SX110IS - howto start porting - DryOS Development

nomi_68k

13

SX110IS - howto start porting

« on: 26 / December / 2008, 14:19:13 »

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Hi, I'm a newbie of CHDK with some knowledge of assembly (but not ARM assembly

).
I did the dump of the firmware of my SX110IS and I disassembled it with IDA, helped by some sigs and idc.
The problem is that I can't find in all the wiki a full and well structured tutorial on how to proceed with the porting of CHDK.

Can someone help me with a good link?

Until now I found the first two parameters for the porting of CHDK on this camera:

char *hook_raw_image_addr()
{
   //Found at ROM:FFE60B00
   // ROM:FFE60B50 LDR R6, =0x10805040
   // ...
   // ROM:FFE60BA8 MOV R1, R6
   // ROM:FFE60BAC ADR R0, aCrawBuffP ; "CRAW BUFF %p"


   return (char*)0x10805040;
}

long hook_raw_size()
{
   // Found at ROM:FFE60B00
   // ROM:FFE60BB4 LDR R1, =0xEC04F0
   // ROM:FFE60BB8 ADR R0, aCrawBuffSizeP ; "CRAW BUFF SIZE %p"
   // ROM:FFE60BBC BL sub_FFCE7000

   return 0xEC04F0;
}

Thanks for any help.

=============
My camera info is:
--------------------------
Canon PowerShot SX110 IS
P-ID:3192 PAL D

Firmware Ver GM1.00B
NoError
Jun 25 2008 15:08:34
---------------------------
Adj Ver.009.006

IS Firm Ver. 3.00
IS Param Ver. 3.00
---------------------------

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ewavr

1057
A710IS

Re: SX110IS - howto start porting

« Reply #1 on: 26 / December / 2008, 15:42:22 »

Quote from: nomi_68k on 26 / December / 2008, 14:19:13

long hook_raw_size()
{
return 0xEC04F0;
}

14 bit RAW?

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reyalp

14082

Re: SX110IS - howto start porting

« Reply #2 on: 26 / December / 2008, 20:20:06 »

Quote from: nomi_68k on 26 / December / 2008, 14:19:13

Hi, I'm a newbie of CHDK with some knowledge of assembly (but not ARM assembly ).
I did the dump of the firmware of my SX110IS and I disassembled it with IDA, helped by some sigs and idc.
The problem is that I can't find in all the wiki a full and well structured tutorial on how to proceed with the porting of CHDK.

Can someone help me with a good link?

Nope. Assuming you've already found For Developers - CHDK Wiki no better link exists. Nor is one likely to appear, because step by step tutorials aren't a substitute for understanding.

If you cannot figure out what you need to do based on examining the current sources and pages found under For Developers - CHDK Wiki you need to study them further or give up. Basically, you have to make everything under loader and platform for your camera, as described in Adding support of a new camera. You can refer to existing ports to verify that you've correctly identified the corresponding things in your port, and to understand what those files do in the first place. There is no short cut, you have to actually understand how CHDK works to make a successful port. The best place to get this understanding is from the source. That's a lot of work, but only a small part of the effort needed to get your port running.

This thread: How does CHDK start running may help you get started.

If you are unfamiliar with ARM architecture and assembler, refer to the excellent documentation available freely from ARM. There's links to the most pertinent documents in Developer Technical Documents. Assuming you have sufficient general understanding of assembler and computer architecture, you can easily teach yourself everything you need to know about ARM from there.

If you have specific questions about particular aspects CHDK, there are people here who will gladly answer them.

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PhyrePhoX

2254
make RAW not WAR

Re: SX110IS - howto start porting

« Reply #3 on: 28 / December / 2008, 07:42:00 »

you should also read the huge thread about the g9 porting (for example, there are more similar threads for different cameras)

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nomi_68k

13

Re: SX110IS - howto start porting

« Reply #4 on: 02 / January / 2009, 08:56:13 »

Quote from: ewavr on 26 / December / 2008, 15:42:22

14 bit RAW?

The SX100IS digicam has:
long hook_raw_size()
{
return 0x9DCCE0;
}

It's a 8Mpixels, so .... 10 bit RAW???

I don't know...

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nomi_68k

13

Re: SX110IS - howto start porting

« Reply #5 on: 02 / January / 2009, 09:16:24 »

Quote from: reyalp on 26 / December / 2008, 20:20:06

Nor is one likely to appear, because step by step tutorials aren't a substitute for understanding.

I hope to be able to explain my point without misunderstanding due to my bad english.
I know that you are right about the necessity to understand all the process. And I know that all GPL software are done by the efforts of volunteers with no obligation.
So I'm really grateful to all of you.
But.... hey boys.... this is the most hard way!

In my perspective, a tutorial could be useful only to organize some little information as:
1) The list of functions that anyone must find into a disassembled firmware;
2) The list of hardware pointers (leds, keyboard,free RAM ecc..)

Anyway, why I can find only few IDA database (idb) of disassembled firmware? For example it will be useful for me to find the SX100IS firmware fully disassembled.

Thanks again and happy new year!

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ewavr

1057
A710IS

Re: SX110IS - howto start porting

« Reply #6 on: 02 / January / 2009, 09:38:42 »

Quote from: nomi_68k on 02 / January / 2009, 08:56:13

It's a 8Mpixels, so .... 10 bit RAW???

Yes, 10 bit RAW for all CHDK ported cameras.

Quote

Anyway, why I can find only few IDA database (idb) of disassembled firmware?

Do it yourself in 10-20 minutes from dump using IDA scripts and signatures for CHDK (Loading dump to IDA - CHDK Wiki).

Quote

For example it will be useful for me to find the SX100IS firmware fully disassembled.

Maybe not only SX100, but also A650, A720 (it seems that these CHDK ports are complete and bug-free).

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nomi_68k

13

Re: SX110IS - howto start porting

« Reply #7 on: 02 / January / 2009, 10:16:43 »

Quote from: ewavr on 02 / January / 2009, 09:38:42

Yes, 10 bit RAW for all CHDK ported cameras.

Sorry, I can't understand:
10 bits for every channel (R, G and B) for a total of 30 bits or a total of 10 bits?
In the second case is the sensor able to record 1024 colours only??

Thanks

« Last Edit: 02 / January / 2009, 10:29:52 by nomi_68k »

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fudgey

1705
a570is

Re: SX110IS - howto start porting

« Reply #8 on: 02 / January / 2009, 11:09:39 »

Quote from: nomi_68k on 02 / January / 2009, 10:16:43

10 bits for every channel (R, G and B) for a total of 30 bits or a total of 10 bits?
In the second case is the sensor able to record 1024 colours only??

10 bits for each channel, but we don't have RGB pixels; it's a Bayer matrix: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter.

And the sensor is analog, there's just usually too much noise in point&shoot cameras to bother using more than 10 bits (considering more bits require more processing power and memory i.e. time and money) so Canon doesn't even though the A/D converter in some schematic snippet was actually a 12-bit chip.

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reyalp

14082

Re: SX110IS - howto start porting

« Reply #9 on: 02 / January / 2009, 22:13:15 »

Quote from: nomi_68k on 02 / January / 2009, 09:16:24

In my perspective, a tutorial could be useful only to organize some little information as:
1) The list of functions that anyone must find into a disassembled firmware;
2) The list of hardware pointers (leds, keyboard,free RAM ecc..)

If you look through an existing ports platform/<camera>/sub/<firmware version>/*.S these things are pretty obvious. See also include/lowlevel.h and platform/generic/*, and be sure you understand Signature finder - CHDK Wiki
The list of addresses you want is right there, and unlike a tutorial, it's never out of date!

You need to understand these things anyway. If you don't have the time/skill/energy to understand this part of CHDK, you won't make a successful port.

Quote

Anyway, why I can find only few IDA database (idb) of disassembled firmware? For example it will be useful for me to find the SX100IS firmware fully disassembled.

For any camera with a dump available, load the bin, apply the vxworks or dryos FLIRT, run the idc scripts. I suggest doing this with all the reference firmwares, and whatever camera is most similar to your own. You can also work backwards from the sig_ref*.txt or stubs_entry.S/stubs_entry_2.s from any camera.

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