Post by Spanner on Apr 18, 2019 15:58:19 GMT
Updated version of the E3_Getting_Started Wiki Page..
This will only work on Linux so if you only have Windows then you can run Linux in a VM like Virtual Box or VMWare Workstation 4, it will work OK, thats how I installed E3 Linux on my E3.
You will need a USB Stick to put E3 Linux on the E3,it only needs to be 1GB or more so if you have a old one it will do. I use a 2GB USB Stick on my E3 and it works fine.I will be uploading a video of the process of doing this.
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So, you've got an E3 and you want to start playing with it.
First, you need to sort out a serial lead to connect to it. You need a 3.5mm stereo jack plug for the E3 end, and you can use a USB to Serial by Prolific but make sure it real and not a clone because it may not work.
The connections go:
D Sub 9pin-----3.5mm stereo jack
-Pin2------------> Tip
-Pin3------------> Ring
-Pin5------------> Sleeve
Tip: You can connect a Amiga serial 25 pin to 9 pin D sub cable to the 9 pin connector on the USB to Serial, I just connect white to pin 2, red to pin 3 and Ground to pin 7 from the 3.5mm stereo jack on the 25 pin d sub connector on the Amiga Serial cable and it works fine,you can hold the wires in place with Black Electric plastic Tape. You can try this USB to Serial but do not know if it will work,this has a male connector on the end so you can stick the wires in from the 3.5mm stereo jack plug .. Here from eBay UK
Once you've got this you should be able to start up a terminal program on your PC (Putty for example). You want a speed of 115200, 8 bits, no parity and 1 stop bit. And no flow control.
What you /want/ to see is something like:
Amstrad Delta - PBL V4.9 Build:1311 Assert Debug ICE
PBL 32MB NAND
0MB.-->MEMv01.00.002,CopyLim=00220000h,CodeEnd=01400000h-->PBL......1MB.......2MB*
If you see:
Amstrad Delta - PBL V5.1 Build:1314 Assert Debug ICE
PBL 32MB NAND
0MB.-->MEMv01.00.002,CopyLim=00220000h,CodeEnd=01400000h-->PBL......1MB.......2MB*
then you have a PBL version that we currently can't talk to. We hope in time to be able to get round this, but at present V4.9 is the way forward. There are currently (April 2006) no known instances of brand new E3s having 5.1, only those that have been allowed to download updates from Amstrad.
Assuming you have V4.9 you want to download the.earth.li/pub/e3/E3_release_v2.tar.gz this will install E3 Linux 2.6.16 there are other files in there but this boots up a ramdisk and is they easiest way to install Linux on the E3.
Uncompress the tar.gz into a folder you chose,open a terminal shell in the same folder.
Unplug your E3 and run:./pbltool -f /dev/ttyS0 oe-install.pbl (adjust ttyS0 to your serial port)
It'll output:
Prodding...
Plug in your E3 and pbltool should output:
Handshaking...
Done handshaking
Talking to PBL v4.9 Build 1311
Got command setbaud
sendpacket: 0
Got command write
and show an increasing byte count as it feeds the code over the serial port to the E3. It will take about 18 minutes to transfer the files and boot E3 Linux, well it is 56K Modem speed.. , You have time to go and make a cup of Tea now or Coffee now.. Eventually it'll print out "Got command exec"(Execute) and you'll see u-boot load follow by the kernel booting, eventually ending up with:
amsdelta login:
Type "root" and press enter and you'll be rewarded with a shell prompt.
You can test E3 Linux at this point and don't have to install it,once you do it will wipe the Amstrad E3 Original Firmware.
This way you can use E3 Linux and still keep the Amstrad E3 Original firmware intact.Its like you have 2 system on your E3..
Now Plug your USB memory stick into Linux. Now you need to copy the files you will need to install E3 Linux on the E3.
You need to copy over ldr.img, root.tar.gz, u-boot.bin and uImage.
Now Plug your USB memory stick into the E3 USB Port thats round the back of the E3, You'll see some warnings about sda as it tried to automount it. Hit enter afterwards and you should still have a shell prompt back. Type "ams-delta-install" and hit enter. You will see:
| Do you wish to backup your existing E3 NAND? If you say yes then 6
| e3-nand-backup.<n> files will be written containing the current contents
| of your flash.
| [y/N]:
Hit y then enter if you want to backup the NAND of your E3 before installing.
This should let you restore the original Amstrad firmware in the future if you wish, though this is currently untested (as I no longer have an E3 with Amstrad firmware to test it on). Be aware this can take some time - mine took
over 10 hours though I think is as my USB memory stick is slow for writing.
After you back up, or if you choose not to back up, you'll see:
| Ready to install. This process will completely wipe your E3's NAND.
| The Amstrad firmware will no longer exist on the device. Are you
| sure you wish to continue? [y/N]:
**WARNING** If you type y you will remove the original Amstrad firmware and flashing it back to the E3 will be very hard and more than lightly not be able to do so do it at your own risk. As of today(2019) I have had no luck with putting back the Amstrad Firmware back on my E3.
If you choose y then the installer will install the kernel, u-boot, notldr and a root fs from your memory stick onto the
NAND. When it's complete type "reboot" and watch your E3 boot into Linux...
Thats it done..
This will only work on Linux so if you only have Windows then you can run Linux in a VM like Virtual Box or VMWare Workstation 4, it will work OK, thats how I installed E3 Linux on my E3.
You will need a USB Stick to put E3 Linux on the E3,it only needs to be 1GB or more so if you have a old one it will do. I use a 2GB USB Stick on my E3 and it works fine.I will be uploading a video of the process of doing this.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, you've got an E3 and you want to start playing with it.
First, you need to sort out a serial lead to connect to it. You need a 3.5mm stereo jack plug for the E3 end, and you can use a USB to Serial by Prolific but make sure it real and not a clone because it may not work.
The connections go:
D Sub 9pin-----3.5mm stereo jack
-Pin2------------> Tip
-Pin3------------> Ring
-Pin5------------> Sleeve
Tip: You can connect a Amiga serial 25 pin to 9 pin D sub cable to the 9 pin connector on the USB to Serial, I just connect white to pin 2, red to pin 3 and Ground to pin 7 from the 3.5mm stereo jack on the 25 pin d sub connector on the Amiga Serial cable and it works fine,you can hold the wires in place with Black Electric plastic Tape. You can try this USB to Serial but do not know if it will work,this has a male connector on the end so you can stick the wires in from the 3.5mm stereo jack plug .. Here from eBay UK
Once you've got this you should be able to start up a terminal program on your PC (Putty for example). You want a speed of 115200, 8 bits, no parity and 1 stop bit. And no flow control.
What you /want/ to see is something like:
Amstrad Delta - PBL V4.9 Build:1311 Assert Debug ICE
PBL 32MB NAND
0MB.-->MEMv01.00.002,CopyLim=00220000h,CodeEnd=01400000h-->PBL......1MB.......2MB*
If you see:
Amstrad Delta - PBL V5.1 Build:1314 Assert Debug ICE
PBL 32MB NAND
0MB.-->MEMv01.00.002,CopyLim=00220000h,CodeEnd=01400000h-->PBL......1MB.......2MB*
then you have a PBL version that we currently can't talk to. We hope in time to be able to get round this, but at present V4.9 is the way forward. There are currently (April 2006) no known instances of brand new E3s having 5.1, only those that have been allowed to download updates from Amstrad.
Assuming you have V4.9 you want to download the.earth.li/pub/e3/E3_release_v2.tar.gz this will install E3 Linux 2.6.16 there are other files in there but this boots up a ramdisk and is they easiest way to install Linux on the E3.
Uncompress the tar.gz into a folder you chose,open a terminal shell in the same folder.
Unplug your E3 and run:./pbltool -f /dev/ttyS0 oe-install.pbl (adjust ttyS0 to your serial port)
It'll output:
Prodding...
Plug in your E3 and pbltool should output:
Handshaking...
Done handshaking
Talking to PBL v4.9 Build 1311
Got command setbaud
sendpacket: 0
Got command write
and show an increasing byte count as it feeds the code over the serial port to the E3. It will take about 18 minutes to transfer the files and boot E3 Linux, well it is 56K Modem speed.. , You have time to go and make a cup of Tea now or Coffee now.. Eventually it'll print out "Got command exec"(Execute) and you'll see u-boot load follow by the kernel booting, eventually ending up with:
amsdelta login:
Type "root" and press enter and you'll be rewarded with a shell prompt.
You can test E3 Linux at this point and don't have to install it,once you do it will wipe the Amstrad E3 Original Firmware.
This way you can use E3 Linux and still keep the Amstrad E3 Original firmware intact.Its like you have 2 system on your E3..
Now Plug your USB memory stick into Linux. Now you need to copy the files you will need to install E3 Linux on the E3.
You need to copy over ldr.img, root.tar.gz, u-boot.bin and uImage.
Now Plug your USB memory stick into the E3 USB Port thats round the back of the E3, You'll see some warnings about sda as it tried to automount it. Hit enter afterwards and you should still have a shell prompt back. Type "ams-delta-install" and hit enter. You will see:
| Do you wish to backup your existing E3 NAND? If you say yes then 6
| e3-nand-backup.<n> files will be written containing the current contents
| of your flash.
| [y/N]:
Hit y then enter if you want to backup the NAND of your E3 before installing.
This should let you restore the original Amstrad firmware in the future if you wish, though this is currently untested (as I no longer have an E3 with Amstrad firmware to test it on). Be aware this can take some time - mine took
over 10 hours though I think is as my USB memory stick is slow for writing.
After you back up, or if you choose not to back up, you'll see:
| Ready to install. This process will completely wipe your E3's NAND.
| The Amstrad firmware will no longer exist on the device. Are you
| sure you wish to continue? [y/N]:
**WARNING** If you type y you will remove the original Amstrad firmware and flashing it back to the E3 will be very hard and more than lightly not be able to do so do it at your own risk. As of today(2019) I have had no luck with putting back the Amstrad Firmware back on my E3.
If you choose y then the installer will install the kernel, u-boot, notldr and a root fs from your memory stick onto the
NAND. When it's complete type "reboot" and watch your E3 boot into Linux...
Thats it done..