If anyone needs to contact him I found him on Twitter here.. https://twitter.com/1903wrightflyer<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://twitter.com/190…> Spanner..

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Re: [E3-hacking] Just got an e3 - where do I start
by Antony Stone 05 Apr '19

05 Apr '19

On Wednesday 27 June 2012 at 00:17, Edward Robbins wrote: > Sorry for 3rd email... > > Using a 9V supply the emailer appears to start - email and voice lights > flash, then after some time the power light comes on when I press power, > and camera light comes on when I then press video, but the LCD does not > come on. So I suspect that amstrad were being cheap in choosing such a high > voltage PSU - because they didn't want to include a backlight inverter to > boost the voltage for the LCD backlight. I thus further suspect that I can > still talk to the serial port without the full voltage input... so if I > build a cable, is there a way I can tell which PBL I have from the serial > output? See the first line of http://www.earth.li/%7Enoodles/files/delta.boot (linked from http://www.earth.li/~noodles/hardware-e3.html) Hope this helps, Antony. -- All generalisations are inaccurate. -- I'm not impossible, just highly implausible. Please reply to the list; please don't CC me.

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