Backing up and Restoring your ROM on the e740*

By PepeGG and Ctitanic

Back up your current ROM (portions courtesy of https://lesswire.info/genio)

·         OSLoader can be downloaded here.

OSLoader doesn't support saving to a memory card, but it allows to save the 32MB of the ROM in 8 chunks of 4MB each which can be copied separately to a memory card or directly to the PC.

 

Copy OSLoader over to the e740 and run it. Go to

Tools -> Flash -> 32MB Save to files....

Tap OK on the warning message and it will save the first 4MB chunk. Then it will stop and you can copy the first segment over to your memory card or PC. OSLoader saves each segment in the root directory -  \ (My Device) and not in \My Documents. OS loader will prompt you to press OK when you are ready to save the next segment.  If your device is low on extra RAM, you should copy the segment out of the root directory to another location for later use. You can switch over to File Explorer and save the current segment in the desired location, or you can copy the file using Explorer from your PC.  Once you have saved the segment you can delete it on the E740 to make room for the next portion. Then press 'OK' to save the next chunk. Repeat this until you have saved all 8 chunk files on your PC.

Note: always tap the 'OK' button only once even if you doesn't see any response. The program buffers all taps on OK and therefore would not stop after saving the next chunk.

The saved 8 files contain a complete uncompressed binary image of the ROM and need to be combined to be useful. Open a command prompt window from the Start menu on your PC and combine them into one big file by typing (cut and paste works too) on a single line the following:

copy /B flash_00000000.bin + flash_00400000.bin + flash_00800000.bin + flash_00c00000.bin  + flash_01000000.bin  + flash_01400000.bin  + flash_01800000.bin + flash_01c00000.bin  ROM_Image.rom /B

You must type the whole command on a single line. Or copy & paste this line into a single line batch file and execute it. In any case the resulting file ROM_Image.ppcrom should have exactly 32MB (33,554,432 bytes) afterwards. You can compress it again if you like. Copy it to a safe place somewhere on your PC.

Prune and Restore your ROM

Once the backup is ready you need to delete the extra space at the end of the file (remember that MS ROM is only 24 MB.).

Open the file with a Hex Editor (Hexedit.exe works, look for it at Google) and starting from the end of the file highlight all the memory locations that contain FF and delete them:

 

The FF in the original 32 MB file start at 0184 0000h.

After that you have to delete the OSloader from the beginning of the ROM file. For that we will have t

o, starting from the beginning of the file, look for this point where you can see clearly these words: Accelent Systems.

Once you found this scroll around 5 pages down to the point illustrated below:

This is the same than to delete from 0000 0000h to 0003 FFFFh from the original 32MB ROM image.

Highlight everything starting from the above point up to the Start of the file and delete it. After that save the file with this name KERNEL.nb0

If everything is correct you should have these files in your PC.

Warning: if the length of your file is not 25,165,824 bytes something is wrong and you have to go back and do it again.

Kernel Restore (Install) Process.

Once you have the KERNEL.nb0 file all you need to do is to copy this file to a CF card (the FAT should be FAT16), put the CF on your PDA and while holding down the buttons Task and Home (two mid buttons) do a soft reset. You will see a progress bar at the bottom of e740 screen. Do not interrupt the process.

When it's finished do a soft reset, and you will have your new ROM up (The OS update will delete all your RAM).  The boot loader can be upgraded in the same way but the file should be a binary file called boot.bin (the boot loader update wont delete your RAM). A detailed description of this procedure can be found in this document.

Warning: all this process is not covered by Toshiba's warranty. If something goes wrong you are the only one responsible. Do not blame on me. I have done this without problems but I can't warranty that you will have the same happy end. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE RESPONSIBLE.

Also, I'm not responsible for the use of this information. I have posted it here just to show that it's possible to backup and restore the ROM so I believe is possible to install Linux in this PDA.

 * the ROM version number has this format X.XXYY.ZZZZ

where:

X.XX = Bootloader Version
YY = OS version
ZZZZ = Language Version

0409: WWW(World Wide English)
0407: German
040C: French
0410: Italian
040A: Spanish

0411: Japanese.

 Before trying to load any ROM with a different bootloader version you should do a backup of your ROM. I have seen users with a brick as a pda just becuase an old bootloader version does not work with a new Kernel so the PDA is not bootable anymore.

All this information can be checked in this document found in one of Toshiba TechSupport sites ;)

About the latest update from Toshiba for e740s (1.0623.0409) (05/23/2003)

Toshiba released this ROM update with a little USB installation utility that wont work for people with Windows NT 4 which does not support USB. For those people the only choice is to install the ROM using a CF card using the above described procedure. If you want to use the CF card procedure you will need the KERNEL.nb0 (version 23) file and the boot.bin file. The kernel should be installed first (unless you have the boot loader version 1.05). To install the boot.bin just copy this file to your  CF card and repeat the same procedure used to install the Kernel. 

In my opinion the update procedure using the CF card is safer than the USB one, no wonder it's the one used by Toshibas Technicians

Some information for e750s owners (Information from BrightHand Forum)

There are some differences between the 2002 and 2003 ROM. Both roms have different bootloarders, The 2k2 bootloader won't load 2k3 when reflashed with it, and the 2k3 bootloader won't load 2k2 when flashed with it.

The e755 2k2 rom starts at 08 0000 and the rom on the e755 2k3 rom starts at 04 0000, however both bootloaders  end at 03 FFFF.


The 2k3 rom is much bigger. The 2k2 rom can be pared down to 24 megs or so, but the 2k3 rom takes about 31 megs.

In the case of the Toshiba e750 the boot.bin should be renamed to EBOOT.nB0

 

The EBOOT.NB0 for 2003 is 262,144 bytes exactly.

 

The KERNEL.NB0 for 2003 is 32,505,856 bytes exactly.

 

Here is the How to provided by jmbneaf about how to prepare a Windows Mobile 2003 backup copy from a Toshiba e750s:

 

OK here is my how to:

- 1st obtain the 8 ROM images (see the above description in this page)

- 2nd make the composite ROM file as detailed above in this page.

- 3rd make two backup copies of the 32 mb file

- 4th using HEXEDIT - trim everything below 0004 0000 this should leave a 256k file - 262144 bytes - save this as EBOOT.NB0

- 5th on the second backup 32 mb file - trim everything above 0004 000 - then trim everything below 01f0 0000 from whats left over - this should leave a 31 mb file, 32,505,856 bytes - save this file as KERNEL.NB0

- 6th now flash the boot loader as detailed here: https://www.pc-counselor.com/binfiles/TI02_065.PDF

NOTE instead of being named BOOT.BIN use the file you made in step 4 - EBOOT.NB0

- 7th soft-reset you should now see 2.00.0409 apprear briefly then it will go to 1.0505.0409 and boot into PPC2002

- 8th now flash the ROM again as detailed here: using the KERNEL.NB0 file
 

You can find more information (including how to change the splash boot screen) in BrightHand Forum.

 

 ;)

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