Hacking PXA270 internal USB HOST - Page 16

bigbop · 12-01-06, 07:51 AM

Don't forget that although WM5 is in flash, there is a pile of overhead that still sits in RAM while the unit is running, like the entire registry, stacks, and temporary reserved data storage locations for programs. This is a dynamic area that can't be placed in flash due to the speed it needs to work at and the frequency at which the data changes, which would wear out the flash cells in no time.

Oh, and I finally found the thread about how to change the Dell ROM image so that you can install an earlier version:
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showt...+version+trick
and here:
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl...t/view/625/30/
So now I'll try and re-install A02 into my test unit to see if I can get the USB host working.

Mystik · 12-02-06, 12:48 AM

ok, i have some crazy, but good news. there's a Windows CE Embedded 5.0 and 6.0 trial IDE available for free from MS. it uses MS VS 2005... which i have a copy of (as previously mentioned)

so over the course of the weekend i'll be playing around with the platform builder (already have the CE 6.0 IDE installed :o ) i'm going to try to get a WM5.0 build done on the platform builder IDE for CE 5.0 that includes a USB Host function (which will build into an nb0, which can be decompiled), and extract the driver.

the other thing i'm likely to be able to do is grab the source Reg keys for implimenting the driver...

IN THEORY it looks good. we'll see.

Darkrift · 12-02-06, 01:30 AM

If I could run just plain CE 5.0 or even 6.0 on my axim, I would be a very happy camper. CE without the PocketPC shell is soo much faster, easier to tweak and has the "windows" look that everyone is trying to get by using wisbar and other programs. If someone came out with a working ce rom without the ppc shell, I would jump on that in a second. That might also make usb devices a lot easier to control.

Mystik · 12-02-06, 03:22 AM

Originally Posted by Darkrift

If I could run just plain CE 5.0 or even 6.0 on my axim, I would be a very happy camper. CE without the PocketPC shell is soo much faster, easier to tweak and has the "windows" look that everyone is trying to get by using wisbar and other programs. If someone came out with a working ce rom without the ppc shell, I would jump on that in a second. That might also make usb devices a lot easier to control.

well, i MIGHT be able to do something here... i'm having some difficulty getting the compiles to come off without a hitch... so bare with me. when i get one that compiles (and runs in emulation) i'll let everyone know... compiles take forever! oi.

right now i'm experimenting with the CE 6.0 IDE... mainly because the installer for the CE 5.0 IDE isn't working (i believe it's running into association problems because the 6.0 IDE is in there...) so i'll try to build a basic CE 6.0 nb0 and try to get it started in the emu, if that works, then i just might build one for the ax (PXA270)...

i have a question though, can anyone determine if the ax is using any drivers other than MS ones? if they're all MS drivers, then i probably have them (or can compile them) but if it needs custom drivers... some functions may not work.

jejer · 12-02-06, 04:00 AM

BlueTooth use the driver from widcomm

Mystik · 12-02-06, 04:08 AM

Originally Posted by jejer

BlueTooth use the driver from widcomm

that much was obvious to me. :P

bigbop · 12-02-06, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by Mystik

well, i MIGHT be able to do something here... i'm having some difficulty getting the compiles to come off without a hitch... so bare with me. when i get one that compiles (and runs in emulation) i'll let everyone know... compiles take forever! oi.

right now i'm experimenting with the CE 6.0 IDE... mainly because the installer for the CE 5.0 IDE isn't working (i believe it's running into association problems because the 6.0 IDE is in there...) so i'll try to build a basic CE 6.0 nb0 and try to get it started in the emu, if that works, then i just might build one for the ax (PXA270)...

i have a question though, can anyone determine if the ax is using any drivers other than MS ones? if they're all MS drivers, then i probably have them (or can compile them) but if it needs custom drivers... some functions may not work.

The wireless drivers are from TI and Maxar. In theory, you should be able to pull the driver dll's & control panel applets from the current ROM.
Be careful you don't brick your Ax.
BTW, I found all the JTAG pins except for nTRST, which I think is being driven via a separate reset circuit (which should have a pin on the edge connector on the side of the PCB).

Anyone out there have experience with JTAG'ing Xscale processors?

Mystik · 12-03-06, 12:15 AM

Originally Posted by bigbop

The wireless drivers are from TI and Maxar. In theory, you should be able to pull the driver dll's & control panel applets from the current ROM.
Be careful you don't brick your Ax.

yeah, i know enough not to upload a new rom unless i know i can re-do the process later (even if i'm just putting A12 back onto it)

JTAG is a good option, but i don't wanna have to open up my ax.

the good thing about attempting this is i'm under a 3yr warranty, and i'm not voiding it becuause the unit never gets opened... so if i brick it, i can have it replaced. :D

bigbop · 12-03-06, 09:29 PM

While looking in one of my removable drives for some files, I finally found my original A02 ROM backup image I saved before I updated to A05.

After backing up my main X50v I re-installed this backup. Lo and behold - it has a USB host device driver! :approve:

This driver was subsequently replaced by peripheral.dll in newer updates. Both show up as device 17 if you use DEVMGMT.EXE (a PHM utility).

I can now create an NB0 file and push it into my test unit to see if the USB host is recognized and senses anything plugged into the port.

bigbop · 12-05-06, 07:19 AM

I was able to create a binary image of my A02 ROM and I installed it into my modified X50v. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the USB host to sense anything connected to the hub.

The built-in driver is ohci.dll. There is also a Bluetooth USB driver named bthusb.dll but I don't know what it's for.

I also tried installing usb.dll from the Ratoc drivers as well as the mouse and harddisk drivers but alas - nada

So - I'm going to take a week off of this as I have other priorities, but if anyone else wants to play......

If I can load the SD binary flash images somewhere, I'll post a link.

Cheers

rohanch · 12-05-06, 08:06 AM

Isn't OHCI the driver for the host interface, don't you still need additional drivers for the hardware being plugged in? E.g. a HID driver for USB keyboard/mouse "human interface".

I think I saw a HID driver dll on my x51v, I'll post that if I find it for people to experiment :)

bigbop · 12-05-06, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by rohanch

Isn't OHCI the driver for the host interface, don't you still need additional drivers for the hardware being plugged in? E.g. a HID driver for USB keyboard/mouse "human interface".

I think I saw a HID driver dll on my x51v, I'll post that if I find it for people to experiment :)

Tried it....

Quote:

I also tried installing usb.dll from the Ratoc drivers as well as the mouse and harddisk drivers but alas - nada

We need one of the Propheads in this thread to read up on how to enable the internal USB host interrupts to see if it hasn't been disabled some other way.

I forgot to mention that using DEVMGMT, there is a device called HCD1 that appears in the device list with the ohci.dll driver attached to it.

So, at this time, the big question here is how do we enable the onboard USB host interface?

rohanch · 12-05-06, 12:22 PM

Well is there any way anyone here with an x50v could do the modification and install Linux onto it. We *know* that Linux has USB support (OHCI, human interface, etc) built-in as well as many different commands you can use like lsusb so you could actually find out if the OS can see and use the USB host properly. At the moment it seems like we don't really know if it's the wiring, something on the board, the OS or the drivers that are the problem :(

At least if we could see USB working and detected by Linux we'd narrow it down a bit to not being a hardware problem.

I have x51v (unfortunately!) and very poor soldering skills otherwise I'd try and help more.

bigbop · 12-05-06, 02:20 PM

In case anyone wants to play with the X50v WM2K3 A02 ROM (nb0) image, it's posted along with the bootloader here:
http://amd.streamload.com/the_big_bo...2_ROM_work.zip

I've already installed this and both files work using the SD loader method. (Sorry, I forgot the CRCs, so you'll have to re-generate them).

This is NOT a WM5 image and it ONLY works on an X50v!

Now, for your added enjoyment - you can refer to chapter 20 of the Intel Xscale Family Developers manual ftp://download.intel.com/design/pca/.../280000003.pdf 47 pages of pure USB Host configuration enjoyment:approve:

Note section 20.3.1 where it says the overcurrent detection defaults to active HIGH sensing - this means that I have to ground that pin and might be why the port isn't working.

Also look at section 20.6.1 where it explains how to enable the USB host interface. If someone can built a small utility or bit-banger to do this, that would be good.

Mystik · 12-06-06, 12:16 AM

thats great news bigbop... i have the WM5.0 SDK, but i'm not very good with any programming language... so i can't build an app for you...

nevermind the fact that you're not even using wm5.0

i keep forgetting that.

anyways the Windows CE 6.0 isn't compiling into nb0s so i think i'm gonna uninstall and try the CE 5.0 soon. hopefully i'll have something useful by the end of the weekend.... and really i do estimate it will take that long. first i have to uninstall the CE 6.0 dev kit... then i'm reinstalling the CE 5.0 IDE, which downloads the cabs and is, in total, about 10+ GB installed. so there's a lot of downloading going on.

i've tried to get around this obstacle, but apart from ordering the CDs from MS, i don't think i can...

it's just a slow, long process.

and when it's done, i have no garantee that i'll be able to produce anything useful from it... so everyone keep working on trying to get the files from people who have WM5.0 enabled devices that have USB enables (via the PXA270 CPU)