Confused about when you have the ML features and when you don't

[srmarx]

This may sound stupid, but when is ML in effect and when is it not?  I think it works like this: after the initial installation, in which you do a mock firmware update and set a bit so that the camera will read the memory card upon startup, then whenever a card with the ML files is in the camera you will have the ML features when you turn on the camera.  Otherwise, if you put in a blank card, you won't have ML.  Is that right?  And if true, then the ML files have to be copied to every card that I use?

[scrax]

Yes, read this for more detailed info.

[srmarx]

So do I have to copy all the unzipped files in the folder to my SD card, including the 2 PDFs and ALL the .BIN files?  Or can I skip the PDFs and all the .BINs except the one for my camera which is a 60D?

[nanomad]

You can skip the PDF files and the .FIR that are not meant for your camera (KEEP THE BIN FILE THOUGH). I suggest you leave them on the card, it's not like you're wasting too much space and it can always come in handy

[srmarx]

OK, I get it now.  One last thing---if I need several cards on a shoot, is there a way to make a new bootable SD disk by doing a card copy (byte by byte, or whatever you want to call it) from my ML card that will include the boot sectors?  (I'm assuming that a normal file copy won't do any good since the boot sectors are hidden from the normal directory structure.)

[nanomad]

Transfer the files as usual then you can either use Eoscard on the occasion to make it bookable or you can rerun the installation firmware update on the camera (I prefer the Eoscard way)

[srmarx]

THanks.  I prefer using EOScard also, since we don't really know what happens when you run the ML firmware update and the boot bit in the rewritable ROM has already been set.  For example, does the update always write to the ROM, or does it check first and skip that part of the update.  In my experience, messing around with the rewritable ROM is the most dangerous part of using ML, because it has a chance to change other bits and really screw things up--although this is very, very unlikely, but still a possibility.