How do disable Bootdisk flag on a 5D Mk III

[ronl]

Hi Renato:

Thanks for the reply.  Would you happen to know how long the startup time is now assuming you have no SD card inserted and the CF card is not bootable?

[RenatoPhoto]

I dont know how to measure this time accurately but from my camera 5D3 test I guess is more than 1 second and less than 2 seconds.

[rwh]

I just did some tests just using a stopwatch, so accuracy is probably plus or minus 200ms or so.  As far as I can tell the resume from sleep and switching the camera on using the on/off switch take the same amount of time.  I'm measuring from shutter press or turn-on to when the AF points appear in the viewfinder.  The penalty for having the boot flag enabled in both cases seems to be just over 1 full second.  So as far as I can tell, the breakdown of approx load time is:

• 0.1s: load time without boot flag enabled (from what I've read, obviously can't test)
• 1.25s: load time with boot flag enabled, no SD card, or SD card with no ML
• 1.7s: load time with boot flag enabled and ML-equipped SD card present

So the lion's share of the time penalty seems to be in simply having the boot flag enabled.

Here are the actual trials I did:

Code: [Select]

with card sleep
1.74
with card switch
1.74
no card sleep
1.31
no card switch
1.22
1.20
1.29


[Trent]

Hi,

I know this thread has been going for a while, but I wanted to verify something and see if perhaps any progress had been made.

I'm running a recent build of Magic Lantern with Raw recording on my 5D Mark III.  Since loading it, I cannot use Eye-Fi cards in my camera (either 8 or 16 gig cards).

The behavior is just what people here have described when trying to use SD cards- once the SD card is inserted, the camera freezes and won't operate until the card is removed and the battery is removed and re-inserted.

My understanding is that this is because of the boot flag issue.  I know a1ex has said that he has to write something to deal with the boot flag issue and that we're waiting on that.  But I wanted to know if anyone had found either a work around or a way to re-install the 5dm3 firmware to remove the boot flag.

I actually contacted my Cannon dealer and asked them to flash my camera and they declined.  I think I'm going to have to do more to get them to look at the camera.

My real questions is the following:  until this boot flag issue is resolved, are Eye Fi cards unusable in the 5dm3?  Or might someone have found a workaround?

I'd be grateful for any information anyone has on this issue.

[rwh]

As far as I know, everything you say is correct.  My understanding is that currently the only way to disable the bootflag on a 5D3 is to have the mainboard replaced by Canon, which costs around £400.

And yes, EyeFi cards are unusable in a boot-flag enabled 5D3.

I understand that it is on a1ex's list, and I suspect that it'd be a requirement before they do a mainstream release, so I think it will be fixed eventually.  Whether that would be this year or next (or the next), I'm not sure.  From reading between the lines I think this might be because in order to test the necessary code, you're risking bricking your camera (which would mean you'd need that mainboard replacement).

I'm no expert though, I'm just interested in this the same as you.

[Trent]

Thanks very much for your response.

I confess, though, that's a rather unhappy state of affairs, as I'd previously thought that, worst case, Canon could flash the camera firmware and I'd simply start over again with the original firmware.

This is the first I've heard that a hardware solution would be required, which seems a bit strange since the ML firmware is just changed a bit of the 5dm3 firmware.  It's not as if the mainboard became damaged by the ML firmware, right?

I'd love it if someone could confirm whether having Canon flash the camera would disable the bootflag and remove this issue.

Again, I know this is my own doing as I chose to load the ML firmware, etc.. I'm just interested in a solution- if one might be out there.

[rwh]

I confess, though, that's a rather unhappy state of affairs, as I'd previously thought that, worst case, Canon could flash the camera firmware and I'd simply start over again with the original firmware.
This is the first I've heard that a hardware solution would be required, which seems a bit strange since the ML firmware is just changed a bit of the 5dm3 firmware.  It's not as if the mainboard became damaged by the ML firmware, right?

Right.  It's not damaged.  But as far as I can tell, the bootflag area is in a different location than where the camera's firmware is stored.  So simply reflashing the firmware won't restore it to its default state.

I'd love it if someone could confirm whether having Canon flash the camera would disable the bootflag and remove this issue.

I don't know.  That depends on whether the factory has the ability to flash the bootflag area.  I'm sure someone on here knows.

Again, I know this is my own doing as I chose to load the ML firmware, etc.. I'm just interested in a solution- if one might be out there.

The solution is for someone to develop a .FIR file that will allow disabling the bootflag.  It's not like it's impossible, it just has to be done by someone, and done in such a way that it's unlikely to brick peoples' cameras.  From what I can tell from looking at the documentation and source code, this would involve decompiling the bootloader to assembler, finding the address of the DisableBootDisk function, and then developing a .FIR that is capable of calling it.  I'm not an ML developer though, so I have no idea how easy this would be.

[rwh]

Further to what I said above, it looks like you need to check that the camera isn't in LiveView mode before you disable the bootflag, though I'm not sure why (I assume bad stuff happens).  See a1ex's comment:

I need to prepare a special FIR. Short answer: call("DisableBootDisk")

but you really have to double-check that you are not in LiveView (and people managed to go there during first install despite all my double-checks).

[Trent]

Thanks again for your clarification, though I wish you had better news.  Nevertheless, I've heard nothing inconsistent with what you claim, so until I hear otherwise, I'll assume that's the current state of things.

I'm familiar with the thread to which you refer above.  My takeaway( though I suspect I'm less technical than you) was that some people had tried to disable the boot flag themselves and were not only unsuccessful, but had harmed their 5dm3's.  My impression was that until A1ex writes the piece that's needed, one should just leave it alone.

It is curious though that ML can disable and re-enable boot flags for other cameras, but not for the 5d.  With other cameras I believe you can toggle the boot flag on and off by switching the dial from Manual to Aperture Priority or something like that.  The 5dm3 must be different for whatever reason.

I feel a bit trapped right now, though I realize it's my own doing. 

[tobi_ml]

I need to prepare a special FIR. Short answer: call("DisableBootDisk")

but you really have to double-check that you are not in LiveView (and people managed to go there during first install despite all my double-checks).

I have read various posts in this forum and I want to summarise the current point of developing. Am I right that...
- there is a way to disable the bootflag, but this way needs a lot of safety checks (like M-Mode & no LiveView) and if you fail the checks your camera is broken (forever)
- the developer team (especially Alex) are looking for a .fir file which does this checks automatically and minimize the danger of getting a broken camera

I know that you develop ML in your spare time and you deserve our greatest respect, but can you already say how long it will take for a first version of this "disable-fir" or any other methode to disable it? 1 week, 1 month, or longer than a year?

I buyed a 5D 3 and the answers will strongly influence my decision whether I should install the "rawmode" or not.

Thanks for answering my questions!

[Walter Schulz]

can you already say how long it will take

F.A.Q.  -> Troll Questions -> last one

[bigmoon]

Hi all.
First of all, Thank you all developer.

I'm thinking about this problem. And yesterday, I built magiclantern compiling system.
I modified latest source code, and made special autoexec.bin.
This modification is calling "Disalbebootdisk" at auto save toggle.
I was dumping address at before and after modification, call"Disablebootdisk"
I checked these dumping result. Offset+4 address from 0xF8000000 is changing from 0xFFFFFFFF
to 0x00000000. This is clearing boot flag. But, I found some different point at other address. woo...
May be, some developer is thinking that this result is occerd a bad influence on camera function.

After disable boot flag, I updated canon firm V1.2.1.
At present, I can't find a problem.
System boot time become so fast. and Eye-fi card is enable.

[RenatoPhoto]

Excellent find.  Will have to be confirmed by others who are willing to risk their camera in return for a quick boot from sleep.  I am not!
Will you provide the code for analysis and confirmation?

[bigmoon]

This is my modification.

void
config_autosave_toggle(void* priv)
{
#if 0
    config_flag_file_setting_save(CONFIG_AUTOSAVE_FLAG_FILE, !!config_autosave);
    msleep(50);
    config_autosave = !config_flag_file_setting_load(CONFIG_AUTOSAVE_FLAG_FILE);
#endif
    bmp_printf(FONT_LARGE, 50, 50, "disable flag start");
    call( "DisableBootDisk" );

    bmp_printf(FONT_LARGE, 50, 50, "disable flag end");
}

[isomogyi]

Hi Bigmoon,

I want to disable the boot flag too.

Is this modification available somewhere? I mean I am not a developer, programmer, can't write code so I need the "disablebootflag.fir or the new "autoexec.bin" I am just wondering if it is available already somewhere.

Thank you for all developer for giving ML to us.
All of you guys do amazing work!

[bigmoon]

No. I doesn't commit to latest source code. I recommend waiting stable release for 5D3.
Because I don't know this modification have an bat effect on camera, and tester is only one.
There's also the possibility that some memory data area is broken.
Roughly speaking, there is two section into the system memory.
  1. source code binary data. preset data.
  2. adjustment data.
if you update CANON's firmware, 1st section is overwrite.
But 2nd section is not overwrite. This section have originaly data(cmos defects data, etc)
one by one, and it's written at assembly line.
This modification can be extremely damaging to originaly data area.