cannot transfer win ce image through USB!!!

[amirshah77]

i have recently bought a mini2440 board, 128MB NAND version.

i played around with qtopia and it seems that everything is allright. there are a few bad NAND blocks, but qtopia still boots and runs all right. by the way, the menu of the supervivi does not correspond to the one in the user manual (i had to search various forums to find the exact steps), so i hope esky-sh can update the user manual or just put the new steps as a thread in this forum.

the problem is when i tried to install win ce. again, since the steps shown in the manual are no longer valid, i had to search around and found these steps:
1. boot supervivi from NOR flash
2. 'n' to download nboot_T35.bin (my board comes with TOP POLY 3.5" LCD)
3. 'l' to download bootlogo.bmp
4. 'w' to download NK_T35_English.bin
5. restart from NAND flash
* sometimes i 'f' (format the NAND flash) before doing these steps - not sure if it's necessary...

my problem is when transferring NK_T35_English.bin through USB. sometimes it just hangs halfway. sometimes supervivi says "checksum failure". here are some examples, taken from hyper terminal:

##### FriendlyARM BIOS 2.0 for 2440 #####
[x] format NAND FLASH for Linux
[v] Download vivi
[k] Download linux kernel
[y] Download root_yaffs image
[a] Absolute User Application
[n] Download Nboot for WinCE
[l] Download WinCE boot-logo
[w] Download WinCE NK.bin
[d] Download & Run
[z] Download zImage into RAM
[g] Boot linux from RAM
[f] Format the nand flash
Boot the system
[s] Set the boot parameters
Backup NAND Flash to HOST through USB(upload)
[r] Restore NAND Flash from HOST through USB
[q] Goto shell of vivi
Enter your selection: w
Clear the free memory
Please send the Image through USB.
Download Address=0x80200000 Length=0x19170c4
..............ERROR: Checksum failure (expected=0x14E511F computed=0x14E522F)
****** Checksum failure on record 110, ABORT!!! ******
àload Windows CE Image..

##### FriendlyARM BIOS 2.0 for 2440 #####
[x] format NAND FLASH for Linux
[v] Download vivi
[k] Download linux kernel
[y] Download root_yaffs image
[a] Absolute User Application
[n] Download Nboot for WinCE
[l] Download WinCE boot-logo
[w] Download WinCE NK.bin
[d] Download & Run
[z] Download zImage into RAM
[g] Boot linux from RAM
[f] Format the nand flash
Boot the system
[s] Set the boot parameters
Backup NAND Flash to HOST through USB(upload)
[r] Restore NAND Flash from HOST through USB
[q] Goto shell of vivi
Enter your selection: w
Clear the free memory
Please send the Image through USB.
Download Address=0x80200000 Length=0x19170c4
.....ERROR: Checksum failure (expected=0x14B7296 computed=0x14B72A6)
****** Checksum failure on record 36, ABORT!!! ******
Àload Windows CE Image..

##### FriendlyARM BIOS 2.0 for 2440 #####
[x] format NAND FLASH for Linux
[v] Download vivi
[k] Download linux kernel
[y] Download root_yaffs image
[a] Absolute User Application
[n] Download Nboot for WinCE
[l] Download WinCE boot-logo
[w] Download WinCE NK.bin
[d] Download & Run
[z] Download zImage into RAM
[g] Boot linux from RAM
[f] Format the nand flash
Boot the system
[s] Set the boot parameters
Backup NAND Flash to HOST through USB(upload)
[r] Restore NAND Flash from HOST through USB
[q] Goto shell of vivi
Enter your selection: w
Clear the free memory
Please send the Image through USB.
Download Address=0x80200000 Length=0x19170c4
............ERROR: Checksum failure (expected=0x628C12 computed=0x628C92)
****** Checksum failure on record 95, ABORT!!! ******
ðload Windows CE Image..

after this, normally if i switch to NAND flash and restart i will still get the "Windows CE5 .NET, Start..." or ""Windows CE5 .NET, Loading..." but after that the device just hangs...

i have tried transferring the NK.bin file from several different PCs. i have tried different combinations of nboot and NK.bin (for example, the N35 version, the T35 chinese version, the L70 version, etc) but still the problem persists. is it because of FAULTY RAM??? if that is true, what can i do to overcome the problem...?

please help!

[nicolas]

Is this problem related to your reply at viewtopic.php?p=781#p781 ?
(And thus resolved ?)

[amirshah77]

no, unfortunately my problem is still unresolved...

(i just noticed that supervivi 'w' requires strictly wince .BIN and not .NB0 images - while fooling around trying to find a solution. a quick hexeditor look at wince's .BIN files shows that those .BIN files have some kind of header.)

anybody else here having the same problem as mine (checksum failure)?

btw, does anybody know why the wince image is being downloaded to address 0x80200000? a quick look at page 9 of the user manual says that the top address is 0x40000000...

[nicolas]

While this doesnt answer your trouble, I can explain the nk0/bin issue you raised.
Its explained in the manual and docs somewhere, but in simple, the nk0 file is a ready to run image, it can be used to program it to ram and run the image directly (or via other debugging tools). The bin is the image that is to be written to the NAND for proper unpacking and setup.

What is the date of the WinCE images you are trying ?
Have you tried older/newer images ?

[esky-sh]

you can try a 'x' command to format nand flash before your programming.

[amirshah77]

nicolas:

tq for reminding me. before this i only tried the wince images found on the supplied DVD (2009-7-19 update). so i downloaded all existing images from the esky-sh ftp server and tried a few. unfortunately none works... some old .BIN files even cause "unknown format" error even though they're .BIN files.

by experience though, images created for the 64MB version DOES NOT work for the 128MB version (it's the same for qtopia).

the problem seems to be the same: error while transferring the image from PC to the mini2440 board. it could be:
- bad connection -> NO, because i can transfer qtopia images flawlessly; plus i can backup & restore NAND flash without problem
- bad RAM -> i noticed that the wince image is being sent to RAM (though, why 0x80200000??? isn't that over the range?) and not directly to NAND
- bad supervivi -> mine is already the latest version, but i tried re-flashing my NOR with a re-downloaded version nevertheless
- supervivi bug -> in which case, i can only wait for somebody to post an update

esky-sh:

i tried all possible obvious solutions: 'f' before 'n', 'l' and 'w'; 'x' before 'n', 'l' and 'w'; different nboot, logo, wince images; different PCs; different ports; re-install USB driver with re-downloaded version, etc...

(btw, have you taken note that your user manual is not updated to show the steps related to supervivi 2.0? e.g. the user manual mentions Eboot, not Nboot)

please help in whatever way you can... this is a company project and we're planning to mass produce it afterwards. (and i can't even load wince to it, hahaha!)

ps: i still haven't found out how to "directly run" a wince image (.NB0 format)... is it supposed to be 'd' from the supervivi menu? - that doesn't work in my case...

[esky-sh]

what is your configuration on pc side? windows xp or vista?

[amirshah77]

esky-sh:

i use windows xp. no problem whatsoever with qtopia (transfer images/backup/restore), so i doubt it is a PC OS problem.

btw, could you please answer a few quick questions:

1. how do you "run" a .NB0 image file? (i tried 'd' at supervivi but it doesn't work)

2. why does supervivi download the wince image (e.g. NK_T35_English.bin) to 0x80200000 (RAM?) when the "end address" of the whole system is 0x40000000?

i have thought of an "ultimate solution" for my problem: could you please just "backup" a 128MB mini2440 with wince installed and upload it to your ftp server? i will just download that and do "restore" at my side. at least i can start programming with visual studio.

your help is very much appreciated...

[nicolas]

- With the new supervivi (v2) the option to run a WinCE image (nb0) from ram has been removed. It may be possible to do it manually via the supervivi manual command mode, but I dont know the commands.

- The 'unknown format' error is a direct relation of the image to the supervivi. For whatever reason the new supervivi needs the new wince images, and vice versa.

- Check your DNW configuration options for the 'Download address' I use 0x30000000 but some manuals say otherwise. I havent seen this affect uplods, but it may be related to your address.

- The new supervivi comes with alot of changes, even the chinese manuals dont have updated information.

- The checksum errors note very minor checksum differences, meaning it probably is minor data errors. And you also mentioned freezing of the transfer sometimes. What if the problem is the usb drivers, alot of places make note of using "new" drivers. I used the ones from the dvd. You said you tried several pc's but all signs point to an issue with the transfering of the image.

- Finally, what version of DNW are you using ? I have 0.50A.

[amirshah77]

nicolas:

i have noticed that the 0x30000000 (or 0x32000000) address is used by supervivi when you type 'd'. from my understanding, RAM starts at 0x30000000, but some configuration data are stored at the beginning of RAM, so in some cases you should put your program starting above that address (e.g. 0x32000000).

when you type 'w' however, supervivi simply downloads the wince image to 0x80200000 - i found no setting to change that. i'm curious where this address value comes from, since 0x40000000 is the end address of the system. is it RAM or NAND?

i used DNW 0.50A and the USB driver which comes with the DVD (2009-7-19 update). after encountering the problem, i found this post - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=27 - and updated my USB driver. but no, it's still not working...

i'm still waiting for esky-sh (or maybe you, if you have the time/resource) to upload a "backup" image of wince for mini2440-128MB, which can be directly "restored" to the board. backup/restore (together with qtopia image transfer) work fine for me.

thanks in advance...