Upgrade Linux STB Firmware over HTTP

Upgrade Linux STB Firmware over HTTP

In order to upgrade firmware.bin over HTTP STB performs check_version_ext request during bootup process:

http://upgrade_url/check_version_ext?output=text&board=xxx&mac=xxxxxxxxxxxx&serial=nnnnnnn&firmware_version=a.b.c

The reply should be as follows:

Firmware version, Description, URL

Where URL:

• has “http://” scheme
• may have “force” query argument to force downgrade to lower version

  http://example.com/firmware.bin?force=1

• may have any filename (Ex.: http://example.com/firmware.binor http://example.com/groups/staging-1.0.0.bin)

Empty or white-space lines are ignored.

Lines started with # also ignored.

Special value used to mark “No version available”:

,,,

So you can:

• set up specific versions for MAC groups (useful for testing)
• or set up specific version for board (production version).
• force downgrade firmware version

Regardless the version string in the reply, STB checks out actual version in firmware.bin itself and installs upgrade if needed. Old firmwares may not support new hardware revisions, so downgrade to such versions may not be possible for some set-top boxes, even with force=1 query argument.