*new version* A little zenity-gui for flashing images to the neo

Dale Maggee antisol at internode.on.net
Thu Sep 11 19:13:15 CEST 2008


I'm an idiot, ignore the dict.org link. I pasted it into the email 
accidentally, and I thought I'd deleted it, but apparently not. damn 
HTML-format emails... >:(

Dale Maggee wrote:
> <http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=transmogrification>Ok, 
> so I've been slaving away over my (not so) little script, and it's 
> about time for another release.
>
> Changes
>
> - Utility now has the ability to flash the splash image as per request
>
> - Utility can now also backup your device to flashable rootfs / kernel 
> images (david might like this for building FDOM images)
>
> - Configurification is loaded on startup and saved in /etc/frutil (you 
> can only modify settings if you run it as root)
>
> - more idiot proofing - uses 'which' to find dfu-util, checks to 
> ensure it's being run as root, checks that zenity is installed on the 
> host, checks that you have mkfs.jffs2 installed before backing up, 
> checks that you have pv installed and acts accordingly (by either 
> using it or not during the backup [this is not properly tested because 
> I don't have pv, please report]), and possibly other stuff I've 
> forgotten about.
>
> - new name to reflect the new abilities
>
> Notes:
>
> - I mentioned using dialog instead of zenity for a faster and more 
> consistent text-only interface. I investigated this, but dialog's file 
> selection dialog is so awful that I reconsidered and stuck with 
> zenity. if anybody knows of a decent text-based alternative like 
> dialog but with a better file selection dialog, I'd be interested to 
> hear about it
>
> - I recommend setting up an ssh authorized key before doing the 
> backup, otherwise you'll be prompted multiple times to enter the 
> device's root password. To do this, run 'ssh-keygen' on your host 
> machine and then copy the contents of ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub on your host 
> into /home/root/authorized keys on your device. This also means you 
> don't have to enter your password to ssh anymore.
>
> - I'm taking suggestions for names. I've gone with 'frutil', but 
> 'neotool' also appeals to me. I was calling it 'uberscript' there for 
> a while, but I'm not a big fan of that...
>
> - I'll get around to making a wiki page for this and linking to it 
> from the flash and backup pages, but I won't complain if somebody 
> beats me to it. A copy is available for download at 
> http://users.on.net/~antisol/frutil
>
> Thoughts for future versions / when I have time:
>
> - ability to specify the names of the backup images (currently 
> hardcoded to ./FreeRunner_rootfs_Backup_`date +%Y%m%d%H%M`.jffs2 and 
> ./FreeRunner_Kernel_Backup_`date +%Y%m%d%H%M`.bin)
>
> - ability to bypass the zenity menus via command-line parameters, i.e: 
> frutil --flash kernel ./kernelfile.bin rootfs ./rootfs.jffs
>
> - another method of bypassing menus - you create symbolic links called 
> 'neoflash' and 'neobackup', and the utility checks $0 on start and 
> goes straight to the applicable function, the same way busybox works
>
> - maybe ability to auto-download more things from 
> downloads.openmoko.org, like the latest kernel / image?
>
> - maybe addressbook management? ability to import contacts into the 
> device? to do this I'd have to find a way to determine which distro is 
> installed and act accordingly.
>
> - things people suggest!
> *
> *As always, suggestions, comments, reports of catastrophic failure, 
> beer, job offers, sportscars, and millions of dollars are all 
> appreciated. ;)
>
> enjoy!
>
> -Dale





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