OK, I've really messed up somehow

[SteveC]

I have a Phatbox LE (2 of them, actually) hooked to a Kenwood Headunit, and tried to patch one so I can install a new 100GB drive. For a while, I kept running into an issue where it didn't appear to be trying to update the firmware. When I inserted the DMS, no lights came on. When I turned on the ignition, it never entered the "fast green flash" mode. Then I had an "Aha!" moment and figured that my KCA-S210A multiswitch (to support my Phatbox and my XM) was probably messing things up. It was preventing the Phatbox from getting the constant power it needs to update in standby mode, and it was probably sending the "you are live" signal when I powered on the system.

Unfortunately, by this time I had tried and retried and "PatchClean"ed and retried the patch several times, thinking I was just doing something wrong. Now I'm not sure what kind of state my DMS is in.

I bypassed the multiswitch, and when I tried the DMS I got to the fast green blink stage with the system in standby. And it stayed in fast green blink mode. I corrupted the ramdisk.sig ahead of time to make sure I didn't have to worry about that. I didn't get ANY log in the log directory, so it doesn't look like the patch even started. The bootlog shows OK through BOOTF, but fails on BOOT*-X.

Being the brilliant idiot I am, I figured that maybe my Phatbox was in a strange state due to the many patch attempts, so I naturally pulled the second Phatbox out of my other car, put in the DMS, and watched it blink green for a while. Well, I left it blinking green all night, and it was still going in the morning. Still no patchverify file. Same bootlog as before (and I did delete the bootlog between tries).

Now the really bad news - whenever I power up EITHER of my phatboxes, they go into the fast green blink mode, even if I delete the forceupdate file. Even when I patchclean my DMS. Have I just pooched both of my Phatboxes? Is there any way to recover from this?

HELP!

Thanks!

Edit: OK, they aren't pooched. I re-copied all of the original files from the first backup, and the phatbox now acts like a phatbox again. I was sure I had tried that before, but I was tired and PO'd, so it's entirely possible that I had not. Going to retry the patch again. I'm just stupidly stubborn that way.

[sbingner]

I corrupted the ramdisk.sig ahead of time to make sure I didn't have to worry about that. I didn't get ANY log in the log directory, so it doesn't look like the patch even started. The bootlog shows OK through BOOTF, but fails on BOOT*-X.

um, if you corrupted the ramdisk.sig how is it going to boot to patch it to the place that the ramdisk.sig NEEDS to be corrupted?

[SteveC]

Well, it seems to be a Catch-22. I've been trying to repatch and I've found that if I don't corrupt the ramdisk.sig, it doesn't do anything at all. It does its little startup check of the disk, then shuts down. Only when I corrupt the .sig does it go into firmware patch mode.

Also, I learned a little something about my multiswitch - it's fine. The Phatbox does have power when the car is off. But I need to disconnect/reconnect the box to "reboot" it when I insert the DMS. Otherwise it never powers on.

The sad thing is I think I may have patched it OK, but then I turned on the car before removing the DMS, and it went back into patch mode (fast flashing green) and stayed that way for more than 30 minutes. When I checked the DMS, there was nothing in the log directory. Does patchverify get deleted when the patch routine starts?

I just reloaded the original contents onto the DMS and re-hacked it to try again. I'm sure that most of the problems are due to user error, but geez this stuff can be dicey.

[SteveC]

OK, thanks to sbinger's help, I was able to complete the process.

The major fault was one of understanding. I thought that this worked like a normal firmware update and you had to run it in "standby" mode. In actuality, you have to be trying to listen to music for the patch to run. Once he got me past that conceptual hurdle, everything worked great.

Thanks again!

Edit: Just finished patching the second Phatbox. This stuff is easy when you aren't doing it wrong!

[judb]

I didn't notice the error in the summary that was posted on page three of the new windows script thread.  Good catch, that would have taken me a while to figure out what you were doing.

[SteveC]

Unfortunately, the adventure still continues. I still haven't been able to get my new 100GB drive working property. NewDMS got it formatted, and I copied the stuff off of the old phatsys partition, but the box doesn't boot properly.

I've tried re-hacking the phatbox, but I always get the "completed" message as soon as it boots up - it doesn't seem to actually apply the patch. Is this correct? Is there a way to force it to run the hack again? Obviously, I'm missing niggling little detail.

Thanks again!

[judb]

clean out the log directory and then re run the DMS in the phatbox steve... then look in there and see what the patch.log shows.  it doesn't lie.

Frequently there is some kind of issue with the files copied from the old dms, like a messed up plugin folder or something, so we always suggest starting blank on phtsys and installing firmware from the download site by hand and removing the forceupdate / forcesettings files and see how it goes.

Also the bootload.log can be rather telling if there is an issue with the new DMS.

[SteveC]

OK, by cleaning out Phatsys and putting fresh firmware/headunit files on, I was able to get the new DMS working. As always, listening to the wise words of the experts here pays off.

I still can't re-run the patch - it just goes straight to the "patch complete" message. No logs. I'll try again on the second phatbox next week, since it never got verified in all the stages. The first Phatbox is working well.

However, it appears that I no longer have VIOT active. It's possible that this is due to my new headunit (Kenwood X-791), but I believe that either I need to copy something onto the Phatsys, or something messed up during the patch process. I'll keep digging on this one, because VIOT has become critical for me now - over 1000 CD's on the DMS at this time and playlists won't cut the mustard.

I'm sure it's something simple, and some searching here will turn up the solution. Unfortunately I've been traveling a lot and too busy to really sit down and work this trough from start to finish.

[sbingner]

Why are you trying to run the patch again?  That is patently impossible, as it is a permanent change.  Once you change a 1 to a 0, you can no longer change that 1 to a 0.

[sbingner]

oh as to VIOT -- if you can put your original VIOT Plugins folder on it, it should work.   If not, catch me on AIM or whatever and I can help you out.

[SteveC]

oh as to VIOT -- if you can put your original VIOT Plugins folder on it, it should work.   If not, catch me on AIM or whatever and I can help you out.

Ya, I figured that out. Once I put the plugins folder back, everything was fine. Thanks again!