getting started with chdk and sx40?

kevcampbell

10

« on: 16 / February / 2013, 07:07:53 »

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hi all

i should be ordering a canon sx40hs come monday, and i want to be prepared come tuesday when the camera should arrive, so i hope to have everything ready and know what to expect when setting up chdk for the first time

i have done quite a bit of reading and watched a couple of videos, so my knowledge so far is basic and i have at least some basic understanding of what will be happening but i still need loads of guidance as i could easily mess things up so i thought it would be better to look for help rather than just risk doing it without help

so i have watched a video by some person called 'nate' on youtube on how to set up chdk and i have also read through this page http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Prepare_your_SD_card

setting up the sd card the firmware way looks easy, but the bootable option looks confusing! and that is where i am mainly lost at, it looks like for the bootable chdk you are limited to a 4gb card? thats the way it looks anyway? and i have a 16gb class 10 sd that i will be using...

as i say, the firmware update options looks fine, but to use chdk if i use that method i have to go to the firmware update screen every time i turn on the camera right? so if i am turning on and off my camera about 5 times in the space of 10 minutes, that could get frustrating, but is that how it works, or have i got it wrong about the firmware update method?

and as for the bootable method, i am totally lost, even reading the wiki page i am still lost as there is so many methods and steps and different text, and i am not blaming the person who created the wiki page, it is indeed my fault i can not understand it, but thats why i hope someone can help me a bit more now that you know my equipment (canon sx40, 16gb class 10 sd card)

that is all i have to write for now, i look forward to the replies

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waterwingz

12138

Re: getting started with chdk and sx40?

« Reply #1 on: 16 / February / 2013, 09:48:29 »

Quote from: kevcampbell on 16 / February / 2013, 07:07:53

so i have watched a video by some person called 'nate' on youtube on how to set up chdk and i have also read through this page

Big Nate does a nice job but he is self-taught and doesn't really participate here so sometimes gets things a little off.

Quote

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Prepare_your_SD_card

You've found the best page - even though its long and complicated.

Quote

setting up the sd card the firmware way looks easy, but the bootable option looks confusing! and that is where i am mainly lost at, it looks like for the bootable chdk you are limited to a 4gb card? thats the way it looks anyway? and i have a 16gb class 10 sd that i will be using...

The SX40 was released in 2011. It will boot just fine from a FAT32 partition and so will work with larger cards and a single partition.

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as i say, the firmware update options looks fine, but to use chdk if i use that method i have to go to the firmware update screen every time i turn on the camera right? so if i am turning on and off my camera about 5 times in the space of 10 minutes, that could get frustrating, but is that how it works, or have i got it wrong about the firmware update method?

You are correct in your understanding.

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and as for the bootable method, i am totally lost, even reading the wiki page i am still lost as there is so many methods and steps and different text, and i am not blaming the person who created the wiki page, it is indeed my fault i can not understand it, but thats why i hope someone can help me a bit more now that you know my equipment (canon sx40, 16gb class 10 sd card)

That page evolve over time and has been updated and rewritten several time. If you look at the start of the section on making a bootable card, there is a link to a new utility that should do everything for you : http://zenoshrdlu.com/stick/stick.html The author of that utility is very active and if you can't get it to work, or have suggestions, he is always looking for feedback.

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Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16

kevcampbell

10

Re: getting started with chdk and sx40?

« Reply #2 on: 16 / February / 2013, 10:02:56 »

hi waterwingz

thanks very much for taking the time to reply

so to begin with i will most likely use the firmware update method until i have had the camera for a couple of days and then i will look into using the bootable chdk method by using 'STICK'...

so when i use STICK will that format my 16gb sd card to FAT32? and if it does indeed, does that mean i will only be able to use 4gb of the 16gb card? i do not know much about FAT16, FAT32 etc so my question may make you laugh, but i have no idea what it means for me if i want to use a 16gb card for the bootable method

hope you understand my post, my writing is not very good in this post, but if you have to question anything i have said please ask and i will answer

thanks again for the reply

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waterwingz

12138

Re: getting started with chdk and sx40?

« Reply #3 on: 16 / February / 2013, 10:09:09 »

Quote from: kevcampbell on 16 / February / 2013, 10:02:56

so when i use STICK will that format my 16gb sd card to FAT32?

Yes - it will recognize your camera as being released after 2010 and format as FAT32.

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and if it does indeed, does that mean i will only be able to use 4gb of the 16gb card?

No - FAT32 allows card sized up to about 16TB IIRC (16000 GB). You will be able to use the whole card. The 4GB limit applies to the older FAT16 format.

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i do not know much about FAT16, FAT32 etc so my question may make you laugh, but i have no idea what it means for me if i want to use a 16gb card for the bootable method

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table

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Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16

countbeats

2

Re: getting started with chdk and sx40?

« Reply #4 on: 17 / February / 2013, 14:06:55 »

the download link for firmware version 1.00I is to megaupload and of course yields only an FBI warning.

Is there an alternative download location?

Thanks

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nafraf

1308

Re: getting started with chdk and sx40?

« Reply #5 on: 17 / February / 2013, 14:40:28 »

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Downloads

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countbeats

2

Re: getting started with chdk and sx40?

« Reply #6 on: 17 / February / 2013, 15:01:08 »

Ok, thanks.

I was looking at the firmware dumps link.

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kevcampbell

10

Re: getting started with chdk and sx40?

« Reply #7 on: 19 / February / 2013, 04:14:00 »

thanks very much again waterwingz for the very helpful reply, i look forward to trying out chdk, i will try to remember to report back with how i got on with installing chdk

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zeno

891

Re: getting started with chdk and sx40?

« Reply #8 on: 19 / February / 2013, 04:32:50 »

Kev

if you use my STICK app, it does everything for you - finds the right build, downloads it, formats the card (if necessary) and makes it bootable. All you have to do is take a photo with your camera, drop it on the STICK window and click a button a few times.

Dave

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A570, S100, Ixus 127
Author of ASSIST, STICK, WASP, ACID, SDMInst, LICKS, WICKS, MacBoot, UBDB, CFGEdit

kevcampbell

10

Re: getting started with chdk and sx40?

« Reply #9 on: 19 / February / 2013, 04:50:36 »

hi Dave

will be sure to test out the stick app, will be trying out the firmware method for the first couple of days of owning the camera, but once i am ready to have the camera boot with chdk already loaded i will be using STICK, i loaded it up on my computer the other day and the app looks very user friendly which should make it easy for me, so i look forward to trying it and reporting back here with how i got on

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