OS Flash for Palm III, IIIx and V

OS Flash V1.5
This program allows to re-flash the OS in the flash rom of a Palm device.  
It can be used to change the language of a PalmOS 3.0/3.1/3.3/3.5 in a 
Palm III/IIIx and V.  This program may destroy your pilot beyond repair!  

To work with osflash you need the follwing things:

- A Palm III/IIIx/V with Am29LV160BB or Fujitsu MBM29LV160B or Toshiba
  TC58FVB160 flash rom. Osflash will complain if there is no such flash rom.
- The image of an PalmOS 3.0/3.1/3.3/3.5 (no debug version, no image smaller
  2097152 Bytes from 3coms web site, no image that was modified by FlashPro)
- Lots of courage, since this can easily destroy your pilot.

Instructions

Step 1: Read all the instructions and all the questions and answers before 
proceeding!  

Step 2: Get an PalmOS rom image
Known to work are the american, the german and the french OS 3.0, and the 
french and american 3.1.  Most OS 3.x that use at most 1.625 MBytes 
(1703936 bytes) flash space will work.  Japanese roms won't work, they are 
too long!  

To read the flash rom from a pilot you need a program like pi-getrom from 
thepilot-link utilities.  The current version available for unix is 
Pilot-link.0.9.0 
(ftp://ftp.mayn.de/pub/pilot/Devel/Unix/pilot-link.0.9.0.tar.gz) which 
works fine with OS 3.0.  For DOS/Win there is version 0.8.6 
(http://www.palmcentral.com/local/pilot-link-w32.zip) available, which is 
quite old.  Also available for windows is the getrom2 package, available 
at www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/~harbaum/pilot/osflash/getrom2M.zip.  Please don't 
ask me for other programs, this is all i know and i am using the unix 
version 0.9.0.  

Don't use a pilot ROM image that has been modified by flashbuilder or 
FlashPro!  

Step 3: Convert the rom image into a PalmOS database
Rename the rom image (which must be exactly 2097152 Bytes long) into 
something like rom3x.img and install either the DOS/Win executable of 
os2pdb from the binary distribution or compile it yourself (for Linux for 
example) from the source distribution.  Now type 'os2pdb rom3x.img'.  This 
will write a 'rom3x.pdb' (which must be exactly 1704430 bytes long with 
osflash version 1.5).  

Osflash will tell you a checksum, please write it down somewhere.

Step 4: Install osflash on pilot to be flashed
HotSync the rom3x.pdb and osflash.prc onto the empty Palm III you want to 
reflash.  Make sure there is nothing else installed on the pilot and that 
the batteries are fresh!  

Step 5: Flash the OS
To flash the OS just start 'OS Flash' on the pilot.  After some seconds 
you will be shown two checksums.  Make sure that the database checksum is 
the same as in step 3.  If it isn't exit immediately and HotSync again.  
Never flash with the wrong checksum.  

If you click the 'flash now'-button, you will be prompted once more if you 
really want to risk this.  This is the last time you can change your mind!  

If you proceed the pilot will switch into some ugly text mode, since the 
old OS is switched off during flash operation.  You'll see a progress bar 
drawn of stars appear on the screen.  After displaying 32 stars the 
flashing is complete and you'll be asked to reset the pilot.  

If there are other characters during flash than stars, there are errors 
during flash operation.  Your pilot will most likely be dead if this was 
the case.  Please don't press reset now, but write down the exact sequence 
of stars, numbers and characters you see in the progress bar, this might 
help me to find the problem (although this will never help you with you 
dead pilot).  

During flash operation, the old serial number of the old OS will stay.  
The serial number is in a protected area of the flash and cannot be erased 
or re-flashed.  

Step 6: Restart the new OS
After an hard reset you'll hopefully see the new OS booting.  But all ram 
setting are still from the old OS (for example cathegory, time and date 
settings are all still in the old language).  You should do a hard reset 
with the power on button pressed during reset.  PalmOS will ask you if you 
really want to rease all data.  Answer with yes and see a complete new OS 
booting ...  

We are finished

Questions and Answers
Can i use this program to flash linux?
No, there is a protected sector in the flash rom that contains the serial 
number.  Unless someone patches linux not to use this sector it will not 
work.  

Osflash malfunctioned and my pilot is dead, can i/you repair it?
No.  I am sorry to say, but you can't repair it without using some special 
adaptor (which i havn't and i don't know of anybody who has) or some 
special flash programmer hardware (which has the same problem as above).  

Does osflash work with a Palm IIIx or Palm V and OS 3.1?
Yes, this was tested with the french OS 3.1 and a Palm IIIx.  The Palm V 
isn't tested yet but should work.  

Can i use osflash to put an OS 3.1 onto my old Palm III with OS 3.0
Very unlikely.  I haven't tried this, but i doubt that OS 3.1 will work on 
old pilots.  You might give it a try, but don't complain if your Pilot 
dies!  

Till Harbaum ([email protected])
http://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/~harbaum/pilot/osflash.html



Version 1.5 September 24, 2000 (Tim Charron [email protected]) 
- Added Hard-reset software routine
- Added support for some Toshiba chips
- Prevented writing of small rom area (first 32k)
- Increased size of allowable ROM images to 52 blocks