Fail-safe upgrading of portable electronic device software

• US 8,713,137 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2004
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: InnoPath Software, Inc. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ji, De, Peng, Luosheng
• Primary Examiner(s): BIAGINI, CHRISTOPHER D
• Application Number:
  US10/989,998
• Publication Number:
  US 20050091288A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,452 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/221, 717/173
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/654 using techniques specially adapted for alterable solid state memories, e.g. for EEPROM or flash memories
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42178 by downloading data to substation equipment

Abstract

A portable communication device is provided that receives upgrade files via at least one wireless coupling. The contents of the upgrade file include information to repair errors in software components of the portable communication device and/or information to upgrade functions of the portable communication device. The portable communication device automatically upgrades the software components using the upgrade file contents. The portable communication device automatically recovers to an operational state when detecting an error or failure during the automatic upgrade. Further, the portable communication device resumes or reinitiates the automatic upgrade following the error or failure.

Claims

1. A portable communication device comprising an embedded system:

the portable communication device comprising at least one storage medium and including one or more applications running on at least one hardware processor and configured to,

automatically detect a remote change of one or more software components of the embedded system;

receive upgrade files via a wireless link and automatically initiate an upgrade of the one or more software components of the embedded system in a memory of the device using contents of the upgrade files, wherein the at least one storage medium includes the memory;

create a backup version of a new embedded software component associated with at least one of the upgrade files and store the backup version in the memory, wherein the new embedded software component is generated during the upgrading of the one or more software components, wherein the generating the new embedded software component comprises applying the contents of the at least one of the upgrade files to a copy of an original embedded software component associated with the at least one of the upgrade files to generate the new embedded software component, wherein the contents of the at least one of the upgrade files include difference files;

install the new embedded software component using the backup version of the new embedded software component by writing the backup version into a memory area previously occupied by another embedded software component, wherein the at least one storage medium includes the memory area;

determine a failure of the upgrade to complete, wherein the failure is associated with an incomplete upgrade of the one or more software components;

select a recovery process from a plurality of recovery processes, the selecting using a plurality of recovery factors, wherein the plurality of recovery factors include a component type of the software component being upgraded and a file type of the upgrade file being used for the upgrade; and

independently and automatically recover device operation to a pre-upgrade state using the selected recovery process in response to the failure, and automatically continue the upgrade.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the upgrade includes repairing errors in the one or more software components.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the upgrade includes upgrading the one or more software components to a relatively newer version.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the upgrade includes adding a new software component to the one or more software components.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the contents of the upgrade files include embedded software components.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the contents of the upgrade files include data to repair errors in the one or more software components.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the contents of the upgrade files include a new version of a software component to replace an existing one of the software components.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the contents of the upgrade files include a new software component to add to the one or more software components.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the embedded system is configured to apply at least one error checking and correction process to at least one of the contents of the upgrade file, software components to be upgraded, contents of an upgraded software component, and configuration data of the embedded system.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein configured to automatically recover device operation to a pre-upgrade state includes configured to retrieve the backup configuration data from a module-based memory management embedded software component that includes backup configuration data in the memory, and replace configuration data of the embedded system with the backup configuration data.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the backup configuration data includes a pre-upgrade version of the configuration data.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein configured to automatically initiate an upgrade includes configured to automatically upgrade at least one critical software component by generating an upgraded software component corresponding to an original version of the critical software component and writing the upgraded software component to at least one memory area of the at least one storage medium.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein configured to automatically recover device operation includes configured to retrieve a backup upgraded software component and write the backup upgraded software component to the at least one memory area.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the backup upgraded software component includes a pre-upgrade version of the upgraded software component.

15. The device of claim 10, wherein configured to automatically initiate an upgrade includes configured to automatically upgrade at least one critical software component by writing an upgraded software component corresponding to an original version of the critical software component to at least one memory area of the at least one storage medium.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein configured to automatically recover device operation includes configured to retrieve a backup upgraded software component in the portable communication device and write the backup upgraded software component to the at least one memory area.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the backup upgraded software component includes a pre-upgrade version of the upgraded software component.

18. The device of claim 10, wherein configured to automatically initiate an upgrade includes configured to automatically upgrade at least one non-critical software component by generating an upgraded software component corresponding to an original version of the non-critical software component and writing the upgraded software component to at least one memory area of the at least one storage medium.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein configured to automatically recover device operation includes configured to receive the upgraded software component via the wireless link and write the upgraded software component to the at least one memory area.

20. The device of claim 1, wherein the embedded system includes a microprocessor coupled to an electronic file comprising the one or more software components, wherein the one or more software components are linked.

21. The device of claim 1, wherein the embedded system includes software files including dynamic link library files, shared object files, embedded software components (EBSCs), firmware files, executable files, data files including hex data files, system configuration files, and files including personal use data.

22. The device of claim 1, wherein the pre-update state includes a cellular telephony state.

23. The device of claim 1, wherein the portable communication device is at least one of a cellular telephone, a portable computing device, and a personal digital assistant.

24. A portable communication device comprising:

at least one storage medium and one or more applications running on at least one hardware processor, the portable communication device configured to,

automatically detect a remote change of one or more software components of an embedded system of the portable communication device;

receive an upgrade file via a wireless link as part of an upgrade process and automatically initiate an upgrade of a software component in a memory of the device using information associated with the upgrade file, wherein the at least one storage medium includes the memory;

independently store backup configuration data;

create a backup version of a new embedded software component associated with at least one upgrade file and store the backup version in the memory, wherein the new embedded software component is generated during the upgrading of the one or more software components, wherein the generating the new embedded software component comprises applying the contents of the at least one upgrade file to a copy of an original embedded software component associated with the at least one upgrade file to generate the new embedded software component, wherein the contents of the at least one upgrade file include difference files;

install the new embedded software component using the backup version of the new embedded software component;

determine an incomplete upgrade of the software component associated with the upgrade process;

select a recovery process from a plurality of recovery processes, the selecting using a plurality of recovery factors, wherein the plurality of recovery factors include a component type of the software component being upgraded and a file type of the upgrade file being used for the upgrade; and

,

independently recover device operation to a prior state using the selected recovery process and the backup configuration data in response to the incomplete upgrade, and automatically continue the upgrade process.

25. A portable communication device comprising:

at least one storage medium and one or more applications running on at least one hardware processor, the portable communication device configured to perform an upgrade process by,

automatically detecting a remote change of one or more software components of an embedded system of the portable communication device;

receiving an upgrade file via a wireless link and automatically initiate an upgrade of a software component in a memory of the device using information associated with the upgrade file, the at least one storage medium including the memory;

independently storing a backup upgraded software component associated with the upgrade file in the memory of the device;

creating a backup version of a new embedded software component associated with at least one upgrade file and storing the backup version in the memory, wherein the new embedded software component is generated during the upgrading of the one or more software components, wherein the generating the new embedded software component comprises applying the contents of the at least one upgrade file to a copy of an original embedded software component associated with the at least one upgrade file to generate the new embedded software component, wherein the contents of the at least one upgrade file include difference files;

installing the new embedded software component using the backup version of the new embedded software component by writing the backup version into a memory area previously occupied by another embedded software component, wherein the at least one storage medium includes the memory area;

maintaining configuration data in the memory through file upgrades including using information of corresponding upgrade files to upgrade the configuration data in accordance with generation of new embedded software components;

determining if an incomplete upgrade of the software component occurs during the upgrade process;

select a recovery process from a plurality of recovery processes, the selecting using a plurality of recovery factors, wherein the plurality of recovery factors include a component type of the software component being upgraded and a file type of the upgrade file being used for the upgrade; and

,

independently recovering device operation to a prior device state using the selected recovery process and the configuration data.