Why So Risky?

[NinjaFae]

Risky Platform

Why is this machine such a risk to update? Take the PSP for a moment, you download it to a card, via external, or internal methods, or even by disk, and you can click on it, at any choice, to patch it, and it works a good 99% of the time. So why is it so hard to do the same for the GP2X? I download the patch, and I need to format my card to a specific format, which is highly inefficient for the size in question, that isn't so bad I guess, but even then, upgrading isn't guaranteed. When I went from 1.2 to 1.4, it ended up needing an 'alternate' updater. When I tried to go from 1.4 to 2, it locked up, and had to be sent away for JTAG rebuilding, and I only hope it can be fixed, it's become such a boon for me since purchasing.

Is there some major flaw with this thing, or are there a very slim line of 'protocols' that are required, and if so, how come it isn't documented, in great detail, in any supplied documentation, even the wiki has a lot of ifs, maybes, possiblys in it's literature.

Is it possible we can get this sorted out, definitively, Concrete, step-by-step instructions, set-in-stone requirements, for cards, bandwidth etc, and basically get this down to a science, instead of an art?

Discuss..

 

[Paradox]

upgrading after 1.4 is fine, theres no autobrick or problems that could go wrong anymore, and since all new gp2x's will be shipped with firmware 1.4 from now on, we should really stop talking about this bricking business as it will give the unit a bad image

 

[Squidge]

The problem is that Dignsys wrote all the early firmware, and it was this firmware that was so rediculously badly written, it was more like a practical joke than a commercial product. They assumed a rediculous number of things, and had huge bugs, which meant that it worked on the one card they tested it with, but didn't with numerous others.

After they got sacked and a decent company did the firmware, it's become much better. The problem is updating all the older units to 2.0.

New units that are shipped with 2.0 shouldn't have any problems updating (hopefully - there may be a few incompatible cards still, but there shouldn't be any more bricks)

 

[nickspoon]

Never had any problems with firmware at all.

 

[Purist]

I had problems with my cramfs and firmware 1.4 because of my cruddy kingston 1gb card,
but now everything's good with my new card and firmware 2.0

 

[Epicenter]

Firmware updates are always dangerous, as are PC BIOS updates. Things can always go wrong; if your battery died in mid-update on a PSP I'm sure you'd have an expensive hunk of worthless plastic and silicon on your hands as well. However, as was said, Dignsys' complete ineptitude at writing acceptable updating SOFTWARE pretty much converted what should be a simple process into something that could be more akin to a living hell. This does seem fully remedied however; my flashing process went uneventfully from 1.2.1 to 2.0.0 with an official Sandisk 1GB SD card and some 1/8th charged NiMH batteries.

 

[Paradox]

Never had any problems with firmware at all.

 

[Vimacs]

Never had any problems with firmware at all.

probably like 90%+ of all people.

 

[Epicenter]

Few people post when things go according to plan. I'd feel awkward making a thread saying "My GP2X firmware update process to 2.0.0 went flawlessly and uneventfully'.

 

[CRP]

They should have put a small piece of startup code in some non-writeable area... a sort of pre-bios

Firmware updates are always dangerous, as are PC BIOS updates. Things can always go wrong; if your battery died in mid-update on a PSP I'm sure you'd have an expensive hunk of worthless plastic and silicon on your hands as well. However, as was said, Dignsys' complete ineptitude at writing acceptable updating SOFTWARE pretty much converted what should be a simple process into something that could be more akin to a living hell. This does seem fully remedied however; my flashing process went uneventfully from 1.2.1 to 2.0.0 with an official Sandisk 1GB SD card and some 1/8th charged NiMH batteries.

 

[sam fisher]

But diginasasnnajsfnjasfnjnas what every with a sys on the end had no idea what they were doing. SO it was shit.

 

[thespawned]

Okay, just to clarify a few things on this.

The 'autobricking' due to corrupted SD cards. Does this still affect the units? Or is it now impossible to brick a GP2x if it has a faulty SD card inserted?

forgive my ignorance

 

[Aimless_E]

@andyjoiner

The way the boot loader works in 2.0 doesn't allow the firmware to beupgraded unless you hit start and select at the same time as soon as the gp2x boots. Even then it has to find files with the correct name on the SD card before it will try to update.

So its not impossible but alot harder to acheive.

 

[aapje89]

weird thing is that I can only upgrade from 1 of my 2 sandisk sdcards... :blink:

but other than that no problems .

 

[thespawned]

@andyjoiner

The way the boot loader works in 2.0 doesn't allow the firmware to beupgraded unless you hit start and select at the same time as soon as the gp2x boots. Even then it has to find files with the correct name on the SD card before it will try to update.

So its not impossible but alot harder to acheive.

now that sounds like a *much* better system! none of this auto-updating stuff. okay, i really am fairly ignorant of the GP2x (until mine turns up i am going off what i read in these forums).

thanks for your reply. sounds like FW2.0 should see a lot less bricking going on then!

:-D

 

[jdwrrzmm]

All my firmware updates worked fine even with the cheapest card off Newegg I could find.

 

[NinjaFae]

Meh, guess I'm just annoyed that my update from 1.4 to 2.0 ended up with a costly bill, to send to Germany, in order to unbrick it. Incidentally, I give major kudos to the chap who offered to do the repair, and the biggest cost is purely from shipping. Hopefully, we won't need to update in future, I know this experience has put me right off doing it, ever, again. (Just, er, so long as the vids still play as smooth as they did on 1.4) ^_^