Well, I'm back again posting on the forum...

I'm still having problems with the memory violation error that makes my Empeg 2a go into a continual loop. This is the result of a serial dump:

empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 (hugo@empeg.com)
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.03
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux................................... done, booting the kernel.

Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg43 (mac@aphex.internal.empeg.com) (gcc versi
on 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #213 Sat Jun 23 16:35:13 BST 2001
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 10102100)
Command line: mem=16m temp=53
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15064k/16M available (960k code, 20k reserved, 332k data, 8k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 67706d65 'empg'
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004100).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: TOSHIBA MK2018GAS, ATA DISK drive
hda: TOSHIBA MK2018GAS, ATA DISK drive
hda: TOSHIBA MK2018GAS, ATA DISK drive
hda: TOSHIBA MK2018GAS, ATA DISK drive
hda: TOSHIBA MK2018GAS, ATA DISK drive
hda: TOSHIBA MK2018GAS, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: TOSHIBA MK2018GAS, 19077MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=38760/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:22:08:3
4
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 8k initinit: memory violation at pc=0x4000247c, lr
=0xbffffccc (bad address=0x6ffd81cc, code 0)
pc : [<4000247c>] lr : [<bffffccc>]
sp : bffffc68 ip : 4001df48 fp : bfffff1c
r10: 4001d858 r9 : 00000000 r8 : 00000000
r7 : 00000000 r6 : 00013764 r5 : 00013788 r4 : 00013798
r3 : 0000007c r2 : ebff6140 r1 : 40000000 r0 : 00013774
Flags: NzCv IRQs on FIQs on Mode USER_32 Segment user
Control: C0FAD17D Table: C0FAD17D DAC: 00000015
Function entered at [<400023e0>] from [<40002358>]
r10 = 00000000 r9 = 00000000 r8 = 00000000 r7 = 00000000
r6 = 00000000 r5 = 00000000 r4 = 00000000
init: memory violation at pc=0x4000247c, lr=0xbffffccc (bad address=0x6ffd81cc,
code 0)
pc : [<4000247c>] lr : [<bffffccc>]
sp : bffffc68 ip : 4001df48 fp : bfffff1c
r10: 4001d858 r9 : 00000000 r8 : 00000000
r7 : 00000000 r6 : 00013764 r5 : 00013788 r4 : 00013798
r3 : 0000007c r2 : ebff6140 r1 : 40000000 r0 : 00013774
Flags: NzCv IRQs on FIQs on Mode USER_32 Segment user
Control: C0FAD17D Table: C0FAD17D DAC: 00000015
Function entered at [<400023e0>] from [<40002358>]
r10 = 00000000 r9 = 00000000 r8 = 00000000 r7 = 00000000
r6 = 00000000 r5 = 00000000 r4 = 00000000


This last error (after the init: memory violation ) repeats itself in a loop forever, thus jamming the player at the boot screen. I had this exact same problem running the b2.11, so I downgraded the version to 1.03. Didn't help the problem in the slightest. The memory check turned out fine:

empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 (hugo@empeg.com)
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...
0000 empeg-car (issue9) board test version 0.05 <hugo@empeg.com>
0100 ram test starting
0110 testing ic 1 (0-15mb, low word)
0120 testing ic 2 (0-15mb, high word)
01f0 ram test done
0200 ide detect
0210 command issued
0220 drive id TOSHIBA MK2018GAS
02f0 ide ok
0300 dsp/i2c test
03f0 dsp/i2c ok
0400 temperature detect
0410 temperature is 49
04f0 temperature ok
0500 usb detect
0510 usb rev 1012
05f0 usb ok
0600 ethernet detect
0610 ethernet rev 334b
06f0 ethernet ok
0700 cs4231 detect
0710 cs4231 rev a0
07f0 cs4231 ok
00f0 tests complete



I've done some searching on the forum, and some people apparently solved this problem by deleting a bad playlist or something like that. I don't know how to get into the shell prompt, so I don't even know where to begin on this problem. I'd like to think that it's as simple as a bad drive cable, but the OS can see the HDD! Can anyone help me out?

-J

and some people apparently solved this problem by deleting a bad playlist or something like that. I don't know how to get into the shell prompt, so I don't even know where to begin on this problem.

If you'd like to try this, the instructions are in the FAQ here.

No guarantee that this is your problem or not, but you asked.

I just read the FAQ you mentioned, but I don't understand where to hit Ctrl-C... I've even tried holding down the buttons and it still goes through its cycle like normal. I'm not trying to "copy" (Ctrl-C) instead of issuing a command, am I? I'm using the standard Hyperterminal that comes with Win2000

Ctrl-C is "break" in a terminal program, not copy.

It's possible that you're having trouble before the player app loads. In which case, this procedure won't help you.

Have you contacted support about this?

yeah, it looks like I'm not even getting as far as the player software. At least that rules out a bad playlist, eh?

man, this is getting old... Tony, you have any ideas as to what I can try? I've tried downgrading my OS to 1.03, connecting to the shell prompt (unsuccessful), doing a memory check, and re-seating the HDD cable. Nothing seems to let me get past this blasted memory violation.

Tony, you have any ideas as to what I can try?

Um, contacting support?

laugh, somehow I knew that was coming. Yeah, I've been talking to them as well. I was hoping that someone here has seen similar problems and been able to find a workaround. I drive 35 minutes each way to work, and while it's interesting to hear every little creak and rattle in my car, it's getting a little booooorrrring

Greetings!

You have tried reflashing / reloading the kernel? Are you using the stock kernel, hijack? Also, did you have any custom logos or boot animations? Maybe a different spot in memory got corrupted. Also, what about a corrupt config.ini? Were you ever able to break out to shell?

Well, the problem started when I had the stock b2.11 kernel. I installed Hijack, and this didn't help. I wanted to see what was going on, so I installed the developer version of b2.11, and this didn't solve the problem. It did, however, give me a little insight into the problem. It didn't appear to be the HDD itself, as the HDD was detected without any problems. Whew! It revealed that it was a memory error of some kind. It was suggested that I load up the most recent 'stable' version, so I loaded up the developer version of 1.03. Unfortunately, this didn't solve the problem either. I have a custom boot logo, but I've tried using various 'safe' ones and they didn't help the problem. The animation is stock.

I can't seem to get to a shell, as the player crashes before the prompt for the shell access. I can, however, get to the 'pump' screen and to the memory check (this turned out normal).

That's about all I know of this problem, in a nutshell at least. I don't know where the config.ini file gets loaded, so honestly I don't know if it could be a problem. Either way, I don't really have a good way to get to it!

When you put the different releases of the software on, did you use the empeg upgrade utility, or did you flash the kernel in directly? The upgrade utility would reload your non-music file systems completely, restoring the config.ini and everything else to factory default. It might be a good thing to try if you have not already used it. If you have, that eliminates the config.ini and software load.

I've been using the upgrade program that is included in the Emplode .zip package. It appears that there are certain aspects of the kernel that are NOT affected by flashing a new OS. The one that I've noticed are the boot logos; regardless of what I do with the kernel, they don't change between versions. What else is static like this? I'm thinking that the error is with something in the player that isn't changing when I flash the OS, as different versions produce the same error. Are there any other ways to access the shell? I can't seem to get the player to boot far enough to get the prompt (it enters the infinite memory error loop before it tells me 'press XX to enter shell')

I guess one of the best questions to ask would be 'is there any way to get the player back to the ASBOLUTE STOCK software that it's shipped with?' Even with the blank developer image it doesn't take away my boot logo. I hate to think what else might be lurking around that isn't being touched when I re-flash the kernel!

If you could install a recent Hijack kernel, and then capture the serial log from the subsequent boot failure, I may be able to figure out why it is dying..

-ml

Has any solution been found for this?
My empeg has become effected, I think.

  player.cpp        : 385:empeg-car 2.00-beta13 2002/07/24.

! tags.cpp          :  61:Failed to open tags (0xc0041002).





EXT2-fs warning (device ide0(3,4)): ext2_free_blocks: bit already cleared for bl

ock 4707628

EXT2-fs warning (device ide0(3,4)): ext2_free_blocks: bit already cleared for bl

ock 4707628

with many instances of the last two lines, till it eventually repeats it's self (attached is a more complet error log).

I was copying accross about 1 gig of files when it wiped out on me. It has fail on synchs before , well since I deleted everything and started putting things back I've been having sync & copying issues but in general as long as I didn't mass copy I was fine.

Running beta 2.13 & latest Hijack, mark2a.

Tired & sad, I head off to bed, hopefully someone will have a starting point for me in the morning.

Interestingly, it's always on your second hard drive. I wonder what that means. You might try taking out the second drive and seeing if the errors still occur, just for yuks.

But I don't have a second hard drive!!!!!
Well not yet!

Naw, (3,4) is /dev/hda4, fourth partition on first drive.

-ml

Oops. Misread it. Sorry.

Still no go....
Mark Lord did email me with a solution, he believes I have a corrupted filesystem, and a corrupted music database.
He sent me this list of set of FTP commands:

   site rw

   cd /empeg/var

   del tags

   del playlists

   del database

   site ro

   quit

But for some reason I am un-able to FTP in. FTP is running, as the output to HyperTerminal does show "kftpd: listening on port 21".

Since then I have re-flashed my empeg with the developers image & Hijack in an attempt to do this. But again no sucess, I can't seem to get a q sent, I have no problem sending Ctrl-A (pump, and no i did nothing and left, eh?) or Ctrl-T (tested fine).

So what are my options?
I have e-mailed support, but they would not have recived the e-mail till friday afternoon local time, I'm not expecting any replies from them till Monday or so. (Is it a bank holiday on Monday in the UK? I know it is in Ireland).

Apart from that then only other option I belive there is, is to start from scratch and use a hard disk builder image to wipe the drive.....

I'm going to let this ride for the weekend, as I am away from my home computer till Sunday evening. May being on home ground will make thing work....I don't know.

Anyway, attached is the HyperTerminal output from having the developer image installed.

Thanks.

Oooppss.. Just studied your bootlog again. My apologies, but kftpd is not yet receiving connections (it prints a message when ready, and I don't see that message, though I thought I had seen it earlier. Oh well).

This means that the player/Hijack have not managed to read config.ini yet, since that is the only file required prior to kftpd startup (for the port numbers).

Mmm.. looks bad.

Cheers

Mark, no worries, got it working.
Will write a full and detailed run down of what I did later in the weekend for you and Tony.
But basically I ended up getting it to run fsck, getting there was the problem.
I have music now, so I am happy.......details to follow.

Hi,

Any chance you could tell me how you fixed your empeg lockup - mine has gone awal with the same symptoms and after a couple of evenings trying different things I'm still no closer to getting music back!

Please please please .... ;-)

Cheers,

Mark.

aaagggghhhh,

spent the last two nights with exactly the same crash problem on my empeg! I too can only get to the PUMP prompt or get to a crash static logo situation!

Have you found a solution to this, it's a bank holiday this weekend and if my empeg is down then I'll be a very unhappy man!

Cheers,

Mark.

You certainly need to contact support.

Can you post a boot log? Don't know if it will help, but worth a shot.

Here's the latest boot log, I'm just about ready to give up, don't know what else to try!!!!!!

ÿIf there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kerne
l.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg51 (mac@aphex) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315
(release)) #16 Wed Jul 24 18:19:54 BST 2002
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 40103773)
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15024k/16M available (964k code, 20k reserved, 372k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 636f6972 'rioc'
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0005b80).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
ide0: unexpected interrupt, status=0x58, count=1
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: ÿ, 2088991MB w/32640kB Cache, CHS=65535/255/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:28:0e:b
d
Partition check:
hda:hda: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
hda: drive not ready for command
ide0: reset: master: error (0x00?)
hda: set_geometry_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: set_geometry_intr: error=0x00 { }
hda: read_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: read_intr: error=0x00 { }
hda: read_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: read_intr: error=0x00 { }
hda: read_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: read_intr: error=0x00 { }
ide0: reset: master: error (0x00?)
hda: set_geometry_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: set_geometry_intr: error=0x00 { }
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 0
unable to read partition table
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...fs: unable to read superblock
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05

Here's the latest boot log, I'm just about ready to give up, don't know what else to try!!!!!!

ÿIf there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kerne
l.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg51 (mac@aphex) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315
(release)) #16 Wed Jul 24 18:19:54 BST 2002
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 40103773)
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15024k/16M available (964k code, 20k reserved, 372k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 636f6972 'rioc'
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0005b80).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive
ide0: unexpected interrupt, status=0x58, count=1
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: ÿ, 2088991MB w/32640kB Cache, CHS=65535/255/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:28:0e:b
d
Partition check:
hda:hda: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
hda: drive not ready for command
ide0: reset: master: error (0x00?)
hda: set_geometry_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: set_geometry_intr: error=0x00 { }
hda: read_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: read_intr: error=0x00 { }
hda: read_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: read_intr: error=0x00 { }
hda: read_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: read_intr: error=0x00 { }
ide0: reset: master: error (0x00?)
hda: set_geometry_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: set_geometry_intr: error=0x00 { }
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 0
unable to read partition table
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...fs: unable to read superblock
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05

hda: ÿ, ATA DISK drive

That's the point where it starts to go wrong. Your drive or cable is bust. Contact support.

Peter

Beat me to it!!! But, yes, that is a bad cable and/or drive.