genromfs-cygwin

[TTSherpa]

Can anyone confirm that genromfs for cygwin generates a different size romfs.bin file compared to the same file generated under linux (Suse or Knoppix)?

The problem, in the end, is that my 500/8 doesn't boot after upgrading.

Regards & congrats on this site.

[Hi-Jack]

It should not be a big difference in size...
Make sure no other files are in the dir you extract the romfs.bin file to like the zip file for instance...

How big is your romfs after cygwin compiled it again?

[TTSherpa]

It's just 1024 bytes bigger than the original, first I decompress it with romfs.exe to a directory and then I use genromfs-cygwin with the same directory. I use NTFS .

[doppie]

Can anyone confirm that genromfs for cygwin generates a different size romfs.bin file compared to the same file generated under linux (Suse or Knoppix)?

The problem, in the end, is that my 500/8 doesn't boot after upgrading.

Regards & congrats on this site.

Yes i can confirm the romsf i made with genromfs would not start on
my kiss 500/508 it loads the firmware but when finisht and tunrn the
power off and on the kiss stays in a black screen an de the words kiss-dvd
on the lcd.

and can some one please explain me what i,am doing wrong i extracted the romfs in windows and in linux.
but when i have changed the background pictures an use genromfs to make the romfs and put the file back in to iso sofar all fine.

and the rest you can read above this lines

and thats it :roll:


:D doppie :)

[TTSherpa]

OK Doppie, have you noticed the difference in size? For the moment we must rely on Linux's genromfs.

[doppie]

Yep

The version genromfs for windows wont work not so good
for these things.

but i,am sure that there are people where it work maybe the
can tell us what we are doing wrong with the windows version of
genromfs.


doppie

[Hi-Jack]

It might have something to do with "symbolic" links...
When extracting the romfs.bin, do you errors in winzip?

Seems to work fine with my versions of romfs.bin, had no problems...
Recompiling is best done using knoppix too...

Soon we'll make another how-to on using knoppix to put files back in romfs.

Would that be a good idea?

[martol]

It might have something to do with "symbolic" links...
When extracting the romfs.bin, do you errors in winzip?

Seems to work fine with my versions of romfs.bin, had no problems...
Recompiling is best done using knoppix too...

Soon we'll make another how-to on using knoppix to put files back in romfs.

Would that be a good idea?

In the How-To's is described how to extract, mount and backup the romfs.bin file from the ISO image you want to mod.

When making a backup using 'tar' empty directories are NOT backuped.

If you open the tar file (for example using winzip) en extract the files and directories you will be missing 3 directories:
cdrom, dev and proc. Just create these directories and leave them empty.

The directory you are going to use when creating a new romfs.bin file should contain the following:

bin == directory
cdrom == empty directory
dev == empty directory
etc == directory
img == directory
proc == empty directory
fileplayer.bin == file
fipmodule.o == file
khwl.o == file
kiss_khwl.o == file
linux.bin.gz == file
mpegplayer.bin == file

Creating a How-to on using knoppix to put files back in romfs won't be that easy because the knoppix distribution used doesn't contain the command "genromfs". You will have to download the source code for this and compile it. It's more easy the use "genromfs-cygwin" as described on http://www.kiss-tuning.nl/en/howto1.html

Last hint. If you have any troubles opening the DVD drive after installing a modded firmware and your KISS player fails to boot: turn of your KISS player - hold down the open button on the player and turn the player back on. The drive will open ;-)

[phoathijack]

First of all, thanks to all of you who makes this forum the best available source of information on the KISS players. Most in here is really helpfull to all of us trying to keep up...

Well, found it a bit surprising that this thread ended more than 8 month ago. Is it really true that nobody since have had the same problems generating romfs binary in a Win32 environment!!? The problem as I see it, still exists.

The MD5SUM generator does the job ok. I have verified this by simply generating the checksum from an unmodified romfs.bin taken from one of the firmware ISOs and compared it to the layout.txt file. However, performing the romfs extraction followed by a genromfs (without changing a single bit!) will generate a different checksum compared to the original romfs.bin file so the problem is in either the unpacking or the packing tool.

Im running XP with NTFS filesystem, setup as striping in a RAID0 configuration. The above issues have been detected with all available romfs tools available (at least those 3-4 sets I have been able to spot!) including the cygwin method. All failed! Also tried to simulate Win95, Win98, NT4 and 2000 without success (the checksum calculation did actually change trying the different platforms, but never to the right one).

Furthermore, I should mention that the tested romfs extractions did all succeed with no errors (result from ET283 bold version was: 45 symbolic links, 0 unresolved).

Finally I gave up and installed Linux Suse. Did the patching from there...Now it works 100% even though my novice linux knowledge caused me some headaces along the way.

Reason for writing this: Spending 2 nights in a row trying to use a set of tools that is quite well documentet but just doesn't work for me, kind of makes me feel stupid. It was a relief to finally find this thread to see that I was not alone - Better reason: Reopening this thread could lead to somebody creating a working XP version of the romfs tools :wink:

[Hi-Jack]

Hi,

Whenever you extract and recompile a romfs.bin file, the size of the file will
be a few bits smaller or bigger. That will always happen and would be the
reason why a new checksum is needed.

In the mean time, there is a workset that can be used to extract and comile romfs.bin :-)
It is created to be able to change backgrounds but can be used for any other purpose too...

I would consider getting the guide, which describes the process step by step
on usage (including all other things you can do with KiSS) and it will work
100% fine with you. If the 5 Euro for the guide ain't an option for you, i
even help you with this link that also describes the same tool in a couple
steps...

http://www.mpcclub.com/modules.php?name=Special

If the guide is not an option for you (its much more then just this guide)
then you can get explanatioon and tools from this site:
http://www.gizycko.mm.pl/~andlach/howto/2en.htm

Regards
Hi-Jack

[phoathijack]

Hello Hi-Jack

I did try both method 2 and 3 on the gizycko-page. Both methods gave the same result: Created firmware with custom pictures, burned ISO to RW-CD, uploaded 100%, turned off power, turned on power...Display said 'Kiss DVD...' and then stalled.

Following the mount, genromfs procedures on Linux however works every time.

I will consider your membership fee.

Thanks
/Peter

[Hi-Jack]

Sounds weird.
I use it all the time and have never had any trouble.

what is your drive format: NTFS or FAT32?

[Big]

Hello Hi-Jack

I did try both method 2 and 3 on the gizycko-page. Both methods gave the same result: Created firmware with custom pictures, burned ISO to RW-CD, uploaded 100%, turned off power, turned on power...Display said 'Kiss DVD...' and then stalled.

Following the mount, genromfs procedures on Linux however works every time.


Which firmware do you modify? Instructions from method 2 are for special firmware versions available form this website. Method 3 gives good results only when you modify oroginal firmwsare and not the modified (for example mine or from ET).

[phoathijack]

My harddrives are partitioned with NTFS, running in RAID0 setup (dont know if the RAID thing matters though!). My windows OS is XP.

The firmware versions I have tried:
KiSS_DP-500_Firmware_2.8.0_PAL-TS-MVr.iso (?)
dp500-280-mv-sub-8859-1-bold.iso (ET)
dp500-283-mv-sub-8859-1-bold.iso (ET)

Note that I have cygwin installed and that the problem still exist in method 3. But of cause, if the real problem originates from the bin extraction, the cygwin method would fail even though it does the BIN creation ok, as the extraction is still done from the batch files in method 2.

[Big]

So if you use ET firmware if you want not to have such problems do all thins in Linux. Problem is that ET an me we both use file symlinks which are not supported by the Windows filesystems (FAT andd NTFS) so if you will do it in Windows (in cygwin or not) you'll have problems all the time.

Sad but true ....

[phoathijack]

Ok, I have to turn to Linux once in a while, which is something I can live with. At least now I know the reason for the faulty patching in Windows.

Thanks Big