[11-25-2006]
Things don't stay calm for very long. Version 0.2 of openPMA has been released: Giraffe.

There are lots of new things to know, including:

• Now using second "hidden" partition instead of fragile progfs.img
• Unionfs with system partition to have everything writeable.
• freed ~6MB of RAM by moving less used things from aimage to the partition.
• Dutch translation
• Bluetooth support (especially for dialup)
• Fixed and improved Embeddedconsole terminal application
• Vastly improved Virtual keyboard
• Samba for PMA - GUI frontend for Windows style file shares and control of built in file server.
• Support for new hardware devices (USB-Ethernet, USB-WLAN, USB-Serial)
• Updated applications in package feed (available via Software Packages applet)

With this release comes with some specific instructions to make your installation as painless as possible. Make sure you review the installation guide and the developer wiki prior to your install.

Welcome to Giraffe: http://download.openpma.org/release/openPMA_0.2.0-20061123.zip

[09-17-2006]
The openPMA team is pleased to announce the release of openPMA v0.1.1. This release only differs from v0.1 in the bugfixed harddisk driver which now appears to be stable. This is only a minor release to shorten the time until v0.2 which we hope to release later this year. Get v0.1.1 here:

http://www.openpma.org/openPMA_0.1.1_20060917.zip

It fixes a major issue where the harddisk driver could get into an undefined state when having two processes doing read/write accesses at the same time. The problem occurred when a read access immediately followed a write access which could also happen in a single process doing read/write-accesses to the harddisk but was more difficult to find this way. However, this bug was the reason for most if not all filesystem corruptions.

Thanks to the team for all their hard work. This is most certainly worth the download! 

[04-01-2006]
This is no April Fool's joke. The official first release of the openPMA project is upon us. Codename "Zebra", this thing rocks! There are many improvements, here's a taste:

• auto adjusting clock after establishing a WLAN connection
• Samba server and client - access your PMA as a file share over the Network.
• improved automounting USB mass storage devices - now supporting more filesystem types: ntfs (read only), ext3, ext2, reiserfs, ...
• added a screen keyboard with localization support
• compiled PIM applications that can be downloaded directly via package management onto the PMA

Anyone else exicited? Deets available at the developer Wiki. Can't wait? Here's the direct link:

 http://download.openpma.org/release/openPMA_0.1_20060401.zip

It is highly recommended you read the instructions (but between you and me, you can just apply the boothack, download Zebra and reboot). 

[03-04-2006]
A checklist for pre-release install has been added to the openPMA wiki:

http://www.openpma.org/wiki/openPMA:Releases/checklist

Please check it carefully as you test.

 [03-03-2006]
A lack of updates does not constitute a lack of progress, apparently. An upcoming first release of the openPMA project has been announced by way of a call for beta testers:  

Hi folks,

the openPMA project is nearing its first release!

To ensure a high quality release we are looking for pma owners to help test the v0.1 release candidate and make sure there are no grave bugs that shouldn't be there.

Please send your application as a beta tester by email to "tester-applications" at openpma.org. You'll then be notified as soon as we have openPMA 0.1RC1 ready for testing. If you feel like it, go ahead and add some words why you'd like to be a beta tester for the openPMA project.

Be amongst the first to try openPMA 0.1 and following releases! UncleSa^h^h^h^h^h^h^h openPMA wants you! ;)

--

Thomas
http://www.openpma.org/wiki 

Visit the Pointlisse.com homepage and the developer Wiki (above) for regular updates.
All I can say is Whoo 'effin Whoo!   

[01-29-2006]
And it gets better and better... this from Philipp (and if you don't know who he is by now, you probably shoudn't be here).

 Hi!

I've made a little script that makes hacking the bootloader easy. When you install the attached ipk, you get an icon "Boothack" in the System tab. Activating it, gives a little window which lets you hack the bootloader or abort. If your bootloader is already hacked, it lets you restore the original bootloader!

This means that anyone and his sister can hack the bootloader and run custom made aimages! How about trying the opie-pma image provided by bubu? Now you all can... :)

  http://www.bfst.de/pmawiki/test/bubu/

Greets, Philipp. 

 Get the script here:  http://www.pointlisse.com/PMA430/File/boothack_pma400_0.2.zip

[01-17-2006]
Are you a windows user and have trouble unpacking AND untaring the file? Try this: http://www.7-zip.org/ 
Thanks, JohnL! 

[01-09-2006]
More on the bootloader hack, from Philipp Boerker, resident bootloader guru:

Could you write up some detailed instructions on how to create such an image and install it with the bootloader hack?

About the custom aimages: well, you need to download the tools sashz provides in the same thread (see link below). You can then extract the filesystem inside an aimage yielding a directory tree on your harddisk. This way, you can change what you like and build a new custom image from the directory tree. It's really simple but you need a linux computer for it (theoretically, your PMA is a linux computer and it could all be done on there; I think this will be an interesting option in the future, i.e. perform our "upgrades" using a script that takes your installed aimage, patch that and you are done).

Anyway: anybody who knows what to change in the aimage will also be able to follow sashz's instructions. Those who cannot follow sashz's instructions shouldn't mess around with the aimage. Hacking the bootloader, on the other side, is also interesting for those who simply want to run a custom made aimage provided by others. For those I wrote these instructions last week:

Preliminary information can be found here:
http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16939

I have just checked it and with my PMA it works perfectly. the discription given by sashz is quite detailed but I will try to repeat what he wrote with some more detail: 

1. Get the file
   
   
2. If you use Windows, unzip by using Winzip, I think Winzip should be able to unpack the file. I'm not sure whether it will also untar the file (that means whether it will be able to split the flash-hack.tar into the different files that are combined into the one .tar-file). If it doesn't, copy the "flash-hack.tar" to the PMA, open a console, change to the directory where the flash-hack.tar resides (probably in /media, so you can type "cd /media" on the console to get there), and type "tar xvf flash-hack.tar" to split the tar-file into the respective files.
   
   If you use linux, unpack by typing "tar xvfj flash-hack.tar.bz2"
   
   
3. Either way, you should now have the files "phys_m.o", "xxx1" and "flash_m.o" somewhere on the PMA (you know how to copy files over...), if you unpacked the tar-file on the PMA, you have it together with many others, if you managed to unpack the tar-file on your Windows-computer, you can copy only those three files to the PMA, you don't need the rest of them. The first two are to be found in the subdirectory /media/flash-hack/phys/, the last in the maindirectory (/media/flash-hack/).
   
   
4. Now you have to modify the linux-kernel of the running PMA. On the console, cd to where "phys_m.o" resides (e.g. "cd /media/flash-hack/phys/") and insert it into the kernel by typing "insmod phys_m.o". Now run xxx1 by typing "./xxx1". This will produce a copy of your PMA's bootrom in /tmp.
   
   
5. In order to make sure that your PMA is compatible with the hack, cd to /tmp ("cd /tmp"), then copy a portion of the rom-file to a temporary file by typing "dd if=bios.rom of=bios.rom.part bs=1 count=128000". Now have your PMA calculate a md5checksum in order to see whether your bootrom is the same as sashz's PMA. The hack will only work with this version of the bootrom.

   You create the checksum by typing "md5sum bios.rom.part". The checksum MUST be "f67a0f5d320be1b0dc8bfa602ca6cdac  bios.rom.part". If it is not, STOP NOW! If you continue, you will kill your PMA. (sidenote: so far, nobody has reported a different checksum, i.e. there seems to be only one version of the bootloader which again means that anyone's PMA can be hacked)
   
   

6. Okay, plug in the power connector (just to make sure), and cd to where "flash_m.o" resides (probably "cd /media/flash-hack" will do that). Insert flash_m.o into the kernel by typing "insmod flash_m.o". You will get an error-message that can be ignored. This is due to the hack running in kernel-space. If you didn't understand what I just said, don't worry, I don't understand it either.
   
   

7. You are done. Check by typing "dmesg". You should see some stuff and something like "Sector 0xD patched!" and "Sector 0xE patched!". You can now boot any aimage.img you want.

I think that'd be pretty useful, although it should say "THIS MIGHT BREAK YOUR ARCHOS, DON'T DO IT UNLESS YOU'RE CONFIDENT" all over it.
It won't break it. With the second version of the bootloader hack you can even restore the bootloader.

Do we have a way and instructions of getting back to the stock Archos  firmware after loading your own custom aimage?
Sure. Download the aimage from archos.com and put it in the System folder. The bootloader hack won't stop your PMA from loading the official aimages...

[01-04-2006]
This will be on ongoing update, but the big news brought to us by PMA favorite Thomas B. Rücker, writes:

Hi folks,

looks like the skilled Alexander 'sashz' Chukov did what was expected to happen sooner or later. He hacked the bootloader of the Archos pma400. Basically he just disabled the checksum testing by the bootloader.

Preliminary information can be found here: http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16939

At the moment I can't confirm that myself because my unit has a different flash rom. I bet as soon as this stuff is tested on some units a ipkg with a click-me-icon will be available from somewhere. ;) Or an even more detailed howto then now.

All information purely for educational purposes. Don't try this at home! Especially if you don't know what this does and what you want to do with what you achieve by patching that bootloader!

If you want to ask questions or want to contribute or need additional information visit the usual suspects:

• irc: #archos on irc.freenode.net
• www:
  http://www.pointlisse.com/PMA430/
  http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16939

So whats this all about? You can finally run custom built firmware images on your pma! More info soon!

Cheers
Thomas

This is VERY exciting news indeed! Stay tuned...