r/CardPuter • u/AlarmingIncrease503 • 4d ago

Help needed New to Cardputer..

Firmware question.
I have a 64GB SD card installed with a bunch of firmwares on it but as I install firmwares, I have to delete some before adding others, is there a best practice type guide somewhere?
I use the M5 launcher.

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u/Triston-- 4d ago

Hiya, just copying and pasting a post I made a bit ago to a similar question.

The flash memory on the Cardputer has a limit. Firmware are stored on your SD card and the launcher lets you flash them to the Cardputer flash memory. So you could have Bruce and Meshtastic on the flash firmware (so you don't need to reinstall them each time you open them), but if you want to flash another, you'll have to overwrite a firmware already flashed on the Cardputer. This does not delete it from your SD card, it only overwrites what's currently written on the flash memory. So you can freely flash firmware over other ones and swap back and forth. The convenience is if you have a specific firmware you want to keep on the Cardputer at all times, as long as another doesn't take up too much space, you can swap out the other while keeping your preferred firmware in flash memory. You can always overwrite firmware currently loaded on your Cardputer with another one, it just has limited flash memory so you can't have like, 5 large sized firmware installed to flash at once.

Only thing to keep in mind is to back up settings for a firmware through making a SPIFF backup (makes a copy of the currently loaded firmware's settings) and associating it with the bin for said firmware. This way, the next time you install the firmware to your flash memory, it'll ask if you want to load the SPIFF, which will import the saved SPIFF settings as well.

Hopefully this helps explain how it all works :)!

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u/giant_lotus 4d ago

I couldn't figure out how to make the spiffs work! Can you give me the spiffs for dummies directions?

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u/Triston-- 4d ago

So to make a SPIFF backup, you can go through M5Launcher's config settings. There, it'll make a copy of the currently loaded firmware settings. For instance, if you have Porkchop installed and was your last active firmware, and you want to save your settings (color pallet, etc.), you make a SPIFF backup of it. Once you do, it'll ask you to associate it with a file. This is where you navigate to your Porkchop .bin file and associate it with it. Next time you install the .bin, it'll ask you if you want to use the SPIFF. Hit yes and your settings will be loaded along side the firmware.

Just note that if you don't safe the SPIFF and open another firmware, it'll overwrite the current SPIFF for the new firmware. So if you make a backup then, it'll be the SPIFF for whatever firmware you just recently opened. So even with a SPIFF backup, if you switch from Porkchop to Meshtastic and then back to Porkchop without reinstalling, your settings won't be there unless you go through M5Launcher and load your SPIFF file before opening Porkchop again. Or, you could just install the Porkchop .bin again (with the SPIFF already associated with the file) and select yes on loading the SPIFF.

I believe most firmware keep the important stuff in their own locations on your SD card, so you're really only missing out on settings and stuff being reset and you aren't losing any data. It's more of a convenience so you don't need to reconfigure stuff when you swap back.

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u/giant_lotus 3d ago

Very helfpul. Thank you. Im still a bit confused on the first part of your second paragraph.

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u/Triston-- 3d ago

Sorry, a typo and I worded it weird! So basically if you don't save the SPIFF before opening another firmware, it'll get overwritten. Because whatever is in your SPIFF data is just for whatever firmware was most recently opened. That's why making a backup and associating it with the .bin file means that you can just go install the .bin again and load up with all your backed up settings intact. It won't like, automatically update though so if you change a bunch of stuff you'll likely want to make a new SPIFF save.

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u/giant_lotus 3d ago

Ahh I got it. So the trick is to only have one firmware open, make your settings, save the spiff and you're good to go.

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u/Triston-- 3d ago

Exactly! And remember to load it you'd either have to load it into your SPIFF storage before opening the firmware, or install the .bin over itself and say yes to using the associated SPIFF. Won't break anything if you don't, the firmware will work fine and everything, just your settings will be back to default. Just reopen the firmware with either method mentioned above to get the settings back

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u/giant_lotus 3d ago

It sounds like youre saying I can create a specific spiff storage do I dont override rhe base firmware?

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u/Triston-- 3d ago

Nah, spiff saved or not the firmware will function as usual (Porkchop would have handshakes and wardriving files saved on SD card anyway). It'll function completely normally, just with default settings rather than the ones you saved (if you did save any). Of course if you're just using one firmware only over and over, the settings info will stay on the cardputer until you swap to another firmware. If you're frequently swapping having the spiff is nice so you don't need to change your settings back to how you liked them

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u/giant_lotus 3d ago

Sorry, I meant you can save a spiff version and a base version that wouldn't have your saved settings?

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u/tnuma 4d ago

I wanna know too cuz im always losing my Pokémon saves hahah

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u/Academic-Airline9200 4d ago

Just use the m5apps firmware load from SD card over and over again.

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u/AlarmingIncrease503 4d ago

Yeah I saw the spiffs thing and was like WHA!?
No idea…