Reflashing to version 8 firmware using the Elphel LiveDVD

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1. You will need the Elphel LiveDVD, and a USB storage device of some kind (thumbdrive, external USB hard drive, etc... I actually use my MP3 player!).


2. Boot your PC using the Elphel LiveDVD.


3. After the PC has booted, connect your USB device and wait for the system to recognize it.  Once it has been recognized, a window will pop up asking if you want to open the drive contents in a new window.  Just click 'Cancel'.  Now you need to make the device 'writeable'.  With your mouse, 'Right Click' on the icon for your USB device, and click on the 'Mount' option in the pop-up menu.  Then 'Right Click' on the icon again, and chose the option, 'Change read/write mode'.  A message will appear, asking if you really want to make the device writeable.  Choose 'Yes'.


4. Now click on the icon for the 'Konquerer' web browser located on the bottom of the screen.  If you are not familiar with this, just mouse over the icons, and windows will pop up with their names and functions.  Once this browser has loaded, download the most recent version 8 camera firmware image file (example: image353-8.x.x.tar.gz), available from the elphel353-8 page of our Sourceforge site (http://sourceforge.net/projects/elphel), and save it to the top directory of your USB device.


5. You will also need to download an update file for the LiveDVD in order to make it possible to reflash the camera to version 8 level firmware.  Download the following file, and save it to the Desktop:

  http://downloads.sourceforge.net/elphel/elphel_dvd_update-1.0.tar.gz?use_mirror=voxel


6. Once the update file has been downloaded, click once on the 'DVD update' icon on the desktop.  A message will appear, stating that after the update has run, only 8.0 or higher software can be flashed onto a camera until the PC has been rebooted.  This is fine.  Click 'Yes' to install the update.


7. Then, to begin the reflashing process, just drag the icon for your USB device over the top of the icon labeled 'Net Flash' (the icon is a picture of a camera with a green floppy disk in front of it), and let it go.  This will start the reflashing process.  A few windows will pop up.  The one you need to work with will have a list of any recognized cameras connected to the PC, and the word 'button' at the bottom.  At this point, you need to plug in your camera for the first time, and put it into 'net-boot' mode. 


8. To put the camera in 'net-boot' mode, plug the CAT-5 cable into the camera and count to three, then remove the cable and count to three again.  Repeat this process at least five times.  If this is done correctly, then when the cable is plugged in for the last time, a few seconds later the yellow LED on the network jack will light up solid, and the green LED on the network connector will be flashing very quickly (much faster than normal).  This indicates that the camera is properly in 'net-boot' mode and is ready for reflashing.  If the LED's do not light up, or the yellow LED lights up, and the green LED is blinking slowly or not at all, then please unplug the camera for about ten seconds, and begin the plug/unplug sequence again.


9. Once the camera is connected to the PC (or network switch) in 'net-boot' mode, you can click on the 'Okay' button.  From here the reflashing process takes care of itself, until a message pops up requesting that the camera be rebooted by unplugging the CAT-5 cable, and then plugging it back in.  Reboot the camera as instructed, and click 'Okay'.  A message should pop up shortly after that stating that your camera has been reflashed successfully.  You can confirm this by either opening a new browser window and typing in "192.168.0.9", or opening a Terminal window and typing "telnet 192.168.0.9".  Login is "root", password is "pass".  If either one of these possibilities works, then your camera has been reflashed, and should be good to go.