Our developers here at the Forum have done a lot of work for the good of the community. As Scotty1024 pointed out, they are constantly walking the thin line between managing to get something done and risking a bricked Iliad.

With this Poll, I'd like to find out how many of us here would be willing to shell out some cash to help a developer who bricked his/her Iliad while trying to make it better for all of us...
As far as I know, the most expensive service package fro the Iliad is 75€. If enough people participate, this price could easily be paid through donations...or so I believe. With this kind of safety net, maybe one developer could try something he wouldn't dare otherwise and thus perhaps make a breakthrough discovery...who knows.
The exact terms for this whole deal would of course still have to be decided.

Thanks.

looks good so far...:-)

How about some more concrete planning...how would you like to see this handled?
Wait for somebody to brick their Iliad and then just paypal the money there? Set up a "community account" where funds are pooled until needed (if they are ever needed)?

I'd also like to hear from arivero, antartica, design256, Scotty1024 and other developers what they think.

Thanks.

Don't worry about me, I'm thinking I may need to buy a second iLiad so I can see what iRex is doing to the poor thing with each update. :)

Speaking of which, if anyone has the raw patch file for iRex's [SHELL] hack I'd appreciate it if they could shoot it my way.

Speaking of which, if anyone has the raw patch file for iRex's [SHELL] hack I'd appreciate it if they could shoot it my way.
Would you be mad if it looked exactly like your SHELL patch? :D I could of course have done it several different ways, but yours looked like the quick and easy route.
I'd like to acknowledge you for writing it. Sorry about not asking permission, but I was in a hurry and you've not been responsive of my emails lately. If you disapprove, I'll change the package of course. Just let me know.

On-topic: please note that the offer of sending your device (at your cost) to iRex Headquaters in Eindhoven for de-bricking in this context still stands. We all hope that is not needed of course, but just so you know; it might be a tad cheaper than going via regular support channels.

Sorry Matthijs but all the pain and suffering in my email was drowning out the "We're still trying to figure out how to work with you"'s from Eindhoven.

And as you and CommanderROR both haven't figured out, its the pain and suffering of others that drives me more than any concerns about my own iLiad. I just shelled out $$ from my pocket because it had to be done for me to be legal in working up a non-RPN calculator for the iLiad. Many would have just said "Tough luck kid" and moved on to other things.

If the debate in Eindhoven is over please email me specifics.

Otherwise please entertain my offer: kernel tar ball and for your 5 minute investment you get:

A. Deniable bluetooth (if its broke you need to talk to Scotty not us)
B. sandman.sh and the modprobe to go with it.
C. Enhanced frame buffer perceptual dynamics.

And that's just in the first 2 weeks.

You can also invest a tar ball of poppler and get back some jaw dropping enhancements in page rendering speed and image quality.

You know the email address, just set the subject line to "OK, dazzle us." :)

Would you be mad if it looked exactly like your SHELL patch? .

no, I wouldn't :)

@scotty1024

I wish you all the luck with your requests...you're going to need it...:-)

As for the donation offer...it's nice to hear that you're not worried about your own account...but the offer was intended for all developers who might need to get an unbrick done... :scholar:

:scholar: you asked for feedback and put my name on the list. :scholar:

sure...sorry.
I did include you in the list (because I thought you might be interested in the "offer") and your statement was fully justified...bit of an "almost misunderstanding" there... :rolleyes5

no, I wouldn't :)

I think he was referring to my sed script for applying the hack. :D

Good to see you back, I was beginning to worry about you needing CommanderROR's pool money.

If you need any advice with applying the various iLiad hacks to gnuchess just drop me a PM. You've got a good start there but some people seem to be getting a bit anxious about how to get out of the app once they start it. I'm guessing they don't think its funny to have to slide the power switch. :)

I wish you all the luck with your requests...you're going to need it...:-)

I rate the odds as low as well, which is why I've been hacking away!

Sylpheed-Claws really wants a keyboard for those longer email responses.

I think he was referring to my sed script for applying the hack. :D

Good to see you back, I was beginning to worry about you needing CommanderROR's pool money.


Fortunately my Iliad is still in great health - but my job is keeping me busy around the clock so not much time for hacking. I've been trying to get Perl ported, but it's proving to be a bit of a pig...

I'm just the tiniest bit disappointed that my workaround for 2.8 won't be necessary now - but very glad also that they've finally accepted our requests and opened up shell access. Interested also to see that they've left it as root access. I wonder if this will continue post-2.8...



If you need any advice with applying the various iLiad hacks to gnuchess just drop me a PM. You've got a good start there but some people seem to be getting a bit anxious about how to get out of the app once they start it. I'm guessing they don't think its funny to have to slide the power switch. :)

It's just a case of time once again... I promise to fix this before releasing anything else :)


As for unbricking, like Scotty, I consider that if I brick my Iliad, it's my own stupid fault. Perhaps there will come a time when one of us volunteers to test a particularly difficult community effort - and then it would be great to have a safety net.

Something like "improved batery life through Suspend Mode..."

:scholar: :deal: :scholar:

Eindoven and I swapped email this morning.

I pretty sure I have the de-brick for developers thing figured out so developers can self de-brick with no trips to a developer system back at iRex HQ. We'll have to work out warranty issues as it involves opening the unit but will de-brick from any kind of software screw up and should be affordable for developers to purchase.

They supplied enough information to get me going full speed on Bluetooth kernel and poppler development. We'll see what turns up with Sandman (my code name for deep sleep.) I need more information, we'll see what they can supply.

Based on the information I got about Poppler I spent some $$$ this morning to buy a can of whoop ass and I'll be pouring it into poppler this weekend. PDF's are about to get much better on the iLiad.

By the way, I'm flattered that everyone wants them to hire me, and they'd hire me if they could. Unfortunately my feet are allergic to the wood they use to make the shoes over there. :D

Very interesting news.

I hope sandman will spare you, so you can work all night. :)

And i agree, you should not work for iRex. That would take all the fun out of it :) And then you would have to do what they want you to do.

And for the allergies, there are some very good homoeopathic drugs (are they called drugs?) available. And you will need those spacey shoes, when you have walked all the way from Washington to Eindhoven while reading on an iLiad with Sandman 1.0 running.

P.S.: I am very interested in that debricking option. Cant wait to hear more.

Interesting developments!
I'm impressed at scotty's ability to work on so many projects at a time.

Pretty soon irex will have to work to catch up with scotty's improvements.

Looking forward to the improved pdf viewer!

Quad core brain? :scholar:

P.S.: I am very interested in that debricking option. Cant wait to hear more.

We'll see, they are understandably reluctant to commit quickly to it. They still hope to get DRM on the platform some day... and something like this could provide a little too much access.

It definitely rocked them back on their heels when I told 'em I had my own JTAG debugger. Which I fortunately haven't had to use yet, the thing is a pain in the ass to setup.

I've offered my help with the more conventional re-flash tool they've been working on. The one where it can reload the unit from a MMC/CF card so long as you haven't bricked the unit too well.

I've been here before, the team in place has been struggling valiantly for months, they're soooo close!!! Just a few more issues to iron out that they just can't get ironed... then this guy from Seattle shows up and effortlessly codes a solution in a day.

They never know whether to hug me or shoot me.

I pretty sure I have the de-brick for developers thing figured out so developers can self de-brick with no trips to a developer system back at iRex HQ. We'll have to work out warranty issues as it involves opening the unit but will de-brick from any kind of software screw up and should be affordable for developers to purchase.

I hope you will be able to disclose this info, particularly if it involves the specifics of the internal connector. The "from any kind of software" amazes me. Does it mean, even if the console does not launch? :blink:

An skillfull engineer can open the machine without marks, as the difference between my pictures of the internals and the pictures of snoopy show.

I've offered my help with the more conventional re-flash tool they've been working on. The one where it can reload the unit from a MMC/CF card so long as you haven't bricked the unit too well.

Your time is more valuable in other efforts. This one (rewritting of the script that is executed after boot and before init, I guess) seems a task for them.

I still wonder why they don't have a boot loader which has the ability to download new images to the flash. Didn't they want that or did they just use a boot loader that came from their OEM?
Something like this would make the iLiad nearly unbrickable. (unless you would update the bootlader, but how often has that to be done under normal conditions.)

Unfortunately my feet are allergic to the wood they use to make the shoes over there. :D
And if you fsck up the shoes aren't wood but concrete :)

(However, If you've never been to the Netherlands: they have a relaxed but professional and straight-talking way of working, good health- and social-care and most of them are very nice people. I always feel very comfortable doing business with them. Or work remotely.)

I hope you will be able to disclose this info, particularly if it involves the specifics of the internal connector. The "from any kind of software" amazes me. Does it mean, even if the console does not launch? :blink:

An skillfull engineer can open the machine without marks, as the difference between my pictures of the internals and the pictures of snoopy show.



Your time is more valuable in other efforts. This one (rewritting of the script that is executed after boot and before init, I guess) seems a task for them.

If I can put the deal together it definitely won't involve any public disclosure except for "If you want to develop for the iLiad and want a self recovery ability, go to this URL with your VISA card in hand... because when it comes to disaster recovery, we don't accept American Express." :)

The thing I admire is they doggedly cling to the idea that somehow they're going to get a deal to have a DRM'd ebook format on the platform.

Here it is mid-November and still no big DRM announcement.

But yes, so long as the iLiad CPU had power this device would be capable of total replacement of all FLASH bits. It is similar in concept to those $80 USD clips used to unwedge stolen used cell phones.

The software re-flash is a bit more than an init script hack. If my job depended on my getting it working I wouldn't do it the way that was described to me. But hey, my job doesn't depend on it: have fun storming the castle boys! (Miracle Max Princess Bride)

My only issue is that if they got it done many Iliadian's would rest easier at night.

have fun storming the castle boys! (Miracle Max Princess Bride)Ah, yes, the only movie ever to score a perfect score on the scale of 1 to Princess Bride. :2thumbsup

They never know whether to hug me or shoot me.
I love it!!!! ;)))