0xFFFF/doc/faq2

<b>FAQ</b>

This file tries to collect a bunch of common questions/answers about flashing


<b>*) Why implement a free software flasher?</b>

  The Nokia Internet Tablets are based on Free Software (software libre), but
  not everything included *is* free software, for instance, the firmware flasher
  tool.

  The 0xFFFF project aims to feed the minds of those who really want to
  understand how these gadgets work internally, free the knowledge to
  avoid the restrictions and fill the lack of information on the most
  important part of the system.

  That's it, now you can build and run this flasher on *BSD, w32, MacOSX on ARM,
  powerpc, x86, mips, etc...


<b>*) Can I brick my device?</b>

  Of course! You're free to do what you want with your device :)

  Seriously. Flashing a device is not a safe thing, so I give no warranty
  of what will happen to your device when using this tool.

  BTW, after a huge number of tests I can say that these devices are hard
  to brick, but if you are scared about bricking your device you should
  use the flasher provided by Nokia, it's better for your heart's health.


<b>*) What can I do with 0xFFFF?</b>

  Actually 0xFFFF allows you to:
  
  - flash separated pieces of the firmware.
  - retrieve information about the device
  - reboot de mother board
  - extract the current firmware pieces from the device (reverse flash)
  - set the USB host/slave mode
  - set the R&R mode
  - identify firmware pieces


<b>*) What is NOLO?</b>

  NOLO is the 'server-side' part of the flasher from Nokia. NOLO means
  NOkia LOader and it's composed by two pieces of the firmware that are
  flashed together.

  On the n800 firmwares, these two pieces are distributed in a single
  file, but when flashing a 770, NOLO requires to provide the xloader
  (without commiting) and then the secondary piece.

  This piece of software is closed source and is the responsable of
  handling the requests from the client-side flasher. It provides a
  query-like interface via usb control messages for doing different
  actions on the device.


<b>*) How can I identify my device?</b>

  Theorically 770 and n800 have different USB device ID, but this is not
  true at all. The first series of the n800 comes with the same usb-id 
  than 770. That's weird!

  So, the only way to identify the device is by asking nolo for the version
  information of different pieces of the firmware. This can be faked, because
  you can flash 770 stuff on n800 and viceversa, but it's not recommended
  because it wouldn't work :)


<b>*) Can I unpack fiasco blobs?</b>

  Actually the fiasco format is not yet supported and not planned in
  short term. There is no real need for supporting a proprietary
  format image containing a proprietary system.

  We can just use tarballs containing the desired pieces.