[Tuto] [EN/FR] Install/Installer nBoot + ControlX (+Linux)

[unilock]

196MHz is the highest safe optimal value. Higher frequencies aren't that interesting because :
- a AHB slightly higher than 66MHz is likely to silently but progressively corrupt your NAND data
- and if you lower the AHB, it will be much lower than 66MHz and thus impact the NAND performances

Also, I've already seen some (rare) CX calculators being unreliable at more than 210MHz.
So hard-coding a value much higher than 196MHz in ControlX is dangerous.

Wow. I was considering tweaking Nover's auto-configuration to see if I could make my calculator go a little faster, but now I think I'll just leave it as it is...

But note that if you have Ndless + Nover set up, you'll calculator will still be overclocked from 196MHz to the highest safe value detected/set in Nover once the OS is launched.

I do have Nover set up already; I was just wondering if there was any way to apply Nover's values before the OS loads. Though, I guess there wouldn't be much of a point.
Thanks for answering my questions.

[Zeklandia]

My calc is a CX non-CAS, hardware revision C. I had successfully installed ControlX + nBoot. Everything was working well. Then I made a mistake somewhere in the midst of using nSwitchOS. Now my Boot1 3.0.0.99 has been replaced with a Boot1.5 4.40.8. Everything still works, but ndless is no longer installed at boot. Because of this, it is not possible to use a CAS OS on my calc.

Is there any way to reflash Boot1 3.0.0.99? Is there another way for nBoot to install ndless into the OS at boot?

[parrotgeek1]

my Boot1 3.0.0.99 has been replaced with a Boot1.5 4.40.8

This is LITERALLY not possible; boot1's flash chip is not writable. What I think happened is that ControlX is now disabled. Try reinstalling it along with Boot2 4.0.3, and setting default boot to diags.

[Zeklandia]

my Boot1 3.0.0.99 has been replaced with a Boot1.5 4.40.8

This is LITERALLY not possible; boot1's flash chip is not writable. What I think happened is that ControlX is now disabled. Try reinstalling it along with Boot2 4.0.3, and setting default boot to diags.

I did reinstall ControlX and nBoot. I can boot into any CX non-CAS OS with the supplied Boot2 4.0.3 (I flashed it to both the Boot2 and the ExtnD partitions, either works). I can also boot into Linux. When am at the boot menu, I have the calc boot from the Boot2 4.0.3 image flashed to the ExtnD partition. Still, ControlX + nBoot aren't installing ndless like they did originally and are supposed to. Without ndless, the CX CAS OS 4.5 patcher can't run and the OS crashes and self-deletes. I also have to run the ndless installer manually on non-CAS OSes.

I have attached several pictures of the boot menu:

The boot menu.

The boot menu's options for the Boot2 partition.

The boot menu's options for the Diags partition.

The boot menu's options for the ExtnD partition.

Here is a picture of what I see in BtMg:

The main menu of BtMg.

ControlX is definitely working, it's just not patching the OS correctly:

The ControlX loading screen. Unrelated to the issue at hand, I turned the CAS option on when I took this picture.

I can use it with CX non-CAS OS 4.5, I just have to install ndlessly manually to get stuff like nClock to run. The whole reason I kept fiddling with this is because I wanted to have a CX CAS OS from 4.0.3 or before, because otherwise nClock's mini clock doesn't work. I didn't realize that OSes after 3.6 need a patcher, and patchers are only available for 4.4 and 4.5. I also had ZLock installed, but it is broken on the newer OSes. In order to delete ZLock, I had to have ControlX boot Boot1 or a newer Boot2 in order to get the OS to self-delete so I could delete ZLock with TI's linking software. Thus, I messed up the setup somewhere in that mix of reflashing the OS and using nSwitchOS. At some point, Boot1.5 4.40.8 took the place of Boot1 3.0.0.99, according to ControlX and BtMg.

However, the status screen still shows Boot1's "Code Version" to be 3.0.0.99:

CX non-CAS OS 4.5's status screen (booted with ControlX, ndless manually installed).

status screen.png (5.31 KiB) Viewed 4027 times

CX non-CAS OS 4.5's about screen showing Boot1 3.0.0.99 (booted with ControlX, ndless manually installed).

about screen.png (4.96 KiB) Viewed 4027 times

[critor]

When installing a CX CAS OS on a CX with nBoot+ControlX, you have to press reset on it first boot, as soon as you get the gray screen after the loading bar reaches 100%.

If you don't or don't do it fast enough, then the OS will start silently erasing itself and then reboot the calculator.
You'll need to have Ndless and the appropriate CAS patcher in the /ndless/startup/ folder for the calc engine to work.

nClock is not tailored for versions 4.x.

If it's to protect your files, you should forget about zLock and use nSonic2MS :
viewtopic.php?f=57&t=17640

[Zeklandia]

When installing a CX CAS OS on a CX with nBoot+ControlX, you have to press reset on it first boot, as soon as you get the gray screen after the loading bar reaches 100%.

If you don't or don't do it fast enough, then it will start silently erasing itself and then reboot the calculator.

I've been doing that. On following boots, the screen will flash red when the CAS patcher runs. It doesn't. Instead it sits on the grey OS loading screen, and after a few seconds, the cursor appears on top of the loading clock, but nothing can move.

You'll need to have Ndless and the appropriate CAS patcher in the /ndless/startup/ folder for the calc engine t work.

I have ndless in its folder, and I have the CAS patcher in the startup folder. After I run the ndless installer on the non-CAS OS, it immediately runs both the patcher and nClock, the two programs in the startup folder.

nClock is not tailored for versions 4.x.

If it's to protect your files, you should forget about zLock and use nSonic2MS :
viewtopic.php?f=57&t=17640

I know that nClock isn't tailored for the newer OSes, but I can't run any CAS OS before 4.4 on my calc.

Also, I am now aware that ZLock is obselete.



Thank you all for trying to figure this out!

[parrotgeek1]

If the screen blinks red it means you have the wrong patcher for your OS

[Zeklandia]

If the screen blinks red it means you have the wrong patcher for your OS

I wasn't aware of that. Since ndless doesn't get installed on boot and thus the CAS OSes crash, I can only ever run it on a non-CAS OS. My point was, there is no evidence that it gets run on boot with the CAS OS, and it doesn't even get run on boot with the non-CAS OSes: it runs after I manually run the ndless installer.

[critor]

Maybe your calculator is not booting on Boot2 4.0.3 if Ndless doesn't get installed.

[Zeklandia]

Maybe your calculator is not booting on Boot2 4.0.3 if Ndless doesn't get installed.

But if I have flashed Boot2 4.0.3 to the Boot2 partition and ExtnD, even if I am choosing to boot from ExtnD and for some reason it isn't, what else is it booting from? How can I verify what is booting if ControlX can't tell?