NeoTool - v1.2 available

Dale Maggee antisol at internode.on.net
Sat Nov 1 17:09:49 CET 2008


> nice work!
>   

Thanks
> could i make a feature request? as there is a link on the om site
> pointing to the 'latest' kernel/uboot/rootfs to download, could
> neotool be developed further, to download it and then flash it all in
> one step?
>
> or is this impossible because a long pause (while the file's being
> downloaded) at the uboot screen will cause the neo to carry on
> booting? or is there a way round this, i.e. telling the neo to wait
> for an indefinite amount of time, or tricking it into thinking
> something is happening while the file downloads?
>   
I've had this thought, too - it has occurred to me that a 'download 
latest release' option would be cool...

It's not impossible because of the pause while downloading, I'd just 
make NeoTool download the file before showing the "About to flash, 
Please boot to the menu" message.

There are a few problems, though:

One problem I had was determining where to get the files, and how to 
tell when there's a new release - I'd rather not hard code addresses 
into it, so for this to work there would need to be something like:

http://downloads.openmoko.com/releases/latest/release.jffs2
http://downloads.openmoko.com/releases/latest/kernel.bin

you say "there is a link on the om site pointing to the 'latest' 
kernel/uboot/rootfs to download"... which link are you referring to?

Another issue I had was determining which files to download: I'd need to 
prompt to find out whether to get the GTA01 or GTA02 files.

Alternatively, I guess it would be possible to traverse 
downloads.openmoko.org and present a menu allowing the user to specify 
what to download, but I don't know how to at the moment, and this is 
basically duplicating the functionality of pointing your browser to this 
address, so it seems kind of redundant to me.

In the end I decided not to do it because I figured I'd basically be 
duplicating your browser's functionality, and that I would be better off 
devoting my efforts to more Neo-specific stuff, like adding the ability 
to backup.

If anybody has any other Ideas on how I might go about implementing 
this, I'd love to hear them.

-Dale




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