Development Ermine experiences

They should have been able to help you with doing the golden update as that's a standard procedure whenever a complete erase/reset is required - even before Ermine was release.

In any case, the usual cause of an infinite reboot is an update.zip file still on your SD card or USB memory stick. I would remove your SD card and USB memory stick and check both with a PC. With both removed, try booting your eDGe and see what happens.

If you still want or need to do the complete erase back to Dingo, then get an *empty* USB memory stick, and carefully follow the instructions here: https://www.entourageedge.com/suppor...barticleid=263. Don't take any step for granted - read each step twice and carefully perform it (you may have missed or misunderstood one previously). That includes downloading a fresh copy of the correct file for your device (i.e. PE or EE).

Good luck and let us know how it goes

After installing Ermine I realised EE is faster but still not fast enough. New screenlock looks better and many other things are sligthly better. Horizontal reading still isn't perfect. There are some small bugs. But anyway, it's a step in the right direction.

PE data point: I forgot to check which version of Dingo my clean PE was rocking before I upgraded to Ermine, but it was probably the same version as that of everyone else who got a PE from WorldWide Distributors this week. The Ermine upgrade was fast and uneventful.

This afternoon when I started up the PE, the tablet stayed in lock mode and didn't react to my touch at all. So I shut it down by holding the power button for several seconds, restarted it, and all has been well since. I haven't put it into hibernation at all (I guess the EE has me trained not to!), but I suppose I should try it a few times.

The keys to a successful upgrade (I completed the Ermine upgrade on two different Pocket eDGes with absolutely NO problem)

Read the Forum Posts. Look at every page of the Ermine Experiences Thread (this thread) and take note of difficulties others have had and how they solved them. Not every problem is solved yet but the knowledge here is phenomenal so I'm sure in due time somebody will stumble across a solution to the problems you might experience. MANY of the answers are already HERE, you just have to look for them. DO NOT let some of the VERY MINOR glitches reported with Ermine (Froyo) deter you! This upgrade is worth doing.

Take a look at the Entourage Support page: https://www.entourageedge.com/support/

Also, if you are a new user check out the eDGe Live videos, especially the Q&A video. While these have nothing to do with the Ermine upgrade the knowledge you will gain about the PE going into the game is worth the time spent. https://www.entourageedge.com/edge-live

New Users Start Here:

1. During the registration process the PE may force you to download the Dingo update. The option to install it rests with you. It is installed manually be pulling down the Download notification in the top left corner and pressing the Update. I decided to install it prior to attempting the Ermine upgrade on my first PE. I bypassed the Dingo update installation on my second PE and was able to update it to Ermine with NO problems. Again, you may have to download the Dingo update in order to proceed with the registration process but you DO NOT have to apply it.

2. After the Dingo update download (again, you DO NOT have to install it) you can finish the registration process.


If you are upgrading a Registered and Dingo Upgraded system please BACK UP YOUR FILES and proceed as follows:

READ AND HEED THIS BEFORE proceeding with the Ermine beta upgrade:
https://www.entourageedge.com/suppor...barticleid=263

3. Disable the Screen Timeout. You can Enable it after the update downloads and installs. Here is a trick to set the screen to never timeout. Press and hold the color screen. (Touch in between icons. ) This brings up the desktop menu. Choose “Widgets from that menu. Choose “Power Control from the list of widgets. The power control widget will show up on your desktop. Touch the light bulb button to toggle the indicator to green. Your LCD screen will no longer time out. I actually tried to see what would happen if the Screen Timeout was set to 5 minutes on my second PE and here are my findings: The Screen WILL timeout during the upgrade download. DO NOT panic. Just press the Menu button to unlock the PE and the Downloading Update screen will reappear. For the faint at heart I recommend momentarily disabling the screen timeout.

4. Set the Wi-Fi to Never Turn Off. Again, you can reset this after the update downloads and installs. Open Settings and select Network Control. Select Wi-Fi Settings. Press the Menu button. While I only had to press this once during my PE setup but I had to do press it TWICE when setting up my son's PE. A two-button menu will pop-up. Press Advanced. Press Wi-Fi Sleep Policy. Select either Never or Never when plugged in.

5. Log In into the Entourage account by going to https://www.entourageedge.com/customer/account/

6. Once on the Entourage website look for the Red message on the top of the page (ERMINE is here) to Opt into the beta. You will receive the following message: Your device has now been marked for upgrade. You can manually launch the "update" on your application device.

7. Return to the Home screen and select The App Launcher and choose Update.

Heed the Warning: *** PLEASE SAVE ALL WORK BEFORE PROCEEDING ***

8. The update will begin to download and takes roughly 12-13 minutes on DSL.

9. The update install takes approximately 5 minutes. BE PATIENT AND MONITOR THE ENTIRE PROCESS. You will see a tiny icon flashing in the right hand corner, the Updating software message will continue to count up from 0 to 3 dots, and you will see Progress bar movement (unfortunately it doesn't display a percentage). After the update I got the Pocket Edge load up screen.

10. Once the install completes you should be treated to the opening Unlock Screen, a Start Up sound, and the Time. Ermine installed for me TWICE without a hitch or single problem.

11. Once you Unlock the PE and go to the Desktop, go to Settings and select About Edge. You should see: Model number: edgejr; Android version: 2.2.1; Build number: ERMINE- 0.9

12. After the upgrade I returned my Screen Timeout to 2 minutes and the Wi-Fi to turn off with the Screen Timeout.


So now Ermine was installed and I setup E-mail (using the default K-9 E-mail program) on the PE using my son's Gmail account and it was absolutely painless. On my second PE I set up a link to my Verizon E-mail account and it was absolutely painless as well.

After that I wanted to download and try out a few Apps other than those already installed on the PE by default. First stop: Amazon App Store for Android. You DO NOT need an Amazon account to download the Android App however, you WILL need one to USE the Android store. Trust Me You Want To Setup an Account on Amazon. Free of charge, no strings attached, no SPAM. I have been doing business with Amazon for 3 years and they are OUTSANDING in every respect. The Android Store has many free Apps including a Free App of the Day which is normally a paid App. http://www.amazon.com/mobile-apps/b?...ode=2350149011

On the right hand side of the page you will see Get Started. Enter you E-mail account (you should set this up on the PE before coming here). You will see A Quick start Guide which will help you with installing the App. You will receive an E-mail on the PE which you will contain a link to download the App and DETAILED installation instructions. Once you touch the download link you will receive a notification of the download in the top left corner of the PE. Drag the screen down and press the App to install it. I had no problem downloading (takes like 5 seconds) and installing the Store App and in minutes I was was able to download, install, and run a few free programs with no problem.

Many on this Forum have posted that certain Apps will not work with Android 2.2.1 and I have my own theory about these programs. I am a PC tech by trade (my first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I which used a cassette player to save and retrieve data) and have several industry certifications including CompTIA A+. I have a couple of programs that I love that will run in Windows XP (yes I still own an XP machine) that flat out REFUSE to run in Windows Vista (yes I still own a Vista machine, and a Windows 7 machine) even in Compatibility Mode. The compatibility issues were recognized by Microsoft and they offer a Windows XP emulator for Windows 7 for that very reason. My theory is like Windows some Apps programmed in Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, or 2.1 MAY refuse to run in the latest version of Android (which for the for the PE is 2.2.1 or Froyo). Software developers have reported difficulty maintaining application compatibility across multiple versions of Android. This is the nature of EVERY evolving Operating Systems. If all the older programs worked with every OS version there would never be a need for new programs. This will NEVER happen.

I am happy to say I had no problem with the PE speakers and like I said I receive a welcome sound at the Start Up screen.

Absolutely NO problems with hibernation either. My son hibernated his PE at least four times (once for a couple of hours) and each and every time the e-Ink side displayed Press the Menu Button on to Resume operation and it worked fine every time.

Curiously I am not experiencing the green tint when taking pictures that others have reported. I do see two versions of the Camera App and Version 1 appears to be the one being used based on storage statistics. I'm assuming this is the original Camera App.

The default browser and E-mail work fantastic with NO lockups or crashes to report. Used the browser extensively after upgrading. The You Tube App works flawlessly.

I decided to install a 8GB microSDHC card ($20 at Walmart) and moved My Library to the SD card to save on system memory for Apps.

Overall the Ermine upgrade experience on a brand new PE with nothing else installed except Dingo 1.11 was very pleasant. The PE is extremely responsive on both the LCD and E-Ink sides. For those PE owners sitting on the fence on whether to upgrade or not to I say GO FOR IT. You WILL NOT be disappointed.

For those interested here is the Android 2.2.1 User Guide: http://static.googleusercontent.com/...UsersGuide.pdf

I'll be exploring the User Guide over the next few days to see what the PE may and may not support. I'm sure some of the functions will only work with Android based phones but you will never know until you try. For example: On page 34 I'm curious to see if the PE will support the Entering Text By Speaking Option since it does have a microphone. I'll find out tomorrow.


Froyo looks like it will be great but I have to ask: Gingerbread? We can only hope ...

Thanks for this post. It also gives me hope that the browser is capable of wrking without any issues. My browsers randomly are closing a lot.

Froyo looks like it will be great but I have to ask: Gingerbread? We can only hope ...

Why should we hope for this? My question is genuine: from all I've heard, the hardware as it exists wouldn't support Android 3.0, and it's not as if there are tons of 3.0 native apps that we aren't able to run out there.

No luck, boris. My edge is definitely not booting by any of the usb ports (I see it reading the memory stick but then it stops and starts loading Ermine again). And believe me, I've tried every step 20x, carefully, etc.
There should be a way to erase the internal SD or something like that (?!)
Thanks for helping
(if anyone is really interested, here's a video on what I'm doing!)

Originally Posted by pablodamasceno

After some days with my edge still not booting, Tech Support finally replied that this is an Ermine issue and, therefore, should be resolved in this forum (their disclaimer say there will be no support for the beta version of Ermine!)

While this is true, and I understand the reasons for it, it seems as though enTourage is not holding up their end of the bargain... offering advice, insight, and help to problems posted on this part of the Forum.

Originally Posted by pablodamasceno

No luck, boris. My edge is definitely not booting by any of the usb ports (I see it reading the memory stick but then it stops and starts loading Ermine again). And believe me, I've tried every step 20x, carefully, etc.
There should be a way to erase the internal SD or something like that (?!)
Thanks for helping
(if anyone is really interested, here's a video on what I'm doing!)

I watched your video and did not see step 6
6. While holding down the MENU and ROTATE buttons on the LCD side of the device, press the power key.
It may have just slipped by me when your camera moved, but if this step was missed it may be your answer.

Yes, Pablo, please try Cheyenne's suggestion.

Thanks Cheyenne, but that was indeed just cause I couldn't do that and hold the camera at the same time. Step 6 restarts the edge and makes it search for a boot in the USB stick (what indeed happens, I can see its light on, indicating it is now been used). As you can see in the video it just stops and starts loading ermine again, though.
What I've tried so far:
1. try different memory stick, download the update again, etc...
2. remove external SD card;
3. a desperate attempt of booting from my cellphone's SD card (that should contain an android boot);
4. pray, contact EE support, etc..

I'm thinking about return it to the company, once it is still in the warranty. I have no more ideas.

OK, one more question. There are 2 golden update.zip files online, each specific to it's respective device. Are you sure you have the right file? Otherwise, I suggest attempting to return the device under warranty. If you bought it with a credit card you can attempt to dispute the purchase as well.

I carefully reviewed the video, and I can confirm you have the golden update.zip for the PE based on the file size. The video shows an EE, and the golden.update.zip should be only 221 Mb. Please try downloading it from the link http://www.entourageedge.com/support...ate.golden.zip and try again.

Wow... Cheyenne and Boris... you two are a force to be reckoned with!

Boris, are we mind melded now?