Bootloader Update for T3 Only 12-03-2015

[Wiz HQ]

A new official bootloader is now available.
If you do not upgrade the Bootloader you will not be able to install the new software upgrade that is due to be released in the coming weeks, it has heaps of cool new features and enhancements so be sure to install this update now

Main changes from previous public release of the bootloader:
Bootloader version string is briefly displayed on the front panel during early boot.
Bug fixes for USB drive compatibility.
More reliable detection of front panel key presses.
Ability to flash large firmware images.
More information is displayed on the front panel during firmware updates.
More error checking when loading splash image.
Ability to completely disable boot loader video output.
Now prompts to remove USB drive at the end of the update.
No need to power off using rear switch after USB update, just press POWER button on front panel.

Download here: http://feeds.beyonwiz.org/beyonwizt3-bo ... 12_usb.zip

How to upgrade:
* Mount a USB drive on your computer.
* If the USB drive has a T3 firmware on it in a Beyonwiz folder from a previous upgrade delete the entire folder.
* Uncompress the downloaded bootloader upgrade file to the top level directory on the USB drive.
* Your USB drive should end up with a beyonwiz directory (folder) at the top level.
* Unmount the USB drive from your PC and unplug it.
* Press and hold the power button on the T3 remote for 3 seconds and select shutdown
* Once the T3 has fully shut down, turn the rear power switch on the T3 to the OFF position.
* Wait 30 seconds.
* Unplug all USB devices from the T3.
* Connect the USB drive with the bootloader to any USB port on the T3 - make sure that the connection is secure.
* Power on the T3.
* The bootloader will be upgraded without any prompting and the front display will show either "Flash CFE" or "Upgrading" depending on the previous bootloader version you are running.
* The process will be much quicker than a normal firmware upgrade and should take less than 10seconds.
* Once the update is complete the T3 will either reboot on its own or display should prompt you to remove the USB stick, remove the USB and press the power button on the front panel and your T3 will reboot.
* Delete the Bootloader Beyonwiz file when you connect it to your PC.
* Once your T3 has fully rebooted hold down the Power button on the T3 Remote and select Shutdown.
* Reconnect any USB devices, as required. Ensure that the USB devices are firmly plugged in and are not interfering with each other. (Please note that the DVB-T USB tuner is physically larger than a standard USB connector. If the tuner is plugged into one of the rear USB ports, it will prevent other devices from fitting properly. If you need to connect another device to the rear USB port, use a short USB extension cable for the DVB-T tuner.
* Power on the T3 and you are all done
* To confirm that you have the latest Bootloader installed successfully press the Menu button on the T3 and scroll across to the far right of the Menu and select Information and then Select About, the date of your Bootloader should be March 12, 2015.
Tip:
When using the USB method to apply updates, you should use a USB 1.1 compatible drive. Most USB drives are USB 1.1 compatible, but some newer drives may not be. If your fancy USB 3.1 drive does not work, look in the bottom of your box-of-tricks for an old USB drive.

If you have any problems with the update please reply to this thread for help, lodge a support ticket at http://www.support.beyonwiz.com.au or give us a call on (02)9603 1822 Mon - Fri between 9.30am - 4pm Sydney Time.

[nylonnet]

Thanks for the new bootloader. I have bravely installed it without tears, tantrums, muttered oaths or kicking the cat.
All seems well.

Something that was not in the instructions that might still be important (is this still relevant?): use a USB stick formatted as FAT32, not NTFS or other exotic formats.

And I do like the brief scrolling version number on the LED during bootup.

Regards
Mark

[paul]

Ok, thought I'd share my experience in upgrading:

* Uncompressed the downloaded bootloader upgrade file to the top level directory on the USB drive. Then extracted to create a Beyonwiz directory with firmware contents
* Shutdown and powered off the T3
* Connected the USB drive with the bootloader to any the front USB port on the T3.
* Powered on the T3.
* The boot process on the display then showed Upgrading for a few seconds before showing Booting and starting up the T3
(I did this twice as I missed the "Upgrading" display the first time and thought it had ignored my USB)
* T3 booted up and I checked the BIOS and it had been updated.
* All done

Cheers


P.S. Just got my updated email confirming this

[netmask]

All went through very fast - didn't see the message but checked in the menu for 12 March and all was ok.

[prl]

The "Flash CFE" message is only shown for a few seconds.

[togo]

Sharing my experience of the bootloader upgrade. Thanks for the new version - it upgraded quickly and appears to have many benefits.

There was one hitch: after the display showed "Upgrading" and the machine rebooted, it hung for around 10 minutes on the splash screen with the display showing "Booting" . Powered it down with the switch on the rear panel, then booted ok when I powered it up again.

Another very minor point. Since the upgrade I see a small front-panel indicator showing "1080", that stays lit after boot. On going to standby then on again it shows for a moment only. Is the aim of this to ensure, at boot time, that the T3 and TV are working as they should?

[Glennie]

I Tried it last night. First attempt failed so tried twice more in case I didn't follow instructions correctly.

Then I read at the bottom of the instructions that I should use a USB 1.1 compatible USB hard Drive. I had been using a new USB 3.0 USB Hard Drive so I found an old USB 2.0 one and gave it a go.

Did so and it worked.

Going out today to buy a 16GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive for when the next firmware is released. Although the current one is big enough, I would like to have a spare.

BTW, should I install the current Beta version before the next official version is released?

[NedIS]

You don't really need a 16GB I just use a 4GB even less is ok

I have been using the latest beta since issued without any problems give it a go

[netmask]

I have a very old Kingston 2GB that I keep for all my firmware updates on my BW's, Popcorn and Yamaha. It's probably the most reliable stick I have.

[prl]

I've been doing all my T3 updates using an old 128MB USB stick that came with one of my DPs. However, it doesn't have room to hold both the zipped and unzipped forms of the update file, so I unzip from the zip file into the USB stick using commandline unzip.

However, with firmware 20150318, I only have 3MB spare with the unpacked firmware on the 128MB USB stick, so I think I may have to move to something a bit bigger soon.

You really don't need a large USB stick for this job.

[simoncasey]

It's pretty hard to buy less than an 8gb flash drive these days. A 16gb drive is at the value point so is a reasonable purchase if you don't have anything else around. You're talking $20 maximum cost anyway. Main thing is not to buy anything fancy with extra security, speed performance or anything like that.

[MrQuade]

I use a novelty R2D2 one that I bought from Dick Smith's on a whim.
You'll probably end up with a good compatible stick by buying something from a bargain bin, shaped like a silly thing or a marketing giveaway. Basically anything that was manufactured with minimum cost in mind. And if it fails one day...meh....find another cheap one
I have a dozen similar ones laying about that have various flavours of Linux Live images, OS installers and "rescue disks" loaded onto them.

[futzle]

My advice, on failing to get the update to happen with two different USB sticks is: don't do it on Mac OS X. I didn't pinpoint what the problem was, but it manifested as a steadfast refusal of the T3 to notice the USB stick at power-on. My theory is that OS X likes to put extra files onto the volume to manage its trash and metadata. These extra files obscure the "real" beyonwiz folder so it isn't noticed at startup.

Switching to a Linux machine and doing everything on the command line seems to have done the job. Here's what I ran (so I'll remember to do it the same way next time):

Code: Select all

# Assumes that the USB stick is on /dev/sdb! Check with dmesg after inserting.
# fdisk /dev/sdb
> d [Delete partition]
> 1
> n [New partition]
> p [Primary]
> 1
> t [Set partition type]
> 1
> b [FAT32]
> w [Write partition table]
# mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1
# cd /tmp
# wget http://feeds.beyonwiz.org/beyonwizt3-bootloader-20150312_usb.zip
# mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt
# cd /mnt
# unzip /tmp/beyonwizt3-bootloader-20150312_usb.zip
# cd /
# umount mnt

[prl]

My advice, on failing to get the update to happen with two different USB sticks is: don't do it on Mac OS X. ...

That's quite the opposite to my experience. I do all my firmware and bootloader USB stick preparation under OS X. I do lots of firmware updates. I probably did 8-10 (or perhaps more) trials of this bootloader update. All prepared on OS X.

And yes, the OS X Finder does put all sorts of files on the USB stick, but they've never caused me any problems.

What kind of partition table did you get Disk Utility to create on the USB sticks?

[futzle]

My advice, on failing to get the update to happen with two different USB sticks is: don't do it on Mac OS X. ...

What kind of partition table did you get Disk Utility to create on the USB sticks?

MBR with one primary partition, and I tried both MS-DOS and exFAT for the filesystem on the partition. I did the same as I do for making firmware upgrade USB sticks for my other devices (Intel NUC, among others), which is why I was surprised that I couldn't make it work on the Beyonwiz.

I'd try to diagnose it from the logs on the Beyonwiz T3 (even though I have a workaround) but I'm not sure I'd see anything in the boot log. Is there anywhere I could look in the syslog or dmesg?

Good to know that it is known to work on the Mac.

[prl]

As far as I know there is no log file from the boot loader. The "boot" log only starts after the boot loader has loaded and started the kernel. Likewise, dmesg and syslog only record once the kernel has started.

You may get something by looking at what comes out of the RS-232 port at boot time.

ExFAT won't be recognised by the bootloader. It's not even recognised by the running system.

[blonk]

I use disk utility to format my USB stick as fat16. Always works for me. I have found that deleting the previous version on OS X doesn't free up the actual space on the stick, hence why I reformat.

Blonk

[prl]

I use disk utility to format my USB stick as fat16. Always works for me. I have found that deleting the previous version on OS X doesn't free up the actual space on the stick, hence why I reformat.

Blonk

Delete, then empty the trash

I use commandline commands to remove the old files and unpack the zip file. The latter was required when I used to use an old 128MB USB stick that didn't have room for both the zip file and the unpacked update.

Something like (BWFW is the volume name for my update USB stick):

rm -rf /Volumes/BWFW/beyonwiz
unzip -d /Volumes/BWFW /path/to/the/update/file

Bash command history means I can usually get most of the commands right without having to retype

But then I've used Unix commandline tools since the mid-70's, do it's the sort of thing I'd do anyway

[peteru]

I'd try to diagnose it from the logs on the Beyonwiz T3

A null modem cable on the serial console port and terminal software configured for 115200,8,N,1 no flow control will give you some idea. The bootloader has very limited support for anything. Just the basics to get the system booted.

[jazza]

Okay so I've triple checked the info that I noticed after receiving my 2nd T3 in the post today...

My existing T3 (#1) got the latest FIRMWARE update at the end of november in 2014 > http://www.beyonwiz.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=8614. This worked fine and is running now.

Then this current thread offered a BOOTLOADER update back in march 2015. > http://www.beyonwiz.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=8941 This worked fine on T3 #1 too (after the nov FW update).


Today my new T3 (#2) got a quick unpack/setup/upgrade in the spare room and booted fine.
It took an online upgrade fine and rebooted, 2nd update check showed fully up to date, no more updates.
No bootloader or firmware updates were done via USB manually, just the online update.

I then checked my existing T3 #1 and noticed that although I've run the latest firmware, and then the latest bootloader software that its versions are still behind for its:

drivers
image
oe-core

But its boot loader is more current than the new T3 #2.

Both devices have had multiple reboots and online software update checks and no new updates are detected.

I thought I'd post here and see what the devs suggest, in case either:

1 - I haven't actually applied the bootloader update correctly or it had issues when doing so that I'm not aware of
2 - somewhere in the online software update something is out of alignment with BOOT > FIRMWARE upgrade checks/packages.
3 - some other gremlin is present in the system prior to the coming firmware upgrade (next release).


I assume I should upgrade T3 #2 BOOTLOADER to the latest anyway, but I'm not sure if that will break something as the T3 #1 with the latest BOOTLOADER wont upgrade to the latest FIRMWARE of the T3 #2? Will this sort its self out with the next firmware update? (Devs)

Is anyone else seeing either of this version misalignment on their boxes?


Thanks.

[MrQuade]

No, no problems there.

The 4.3 firmware will not automatically upgrade to the 4.4 series firmware, you'll need to do a USB update to go to 4.4 on T3#1.

The new bootloader is only needed for a USB update, and is not absolutely required for an online update.
The T3#2 most likely started with an older 4.4, which didn't need the new bootloader and then upgraded itself to the newest 4.4 without needing the bootloader because it got there via an online update.
That older 4.4 version that T3#2 shipped with did not require the newer bootloader (is this making sense any more?? )

The recommendation is to do a bootloader update and ensure both T3#1 and T3#2 are fully up to date.

Then for both the T3's do a USB update of the latest firmware to get yourself on 4.4.
(There were some problems reported with doing an online update from an older 4.4 to the latest 4.4, so your safest bet is to just load on the latest USB update and then online update from there.)

[jazza]

Ah thanks.

I figured out just now with your help that 4.4 is the beta FW, and as I don't run it usually I hadn't seen a 4.4_FW advertised. I checked the Beta forum and yep. This is the missing link.

Thanks MrQuade.

[MrQuade]

Excellent
The 4.4 series is hugely improved over 4.3. You'll definitely appreciate the upgrade.

[jazza]

Already noticed the LAN test tool in 4.4. Good feature to have.

Actually if I understand the beta versions now then I think I've auto upgraded to the latest beta version online just by purchasing a new T3..... is this what's intended, that new users with a new T3 get 4.4 out of the box and its unsupported being beta 4.4 as per here > viewtopic.php?f=56&t=9012

[peteru]

I released a 4.4 series USB image for 20150417 today.

If there are no issues reported with it, it will be the next official (non-beta) release.

The recommended procedure is:

* (optional) Backup settings to HDD.
* Update bootloader.
* Update firmware.
* (optional) Restore backup

[jazza]

Sweet.

Honestly with the LG i've just traded for the new T3 I'm not even used to firmware upgrades when they're needed (never released one).

I'm not used to the luxury of firmware being released, let alone mid upgrade/setup and a new version is out already.

Appreciate it, and am loving all the previous updates/features. Will upgrade now.

[jazza]

Can confirm both units upgraded tonight,

Had an issue with the new unit after upgrading the bottom but the firmware reapplied fixed it.

I have to say the upgrade process using the units front panel LCD display instructions has been made easier each time just in the last few months so thumbs up!

[diesel]

I have to say the upgrade process using the units front panel LCD display instructions has been made easier each time just in the last few months so thumbs up!

Agree 100%
Very easy process and all went smoothly