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#371821 - 24/03/2019 18:45 Replacement SSD?
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5680
Loc: London, UK
So, after all of my snarking that PATA SSD drives were still available, they're ... kinda drying up.

And the disk in my spare empeg just died...

The Kingspec ones have a one-month lead time, and the Transcend ones are ridiculously expensive (£108 for 64GB).

What's the story with CF adapters? I found this Syba Best Connectivity adapter which looks like it'll make the physical fitting easy, but (a) I'm not sure of the implication of "dual compact flash" and (b) does it work anyway?

Or should I just wedge one of these from StarTech in there instead?
_________________________
-- roger

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#371822 - 24/03/2019 18:59 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
elperepat
enthusiast

Registered: 11/01/2002
Posts: 211
Loc: Qc, Canada
Aliexpress seems to have quite a few available. But if you take in consideration the shipping time (at least for here in Canada), it might be as long as waiting for a Kingspec somewhere else.
_________________________
Patrick

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#371823 - 24/03/2019 19:17 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: elperepat]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Thanks for that. I just nabbed a couple of the kingspecs at the linked site, purely as backups, hedging against failures. :-)
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371824 - 24/03/2019 19:52 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: elperepat]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5680
Loc: London, UK
Originally Posted By: elperepat
Aliexpress seems to have quite a few available. But if you take in consideration the shipping time (at least for here in Canada), it might be as long as waiting for a Kingspec somewhere else.



Estimated Delivery Time:20-40days

...which is roughly the same as Amazon UK is telling me.
_________________________
-- roger

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#371825 - 24/03/2019 20:38 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
BartDG
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/05/2001
Posts: 2616
Loc: Bruges, Belgium
What's the maximum disk size en Empeg can comfortably handle? 128gb or 256 gb? And one disk or two? I forgot...
_________________________
Riocar 80gig S/N : 010101580 red
Riocar 80gig (010102106) - backup

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#371827 - 25/03/2019 08:55 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: BartDG]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
If the disk is the standard 2.5” PATA IDE form factor, and doesn’t involve any adapters, you can put in two disks.

128 will work with the factory kernel. 256 will work with the hijack kernel.

http://www.riocar.org/Drive_Upgrade.html (It’s baaaaaack)

Note: I had to run the builder twice on my Kingspec drive.

Happy upgrading!
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371829 - 25/03/2019 13:41 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
With player software limitations and the like, it's probably best to stay at 128GB or below, per drive.

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#371831 - 25/03/2019 14:21 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5680
Loc: London, UK
Originally Posted By: mlord
With player software limitations and the like, it's probably best to stay at 128GB or below, per drive.


Is that the actual drive size? Or the amount of content?

I bought a 240GB mSATA drive and JMicron adapter. Do I need to (somehow) curtail the drive size, or am I OK if I don't fill it up?
_________________________
-- roger

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#371832 - 25/03/2019 18:55 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Asks the person who actually developed the product, of the (admittedly expert) user. smile
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371833 - 26/03/2019 00:16 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Somewhere on this BBS lies the answer! smile

I just don't remember at this point, but I do know this was discussed extensively in the past for spinning rust drives.

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#371865 - 01/04/2019 21:08 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Don't forget to use Hijack kernel.

IIRC, the main issue with larger drives was the lack of memory for the large playlists that could result due to the number of FIDs.

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#371925 - 12/05/2019 19:24 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: elperepat]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Originally Posted By: elperepat
Aliexpress seems to have quite a few available. But if you take in consideration the shipping time (at least for here in Canada), it might be as long as waiting for a Kingspec somewhere else.


I ended up getting two of the KingSpec 128's from Aliexpress, from your link. They arrived just fine and then sat around for a bit. But now I'm trying to use one, and having trouble putting it into one of my backup empegs. Anyone know what to do about this? I'm thinking this is something Mark Lord might know about.

Here's the situation:

I believe I did the correct things to use the bigdisk builder image on the drive, and it seemed to complete successfully. Connecting to the serial terminal after the application of the builder image was done, I see a bunch of numbers scrolling by which I think was the hard disk stress test. I powered it off then I applied a Hijack bigdisk 2.0 beta 13 image onto it. Then I applied Hijack v524.hijack.mk2.zImage onto the player. Everything seemed to work correctly.

But now that I'm trying to boot the player directly, and work with the drive, any time I have this drive plugged in (either by itself or in combination with another disk drive) it keeps saying "no primary hard disk" and "no secondary hard disk".

I don't know what the jumpers should be set to on these things, there's no dox. When trying to configure it as the solo drive in the player, I've tried configuring it with no jumpers, and with jumper on 1+2. When trying to configure it as the secondary drive in the player, I've tried configuring it with jumpers on 3+4. There's also some notes here which seem to indicate that "1+2" is "Cable Select" mode but I'm not so sure. I'd expect no jumpers to be cable select mode. Then again, different drives might be different.

Anyway, here's a boot log if this can help with diagnosis. Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer!

Code:
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 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux...................................... done, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg55-hijack-v524 (hijack@rtr.ca) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Fri Dec 15 08:52:50 EST 2017
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read e28cc001
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 40104196) 16MB DRAM
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 14992k/16M available (1000k code, 20k reserved, 368k 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)
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'
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1
show_message("Hijack v524 by Mark Lord")
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 d0005280).
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...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: PA25-128, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x3fff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x3fff
hda: PA25-128, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x3fff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x3fff
hda: PA25-128, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x3fff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x3fff
hda: PA25-128, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x3fff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x3fff
hda: PA25-128, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x3fff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x044a
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x3fff
hda: PA25-128, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: PA25-128, 121082MB w/1kB Cache, CHS=15435/255/63
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:d7:28:10:64
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: 4k initempeg init 0.8
I see this is a developer image!
Mounting proc
Mounting first music partitiVFS: Can't find an ext2 filesystem on dev ide0(3,4).
on
Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as reiserfs but got error 19
Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as ext2 but got error 22
Error mounting partitions (possibly already mounted)
Remounting first music partition read-only
No primary hard disk
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To ComplyîStarting player
Timezone: Atlantic/South_Georgia

! tags.cpp          :  61:Failed to open tags (0xc0041002).
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Jul 24 2002

q
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
No primary hard disk
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Player exited normally: 0
Switching to shell-player loop
Starting bash.
empeg:/empeg/bin# cd /
empeg:/# ls -al
total 25
drwxr-xr-x   15 502      220          1024 Jul 24  2002 .
drwxr-xr-x   15 502      220          1024 Jul 24  2002 ..
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Jul 24  2002 bin
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Jul  4  2000 dev
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Jul  6  1999 drive0
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Jun  2  1999 drive1
drwxr-xr-x    4 0        0            1024 Jul 24  2002 empeg
drwxr-xr-x    3 0        0            1024 Sep 15  1999 etc
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Feb  9  2000 lib
drwx------    2 0        0           12288 Jul 24  2002 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Jun  2  1999 mnt
dr-xr-xr-x   19 0        0               0 Aug 31 23:54 proc
lrwxrwxrwx    1 0        0               3 Jul 24  2002 sbin -> bin
lrwxrwxrwx    1 0        0              10 Jul 24  2002 swapfile -> ./dev/hda6
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Apr 13  1999 tmp
drwxr-xr-x    4 0        0            1024 Feb  6  2000 usr
drwxr-xr-x    3 0        0            1024 Aug 28  1999 var
empeg:/# cd drive0
empeg:/drive0# ls -al
total 2
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0            1024 Jul  6  1999 .
drwxr-xr-x   15 502      220          1024 Jul 24  2002 ..
empeg:/drive0#
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371926 - 12/05/2019 19:38 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5680
Loc: London, UK
http://blog.differentpla.net/blog/2004/0...music-partition

I'd guess that you're missing the '/drive0/fids' and '/drive0/var' directories.

Just to check that the builder worked properly, can we see a 'cat /proc/mounts' and an 'fdisk -l /dev/hda' (lower-L) as well, please?
_________________________
-- roger

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#371927 - 12/05/2019 19:53 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Aha, so you're saying the thing that says "No Primary Hard Disk" and "No Secondary Hard Disk" just means that the folders didn't get created yet? Maybe the disk is functioning fine?

Code:
No primary hard disk
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Player exited normally: 0
Switching to shell-player loop
Starting bash.
empeg:/empeg/bin# cd /
empeg:/# cat /proc/mounts
/dev/root / ext2 ro 0 0
none /proc proc rw 0 0
empeg:/# fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 15435 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1             1         5     40131    5  Extended
/dev/hda2             6        10     40162+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3            11        13     24097+  10  OPUS
/dev/hda4            14     15435 123877215   83  Linux
/dev/hda5             1         3     24034+  83  Linux
/dev/hda6             4         5     16033+  82  Linux swap
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371928 - 12/05/2019 21:45 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Disk is very much functioning fine. So perhaps the builder didn't finish formatting or populating the filesystems?

I suppose I really ought to get one of these drives -- I have the 64GB one, but not a 128GB yet. Someday. smile

EDIT: Ordered one, Amazon, should be here tomorrow. smile


Edited by mlord (12/05/2019 21:49)

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#371929 - 13/05/2019 12:22 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: tfabris
I don't know what the jumpers should be set to on these things, there's no dox.


I googled it, and found this picture:


Attachments
image7.png



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#371930 - 13/05/2019 17:37 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: mlord
Disk is very much functioning fine. So perhaps the builder didn't finish formatting or populating the filesystems?


As near as I can recall, the builder image refuses to reformat things if it sees them already formatted, or something like that. So perhaps this was the problem here too.. dunno.

I think I will re-spin the bigdisk builder to just nuke everything each time unconditionally, if it doesn't so already. More dangerous, but it's pretty hard to mistakenly flash/run the bigdisk builder "by accident", so probably not much of a concern.

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#371931 - 13/05/2019 18:20 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
I think I will re-spin the bigdisk builder to just nuke everything each time unconditionally


The Drive Upgrade Guide says that if it refuses to nuke the drive, you just rm -r /drive0/fids and then the builder will nuke the drive. Since this was a new drive and would not have contained a "fids" directory when I received it, I don't think it was the nuke protection that was the issue.

So I believe the builder did the correct thing and did indeed nuke the drive, and that it has the correct level of protection. So I don't think you need to change the builder image.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371932 - 13/05/2019 18:22 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
I googled it, and found this picture:


Thanks so much! I think that explains the issues I was having with getting two drives working. The jumper configurations are not what I expected.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371933 - 13/05/2019 18:26 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Note that the picture was for a different brand drive, but the master/slave/CSEL setups are pretty much always the same across brands. The only one to avoid is the diagonal RPS jumper, which is probably brand/model specific.

Empegs use the Single/Master and Slave positions from the diagram.


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#371934 - 13/05/2019 18:37 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Attached: A slightly higher rez version of the diagram, thanks to "find visually similar images" in google search. At some point we'll work out how I can get read/write access to the new Riocar.org site and I'll add that diagram to the drive upgrade guide.

I don't know how you found that image in the first place, all my search terms produced either photos of disk drives or diagrams for desktop drive jumpers.

EDIT: This diagram may be incorrect for the KingSpec drives with the red KingSpec logo. In order to get the drive to work as master in a dual drive configuration, I had to put jumpers over pins 1/2. Whereas the diagram says that's "slave".

So it's not the same thing for all the drives out there.



Attachments
laptop drive jumper settings.jpg


_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371935 - 13/05/2019 20:29 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Heh.. I now have the 128GB drive in hand, and am trying to remember HOW to apply a .upgrade file. From Linux.

Normally I would just use my upgrader tool, except that is for ethernet with an already-working installation on the drive. I don't suppose I or anyone else ever got a basic serial-line upgclient working with USB dongles yet?


EDIT: Ah.. Roger had the same issue/experience recently. Except he did it the easy way, by hand. Whereas I'm trying to test the builder image. smile




Edited by mlord (13/05/2019 20:31)

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#371936 - 13/05/2019 21:21 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: mlord
Heh.. I now have the 128GB drive in hand, and am trying to remember HOW to apply a .upgrade file. From Linux.


Okay, I gave in and booted my old Linux computer and fired up VMWare on it to run the old Win98se image that has the MS-Win empeg tools installed. Flashing bigdisk v6 now.

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#371937 - 13/05/2019 21:53 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
This is painful (win98 and empeg tools).

Did anyone ever provide info about what commands the bootloader supports? Eg. what is the protocol that upgclient uses when installing a .upgrade over serial?

We already have the linux upgrader tool that parses/installs .upgrade files over ethernet. If the serial port protocol were understood, it would be easy for me to adapt that code to work over serial as well, eliminating the need for MS-Win to run the builder.




Edited by mlord (13/05/2019 21:54)

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#371938 - 13/05/2019 22:04 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: mlord
Disk is very much functioning fine. So perhaps the builder didn't finish formatting or populating the filesystems?


Okay, I just ran bigdisk-v3-alt, and followed that with v3alpha11. Bigdisk appears to have failed to run, which is why both Tony and I see the various errors afterward.
Code:
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.
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
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: 4k initsh: error in load


I'm going to try running bigdisk again, after first doing "hdparm --security-erase" on the drive to zero it and delete all partitions.



Edited by mlord (13/05/2019 22:23)

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#371939 - 13/05/2019 22:39 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
It seems to be failing in the flash-based initrd code, never getting to the builder code. Now trying to remember how to look at the internal initrd image. It has been far too long!

EDIT: /proc/flash_b0000 contains the boot-time initrd image, which mainly consists of a pre-compiled linuxrc binary. That's the part that is failing for some reason.

I think this is the code that contains "pump", and otherwise simply exists to mount the "real" root filesystem from /dev/hda5. It probably also looks after displaying the "dead empeg" logo when "No Hard Disk Found" happens.

Dunno how "pump" works (that "bootloader protocol" thing I asked about earlier), but the rest of it should be easy to recreate if need be.

Meanwhile I'll poke around some more and see if I can reverse engineer why it is failing here.

EDIT:
The initrd code seems to be having trouble either mounting or reading from /dev/hda4 (the real root filesystem). Weird. It's the hijack kernel that does all of the low-level accesses, so there's not much that could be wrong here.

Just for giggles, I copied an existing hda4 image onto the drive and booted from it without issue. Then took the drive back to my Linux PC and copied the bigdisk builder contents into hda4, and swapped the drive back into the empeg afterward. It boots up, and successfully runs the disk builder.

So.. just got to figure out exactly which step causes the trouble. Next up: manually copy the hda4 image from bigdisk onto the drive (as opposed to the already working file-by-file copy of the same thing).


Edited by mlord (13/05/2019 23:57)

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#371940 - 13/05/2019 23:57 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
The thing is, I have now bought KingSpec drives twice.

Once a year or so ago, and the casing of the drive looked like this:
https://www.amazon.com/KingSpec-128GB-SM2236-Controller-KSD-PA25-6-128MS/dp/B01461BQWO
(Gray casing and label with red KingSpec logo)

Once recently, and the casing of the drive looked like this:
https://www.amazon.com/128GB-KingSpec-2-5-inch-SM2236-Controller/dp/B0091T4ZWU
(Black casing and label with red Yansen logo)

The older one, though it's currently working fine in my main empeg, I recall having trouble with it at installation time ( ... searches BBS ... ) Aha, here we go. Deja vu? smile
https://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/369021
Note that, in that thread, with the older drive, I was trying to copy from a winchester drive to the new KingSpec SSD (my first SSD in the Empeg.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371941 - 14/05/2019 00:26 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Heh.. I just noticed that in your older thread for the first SSD, I kept saying "/dev/sdaX" rather than "/dev/hdaX", which probably wasted a lot of time for both of us there!

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#371942 - 14/05/2019 00:31 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Okay, I figured it out.

The MS-Windows empeg upgrade tool triggers a reboot/reset too soon after writing the /dev/hda5 (root) partition. It doesn't allow sufficient time for the cached writes on the SSD to complete.

Weird eh? One would expect the SSD to be quick enough, but in reality it seems to love to cache large amounts of data before writing it out.

So.. lacking source code for the MS-Windows tool, I don't really have any obvious way to fix this, other than to just replace it with a Linux tool that does the same stuff somehow.


Edited by mlord (14/05/2019 04:07)

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#371943 - 14/05/2019 00:34 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Oh.. I wonder if I can work around this by reordering the "chunks" inside the .upgrade file, so that at least one of the flash memory partitions gets written AFTER the hard disk partition. That'll slow it down enough for the problem to "go away".

I'll see about trying this.. depends on whether or not the MS-Win upgrade tool does things in the same order as they appear in the .upgrade file though.

EDIT:
Well, it does seem to process the chunks in the order they appear within the .upgrade file. BUT.. any attempt to move flash chunk(s) to after the hda5 chuck results in "flash erase errors". Whatever that means.

Something fishy going on here..


Edited by mlord (14/05/2019 02:48)

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#371944 - 14/05/2019 02:55 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
This is super cool that you're figuring this stuff out! Thanks so much for poking at this!

Do you think that the caching issue is inherent to that brand of SSD, and that we simply should pick a different brand if we want EmpegUpgrade.exe to work with it?

I'm not sure if the older problems (the ones we worked through in that older thread, on that older KingSpec drive) were the same problems or not. But somehow you were able to work through it, and now I have a drive that's working really well in the empeg, thanks to your help. So there's certainly a solution to be had here, even if it involves issuing a lot of console commands. I'm glad you've found the root cause!
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371945 - 14/05/2019 03:07 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
For now, I'm just guessing that the builder is failing due to drive caching. But really, I'd also expect it to fail for some mechanical drives (with large caches) too. So not 100% sure.

What I'm trying now is simply disabling the "sys_reboot()" call in the Linux kernel within the .upgrade file. So the builder can work as-is, but it simply won't be able to reboot by itself. If this fixes the problem, then yeah, a caching issue. If not, then.. something else is wrong?

We'll see.. pumping hda5 right now..

EDIT: Well, so much for that theory. A manual reboot after applying the .upgrade still fails randomly. I'm going to look for a mechanical drive to test with, just to validate the setup here.

When I read-back from the failed /dev/hda5 partition on my PC, it is not corrupted, and the contents match what should be there. So.. why no workie???


Edited by mlord (14/05/2019 03:15)

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#371946 - 14/05/2019 03:20 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Cool. I almost bought one of those a month ago. Glad I waited now. I'm still planning to get one, just was a little short on cash at the time.
_________________________
~ John

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#371947 - 14/05/2019 03:20 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: mlord
When I read-back from the failed /dev/hda5 partition on my PC, it is not corrupted, and the contents match what should be there. So.. why no workie???


Very confusing. File-by-file comparison between what got written to hda5, and what should have been written: no differences (but there are differences in the binary contents of the partition, weirdly enough).

But if I then manually "pump" hda5 onto the drive from my PC, without changing anything else, the builder then works when re-inserted onto the empeg. Screwy. This is with the exact same binary image that is normally part of the .upgrade file.


Edited by mlord (14/05/2019 03:23)

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#371948 - 14/05/2019 03:27 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
One possibility? The .upgrade file gets a gzip'd copy of hda5 to keep the size down, whereas when I manually "pump" it on Linux I am using gunzip to decompress it rather than whatever the empeg uses.

Possible bug in the unzip library used by "pump"? Or perhaps an incompatibility with the gzip I'm using to compress it in the first place?

But then it should also fail on any drive, not just this one. I really have to find another PATA drive here.. turfed most of them last year.


Factory builder image also fails. So probably not that.


Edited by mlord (14/05/2019 03:46)

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#371949 - 14/05/2019 04:09 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Well, no idea at this point. It is something going wrong within the closed-source MS-Win upgrader and/or the closed source "pump" tool in the initrd.

Too bad. smile

No major hardship though, as Roger has proved it's pretty quick and easy to do the equivalent operations by connecting the drive to a Linux PC. And for me at least, that's going to be way easier than dusting off my 2008 laptop with the Win98se VM inside it.

Cheers


Edited by mlord (14/05/2019 11:59)

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#371950 - 14/05/2019 04:48 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Note that despite ordering a Kingspec 128GB drive, what actually arrived here was a Yansen 126GB drive, inside a Kingspec box.

The more I write to it, the slower and slower it seems to get. Not anything the empeg itself would ever notice, but it just doesn't seem as good as the 64GB (real) Kingspec drives I have used before.

RMA-ing it now.


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#371951 - 14/05/2019 10:32 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5680
Loc: London, UK
Originally Posted By: mlord
Dunno how "pump" works (that "bootloader protocol" thing I asked about earlier)


It's in emptool, specifically in lib/protocol/upgrader.cpp. The complicated bits are in lines 445-516 in my copy.

I considered rewriting it in (e.g.) Python, but it was getting late, so I just ordered a USB-mSATA adapter instead.
_________________________
-- roger

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#371952 - 14/05/2019 12:02 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Thanks, Roger.

Having thought about it more overnight, and looking at some data dumps I took before repacking the drive for return, the evidence points strongly at the Yansen SSD itself. I see large swaths of good data on the drive, interspersed with the odd 32-byte chunk here and there that has 4-8 bytes in a row of WRONG data.

This suggests the drive firmware is buggy in PIO modes. When I write to it from the PC, UDMA is used instead of PIO, and that works just fine (if not a bit slow).

So.. Run away quickly from "Yansen" brand SSDs.
And avoid any that have the SM2236XT controller chip.

Back to hunt for real Kingspec drives now..

EDIT: Found a 1.8" form factor with 44-pin IDE/PATA connector: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0099395FA/
Ordered, should be here tomorrow. We'll see if it works correctly or not.

Otherwise, modern fast CF Cards remain a good alternative,
as does Roger's mSATA solution.

EDIT: And for that matter, even these suspect Yansen drives might still work just fine so long as all of the formatting and file copying is done from a PC. The empeg itself would still have to build/write the database files, but from the dumps I looked at the corruption only seemed to happen after a long stretch of sustained writing. So the relatively small database files might write out just fine.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the misaligned partition table (SSDs very much prefer 4096 byte alignments, whereas default partition tables of the era only gave 512 byte alignment).

So if I had some of the Yansen drives, and couldn't RMA them, that's how I'd treat them: do all of the setup from a PC.



Edited by mlord (14/05/2019 13:02)

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#371953 - 14/05/2019 17:29 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Wow, such awesome sleuthing.

I'll see about setting up a Yantzen drive from a PC using Roger's instructions:
http://blog.differentpla.net/blog/2004/03/25/formatting-an-empegs-hard-disk-manually

Mostly for academics; I wouldn't feel safe about keeping the drive, based on some of the things you said about bad data issues on your drive.

Soon, I'll work out how to get write access to the FAQ/Diskupgrade files in their new location and I'll make sure to update the instructions with that information.

Thanks so much!
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371954 - 14/05/2019 17:42 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Now that you are becoming a bash expert, you could also look at how the bigdisk builder does things too. I think Roger's experience initially began with that.

Code:
#!/bin/sh
## This is from builder_bigdisk_v3.upgrade

log() {
        echo "$1"
        echo "POPUP 9999 $1" > /proc/empeg_notify
}

failed() {
        log "$1 failed"
        /bin/swapoff /dev/hda3
        /bin/swapoff /dev/hda6
        sync
        exec /bin/bash --login
}

makedrive() {
        dev="/dev/$1"                                                                                               
        log "Making $1 filesystem"                                                                                  
        /bin/mkfs.ext2 -v -s 1 -i 131072 -m 0 $dev || failed "mkfs $1"                                              
        log "Tuning $1"                                                                                             
        /bin/tune2fs -c -1 -i0 $dev || failed "tune2fs $1"                                                          
        /bin/sync                                                                                                   
        /bin/sync                                                                                                   
        log "Mounting $1"                                                                                           
        /bin/mount -n -o rw,nocheck $dev $2 || failed "mount $1"                                                    
        /bin/sync                                                                                                   
        /bin/sync                                                                                                   
        log "Making directories"                                                                                    
        /bin/mkdir $2/fids || failed "mkdir /fids"                                                                  
        /bin/mkdir $2/var || failed "mkdir /var"                                                                    
        echo "[hijack]" > $2/var/config.ini || failed "config.ini"                                                  
        log "Remounting ro"                                                                                         
        /bin/mount -n -o remount,ro $dev $2 || failed "remount"                                                     
        /bin/sync                                                                                                   
        /bin/sync                                                                                                   
        log "$1 completed"                                                                                          
}                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                    
# echo everything to the serial console:
#set -x

/bin/mount -n /proc
log "Builder image"

DRIVE1=""
if [ -e /proc/ide/hdb -a -e /proc/ide/hdc ]; then
        log 'hdb,hdc both exist?'
        exec /bin/bash --login
fi
[ -e /proc/ide/hdb ] && DRIVE1=hdb
[ -e /proc/ide/hdc ] && DRIVE1=hdc

/bin/mount -n -t ext2 -o ro,nocheck /dev/hda4 /drive0
if [ -d /drive0/fids ]; then
        log "Drives already built"
else
        /bin/umount /drive0

        /bin/mkswap  /dev/hda6
        /bin/swapon  /dev/hda6
        /bin/mkswap  /dev/hda3
        /bin/swapon  /dev/hda3

        log "Tuning hda5"
        /bin/tune2fs -c -1 -i0 /dev/hda5 || failed "tune2fs hda5"

        makedrive hda4 /drive0

        if [ "$DRIVE1" != "" ]; then
                log "partitioning second drive"
                init_drive /dev/$DRIVE1 || failed "init $DRIVE1"
                DRIVE1="${DRIVE1}4"
                makedrive $DRIVE1 /drive1 || failed "init $DRIVE1"
        fi

        /bin/swapoff /dev/hda3
        log "Zeroing hda3"
        /bin/cat /dev/zero > /dev/hda3

        /bin/swapoff /dev/hda6
        log 'Done!'

        #log 'Testing disk..'
        #/sbin/hdstress
fi

exec /bin/bash --login


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#371955 - 14/05/2019 17:45 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: tfabris
I wouldn't feel safe about keeping the drive, based on some of the things you said about bad data issues on your drive.


I think it should be fine as a clone drive, where the cloning is done on a PC. Then insert it into an empeg and all should be good (until the next time one uses emplode, perhaps).

The target market for these is older laptops that pre-date SATA drives. I have a couple of those here. wink

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#371956 - 14/05/2019 18:05 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Originally Posted By: mlord
Found a 1.8" form factor with 44-pin IDE/PATA connector: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0099395FA/
Ordered, should be here tomorrow. We'll see if it works correctly or not.


Interested in how that one works, let us know!

I'm also wondering about this one:
https://www.amazon.com/KingSpec-128GB-SM2236-Controller-KSD-PA25-6-128MS/dp/B01461BQWO/
It says "SM2236 Controller" in the title, so I'm wondering if we should run away from that one too?
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371957 - 14/05/2019 18:21 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Originally Posted By: mlord
all should be good (until the next time one uses emplode, perhaps).


Yeah, I would usually want a fully-functioning empeg, with the ability to add tunes via Emplode. smile

The other option is to drop the idea of a 2.5" form factor altogether, and use a CF adapter as you (and others) have suggested in the past. Do you have a current recommendation for which CF adapters are good to use in the Empeg? (For example this one?)

Thanks for the bash script! I'll look at that! You're saying the builder image just sticks a bash script in flash memory and runs it from there? smile
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371958 - 14/05/2019 19:29 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: tfabris
The other option is to drop the idea of a 2.5" form factor altogether, and use a CF adapter as you (and others) have suggested in the past. Do you have a current recommendation for which CF adapters are good to use in the Empeg? (For example this one?)


Not that one -- it has a desktop drive style 40-pin connector. But pretty much any of them with a 44-pin 2.5" drive connector on them should work --> no electronics involved other than a 3.3V regulator. The CF cards _are_already_ native IDE/PATA by design.

Quote:
You're saying the builder image just sticks a bash script in flash memory and runs it from there? smile
That script _is_ the bigdisk builder. smile Plus a little bit of minor other stuff in the .upgrade file (flash partitions) that the emplode/upgclient re-flashes each time --> mostly unnecessary, but it does include the Hijack kernel zImage file, and the upgclient also creates the basic drive partition table.

The script, and supporting libraries/binaries, are written by the upgclient to /dev/hda5 (root partition), and then the builder reboots into that system to run the script to do the rest.



Edited by mlord (14/05/2019 19:35)

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#371959 - 14/05/2019 19:34 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
This one looks nice, but there are lots of others, including $1-3 versions (+25%) straight from China (eBay):
https://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-ADA45006-Compact-Adapter-Enclosure/dp/B0036DDXUM/

Simpler/cheaper version (I have a bunch that resemble this one):
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/IDE-44-Pin-Male-to-CF-Compact-Flash-Male-Adapter-Connector-ED/111690359748

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#371960 - 14/05/2019 21:27 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Originally Posted By: mlord
Not that one -- it has a desktop drive style 40-pin connector.


It had both desktop-40 and laptop-44 pin connectors. Hard to see the laptop one in its main photo.

Quote:
The CF cards _are_already_ native IDE/PATA by design.


Super useful information. I don't think I'd realized that before. Thanks!

Thanks for the details of how the builder works under the hood!
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371961 - 14/05/2019 21:28 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Thanks for the links to CF adapters! I'm going to try one.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371962 - 14/05/2019 22:05 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: tfabris
It had both desktop-40 and laptop-44 pin connectors. Hard to see the laptop one in its main photo.

Ah, right. I still would not pick that one, as it seems overly cluttered with extra components, when all that is needed are simple copper traces from 44-pin connector to CF connector. Plus a master/slave jumper.

Cheers

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#371963 - 14/05/2019 22:17 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Thanks! I'm going to try this one that you suggested because its form factor will let me easily bolt it into an existing empeg without needing to jerry rig anything.
https://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-ADA45006-Compact-Adapter-Enclosure/dp/B0036DDXUM/

Thanks so much!
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371964 - 15/05/2019 13:18 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Good luck with that. It looks like it should be the simplest "drop in" replacement method.

Meanwhile, I'm also trying a different approach.

A while back I purchased a bunch of CAD$30 SATA SSDs, 120GB HP M700s.
These are plenty cheap enough to experiment with, so I opened one up
and as expected found a very small SSD circuit board inside.
Barely larger than a CF Card, except much faster and cheaper!

The HP drive isn't widely available, but Kingston markets a very similar $25 SSD,
as do other brands now.

So.. combine that with an IDE-to-SATA-drive adapter, and we could have a very nifty empeg drive replacement.
But.. gotta try it, and find a suitable IDE-to-SATA adapter. Eg. Perhaps one of these:

https://www.amazon.ca/QNINE-Laptop-Adapter-Convert-Parallel/dp/B074KVGDPQ/

I have something similar to that on hand, so we'll see how that goes..

EDIT: Well, the empeg itself sees the drive, no problem.
But "pump" doesn't seem to see it. This is different than the earlier issue.

So now I'm manually copying my CF card onto the SSD (straight binary 32GB copy),
and we'll see what happens with it after that.


Edited by mlord (15/05/2019 13:30)

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#371965 - 15/05/2019 14:11 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Well, the SATA SSD doesn't work on the empeg using the IDE-SATA adapter I have at hand.

Pity. Dunno if I want to waste anything trying other adapters before giving up on that approach.

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#371966 - 15/05/2019 18:48 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
I bought these two a while back but haven't tried to shoehorn them into the empeg yet:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ETGOCG/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FD5BNE/
_________________________
~ John

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#371967 - 15/05/2019 20:22 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: mlord
Found a 1.8" form factor with 44-pin IDE/PATA connector: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0099395FA/
Ordered, should be here tomorrow. We'll see if it works correctly or not.

That drive arrived here just a few minutes ago. Fired up the bigdisk builder (v6) a couple of minutes ago,
and now the builder image is running from the drive formatting everything else.

EDIT: Done! Installing v3a11 software onto it now.


Edited by mlord (15/05/2019 20:25)

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#371968 - 15/05/2019 20:43 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
We have had a winner!

The 1.8" Kingspec IDE/PATA drive I found on Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0099395FA/
Builder (v6) worked without fuss, and I then installed the v3b11+Hijack .upgrade over that, again totally fuss-free.

The drive even has screw holes for mounting, two of which match the empeg's drive sled.

I suppose I might order a second one for here, while they're still available.

EDIT: Drive/firmware identification data below. One difference between this one
and the fake Yansen drive, is no mention of the "Security Mode feature set" on the genuine article (below).
Another difference is that the Yansen drives are native SATA (not PATA), but with a conversion chip onboard.
The SATA settings also show up in the drive identification data for those, but not for the genuine Kingspec.

Also, jumper settings are documented, and it WANTS the jumper in place for MASTER (opposite of the diagram we found earlier).
Code:
ATA device, with non-removable media
        Model Number:       KSD-PA18.6-128MS                        
        Serial Number:      986110xxxxxx        
        Firmware Revision:  20131216
Standards:
        Supported: 9 8 7 6 5 
        Likely used: 9
Configuration:
        Logical         max     current
        cylinders       16383   16383
        heads           15      15
        sectors/track   63      63
        --
        CHS current addressable sectors:    15481935
        LBA    user addressable sectors:   247975936
        LBA48  user addressable sectors:   247975936
        Logical/Physical Sector size:           512 bytes                                                   
        device size with M = 1024*1024:      121082 MBytes                                                  
        device size with M = 1000*1000:      126963 MBytes (126 GB)                                         
        cache/buffer size  = 1 KBytes (type=DualPort)                                                       
        Nominal Media Rotation Rate: Solid State Device                                                     
Capabilities:                                                                                               
        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)                                                                         
        Standby timer values: spec'd by Vendor, no device specific minimum                                  
        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 1   Current = 1                                                 
        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6 
             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
        Enabled Supported:
           *    SMART feature set
           *    Power Management feature set
                Write cache
           *    WRITE_BUFFER command
           *    READ_BUFFER command
           *    NOP cmd
           *    48-bit Address feature set
                Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
                FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
HW reset results:
        CBLID- above Vih
        Device num = 0
Checksum: correct


Edited by mlord (16/05/2019 15:52)

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#371969 - 15/05/2019 20:50 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Stock permitting at Amazon, I am willing to purchase extra drives to bring with me to the Cambridge meet,
for anyone who will be there that wants one. Individually tested, with free shipping! But the return policy sucks! smile


EDIT: Mmmm.. I don't see this drive on Amazon USA, nor on Amazon UK,
and in Canada there is only one (1) left in stock at the moment.
I think I'll just grab it. Grabbed. Now Currently unavailable.

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#371971 - 15/05/2019 21:34 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Jumper settings on the 1.8" form factor genuine Kingspec drive:


Attachments
jumpers.jpg

Description: Kingspec KSD-PA18.6-XXXMS jumper settings.



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#371972 - 15/05/2019 21:55 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
I've now used my Linux PC to copy over 27GB of tunes directly to the new SSD
(much quicker than doing through the empeg itself)
and it's now running and playing nicely from the new drive.

So.. pity there aren't more of these out there,
but I imagine that a modern fast CF Card with a passive adapter would do just as well.

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#371974 - 16/05/2019 03:54 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
I'm currently playing with a CF adapter and a 128gb CF card, and I noticed something interesting.

My Drive Upgrade tinstructions currently say that, when applying the "Builder" to format a new drive, as soon as EmpegUpgrade.exe said it was done, then, it was done and I could pull the power.

Well, maybe that's wrong.

With both this CF card and with the Yansen drive, after EmpegUpgrade.exe said it was finished, I connected to the serial port and a bunch of numbers were flashing by. I thought the numbers flashing by were maybe the stress test. So on the Yansen drive, after seeing those numbers, I pulled the power.

But, looking closer on this CF card, I see that it really says "Writing Inode Tables" and then the numbers are flashing by. After a short wait, it said "done" and then said "Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information:" And then nothing after that for a while.

Is there is a chance that my problems with the Yansen drive were that I simply didn't let that builder process finish?
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371977 - 16/05/2019 10:55 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
There is a chance there, yes. But the Yansen drive I had here had much, much deeper issues than that.

During all of the testing I did here this week, when EmpegUpgrade.exe said it was "done", I then transfered the serial cable over to my Linux box and used it to see what state the empeg was really in, before pulling power. The Yansen drive often was indeed "scrolling numbers" by, but those numbers were crash messages happening over and over due to bad data from the drive.

With the BigDisk Builder v6 at least, any "premature ejection" should be curable by just powering on the empeg again -- the builder image installed in the empeg will always run again after each power on, regardless of drive state.

The recommended BigDisk builder v6 at least does NOT include any stress test at the end.

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#371978 - 16/05/2019 11:00 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: tfabris
looking closer on this CF card, I see that it really says "Writing Inode Tables" and then the numbers are flashing by. After a short wait, it said "done" and then said "Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information:" And then nothing after that for a while.


It will be very slow, depending on the CF Card. Just wait for it. Eventually it should say "Done!" on the serial port (and on the front panel display!) and then drop to a (bash) command prompt.

More expensive CF cards boasting very fast sustained WRITE speeds will be quicker there. Using the v6 builder will also be MUCH quicker than the other choices too.

Here (attached this time, rather than inline) is the actual/recommended v6 builder script. I should have posted this one earlier instead of v3. If you have a quick peek, you should be able to see exactly what it is doing at any point.


Attachments
builder_v6_init_script.txt (251 downloads)
Description: v6 builder /sbin/init script




Edited by mlord (16/05/2019 15:47)

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#371979 - 16/05/2019 19:21 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Builder V6 seems to be much better! Thank you so much!

I was having trouble with builder V3 on the CompactFlash drive. It was doing the same problem as before, where when the builder was done there wasn't any "fids" or "var" folder. But now, with Builder V6, it looks like those folders are getting created and all looks well on the flash drive. Thanks!

I'm still having an issue that I think is non-builder-related, though.

I went forward with installing everything on the CompactFlash drive and in theory the unit seems to work as expected, though I haven't tried using Emplode on it yet. My intention is to copy all the files from the old drive to the new drive at the shell prompt, with both drives plugged in as master/slave.

I'm running into a problem when I'm trying to copy files from the prior drive to the new drive. I set the new drive as slave and the old drive as Master, and then try to set the drives read-write and copy the contents of "var" over. When trying to set read-write it tells me that it "can't find /drive1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab", and when I try to copy files, it says "read only file system".


Code:
empeg:/# rw
empeg:/# rwm
mount: can't find /drive1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
empeg:/# cp /drive0/var/* /drive1/var/
cp: cannot create regular file `/drive1/var/config.ini': Read-only file system
cp: cannot create regular file `/drive1/var/database': Read-only file system
cp: /drive0/var/empacman: omitting directory
cp: /drive0/var/emphatic: omitting directory
cp: /drive0/var/emptris: omitting directory
cp: /drive0/var/gpsapp: omitting directory
cp: /drive0/var/hdparm: omitting directory
cp: /drive0/var/launcher: omitting directory
cp: cannot create regular file `/drive1/var/playlists': Read-only file system
cp: /drive0/var/smartctl: omitting directory
cp: cannot create regular file `/drive1/var/tags': Read-only file system
cp: /drive0/var/taxi: omitting directory
cp: /drive0/var/viewer: omitting directory
empeg:/# ro
mount: can't find /drive1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
empeg:/# rom
mount: can't find /drive1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab


Any ideas?

Attached is a full session log output including the FSTAB output, if that's helpful.

Thanks so much for all the help you're giving on this thread!


Attachments
Read Only File System.txt (235 downloads)

_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371981 - 16/05/2019 19:53 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Oh hey, it looks like I don't have the same problem if I swap the order: New disk is primary, old disk is slave.

Trying that now.

Edit: Yeah all the copies work if I boot the new drive (destination drive for the copies) as master and the old drive (source drive for the copies) as slave. No problems so far, all file copies are humming along nicely.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371982 - 16/05/2019 21:47 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Okay, good! That saves me from having to explain how it works in more detail than is usually necessary!

smile

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#371986 - 18/05/2019 10:29 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
How is the CF Card working for you now, Tony?

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#371987 - 19/05/2019 01:01 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
It's worked perfectly so far. I got these:

Adapter:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036DDXUM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Card:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NUB2TWI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

BigDisk Builder V6 worked fine, applying the player worked fine, applying the latest Hijack worked fine. I was able to copy all of the FIDs, all of the VAR folder, and the dynamic data partition, all over from the old drive to the new drive, from the empeg shell prompt. Everything works as expected so far, and I got no error messages during the copying process, as long as I had the master/slave order set so that the old drive was slave, and the new drive was master.

What I have not done yet: I have not tried a synch with emplode yet. I have a somewhat large set of tunes to add (several albums' worth), and I'll do that some time when I get a chance, and if that goes smoothly then I'll consider it done.

A couple notes about that CF adapter:
- It doesn't have a master/slave jumper. Instead, you plug the CF card into the adapter's Slave Slot or the adapter's Master Slot to switch it back and forth.
- I don't trust the CF card's ability to stay in the slot with the empeg riding in a bumpy car. It's only held in by the friction of the pins themselves, there's no clamp mechanism. So I put a piece of strong tape across the top to keep it parked in the slot.

Thanks so much for your help!
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#371988 - 19/05/2019 11:23 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Great. I take it that the screw holes also lined up with the empeg's sled, making it super convenient.

Note that this adapter can accept a pair of CF cards simultaneously,
in place of attaching a second CF card to the other IDE connector
of the empeg (use one method or the other, but not both).

Cheers

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#371989 - 19/05/2019 11:46 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: tfabris
..applying the latest Hijack worked fine.


Ah, yes. That.

Okay, I have just updated all of the bigdisk images etc.. to include the latest Hijack v524 by default now, saving a step for the next time!

Cheers

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#371990 - 20/05/2019 02:12 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Mark, any reason why this wouldn't work?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079GSGCJY/

Because a 64gb SD card is really cheap. I only wish the board was setup so that I could cut a slot and expose the card to be accessible from the exterior of Empeg.
_________________________
~ John

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#371991 - 20/05/2019 03:05 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
Happy Birthday larry818
old hand

Registered: 01/10/2002
Posts: 1033
Loc: Fullerton, Calif.

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#371992 - 20/05/2019 12:08 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: JBjorgen]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: JBjorgen
Mark, any reason why this wouldn't work?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079GSGCJY/

Because a 64gb SD card is really cheap. I only wish the board was setup so that I could cut a slot and expose the card to be accessible from the exterior of Empeg.

Those look a bit hit and miss. They seem to use really old controller chips, which is a Very Good Thing(tm) because that means they very likely implement the old PIO protocols correctly -- needed by the empeg.

But they also seem to be limited to no more than 64GB size in SD cards, and probably don't work with SDXC or perhaps even some SDHC cards. Note that there's a cheaper branded copy of the exact same card on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Optimal-Shop-Digital-Adapter-Converter/dp/B00DGNYXQ0/

If I could get one here cheaply/quickly enough, I would get one and try it out. But Amazon Canada doesn't have any "local" options -- they all come on the slow boat from Asia.


Edited by mlord (20/05/2019 12:12)

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#371993 - 20/05/2019 12:09 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: larry818]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: larry818


That just looks like an extension cord for an SDCARD socket. No way to plug it into an empeg.

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#371995 - 21/05/2019 00:39 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: larry818]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Originally Posted By: larry818


I actually saw that last night and was thinking the same thing you were.

Mark: Larry's suggesting the extension in conjunction with the SD board I linked to be able to mount the SD card slot on the back of the empeg so that it's removable without opening up the case.
_________________________
~ John

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#371996 - 21/05/2019 00:42 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: JBjorgen]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: JBjorgen
Originally Posted By: larry818


I actually saw that last night and was thinking the same thing you were.

Mark: Larry's suggesting the extension in conjunction with the SD board I linked to be able to mount the SD card slot on the back of the empeg so that it's removable without opening up the case.


Ah, sure that ought to work (and my apologies to Larry!). In my previous car, I just extended the IDE cable outside of the chassis so that the attached CF-Card would be accessible.

I have "ordered" one of the SD-Card adapters (thanks Roger!) and will try it out Live! at the 21st Anniversary Meet in Cambridge.

Cheers

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#371997 - 21/05/2019 00:43 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Originally Posted By: mlord

...and probably don't work with SDXC or perhaps even some SDHC cards.


Is that a big deal? Isn't the IDE bus on the empeg pretty slow anyway?
_________________________
~ John

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#371998 - 21/05/2019 00:48 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: JBjorgen]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: JBjorgen
Originally Posted By: mlord

...and probably don't work with SDXC or perhaps even some SDHC cards.


Is that a big deal? Isn't the IDE bus on the empeg pretty slow anyway?


Same deal as with some modernish SSDs: not well tested on old PIO-only machines such as our empeg! SDXC have higher speed protocols that most machines from the past decade should grok, and reports suggest that at least some of those are not fully backward compatible with the old/slow SPI protocol more traditionally associated with SD-Cards. EDIT: The controller chip on the adapter pre-dates SDXC.

Hey, I was just reading the Amazon reviews! smile
But we'll find out in a couple of weeks in Cambridge. I have a modern SDXC card as well as some older cards to try out in the adapter.

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#371999 - 21/05/2019 01:03 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Ordered! I won't steal your thunder by reporting my results until after the meet. If all goes well, I'll likely order that extension and do some case modification.
_________________________
~ John

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#372000 - 21/05/2019 01:29 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: JBjorgen]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: JBjorgen
Ordered! I won't steal your thunder by reporting my results until after the meet.


By all means please DO report your findings, along with the exact card used in the reader. The more data the better here!

Cheers!

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#372001 - 21/05/2019 02:19 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Well, I'm starting out conservative. I dropped a whopping $6.54 for this 32gb card:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079H5HYC7/

If that works, I'll move to a 64gb card, then 128 if that also goes well.
_________________________
~ John

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#372003 - 21/05/2019 12:04 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Well, among other slower cards, I have this 64GB card, which boasts reasonably quick write speeds for US$13.52:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MicroSDXC-Memory-Adapter-MB-MC64GA/dp/B06XFWPXYD

So between us we should get a decent sample set!

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#372006 - 21/05/2019 22:17 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: tfabris]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: tfabris
My Drive Upgrade instructions currently say that, when applying the "Builder" to format a new drive, as soon as EmpegUpgrade.exe said it was done, then, it was done and I could pull the power.

Well, maybe that's wrong.


Yes, wrong. smile
When the EmpegUpgrade.exe says it is done, that means it has installed the .upgrade (builder image in this case) onto the empeg. But the empeg then reboots and RUNS the builder, which takes quite a bit more time. So one does have to wait for the bigdisk builder to display "Done!" on the front panel display!

I am thinking about generating improved bigdisk-builder images which also install the final (v2 or v3a11) player software as part of the "builder" process, saving a second time-consuming .upgrade step. Maybe in time for The Meet.

Cheers

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#372008 - 25/05/2019 03:44 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Originally Posted By: mlord

By all means please DO report your findings, along with the exact card used in


So mixed results so far. I installed the little converter and SD card (the card is on the bottom side of the board):



I'm able to run the big disk builder upgrade file, then the player 2.01 upgrade file. After that I can copy music to the drive and play it. Everything is good up to this point. The only problem is that the moment I pull the power, I lose the ability to connect to the SD card. The player says No Hard Disk Found, Contact Support. This seems bizarre, because it was happily playing music seconds before. I've duplicated this behavior with both the 32gb card, and an old 1gb card I had laying around. Seems consistent with what some are reporting in the Amazon comments. I'm wondering if it's just not handling a non-windows filesystem very well?



Attachments
IMG_3895.JPG (2326 downloads)

_________________________
~ John

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#372009 - 25/05/2019 03:53 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Boot log:

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 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kerne
l.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg55-hijack-v518 (hijack@rtr.ca) (gcc version
2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Tue Jun 3 14:28:51 EDT 2014
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read e28cc001
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 10101536) 16MB DRAM
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15000k/16M available (996k code, 20k reserved, 364k 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)
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 206f6972 'rio '
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1
show_message("Hijack v518 by Mark Lord")
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 d0004d80).
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...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., 29664MB w/8kB Cache, CHS=60269/16/
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:d7:22:06:0
0
Partition check:
hda: hda1
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...attempt to access beyond end of device
03:05: rw=0, want=2, limit=0
dev 03:05 blksize=1024 blocknr=1 sector=2 size=1024 count=1
EXT2-fs: unable to read superblock
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05
_________________________
~ John

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#372010 - 25/05/2019 11:17 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Interesting. It's as if nothing was ever written to the card during the various install steps. Or perhaps a counterfeit card that has (much) less capacity than advertised, resulting in sector "wrap around" which then destroyed the partition table.

Except you got it with more than one card. So probably not the card.

EDIT: The above boot log is from AFTER installing everything, right?


Edited by mlord (25/05/2019 11:18)

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#372011 - 25/05/2019 11:31 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
I have read through some of the Amazon reviews for various versions of this adapter, and the common theme seems to be that the partition table gets rewritten to the SD-Card at power on. Always with exactly one MS-DOS partition populated.

The interesting question then becomes, is the rest of the SD-Card still intact? If so, we could kludge a reasonably simple work-around in Hijack to just ignore the read-in partition table, and instead use either a saved copy or an auto-generated table (partition tables are only 512-bytes long, plus whatever "extended" partitions exist).

I suppose the onboard firmware might be doing something stupid like, "if card isn't something I recognize, then auto-format it at power-on". In which case it's a matter of determining how it "recognizes" the card. Most likely it just looks at the partition table. If that's the case, then we just tell Hijack to offset everything by 1 sector, nothing else required. smile

If you want to try this, I can provide a suitably hacked kernel, builder image, and car2-software image with that kernel.



Edited by mlord (25/05/2019 11:31)

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#372012 - 25/05/2019 11:57 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: mlord
If you want to try this, I can provide a suitably hacked kernel, builder image, and car2-software image with that kernel.

Ha! There is already a mechanism to do this kind of thing in the IDE driver in Linux. I added it decades ago to deal with "EZDRIVE" partitioning software that did something similarly silly with the partition table.

So a possible workaround here simply involves enabling that code, and checking for the specific brand/model of SD Card converter. Done. Try this (attached).

Note that this is safe (aka "inactive") for use with regular drives too.

EDIT: Replaced builder+image with a single combined builder image.



Attachments
builder_bigdisk_v6+-sdcard.upgrade (214 downloads)
Description: Single combined builder/software file.




Edited by mlord (25/05/2019 18:32)

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#372013 - 25/05/2019 12:03 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
I've got another engagement this morning, but I'll try it later today.
_________________________
~ John

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#372015 - 25/05/2019 12:12 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Kernel code change to enable the (possible) workaround:
Code:
--- v524/drivers/block/ide-probe.c      2009-09-14 08:39:40.000000000 -0400
+++ hijack-v524+/drivers/block/ide-probe.c      2019-05-25 07:47:10.952063665 -0400
@@ -86,6 +86,20 @@
        printk("%s: %s, ", drive->name, id->model);
        drive->present = 1;
 
+#if FAKE_FDISK_FOR_EZDRIVE
+{
+       /*
+        * Try and deal with SD-Card adapters that rewrite an MS-DOS partition table
+        * at every power-on, by remapping sector 0 to 1.
+        */
+       static const char sintech[] = "SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter";
+       if (0 == strncmp(id->model, sintech, strlen(sintech))) {
+               drive->remap_0_to_1 = 1;
+               printk("[sdcard remap 0->1] ");
+       }
+}
+#endif
+
 #ifndef CONFIG_SA1100_EMPEG
        /*
         * Check for an ATAPI device
--- v524/drivers/block/ide.h    2017-08-06 08:36:18.000000000 -0400
+++ hijack-v524+/drivers/block/ide.h    2019-05-25 07:45:06.083976833 -0400
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
 #define INITIAL_MULT_COUNT     8
 #define SUPPORT_SLOW_DATA_PORTS        0
 #define SUPPORT_VLB_SYNC       0
-#define FAKE_FDISK_FOR_EZDRIVE 0
+#define FAKE_FDISK_FOR_EZDRIVE 1
 #define FANCY_STATUS_DUMPS     0
 #define REALLY_FAST_IO         1
 #undef  INITIAL_MULT_COUNT

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#372017 - 25/05/2019 18:28 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: JBjorgen]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: JBjorgen
I've got another engagement this morning, but I'll try it later today.


If you do try it, (re-)download the builder image from my earlier post:
I have updated it to a single image that builds the drive
AND installs v2.01 software in one step.

Just reboot the player once it shows "Done!" on the front panel display.

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#372018 - 25/05/2019 23:08 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Note that the combined builder image is a Work In Progress. I will release a more polished version at some point, likely at The Meet.

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#372019 - 25/05/2019 23:14 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Still no love. Played music and everything, just didn't survive a power cycle.

Code:
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 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux...................................... done, booting the kern
el.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg55-hijack-v524 (hijack@rtr.ca) (gcc version
2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #7 Sat May 25 07:54:55 EDT 2019
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read e28cc001
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 10101536) 16MB DRAM
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 14992k/16M available (1000k code, 20k reserved, 368k 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)
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 206f6972 'rio '
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1
show_message("Hijack v524+ by Mark Lord")
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 d0005600).
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...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., [sdcard remap 0->1] ATA DISK drive

ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., [sdcard remap 0->1] ATA DISK drive

ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., [sdcard remap 0->1] ATA DISK drive

ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., [sdcard remap 0->1] ATA DISK drive

ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., [sdcard remap 0->1] ATA DISK drive

ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0000
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., [sdcard remap 0->1] ATA DISK drive

ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: SINTECHI HighSpeed SD to CF Adapter V1., 29664MB w/8kB Cache, CHS=60269/16/
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:d7:22:06:0
0
Partition check:
 hda: unknown partition table
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...attempt to access beyond end of device
03:05: rw=0, want=2, limit=0
dev 03:05 blksize=1024 blocknr=1 sector=2 size=1024 count=1
EXT2-fs: unable to read superblock
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:05
_________________________
~ John

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#372020 - 25/05/2019 23:20 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Mmmm.. I don't see the message indicating that the kernel detected the SINTECHI reader. I can force it on.. gimme a sec.

Blind. As. A. Bat.
I guess I'll have a better look at it either at The Meet, or after The Meet.

Cheers.


Edited by mlord (25/05/2019 23:23)

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#372021 - 26/05/2019 00:41 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Sounds good. Thanks!
_________________________
~ John

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#372045 - 07/06/2019 20:29 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: mlord]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Originally Posted By: mlord
.. the SINTECHI reader ..
I guess I'll have a better look at it either at The Meet, or after The Meet.


Roger was kind enough to pick up a SINTECHI adapter for me in the UK, and I have been playing with it here for an hour or so now.

It seems to behave just fine with a 4GB SD-Card, and with a 16GB SD-Card, but not with the 64GB card here. I don't have anything in between 16 and 64GB to try it on, but I suspect some kind of capacity limitation.

EDIT: The onboard chip is labelled as FC1307, but also has a letter A literally scratched onto the surface after the FC1307 part. So it is either a FC1307A, or a counterfeit of some sort.

If anyone at the Meet has a 32GB card for me to try, I'll report back on that later as well.

Cheers


Edited by mlord (07/06/2019 21:01)

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#372048 - 08/06/2019 03:33 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Can't be a size limitation because it failed to survive a reboot with a 1gb card that I built. It must be some other factor. That said, if I can get a confirmed card that it works with, I'm happy to pick up a different card.
_________________________
~ John

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#372049 - 08/06/2019 07:21 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
The chip on mine is marketed as a SD-CF adapter, so pretty much the same kind of thing that might be found in some of the various SD-CF-Card adapters also found on Amazon. There's another chip that also is/was pretty common on these, as can be seen in some of the product photos on A.

Which chip did you get?

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#372053 - 09/06/2019 00:43 Re: Replacement SSD? [Re: Roger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
It's at the office, I'll have to wait until Monday to check.
_________________________
~ John

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