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annotate doc/Compal-FFS @ 731:d89b72f2181b

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doc/TIFFS-IVA-usage: new decode facility documented
author Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
date Fri, 28 Aug 2020 05:56:13 +0000
parents 6585c21cc4d4
children bed7981ac8ca
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1 FFS usage on Compal phones
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2 ==========================
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3
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4 All Compal phones (Motorola C1xx and Sony Ericsson J100) use a flash file system
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5 (FFS) structure for user data. On all currently known models with the single
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6 exception of Mot C155/156, this FFS is in our familiar TIFFS format - see the
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7 TIFFS-Overview article. Mot C155/156 uses a different FFS implementation with
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8 a completely different and incompatible on-flash format; it appears that the
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9 name of this C155/156 FFS implementation is FMGR, as evidenced by the strings
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10 found in the firmware image.
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11
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12 The location of FFS within the flash on various known models is as follows:
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13
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14 * On Mot C11x/12x phones with 2 MiB flash, the FFS is at 0x1F0000, using 6
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15 sectors of 8 KiB each;
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16
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17 * On Mot C11x/12x phones with 4 MiB flash, the FFS is at 0x370000, using 3
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18 sectors of 64 KiB each;
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19
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20 * On Mot C139/140 and SE J100 phones (4 MiB flash), the FFS is at 0x370000,
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21 using 5 sectors of 64 KiB each;
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22
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23 * On Mot C155/156 phones (8 MiB flash), the FFS is at 0x700000, using 13
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24 sectors of 64 KiB each - but the format is FMGR, not TIFFS!
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25
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26 In *all* of the listed cases, this FFS (be it TIFFS or FMGR) is used *only* for
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27 user data, and not for anything essential. On all of these phones you can get
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28 in with fc-loadtool (our raw flash manipulation tool), erase the flash sectors
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29 belonging to the FFS, exit fc-loadtool and boot the phone's regular fw with
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30 totally blank FFS sectors - the fw with do a fresh FFS format (it even displays
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31 a message on the LCD as it does so), and then the phone will function completely
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32 normally, but be "brand new", without any previous user data. Compal's
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33 firmwares also do the same thing (automatically reformat the FFS on the first
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34 boot, blowing away any old one) if you reflash from one fw version to a
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35 different one, even if you don't erase the FFS sectors explicitly - Compal's
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36 FFS stores the fw version that created it, and when their fw boots and sees
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37 that the FFS is from a different version, they automatically do a full reformat.
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38
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39 The fact that the FFS on these Compal phones is strictly non-essential and can
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40 be trivially blown away and recreated implies that it does NOT store any vital
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41 data: no IMEI, no RF calibration values. Instead the IMEI, the RF calibration
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42 values and a bunch of other records which we are not able to understand are
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43 stored in a completely different flash data structure of Compal's own invention:
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44 see our Compal-calibration article.
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45
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46 Language reset
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47 ==============
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48
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49 There is, however, one additional issue which you need to be aware of if you
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Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
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50 are going to erase the FFS and have the firmware reformat a new one: when the
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Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
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51 firmware formats and writes a new FFS, the UI language is set to the firmware's
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52 default, and in some fw versions it is not English. (Both Motorola and Sony
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53 Ericsson firmwares have "language pack" and "flex" parts in addition to the
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54 main fw body proper.) Sometimes one can get lucky and the default fw language
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55 is English, other times the default language is non-English but still
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56 intelligible enough to navigate through the menus to change it to English, but
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57 I got one C118 on which the default fw language is Chinese, and I had no luck
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58 in navigating through the menus to change it to English. On that phone I had
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59 to flash back the original FFS which had the English UI language setting.