PRS-650 Flashing the firmware

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

Please note: although pepak's hack has the great advantage of working for most epubs without editing them, it does require flashing the firmware using igorsk's universal flasher, which AFAIK does not work on the 350/650 (because it relies on autorunning from the SD Card, which Sony seem to have disabled in the later readers).

I am sorry, but you are quite wrong here. The hack has nothing to do with the flasher that's used to install it. This hack by itself doesn't require autorun, and it does work on 350/650.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by porkupan

I am sorry, but you are quite wrong here. The hack has nothing to do with the flasher that's used to install it. This hack by itself doesn't require autorun, and it does work on 350/650.

I'm very sorry, I did not mean to confuse--what I meant was, you need to flash the firmware somehow in order to get the updated epub renderer onto the reader; igorsk's univeral flasher is used by pepak for this, but any flasher should do as long as you have an image with the updated renderer file. The universal flasher is great for older devices because it allows you to easily create a new image with updated files (such as the updated epub renderer). Will the same method work for the 650?

I thought with the 350/650 you would have to create the new image externally? It seems more risky to me because if you brick your reader you can't simply plug a SD card in and reflash it back to the stock firmware. Is there a way of recovering a 350/650 that won't boot, and where it won't connect via USB so you can't flash it from the PC?

[willyu34]

Originally Posted by porkupan

There are no fonts with Chinese characters in this firmware. Nothing prevents you, however, from adding a custom EPUB CSS and fonts with whatever character set you wish. Or you can use embedded fonts in EPUB, LRF or PDF. But you can already do it with stock firmware.

Hi porkupan, thanks for the heads up. I already use the external font file method with EPUB to read the book properly. The problem I try to solve is that Chinese titles does not show up correctly in the book list (i don't care about the menu) What I need to replace is the 003 file which handles displaying titles/authors/info etc.

Unfortunately, I busted my 650.

what I did is using win7(not recommanded), cygwin and cramfsck/mkcramfs,

-open up porkupan's new_opt.650.img, located the font files (inside opt/sony/font, or something like that)
-replaced it using the font file I found from another person's chinese replacement for prs600 (found here, http://www.hi-pda.com/forum/viewthre...age%3D1&page=1)
-repack using mkcramfs
-generate md5, rename new cramfs as new_opt.650.img to replace porkupan's image, modify the md5 file and replace the value
-flash
- device erbooted once (screen flashed), rebooted second time (screen flashed) and now stuck there forever opening library.

I've already tried reset and hard reset with no resolution. sigh. It's stuck in the screen therefore computer couldn't recognize it so I can't even reflash it with porkupan's working image.

There could be so many things wrong with it
1. using windows to process cramfs (with linux file permission and case-sensitivity problem). I should have used my ubuntu machine
2. font file (could be too big for the space causing an overflow. I didn't check the original mount to see how much free space I have)
3. repack incorrectly. there are options in mkcramfs which I do not know or understand.
4. wrong use of the flasher? perhaps something along that line.

Anyways, i love my new brick.

[porkupan]

What happens when you reset your reader, then plug it right into the USB port of your computer as soon as it starts booting? Is it visible as external drives at all? If it is, you can try reflashing with my FW. If it isn't visible, you may try to find hard reset instructions, but I don't think the hard reset would help there, unfortunately... The diagnostic card may help, but you need a working reader to make one...

[willyu34]

Originally Posted by porkupan

What happens when you reset your reader, then plug it right into the USB port of your computer as soon as it starts booting? Is it visible as external drives at all? If it is, you can try reflashing with my FW. If it isn't visible, you may try to find hard reset instructions, but I don't think the hard reset would help there, unfortunately... The diagnostic card may help, but you need a working reader to make one...

Hi porkupan, thanks for trying to help.

I have tried both soft reset and hard rest and the reader does not respond to it.

the reader does not show up as usb device because I think it's stuck in the booting process.

Pretty hopeless right now. sigh.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by willyu34

Hi porkupan, thanks for trying to help.

I have tried both soft reset and hard rest and the reader does not respond to it.

the reader does not show up as usb device because I think it's stuck in the booting process.

Pretty hopeless right now. sigh.

I feel your pain... Perhaps someone could send you the files for a diagnostic card?...I would do it myself but I don't know how to make one.

I think the risk of permanently bricking your reader when flashing your own images is too great unless you really know what you are doing:

Only use unix to create new images.
Be prepared to take the risk of your reader being permanently bricked.

[gregcd]

Thanks for the link to the e-book.org page, I'm keen to get the userstyle.css going with my 650, though russian menus would not be so good! Does that package remove the english menus altogether and replace with russian?

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by gregcd

Thanks for the link to the e-book.org page, I'm keen to get the userstyle.css going with my 650, though russian menus would not be so good! Does that package remove the english menus altogether and replace with russian?

Have you considered editing your epubs to reference external fonts as described here? This means you do not have to flash the firmware. Calibre now has an epub tweak feature which makes it easier to edit epubs. Or you can use Sigil. (Both on mobileread).

[gregcd]

Thanks I'm using external fonts for my novels which is nice. I get news from feedbooks often when i'm away from my pc, so it's nice to have the userstyle.css set up.

From the auto translate it looks like russian and english are options, can anyone confirm this?

8. Like all. Menu language can be changed to Russian, if necessary.

update: i gave it a go and it worked fine. The default menu is english, it can be changed in the options.

[mitchelln]

Originally Posted by Vienna01

NOW there's a 650 version if you click on the 350 link.
FYI: I'm just watching-too soon to flash my brand new 650. Until somebody posts flashing and what you get for dummies I'll just watch. My goal is to use different fonts for ePUb simply without having to modify css etc. Maybe I'll just use Calibre to add font to LRF versions.

Any chance someone could translate the instructions to English? Opinions on how "safe" is this firmware is?

I really miss the clock hack I had on my 505

Thanks.

[mitchelln]

Okay, Google did quite a good job of translating:

2. Unzip the downloaded archive somewhere.

2.1. If you use Windows 7 or Vista, UAC otklyuchite or use the option Run as Administrator (in Section 4).

3. Connect your device to your computer. Wait until Windows recognizes the "external drives. If you run the eBook Library, close it.

4. In the folder where you unzipped the firmware package, double-click on the file flash_reader.bat

5. Confirm that you want to flash reader (Y)

6. Once you're asked to press any button, if all went seemingly well, you can disable the reader from your computer.

7. Wait until the reader will reboot twice. Will have to wait two minutes.

8. Like all. Menu language can be changed to Russian, if necessary.

9. Do not forget to Russify eBook Library. Fonts for eBL take away.

Messing with batch files and Windows USB drives fill me with dread, but perhaps I'm being paranoid. Don't want to bust my shiny new 650 though.

[mitchelln]

Well, call me risky but I tried it. Worked perfectly! Now I've got a clock in the bottom bar! Better still, it updates every minute. On my 505 it only updated when you turned the page.

Got the font and screenshot hacks as well. So now everything in nice Calibri font

Well done porkupan/boroda.

[mitchelln]

Originally Posted by gregcd

Thanks for the link to the e-book.org page, I'm keen to get the userstyle.css going with my 650, though russian menus would not be so good! Does that package remove the english menus altogether and replace with russian?

No, my 650 fired back up in English after the update.

[elcreative]

There's a good reason for clock updating on page turns, it's called battery life... every clock update counts as a page turn so if done on page turn then no additional overhead on power usage, if every minute then each minute's update is an additional page turn as far as reader is concerned...

Originally Posted by mitchelln

Well, call me risky but I tried it. Worked perfectly! Now I've got a clock in the bottom bar! Better still, it updates every minute. On my 505 it only updated when you turned the page.

Got the font and screenshot hacks as well. So now everything in nice Calibri font

Well done porkupan/boroda.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by elcreative

There's a good reason for clock updating on page turns, it's called battery life... every clock update counts as a page turn so if done on page turn then no additional overhead on power usage, if every minute then each minute's update is an additional page turn as far as reader is concerned...

Yes, it drains the battery faster--AFAIK you can turn it off (only update on page turns).