[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] RumoredNow:
LMAO - No need to say it. I know my iPAQ rx3115 is a dinosaur, but so am I. :p

However, the damn thing refuses to die and has been a good, faithful workhorse for a loooong time. To me, that speaks to the quality of the hardware. The rx3115 just seems to be built solidly. Sad to say the PocketPC Pro 2003 (SE) operating system is at the bottom rung of the support ladder from M$ and we all know that means it will be phased out soon...

I just can't give up on my trusty rx3115. Hell, even the original battery is still holding a charge really well. :D And believe me, it hasn't spent a lot of time forgotten and idle despite the constant rotation of new toys that might pass through my hands. It's been used a lot and just keeps on ticking.

So, even though it continues running just fine, I'm now willing to experiment and try to make it more up-to date. Why not tinker with it since all support is fading fast? LOL if I break it now it hardly matters after all these years and I have plenty of other devices to rely on.

So yeah, I'm a bit of a noob (despite being a dinosaur :rolleyes:) who is willing to learn...

First step was to search the Google-sphere. Seems there are a lot more questions than answers out there for rx3115. How to upgrade the OS to WM5 or even WM6.1 Classic? I saw that asked over and over, but very few answers. Most who did reply said, "Try Universal Bootloader and a ROM image for another device..." OK, so that seemed the way to go, but is it?

There are a LOT of dead links for a Universal iPAQ Bootloader out there. I did manage to find a copy @ http://sourceforge.net/projects/ubl/files/ubl/Binaries/ where I selected the GUI version which came as an executable. Double clicking it creates a folder which UBL runs out of.

Caution: My system flagged it as having a Worm in the Vista Driver folders (2... Vista and Vista x64) and the Vista Drivers.exe application. :eek:

Who wants Wormy drivers? For that matter, who wants Vista? :confused:

I'm not qualified to judge if it is a false positive to some of the developers legitimate code. Maybe someone more savvy might want to take a look at it and make a ruling...

So I sanitized UBL by quarantining and deleting the offenders. Next, I asked Windows 7 to run it under compatibility mode for XP service pack 2. (It looks like it was always an XP box utility anyway.)

Here's a sanitized version of UBL for download. http://www.mediafire.com/file/7anraar1tkc3lz1/BootLoader.rar This is a rar of the extracted file folder (minus the Wormy bits). Just expand it and run "Bootloader.exe" right inside the folder. Maybe someone else will have more luck playing with it than I did.

I could in no way make it communicate with my rx3115 under Windows 7. Mtty always fails to open the port. I tried following the advice of UBL's readme and making a settings.ini file to direct mtty to the right port, but with no luck. IDK - I never wrote an .ini file before. Maybe I messed it up. I tried a few variations (settings/bootloader settings/mtty settings for file names) all with no success.

Then I used a friend's XP system and got closer... UBL gets past the mtty stage and opens the com with my rx3115, but then the ROM flash just hangs at 0%. I tried several times with no further success. And without the ROM being cooked for my specific device, flashing from the SD card is out.

I was hoping to force flash the Kitchen WM6.1 Classic ROM for rx1950 I got from this xda thread by Victory144 and Guifort: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=510764 The ROM size is perfect for rx3115!!!

Heck, I even tried looking at the RUU's from valid rx3115 and rx1950 ROM updates and seeing if I could puzzle out how to cobble something with a Hex Editor. But I'm not really qualified for that.

It's been a lot of years and no one has cooked an upgrade ROM for rx3115 yet. At least as far as I can tell. But even recently I've seen rx3115 owners posting to forums and asking for an upgrade. I know I'm not alone in this desire and that's why I started this thread. Maybe some other rx3115 owners will join this discussion. We might just figure something out. :)

Something else I've begun looking into is installing Linux on my rx3115. It seems possible and there are a few reports of it being done, but little in the way of tutorials for the challenged. :p More on that later...

Or... maybe I'm crazy... Doesn't the Samsung s3c2440 CPU meet the minimum system requirements (@ 300mhz) for XP Tablet? CPU's can be overclocked anyway and the s3c2440 should be capable of sustained 400mhz efforts. It is set at that speed in some other PDAs The RAM is right at the bottom edge of requirements as well, IF all 64mb can be freed up for the user. Is there a way to boot XP Tablet off an SD card? Could the RAM/ROM chipsets be instructed to act as two RAM slots for that purpose creating 96mb RAM? Am I just a fool?

I welcome any advice, questions, derisive laughter... whatever...

I'll be checking the thread and updating the reports of my efforts.

Thanx for stopping in.