N800: Dual booting and upgrading to new firmware.

[Puck]

I'm pretty much a newbie at this, but I managed to get the dual boot in the old firmware to work with Schmots' excellent guide:

http://schmots.blogspot.com/

I then spent a long time getting my system just right, including entering my whole telephone book into GPE contacts, and installing a ton of other applications, which are all working just fine. Now along comes the new firmware, and I have spent a number of hours trying to find threads on how to backup all this work before flashing the new image. By the way, I did find Fanoush's new 'initfs_flasher'.

Do I need to back up at all? Do I just need to reflash and then do the dual boot again with the new 'initfs_flasher'. Before originally doing the dual boot, I read somewhere that dual booting would make it easier to back up my apps etc. and get them back up and running after flashing.

Please help ... I didn't get any answers to the last three questions I posted to this forum.

[uNtouched]

Please help ... I didn't get any answers to the last three questions I posted to this forum.

I hope you don't take this as me being rude, but chances are that people don't know the answer.

About updating the firmware, I did the same thing, set up the 800 to my liking after doing the dual boot, only to find that there was an update that I didn't know about....rats!

So I updated my firmware after making a backup. Redid the last few steps of the boot from mmc, and everything was in tact. The firmware in the about screen was updated, all my apps were still there, settings, home screen, everything. Again, I don't know if in your case you'd be able to keep your phone book etc.

[Puck]

Thanks. I'll give it a go. I appreciate your help.

[froghunter]

Well, I have been reading on this forum for a bit (though not too in depth), and finally want to ask a question (since I am getting my N800 Friday). So, I am a total noob (even just started running linux last fall), but was wondering about this whole dual boot from MMC thing. Lets say I only have one 8 gb card in addition the massive 128 mb card that came with it. When 'dual' booting, are you really just choosing to use the firmware, then boot the OS and everything else from the MMC (8gb in this case)? The whole dual boot thing seems to imply some sort of OS2008 or ported-SUSE (example) controlled through grub or something, and maybe you can do this: throw in a different card for different OS. My question is, would you mind sharing how the solution of just updating your firmware then following the steps to set up the boot from MMC worked? And lastly, if you don't boot from MMC, what would you boot from? Again, total noob without N800 in hand, but thanks for the help.

[GeraldKo]

Yes, you can have different OSes on different SD cards. When you aren't booting from the MMC, you are booting from the device's internal flash memory (which is the default, how the N800 comes from the factory). I think the guide in my sig, or Schmots's guide that Puck references, answers your other questions.

[froghunter]

GeraldKo, first off, thanks for your ultimate noob guide, pretty nice having all the files together too. Followed yours with a slight change at the end by adding
chroot /mnt/initfs cal-tool --set-root-device ask:immc2
. If I am wrong that by default, let me know please. So, one more question about this whole dual boot thing, and if you know where a grub 'menu.lst' type file is to change the time countdown.

So, when I have booted from the MMC, under file manager when it shows the device, I am not totally clear about what partition this is indicating on the internal mmc? If I am reading this correctly, using your values for partitioning an 8GB card, I have ~700 mb for the dual boot, ~7 GB for storage, and I thought a small FAT partition? Except, when I put the card in my linux box, I see the small Sardine partition which has all the boot stuff and is locked (Ext2 right?) and then the 7.4 GB which is not encrypted. Is the 7.4 then the FAT so it is read/write across all platforms? And do you have to use a utility to backup the Sardine partition or just chroot over? Just trying to figure out how this is working, so that I can better understand cloning, restoring and backing up down the road.

And the other question is: when a new firmware update comes around, just flash, then copy the OS back to the internal flash? or just continue using the dual boot, and somehow the firmware update affects this? (Sorry this last part is a serious noob question.)

(Last note for others reading this: the low level format with the panasonic utility with my A-data 8 GB SDHC card worked great with no problems.)

[GeraldKo]

GeraldKo, first off, thanks for your ultimate noob guide, pretty nice having all the files together too. Followed yours with a slight change at the end by adding
chroot /mnt/initfs cal-tool --set-root-device ask:immc2
. If I am wrong that by default, let me know please.

Good addition. I ought to add that.

So, one more question about this whole dual boot thing, and if you know where a grub 'menu.lst' type file is to change the time countdown.

I don't know. Hopefully someone with more expertise will answer this.



So, when I have booted from the MMC, under file manager when it shows the device, I am not totally clear about what partition this is indicating on the internal mmc? If I am reading this correctly, using your values for partitioning an 8GB card, I have ~700 mb for the dual boot, ~7 GB for storage, and I thought a small FAT partition? Except, when I put the card in my linux box, I see the small Sardine partition which has all the boot stuff and is locked (Ext2 right?) and then the 7.4 GB which is not encrypted. Is the 7.4 then the FAT so it is read/write across all platforms?

No small FAT partition. Just Sardine's partition and one big FAT partition. Yes, read/write on all platforms.

And do you have to use a utility to backup the Sardine partition or just chroot over? Just trying to figure out how this is working, so that I can better understand cloning, restoring and backing up down the road.


About backing up, look at Post #2, (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=165587#post165587)
Specifically look at iliaden post and Acronis info. I don't use Linux, so I don't understand all your question. Also, there's the built-in Settings >> Backup/Restore, which is well worth using.



And the other question is: when a new firmware update comes around, just flash, then copy the OS back to the internal flash? or just continue using the dual boot, and somehow the firmware update affects this? (Sorry this last part is a serious noob question.)

Not really noob at all. Unfortunately, you need to flash the internal device memory, and the only way to then have everything on your SD card (or, for that matter, in your Device-memory-based OS), is to re-install everything. (Hey, if there's a better way, someone reading this, please tell us all!) The built-in back-up utility is very useful in this instance.



(Last note for others reading this: the low level format with the panasonic utility with my A-data 8 GB SDHC card worked great with no problems.)

In Post #2 I reference bunanson's thread. This is good info for you to put there (unless it's already there).

[froghunter]

I really appreciate it. Will look around for some menu.lst type file. Thanks for answering the questions, I think it is starting to make a bit more sense. Thanks again for the tutorial. (and yes, that SD info is already over there, just wanted to re-post it)

[GeneralAntilles]

So, one more question about this whole dual boot thing, and if you know where a grub 'menu.lst' type file is to change the time countdown.

bootmenu.conf.n8x0.example

Change it how you like it, rename it to bootmenu.conf and reflash the initfs.

[fanoush]

bootmenu.conf.n8x0.example

Change it how you like it, rename it to bootmenu.conf and reflash the initfs.
And when you are at it, you may read the README first ;-)
more README.txt

[froghunter]

I feel like I might be missing something, but I can't seem to find a bootmenu.conf anywhere unless it is only on the internal flash not mmc. Thanks for the super fast response and patience.

[froghunter]

never mind, found it. thanks again for the flasher.