> I'm planning to get a couple of devices for testing purposes. I know that > some Palms have upgradable OS's and some do not.
Only devices with flash ROM (as opposed to mask ROM) can be flashed with a new OS. However, you can install OS updates in RAM. For example, you have to flash to go from Palm OS 3.5 to Palm OS 4.0, but you can install an update in RAM to go from Palm OS 3.5.0 to 3.5.3. > Can anyone tell me if it's > possible to downgrade the OS on one of these devices, in order to test a > product with an earlier version of the OS. As a general rule, you can't install an OS older than the "stock" OS that came with a device. For example, you can't install Palm OS 3.5 on an m505. We didn't make a HAL for the m505 when we made Palm OS 3.5 because the m505 didn't exist at the time. Note that the size of the flash part may limit your options. For example, I once tried to flash a Palm OS 4.1 Japanese ROM onto a Japanese Palm V, and it didn't work. I don't know if the flash part sizes are documented anywhere. Finally, we don't provide tools for flashing ROMs to third-party developers. Of course, you can buy OS upgrades from the appropriate licensee, just as an end-user would. -- Danny @ PalmSource -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/forums/
