PRS-650 Flashing the firmware

[simonbcn]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

It's here. It's in Russian so you'll probably need to use the Google translate feature. Boroda (Porkupan on this forum) is a very experienced Sony hacker.

Thanks. I don't see real advantages in that firmware reading its changelog.
New dictionaries?
Solution to problem with ghosting?
Only language russian and english?
Possibility of change font by menu?
Possibility of change font sizes by menu to sizes more comfortable than original firmware?

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by simonbcn

Thanks. I don't see real advantages in that firmware reading its changelog.
New dictionaries?
Solution to problem with ghosting?
Only language russian and english?
Possibility of change font by menu?
Possibility of change font sizes by menu to sizes more comfortable than original firmware?

Well, you are right, it doesn't provide any of those additional features you are after. So it's probably not worth it for you. As far as the languages are concerned, the firmwares support all the original languages except Dutch, which they replace with Russian.

[digital_steve]

Any chance someone could post the changelog in this thread in English (i don't read Russian sadly... although i remember being told it's just English with the R's backward)?

I'd like to know the exact differences and benefits, as i'm thinking about making the move

[boxey]

PRS650
For those that only want to access userStyle.css without other goodies and About screen hack from the russified firmware:

Required files:
cramfsck.exe and mkcramfs.exe
original firmware with porkupan's flash too
md5sum.exe

Extract img to opt directory
cramfsck.exe -x opt -d opt.dt new_opt.650.img

Locate: C:\cramfs\opt\opt\sony\ebook\application\FskDocume ntViewerAdobe.so, at offset 6CC6B7
hex edit and change it from res:///adobe/pxf to res:///Data/epub, same byte size

Compile it back (delete the old one)
mkcramfs.exe -D opt.dt opt new_opt.650.img

Make a md5
md5sum.exe new_opt.650.img > new_opt.650.md5

Copy both .img and .md5 back into PRS650.Flash.Package.orig\test-flash
and flash.

Do the userStyle.css thing from previous few pages.

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by boxey

Locate: C:\cramfs\opt\opt\sony\ebook\application\FskDocume ntViewerAdobe.so, at offset 6CC6B7
hex edit and change it from res:///adobe/pxf to res:///Data/epub, same byte size

Two things. First, do not unpack and repack the CRAMFS image under Windows or Cygwin. There are certain files in PRS-950 FW that do not unpack properly without full case sensitivity support in the filesystem. Second, do not recommend to go to an address, which may or may not be the same in different versions of this module. You could say "search for string such and such and replace it with the string such and such", but you shouldn't provide the address where to overwrite.

[mornington]

Previous post text deleted because I'm an idiot

[mornington]

Lovely additions to the functionality. The only feature "missing" would be the ability to disable scanning of the SD card and instead browse its contents by folders, as the PRS+ firmware apparently does.

If that feature could be added for the PRS-650 then this would be perfect. Do you have any plans to add it?

[Nick_1964]

If there was a chance to get the Dutch language back, I would do this hack right away.

[Mark Nord]

Hello Nick,

based on the test-startup script of recent PRS650.Flash.Package.1.05j.zip it should be possible to reload dutch language assets.

First install version 1.05j.

Then, according to borodas FAQ, place the folder test-startup (see attached rar-archive) in the root of IM. The folder contains a modified "startup.sh" script, and a sub-folder nl. There I placed the original dutch asset.xml and the english about.xml - needed to configure the hacks.

Restart the reader w/o connection to USB.

If all works out the russified laguage-asset will again be replaced by the dutch one.

If something didn't work. Restart reader attached to USB and remove/rename the test-startup folder in IM.

Please note, that you are doing this at your own risk.

[anesthezea]

What does it mean to "russify" the ebook library and how is it done? Is this something you need the Sony software for?

[Mark Nord]

Originally Posted by anesthezea

What does it mean to "russify" the ebook library and how is it done? Is this something you need the Sony software for?

If you use Sony Reader Library program to move or sync your files with your reader, the Library and the reader have to have the same set of fonts, as some of the formating is done by Reader Library while transfering books.
This is valide for epub, lrf (and rtf - not so sure).

Additional Info can be found here: here

If you don't use Reader Library to manage your files, just copy them to the reader like to any other removeable media, there are no other steps to be taken after russification.
HTH
Mark

[anesthezea]

Originally Posted by Mark Nord

If you don't use Reader Library to manage your files, just copy them to the reader like to any other removeable media, there are no other steps to be taken after russification.
HTH
Mark

Thanks, Mark! As a matter of fact, I don't use the Reader software since it doesn't work with my OS (Ubuntu). I just stick with Calibre.

Another question:

I couldn't get the firmware to flash using Ubuntu so I borrowed a Windows machine for that. For future reference, is there a way to flash it using Ubuntu and I'm just doing things wrong? I'd like to know in case I ever want to update the firmware again.

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by anesthezea

For future reference, is there a way to flash it using Ubuntu and I'm just doing things wrong? I'd like to know in case I ever want to update the firmware again.

The flashing software depends on a Windows DLL for access to the Reader, so the answer to your question is no.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I was wondering, is it technically possible to add in-book access to TOC as a keyboard shortcut? For some reason Sony have buried it 3-levels down (Options - Goto - TOC)

@porkupan, Many thanks for providing the above in the latest release. The upgrade from v1.05f to v1.05j on my PRS650 ran very smoothly

Please could you answer the following query regarding the new feature for updating system fonts (used when viewing TXT, RTF, LRF):

• As per instructions I copied the test-startup directory (incl. new fonts) into Internal Memory root. After a full reboot the 3 new fonts (serif, sans-serif, monospace) worked as expected when viewing an LRF. However, when viewing TXT or RTF then the sans-serif font is always used, i.e. I cannot get the serif font to display. Is this deliberate? It's not a big deal (as I mostly read EPUB) but I'd like to know if I'm doing something wrong.
  
  
• When I removed the test-startup directory and rebooted, TXT displays in serif and RTF displays serif and/or sans-serif as per source file coding. Also, LRF seems happy to display serif and/or sans-serif but monospace displays as serif.

[PatNY]

Love the new option to bind the TOC to one of the custom buttons. That was sorely needed, and I don't know why Sony buried the TOC in the menus. Didn't make much sense. But this fixes it. Thanks porkupan for your work on this!