Development Ermine experiences

Originally Posted by cheyennedonna

Boris, are we mind melded now?

I am one with the Forum (including members ).

well, that is odd. When I click in your link it does shows that I'm downloading a 221MB file but, after it finishes, my mac shows that the file has 226.5MB (maybe something with the bit-byte conversion!). What is annoying is the fact that I know many people have made this downgrade already, but it does not seem to be working for me! Thanks for your help guys, I'll try the warranty and I'll let you know what happened.

Like many others, I am experiencing the hibernation problem on my EE. Another issue I have not seen others raise is with the recorder. My device is fairly new, but before upgrading I had used the recorder on several occasions with no problem, although I was overly cautious and only let it run for about 20 minutes at a time before saving and starting a new recording.

Since upgrading, however, my EE has frozen during two of my longer recordings. The tablet screen stays blank with a tiny white vertical line flashing in the top right corner. Nothing wakes it up, and each time I've had to force a shut down (but not by yanking the battery) and have lost the recording file. The reader screen has remained active each time. The first time it happened after 55 minutes, and the second time it was less than 40 min. I love the recording feature and have been using on my fieldwork for interviews. I will now have to bring a backup recorder.

Originally Posted by pablodamasceno

well, that is odd. When I click in your link it does shows that I'm downloading a 221MB file but, after it finishes, my mac shows that the file has 226.5MB (maybe something with the bit-byte conversion!). What is annoying is the fact that I know many people have made this downgrade already, but it does not seem to be working for me! Thanks for your help guys, I'll try the warranty and I'll let you know what happened.

I have both saved on my PC - the PE file downloads as a 220 mb zip file the EE as a 216 MB zip file
there are file size differences in the zip file. If you have the larger file you have the Pocket Edge version.

Try downloading the second one, Pablo, and compare the sizes. As Cheyenne suggests, it's the larger of the two you need. Also, somehow, it could be the Mac is "damaging" the file, causing the eDGe firmware to reject it as a valid update.zip.

If you're still sure you have the right one, then download the link on your eDGe directly from the original page/link. Copy it to the plugged in USB memory stick and rename it to update.zip and then try the update process.

One last thing to do - log into your enTourage account and opt-out of the Ermine beta. It's the same process you used to opt-in, just now the red text will say you're participating and offer you a way to opt back out.

BTW, Cheyenne's file sizes are the more accurate numbers.

@Cheyenne, I checked the file size using the command line (the correct way to do it! du update.zip) and it has 216MB, not the number from the video - a caveat on how mac calculates file sizes, if (anyone?) interested, see here. I also downloaded it again, did the steps, etc... but no luck.
@Boris, I've done that already. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
I guess I'll not try much more. Don't wanna hear from the support that I've lost the warranty because of this or that I did... Thanks a lot for the patience!!!

ha!! Got it!!! The reason it wasn't working was that the usb stick (and all that I've tried) had a different partition format from the (old) usual. In summary:

Problem: EE not booting from usb.
Reason: the usb stick I was using had implicit Mac partition!
Solution: format usb stick again setting MS-DOS partition format.

Thanks all and I hope this downgrade works now.
(I have to say that being a scientist and not being able to solve this puzzle was driving me crazy!!!!)

Sorry - I'm not finished with suggestions yet

First, you have your eDGe configured for 180 degress rotated (tablet on left, reader on right). Try restoring the original orientation (Menu - Settings - Display - Screen Orientation). This explains why the screen is "upside down" during the reboot. I do doubt this will make a difference, but it will remove the 'strange' screen orientation during the udpate process.

Second, if you've done the update several times and it goes through the reboot process with no change, then keep trying 5-6 more times. Some users have reported needing over 5 attempts at an update (including myself in the past) before it "takes". This is sometimes the case with version upgrades - I don't remember anyone posting this for a golden downgrade. On one attempt, try leaving the eDGe sitting there for 8-10 hours (there was one user that did report it eventually completed after many many hours. Very strange, but such are computers!). When you've tried a total of 10 times, then you can consider giving up (unless I think of something else again! )

Saw your post after doing my long one. Hopefully the MS-DOS partitioning works.

Curious - were you able to see the contents of the Mac memory stick on your eDGe at any point to verify the update.zip was there, or did you only look at the stick contents on your Mac?

Thanks for the ideas, Boris. The main problem is that the edge does not even start (it gets in the boot screen forever!), so I could not try anything from "inside" the OS (that includes seeing the memory stick content! If I was able to start, I would definitely restore all the initial configurations, but I couldn't do it).

At first it's weird because I always used this stick to transfer files from my mac to the edge but it makes sense that, although accepted by the android system, it is not recognized by the MS-DOS boot, that is very low level.

update: Dingo back!!!

Hurray! I'm so glad it was resolved. I hate it my machines don't play nice, and I learned something new.

Originally Posted by pablodamasceno

Thanks for the ideas, Boris. The main problem is that the edge does not even start (it gets in the boot screen forever!), so I could not try anything from "inside" the OS (that includes seeing the memory stick content! If I was able to start, I would definitely restore all the initial configurations, but I couldn't do it).

At first it's weird because I always used this stick to transfer files from my mac to the edge but it makes sense that, although accepted by the android system, it is not recognized by the MS-DOS boot, that is very low level.

update: Dingo back!!!

On a complete tangent, I'm in Ann Arbor too! I'll have to keep an eye out for another Edge user around town.

Originally Posted by alex_edge

On a complete tangent, I'm in Ann Arbor too!

Nice, Alex. Enjoying the unexpected snow?! Let's drink a coffee sometime and have a edge talk.

ps: guys, should I learn my lesson with all that and keep Dingo on my edge? I'm tempted to try Ermine again now that I've lost all my data anyways...

Originally Posted by pablodamasceno

Nice, Alex. Enjoying the unexpected snow?! Let's drink a coffee sometime and have a edge talk.

ps: guys, should I learn my lesson with all that and keep Dingo on my edge? I'm tempted to try Ermine again now that I've lost all my data anyways...

I can't believe it is snowing. It's just too cruel, really. Are you on/around Central Campus? We should definitely meet for a coffee!

As for Ermine: I'm a big fan, although the hibernation issue on the EE does bum me out somewhat. Regardless, it's a big improvement over Dingo, and if you can get it to install then it's worth it.