Platinum is Güralp Systems’ next-generation firmware for EAMs, NAMs and DCMs. Platinum firmware offers a number of advantages for DCM users over the previous DCM firmware and we recommend that all DCM units being redeployed to new installations are upgraded to Platinum.
This page describes the procedure for re-flashing a DCM to use Platinum firmware where the DCM has corrupt flash memory and cannot boot. If the DCM is working properly, please use this procedure instead.
The following cables and connections are required:
Power/data cable - Plug a standard 10-way power/data “Y”-cable (CAB-BDA-0036) into the DCM port labelled DATA OUT. The power lead should be connected to a stable DC power supply (10–28 V DC) and the data lead should be connected to a computer that will be used to control the re-flashing procedure.
Ethernet cable - Plug a standard 6-way Ethernet cable (CAS-DCM-0025) in to the DCM port labelled NETWORK. The 8P8C modular jack should be connected to a router or other device that will provide Internet access. Either DHCP or static addressing may be used.
Older units only: internal console cable - Some older DCM units use a bootloader which cannot communicate using the DATA OUT port. This can be quickly determined at the start of the procedure below. Such units will require a special cable to be used. This cable is connected internally in the DCM (contact for details) and to the serial port of the computer being used in the procedure. It is used for data instead of the standard power/data cable (although the standard power/data cable still needs to be used to provide power).
The two files linked below must be saved onto the computer being used in the process. They will be uploaded to the DCM over the serial port. They are used to install a base image with enough functionality to allow the DCM to update itself over the Internet.
If you are using Linux, you can verify the integrity of the files after download with the md5sum utility:
| File | MD5 sum |
|---|---|
| boot.gz | 76f345c2defb72c1c0f41a1e5b44318a |
| root.gz | 3a8473b1c9cf6602d4c20380bb6c4b2c |
The first step in the re-flash procedure is to gain access to the bootloader.
Using extraPuTTY (www.extraputty.com) on Windows, or minicom (or another terminal emulator) on Linux, connect to the DATA OUT port of the DCM at 115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit (8N1). Configure the emulator to use no flow control – neither hardware (RTS/CTS) nor software (XON/XOFF).
Power-cycle the DCM, and repeatedly type fishsoup followed by a space until you see the prompt:
Having gained access to the bootloader, the minimal image files (from the required files section) need to be uploaded and flashed. This part of the procedure takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.
Note that there have been several revisions of the bootloader, so the messages that you encounter may differ slightly from the ones reproduced in these instructions. However, in all cases, you can simply follow the same procedure.
Press ENTER a few times to make sure you are successfully talking to the boot loader, then type the text shown in emphasis below. A typical session looks like this:
The following step differs, depending on which terminal emulator you are using.
extraPuTTY: Send the “boot” file you downloaded earlier by selecting "Files Transfer" from the menu bar, then "Ymodem" and then "Send". Enter the file-name of the downloaded boot image and click on "Open".
Minicom: Send a file (ctrl + a then s, then select from the list). Select the boot file you downloaded earlier. Note: Minicom implements file transfer protocols using external utilities which are not always present by default in some distributions; use your distribution’s package manager to ensure that the lrzsz package is installed.
Once the image is uploaded you should see:
Errors about bad blocks can be ignored (this is normal NAND flash behaviour) but the procedure must verify and end with the success message as shown above.
Load the root image with:
Send the “root” file in the same way, and wait for the boot> prompt.
Now power cycle the DCM. As this is the first boot with the new firmware, the DCM will need to generate new key-pairs for the ssh program. This takes 2–3 minutes. During this time, the DCM will appear unresponsive. Once it has completed, the DCM will present a login prompt: localhost login:
If your network is configured to use DHCP, the DCM is now ready to be upgraded and you can continue to the next step. You can verify the address of the DCM by running the command
If you need to set a static address, this is done with the following commands (changing the values in italics to suit your network):
The NN at the end of the IP address you wish to assign is the CIDR notation for the netmask; it is usually 24 (which corresponds to the netmask value of 255.255.255.0) or 16 (which corresponds to a netmask of 255.255.0.0). If you know the address of a local DNS server, you can substitute it in place of 1.1.1.1 in the last line above.
Run the command upgrade and wait for the process to complete.
Then run the command hash -r
Finally, run upgrade once more.
After rebooting the DCM, it is ready to be configured and used with the latest Platinum firmware.
For more information, first contact your local distributor or email .