Samsung YP-K3

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Contents

[edit] Introduction

A korean firmware will transform the samsung YP-K3 into an UMS flash player. It is possible to upgrade the firmware using only gentoo.

New features of this firmware (4.0.6) are:

  • UMS mode (The K3 will appear as an USB hard disk).
  • No more needs for id3 tags. Files are now organized in folders and are read by their filenames.
  • File browser
  • ogg files are supported by the device
  • K3 can now read plain txt files.
  • Customizable user equaliser!
  • 2 new fonts for the display
  • New animations while playing music
  • 3 levels of FM sensibility
  • 3 colors of display: red , blue or lime.
  • Remove the sound level limitation on some European sold players.

As I get some troubles the first time I try to upgrade this firmware, here is a HOWTO that will hopefully help users to not do the same mistake as me.

[edit] Get the firmware

Just download it: 4.06 firmware

[edit] Install necessary softwares

Your K3 is now in MTP mode. We need access to the K3 in this mode and to copy the firmware into it. For that, we will mount the K3 in user space. MTPfs, a FUSE filesystem that supports reading and writing from any MTP device (as supported by libmtp), is needed.

At that time, mtpfs is not in portage, but you can put this ebuild [1] into you favorite overlay. If you don't have one, it is time to create it: Installing 3rd Party Ebuilds.

Before emerging mtpfs, be sure that /usr/src/linux point to your kernel in use because portage will install fuse if you don't already have it. FUSE make possible to implement a fully functional filesystem in a userspace program and it include a kernel module.

You also need to add the ~x86 keyboard in /etc/portage/package.keywords for mtpfs. I put mtpfs ebuild in /usr/portage/local/test/app-misc/mtpfs. So: 

echo "app-misc/mtpfs ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
su -c "ebuild /usr/portage/local/test/app-misc/mtpfs/mtpfs-0.6.ebuild digest"
su -c "emerge mtpfs"

[edit] Installing the firmware

[edit] Switching to UMS mode

Load the fuse kernel module: 

su -c "modprobe fuse"

Make the mountpoint: 

mkdir ~/k3

Mount the K3 

mtpfs k3

Copying the files (it is the point of no return!): 

cp YPK3.rom ~/k3
cp <your_favorite_color>/YPK3.IMG ~/k3

Unmount the K3: 

fusermount -u ~/k3

Unplug the K3 and turn it on. After booting, it will now complain about not enough space to create database. But we are in UMS mode. We need to format it.

[edit] Creation of the partition

WARNING: This step can be fatal to your K3, be careful. Anything else as a FAT32 partition can made your K3 fully unresponsive.

Turn the K3 off and plug it again. A new sd* device must appear in /dev. Mine is /dev/sdb 

fdisk /dev/sdb

Create a new partition: 

n

We want to use all the space: 

Enter
Enter
Enter

Check what is done: 

p

We want a FAT32 partition 

t
b

Check again: 

p

You must get something like: 

Disk /dev/sdb: 1977 MB, 1977614336 bytes
61 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1021 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 3782 * 512 = 1936384 bytes
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1        1021     1930680    b  W95 FAT32

Write the partition table 

w

At this time, you must have one more sd* device, mine is /dev/sdb1. If not, plug out and in the device. If it is not the case, follow ivman. Or use a similar fstab entry: 

/dev/sdb1               /mnt/photo      vfat            noauto,user     0 0

Format the partition: 

mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdb1

[edit] Final upgrade

Mount the partition: 

su -c "mount /mnt/photo"

Copy again the ROM and IMG files: 

cp YPK3.rom /mnt/photo
cp <your_favorite_color>/YPK3.IMG /mnt/photo

Unplug the K3 and turn it on. The K3 will now fully upgrade the firmware. Among other things, you are now able to simply drag your favorites files with the mouse into the K3 or to use any file manager.

[edit] Removing unnecessary software

We don't need mtpfs and fuse anymore: 

emerge -C mtpfs fuse

[edit] Conclusion

I have much more fun with this korean firmware as with the original one. Not to mention the UMs mode, many things are working better and are simpler to use. No more spited CD or "unknow" artist name: it just works.

With its original firmware, the K3 is very like the ipod: a nice player but biased on proprietary DRMised and complicated softwares. With this upgrade, it is a real ipod killer.

[edit] Credits

Thanks to darjeeling forum thread: Samsung YP-K3 mp3 player metamorphosis

Retrieved from "http://gentoo-wiki.com/Samsung_YP-K3"
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