Serious problems after failed upgrade

[Tom Yates]

On Tue, 16 Mar 2010, vancel35 wrote:

> After the reboot, I have a few problems, and I'm not sure how to fix it.
>
> 1) the boot menu doesn't come up (aux-power)
> 2) when booted normally, it doesn't recognize the USB connected, and the
> battery doesn't charge.
> 3) I can't start any programs except the terminal. (this means I can't dim
> the backlight to make the battery last longer and gain more time to solve
> this problem)
>
> I have an A6 FreeRunner, and since the "brick" problems were fixed by the
> boot menu, I didn't buy the debug board.
>
> Is there any way to recover my phone?  If I need to buy a debug board, 
> hopefully I'll be able to find one.  If there's something I can do to 
> get it to even get to the boot menu, I'd be happy.

assuming i understand your situation correctly (which i may well not) i 
have done the same thing a few times recently (as a result of 
update-alternatives linking init to busybox) and thanks to the 
dual-boot-environment nature of the freerunner you definitely haven't 
bricked it.  you will need the dfu-util tool to upload a new kernel and 
rootfs, but i assume you have this already; you can get it via the wiki 
if not.

1) get a new flashable kernel (uImage*.bin) and root fs 
(shr-*-rootfs.jffs2) from 
http://build.shr-project.org/shr-unstable/images/om-gta02/

2) disconnect USB cable.

3) boot into NOR flash (power off, hold down AUX, hold down POWER until 
you see the NOR boot screen, release AUX and power).

4) connect USB cable directly between PC and phone; do NOT use a hub. 
use dfu-util to upload the new root fs and kernel images; precise 
incantations can be found at 
http://www.teaparty.net/technotes/openmoko-3.html#Upgrading-the-OS , 
though the filenames are old Om2008 ones, and you will need to substitute 
your new rootfs and uImage files.  if the phone powers off, which it will 
do after about 30s of indolence, repeat step 3.

5) power off, reboot.

note: THIS WILL WIPE OUT ANY CUSTOMISATION YOU HAVE MADE TO YOUR PHONE. 
it will be blank but properly-installed and ready for you to re-customise.

i hope this is of some use, and that i have not misunderstood the problem 
completely.


-- 

   Tom Yates  -  http://www.teaparty.net