Safe To Flash Firmware?

[Squirrel61]

Recently, I bought a F200 which came with firmware 4.0.0. On the back, it says it's a F200(B) model, which shouldn't be compatible with firmware 4.0.0 and, according to the comments on archive.gp2x.de should even brick at this firmware.

Because I wanted to fix the sound volume and some other fixes, I upgraded to 4.0.2 and then 4.1.1. However, this breaks some emulators (Vice, Mame) that I use frequently, so I'd like to go back to 4.0.0. But I'm scared to do so, because of the brick warning.

Can someone advice me what I should do? Can I safely downgrade to 4.0.0, considering it was on the GP2X when I bought it? Or should I just take the "loss" and stay at 4.1.1 and hope someone will fix the broken programs?

Btw. I also have the cradle so even when I brick the GP2X I should be able to unbrick it. So I could just try it, but currently I can't establish a serial connection to the cradle. My laptop has no serial port and the USB-to-serial adapter cable I bought doesn't support 115200, even 57600 is crappy.

 

[senquack]

As long as you are confident it came with 4.0.0, I'd say it's fine. I saw the same warning regarding the ( B ) model being incompatible. Despite my unit being from February of this year and coming with FW 4.0.0, it says ( B ). And that firmware with the warning works.

PS, Open2X is coming out very soon and is F200-compatible. It fixes the volume problem and also gives you more control over volume in all applications, including system-wide volume muting and scaling. I'd wait for it.

PPS, regarding the serial troubles, I take it you remembered to disable hardware flow-control? Alas, even after doing that my notebook's serial port has serious troubles communicating with the cradle. My desktop's serial port works much better.

 

[Squirrel61]

As long as you are confident it came with 4.0.0, I'd say it's fine. I saw the same warning regarding the ( B ) model being incompatible. Despite my unit being from February of this year and coming with FW 4.0.0, it says ( B ). And that firmware with the warning works.

PS, Open2X is coming out very soon and is F200-compatible. It fixes the volume problem and also gives you more control over volume in all applications, including system-wide volume muting and scaling. I'd wait for it.

PPS, regarding the serial troubles, I take it you remembered to disable hardware flow-control? Alas, even after doing that my notebook's serial port has serious troubles communicating with the cradle. My desktop's serial port works much better.

Thanks for your reply. First I have to update on my post. I've reflashed 4.0.2, then 4.1.0 and then 4.1.1. First I tried 4.0.2 from archive.gp2x.de but that one trashes the touchscreen. Then I flashed 4.0.2 from gp2x.com (the one with the remark about the touchscreen being fixed), 4.1.0 and 4.1.1 and now the touchscreen is working again. Most other programs that were broken are working again too, but vice20 is now terribly slow. Strange enough, Frodo is still running full-speed. So I consider downgrading to 4.0.0 because vice20 was running full-speed when I was still on 4.0.0

Btw. on the first upgrade, I went from 4.0.2 straight to 4.1.1 and probably this caused the malfunctioning of my programs. The boot screen showed 4.0.2 while the system info showed 4.1.1. Now, after reflashing both are showing 4.1.1.

Thanks for your hint on Open2X, it might well be worth waiting for.

Serial communication seems to be a headache. I'm still trying several options but I think the most important is that I forgot to add a nullmodem (unless it's included in the cradle). But since for jtag unbricking I also need a parallel port, indeed it seems best to use my desktop for it. Not that I have any current need for unbricking, but whenever I need it I want to know that it's working and how I should do it.

 

[Squirrel61]

Btw. I just had a look at the Open2x project pages and indeed it looks very promising! On the wiki, I read that there are no F200 testers (guess this information is slightly outdated). If you need any, I'll be more than pleased to offer my gp2x f200(B) for beta testing, although I suck at programming.