newbie question: i've got a device (a radio control transmitter for model airplanes/helicopters) with 'f149. the pads for the jtag are present and we know the fuse is not burned. i'd like to read the contents of the flash (the firmware), make some edits, and upload the changes.
does the mspgcc tool chain include a means to read the flash memory as well as a disassembler? can the IAR kickstart do this? are their other free tools that might do this? many thanks.
Yes. The msp430-jtag utility can do that.
Yes. GDB includes a dissassembler, and the msp43-objdump also has a disassembler feature. Neither is particularly well suited to a reverse engineering effort (if that's where you're headed). I have seen 8086 dissassemblers that were intended for reverse-engineering: they allowed the user to interactively add labels, comments, and mark regions as code vs. data.
I've never seen such a beast for the '430.
I would guess so, but I don't know.
Rowley's CrossWorks has a free trial version, and a personal license is only US$149:
I should mention that of course GDB can as well...
msp430-objdump
many thanks for your reply. that was very helpful. i don't think what i'm hoping to do would be considered reverse engineering. there are bug and desired features that the manufacturer seems unwilling or unable to fix/add in a timely manner. i'd like to make these tweaks and additions for my own device and to give freely to anyone who may be interested if i succeed.
anyway, it sounds like i'll have my bases covered with mspgcc or kickstart or the commercial product you suggested. thanks again.
it looks like objdump requires the input file to be in a particular format; e.g. tekhex, binary, ihex, etc. google hasn't help me find a spec for those formats.
It expects an .elf file. msp430-objcopy can convert from various formats (srec, ihex, etc.) to elf.
thanks grant. before i saw your response, i posted a question about converting my raw hex dump to one of those formats. so far, i can only find a spec for the srec format, so i guess i'll start writing a converter for it. thanks.
msp430-jtag will create either an ihex or binary file, and objcopy can convert either.
How did you get a raw hex dump?
my device and be reflashed via my pc. i used a serial port monitor to sniff and record the firmware update that was sent to the device.
i very much appreciate your help grant. if you don't mind, let's continue this discussion on the "msp430: disassembling raw binary" thread. thanks.
Look up "info binutils" or "man binutils". I believe it depends on the BFD package to decode file types.
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