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

Dale Maggee antisol at internode.on.net
Thu Sep 11 19:00:49 CEST 2008


<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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