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Preface2 · 07-12-2021, 11:40 PM

The firmware that shipped on my calculator is from 2018, and it looks like the latest available version is from May of this year. I searched for Linux support and only found old threads, the most useful of which was https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-12257.html. It looks like an old technical preview was built for Linux, but otherwise Linux support only comes in the form of libhpcalcs, which is from 2013, and it wasn't clear from gfbci's report at the end of that linked thread whether or not upgrading firmware was working.

I tried running the Windows version of the Connectivity Kit in Wine, but the installer hangs. Setting up a VM just to push a file over USB is a last resort. Is there any way to upgrade the firmware from Linux?

Claudio L. · 07-14-2021, 01:39 AM

I use the connectivity kit in a VMWare virtual machine. Flashing firmware in "normal" mode works, but if you run into troubles and all you get is the Recovery more from boot, it does not work with Linux/VMWare combo. I tried everything, so when I mess up the firmware I have to go to a PC with real windows and use the connectivity kit with the calc in Recovery mode.
Just my 2 cents.

Preface2 · 07-14-2021, 04:12 AM

That's a shame. I got a VM set up on Virtual Machine Manager and was able to update through that, but what a pain. I had to try 4 different versions of the HP Connectivity Kit (both of the ones on hpcalc.org and both of the ones on support.hp.com) before I found one that worked, and it would only install what I guess is the most recent stable update from 2020. Even then, the calculator disconnected from the VM when it started the update process, and I had to reconnect it before it would receive the update.

If any of the HP devs read this thread, I would be more than happy to provide feedback/testing of another Linux-compatible technical preview.

Claudio L. · (This post was last modified: 07-15-2021 01:43 PM by Claudio L..)

(07-14-2021 04:12 AM)Preface2 Wrote: That's a shame. I got a VM set up on Virtual Machine Manager and was able to update through that, but what a pain. I had to try 4 different versions of the HP Connectivity Kit (both of the ones on hpcalc.org and both of the ones on support.hp.com) before I found one that worked, and it would only install what I guess is the most recent stable update from 2020. Even then, the calculator disconnected from the VM when it started the update process, and I had to reconnect it before it would receive the update.

If any of the HP devs read this thread, I would be more than happy to provide feedback/testing of another Linux-compatible technical preview.

KVM doesn't have a USB virtualization as advanced as VMWare or Virtualbox, so I'm not surprised you had issues. VMWare Player (free) works just fine except for my notes above. Virtualbox also should work fine, although I personally didn't test it.
The version of the Connectivity kit shouldn't make a difference, the firmware in your calculator might. There were older firmware versions that had a less reliable protocol for updates that gave a lot of headaches to the users (somebody can find the exact time when this was fixed/replaced with a better protocol, years ago). So if you have an old firmware it might take you a few tries until you are able to upgrade. Once you do, use the latest connectivity kit, latest firmware and it won't give any more trouble. What I noticed (with VMWare) is the update procedure gets "stuck" around 60% and from there it takes forever to get to 100%, but it does, and reliably so have a little patience.