Firmware upgrade using Linux tool, requires no hardware

[Lied]

I finally prefer to do it myself and after several mistake on unbuntu and the brick of my monitor ( that wasn't funny at all) the power button turn orange and as i restarted it, it wasn't working anymore .but it still was a little warm so i thought it wasn'st dead and had confirmation someone in the forum had the problem .

So that to said if you brick it don't panic it can be undone , i did it and complete noob on unbuntu so thanks everybody who post and lead me to the right direction i'm in v2 and enjoy my monitor as it should .

To avoid mistakes for others i removed my laptop's driver of the gpu as well as the chipset and that lead me to the brick so just don't remove your laptop chipset ( intel) driver you'll make the mistake and the flash won't work simply because the vga was in i2c1 position instead of 10 .
then i had to reflash it several time in the good way didn't understand why it didint work properly as i followed step by step the method but with patience it did paid !

Je filerais un coup de main a tous les francophones qui n'ont pas peur de briquer leur ecran tout neuf

[Vaselkov]

I can't get v2 firmware version monitor in my country. So there are two options: wait when they have v2 or buy with v1.
I read in 5th page instructions about flashing and it looks so complicated. I am good with windows, but looking at linux codes gives me headache. I can't understand a thing. And then you don't understand, it is scary to flash that way.
So my question is:

Anyone working on Linux "auto firmware flashing" on Z series monitors? Or maybe very detailed guide for newbies?

Buying MSTAR upgrader is not an option. That kit cost way too much.

[pipomolo42]

Anyone working on Linux "auto firmware flashing" on Z series monitors?

Nope, and I don't think it's a good idea, given how many reports we have of people who had to try multiple times, using different laptops, graphic cards or drivers, before succeeding. Providing an automated tool would only give a false impression that "nothing can go wrong".

At least, by only providing the "manual" instructions, we allow you to train yourself a bit, in the event something goes wrong

[RonsonPL]

A couple of "V2 noob" questions:

- Do I need to read ALL the pages in this thread before trying?
- Is instruction updated, or important corrections to it, are in the posts in this thread?
- Is there a list, anywhere, containing the info about compatible hardware? I have borrowed a laptop with NVIDIA MCP79MVL chipset, Asus X50GL. Will it work? If not. Can I use a grapchics card GTX260? It seams it has two D-Sub outputs in it's DVI connectors. I don't have any display that has digital port, but I have a few old CRTs with D-Sub (VGA), so which Linux should I use and will I be able to use dual-display from LiveCD? If not, it'll be easier just to go and borrow another laptop.

PS. Is there any info about problems with V3? I plan to flash this one.
PPS. XL2411Z bought in august 2014 and still V1. Damnnn...

[RonsonPL]

edit: I got further, so this just wastes space in the thread. Deleting.

[pipomolo42]

I just rebased the patch against the latest revision, it should apply without issues.

You can check the patch's md5 sum using:

Code: Select all

wget -qO- http://boeglin.org/static/benq/0001-Add-programmer-for-the-MSTAR-I2C-ISP-protocol.patch | md5sum

which should return 5d51dd882899c629118eb84a59a68a12.

Also, you can use

Code: Select all

svn co svn://flashrom.org/flashrom/trunk@1846 flashrom

to make sure that the intended revision is retrieved.

[RonsonPL]

edit: I got further, so this just wastes space in the thread. Deleting.

[RonsonPL]

Code: Select all

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom/flashrom/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49 -c "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" -w firmware.bin
flashrom v0.9.7-r1846 on Linux 3.13.0-32-generic (i686)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Info: Will try to use device /dev/i2c-0 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... Erase/write done.
Verifying flash... VERIFIED.

Everything great, right?
Not quite.
BRICKED

No power diode, nothing. It's like I don't plug in the power cable. Just great.


edit:
Tried again:

Code: Select all

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/flashrom/flashrom/flashrom$ sudo ./flashrom -p mstarddc_spi:dev=/dev/i2c-0:49 -c "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" -w firmware.bin
flashrom v0.9.7-r1846 on Linux 3.13.0-32-generic (i686)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Info: Will try to use device /dev/i2c-0 and address 0x49.
Info: WILL reset the device at the end.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E" (2048 kB, SPI) on mstarddc_spi.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Erasing and writing flash chip... 
Warning: Chip content is identical to the requested image.
Erase/write done.

Identical? What does it mean? Can I restore this monitor or not?

[RonsonPL]

I've noticed the user Shinjed's post about the same result. No more word from him since then. I'd really like to know if he was able to restore his monitor and if I'll be able to.


edit: I tried V2 instead of V3 file, and it still says the firmware is identical to the one I attempt to write, and it aborts because of that.


edit: Arrrrrgggh!!!
Reverted to backup (V1) - monitor returned to the living world.
Flashed V2 instead of V3 and... THE SAME. Again - no power diode, no nothing.


EDIT:

I got it! Another PC, another cable, but... another resolution and at a higher one text was not wrapped.
I interpreted the unpacking command as ONE, and there are TWO lines.

Code: Select all

tr '\000' '\377' < /dev/zero | dd of=v3.bin bs=1k count=2k
dd if=XL2411ZV3.BIN of=v3.bin conv=notrunc

Big thanx, pipomolo42! Too bad you weren't online while I was wasting a whole night trying to flash incomplete file.

BTW. What is this? Why it is done by two commands?
What TR and DD comands do exacly? At least I'll learn something about the Linux. Please answer.

[pipomolo42]

Code: Select all

tr '\000' '\377' < /dev/zero | dd of=v3.bin bs=1k count=2k
dd if=XL2411ZV3.BIN of=v3.bin conv=notrunc

BTW. What is this? Why it is done by two commands?
What TR and DD comands do exacly? At least I'll learn something about the Linux. Please answer.

"tr '\000' '\377' < /dev/zero | dd of=v3.bin bs=1k count=2k":
- /dev/zero is a pseudo-device that outputs an endless stream of 0x00 bytes
- "tr '\000' '\377'" is a command that replaces bytes with octal value 000 (hex 0x00) by bytes with octal value 377 (hex 0xff)
- "<" makes tr use /dev/zero as its input.
- "dd of=v3.bin bs=1k count=2k" reads 2k blocks of 1k bytes from input, and writes them to v3.bin file
- "|" redirects the output of tr to the input of dd

This line simply creates a 2MB file filled with 0xff bytes. 0xff if the "default" value of a non-written or recently erased flash, not 0x00.

"dd if=XL2411ZV3.BIN of=v3.bin conv=notrunc":
- read from XL2411ZV3.BIN and write to v3.bin. "conv=notrunc" tells dd not to truncate v3.bin if the input file is shorter that its 2MB