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Making a CF Backup of your Audrey's ROM

Warning

This method should be ONLY be used to back up and restore Audrey's you personally OWN and Possess. The Audrey OS, software and filesystem IS still COPYRIGHTED and OWNED by 3COM/ERGO/QNX/et. al. Even though the product is now discontinued and unsupported, 3COM et. al most likely retains all rights to it's software and would be unhappy if it became known that anyone was selling and/or spreading it around on them. This web site and this author do not advocate piracy of intellectual property or proprietary software, but it is your right to back up the stuff you own in my humble opinion. So...Be good now... : )

Warning

Fluxit has figured out that: Unplugging your Audrey with a CF card still in the slot may corrupt your CF card so that the image you were hoping to back up off now won't work. ALWAYS remove your backup CF Image from the Audrey as soon as you are done with it and put it in a safe place.

Making a CF Backup Image

The method worked out by Suicidal using the "cat" command has been proven and works well at this point. I have created several images and have successfully flashed them to 2 different Audrey's w/o a problem. If you are planning to hack your Audrey at all, this should be the FIRST thing you should do after establishing Shell/ROOT pterm access lest you screw up and render your Audrey UNBOOTABLE. The thread on Linux-Hacker relating to this is a bit wordy and long at this point but here is the summary of how to do it...

  1. Make sure you have the Shell access enabled and pterm running from the Audrey Options menu so that you can launch a ROOT access pterm shell. If you don't know how to do this, see Robert Canoma's excellent Audrey Web Page.
  2. Get a viable 32 MB CF card. The SanDisk brand and several others seem to work just fine. Check the Linux-Hacker Audrey Forum or check a similar thread on this board's forum for reccomendations on what brands have worked. The SanDisk CF that has worked for me was labled on the front as: SanDisk 32 MB CompactFlash. On the back: SanDisk CE SDCFB 99 SanDisk. Barcode: SDCFB-32-455 (top of Barcode), 6...19659 01155...0 (Bottom of Barcode), 80-56-00317-32 (Below that). Got it at Staples and didn't prep it in any way, just shoved it in straight out of the box.
  3. Start a pterm via the Actions Palette.
  4. Insert the 32 MB CF card into the CF slot under the cover at the right lower edge of the Audrey in the back. The CF will only insert all the way if it is inserted with the "TOP" or main label pointed AWAY from you. Make sure it is seated securely, the eject lever has a bit of play in it and can interfere with the CF card. You may have to fiddle around with it to get the CF inserted properly.
  5. Type: devb-cf - A message saying: "CF inserted: xxxxxxxx bytes (xxxxx kB, xx MB)" Make sure the size is at least 17 MB or greater or your image won't fit.
  6. Hit enter or return to get the prompt again.
  7. Type: cd /dev
  8. Type: cat fs0p0 fs0p1 fs0p2 > /dev/cf
  9. Or you can issue this command: cat fs0p0 fs0p1 > /dev/cf - Which creates an image that does not copy over the Audrey's Flash Loader (fs0p2 is the Flash Loader/Restore code). Theoretically this is safer since if you corrupt the Flash Loader your Audrey is DEAD. Jayklm has confirmed that this abbreviated image is shorter and possibly safer.
  10. The Audrey then writes to the CF for about 2-3 minutes. Be patient. When the shell prompt comes back, you are done and can safely remove the CF Card. DO NOT UNPLUG THE AUDREY WITH A CF CARD IN THE SLOT, THE CONTENTS WILL BECOME CORRUPTED!! Put it in a safe place as you'll need it one day if you hack around with stuff alot.

Restoring from a CF Backup Image

  1. Unplug the Audrey.
  2. Insert the CF Card containing the backup image.
  3. Wait at least 1 min from the time you first unplugged the Audrey.
  4. Hold down the Datebook AND Power buttons. Don't let go...
  5. Plug the Audrey back in while holding the buttons down until...


The screen will now go black and you will see a message in the top left corner "Loading from Compact Flash" and a message in the top right corner "Flash Loader v1.12" or something like that.


  1. You see a message indicating that the Flash Loader is being read, then a short Flash Erase/Flash Write sequence occurs. (I think this is the Flash Loader module re-flashing itself from the CF to the Audrey Flash ROM)
  2. Then the screen will go black and a second longer Flash Erase sequence will be followed by a Flash Write sequence.
  3. After which, the screen will clear again and instruct you to remove the CF Card. Make sure you do this as leaving the CF Card in while unplugging the unit WILL CORRUPT THE CF IMAGE. Many people have had problems with making and restoring CF Images, I wonder if this is the root of their problems.
  4. Then, you will be instructed to Unplug the Audrey.
  5. Wait 30 sec, and then plug in the Audrey again and the newly flashed ROM will boot up.

Notes

You can use this method to copy the OS and file system to another Audrey rather painlessly and in effect clone an Audrey. I had thought the serial number info was lost in the process (ie. both end up with the same serial number), but I have been informed that in fact, the serial numbers are in fact coded in hardware and remain unique even in "cloned" Audreys.

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