Why Would I Want To Change My Firmware?


christo930

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Joined
Jan 4, 2004
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Pennsylvania, USA
I've seen in a few posts people saying that firmware 2.1 is the
"best
" firmware and that it is "better" than 3.0 and 2.0. My machine has FW 3.0, which is the one it came with. Suppose I reflashed my firmware to 2.1, what advantages would I have? Would the machine be faster? Do the built in apps have more features or run faster? Does the movie player have more features or more codec support? Would I be able to overclock more (Right now I can't get over 240 in most apps, which is not overclocking at all)? I've heard that 2.1 boots slightly faster, but other than that, as an end user what advantages would I see? Also, I have lots of experience flashing bioses and stuff (having worked as a computer technician), but are there any special considerations besides making sure to be on AC power or on freshly charged rechargables? Is flashing a gp2x especially prone to failure (having seen alot of people brick their units)?

Thanks,
Chris
 
The main differences are that boot time for 2.1 is faster and the menu is different - you get a utilities menu instead of the help.

Flashing is always a risk. Read this.
 
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Parkydr said:
The main differences are that boot time for 2.1 is faster and the menu is different - you get a utilities menu instead of the help.

Flashing is always a risk. Read this.



Thanks, I read the link. The main reason I asked, is someone got a gp2x off of ebay that was bricked and they brought it back to life, but with the 2.0 firmware and then flashed it again and it's back to brick. I was wondering why anyone would ever flash a working unit that was just bricked and took days of reasearch to fix. I was just thinking what is so great about the 2.1 firmware that someone would risk their machine over. I will NEVER flash my unit, except maybe when open 2x comes out if it's MUCH superior to the normal firmware.

Chris
 
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There is no need to flash if you have FW3, however when the gp2x originally came out, it was using FW1.4 which, quite frankly, was a complete bag of shite. The first decent firmware was 2.1. FW3 seems to go backwards, but 2.1 isn't that good to warrant flashing from 3.0 to (so say 2.0 is the same).
 
christo930 said:
Thanks, I read the link. The main reason I asked, is someone got a gp2x off of ebay that was bricked and they brought it back to life, but with the 2.0 firmware and then flashed it again and it's back to brick. I was wondering why anyone would ever flash a working unit that was just bricked and took days of reasearch to fix. I was just thinking what is so great about the 2.1 firmware that someone would risk their machine over. I will NEVER flash my unit, except maybe when open 2x comes out if it's MUCH superior to the normal firmware.
You mean me? It definitely didn't take anywhere close to days of research. Once I figured out that I was trying to flash to the wrong firmware, it went much faster and was pretty straightforward. I decided to upgrade to 2.1 since it was going pretty smoothly, since it seemed like there were some worthwhile changes, and since it didn't seem like massive changes. I also thought it wouldn't be too big of a problem since I'd figured out the steps necessary to unbrick it.

I wasn't counting on the NAND getting marked as fill of bad blocks, which could have just as easily happened on the first attempt of re-flashing. At least I know what's wrong, and the idea of how to fix the current problem, if I haven't spent the time to do so just yet. Once it's working again, I don't plan of flashing it, but if I'm going to de-brick it, I might as well be satisfied with where it ends up. Also realize that if you do decide to switch to open2x, you'd probably want to do any updates that it eventually gets.
 
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benji_stein said:
christo930 said:
Thanks, I read the link. The main reason I asked, is someone got a gp2x off of ebay that was bricked and they brought it back to life, but with the 2.0 firmware and then flashed it again and it's back to brick. I was wondering why anyone would ever flash a working unit that was just bricked and took days of reasearch to fix. I was just thinking what is so great about the 2.1 firmware that someone would risk their machine over. I will NEVER flash my unit, except maybe when open 2x comes out if it's MUCH superior to the normal firmware.
You mean me? It definitely didn't take anywhere close to days of research. Once I figured out that I was trying to flash to the wrong firmware, it went much faster and was pretty straightforward. I decided to upgrade to 2.1 since it was going pretty smoothly, since it seemed like there were some worthwhile changes, and since it didn't seem like massive changes. I also thought it wouldn't be too big of a problem since I'd figured out the steps necessary to unbrick it.

I wasn't counting on the NAND getting marked as fill of bad blocks, which could have just as easily happened on the first attempt of re-flashing. At least I know what's wrong, and the idea of how to fix the current problem, if I haven't spent the time to do so just yet. Once it's working again, I don't plan of flashing it, but if I'm going to de-brick it, I might as well be satisfied with where it ends up. Also realize that if you do decide to switch to open2x, you'd probably want to do any updates that it eventually gets.


Yes, it was you to whom I was referring. I was actually following the ebay auction as well and thought the auction pretty suspicious. Anyhow, by all the steps you posted that you took, I assumed it went a couple of days of research and trial and error and I didn't mean it to be insulting (hope you didn't take it that way). The way I see it, since every piece of software has to work on every gp2x at the same speed, there is really little reason to change your firmware, unless you really like some user oriented feature of a different firmware than the one you have. Honestly, I really like the color scheme better on the 3.0 firmware, but I certainly wouldn't change the firmware to get a different one. For me, there has to be a really compelling reason to change the firmware to warrant the risk. That is why I started this thread, to find out if there was a really compelling reason to change it. To me, it seems there is almost no reason to change the firmware, except to boot a few seconds faster, which is somewhat mitigated by the fact that gp2x software reloads the menu when you quit it, rather than rebooting the machine like the GP32. People have gotten used to the idea of upgrading their firmware through pc's where you might have to flash it to fix a compatability problem, but that shouldn't exist in the world of GP2x where all the machines are the same.

It kind of puzzles me that allthough the problem has been identified, nobody has fixed the problem with the nand being marked as bad. I guess the firmware and flash tool (or parts of it) is closed source and cannot be fixed? Or do they expect to fix it with open2x?

What is hoped to be accomplished with open 2x anyway?

Chris
 
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QUOTE

Yes, it was you to whom I was referring. I was actually following the ebay auction as well and thought the auction pretty suspicious.



That had occurred to me, too. However, I emailed the seller and asked a bunch of specific questions, which gave the impression that it was legit.

QUOTE

Anyhow, by all the steps you posted that you took, I assumed it went a couple of days of research and trial and error and I didn't mean it to be insulting (hope you didn't take it that way).



No worries; none taken. I did a little research (maybe a few hours) to see how hard it would be to do before bidding, and then a couple more once I'd won. The log of what I'd posted was the result of just an eveing's worth of trying, part of which was spent doing other things as I let the gp2x sit (before turning it back on), or try and update itself. But I also learned a bit, so I wouldn't call the time wasted, anyway.

Regarding color schemes, you might be able to find a different skin that's what you're looking for, but compatible with 2.1

QUOTE

It kind of puzzles me that allthough the problem has been identified, nobody has fixed the problem with the nand being marked as bad. I guess the firmware and flash tool (or parts of it) is closed source and cannot be fixed? Or do they expect to fix it with open2x?



You're right; I wondered that myself. I think part of the reason might be that so few people update, it's not worth the time and energy. Or perhaps uboot isn't open, as that's what marking the blocks.
 
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