Guide: Flashing a Dreambox with Dreamup

[piopat]

ok you need (ideally ) dreamup 1.3.2.1 for a dm500c (or a dm500s ) c being (cable ) s being (satellite ) , they are basicly the same boxes but with different tuners , one being cable the other being satellite , so dreamup 1.3.2.1 works for both . now if your using a laptop well modern laptops (or atleast most of them) don't have an rs232 connection , if you look on the rear of the dm500 it has a 9 pin connection (that's the rs232 connection ) ideally your laptop would have one of those connections aswell and you could join your box and laptop together (to flash the box) using a null modem cable . but as I say most modern laptops don't have that connection , so your options are to use a usb to serial adaptor , one end of that connects to your null modem cable , the other end has a usb connection , so you then connect the rs232 end to your box and the usb end to your laptop . you then need to install a device driver , that's a bit of software for the usb to serial adaptor , very simply put the device driver helps your laptop understand and see that it has a device (your box ) connected to it , without the device driver you computer cant see the box so dreamup then wont connect to it .

the problem is that new laptops (and computers ) mostly run now on windows vista , and device drivers for usb to serial adaptors are pretty much in my experience atleast incompatable with windows vista , ive been doing this years and ive never managed to get a device driver that works . they work with some old laptops that run on windows xp , I say some because they wont work on some windows xp laptops either , I can only assume because they have received some updates to their software making them equally incompatable . I personally use a desktop computer (as they usually have the 9 pin rs232 connection) to flash a dm500 , newer boxes I flash via usb memory stick (or web browser), but you cant flash a dm500 via usb stick as it has no usb connection .

I personally wouldn't waste my time with usb device drivers ,so your two best options are to get the use of a desktop computer and flash the box using a null modem cable . or you could try the root.cramfs method and dream control center . change your chosen image name to root.cramfs by right clicking on the image and selecting rename . then use dream control center to send the root.cramfs file to your box , send it to the tmp/ folder , then go to your addons panel and to manual install panel and select the file to install it . you can probably also do it via telnet and maybe via web browser but maybe someone else can advise you on that .

[piopat]

I don't know that any image will get you free cable using a dm500c . if your after free cable id say an arnet kryptview a750 or a780 is what you need .

[derekjf]

ok you need (ideally ) dreamup 1.3.2.1 for a dm500c (or a dm500s ) c being (cable ) s being (satellite ) , they are basicly the same boxes but with different tuners , one being cable the other being satellite , so dreamup 1.3.2.1 works for both . now if your using a laptop well modern laptops (or atleast most of them) don't have an rs232 connection , if you look on the rear of the dm500 it has a 9 pin connection (that's the rs232 connection ) ideally your laptop would have one of those connections aswell and you could join your box and laptop together (to flash the box) using a null modem cable . but as I say most modern laptops don't have that connection , so your options are to use a usb to serial adaptor , one end of that connects to your null modem cable , the other end has a usb connection , so you then connect the rs232 end to your box and the usb end to your laptop . you then need to install a device driver , that's a bit of software for the usb to serial adaptor , very simply put the device driver helps your laptop understand and see that it has a device (your box ) connected to it , without the device driver you computer cant see the box so dreamup then wont connect to it .

the problem is that new laptops (and computers ) mostly run now on windows vista , and device drivers for usb to serial adaptors are pretty much in my experience atleast incompatable with windows vista , ive been doing this years and ive never managed to get a device driver that works . they work with some old laptops that run on windows xp , I say some because they wont work on some windows xp laptops either , I can only assume because they have received some updates to their software making them equally incompatable . I personally use a desktop computer (as they usually have the 9 pin rs232 connection) to flash a dm500 , newer boxes I flash via usb memory stick (or web browser), but you cant flash a dm500 via usb stick as it has no usb connection .

I personally wouldn't waste my time with usb device drivers ,so your two best options are to get the use of a desktop computer and flash the box using a null modem cable . or you could try the root.cramfs method and dream control center . change your chosen image name to root.cramfs by right clicking on the image and selecting rename . then use dream control center to send the root.cramfs file to your box , send it to the tmp/ folder , then go to your addons panel and to manual install panel and select the file to install it . you can probably also do it via telnet and maybe via web browser but maybe someone else can advise you on that .

for information. just got ftdi usb to rs232 serial null modem adaptor cable off amazon. made by startech. have flashed 3 dm500s's all done in one sweep very impressed. no problem with driver in win7 and ubuntu.

[piopat]

thanks for the info mate . ive not tried any drivers in a while now as I say as I use other methods to flash , but its great to hear of some drivers that work . thanks again mate .

[arob]

Hi

I' trying flashing a DM 500-S bricked by flashing pli on gp. DreamUp not working. Probably because I'm using a serial USB convertor.

I'd like flashing via Kermit which seems to work. However, the box will not boot. Probably eraseall is needed. But I don't have telnet working.

So flashing erase.img first should help. However the transfer hangs at about 6MB.

Does anyone know if this image must be that big ? Do I need another one ?

[piopat]

when you say flashing pli on gp do you mean that you didn't erase the old image before flashing the new one ? , a dm500s flash memory is quite small so really id advise always erasing the current image before flashing the new .

you say dreamup wont work and that you are using a usb to serial adaptor , did the adaptor ever work ? , I can only suggest you try to locate suitable drivers for it or find someone that has a desktop computer that you can use to flash the box . but erase all old images before flashing the new .

if the box has a green light on it chances are high (in my experience ) that the box is recoverable with a flash erase and a reflash . remember its got pli on it and gp , so flash erase to remove pli and then flash erase again just to be sure that gp is gone aswell , then flash as normal .

[arob]

Yes, I didn't erase before flashing. Actually I upgraded via Menu. I think Reset to factory Settings was necessary.

The Serial USB Adaptor works. However with DreamUp I get stuck on "... waiting for acknowledge". So I don't get
the button "Flash" operational.

I tried flashing via Kermit and uploaded dk_v1.1.img. However no boot is possible afterwards. Image got uploaded
successfully it seems. Here the last lines on the terminal:

Loaded successfully ...


Entry point at 0x436f6d70 ...


Program exception
SRR0=00000000 SRR1=00000000 ESR=00000000


Die ... :-(

As I don't have an IP connection, telnetting is not possible. How could I erase in this situation?

[piopat]

as I said a dm500s has a very small memory , you need to erase the old images before flashing a new one , at this point your just put one image on top of the other which has filled the flash memory .

what version of dreamup are you using ? its best to use one designed for a dm50os such as 1.3.2.1.

[arob]

Universal DreamUp 1.3.3.11. I also tried an older version, don't know the version, which couldn't
load the flash-loader.

However, let me try 1.3.2.1 as you suggest and report on it.

[arob]

DreamUp V1.3.2.1 shows the same behavior: after uploading the flash-loader sticks on:
"waiting for acknowledge..."
Tried with & without Network.

Probably DreamUp doesn't work with the Serial USB Adaptor.

What might be the reason why I cannot upload erase.img ? The size of the image is about 8MB.
Kermit uploads the image up to 6MB and, at this point, the communication hangs. Tried twice

[piopat]

I don't know I think maybe your best chance is to flash using a desktop computer and null modem cable only . maybe you have a friend or family member that has one that you can use , you only need it for about 10 minutes .

[arob]

Hi

yes, flashing w/o erasing first seems to lead to a situation recoverable only via DreamUp, which,
unfortunately, doesn't get along with the Prolific Serial USB convertor I use

I ordered another box and will try making thins better

I think this box, probably a clone, is recoverable. I don't work with Windows. I just have an XP copy
running on the Mac via VirtualBox. I don't think I'll ask somebody to lend me a PC though.

Perhaps it might be possible uploading a somewhat erase image via Kermit, which works after all,
allowing for a subsequent new image upload.

I didn't read details about JTAG. Perhaps this might be an option too

Cheers, Aldo

[piopat]

hi I didn't really mean to borrow a desktop I just mean to go to a friends house and flash the box there . you could also perhaps add a serial port to your laptop , that is if mac allows for this option . you could perhaps use some thing like this
Need A Serial DB9 RS232 com Port for Laptop Notebook PC ExpressCard 34mm | eBay

if you can get the erase image file to load that should help , but that may only erase the last image (but im not certain of that ) so you may have to repeat the process 2 or 3 times .

[arob]

Well, I don't like installing programs on other's PC's very much And it isn't sure DreamUp will work with the box anyway.

I ordered another box, € 44,00, which is on the way. Now I'll definitely always erase before updating via root.cramfs
I'll post my experience with it here to share.

MacBooks do not support ExpressCard anymore. Only SD-Card. I do have a copy of Windows XP, which I boot under VirtualBox
to run some Win only apps. Very seldom that is. But I'm not going to making a PC out of it by adding too much hardware

Perhaps DreamUp should be updated to support serial lines over USB. After all HW COM ports
aren't going to be popular in the future. If it would be open source, a solution might not be difficult to find.

The method, uploading via Kermit, works. Unfortunately erase.img cannot be uploaded, which is necessary in my situation.
Who is the author of that file. Perhaps something might be done on it.

[piopat]

you don't have to install any progams on anyones pc you download dreamup and an image to a usb memory stick , then all you have to do is insert the memory stick into the usb slot on the desktop computer . that said dreamup wouldn't do anything to any ones computer .