<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>Am 09.02.2012 um 17:49 schrieb Sven Dyroff:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><font size="3">> Sven Did you formatt sd card with 2 partitions then
place "MLO" and "U-Boot" on the correct parts of the
SD(just confirm this is correct)</font>
<br><font size="3">> MLO has to be the first file copied when I tried
this it only showed up as "Lost and Found" file on the card,would
be nice to see these files</font>
<br><font size="3">> first. </font>
<br>
<br><font size="2" face="sans-serif">Yes, of course I did. Otherweise I would
not get anything, right?</font>
<br>
<br><font size="3">> I understand the gta04 is "Unbrickable"--how
true is this? </font>
<br>
<br><font size="3">Sorry, I cannot get any translation into German for the
word "unbrickable". What is the question?</font>
<br></blockquote></div><br><div>Well, this is some insider term. When trying to port Linux to some PDA or Smartphone</div><div>it may happen that this makes the device unuseable, i.e. a big brick (or paperweight).</div><div><br></div><div>Even if the hardware is 100% ok. Defective hardware (e.g. ESD or other overvoltage)</div><div>is something different.</div><div><br></div><div>The reason is that on some devices it is possible to overwrite the bootloader in</div><div>a way that you can no longer install another one. This means it may be alsmost</div><div>or really impossible to bring the device back to life. I.e. it does no longer boot.</div><div><br></div><div>For example, I have a netbook where the bootloader is preinstalled in flash memory</div><div>through JTAG. And unless I manage to build a JTAG adapter and software it is</div><div>not possible to restore the firmware.</div><div><br></div><div>Now, the GTA04 is "un-briackable". This means you can't destroy the boot loader</div><div>logic in a way that you never can't restore it. Usually, the boot loader is in ROM and</div><div>on the SD card. I.e. you just reformat your SD and install the software.</div><div><br></div><div>For U-Boot in NAND, it is slightly different. It is possible to install a damaged</div><div>boot loader and since NAND is checked before the SD card boot, the device</div><div>may no longer boot and you can't modify the NAND flash again.</div><div><br></div><div>And here come the brilliant engineers of TI. They allow to boot through RS232.</div><div>By this mechanism you can always load a U-Boot and then erase whatever</div><div>you want in NAND.</div><div><br></div><div>A description can be found here:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><a href="http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/page/SerialBoot/">http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/page/SerialBoot/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Nikolaus</div></body></html>