As someone I know was interested in getting a new (old) laptop, I did some trawling of the intertubes, and saw that there were quite a few IBM Thinkpad’s in nice condition available on Taobao.

After checking away the requirements (one of which was not to go down in resolution to the crap they sell nowadays), I decided on a T6x series.

A T60 with a 1400×1050 screen was about RMB2500 on Taobao with fairly decent spec’s – DVD Writer, Bluetooth, Fingerprint Reader, SATA, Extended Battery. 3 month warranty, with a replacement 7 day swap for another unit. I sent my staff to go take a look at the shop, they liked, and I was soon the owner of an ex-corporate laptop that looked like it came from Singapore originally (according to the model / software licence sticker on the laptop). It even came with a legitimate licenced copy of Windows.

As I had ordered one for test purposes to see what the quality was like, I was pleasantly suprised. The one I received is pretty much in mint condition. In fact its in such good condition, that I decided I would keep it for myself!

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I’ve uploaded a zip of my built test image here. I’ve only included telnetd, and ftpd, as the sshd binary is very large, and won’t fit into our rom image space!

If someone is willing to test, feel free.

Test Rom with FTPD and TELNETD binaries added

This rom is 700k+- vs the normal 550kb. So this may / may not overwrite the web ui.

As China’s firewall is being particularly obnoxious this week as to what I can view on the web, I can’t actually get to the info I need to see where they typically write the UI to in rom.

In theory, we should be able to write to the same base address via the boot loader.

The original rom is written here –

Image: 6 name:romfs.img base:0×7F0E0000 size:0×0008D000 exec:0×7F0E0000 -a

And I’m pretty sure that the UI gets written somewhere after this, and not as a separate image. I’d have to run Windows and a sniffer to test this though (using their firmware update software).

Our boot logs show that linux blkmem driver is set to view the whole area from 0×7F0E0000 through to 0x7F16D3FF, so we should easily have 200kb to waste^Hplay with.

From my boot logs:

Blkmem 1 disk images:
0: 7F0E0000-7F16D3FF [VIRTUAL 7F0E0000-7F16D3FF] (RO)

Obstensibly, this should be a matter of going to the bootloader over serial, then uploading our img file.
Suggest rename from testrom.img to romfs.img to be consistent.

It should be something like this:

bootloader > del 6
(delete the current romfs.img)

bootloader > fx 6 romfs.img 0x7f0e0000 0x7f0e0000 -a
Waiting for download
Press Ctrl-x to cancel … (while it waits, you have to select Transfer > Send File in Hyperterminal menu, choose the Xmodem protocol and select my rom image)
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Flash programming …

bootloader> boot

Then see what happens in the logs.

It should boot, then attempt to run telnetd and ftpd.
That probably WON’T work just yet, as they’ll complain about missing /etc/ config files.

You might also be missing the UI (as I think this gets written somewhere after our romfs.img in flash)

Send me the serial logs in the comments, and I can fix that up, and repackage.

I also know why the alleged clones (NB they’re not f..king clones sigh, they’re all made by 1 manufacturer here for different people, including FOSCAM) don’t work. The linux.bin for older firmware is set to boot from 0x7f0D0000 as opposed to 0x7f0e0000, so image 6 and 7 both need to be reflashed.

Also of note is that the newer units have gone cheaper, and use 2M flash, previous units had 4M.
uCLinux reports 8M, but its not talking about Flash, just RAM

Be prepared to brick (not completely, as we have a bootloader, and can reflash the original firmware) if it doesn’t work.

If my rom above doesn’t work initially for you, try flashing this linux.zip before reverting, and see if that helps it boot.

eg

bootloader> del 7

bootloader> fx 6 romfs.img 0x7f0e0000 0x7f0e0000 -a
Waiting for download
Press Ctrl-x to cancel ... (while it waits, you have to select Transfer > Send File in Hyperterminal menu, choose the Xmodem protocol and select my rom image)
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Flash programming ...


Why aren’t I doing this?

Mostly as I don’t currently have a good serial connection, I’m waiting on headers. Currently I have to hold the serial ports onto the board with fingers, and thats less than reliable!

I should get around to fixing that soonish though, I’m interested in testing this myself…

I’d also appreciate the French contingent adding some info. I’m particularly interested in paillassou’s board photos, and any other firmware people have found for these so I can compare.

I can’t get to Picasa, GadgetVictims, IrishJesus now in China. Grrr.

Yes, I know, use a VPN or proxy… Unfortunately what we do precludes doing so, as I’d probably get told off by our beloved government here, and thats not worth the risk…

Comments please.