#Dockstar tab how to
#Dockstar tab serial

(A dead dockstar will produce NO serial output and the front panel LED will not light up when power is applied.) Legal Disclaimerīy performing the steps outlined in this document, you agree not to hold firestorm_v1, or any other linked sites, forums, companies, liable if you really screw something up. This is only for bricked dockstars that have been verified with a serial adapter to be dead. Please note that if you have NOT bricked your dockstar, there is no need to perform the steps in this howto.

#Dockstar tab how to

In this particular howto, we will cover how to use the debug mode of the Marvell chip in the Dockstar to upload a new boot loader in order to rewrite the bootloader to the onboard Flash which will result in a working, new Dockstar. We can also send instructions to it, monitor responses from it, or even pause the chip, leaving it in a state of suspended animation until we issue the command to start it up again or reset the device.

If you are familiar with working with Linksys routers and uploading custom firmware to them, you have heard of the term bricking and you have more than likely heard of something called JTAG that is used to recover it.īecause of the nature of JTAG and the fact that manufacturers don’t typically like us having access to the JTAG port, these ports are often hidden in many different locations, usually unmarked or unpopulated headers, or other odd locations and is the way that the manufacturer loads the firmware for the very first time on to a new device.īy using JTAG, we can place the hardware into a “debug” mode where we can manipulate the microprocessor’s core functionality. JTAG is used for low-level in-circuit debugging of embedded applications and is very hardware specific.

This document demonstrates how to recover your Dockstar and upload a custom bootloader to it using a JTAG cable. Read more for a complete list of what you will need including how to build an adapter and where to get the needed JTAG kit. (read: I did something stupid.) After performing a lot of research and thanks to a bunch of people over at the Forum site who helped me, I was able to get it running. The reason I haven’t written any more about my fun with the Dockstar was that due to an unfortunate set of circumstances I was left with a bricked dockstar.