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FLASH-APEX(8) System Manager's Manual FLASH-APEX(8)

NAME

flash-apex - write APEX binary image into MTD flash

SYNOPSIS

flash-apex

DESCRIPTION

The flash-apex script reads a raw (objdump'd) APEX binary image from the file /boot/apex.flash, also part of the apex-nslu2 package, and writes it into MTD flash. It is called automatically from the package postinst script.

flash-apex is designed to safely upgrade APEX. It executes properly on either big or little endian machiness, compensating for endianness mismatch as necessary. Before flashing, it reads the APEX configuration environment from MTD flash using apex-env(8) and then writes it back into MTD after writing the APEX image. In this release, flash-apex only supports the Linksys NSLU2.

If you need to flash a custom version of APEX, move the file /boot/apex.flash out of the way, write your image to /boot/apex.flash, and run flash-apex.

flash-apex requires the /dev/mtd driver.

WARNING

Though this script has been thoroughly tested, it modifies boot-flash. A failure during this process could prevent your NSLU2 from booting. In this event, you'll need to use upgrade mode to restore the NSLU2 to a working state. Use /boot/apex.flash to install a custom version of APEX only if you know what you are doing and only when you have a backup of MTD flash.

OPTIONS

none

FILES

/boot/apex.flash
The APEX binary image written to MTD flash by flash-apex.

BUGS

Please check the debian bug tracking system at http://bugs.debian.org/src:apex for known bugs before reporting any new bugs there.

AUTHOR

flash-apex was written by Gordon Farquharson <gordonfarquharson@gmail.com>, Martin Michlmayr <tbm@cyrius.com>, and Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>. This manpage was written by Kevin Price <kp@kevin-price.de> and Marc Singer <elf@debian.org>.

SEE ALSO

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Info/BootFlash

COPYING

The script and this manpage are copyrighted and protected by the GNU GPL.