DR800 root filesystem contents

Mr. X · 03-04-2010, 06:44 PM

I'm new to mobileread so if this is considered too close to illegal/copyright-infringement-enabling/3g-terms-of-service-abuse-enabling etc please moderate it away. But I'd like to see at least the level of understanding of the platform that the guys over at nookdev have, especially since the iRex is so hacker friendly to start with. At the same time I don't want to shoot the iRex gifthorse in the mouth and make things difficult for them going forward or discouraging them from continuing to be as open as they have in this forum...

Anyhoo.

The emulator filesystem in the SDK is similar to, but not at all the same as the actual running filesystem on the DR800's internal flash. The full root filesystem is contained in the firmware download at http://updates.irexnet.com/embedded/. The filesystem is jffs2, so you need to be running linux to do anything useful with it. Windows + cygwin or Mac OS X won't cut it. Happily, the ubuntu SDK configuration works just fine for what is needed so you can use that.

Inside that zip are a number of .bin files. I have no idea what format any of them but rootfs.bin are, anyone?

rootfs.bin is a jffs2 filesystem image. You can then mount this filesystem with the following set of commands:

Code:

modprobe jffs2
modprobe mtdram total_size=90000 erase_size=256
modprobe mtdchar
modprobe mtdblock
dd if=rootfs.bin of=/dev/mtdblock0
mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock0 /mnt

I haven't poked around with the filesystem contents yet other than to see how much of a standard linux userland is present. A lot! Much nicer to work with than Android devices like the nook out of the gate...

Mr. X · 03-04-2010, 08:41 PM

A quick diff between the contents of the DR800S and DR800SG firmwares is attached.

Most of the differences are more translations on the S and networking support on the SG (anything network related has been ripped out of the S). Interestingly the SG contains support not just for 3G but also for WiFi (Atheros ar6000). Also a few bluetooth related files but those may just be part of the overall networking stack. No online store on the S either.

Jumpn Jack Flash · 03-05-2010, 07:31 AM

Good stuff, its been over 10 years since I worked with initrd and flash based files systems (back then it was ext2 on a CF) and I was wondering how to mount the fs.

03-04-2010, 06:44 PM	#1
Mr. X Connoisseur Posts: 68 Karma: 64 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Philadelphia Device: iRex DR800SG	DR800 root filesystem contents I'm new to mobileread so if this is considered too close to illegal/copyright-infringement-enabling/3g-terms-of-service-abuse-enabling etc please moderate it away. But I'd like to see at least the level of understanding of the platform that the guys over at nookdev have, especially since the iRex is so hacker friendly to start with. At the same time I don't want to shoot the iRex gifthorse in the mouth and make things difficult for them going forward or discouraging them from continuing to be as open as they have in this forum... Anyhoo. The emulator filesystem in the SDK is similar to, but not at all the same as the actual running filesystem on the DR800's internal flash. The full root filesystem is contained in the firmware download at http://updates.irexnet.com/embedded/. The filesystem is jffs2, so you need to be running linux to do anything useful with it. Windows + cygwin or Mac OS X won't cut it. Happily, the ubuntu SDK configuration works just fine for what is needed so you can use that. Inside that zip are a number of .bin files. I have no idea what format any of them but rootfs.bin are, anyone? rootfs.bin is a jffs2 filesystem image. You can then mount this filesystem with the following set of commands: Code: modprobe jffs2 modprobe mtdram total_size=90000 erase_size=256 modprobe mtdchar modprobe mtdblock dd if=rootfs.bin of=/dev/mtdblock0 mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock0 /mnt I haven't poked around with the filesystem contents yet other than to see how much of a standard linux userland is present. A lot! Much nicer to work with than Android devices like the nook out of the gate... Last edited by Mr. X; 03-04-2010 at 07:45 PM. Reason: clean up the instructions

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03-05-2010, 07:31 AM	#3
Jumpn Jack Flash Lazy Git Posts: 124 Karma: 1266 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: The soggy Emerald Isle Device: iRex DR800S	Good stuff, its been over 10 years since I worked with initrd and flash based files systems (back then it was ext2 on a CF) and I was wondering how to mount the fs.

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