Electronic device having an alterable configuration and methods of manufacturing and configuring the same

• US 7,516,315 B2
• Filed: 03/18/2005
• Issued: 04/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Wood, Robert Henderson, Nguyen, Bao Quoc
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bae; Ji H
• Application Number:
  US11/082,706
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212691A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,481 Days
• Field of Search: 713/1, 713/2, 713/100
• US Class Current: 713/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/441 Multiboot arrangements, i.e. selecting an operating system to be loaded

Abstract

An electronic device having an alterable configuration and methods of manufacturing and configuring the same are provided. The electronic device includes a processor and a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory stores a boot ROM and can store a first operating system in a first operating system partition and a second operating system in a second operating system partition. The processor executes the boot ROM, which boots the first operating system if available in the non-volatile memory, and boots the second operating system if the first operating system is unavailable in the non-volatile memory when the electronic device is powered up.

Claims

1. An electronic device having an alterable configuration, comprising;

a non-volatile memory configurable to include at least a second operating system partition and a file system partition, the non-volatile memory storing a boot ROM that is operable when said boot ROM is executed by a processor of said electronic device when said electronic device is powered up to;

in the event that a first operating system partition is available, boot a first operating system therein, the first operating system operable when booted to cause the first operating system partition to be deleted and the file system partition to be expanded to encompass memory freed by the deletion; and

otherwise boot a second operating system in said second operating system partition.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said boot ROM is operable to boot said first operating system if present in said non-volatile memory and digitally signed.

3. A method of manufacturing an electronic device, comprising:

assembling said electronic device using a non-volatile memory to include at least a first operating system partition, a second operating system partition, a file system partition and a boot ROM;

causing the boot ROM to execute the first operating system stored in the first operating system partition, in volatile memory;

deleting the first operating system partition; and

expanding the file system partition to encompass non-volatile memory freed by the deteting,

wherein said boot ROM is operable to boot the second operating system in the second operating system partition when the first operating system is no longer available in the non-volatile memory.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said boot ROM is operated to boot said first operating system if present in said non-volatile memory and digitally signed.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said causing comprises:

booting said first operating system with said boot ROM when said electronic device is powered up.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

loading said boot ROM, said first operating system and said second operating system in said non-volatile memory prior to assembling said electronic device.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein said deleting is performed by said first operating system.

8. A method of configuring an electronic device having non-volatile memory with a first operating system partition and a file system partition, comprising:

causing the electronic device to execute a downloader application, wherein the downloader application is operable when executed by a processor on the electronic device to download an installer operating system and reduce the file system partition to accommodate an installer operating system partition;

creating the installer operating system partition;

storing the installer operating system in the installer operating system partition;

causing the electronic device to boot the installer operating system, wherein the installer operating system is operable when booted to overwrite the operating system in the first operating system partition with a replacement operating system, delete the installer operating system partition, and expand the file system partition to encompass non-volatile memory freed by the deletion; and

causing the electronic device to boot the replacement operating system.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

before reducing the file system partition, modifying a memory configuration table to reflect the file system partition reduction; and

before expanding the file system partition, modifying the memory configuration table to reflect the file system partition expansion.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising creating a backup copy of the memory configuration table in non-volatile memory.