TiniInstaller - Say Good Bye to JavaKit!

This is the home page of TiniInstaller, a user-friendly GUI that simplifies the installation and configuration of software on your TINIs.

Introducing TiniInstaller
System Requirements
How to Get TiniInstaller
Documentation
Troubleshooting
Version History
Licensing

Introducing TiniInstaller

Return to Table of Contents

TiniInstaller is a user-friendly GUI that simplifies the installation and configuration of software on your TINI. TiniInstaller offers these simplifying features...

During the installation process, TiniInstaller allows you to specify the file containing the TINI OS firmware (typically, tini.tbin).
Performs diagnostics on your javax.comm installation and reports any problems using informative and helpful messages.
Allows you to specify your TINI's network configuration in an easy-to-use GUI.
Installs a complete working image into your TINI's RAM. This image, also called a TINI Package File, is a snapshot taken from an existing (and working) TINI's memory. This guarantees that your TINI will have the exact same file system and heap as a working TINI.
Ensures that the version of installed firmware matches the version required by the TINI Package File.
Streamlines the installation process by installing the TINI Package file included in TiniInstaller's JAR file (if present).

TiniInstaller was created by Smart Software Consulting, which holds the copyright on it.

System Requirements

Return to Table of Contents

To use TiniInstaller, you must have:

Java 2 SDK (or Runtime Environment), Standard Edition (or greater).
A TINI board with proper serial cable.
The TINI 1.01 firmware either already installed or available for installation.
The TiniInstaller software (285 KB).

How to Get TiniInstaller

Return to Table of Contents

TiniInstaller is available from Smart Software Consulting. Simply go to the URL shown here:

http://www.smartsc.com/tini/TiniInstaller/THSInstaller.zip (285 KB)

The initial release of TiniInstaller is a JAR file called THSInstaller.jar, which is the only file inside the THSInstaller.zip file. One way to extract THSInstaller.jar from THSInstaller.zip is to type...

jar xvf THSInstaller.zip

This JAR file includes not only TiniInstaller, but also (as its name implies) a TINI Package File that installs TiniHttpServer on your TINI with the /etc/.startup file already configured to start TiniHttpServer automatically when the system boots. The TINI Package File included with THSInstaller.jar also installs TEd version 0.6.

The TINI Package File included with THSInstaller.jar is the only currently available TINI Package File.

Documentation

Return to Table of Contents

TiniInstaller is designed to be very user friendly, even newbie friendly. To run it, simply type...

javaw -jar THSInstaller.jar

This will bing up a "wizard" dialog box. The following table shows the rest of the wizard pages, in sequence, along with notes about each page.

If the "wizard" dialog box does not appear, be sure that THSInstaller.jar in is your current directory (or specify the full path to THSInstaller.jar instead of just THSInstaller.jar).

If you encounter an error message, please check the Troubleshooting section below.

	This is the inital page of TINIInstaller. The buttons on the bottom are for naviagating through TiniIinstaller. Clicking the "Next" button will take you to the next page. Clicking the "Back" button will take you to the previous page. Clicking the "Close" button will close the program.
	This page allows you specify a TINI Firmware file to load, typically named tini.tbin. This file is included in the TINI OS distribution. TiniInstaller does not require this file. If you leave the Filename field blank, TiniInstaller will not (cannot) load the TINI Firmware. It will, however, still check that the currently installed firmware is the right version for the TINI Package File being installed. If you do specify a TINI Firmware file, TiniInstaller will load it before checking that it is the proper version for the TINI Package File being installed.
	This page is where you can specify the communications port and the baud rate to use when communicating with TINI.
	This page is where you specify the network settings that you want your TINI to have. The first tab, shown here, has three radio buttons that you can choose: "No Network", "Use DHCP", and "Use Static IP". The other four tabs remain disabled unless you choose "Use Static IP". If you choose "No Network", TiniInstaller will not configure any network settings on your TINI and ou will have to communicate with TINI via the serial port (typically using JavaKit). After making your selection, click on "Finish". TiniInstaller will display the confirmation dialog shown below.
	If you choose "Use DHCP", TiniInstaller will configure your TINI to use DHCP. Notice that the remains four tabs are disabled, since all network configuration parameters will come from the DHCP server. After making your selection, click on "Finish". TiniInstaller will display the confirmation dialog shown below.
	If you choose "Use Static IP", the other four tabs become enabled allowing you to specify the static IP settings for your TINI. At a minimum, you must specify an IP Address and Subnet Mask (see next page). After making your selection and providing the information required/desired on the other tabs, click on "Finish". TiniInstaller will display the confirmation dialog shown below.
	This page, available only if you selected "Use Static IP" on the Network tab, allows you to specify the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway for your TINI. As shown here, you may specify addresses, such as IP address and default gateway, using hostnames instead of numeric IP addresses. You may also use numeric addresses. TiniInstaller will lookup the actual addresses before installing to your TINI. Since you selected "Use Static IP", TiniInstaller will require you to specify an IP address and a subnet mask.
	This page, available only if you selected "Use Static IP" on the Network tab, allows you to specify the DNS settings for TINI. If you leave the "DNS Timeout (ms)" field blank, the default, it will be set to zero, which causes TINI to use backoff/retry scheme.
	This page, available only if you selected "Use Static IP" on the Network tab, allows you to specify an SMTP server that TINI will use for sending mail (typically via a `mailto:` URL). This is required if you want to send email from TINI (e.g. TiniHttpServer log files).
	This page, available only if you selected "Use Static IP" on the Network tab, allows you to specify an HTTP Proxy server and port which your TINI will use for outbound HTTP requests. Note that these settings are for HTTP requests *from* your TINI to external HTTP servers; they have nothing to do with TiniHttpServer settings.
Be sure to heed the warning message!!! TiniInstaller will overwrite every byte of RAM on your TINI wiping out any and all previously installed files!!!	This is the confirmation dialog displayed after you click on the "Finish" button. The first line, TINI Firmware, shows the name of the TINI Firmware file to load or, as shown here, "Already installed". "Already installed" means that you did not specify a TINI Firmware file to load, presumably because the TINI Firmware is aready installed. The second line shows the name of the TINI Package file to install or, as shown here, "Auto-Installing from JAR File", which means that the TINI Package file to be installed resides in the jar file from which TiniInstaller is running. The remaining lines show the other settings you specified. Note that all IP addresses are shown in numeric form. Be sure to use the scroll bar to verify that all of the settings are correct. If anything needs to be changed, press "Cancel" to be returned to the wizard pages. If everything is correct, press "OK" top begin the installation.
	During the actual installation, a progress meter is shown along with a status message. If you specified a TINI Firmware File, the progress meter will make two passes. The first pass will say "Loading TINI Firmware..." and count from bank 0x1 through bank 0x6. The second pass (or only pass if you didn't specify a TINI Firmware File) will say "Installing TINI Package File..." and count through banks 0x1 through 0x1f (or 0x27 if you have a 1MB TINI). You may press cancel at any time to abort the installation, but TiniInstaller will not respond until after finishing the current page. Note, however, that aborting an installation will leave your TINI in an indeterminate state (i.e. probably unusable).
	After the installation completes successfully, the dialog box shown here will be displayed. Clicking on OK will return you to the intial page of the wizard, ready to install to another TINI. If you specified network settings (either DHCP or Static IP) you should now be able to access your TINI via telnet, FTP, and HTTP using your web browser!!! Since TiniInstaller defaults the timezone to GMT, you will now have to reset the timezone on your TINI if your timezone is not GMT.

Troubleshooting

Return to Table of Contents

This section contains common error messages and likely causes/solutions for each one. If you don't see your error message listed here, please send email to TiniInstallerHelp@smartsc.com with the exact wording of your error message.

Error Message	Likely Causes/Solutions
No error message appears, but wizard does not appear either.	Be sure that `THSInstaller.jar` in is your current directory, or Specify the full path to `THSInstaller.jar` on the command line instead of just `THSInstaller.jar. For example...` `javaw -jar c:\tini\smartsc\THSInstaller.jar`
"Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from THSInstaller.jar"
"No response from TINI."	DTR signal is unjumpered on your TINI socket board. Rejumper it. Check with your socket board's manufacturer for details. Your serial cable is not passing the DTR to TINI. Try a different serial cable. Note that for PC to TINI communication, you need to use a straight-through (i.e. modem) cable.
"Unsupported loader version (...)"	Your TINI has on older (or newer) boot loader than the one required by TiniInstaller. TiniInstaller requires that your boot loader banner be "TINI loader 05-15-00 17:45".
"Incorrect firmware version on TINI."	Your TINI does not have the version of TINI OS Firmware required by the TINI Package File. Currently, you must have TINI OS 1.01 loaded (or have TiniInstaller load it for you.)
"Incorrect RAM size on TINI."	The TINI Package file you are trying to install was made from a TINI with a different amount of RAM than yours. Both 512KB and 1024KB TINIs are supported by `THSInstaller.jar`.

Version History

Return to Table of Contents

Version	Comments
0.1	» Initial release.

Licensing

Return to Table of Contents

Smart Software Consulting holds the copyright to TiniInstaller and THSInstaller.jar. TiniInstaller and THSInstaller.jar are made freely available for the sole purpose of installing the included TINI Package File onto your TINI. You may not use TiniInstaller or THSInstaller.jar for any other purpose, including, but not limited to, redistribution, sale, modification, or reverse engineering, in whole or in part.