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coderofsalvation / electribe-emx-esx-reverse-engineering

projectplaceholder to organize all possible research concerning 'freeing-the-electribe'-attempts
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can a bricked electribe be overwritten/restored with the original flash? #1

Open dired opened 9 years ago

dired commented 9 years ago

Hello! I don't know how to contact you except for here, so I write here. Flashed the firmware today, it was "bricked" before - the display was empty and step-key 16 was blinking. So the blinking step-key 16 indicates a problem while booting the os is a conclusion. Everything is documented here http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=608300#608300 Hope to be of help. It's a great idea to bring a new os to the korg :D

dired commented 9 years ago

Cheers! It doesn't only look like it, it really solved the problem :)

Am 09.10.2014 00:18, schrieb ◬:

So it looks like you solved your problem by reloading the firmware?

--- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/coderofsalvation/electribe-emx-esx-reverse-engineering/issues/1#issuecomment-58437227

coderofsalvation commented 9 years ago

That is good news, I'll mention the info. I think the 3 files represent firmwares of 3 chips, one of them is the DSP (ESX0102D.BDS), one of them the SH-3 processor (ESX0101F.BFS), and of them the samples? (ESX0102D.BSS) I wonder whether the bootloader is a (unflashable) separate chip which always allows brute-force re-flashing of the other chips, because of this chip: http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-10092014-093959am.php This could be good news for minimizing reverse engineering risks.

Would be great to have a person joining this project who's familiar with this kind of stuff (I'm more of a software guy).

coderofsalvation commented 9 years ago

update: I think the ESX010_F.BFS and EMX10_F.BFA are is the firmware for the bootflash chip: http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-10092014-094741am.php

In the screenshot you can see some strings from the firmware-update & test- and filesystem routines ('FAT12','FAT16', 'Complete', 'Update','TURN OFF'). So I guess that file should never be altered, because it could cripple your firmware-update feature.

On the other hand I also see strings like 'Fx Edit1'..but that could be because of the test-routines. I sincerely hope the bootloadercode is not included in the main SH-3 processor code, it would easify things.

eldandy77 commented 8 years ago

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help, Not sure if the problem described above is the same one I am having. Once I turn on the ESX, I get a blank screen, it's kinda frozen, but alive when testing. I've tried lots of things to bring it back to life but nothing. Hope you can help, I made a video about it just in case... Cheers https://youtu.be/W3tG4Q31GdI

dired commented 8 years ago

I saw the video. My solution-tryout from your position on would be (and I think you didnt do that also i dont know how exactly to) to delete the firmware that is currently on it completely. Also you can try to ask in the official forums, I'd certainly recommend that (like i did here http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=608300#608300). As said: I don't know how to really delete the firmware (not updating).

P.S.: Another idea: open the firmware files with a hex-editor, search for the versionnumber, increase it and save the file. Try the firmware update again. If you have changed the right variable, it won't detect your altered firmware as "same version" and update correctly.

coderofsalvation commented 8 years ago

The hexeditor idea sounds good to me as well (use at own risk). The versionnumber is just plain asciitext in the firmware, shouldn't brick anything. As you can see, the bootflash chip works independently from the firmware. So faulty firmware can be overwritten with a new one.

eldandy77 commented 8 years ago

Hi, thank you for the suggestions. I tried changing the version number using a hex editor. I even changed the name of the file. It did not work. It says: No Update - Same Version. it was 101F changed it to 102F. cheers. screen shot 2016-07-29 at 6 57 25 pm

coderofsalvation commented 7 years ago

Hm that's sad :/ So the old firmwares were also not working.. I can't seem to figure out what the problem is. Btw. the factory reset takes a long time..(the keys 1 till 16 will light up as a progress bar).. Im assuming you've waited at least hours for it to complete, but im just mentioning it because i saw you turning off the electribe during the factory reset pretty quick (youtubevideo).