Firmware import and preservation

Use this reference for additional input formats, integrity checks and offline transfer. Start with the firmware guide for a single local archive.

Import forms

The native GPL adapter links the pinned original EKA2L1 installers and readers; Python contains configuration, storage and process policy, not firmware parsing. The separate executable symbian_firmware_tool is an explicit external tool in development exports, alongside EKA2L1. Build it through the research CMake hook or select it with --importer. It is not linked into the Python wheel.

symbian firmware import DUMP.7z --name device
symbian firmware probe DUMP.7z
symbian firmware import --rom SYM.ROM --rpkg matching.rpkg --name device
symbian firmware import --rom SYM.ROM --z-drive /path/to/z/root --name device
symbian firmware import --rom self-contained.rom --name device
symbian firmware import --vpl firmware.vpl --variant 0 --name device
symbian firmware import --instance /path/to/eka2l1-instance --name device

Archives use libarchive content detection, including .7z and .zip, and EKA2L1's ROM/RPKG or pre-extracted data/roms/CODE / data/drives/z/CODE layouts. The native preflight rejects traversal, host paths, case collisions, multiple candidate devices and expansion over 16 GiB / 200,000 entries. ROM-named files within drive Z are data, not firmware candidates. probe lists candidate mappings without extraction; it also reports preflight errors. Ambiguous archives require explicit selection after extraction. VPL variants are never selected silently when more than one is offered.

A ROM needing external Z fails with FAILED_PRECONDITION when its RPKG/Z is missing. The upstream RPKG reader now rejects unsafe paths, huge path lengths and truncated entries before publication. Product codes and ROM dump names are validated before becoming host paths. These bounds are not an attestation that every upstream parser is safe against hostile binary inputs.

Instance adoption imports one ROM and its matching extracted Z using the native reader. It ignores the original device database, mutable C/D/E and frontend configuration. Loading an EKA2L1 database can delete devices marked for deletion; this workflow never loads the original database. An instance with multiple devices requires explicit ROM/Z selection. VPL import retains its supplied initial drive C content. Every application launch gets new writable state.

Inputs are hashed before and after import. Failed and timed-out native imports retain request, response, logs and partial staging, and publish no object or alias. The default timeout is 300 seconds; --timeout changes that bound. Successful staging retains reports but removes its duplicate instance.

Identity, verification and offline transfer

Objects live at STORE/objects/SHA256, each with firmware.json and instance/. Identity covers normalized native metadata and every baseline file's relative path and SHA256. Aliases, original source paths and importer paths do not enter the identity. aliases.json belongs to the store. Reusing an alias for different bytes requires --replace-alias; identical imports deduplicate.

symbian firmware inspect c7
symbian firmware export c7 /transfer/c7-bundle
# On another machine; the exact project ID remains valid:
symbian firmware import --bundle /transfer/c7-bundle --name c7

list reads metadata and explicitly reports that full integrity was not checked. inspect, export, bundle import and launch verify every baseline byte. Additional or missing files, mismatched identities and links fail verification. Source original paths are informational and are not required for resolution. Bundles contain private firmware and provenance, so transfer them privately. Moving a store needs only a global --store configuration change; project IDs and SDK files stay valid. There is no network download or firmware redistributor. An independently held offline preservation copy is still required.