PRS-600 Has anybody looked at Russian hack of PRS-600?

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by Xaphiosis

1) created test
2) in test I put everything from the test-flash and test-autorun

1) Created "test" in the internal memory.
2) Into test I copy everything from test-autorun directory

7) testing menu shows up, I release vol+ and home
8) I press the zoom button (the one with the little looking glass with a + in it)

The menu's header says something about igorsk and porkupan? Or is it the stock Sony test menu?

The prerequisites:
1) Auto-run supporting FW already installed (you got that)
2) After you copied files into the "test" directory in the internal memory, you need to reboot your reader (with USB cable not connected)

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by kartu

Just a tip: VirtualBox (from Sun Microsystems) is free and quite lightweight.

Oh, come on, just buy a SheevaPlug, and for a hundred bucks you will have a Ubuntu on a brick.

[Xaphiosis]

Porkupan: thank you! I couldn't figure out what I was missing, I read the relevant section of the service manual about 10 times now and still didn't get it.
I was indeed getting the default sony test screen.

Final procedure which worked, then, so anyone else who is confused like I was can benefit:

1. Install boroda firmware, I used 1.05d
2. Take an SD card, on it create the file (can be empty): /Sony Reader/software/autorun.xml
3. Plug in the reader (USB)
4. From the boroda firmware e.g. "PRS600.upd.1.05d.zip" take the "test-autorun" subdirectory and copy it to the reader's internal memory (the disk/partition labeled READER)
5. Rename "test-autorun" on READER to "test"
6. Copy your new firmware into "test" (e.g. new_opt.600.img and new_opt.600.md5 from the boroda firmware "test-flash" directory)
7. Unmount/safely remove READER, then unplug the reader (USB)
8. Turn off the reader (proper shutdown), don't plug it in until after 14.
9. Turn on the reader, wait until home screen finishes loading
10. Press vol+ and home buttons simultaneously, keep pressing while you insert the SD card
11. You should see "Run script" "PRS-700 flasher 0.2a by igorsk/porkupan" and two options
12. "Option: flash the image" -> this doesn't seem to work, the script is referring to new_opt.700.img, I would assume it currently isn't safe to use it
13. "(+): load test firmware" -> this is the option you want. The (+) refers to the zoom button (looking glass with + in it).
    
    When you press zoom, the following should happen:
    "Running script.
    Please wait."
    "Script finished."
    after a bit of time, the script reboots the reader (be patient)
    
14. Your new firmware is running: congrats!
15. Your new firmware in not running: check script.log on READER for ideas as to what could've gone wrong

Additional info: to test that new firmware is indeed loaded, the best idea I have is to modify the existing boroda firmware.
To do a very simple modification, follow these steps
(under linux, I have no idea what do do under windows so I won't speculate):

1. make sure you have the cramfs tools installed (e.g. use this on debian/ubuntu):
   

   sudo apt-get install cramfsprogs

2. take new_opt.600.img and stick it in a new directory
3. unpack the image
   

   sudo cramfsck -x cramfs_600 new_opt.600.img

   Note: use sudo, or you will get

   cramfsck: mknod failed: opt/dev/console: Operation not permitted

4. edit cramfs_600/opt/sony/ebook/application/resources/scripts/main.xml
5. find the line that says
   

   text += "\nRussified: porkupan (boroda)   Version: 1.05d\n\n"

6. change it to
   

   text += "\nRussified: porkupan (boroda) (my hero) Version: 1.05d\n\n"

7. go back to where you unpacked new_opt.600.img
8. pack up the image:
   

   mkcramfs cramfs_600 new_opt.600.img

9. calculate the md5 sum:
   

   md5sum new_opt.600.img > new_opt.600.md5

10. be anal-retentive just in case, make sure it looks like the boroda one:
    

    20025cccb6a0c246298fa2bce453a8ce *new_opt.600.img

    and not like
    

    518fdbd460e4362c7159714755c93012  new_opt.600.img

    (note: one space, then an asterisk (*))
    
11. copy new_opt.600.* into test/ on READER
12. perform the flashing like in previous instructions
13. on your reader, go to: home->more->settings->About
    look at the second paragraph starting with "Russified" and check whether
    porkupan is your hero... if you're running the new firmware, then he is :)

Once again, my thanks to porkupan. I hope I'll manage to hack up something interesting in the future... after my first day of exposure, the xml/js mix looks a bit confusing so far.

I hope someone finds this useful.

Originally Posted by porkupan

1) Created "test" in the internal memory.

[porkupan]

Xaphiosis,

A pretty thorough guide, should be useful. However, just to be fair, the real hero of the PRS hacking (as well as Kindle hacking) is not I, but igorsk. Most of the credit goes to him.

[Mike_73]

I'm not quiet sure what this is about, but if you guys are looking into new hacks for the 600 I would surely appreciate your work. If you have something I can help you with (besides programming unless you can point me to a tutorial like "hack the 600 explained for under 10 year olds") I would be more than glad to provide whatever I can.

[Xaphiosis]

Originally Posted by porkupan

Xaphiosis,

A pretty thorough guide, should be useful. However, just to be fair, the real hero of the PRS hacking (as well as Kindle hacking) is not I, but igorsk. Most of the credit goes to him.

My apologies! At the time of writing the guide I thought you were igorsk because I was reading russian forums via google translate late at night and some brain cells misfired. I stand corrected (and slightly embarrassed).

I think igorsk is a hero to all, the one who started the sony reader momentum, but you don't need to be so humble either, because without you, I couldn't do it for the PRS600, and the guide is for the one device I own.

Mike_73: I just got my reader maybe a week or two ago, and when being a bit sick in the past week I flashed the boroda firmware on it. One or two days ago I started looking at the firmware once I got it unpacked. The last step in "my" guide is about as far as I've gotten so far. So I appreciate the offer, but currently I'm too clueless to accept!

Porkupan told me he's not big on trying to expand functionality, he just set things up so that other people could do it. As for me, I'm definitely interested, but my balance of skills and free time might prevent me from doing anything useful. My free time varies chaotically (PhD student wanting to finish soon) and my skills... well, I won't know if they're sufficient until I try.

Basically, I'm looking at things one step at a time: next I'll be changing the default fonts.

If I do make something, I'll be sure to post it on this forum, maybe with a guide for others to follow. Even if I can't do it, I can try decrease the resistance for others to follow :)

[Mike_73]

Awesome, sounds good to me so far.
I've put the "russification" on my reader the day I bought it as I was really missing the clock which I got used to on my 505. So I have the files somewhere on my HDD.
I finished my degree 8 years ago but as a full time engineer and family-dad, my time is restricted, too. But if you can point me to what files of borodas software I have to look at, I might give it a try, too. It's never too late to learn something new (unfortunately, I only found out when I had finished school).

[vho3000]

I would like to use Microsoft Jhenghei Chinese Traditional font of 14 mb size. A hugh but very complete font. I am interested to know how you modify the script to do "mount --bind" and change my system font directory to be "/Data/FONT" and put chinese fonts in that directory.
Please provide detail steps as I have never mess with mount bind before. Thanks.

Originally Posted by budalb

OK. I started this thread. Here is my report (similar to #6 by shmrck):

1) download 'boroda" FW.
2) unpack new_opt.600.img using cramfs-tools. I did this under cygwin for safe:
cramfsck -v -x opt -d opt.dt new_opt.600.img
3) copy chinese fonts from PRS505 hack to /opt/sony/ebook/FONT.
4) re-pack img file (name has to be the same):
mkcramfs -D opt.dt opt new_opt.600.img
5) re-create MD5 checksum:
md5sum new_opt.600.img > new_opt.600.md5

6) To be safe, I didn't flash this image file. Instead I flashed the original russian image (see instruction in the link of my original post). After flashing, the directory "test" in sony reader is deleted by flash script. Recopy "test" to the reader and reboot. Now the autorun hack is ready.

7) replace new_opt.600.img and new_opt.600.md5 in "test" with the modified image and md5 files.

8) in SD card make an empty file "Sony Reader/software/autorun.xml"

9) hold MENU button and Vol + at the same time, then insert SD card till the testing menu shows up. release buttons.

10) press "ZOOM" button to load test FW. If successfull, the new image files are good. You can do the regular flash. For me, the image file is too big since the chinese fonts files I added are too big. This is the reason to be safe.

11) Instead, I modified the script to do "mount --bind" and changed my system font directory to be "/Data/FONT" and put chinese fonts in that direcory.

Now I can see chinese in the menu navigations. For EPUB, I am still confused with how to make it recognize chinese. I have some EPUB file without embed fonts, displaying chinese fonts correctly, but not all. I can fix some but not all again.

Special thanks to porkupan for his help in the process!!!!

[vho3000]

Originally Posted by budalb

OK. I started this thread. Here is my report (similar to #6 by shmrck):

1) download 'boroda" FW.
2) unpack new_opt.600.img using cramfs-tools. I did this under cygwin for safe:
cramfsck -v -x opt -d opt.dt new_opt.600.img
3) copy chinese fonts from PRS505 hack to /opt/sony/ebook/FONT.
4) re-pack img file (name has to be the same):
mkcramfs -D opt.dt opt new_opt.600.img
5) re-create MD5 checksum:
md5sum new_opt.600.img > new_opt.600.md5

6) To be safe, I didn't flash this image file. Instead I flashed the original russian image (see instruction in the link of my original post). After flashing, the directory "test" in sony reader is deleted by flash script. Recopy "test" to the reader and reboot. Now the autorun hack is ready.

7) replace new_opt.600.img and new_opt.600.md5 in "test" with the modified image and md5 files.

8) in SD card make an empty file "Sony Reader/software/autorun.xml"

9) hold MENU button and Vol + at the same time, then insert SD card till the testing menu shows up. release buttons.

10) press "ZOOM" button to load test FW. If successfull, the new image files are good. You can do the regular flash. For me, the image file is too big since the chinese fonts files I added are too big. This is the reason to be safe.

11) Instead, I modified the script to do "mount --bind" and changed my system font directory to be "/Data/FONT" and put chinese fonts in that direcory.

Now I can see chinese in the menu navigations. For EPUB, I am still confused with how to make it recognize chinese. I have some EPUB file without embed fonts, displaying chinese fonts correctly, but not all. I can fix some but not all again.

Special thanks to porkupan for his help in the process!!!!

I am most interested in how you handle big image file in excess 20mb when you are using big font of size some 8 mb or more. As a matter of fact I am most interested to try fonts from Microsoft of size 14 mb or 22 mb.

Please clarify your "/Data/FONT" whether this is created in the root directory of the Reader or under Data directory in "Test opt/opt/sony/". If you put your fonts in the latter, your image file will still be very big; in excess of 22 MB.

Thanks.