Need help, WinCE 5.0 acces through autorun.inf on SD card

i'm new to this forum.

i have a semi bricked route 66 mini pnd (wince 5), by mistake i erased some files from \my flash disk\ and now it starts blank. The only way to acces windows now is through autorun.inf on SD card. i have tried with all tipes of folders ex. \2577... and placed autorun.inf but is not working.. (activesync never worked and i don't have any acces at \my flash disk)

through my reserch info for autorun files i have downloaded an update for gps from their site www.66.com, and i see that is acces some kind of explorer but only with option to search, not to modify, copy.. or make something else, but if i change app in autorun with something else, for example gsfinder nothing happend..

i have uploaded all files for gps updates that are working http://uploaded.to/?id=0d5nd2 - look at autorun.inf->

My question is for someone with programmers skills, if i can do something with this autorun.inf to acces explorer from sd card..

thank you!

p.s. sorry because i put this thread in the wrong location..-> for operators

What do You mean?
As far as I know autorun.infs are files describing the default action (or the program that should be executed) after plugging media to the computer...
P.S. And autoruns are executed by explorer.exe after it's successful start. As i have understood, explorer.exe doesn't.

Edited by JHack 2009-01-08 11:49 AM

ok, when i insert sd card in the device, it reads what's on sd and after it will start but only the executable that i uploaded in the outer post, if i try to change the .exe file with for example with GSfinder, and change the name of course, it will do nothing... when my device was working i used GSfinder for ARM soo i know is the good file.. please take a look at autorun.inf because it's a little too strange for me.. is not a normal autorun.inf

Edited by gago 2009-01-08 12:39 PM

and here is autorun.inf that is working only with the specified .exe in file.




Attachments
----------------
AUTORUN.INF (0KB - 246 downloads)

Hi,
hope I can help you - I have "hacked" this device recently.

The case is that the "autorun" feature is disabled in this vendor's version of WindowsCE 5.0.
and there is a route66's application (PnaShell.exe) running all the time in baclground ("residently" ) which does the following:
1) it reads any inserted SD card and executes the file (if exists)
\SDMMC\ROUTE66\R66Navigate8.exe - which is th enavigation program

2) it executes autorun.inf , BUT it has some special way of identification, as you can see the autorun.inf created by GPSFirmWare update program is not a plain text but has a binary format (both binary and text). And I also tried lot's of ways to launch any explorer program using autorun - all in vein.

So, the solution is : create folder ROUTE66 in the root od SD card, put there a file R66Navigate.exe - if it is a valid executable for ARM architecture it will be executed.

I attached here the original explorer.exe from this device Windows. So you can run it and have a task bar with clock, start button, etc.




Attachments
----------------
explorer.rar (90KB - 312 downloads)

I could not find a lot of information about this device, so hope my investigation will be usefull for somebody.
I have disassembled the box and we have here:
Processor: Samsung S3C2412XL-26 266MHz - 16/32-bit ARM926EJ-S RISC Processor Core, w/ 8KB I-Cache/8KB D-Cache/MMU, 0.13um Process
ROM 64MB (samsung chips)
RAM 64MB (samsung chips)

I have a photos of the board and it will be great if somebody can try to identify which PDA does route66 mini is based on.
I can hardly imagine route66 has invented a new device from scratch, most likely they took some wellknown PDA like iPaq or Axim as a base.

The device is really nice, the screen (3.5" 320x240 ) is bright. I was able to watch films and listen mp3 on it using TCPMP soft.
And I was able to launch another freeware GPS programs, but you may need to use GPSGate program to emulate a standard NMEA GPS protocol.


I say "was" because I have killed the device by installing some stupid software (nyditot) which cracked the OS and it hanged.
The major problem is that it is impossible to make a hard reset on this device as it has no buttons, and I have tried all possible combinations of soft reset hole and on/of switch.

Soft reset does not help.

So, please do not install soft which changes OS or incapsulates drivers or be aware of consequences. I can give a set of programs which worked fine with route66 mini.

Cheers!

I have the R66 maxi device.

IIRC the device should totally re-set everything in the OS with a hard re-set.

Can you still get it to connect to activesync?

The only things on the flash drive are a few exe files including PNAShell. IIRC there is a way to get it to start without PNAShell. Or at least get to activesync then I couls give you a copy of the missing file.

I also have a replacement PNAshell that allows you to boot into the CE desktop. This solution actually is a PNAShell the just starts the explorer shell to get into CE 5 desktop. You keep a copy of the original PNAshell in a sub dir which allows you to run original software should you require it.

John

PS it will not be based on a PDA but will be a board with an SOC cpu specifiacally desinged as a PNA device. Likely it is made in China or similar and may have similar internals to othe PNA's

Edited by mr-mac 2009-01-12 5:15 PM

Hi mr-mac
thanks for reply.

Unfortunately, the device is no more recognised by ActiveSync.
Under linux it is recognized as "Genereic Microsoft PPC" (lsusb)

What is IIRC ?

Are there any tools alternative to ActiveSync (not the "plugins" based on activesync) ?
I was trying to compile SynCE but it required too much libs on Slax so I gave up.



Edited by VicOEM 2009-01-12 6:15 PM

Wiki: IIRC - SMS language/internet lingo for "If I recall/remember/recollect correctly".

you can perform a hard reset on route66 mini (maxi) if you run "FactoryReset.exe" which is located in internal flash disk: \Shell\FactoryReset.exe.
But you can't do it if WindowsCE stops responding due to ,for example, some driver was installed incorrectly and you have done soft reset making OS to reload with tis driver and hang up.

thank you all for your fast replies

but:

1.i dont't have any acces at \my flash disk
2.i don't have any more pnashell.ini or panashell.exe in \my flash disk, the only thing that is working is gps firmware update
3.every time i insert sd card in device there is a 'blink' he is serching for correct files to load..
4. if i don't have any more pnashell.ini, so \sdmmc\route66\R66navigator8.exe is not working any more..
5. i have tried with explorer.exe (thank's vicoem) but again nothing happend.. because i think i don't have a good working autorun.inf.

i need a little backengineering to transform autorun.inf file.. or how can i revert \my flash disk at the original state.. something like a hard reset, VicOME infos about the devices are OK, i have also disasembled to see what's inside, and i have a seen something that look like a jumper setting 6X2.. i have tried different configs also here but nothing happend.. as i can see one of the configs is for soft reset but nothing more..

i'm lost in this moment, i have tried different configs for past two months!


p.s. now is pretty simple to hack the device from original to start explorer.exe , but is not my current case
p.s. 2 for newbies: don't delete/move anything from \my flash disk, you will end like me!!! just copy gsfinder files for ARM to \sdmmc\route66\ and change gsfinder.exe to r66navigate8.exe, after soft reset it will start in gsfinder.. and you can do whatever you want!

Edited by gago 2009-01-13 12:00 AM

if firmware update works and you have a valid working image, then we can edit the image to load explorer instead of looking for stupid files on the flashdisk.

yes, the gps update firmware is working, but compressed files have something like 370kb, max allowable here is 100 kb ! I have uploaded here http://uploaded.to/?id=0d5nd2

thank you cmonex!

Edited by gago 2009-01-13 12:20 AM