Firmware 3.0.0 Released

[Alex.]

I was going to upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0 and now I don't think I'll bother (I'll just up to 2.1.1). I'm not happy with GPH appealing to the sheep nation - please excuse my rant here - with pretty things since pretty things can get "out of fashion" very quickly.

Functionality rules overall.

This sheep nation has been responsible for crappy, pretty things like over-commercialisation (the current rise of third generation emo (again sorry) and Big Brother) and now this is happening to our lovely little gem of a device!

Although GPH may think that this is a good idea, it isn't, so please stop it.

/rant

I 100% back you on this. Why pass the GP2X to be something it's not?

- Alex

 

[Ekce]

Just wondering, isn't there a way around to get more than one firmware version on a unit? were we can choose the firmware to run at boot maybe (and thus making the GP2X as annoying as a PSP? )

Wow, it would be VERY sad if it came to that. Surely any firmware compatibility issues will be worked out before this becomes a necessity. That would just be too ridiculous...

I think it would be a great idea if you could do that.
It would be better for testing new firmwares & if the new firmware messed up on install, it wouldn't brick your unit

No more bricking hurrah!

Don't forget about the Open2X project.

Compatibility isn't worth it when it comes at the expense of flexibility. There's a reason there are so many flavors of linux.

I was going to upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0 and now I don't think I'll bother (I'll just up to 2.1.1). I'm not happy with GPH appealing to the sheep nation - please excuse my rant here - with pretty things since pretty things can get "out of fashion" very quickly.

Functionality rules overall.

This sheep nation has been responsible for crappy, pretty things like over-commercialisation (the current rise of third generation emo (again sorry) and Big Brother) and now this is happening to our lovely little gem of a device!

Although GPH may think that this is a good idea, it isn't, so please stop it.

/rant

I 100% back you on this. Why pass the GP2X to be something it's not?

- Alex

I don't post often, but I entirely agree with this. Oversimplifying the UI will only keep people from being able to implement ideas considered to be thinking 'outside of the box', in order to comply with what trendy noobs want (I call them that as they are the same people that aren't willing to learn how to use the device as it is, and rather only use it because it's convenient and "underground").

 

[Mudi]

I don't think this is oversimplifying the interface or anything like that. All this new version has that is different is a menu with a slightly different icon layout (game/utility icon combined into one, new help icon, 'animated' icons) and a compressed image for the NAND allowing a few pack-in games. I fail to see anything wrong with any of that.

 

[Cervante]

Phew I though my unit got bricked, it did its thing but during the installation the whole screen stood frozen black for about 4 to 5 minutes. Then I told myself "great..it got bricked" removed the SD card, turned the unit off and turned it back off it was working again.

Its working like a charm but inside the NAND its missing SuperTux and Vektar. So I assume the problem has to do with either these games or before updating to this firmware the NAND has to be formatted.

Those are my 2 cents.

 

[gp2xshop]

I thought I'd add my 2 cents...

We received the GP2X Value Pack mid week and they ship with FW3. I've had a chance to play around with it quite a bit and this is what I've found:

- Utility Icon is replaced with Help Icon that runs a movie player with the option to select help videos.
NOTE: these videos are very poor quality and content.

- The access to the NAND now called "Built In" is restricted in some functions like Ebook and Explorer.
NOTE: So trying to copy skins from your SD Card to your NAND is impossible.

- The NAND is filled with some games that can you can play.
NOTE: there is only 1mb of space left on the NAND.

Due to these factors we are not putting them on the shelves yet. We will probably roll back to FW2.1 to keep the accessability open and leave the Free games on the NAND, or Keep FW3 and release our own skin and help videos for Australia release.

If someone could clarify if there are any technical differences between FW2.1 and FW3 would be great currently all we have noticed are cosmetic differences.

DOUG

 

[shinneri]

Sounds like I won't be updating any time soon.

 

[sbock]

@GP2XShop-AUS

I found only one bugfix: Textfiles with german foreign characters (umlauts) are now working with the e-book reader. But I guess this is not very important for the people down under...

I agree with you appraisal. Firmware 2.1.1 is the better choice...

Regards,
Stephan

 

[imhotep]

So if one rolls back to 2.1.1 from 3.0, will the inbuilt games still be left on the NAND? It seems like this is the case and as GP2XShop-AUS inferred, this would give his customers the best of both worlds.

 

[Paradox]

I tried installing 3.0 and I think my 2x is now bricked. I let it run for 30 mins on the black screen, and nothing... finally turned it off, removed SD card and turned it on, it just sits on this new fancy blue loading screen.

tried to roll back to 2.1, no dice.. when I start my 2x, i get the blue loading screen, followed by the green loading screen saying version 2.1.1, and it just sits on that screen all day, what can I do to fix it?

 

[krosfyah]

In retrospect, a homemade firmware update was probably a bad idea. There seems to have been quite a few bricks.

I'm still bewildered by the firmware itself. Perhaps 0.9 would've been a better suited revision number.

 

[Alex.]

- The access to the NAND now called "Built In" is restricted in some functions like Ebook and Explorer.

They should have also changed "SD memory card" to "Cartridge", and removed EXT Stroage altogether :rolleyes:

- Alex

 

[krosfyah]

So how are people supposed to use custom skins now?

 

[EvilDragon]

I tried installing 3.0 and I think my 2x is now bricked. I let it run for 30 mins on the black screen, and nothing... finally turned it off, removed SD card and turned it on, it just sits on this new fancy blue loading screen.

tried to roll back to 2.1, no dice.. when I start my 2x, i get the blue loading screen, followed by the green loading screen saying version 2.1.1, and it just sits on that screen all day, what can I do to fix it?

In order to rollback to 2.1.1, you need to do the FW 2.0.0 upgrade first.
This is the only update that will completely rebuild the filesystem, which is what happens if the gp2x bricks here.

I also checked about the bricking.
I tried 5 gp2x, started with a clean FW2.0.0 and upgraded with the official ones.
It worked on 4 but didn't work on the last one. I went back to 2.0.0 and tried that again.
It always bricked. So I ran it from Telnet. This machine ran out of memory.
As FW 3.0.0 is cramped full, I guess the bricking happens if your gp2x has a few bad sectors on the NAND and therefore a bit less bytes free - so it bricks.
You can always go back to 2.0.0 if that happens.

You can keep the new U-Boot, it will still work with 2.1.1

 

[Mudi]

I like the new uboot graphic quite a bit better than the old one. The boot time is slightly annoying. I kind of like the idea of having a few games builtin on the NAND, though I don't use those much it is probably nice for some people.

I think I'm rolling back to 2.1.1 since no big incompatibilities have been found between the two, so it's not much of a worry on the dev side.

 

[PSyMastR]

Is the new uboot faster then the old uboot?

 

[gp2xshop]

I found only one bugfix: Textfiles with german foreign characters (umlauts) are now working with the e-book reader. But I guess this is not very important for the people down under...

Thanks for the bugfix info, I think we will definately be rolling back the Firmware to 2.1

And for those who have brikked their GP2X, I did the same thing but as long as you roll back to 2.0 then upgrade to 2.1 you should be OK.

We are going to have to do that with ALL our new stock, and yes the games still stay on the NAND if you roll back from FW3.0.

D.

 

[Blah]

I think it would be possible to update 2.1.1's text reader by copying the executable over from 3.0 I'll try it later.

 

[Marco1983]

Yesterday i also tried to update my GP2X with firmware 3.0.0. However, something didn't go exactly right...

At first i thought that the updating process was doing fine. But after the black screen stayed on for about 15 to 20 minutes, i got a little worried. I just pulled the powercord out of the system, and did a reboot after that. I was really happy to see the boot screen when i turned my system back on, because at first i thought it was bricked. Luckily that wasn't the case! 'Cause in the end i managed to do a reroll to firmware version 2.0.0. The strange thing about it all was, that the boot screen told me that i was running a machine with firmware 3.0.0, and after a few seconds i only saw the whole 2.0.0 menu with all its bells and whistles.

Anyway, i managed to do the re-roll, and in the end i even managed to do an upgrade to 2.1.1.

Also i like to state that i maybe have a slight little problem with my 2.1.1 firmware. The problem with that firmware is, that my bootscreen says i'm running 2.1.1, but when i have a look at the system info screen, it says i'm still running 2.0.0. Very weird... Or is meant this way?

Anyway, i did watch a couple of X-Files episodes on it afterwards to celebrate the rebirth of my GP2X!

 

[need4speed]

I try the firmware 3.0 and I did not like It then I went back to 2.0 and then upgrade back to 2.1. I am happy again