Nokia 770 Flasher Utility for Mac and Linux Now Available
 

Excuse my asking but whats the sigificance of a flasher utility (ie. Mac OX) ? Is this a developer thing?

It is a developer utility. You can e.g. set the device into R&D mode which allows you to become root.
But the flasher can also be used for updating the firmware, so it might eventually be useful for normal users as well.

odd, we have been usign a windows based tool since we got the device a couple months ago, which was only used to flash bin files to the device. Wonder if/when they'll make this tool available to the public.

Maybe the Windows-based flasher is meant for end users to upgrade the firmware while the command line tool is tailored for developers.

It can do quite a lot! :cool:

Oh I didn't realise it more dev stuff in it... yeah, the little tool we use for "flashing" is a simple "Plug it in, find the device, choose your bin, update device" and thats it :)

Can someone help me out with getting the Mac version running? I have Linux but only in Virtual PC and I imagine getting that to connect out over USB will be a right pain...

It comes as a file called flasher.macosx - now I imagine I'll need to give the file 'execute' permission or something like that, but can someone help me out?

The first thing I tried was simply running it by typing ./flasher.macosx at the command line - also tried using sudo - no luck :\

users-Computer:~/Maemo tools user$ ls
flasher.macosx
users-Computer:~/Maemo tools user$ ./flasher.macosx
-bash: ./flasher.macosx: Permission denied
users-Computer:~/Maemo tools user$ sudo ./flasher.macosx
Password:
sudo: ./flasher.macosx: command not found

My mac command line skills aren't quite there it seems :o

You do this of your own free will, don't sue me if it formats your hard drive...

I suspect:

chmod +x flasher.macosx

will solve the problem. Files copied to an OSX file system have the execute bit turned off by default.

Thanks Andy - that's exactly what I was after - I'd forgotten the name and required switches of the chmod command :)

Worked just fine - now to see if I can get into R&D mode and get me some r00t access :p

users-Computer:~/Maemo tools user$ chmod +x flasher.macosx
users-Computer:~/Maemo tools user$
users-Computer:~/Maemo tools user$ ./flasher.macosx
Nothing to do!
Usage: flasher [OPTIONS]
Options:
--fiasco, -F <arg> Location of a FIASCO image
--kernel, -k <arg> Location of kernel image
--initfs, -n <arg> Location of initfs image
--rootfs, -r <arg> Location of root JFFS2 image
[SNIP]

Has anyone managed to get the OSX flasher working?
 

OK, I really can't get it to work - I'm doing it in the order most howtos seem to suggest - i.e. to run the flasher, then plug in the 770...

users-Computer:~/Maemo tools user$ ./flasher.macosx --enable-rd-mode
Suitable USB device not found, waiting
^C
users-Computer:~/Maemo tools user$ sudo ./flasher.macosx --enable-rd-mode
Password:
Suitable USB device not found, waiting

...but as you can see, it just sits there waiting :(

Am I missing a trick here? Is there something you need to do to get the Mac command line/terminal app to 'see' the USB connection?

Make sure it reboots when you turn on
 

Hi,

I had some fun from my Mac before I got it to work.

You run the flasher command from terminal (after you have su'd to root)

You get the waiting for USB message from the flasher program.

Then you plug in the Nokia - Make sure it's really switched off, e.g. long press on the on/off button, and then when it's plugged in, turn it on, so that it reboots

After turning on, the flasher program will wake up and do the deed.

I avoided using a hub - plugging straight into the Mac when I had problems.

Oh, and don't forget the --reboot option on the end of your command (don't know if it makes any difference, but it was in the instructions that I was blindly following)

Cheers ... Grant.

Edit: Added --reboot comment

Hey, Dude
 

Put the info in the HowTo Wiki, Dude! And Thanks!

Oh, for all who might not know what the 'long press' of the power button is. When you press the power button of a linux device which is turned on it does an 'orderly' shutdown, of the kind that you want to do most of the time. When you hold the power button down for more than 5 seconds it bypasses the code for an orderly shutdown and stops the device cold, in a way you usually want to avoid. Yes, there are exceptions, as noted here.

Ah, now in my case I hadn't powered it down on my last attempt - tried just now and also included the --reboot command as suggested.

It still didn't work, but I was still using sudo rather than /actually becoming root/ using su.

As far as I know, there isn't a root account on my mac (you can enable it I think, but I'll have to go and figure out how to do that).

I'll give this a try and report back, but it's looking like this stuff doesn't work with sudo (or perhaps there's something else wrong.. :|)

Thanks for all the suggestions so far anyhow! :D

Woo hoo! I finally worked it out after reading a few OSX howtos :D

Running the flasher utility with sudo doesn't quite cut it, and yet I was a bit reluctant to open up the security issues created by having a root account on the machine.

What you need to do, is open a root shell with sudo -s and run the flasher utility from there... No need to enable root!

users-Computer:~ user$ sudo -s
Password:
users-Computer:~ root# ls
.DS_Store .Xauthority .fonts.cache-1 .ssh Desktop Library Music
.Trash .bash_history .gimp-2.2 .xinitrc.old Documents Maemo tools Pictures
users-Computer:~ root# cd Maemo\ tools/
users-Computer:~/Maemo tools root# ls
.DS_Store flasher
users-Computer:~/Maemo tools root# ./flasher --enable-rd-mode --reboot
Suitable USB device not found, waiting
USB device found found at bus 001, device address 004-0421-0105-02-00
Found board Nokia 770 (F5)
NOLO version 0.9.0
The device is now in R&D mode
users-Computer:~/Maemo tools root#
:cool:

Can't get it to work on Linux... although that might be because it's Linux inside VMWare. I can get it to see the 770, but then it gives some timeout message while the 770 is still powering on.

Whenever I try it a second time it then proceeds to blue screen my Windows host :D

I'd say your best bet is to get it to see the Nokia as a USB sorage device first - I haven't used VMWare in a while, but I'm sure it must be possible to get it to see the host's USB ports... (in that case I'd think they won't be usable by the host at the same time...)

See if you can get to the stage where you plug the Nokia in when it's switched on, and get it to mount as a USB disk on the desktop (most Linuxes do this). I guess the easiest way is to first google for it; if that fails, try VMware tech support - tell them you want your gues OS to be able to see a USB thumb drive connected to the host's hardware USB port...

When you're confident it's not just the fact that the VM can't see the USB port, try the flasher with the reboot option again - and make sure you're really root, or at least sudo -s into a root shell as I did on the mac :)

Oh, by the way, now that I've managed to do it, I've added a step-by-step guide to gaining root on the 770 using a Mac to the Maemo wiki...

was that the right place to have put it - what's the deal with the duplicate wikis here and at maemo..? :(


Smiley Dan, if you get it to work in VMware, I seriously hope you wiki it up for us mate :p

Since VMware player is now available for free, those of us with a full copy could make and distribute some ready-to-go images to allow those who don't to have a go with all this :D
(I guess you've all heard of the maemo livecd - well it works on Virtual PC which is what I've got - I'm sure that could be bundled up into a nice VMWare Player distributable, ready to run on any Windows machine and all without the end-user needing a paid-for VMWare license! - the person making the Player distro would need one obviously...)

I'll repeat here a post I made at TKO's blog. He's the first one who complained about this. By the way, you both are knocking down a straw man. By that I mean that you are stating that the HowTo Wikis are duplicates, then objecting to that. It is, of course, NOT true that they are duplicates, so you're objecting to an idea you have in your own mind, a strawman, and you're not actually objecting to the material on this site because it is NOT a duplicate of what's at Maemo. Here's what I wrote to Tommi, to which he has not responded.

It's premature to judge, on the first day, the software and HowTo Wikis at ITT. At Maemo the explanation of 'Contributing Applications' is this: "If you have written an application using the maemo development platform and would like to announce it then visit our Application Catalog wiki page and add some information about your project.

OK, so what about applications that are not written using Maemo? Where do we make mention of those?

Nokia's Dr. Ari Jaaksi stated, "The goal of the (Maemo) organization is to provide Nokia with the best possible open source based technology and collaborate directly with various open source projects."

OK, so what about applications that are not 'open source'? Where do we make mention of those?

How can you not understand the need for places to talk about uses of the 770 that are not local apps based on Maemo or ar not open source apps? If Maemo wants to be versatile enough to host all the information about all the apps, Maemo or not, and about all the apps, open source or not (and that means commercial apps!) then it has to withdraw its current statements and embrace every kind of application. If Maemo wants to continue to exclude non-Maemo apps and apps which are not open source, then that's fine, but it can't complain about other software sites that do NOT exclude non-Maemo apps and apps which are NOT open source.

On what basis does anyone tell anyone else that it is confusing or, to even hint that it is wrong(!), to provide a place on the Internet which catalogs ANY kind of application that makes the 770 useful to someone?

There you have it. Maemo is the "official site" which has a tight focus. ITT is whatever else it can be - the horizon at ITT is wide open. I personally doubt very much that Nokia understands remote X computing and I doubt very much at Nokia will ever get behind it. Nokia's failure to comprehend the value of the 770 as the most verstile X terminal ever built (so far) would be a huge disservice to the people on this planet who should not be penalized for such shortsightedness. I am dedicated to the idea that the 770 will be used for remote X apps in spite of the fact that Nokia doesn't understand the broad role of X in software today and its potential for tomorrow. I don't want Nokia's view - Maemo - to limit what the 770 really represents, a device with a MUCH bigger role than merely being a mobile Linux device.

I've actually already done this - this was my first test to make sure I could just connect. I mounted the RS-MMC card fine and could read the contents.

It's just when I run the flasher then turn on the 770 that I have first the timeout, then the blue screen. It's probably equally something to do with the fact I am using RHEL AS 4 which isn't even supported in Workstation 5 (I don't think). Was going to try at a LiveCD next but your encouragement has worked and I'll keep hammering away at VMWare.

Great idea about the player btw... The Maemo LiveCD is an obvious thing to try first, but does this have the flasher on it as part of scratchbox etc?

Continuing the VMware thread, I just installed VMware player and the small AstLinux image. Logged in as root, the flasher program runs but won't wake from waiting for a suitable USB device when attempting to enable R&D mode. VMware player recognizes a "Nokia Mobile Phones USB device" when I turn on the 770, and when I click on it in the VMware player window, linux responds with "usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 10" is displayed in the shell. However, it is not recognized immediately by the flasher. After a few minutes, I get a number of "set_rtc_mmss: can't update from 5 to 55" messages. Does this mean the flasher is actually trying?

FYI, the device is plugged straight into my laptop, no USB hub.

Note that if I leave a RS-MMC card in the 770 and connect it normally, VMware and AstLinux do recognize a USB SCSI device and I can mount it and access the card as expected. Thus I'm suprised why the USB mode for the flasher doesn't seem to work.

Has anyone gotten the flasher to work under VMware?

Ok, got it working. Instead of AstLinux, I downloaded the larger Ubuntu image and got the flasher to work just fine:

Suitable USB device not found, waiting
USB device found at bus 001, device address 003
Found board Nokia 770 (F5)
NOLO version 0.9.0
The device is now in R&D mode

I guess I'll be sticking with this linux image!

Any clues as to which drivers/packages allowed the other Ubuntu version to work? I didn't want to have to reinstall linux to get this to to unlock.

I am using Debian through VMWare on an XP box. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately, as a non-Linux guy (I speak Windoze only) I have no idea. Hopefully others more knowledgeable about Linux internals and options can help you out. I have to say, though, that it was very painless downloading the Ubuntu image and logging in to it via VMware player if you want to give it that a go.

OK, well when you say the 'larger Ubuntu' which one are you referring to? So far I have tried both the Browser Appliance and the Ubuntu Virtual Machine from VMware (http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/ubuntu.html)

Neither one will detect the USB when the unit first boots.

Also Windows pops up telling me that it found new hardware and does not have a driver for it. After a few seconds the unit continues to boot then windows detects the mass storage device.

Please tell me what i'm doing wrong here.

Thanks!

## EDIT ##

Well I got it working by downloading the Ubuntu Live CD booting directly into it (no VMWARE). i'm now hacking away as root.

Ubuntu
 

Glad it's working. I downloaded Ubuntu from a link on the VMware page that lead to the download of a 543Mb file named Ubuntu-5.10.zip containing .vmx and .vmdk files. That file was itself not accessible from a link on the ubuntu website.

I wasted a lot of time with WMware too. Tried 3 images : the default one (browser console), Damn Small Linux (DSL), and the large Ubuntu 5.10 mentioned above. I could get neither to connect the 770 as a USB device (although they did see my USB keyborad, mouse, external disk and printer :-). VMware would be extremely convenient for Windows users if it worked consistently, but right now it seems very iffy and dependent on hardware and setup : for a few it works, for many it doesn't.
In the end I gave up and booted up my trusty old Knoppix (the mother of all Linux Live CDs !) and it was all over in a matter of minutes (enable RD, modify gainroot, disable RD)...

Enable usb device
 

I've managed to flash with thw Browser appliance version of Ubuntu. One has to activate the usb device before the linux system can recognise it. When you stick in your usb cable and boot the device, click on the new usb icon in players toolbar. It is now made available to the guest os. Worked like a charm for me.

//Johan

I'm trying again to get this VMWare stuff working. I've gotten it to the point where it will detect the Nokia 770's boot mode and I can set the r/d flag.

When I try to flash a new rootfs it says:

root@vmware-bavm:/nokia770# ./flasher -r Maemo_Dev_Platform_rootfs_v1.1.jffs2 -f -R -i
USB device found found at bus 001, device address 008
Found board Nokia 770 (F5)
NOLO version 0.9.0
Sending and flashing rootfs image (33993 kB)...

Write failed after 0 bytes
usb_bulk_write: Connection timed out
--

I'm running Ubuntu Breezy under VMware Server. To get linux talking with the Nokia I had to go to VM -> Removable Devices -> USB 1 -> Nokia Mobile Phones USB Device

Any tips to getting this working? or is there any way to use the windows flasher to flash a new rootfs?

Still no closer on this one. I am still developing inside vmware running ubuntu and scratchbox, then transfering the rootfs I've created over the network to another machine that's booted into an ubuntu livecd.

There was some information on VMWare's website about USB devices, changing the timing, and frame sync, which I tried, but it did not help.
http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/end...Z2U9MQ**&p_li=

I have enabled logging on the USB Port and here is what it sends back. I don't see anything obvious about what could be going wrong. I still get the same error message printed in my post above.

that's it, just stops , no error message or anything.

Surely someone else out there must have gotten this setup running by now?