SX100 IS - Firmware Dumping - CHDK Forum

SX100 IS

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SX100 IS
« on: 27 / December / 2007, 17:20:23 »
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Hi all,

From looking at the SX100 page, it looks like some progress has been made towards getting a firmware dump, but that no major progress has been made since the LED addresses were added on 11 Nov. Is anyone on here working on this, and what is the state of things?

I'm interested in working on this too, but don't want to duplicate other peoples efforts unnecessarily.

Thanks!

Re: SX100 IS
« Reply #1 on: 29 / December / 2007, 09:40:43 »
Hi,
I've recently bought the SX100 ... wonderful digicam btw ...
I saw the LED addresses improvements, and thus I was thinking that somebody was working hard on porting CHDK on this camera. And I don't want to duplicate unnecessary steps as well.
Provided that I saw no further improvements since Nov., I started working on obtaining a fw dump (I think I've all the necessary electronics skill) ... but I'm not able to make the camera somehow "boot" from the SD card.  Hanging the camera on a black screen would be an initial success. I tried to put some random CHDK  diskboot.bin, changed the boot sector of the partition HEX value  to BOOTDISK as suggested, but nope ... I'll devote some time to this task during the next days ...
Anyway, let's hope that we will have some critical mass working on the SX100
Cheers,
fiamazo

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Offline mkmenuts

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Re: SX100 IS
« Reply #2 on: 29 / December / 2007, 14:15:57 »
Are you putting the card in "read-only" mode? It is a necessary step.

Re: SX100 IS
« Reply #3 on: 29 / December / 2007, 14:32:46 »
Are you putting the card in "read-only" mode? It is a necessary step.

Hi,
yes sir ...
I followed more or less exactly

http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,17.msg60.html#msg60

and

http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,17.msg305.html#msg305

and

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=25202367

I'm pretty sure that I've understood how to change properly the hex value of the boot sector (look for AA 55, change in ASCII to BOOTDISK, etc.), and locked the card as well ...
BTW, I cannot find the pre_blinker.rar files mentioned in the dpreview entry, does anyone have a spare copy of it?!
Anyway, I keep trying ... maybe my card doesn't work because is a microSD card, adapted to SD ... anyway ...
Please let me know if someone else is going on with the same cam ...
Regards,
fiamazo


Re: SX100 IS
« Reply #4 on: 29 / December / 2007, 23:16:35 »
Brief update. First, I have found that I have a newer version of the firmware than reported on the SX100 wiki page (see page for details). Disappointing that Canon did not release an updater for people with older firmware versions. Hopefully we don't have to port CHDK twice after getting it working with DryOS (presumably that is what lives inside the camera)...

Second, I have got my camera into an infinite loop. I have also confirmed the LED addresses with the program that blinks the LEDs. More importantly, I have compiled the blinker program and watched the AF light blink away. A firmware dump is hopefully not too far away. First I must cook up a simple circuit (I have photocells (aka LDRs), not photodiodes) that outputs a mic level signal.

@fiamazo: you have done all the correct steps, but one detail might be wrong. The address at which you must enter "BOOTDISK" is might not necessarily be where AA 55 occurs. What I did was got to location 0x40 and just enter BOOTDISK, as in this thread:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&thread=24983823&page=1

One other thing I did was to fdisk the card and toggle the bootable flag for the partition on the card. I don't know if this made any kind of difference.
« Last Edit: 30 / December / 2007, 01:18:35 by cleepa »

Re: SX100 IS
« Reply #5 on: 30 / December / 2007, 08:42:45 »
Hi!
Brief update. First, I have found that I have a newer version of the firmware than reported on the SX100 wiki page (see page for details). Disappointing that Canon did not release an updater for people with older firmware versions. Hopefully we don't have to port CHDK twice after getting it working with DryOS (presumably that is what lives inside the camera)...

Second, I have got my camera into an infinite loop. I have also confirmed the LED addresses with the program that blinks the LEDs. More importantly, I have compiled the blinker program and watched the AF light blink away. A firmware dump is hopefully not too far away. First I must cook up a simple circuit (I have photocells (aka LDRs), not photodiodes) that outputs a mic level signal.

Great news, so your camera seems to respond ... Mine has the same fw as stated in the Wikia CHDK SX100 page ... I've only a "lens" error E18 in addition, nothing too bad I hope ...
BTW, I don't know if LDR are fast enough for your purposes ... if I rememeber right they have a response time of something like tens of milliseconds, way too slow for something like some kilobits per seconds as transfer speed ...
Anyway, next week I'll be back @work, where I can easily find all the necessary photodiodes ;-)

Quote
@fiamazo: you have done all the correct steps, but one detail might be wrong. The address at which you must enter "BOOTDISK" is might not necessarily be where AA 55 occurs. What I did was got to location 0x40 and just enter BOOTDISK, as in this thread:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&thread=24983823&page=1

Ok ... I read somewhere that the boot sector was marked by the AA 55 sequence, I'll try with your address ... thanks!

Quote
One other thing I did was to fdisk the card and toggle the bootable flag for the partition on the card. I don't know if this made any kind of difference.

I did the same, with no success ... but I think it's related to the wrong BOOTDISK, plcace ...
Thanks again, I'm so happy that there's some brainstorming around the SX1000 ;-)
Cheers,
fiamazo


EDIT: Great! I "hanged"  the camera in the while loop ... now it's time to make it blink ... fiamazo
« Last Edit: 30 / December / 2007, 08:59:14 by fiamazo »

Re: SX100 IS
« Reply #6 on: 09 / January / 2008, 05:34:28 »
Hi all,
brief update. I have got a dump from the camera using a photodiode. I haven't managed to decode it yet, though. Running adc on it gives a segmentation fault straight away (gdb backtrace shows a memory access error). I do not have time yet to look into why this is happening. Has anyone else seen such a problem? Any suggestions as to what it might be?
Thanks!

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Offline GrAnd

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Re: SX100 IS
« Reply #7 on: 09 / January / 2008, 06:02:44 »
Hi all,
brief update. I have got a dump from the camera using a photodiode. I haven't managed to decode it yet, though. Running adc on it gives a segmentation fault straight away (gdb backtrace shows a memory access error). I do not have time yet to look into why this is happening. Has anyone else seen such a problem? Any suggestions as to what it might be?
Thanks!


How did you execute the adc? It requires the filename as an argument.
CHDK Developer.


Re: SX100 IS
« Reply #8 on: 09 / January / 2008, 06:10:46 »
Hi all,
brief update. I have got a dump from the camera using a photodiode. I haven't managed to decode it yet, though. Running adc on it gives a segmentation fault straight away (gdb backtrace shows a memory access error). I do not have time yet to look into why this is happening. Has anyone else seen such a problem? Any suggestions as to what it might be?
Thanks!


Hi!
I'm stuck at the same point as in december ... I tried to compile (under Linux) the blinker, with some issues, but for now I'm able only the reach the "black screen" point ... so no blink for now .... can you,please, send me (or point me to) your blinker (both  source the binary)? Thanks in advance ....
(I don't want to duplicate your efforts, just trying to play a bit / have another dump)
Cheers,
fiamazo

SX100 IS
« Reply #9 on: 12 / January / 2008, 07:12:05 »
Hello all!

I was searching for you since I got mine SX100 (as a Christmas present)! I somehow knew I am not alone! ;)
Now (today/tomorrow), I will dump the firmware.

My problem was: I totally rewritten everything, but not succeed.
Now, I know because of the Data Abort exception. I tried to write a very simple exception handler, but somehow not working.
Anyway my target now: Before Monday, I would like to dump the firmware...

Mark

 

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