PRS-T1 v1.0.07 Downgrade

[medwatt]

Hello,
I bought a Sony PRS-T1 that was already updated to the latest version 1.0.07. I want to downgrade it to v.1.0.05. Is there some procedure I could follow ?
Thanks.

[JSWolf]

Why do you want to downgrade?

[medwatt]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why do you want to downgrade?

Here's why. I actually have two PRS-T1. One with firmware 1.0.05 and another with 1.0.07. I bought them very cheap because they had issues; they freeze when you access the dictionary. I read online that there might be an issue with the dictionary partition. There's a tutorial on a Russian site on how to make a disk image, reparation the internal storage and so on. The tutorial was written for firmware version 1.0.05. I wasn't able to make a disk image of my device. I checked the partitions on Linux and realized that there was definitely an issue with the dictionary partition. I readjusted the size of the system and data partitions, used e2fsck to check and repair bad blocks, restored the dictionary and system partitions using backups I found somewhere on this forum and lo and behold, the device hasn't frozen since and I have a 400mb data partition formatted in ext4.
So, I want to get the second PRS-T1 down to 1.0.05 because I want to apply the same procedure since all the backup images I have are for v1.0.07.

[JSWolf]

Do you have the 1.0.0.5 firmware update?

[medwatt]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Do you have the 1.0.0.5 firmware update?

If you mean the original update from Sony,sure. But it doesn't work because it says you can't because its a lower version. What exactly are you asking ?

[medwatt]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Do you have the 1.0.0.5 firmware update?

Any chance of assisting ?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by medwatt

Any chance of assisting ?

I might have an idea. I'm not sure if it will work. But I'd need the firmware. Post it on dropbox and PM me a link and I'll see what I can do.

[medwatt]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I might have an idea. I'm not sure if it will work. But I'd need the firmware. Post it on dropbox and PM me a link and I'll see what I can do.

Never mind. I've downgraded.

[algert]

Originally Posted by medwatt

Never mind. I've downgraded.

Hi would you mind sharing how you did this as many users (incl. me) are facing this problem. would be ab-so-lu-te-ly great if you can provide method and sources

thanks!

Firmware version 1.0.05.11130 is parked here
http://www.sony.nl/support/nl/conten...130-win/PRS-T1

or here
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7...nhJMGdVMVYxak0

[medwatt]

Originally Posted by algert

Hi would you mind sharing how you did this as many users (incl. me) are facing this problem. would be ab-so-lu-te-ly great if you can provide method and sources

thanks!

Firmware version 1.0.05.11130 is parked here
http://www.sony.nl/support/nl/conten...130-win/PRS-T1

or here
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7...nhJMGdVMVYxak0

Hello,
I followed the procedure described in this post and successfully downgraded from 1.0.07 to 1.0.05. You need to know a little bit of linux to know what to do if things don't go exactly as written. Let me quickly summarize what you need to do.

1. Flash restore-set to force the system to have v1.0.05. This is necessary because the rupore-rescue works on v1.0.05. The firmware will continue to read v1.0.07.

2. The rupore-rescue zip has two items; a folder "OS firmware" and a file called gserial.inf. Copy the "OS firmware" folder in the rupore-rescue zip to the root of your external SD card.

3. Turn off the device and boot into recovery mode (hold back and home buttons while the device is being turned on). The device wont be recognized. Go to device drivers, look for the device and use the gserial.inf as the driver file. Take note of the port number of the device (something like com18 or whatever). The device will now be recognized and you will be asked by windows whether you'd like to format the disk. Say no.

4. Open putty, change to serial, put in the port number and log into the device.

5. Type root and you now have root access to the device.

6. Mount the sdcard : mount -t vfat /dev/mmcblk0p1 /initrd/mnt/sd

7. Make a backup image of the internal storage (about 1.8GB) on the sd-card (takes about 10 minutes) : dd if=/dev/mmcblk2 of=/initrd/mnt/sd/mmcblk2.img

8. Take out the sdcard, put it in your phone or something else and copy the file mmcblk2.img to your computer.

9. Use a hex editor (I have editpad pro) and replace all instances of 1.0.07.05070 with 1.0.03.11140 (there are 3 of them). Save.

10. Copy the file back into your sdcard, insert into the reader.

11. Reboot the device back into recovery just to make sure that the reader has read the sdcard.

12. Now, restore the modified image : dd if=/initrd/mnt/sd/mmcblk2.img of=/dev/mmcblk2

13. Reboot the device (not recovery).

14. Run the 1.0.05 installer and you're done.

[JSWolf]

If I am not mistaken, it may be very easy to do the downgrade.

1. Change the firmware filename from .exe to .zip

2. Look inside the zip file, extract the file PRSVersion.dat located in eBookUpdater\assets\updateAssets\PRSVersion.dat

3. Edit PRSVersion.dat and change the version number from 1.0.0.5.1130 to 1.0.0.8.1130

4. Replace PRSVersion.dat with the edited version

5. Rename the firmware filename from .zip back to .exe

6. Run the firmware file and update the firmware

If this works, you will have version downgraded the firmware.

[algert]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If I am not mistaken, it may be very easy to do the downgrade.



If this works, you will have version downgraded the firmware.

ehrr. nope! will try the other option though

[algert]

Originally Posted by medwatt

Hello,
I followed the procedure described in this post and successfully downgraded from 1.0.07 to 1.0.05. You need to know a little bit of linux to know what to do if things don't go exactly as written. Let me quickly summarize what you need to do.

Weird. This post contains two files. 1 = restore set with the files OS Firmware and the second file is the rupor rescue with only update.img and the inf file (see Screenshots) No matter which part (even combined) I put in the root, the reader wont'go to recovery I figured that it should be menu+home+power to get it read a package from the SD card. any tips?

Do you happen to have the file still?

[medwatt]

Originally Posted by algert

Weird. This post contains two files. 1 = restore set with the files OS Firmware and the second file is the rupor rescue with only update.img and the inf file (see Screenshots) No matter which part (even combined) I put in the root, the reader wont'go to recovery I figured that it should be menu+home+power to get it read a package from the SD card. any tips?

Do you happen to have the file still?

This is the restore-set I used.

This is the rupor-rescure I used, which is the same as the one provided in the post.

[algert]

Originally Posted by medwatt

This is the restore-set I used.

This is the rupor-rescure I used, which is the same as the one provided in the post.

Thanks that worked like a charm.
Only thing was that I could not re connect via USB because the reader would hang up on me. I an Slax from an USB drive and copied the extracted update package to /reader while it was in recovery and then restarted the reader with menu+home+power after which it carried out the update.

Thanks for helping me out in this!

p.s. the Comdriver in the package didn't work but the driver in the prst1 wiki did. (just for the ones who have trouble in loading the gserial.inf driver)