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fc-loadtool help: improve language regarding 16 MiB flash chips In FC project history, 16 MiB flash originally meant Pirelli DP-L10. Then we got FCDEV3B with the same flash (our own design), but now we are discovering more Calypso devices that used such large flash, both late Calypso era (Sony Ericsson K2x0) as well as much earlier ones (FIC FLUID devices.txt file with 2004 dates, Leonardo+ rev 5). Hence we need to migrate to more generic or neutral language in associated documentation, without giving elevated status to specific examples that drove our early project history.
author Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
date Sun, 03 Dec 2023 21:11:12 +0000
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1 Our Calypso device flash programming tool fc-loadtool can be used in several
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2 different paradigms; this article is an attempt to clarify the many available
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3 modes of usage. You should also read the companion article Binary-file-formats
b6b8307d195b doc: new articles Binary-file-formats and Flash-programming
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4 for further background.
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5
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6 Flashing firmware release images
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7 ================================
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8
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9 In conventional forward engineering environments where you develop or maintain
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10 firmware for hardware made by your own company (meaning no reverse eng, no
b6b8307d195b doc: new articles Binary-file-formats and Flash-programming
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11 "illicit" aftermarket tinkering on hw made by some other company aeons ago),
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12 you have a firmware build system that produces fw build images (some of which
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13 may subsequently be blessed as releases), and you have a tool that flashes
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14 these fw build images into your hardware, operating as efficiently as possible,
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15 automated as much as possible, requiring minimal user action for the boring
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16 repetitive task of flashing a new fw image every time you build one. And if
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17 you become lucky enough to produce your hardware in volume, the same objectives
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18 of maximal efficiency and automation carry over into the production line
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19 environment as well.
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20
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21 In TI's environment the standardized format for firmware build images which are
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22 then flashable into hardware targets was a variant of Motorola SREC written in
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23 *.m0 files, a variant which we have named moko-style m0 after its most famous
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24 user. The special quirk of this particular SREC variant is its peculiar byte
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25 order. TI's firmware build system produces a *.m0 S-record image as its final
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26 build product, and TI's official Calypso flash programming tool (FLUID) takes
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27 these *.m0 files as its input.
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28
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29 Since the beginning of FreeCalypso we have had two ways of flashing TI-built
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30 firmware images into suitable targets (initially OM GTA02 modem, then many
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31 others including our own FCDEV3B):
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32
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33 1) Our fc-loadtool has had a flash program-m0 command from the beginning,
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34 programming device flash with bits from an m0 file directly and natively.
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35 However, prior to fc-host-tools-r12 this command was poorly supported: it
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36 ran significantly slower than flash program-bin, had poorer progress
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37 indication and did not perform CRC-32 verification at the end, which is an
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38 important integrity check. Also this original flash program-m0 command (as
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39 opposed to flash e-program-m0 added in fc-host-tools-r13) does not include a
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40 built-in erase step, thus prior to fc-host-tools-r13 the user had to have
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41 outside knowledge of how many sectors to erase first with a separate flash
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42 erase command.
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43
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44 The new flash e-program-m0 command added in fc-host-tools-r13 is m0 image
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45 flashing finally done right. It reads in the specified S-record image in
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46 moko-style m0 format, builds a map of potentially discontiguous flash
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47 regions into which the image deposits bits, erases the set of flash sectors
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48 which need to be erased before programming these regions, then programs the
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49 new image bits into flash, exactly like TI's own FLUID.
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50
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51 2) The alternative way is to first convert the *.m0 S-record image produced by
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52 TI's hex470 post-linker tool into straight binary (*.bin) with a FreeCalypso
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53 tool called mokosrec2bin, then program the binary fw image into flash with
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54 fc-loadtool command flash program-bin. This method is the one we've been
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55 using since 2017, and our FC Magnetite firmware build system is now set up
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56 to produce not only fwimage.m0, but also fwimage.bin (it runs mokosrec2bin),
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57 and it also generates an fc-loadtool command script (a text file named
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58 flash-script) with two commands in it: a flash erase command with a
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59 calculated sector address range and a flash program-bin command to program
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60 the accompanying fwimage.bin image.
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61
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62 As of fc-host-tools-r13 both methods work equally well: if you have an official
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63 FreeCalypso firmware release (containing fwimage.m0, fwimage.bin and
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64 flash-script files) which you need to flash into a device such as our own
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65 FCDEV3B or OM GTA02 (but *not* Mot C1xx!), you can execute either
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66 'exec flash-script' or 'flash e-program-m0 fwimage.m0' at the loadtool> prompt,
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67 and both ways will produce exactly the same result with equal performance and
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68 reliability. And if you need a more special operation such as erasing the
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69 entire flash (factory production lines) or erasing and reprogramming only a
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70 certain part of the normally affected sector range, that's what custom command
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71 scripting ability is for.
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72
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73 For the sake of symmetry, we also have a flash e-program-bin command that is a
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74 binary image format counterpart to flash e-program-m0: it first erases the
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75 sectors into which new bits will be programmed, then programs the new bits.
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76 Thus a third equally good way to flash a new FreeCalypso fw release into a
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77 target such as FCDEV3B or GTA02 is to execute
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78 'flash e-program-bin 0 fwimage.bin' - but don't *ever* do it on a Mot C1xx
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79 phone!
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80
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81 Discontiguous m0 fw images with large gaps
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82 ==========================================
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83
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84 One sometimes-advantage of S-record-based formats over straight binary is that
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85 they can have discontiguous filled regions with gaps in between them; all m0 fw
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86 images produced by TI's TCS211 build system have some gaps in them. In our
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87 current FC Magnetite firmwares these gaps have been reduced to less than 16384
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88 bytes in total, reducing the wasted disk space and image transfer time to
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89 sufficiently insignificant if these m0 images are converted to straight binary
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90 with mokosrec2bin and then flashed as binary as we've been doing. For
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91 comparison, in Openmoko's classic mokoN firmwares (almost TI's original version
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92 of the memory map) the first flash sector of 65536 bytes had only 5072 bytes of
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93 image payload programmed into it, thus indirect programming via mokosrec2bin
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94 followed by flash program-bin meant sending just over 60k filler 0xFF bytes to
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95 be flashed - becomes noticeable at 115200 baud.
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96
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97 But these gaps were even bigger in TI's classic firmwares (and many vendor
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98 firmwares) built for 8 MiB or 16 MiB flash chips with TI's classic memory map.
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99 They have two code regions: one region is exactly 4 MiB in size but is placed
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100 not quite at the beginning, thus spilling past the chip midpoint, and the other
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101 region starts where the first 4 MiB region ends, going to the end of the flash
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102 chip or to the beginning of the area reserved for FFS. The way TI's linker
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103 works results in the first of these two program regions being not quite full
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104 before bits start getting thrown into the second one, thus the resulting m0
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105 image can easily have a gap of a megabyte or more between the two regions.
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106 TI's own FLUID handles such discontiguous images with no sweat, but our
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107 fc-loadtool has gained matching capability only as of fc-host-tools-r13 with
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108 our new e-program-m0 command. And yes, it is smart enough to avoid needlessly
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109 erasing sectors in the big gap, just like FLUID.
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110
676
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111 Flash backup and restore
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112 ========================
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113
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114 A completely different paradigm takes place on alien targets such as Motorola
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115 C1xx and Pirelli DP-L10, made by alien manufacturers, meaning not FreeCalypso,
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116 not Openmoko and not TI. The most important flash operation on these alien
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117 targets is making a flash dump; these dumps can then be used for forensics,
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118 reverse engineering, or simply as a backup. When we subsequently write to
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119 flash on these alien targets (after having saved a backup first), we are not
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120 flashing an m0 fw image or a binary image made from one with mokosrec2bin,
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121 instead the most common operations are:
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122
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123 * Flashing a backup image back into the same device it was originally made
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124 from (flash restore);
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125
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126 * Changing a device from one firmware version to a different one by programming
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127 its flash with firmware bits that were originally read out from some fw-donor
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128 unit;
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129
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130 * Surgical manipulations such as erasing FFS sectors or rewriting one specific
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131 part of the flash based on reverse-engineered understanding of its structure.
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132
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133 This different paradigm leads to a different mode of usage for fc-loadtool:
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134 instead of needing a maximally-automated operation that flashes a firmware
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135 release image with as little user thought involvement as possible, our flash
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136 manipulations need to be of a more manual peek-n-poke manner. We provide a
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137 flash dump2bin command for making and saving flash dumps first and foremost,
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138 allowing any part of the flash to be dumped and saved selectively if desired,
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139 including the second flash bank on the Pirelli DP-L10 and likewise on our own
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140 FCDEV3B. When it comes to flash write operations, we provide a manual flash
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141 erase command that allows (and requires) the operator to specify exactly which
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142 sector range should be erased and a manual flash program-bin command that
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143 allows any range of 16-bit words to be programmed at any flash address, with
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144 the bits to be programmed coming from a binary file, either the whole file or
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145 any specified subrange.
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146
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147 These manual flash erase and flash program-bin commands give full control to
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148 the operator, allowing every possible flash manipulation which the hardware
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149 itself allows, at the expense of requiring the operator to think about which
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150 flash addresses, offsets and lengths need to be operated on, and either enter
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151 long commands manually or write a command script.
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152
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153 Given our historical origins (long before we got to the point of producing our
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154 own hardware, we started out by exploring the forbidden GSM realm of devices
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155 made by alien manufacturers who were hostile to our cause), our original flash
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156 manipulation support in fc-loadtool had been centered around the manual
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157 peek-n-poke paradigm, with elementary flash erase and flash program-bin commands
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158 as our main staple, and no thought had been given originally to producing
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159 functionality that would work like FLUID or like our current flash e-program-m0
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160 and e-program-bin commands. But all actively maintained software evolves, and
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161 as our FreeCalypso family of projects has matured over the years, we now offer
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162 richer functionality covering a wider range of use cases.
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163
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164 Binary vs. S-records
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165 ====================
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166
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167 (Please read the companion article Binary-file-formats for background, then
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168 come back here.)
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169
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170 If you are exploring and manipulating the flash content of a GSM device in an
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171 aftermarket fashion, as opposed to flashing your own fw builds into your own hw
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172 design produced by your own company like Openmoko did in the late 2000s and
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173 like we do currently at FreeCalypso HQ, then binary is the generally preferred
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174 format: you make dumps with flash dump2bin, and when you selectively program
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175 these images back into devices, you use flash program-bin with the right offsets
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176 and length, along with appropriate flash erase commands.
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177
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178 We also have flash dump2srec and flash program-srec commands in fc-loadtool,
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179 they were implemented back in the founding stage of FreeCalypso in 2013 for the
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180 sake of completeness and symmetry (it seemed right to support both binary and
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181 S-record formats), but they never got any practical use: if you are making a
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182 flash dump, you would normally want to examine it afterward, and any such
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183 examination almost always needs a straight binary image, not S-records.
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184 Furthermore, our flash program-bin command allows you to selectively program
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185 just a particular portion of a binary image file into flash, at any arbitrary
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186 flash address, but we don't have the same flexibility with flash program-srec -
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187 the latter command is really just a sibling of program-m0 with the opposite
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188 byte order.
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189
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190 Thus the short summary is as follows:
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191
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192 * If you are flashing an official firmware release image into your device, you
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193 need to use flash e-program-bin or flash e-program-m0 depending on whether
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194 the image is provided in *.bin or *.m0 format, or alternatively our older
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195 flash program-bin or flash program-m0 commands preceded by a separate flash
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196 erase command with the right sector range, possibly packaged in a supplied
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197 fc-loadtool command script.
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198
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199 * If you are restoring a flash dump made with flash dump2bin or performing
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200 aftermarket flash manipulations on Mot C1xx or Pirelli DP-L10 phones or other
682
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201 such alien devices, you need to use binary-format-based flash manipulation
676
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202 commands; the specific commands will depend on exactly what you are seeking
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203 to do.
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204
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205 * flash program-srec and e-program-srec commands do not currently have a valid
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206 use case.
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207
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208 Special considerations for Compal phones
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209 ========================================
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210
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211 Motorola C1xx and Sony Ericsson J100 phones made by Compal have brickable flash:
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212 the right kind of flash-resident bootloader must always be present at the
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213 beginning of the flash, or else the phone is unrecoverably bricked. We have
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214 special support in fc-loadtool for minimizing the bricking vulnerability window
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215 when operating on these phones, but this special support requires user
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216 cooperation, meaning that you must limit your flash manipulations on these
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217 phones to a narrower subset:
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218
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219 * flash program-m0, program-srec, e-program-m0 and e-program-srec commands are
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220 not appropriate for these brickable phones - do not use any of these commands
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221 on these targets.
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222
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223 * Flash sector 0 must be manipulated only with the special
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224 flash erase-program-boot command, not any of the regular erase or program
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225 commands.
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226
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227 * Regular flash erase, flash program-bin and flash e-program-bin commands can
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228 and should be used for the rest of the flash starting at offset 0x10000 - but
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229 you still need to understand what you are doing.