Yet Another Bricked Gp2x (f100)

[david_etherton]

(I posted this on the temp forums but now that these are back up I'm trying again here, apologies for the repeat)

Okay, yes, I'm a moron. I was on the fence about ordering a Pandora, since I bought a GP2X several years ago when it first came out and never really did much with it. Much of that is because I really hated the joystick and found it difficult to use.

So I decided I should get it running again with the latest firmware before making my final decision.

After making sure its 2.0.0 firmware was running fine, I put the 4.0.1 patch onto a 16M SD card, booted it up, and watched it immediately start applying a patch and get stuck in a weird loop where it claimed to be trying a USB connection and some other status screen.

After a few minutes of this, I cycled power. I got the black screen (UBoot) then the green 2.0.0 kernel loading screen, and it stays stuck on that forever.

I quickly figured out what I did wrong -- I'd installed the 4.0.1 patch WITHOUT properly upgrading to the full 4.0.0 first. Dumbass.

Any idea how I can recover from this? I googled and found some old threads and websites on the topic, but they all seemed from the pre-2.0 days, and nothing I tried would work.

I've tried flashing to 4.0 and 2.0 again (by various combinations of .img files), but it seems like it won't read the flash card or something. I don't have any magic TTY cables so it's hard to tell what's going on here (I really hope Pandora lets you see what's going on under the hood without special cables).

In particular, I thought that it would reflash the UBoot or kernel at least as long as the right .img files are there. Or did the bastard 4.0.1 patch I installed somehow totally screw that up -- can I rename the files under some new name?

[And yes, I did pre-order a Pandora after all]

Thanks in advance,

-Dave

 

[david_etherton]

A few questions for the more technical folks:

- What is gx2xyaffs.img? That's in the base 4.0.0 firmware (and 2.0.0 I think) but not in the 4.1.0 patch I mistakenly applied to my 2.0.0 base.

- I noticed there's a gp2xupdate.gpu file in the 4.1.0 patch but it's not in the base 2.0 or 4.0 installs.

I'm trying to figure out what jumping from 2.0 -> 4.1 actually did to my machine. The uboot loader still seems fine, and I'm still getting the green 2.0 kernel loading screen, but it just hangs after that.

Why won't putting a different gp2xkernel.img file on my flash card fix anything (or at least change the version number in the boot screen)? Or is the real problem that the bitmap is read from a file that never got successfully patched, but my kernel really IS 4.1 now? If that's the case, then perhaps I could try a card with only the 4.0 gp2xfs.tar.gz file on it?

Would the 4.1 patch have already invoked gp2xupdate.gpu? If it had, could I do some sort of hand-merge of the files in gp2xpatch-4.1.0.tar.gz and the 4.0 gp2xfs.tar.gz file?

Is there documentation on the whole boot / patch process?

Thanks again,

-Dave

 

[david_etherton]

Yet another question -- is there some way to use a normal USB cable and get a kernel boot log out of that? Or is the extension connector remotely standard enough that I might be able to jury-rig a basic serial cable myself? Or can somebody point me to a place in the U.S. (or anywhere with cheap shipping) where I can get an appropriate cable to diagnose the process better myself?

Thanks yet again,

-Dave

 

[senquack]

Try flashing with a smaller non-SDHC flash card. Delete all gp2x* files in the root of the SD inbetween flashes.

Use Orkie's NAND blanker first (this will not harm uboot):
http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,42,2490

Flash FW 2.0.0, then flash 2.1.1 on top of it. If you need SDHC support, don't use FW 4.0.0, just stay with 2.1.1 and install Notaz's SDHC-enabled 2.1.1 kernel: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=35840

As for the questions about the serial cable: honestly, it probably won't be too hard to find someone selling a cradle these days so you can then use a 9-pin serial cable to get the kernel output. I know of no way to see the boot process over the USB gadget serial connection in realtime.

 

[david_etherton]

The docs to NAND blanker were a huge clue -- you're supposed to hold down Start+Select during boot to get it to recognize the new kernel on the flash card.

With that critical knowledge, I was able to successfully apply the 4.0.0 update on my machine.

Duh.

Thanks!

-Dave

 

[david_etherton]

Just out of curiousity, how long does the 4.0.0 patch typically take to apply? I've got fresh 2700mah NiMh's in it, but I don't have an external power supply, so I hope it makes it! (Yes, I know you're supposed to have one when upgrading...)

-Dave

 

[dsraa]

Well any good retart knows that you're supposed to hold select and start together. hehe, just joking.


Upgrading should take a total 5 mins, 10 at the most depending on the speed of your card.


DSR

 

[david_etherton]

Upgrading should take a total 5 mins, 10 at the most depending on the speed of your card.

Damn. All the warnings about flash upgrades completely draining the batteries worried me.

This has been on the "Now Patching" screen for about 90 minutes already. I suspect something went wrong?

-Dave

 

[senquack]

Recharge your batteries

Delete gp2x* in root of SD

Use Orkie's NAND blanker using non-SDHC card

Recharge your batteries.

Delete gp2x* in root of SD

Upgrade to 2.0. using non-SDHC card.

Recharge your batteries.

Delete gp2x* in root of SD

Apply 2.1.1 patch using non-SDHC card.

Recharge your batteries.

Delete gp2x* in root of SDDelete gp2x* in root of SD

Install Notaz's SDHC-enabled kernel.

Ignore 4.0.0.

 

[david_etherton]

Fortunately I got lucky -- gave up on the 4.0 patch, and tried a stock 2.0 upgrade (amazing how much knowing about Start+Select improves the process. In my defense, I haven't upgraded the flash since 2.0 first came out, so I forgot the details -- and maybe it was different back then).

I'm back up and running again. A lot of history to catch up on now I guess -- is there some reason 4.0 isn't worth the trouble? Is 3.0 a better shot?

Thanks again,

-Dave

 

[trooper]

is there some reason 4.0 isn't worth the trouble? Is 3.0 a better shot?

Thanks again,

-Dave

It`s crap, Oh, And so is 3.0, Seriously.

Honestly, Just listen to Senor Quack.

Trooper

 

[Squirrel61]

The only reason for existence of 4.xx is the F200. Since some hardware parts where changed (eg. the USB controlller, why it doesn't support network emulation anymore, duh), the older firmwares won't work on the F200.

The only reason for existence of 3.xx is .... well to be honest, I don't know. I guess nobody knows. Maybe it was time to raise the version number to show the users that GPH was still alive or something.

The reason of existence for 4.1.x again is the F200. GPH "improved" the sound, making it ear-deafening in 4.0.0. Firmware 4.1.0 partially fixes this and 4.1.1 fixes 4.1.0 Now I'm waiting for a fix for 4.1.1 but I'm afraid I have to move over to the Wiz or Pandora. Or find an old F100.