Thread: Cannot update eTrex 20 with a very old firmware

@TrueRedRat
Firstly, welcome to GPS Power. Secondly, your English is great! Thirdly, you may have a huge problem or it may be an easy fix (:.

Questions:
1. Do you have a copy of the 1.6 firmware? (V2.20 is the earliest I can locate and the first RTM version was 2.10 it seems. V2.20 has rrgn & xrgn commands to dump and flash BIN files using microSD. It may be a very early prototype device you've bought with incompletely-developed UAT firmware).
2. Can the device be seen in Mass Storage Mode by PC?

1. Do you have a copy of the 1.6 firmware?

Unfortunately, no. :-(
Maybe there is a way to dump it from device?

2. Can the device be seen in Mass Storage Mode by PC?

Yes, with a usual hierarchy of directories.

Originally Posted by TrueRedRat

Unfortunately, no. :-(
Maybe there is a way to dump it from device?

You can dump the contents of region 14 using text commands in card which will give you V1.6's fw_all.bin, but you'll need to use V2.20 boot.bin as Ldr.bin to execute which will then overwrite region 12. Unexpected and unsatisfactory results may result it you then boot the device before trying to write later fw_all to rgn14. If you wish to go down that path i'd suggest doing all commands in one update.txt file, i.e. dump 14 and 41 (non-vol memory region) and then write V2.20 fw_all to rgn 14. Read this thread: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. If you wish to try this method and need further assistance with the txt commands just ask.

Yes, with a usual hierarchy of directories.

Then it's unlikely a 'partial bricking' is preventing the fw update and therefore trying to load cure fw is pointless when you have MSM available. You could try a reformat anyway. Do a files backup first of course if you feel the need. Use only [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] to reformat, don't use anything else including the built-in Windows tool.

Originally Posted by Butters

If you wish to try this method and need further assistance with the txt commands just ask.

I will be very grateful for any help!

So far my experiments:

1. Backed up all files from internal storage and formatted it by RMPrepUSB.
2. Got pristine new SD, made \Garmin\Updater\1305\ directory, put there boot.bin from 2.20 as LDR.bin and update.txt containing:

rrgn,14,1:/Garmin/14-1.bin
rrgn,14,2:/Garmin/14-2.bin
rrgn,140,1:/Garmin/140-1.bin
rrgn,140,2:/Garmin/140-2.bin
reboot

just to test, can I dump 14th region as a file?

4. After switching on device I got a bootloop :-(, and neither update.txt nor last_id.bin files was created on SD.

Could you give me a clue for the next steps?