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Neta 980 Lost its Mind

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UB3RATL4Sf00 Page Icon Posted 2005-12-19 1:28 AM
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Im a rather new postee to this forum but Ive been in the tech field for years. Im a proud owner of a Neta 980 webpad and have been using it for 4 months since I got it at my job as a Systems Analyst. However recently I was recieving errors about 'corruption in ROM Image" and it would reboot and go through the bootloader again only to be working again just fine. However now it wont even start up and the power light blinks consistintly.
My main problem is I didnt get a chance to make a backup of the .bin image for the NAND ROM, and I cannot get in contact with Futurecom's customer support.
My questions are this:
1. Is there a linux distro with a bootloader for the Neta? (Ive googled and googled and nothing ><;; )
2. Is there ANY way I can get a .bin image of the CE.NET 4.2 distro for the Neta, and if so where?

Im fairly sure its something I can ressurect in time, but I dont have the time right now to write a bootloader for it.
Thanks
Stephen
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2005-12-19 4:10 AM
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maybe it is a chance for you if you can make a decent dump of someone else's neta 980.. (i've yet to see a working image extracted with the various romdump tools, but i didn't try it on too many pda's..)
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UB3RATL4Sf00 Page Icon Posted 2005-12-19 12:20 PM
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That would be a good solvent, although Neta 980 users are rare and far inbetween. So far Ive managed to pull up the Flash chip manually through its USB slave connection. Trying to wipe it out now and replace the bootloader with a modded LILO bootloader from my Ipaq project. I will say this, its nice to have 64 MB of NAND Flash to work with than 16 or 8. However, most of the common linux distro's for handhelds only address 32 MB Flash and will kinda 'disable' the rest which Im trying to avoid.
No luck booting it off of CF yet, but I still have access to the Flash through USB *Sigh* This is going to be a pain....


Thanks,
Stephen
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2005-12-19 2:56 PM
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UB3RATL4Sf00 - 2005-12-19 6:20 PM

That would be a good solvent, although Neta 980 users are rare and far inbetween. So far Ive managed to pull up the Flash chip manually through its USB slave connection. Trying to wipe it out now and replace the bootloader with a modded LILO bootloader from my Ipaq project. I will say this, its nice to have 64 MB of NAND Flash to work with than 16 or 8. However, most of the common linux distro's for handhelds only address 32 MB Flash and will kinda 'disable' the rest which Im trying to avoid.
No luck booting it off of CF yet, but I still have access to the Flash through USB *Sigh* This is going to be a pain....



oh, at least you can try and solve it, most users wouldn't have the slightest idea.

look around here in the cenet forums, you'll find other neta 980 users (985 won't do any good).
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David G Page Icon Posted 2005-12-25 12:31 AM
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I own a neta 980 (am using it right now). I had a similar problem with my first unit. Futurecom replaced it (under waranty). I have babied this one. (Very few software installs, etc.)

The viewsonic airpanel 100 is very similar to the neta. They have ROM images on their site. I was tempted to try their image out before I contacted Futurecom.

If I could figure how to dump my image, I would be glad to back mine up and make a copy for you. Futurecom said that they do not have any images.
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2005-12-25 10:31 AM
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i have a few romdump tools... maybe that could help though i don't think either one is perfect / any good at all.
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David G Page Icon Posted 2005-12-25 6:49 PM
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The ROMDump tools would need to be safe to use and install. As I said earlier I do baby this thing now :-)

I can try to dump the rom to my CF card then pull it out.

Again, this all hinges on whether or not UB3RATL4Sf00 is willing to follow up and test the dumps.

I would like one of these copies for archive reasons based on my own past experience.


David Grissom
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2005-12-25 7:13 PM
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don1t worry they're all safe as far as doing the dump itself.
the issue is whether the file created by them is a valid rom image or not...
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UB3RATL4Sf00 Page Icon Posted 2006-01-01 1:41 PM
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David if you could dump it Id be willing to try uploading the ROM image to mine, be an interesting expirament. Heck, maybe we should start like a 'ROM Archive' for people who like tinkering with their Webpads and Handhelds too much.
Stephen
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David G Page Icon Posted 2006-01-01 10:17 PM
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OK, I'm game (as long as it is a read only affair at this time.

However with the exception of the Compaq ROM copier from a few years ago I haven't seen a good reader. In fact, I've tried to figure out the rom several times during the past year that I've owned the Neta.

I haven't know where to begin. The few CE programming books that I own don't seem to address it. That and the fact that I am not a C programmer doesn't help either

I found a Linux based dumper a while back. However, I don't use Linux (although, I have tried it and found it to be pretty good).

CMONEX, give me a few ideas on this one...

Thanks DG
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wallythacker Page Icon Posted 2006-01-01 10:42 PM
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I'm willing to help in any way that I can. Perhaps dumping my SL4 could be of use, not for the image, but as a part of the process. I can checksum what I've pulled with a known good image of my SL4.

Point me to the dumprom tools and I'll see if I can pull a valid image.
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2006-01-01 10:43 PM
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well as i said i have source code for one of these rom dump tools and also the compiled app of course. i can send that to you (not sure if xda rom dump tools have it too publicly)
just give me an email address where i can send it to.
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2006-01-01 10:55 PM
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wallythacker - 2006-01-02 4:42 AM

I'm willing to help in any way that I can. Perhaps dumping my SL4 could be of use, not for the image, but as a part of the process. I can checksum what I've pulled with a known good image of my SL4.

Point me to the dumprom tools and I'll see if I can pull a valid image.


oh nice idea! want the tools? i have like three of them
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David G Page Icon Posted 2006-01-02 12:20 AM
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OK,

With the wonderful help of CMONEX, we have cooked up a Rom dump of the Neta 980.

I don't know if it is useable (or how to use it.) I've dumped it into a zip file to shrink it from 64 MB to around 45 MB.

What do I do with it next?


(Now I must go to bed - must work tomorrow.)

DG
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2006-01-02 12:36 AM
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cool. can i have the dump? i'm interested probably i cant do much with it, but let's see if i can extract some files and maybe also try to confirm it is valid.

btw, it would be a good idea to try the other two programs too!!

anyway if we can't confirm if it is a valid image or not, next step is try to flash the dead neta with it... guess it can1t get worse than now.
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