Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 Instruction Manual page 208

my Zaurus SL-C3000 and SL-C3100
The updater-tools.bin file is a tar file. It contains utilities from the pdaXrom tools.tar file.
# tar xvf tools.tar
I removed the kernel images and nand patches from the extracted tar file and added the
pivot_root binary and init script as well as other tools to the bin directory and re-archived it.
# tar cvf updater-tools.bin tools
zImage.bin
This is a kernel image. I just renamed the kernel from the C3000 beta2 to zImage-2.4.20.bin. This
way, I can use almost any 2.4.20 kernel image for the C3000, by simply renaming the kernel image
to zImage-2.4.20.bin and flashing it. I have found that the C3000 beta2 kernel works best and is
most stable. I have tried using the Tetsu special kernel image as well and it mostly works, but since
the C3000 beta2 kernel works great, there is no point in using the Tetsu kernel.
initrd.bin
The initrd.bin file from the pdaXrom C3000 beta2 was a rip from an old OZ distro that used the
2.4.20 kernel. Hence the system contained in the initrd.bin file required a specifically compiled
kernel for OZ and also had to be compatible with pdaXrom. All the mini system does is boot up and
mount the microdrive and then pivot to it. I ripped the emergency boot system to built the
initrd.bin. To do that, mount mtdblock1 and tar it up.
# mount /dev/mtdblock1 /mnt/test
# cd /mnt/test
# tar cvf initrd.tar *
# cd
# umount /mnt/test
Then extract the initrd.tar file and modify it. Most importantly is to place pivot_root and init into
sbin directory. Then use the mkfs.jffs tool to generate a jffs2 image:
# tar xvf -C initrd
# mkfs.jffs2 -n -e 16 -o initrd.jffs2 initrd
Now the generated initrd.jffs2 file needs to be prepended with the Sharp initrd header which you
can extract from the original initrd file:
# head -c 16 initrd.bin > initrdheader
# cat initrdheader initrd.jffs2 > initrd.bin
You can extract head and mkfs.jffs2 from updater-tools.bin and make sure you use the head
utility from the extracted updater-tools bin directory rather than the default head command.
Later I found that the initrd.bin from the C3000 beta2 was sufficient, so I ripped that one instead
and customised it.
hdimage.tgz
The hdimage.tgz is simply a gzipped tarball from the pdaXrom beta3 initrd.bin file. You can
customise the content of this file, ie add and remove applications to and from it and also customise
the pre-configured settings. The easiest way is to flash pdaXii13, then customise the running
system to your liking and then use zbackup to generate a tgz image of your current system.
Rename the backup tgz image to hdimage-custom.tgz and the installer will use it to flash your
C3000 instead of the default hdimage.tgz or hdimage-base.tgz. hdimage-base.tgz contains the files
from the ripped C1000/C3100 initrd.bin with minimal customisations. hdimage-full.tgz contains an
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http://www.users.on.net/~hluc/myzaurus/
16/09/2007 12:23