How do I update the EPOC operating system in my netBook?

Known bugs in various version of the OS

How do I tell how old my netBook is/when it was manufactured?

I have upgraded my Series 7 to a netBook. Can I use my 16MB RAM upgrade?

I occasionally suffer a 'triple-beep' reset...?

What versions of the EPOC operating system are/were available for the netBook?

My netBook will not talk to my mobile phone via IR

What are the differences between the standard and 'Malaysian' netBook?

Will my netBook support the Option GPRS PC Card?

How do I update the EPOC operating system in my netBook?

The latest release of the OS comes with comprehensive notes in a readme file. Here's some more general notes I've made you can use in the absence of the readme.

Upgrading is a three stage process; backup your internal drive, obtain and install a new OS image, then selectively restore your backup.

• back up your netBook C drive completely
• write down all the settings from the Modems, Internet, Dialling and (if present) Ethernet control panels

Install new OS

• Obtain the version of the OS that you wish to install from Psion Teklogix' Partner Program.
• copy it onto a CF card
• rename it to "OS.IMG"
• put the CF card in the netBook slot
• take out the backup battery, then the main battery
• pause a while, ideally ten minutes to let the RAM get wiped completely
• replace the main battery
• replace the backup battery
• open the unit it and watch it copy the operating system image into the RAM

Selective Restore

The reason for not doing a complete restore of your machine is that the latest OS changes the structure of a crucial system file (Commsdb.dat), and includes the Opera web browser within the OS, which was previously installed manually.

The only method I know of for doing a selective restore using Psiwin is to browse to your 'EPOC' folder on the PC, find the 'Backup' folder underneath your machine name, and temporarily move the appropriate subfolders out from under here so that they are not restored.

• rename C:\System\Data\Commsdb.dat to Commsdb.tmp
• remove the \System\Apps\Opera folder from your backup location on the PC
• run the Psiwin restore procedure
• delete C:\System\Data\Commsdb.dat
• rename C:\System\Data\Commsdb.tmp to Commsdb.dat
• re-enter all your Modems, Internet, Dialling and (if present) Ethernet control panel settings. At the very least, you must 'visit' each Control Panel in order to 'prime' the ethernet drivers.

How do I set up my netBook to use ethernet?

The latest OS comes with a PDF file explaining in detail how to set this up. I have included it here, since it is relevant to all versions of the OS that include ethernet support.

These are the only things I would add to its content:

• it is important to note that PC cards are only powered up when you actually attempt to connect over ethernet. Thus to truly test whether you have a working ethernet card, you must actually make a connection using an ethernet application (e.g. Opera, nFTP) - if the light's on your card's dongle illuminate then you probably have a working card.
• a good basic test of connectivity (if you suspect incorrect software settings) is to do an ethernet 'ping'. This is the 'most gentle' and simplest form of connection you can make; the only application that suports it (AFAIK) is FLFinger, from www.freepoc.de. If you enter a common URL (e.g. www.google.com) and get a string of 'OK' results, you can be sure that your ethernet connection is available at a software level. Failure at this test suggest either incorrect settings in the Ethernet control panel, or worse a hardware incompatibility.
• there is lots of additional information on this topic on my 'Connecting to Networks' page.

Known bugs in various versions of the OS

These lists are not cumulative; each is a complete list of bugs for that build, AFAIK. For a more general list of bugs, some still unfixed (stand up the infamous 'Jotter' date bug) please refer to this list at Eric Lindsay's site and also this list.

Build 450

System

The icon for .SIS files is black & white in all but the highest level of zoom. The application that manages these icons is Z:\System\Apps\InstApp\. The bug can be fixed by installing the full-colour version of this app into C:\System\Apps\InstApp\. Here's the zip file.

There is also a bug somewhere in the operating system that causes downloads via ethernet applications (Opera, nFTP, etc.) direct to CF cards to transfer very slowly.

Build 370

Agenda
Attempting to enter any of the Preferences dialogs under the Tools menu will cause an error or an outright crash of Agenda. No data is lost.

Contacts
The City, Region, P'Code and Country fields (both Home and Work) are not recognised by the Contacts Server. You can use your existing Contacts.cdb file, but you will lose these fields from the new entry when you copy and paste a contact, or from _all_ entries if you Compact your database (this happens automatically once in a while so potentially a serious loss of data can occur).

Cannot Overwrite File
If you attempt to paste a file into a folder that already has a file of that name in it, you will get a 'Disk Corrupt' message, rather than the choice to overwrite the file or rename the pasted file. This bug does not cause data loss.

How do I tell how old my netBook is/when it was manufactured?

Find the serial number of your machine - it is on the side of the box (if yours came in a box) or alternatively there is a sticker inside the CF tray. The code will begin with four letters and will be followed by seven digits. The first three digits following the letters indicate the year and week in that year your unit was manufactured. The year code should be interpreted like this:

8 = 2000
9 = 2001
0 = 2002
1 = 2003

Thus a code of xxxx923xxxx would have been manufactured in the 23rd week of the year 2001.

I have upgraded my Series 7 to a netBook. Can I use my 16MB RAM upgrade?

Unfortunately not, no :o(

The EPOC memory map allows it to address only 'doubled' quantities of internal RAM, i.e. 16MB, 32MB, 64MB and so on (I know there's a mathematical expression for this but my maths is rubbish ;o) . Here are the sums:

• a Series 7 has 16MB RAM on the motherboard which is the C drive. The 16MB RAM upgrade doubles this to 32MB.
• a netBook has the 16MB RAM from the mobo, plus 16MB RAM on the personality module that is used to make a 32MB C drive. Putting a 16MB RAM upgrade into a netBook would make 48MB, which is not addressable by the OS.

I occasionally suffer a 'triple-beep' reset...?

There are two possible causes for this type of reset:

• 'old-style' Commsdb.dat file. This will occur if you upgraded your OS from the old build 156 to one supporting ethernet, but did not follow the proper upgrade procedure.
• incompatible PC Card. If your PC Card (modem, ethernet card etc.) is not supported, you may get this type of reset. Early examples of the Psion CombineIT cards have a flaw that will cause this.

What versions of the EPOC operating system are/were available for the netBook?

The version information can be obtained by typing Ctrl-H in the System screen. Note that 'release' implies the code tree from which the image was created, and that the number in brackets after 'Version 1.05' is the actual build number. This build number is the only thing that has changed in the version information since 1999.

My netBook will not talk to my mobile phone via IR

Simply delete the file C:\System\Libs\IRDA.PRT. It is an older version of the file built into the OS, and is being incorrectly used in its place.

If you do not have a file in this location, another possible cause of this fault is using an 'old-style' CommsDB.dat file, which may occur accidentally if you restore a complete backup after upgrading your OS.

What are the differences between the standard and 'Malaysian' netBook?

The so-called 'MalayBook' is a bespoke version of the netBook, developed by Psion-Teklogix for the ill-fated 'One-Ed' project in Malaysia. They have now appeared on the general market, usually sourced from a company called SITA.

The MalayBook comes supplies with build 281 of the netBook OS, and can support both wired and wireless ethernet PC Cards. Unfortunately, in order to prevent students fiddling with their device, these machines have been 'tied down' so that they will not accept any version of the OS other than that they were supplied with, and the OS can only be loaded from CF card.

A couple of MalayBook owners have published machine-specific pages, including the OS available for download. Brian Dushaw's is here, and Edward Hasbrouk's is here.

Will my netBook support the Option GPRS PC Card?

The basic answer to this is that if you have a Rev.10 motherboard you are guaranteed that this (and other PC Cards with higher power requirements) will work. Manufacture of netBooks with Rev.10 motherboards began in the 35th week of 2002 - see the question above concerning how to identify the age of your netBook to ascertain your machine's age.

Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that many of the previous batch of machines (with a Rev.7 motherboard) also supply enough current for this PC Card; unfortunately there is no way of knowing for sure without trying it for yourself.

Page last updated: October 28, 2003