Backups
From OpenEZX
Before hacking on your EZX phone you should probably create backups of all contents on the phone, as things may break.
Contents |
What you need to backup
To fully backup your EZX phone, you have to backup the firmware and user data.
Flash Disks
The A780 has two internal flash devices, a 32 MB "wireless" StrataFlash and a 64 MB DiskOnChip in addition to an external TransFlash drive. The E680i has a 32 MB internal flash drive in addition to SD slot. Other devices will have a similar configuration of flash drives and each should be backed up. This can be done either via netcat, dd or tar (explained below).
Firmware
The part of the firmware that is on StrataFlash contains the data for the root file system, the bootloader, Kernel, /usr/setup and a logo. The part that is on the DiskOnChip contains /usr/language. Looking at the A780 mount points:
# df -k Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on rootfs 55112 55112 0 100% / /dev/root 55112 55112 0 100% / /dev/tffsa 25572 25572 0 100% /usr/language /dev/roflash2 152 152 0 100% /usr/setup /dev/mtdblock2 5312 1328 3984 25% /ezxlocal /dev/tffsb1 40858 11230 29628 28% /diska /dev/mmca1 246912 193056 53856 79% /mmc/mmca1
the devices /dev/root and /dev/roflash2 are mounted from the StrataFlash. However, they cannot be accurately copied from the filesystem. DumpFW (below) will solve this problem.
User data
The /diska(on the DiskOnChip) and /ezxlocal(on the StrataFlash) contains user data, they can be copied easily with dd or tar.
Using USBLAN Mode
Backup Flash Disks With netcat
Read Get a shell for a simple method to backup most files visible from within the Linux on the phone using netcat.
However, please note: This is not a full backup of the firmware, it only contains the files that are directly visible from Linux. It will not allow to re-flash the phone using standard flash tools. See Using Mass Storage USB Mode#Firmware.
Using Mass Storage USB Mode
If you are just getting started and haven't setup all of these fancy hacks yet, you can still backup your phone (well, almost completely). You need to first get your phone working in Mass Storage USB Mode (see this guide if you need help getting there). Once you have mounted both mass storage devices on the phone, you should archive the contents of each. Remember that there are hidden files and directories (for both Windows and Linux users) that should be copied as well.
Backup Flash Disks With tar
Windows Users
It is recommended that you use Cygwin tar because Linux and UNIX file systems have file modes & permissions that Windows doesn't natively understand. Making a backup with Winzip, winrar, etc. is certainly much better than no backup at all however! To install Cywgin, you need to download the generically named setup.exe program from www.cygwin.com and run it.
Once you have Cygwin installed, start a shell session and cd to your first mounted drive. The first drive is /diska (should be the same on all phones) and is the primary disk-on-a-chip flash drive where most of your user data goes. So if your phone's disks mounted on F: and G:, you will want to go to your F: drive first.
cd /cygdrive/f
Decide where you want your backups to go to. You will obviously want them on your PC, so this will be your C: drive or something like that. For now, let's assume you want them in C:\. While you are in the /cygdrive/f directory, type the following:
tar czf /cygdrive/c/diska.tgz .
You may also want to include the date in your output file name (e.g., /cygdrive/diska-20060505.tgz). The next drive is the contents of your MMC card. Use the same procedure.
cd /cygdrive/g tar czf /cygdrive/c/mmc01.tgz .
The only thing you cannot backup this way is the /ezxlocal file system since this isn't availble (without hacking) when in mass storage mode. Once you get LinLoader and/or telnet running, it's a relativly simple task using either a shell script or the Guides::Backups#Backup_Flash_Disks_With_netcat method
Linux Users
Pretty much the same thing, minus the Linux substitute =)
Backup Flash Disks With dd (Linux Only)
You can create dd images of the internal flash (mounted as /diska on the phone) and the external SD/MMC/TransFlash card directly, from the storage device, while the phone is attached to your computer via USB in Mass Storage Mode. If the phone is the only attached USB device, the internal flash should be /dev/sda1 and the external SD/MMC/TransFlash should be /dev/sdb1.
dd if=/dev/sda1 of=my_ezx_sda1_backup.dd dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=my_ezx_sdb1_backup.dd
I have experienced (driver?) problems with the external TransFlash on my A780 while creating such a dd image. Putting the TransFlash card into an external SD/MMC/TransFlash reader (and attaching that to my computer via USB) and then creating a dd image worked fine, though.
Firmware
Now, we need to backup the firmware. By far, the easiest way to do this is to nab DumpFW from motorolafans.com, read it's instructions, send praise to the authors jumit & evaldas and install it! To copy your firmware, you will need to make sure that you have at least 52 MB (for the A780) available on your TransFlash drive (54,525,952 bytes). Now run DumpFW and allow it to finish (it will take a few minutes).
Once it completes, copy the firmware files firmware.dump and tffsa.dmp to your hard drive. It is advisable to notate the firmware version you have extracted as well.
You have now made a backup!
