Can the new version of keysoft operate on the old bootloader if
the upgrade did not compleat and you got the new bootloader but
not the new keysoft version?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Lee" <[email protected]
To: "'Braillenote List'" <[email protected]
Date sent: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:33:26 -0700
Subject: [Braillenote] Upgrade or downgrade: they are the same
thing,according to hardware
Hi,
I think you can count this as a clarification message:
You can in fact downgrade your KeySoft version, provided that you
have a
license key for an earlier version of KeySoft. However, there are
some
exceptions to this.
As far as hardware is concerned, whether you upgrade or
downgrade, it
performs the same operation - loads "new" KeySoft image and
overrides the
existing KeySoft image with the new one. Here's how it is done:
1. When KeySoft detects you have a hwi file (a specialized cab
file for
storing ROM files, similar to iOS upgrade files), BrailleNote
will ask you
to perform a soft reset. After a reset, the user is asked to
install this
hwi file. If the user says "yes", the upgrade starts.
2. Before the actual upgrade can begin, the upgrade files from
the hwi file
are extracted to Flash Disk/Temp folder. There are three files:
eboot.bex
(bootloader), fpga.bex (low-level hardware config) and kernel.bex
(KeySoft
image).
3. Once extraction is done, the actual upgrade starts by using
KeySoft
Installer (vaInstaller.exe). This is divided into five phases:
A. Bootloader is loaded and flashed to ROM.
B. Low-level hardware configurations are applied (using FPGA
config file; as
for what FPGA's (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) are, I'll not
answer it
here, as we might get into too much electrical engineering
materials, which
I think that topic doesn't really fit this list).
C. The integrity of KeySoft ROM image is checked by performing
what's called
"checksum calculation" (again, I think that would be too
technical for this
list). If KeySoft image is fine, then upgrade continues. If not,
upgrade
stops and you'll end up with new bootloader and old KeySoft
version.
D. KeySoft image is then applied on ROM. This process may take 30
to 40
seconds, as the ROM image size is about 60 MB.
E. The extracted temp files are deleted from Flash Disk.
When all processes are done, KeySoft restarts. After restarting,
KeySoft
will first check if you have the license for the installed
version.
Thus, when you downgrade, you are effectively replacing the
"later" version
of KeySoft ROM image with "older" KeySoft ROM image, which is the
same
process when upgrading to newer KeySoft versions. This process is
called
"flashing".
Hope this clears some confusion.
Cheers,
Joseph
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