[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] Re: [maemo-announce] New Nokia 770 software image available

[From: Michael Wiktowy]

On 11/3/06, Frantisek Dufka <dufkaf at seznam.cz> wrote:
> Daniel Stone wrote:
> >
> > you can't do the
> > bootloader, kernel, and initfs from userspace.
> >
>
> Well, you can, but it really isn't a good idea. It has no chance to be
> completely safe, something may go wrong pretty easily (like random
> device reboot). There is no safe order in which you can make the upgrade
> of those specific parts (bootloader,kernel,initfs,rootfs) and still have
> device bootable if the process is interrupted.

That is also something that could be said for the flashing through the
USB method too. If that is interrupted then you are likely equally
unable to boot your 770. However, you can always try again ... just
like you could always fall back to the USB method if the updating
internally fails.

What might really complicate this a great deal is if the N770 kernel
uses those "run in place" features I recall reading about that was
introduced for embedded systems that causes the kernel to just run
apps directly from flash memory rather than copying them to RAM and
then running from there. Writing directly to a program space that you
are currently running is the road to nastiness.