Re: Update APEX for fatted nslu2 (FatSlug)

[Asier <katximan@gmx.net>]

El Domingo 18 Enero 2009, Rod Whitby escribió:

> Note that at the moment, you'll only be able to use 64MB maximum without
> memory problems (you get out of memory errors on USB disk transactions).
>  There's work going on in linux-arm-kernel to fix this, but that's the
> current status.  Search for 'dmabounce' or my email address in the
> kernel bugzilla for details.

Ok, 64 is better than 32 :)

> > How can I upgrade APEX? Is there some kind of HOWTO or precompiled APEX
> > images?
>
> Precompiled APEX images are at http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/kernel/

Thanks, i didn't know that site. I've compiled my own apex in the nslu2 with 
default options but size differs (mine is 48.968 bytes vs 49.096)

> You should be able to flash those directly into the appropriate mtd
> partition (make sure it's not the RedBoot partition, or else you'll
> permanently brick your device).  However, it will need a 16 byte header
> prepended - best to use slugimage to pack a new image and then flash the
> complete image.

Use slugimage? And another 4 hours of installation? Oh, my! I prefer to try 
and make it manually. In the CompileApex page of the nslu2 wiki talks about 
creating the file like this:

(size of apex.bin in decimal 49096 = BFC8 in hexadecimal)

# printf '\x00\x00\xBF\xC8\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00' > 
bfc8.bin

(should'n be \xC8\xBF because of little-endian?)

# cat bfc8.bin apex.bin > new_mtd2.bin
# cat new_mtd2.bin > /dev/mtd2

But also talks about padding with \xff before the last 'cat'. Padding to what 
size?

Thanks
-- 
Asier