Hi Bob,
Interesting findings...

2007-01-26: Bob Copeland dixit:
> How the firmware uploader works
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> The Karma operates pretty much the same in Recovery Mode as it
> does in regular operation.  [...] a minor change to the
> usb-storage driver would facilitate using the Karma even in
> recovery mode (see hacky 2-liner at end that proves it).
> 
> There's no magic switch to make the Karma format itself.  The
> firmware uploader just accesses the disk like normal to format
> the disk if you request it.  Likewise, the firmware image
> itself is just copied to the appropriate location on disk.  
> Thus, if someone really screws their Karma, they should be able
> to take a backup created with dd, patch the kernel driver with
> the below patch, then simply restore the image via dd.

Do you mean a 20GB back-up copy? or could it be just a small
chunk containing the firmware image (as I think you mentioned
long time ago).  In any case, I'm a bit lost now as I don't see
why Recovery Mode is needed to restore a "physical" back-up copy
of the RK disk...

> I do not know what triggers the reload of the firmware into
> flash.  Perhaps just disconnecting the endpoint while it's in
> recovery mode is enough.  I could not figure out how to force
> it trying various incantations with the sysfs binding files.  
> My traces don't show any special commands after the upload.

Let me try to understand: you mean that once the dd restore is
finished, it is just a matter of unplugging the RK to get the
firmware copied to the RK flash.  I guess the RK should be in
Recovery Mode for that.  Am I right?
 
> The firmware image itself appears to be encrypted on disk and
> in the transfer. [...]
> 
> So what all this means is: with a suitable backup and the below
> patch, you can recover from errors that cause the Karma to
> continuously reboot without going back to Windows.
> [...]
> PATCH: use one-shot messaging for Karma.
> [...]

Thanks for your sharing these findings!
Best,
EV.

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