PRS-650 Flashing the firmware

ShellShock · 09-20-2010, 02:20 PM

Well, I was brave/stupid and tried igorsk's Universal Flasher on my new 650, just to see if I could capture an image of the firmware. However, when I stick the SD card in the slot nothing much happens - the little disk light goes on briefly and that's it. The flasher software does not load.

So now I know. No harm done. But I know zilch about unix (which didn't stop me from trying

) so that is about as far as I can go.

kartu · 09-21-2010, 03:53 AM

ShellShock, the Universal Flasher autorun.xml method works only on: 300, 500, 505 models.
Afaik from porkupan (aka boroda) 650 is very similar to 900, so the "old" 900 hack should work. You can find his 900 flasher here.

PS
Be careful not to brick your reader!

In case of 650, however, there should be a way to restore it using memory stick.

ShellShock · 09-21-2010, 04:24 PM

Thanks; I've got hold of it. I can see how it can be used to flash an existing image, but I can't see how you could use it to capture a new image--it only seems to have the autorun.xml method which you say only works on older models.

kartu · 09-23-2010, 03:48 AM

ShellShock
It comes with binaries that set the reader into update mode. Anyway porkupan already has version for 350's, it is very likely to work with 650.

induna · 09-23-2010, 11:48 PM

I just flashed my 350 and now have the Droid font, and the user style sheet if I want to change fonts.

Thank you Porkupan!!

Vienna01 · 09-24-2010, 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kartu

ShellShock
It comes with binaries that set the reader into update mode. Anyway porkupan already has version for 350's, it is very likely to work with 650.

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.

ShellShock · 09-24-2010, 07:15 AM

Quote:

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.

I hope to get it working this weekend, including default fonts.

willyu34 · 09-26-2010, 02:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by induna

I just flashed my 350 and now have the Droid font, and the user style sheet if I want to change fonts.

Thank you Porkupan!!

hi induna, is porkupan's flash contains the droid fall back fonts that supports all unicode?

I am interested in the flash because I need it to display chinese book titles. I don't need chinese menus.

thanks!

ShellShock · 09-26-2010, 12:19 PM

It may be possible to create a universal flasher like the igorsk's for the 505:

First amend the stock firmware so it allows autorun scripts from the SD card, and flash that.
Then we'll be able to create a universal flasher that runs from the SD card (copies existing firmware image, copies arbitrary replacement files, creates new image, flashes new image).

induna · 09-26-2010, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willyu34

hi induna, is porkupan's flash contains the droid fall back fonts that supports all unicode?

I am interested in the flash because I need it to display chinese book titles. I don't need chinese menus.

thanks!

I believe the flash has full unicode support. It does display Cyrillic characters correctly. Howerver, since I only read languages that use the roman alphabet, I can't really test this. Why don't you try the flash and find out? It's very easy.

davidnadon · 09-26-2010, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by induna

I believe the flash has full unicode support. It does display Cyrillic characters correctly. Howerver, since I only read languages that use the roman alphabet, I can't really test this. Why don't you try the flash and find out? It's very easy.

Im newbie to this forum, just wondering how to test it to read chinese ? thank you so much

porkupan · 09-26-2010, 08:48 PM

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.

ShellShock · 09-27-2010, 02:56 AM

Please see this for a discussion of custom epub fonts on the 350; AFAIK it will work for the 650, but I have not tried it yet.

porkupan · 09-27-2010, 10:00 AM

Well, I was actually talking about ability to specify the default CSS in the epub directory (pepak's hack).

EPUB has always supported embedding CSS with direct font indication, so in that respect there is nothing new.

ShellShock · 09-27-2010, 02:31 PM

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).

This differs to jswinden's method, which has the advantage of working with the 350/650, but the disadvantage of requiring you to edit the epub (to add the font info, especially the location of the custom fonts on the reader).

09-20-2010, 02:20 PM	#1
ShellShock Wizard Posts: 1,176 Karma: 2431850 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: IPad Mini 2 Retina	Flashing the firmware Well, I was brave/stupid and tried igorsk's Universal Flasher on my new 650, just to see if I could capture an image of the firmware. However, when I stick the SD card in the slot nothing much happens - the little disk light goes on briefly and that's it. The flasher software does not load. So now I know. No harm done. But I know zilch about unix (which didn't stop me from trying ) so that is about as far as I can go.

09-27-2010, 02:56 AM	#13
ShellShock Wizard Posts: 1,176 Karma: 2431850 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: IPad Mini 2 Retina	Please see this for a discussion of custom epub fonts on the 350; AFAIK it will work for the 650, but I have not tried it yet. Last edited by ShellShock; 09-27-2010 at 03:34 AM.

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09-21-2010, 03:53 AM	#2
kartu PRS+ author Posts: 1,637 Karma: 2446233 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Sony PRS-300, 505, 600, 650, 950	ShellShock, the Universal Flasher autorun.xml method works only on: 300, 500, 505 models. Afaik from porkupan (aka boroda) 650 is very similar to 900, so the "old" 900 hack should work. You can find his 900 flasher here. PS Be careful not to brick your reader! In case of 650, however, there should be a way to restore it using memory stick.

09-21-2010, 04:24 PM	#3
ShellShock Wizard Posts: 1,176 Karma: 2431850 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: IPad Mini 2 Retina	Thanks; I've got hold of it. I can see how it can be used to flash an existing image, but I can't see how you could use it to capture a new image--it only seems to have the autorun.xml method which you say only works on older models.

09-23-2010, 03:48 AM	#4
kartu PRS+ author Posts: 1,637 Karma: 2446233 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Sony PRS-300, 505, 600, 650, 950	ShellShock It comes with binaries that set the reader into update mode. Anyway porkupan already has version for 350's, it is very likely to work with 650.

09-23-2010, 11:48 PM	#5
induna Addict Posts: 230 Karma: 1500000 Join Date: May 2007 Location: San Vito de Coto Brus, Costa Rica Device: Sony PRS-500, 505, 600, 350, T1 Amazon Kindle PW1, PW2, Voyage	I just flashed my 350 and now have the Droid font, and the user style sheet if I want to change fonts. Thank you Porkupan!!

09-26-2010, 12:19 PM	#9
ShellShock Wizard Posts: 1,176 Karma: 2431850 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: IPad Mini 2 Retina	It may be possible to create a universal flasher like the igorsk's for the 505: First amend the stock firmware so it allows autorun scripts from the SD card, and flash that. Then we'll be able to create a universal flasher that runs from the SD card (copies existing firmware image, copies arbitrary replacement files, creates new image, flashes new image).

09-26-2010, 08:48 PM	#12
porkupan Fanatic Posts: 556 Karma: 1057213 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Eastern U.S. Device: Sony Reader	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.

09-27-2010, 10:00 AM	#14
porkupan Fanatic Posts: 556 Karma: 1057213 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Eastern U.S. Device: Sony Reader	Well, I was actually talking about ability to specify the default CSS in the epub directory (pepak's hack). EPUB has always supported embedding CSS with direct font indication, so in that respect there is nothing new.

09-27-2010, 02:31 PM	#15
ShellShock Wizard Posts: 1,176 Karma: 2431850 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: IPad Mini 2 Retina	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). This differs to jswinden's method, which has the advantage of working with the 350/650, but the disadvantage of requiring you to edit the epub (to add the font info, especially the location of the custom fonts on the reader).