OESF Portables Forum

Everything Else => Sharp Zaurus => Model Specific Forums => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => 6000 - Tosa => Topic started by: sgtron on December 23, 2004, 04:18:28 pm

Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: sgtron on December 23, 2004, 04:18:28 pm
I bought a 5GB Seagate, it was very flakey and needed constant reboots, it would lose data and when I played MP3 files it would sometimes stop midway for a reboot before you could try to play that file again.  You couldn't save mail to it, it would't even show up as an option in the mail to save mail there.  It would also flake out during large file downloads.

I traded that in for a 4GB Hitachi drive, and it was much better.  I could play mp3's without trouble, it never crashed and it could save my email....

But, the one problem I'm having is when you try to use the Voice Recorder it refuses to save data to the microdrive.  It complains there's no space.. There's plenty of space, it's a 4GB drive.  I thought there might be a problem since it was formated Fat 16, so I reformated ext2.. no dice.  

In fact, when I formated it ext2, I could no longer save my email on there.  So I went back and reformatted it to FAT16.  Magic, now I can put my mail there again.  But still can't save the Voice Recorder data there.

I know this is the drive of choice out there so I'd appreciate if one of you could try to record on it and let me know if it works.. if so maybe we can figure out what I did wrong to mess it up.  

Two Questions:

1. Does Zaurus 6000 require FAT 16 for the apps (email etc) to work?
2. Why does Voice Recorder not record to Microdrive?

Many thanks if anyone can help.

UPDATE:: I also can't install to the Microdrive either...  Same problem as the Voice Recorder, It gripes there isn't enough space even though there's plenty.  Thoughts on this are welcome as well.
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: gdog on December 25, 2004, 05:56:56 pm
Sgtron,
FWIW I couldn't record to either SD or CF either.

Regards,

gdog
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: sgtron on December 25, 2004, 08:06:54 pm
See, that's my problem, I have a 16MB CF card that I can record to just fine.  It just seems weird that only with microdrives do I get this problem.  Now I hear you can't record to SD card either.  It just kinda worries me that Sharp puts out a crappy product.  With my 5500 I could flash to Openzaurus and be cool, but with the 6000 I'm stuck with the Sharp Rom until Openzaurus matures more on this platform.

Still, thanks for your input, glad to know I'm not alone with this recording problem.  Of course if anyone out there *can* record to a 4GB Hitachi drive or install programs on it I'd love to hear.
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: gdog on December 26, 2004, 12:41:35 am
This may be more about the kernel not fully supporting the 4gb filesystem, as opposed to the 6K being crappy. I also cannot get the "Zaurus File Transfer" app to see the microdrive. It works just fine in the Z, or if I connect it to the PC via a USB adapter, but I was not able to link the two together via the transfer app, regardless of what I did. I'll bet the difference between this ROM and the C3K ROM has some device driver changes to allow the Z to work better with the large filesystem that the Hitachi is running, though at FAT16 you probably have at least two partitions, right?

On the other hand, one of the great things about this Board though is that if it can be done, someone will do it sooner or later, and be willing to share their secret!

Regards,

gdog
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: the_oak on December 26, 2004, 09:38:56 am
Have you checked to see if it is a permissions problem? I chmoded the mount point and the device file to get my SD card to allow me to write to it after I formatted it to ext2. Maybe try:
chmod 777 /dev/hda1
chmod 777 /mnt/whatever

Also may have to do that to any directories already existing.

Might also check fstab and put "user" in there.
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: gdog on December 26, 2004, 12:30:29 pm
Mine is owned by root but the permissions were wide open. On my Z /dev/hda1 isn't even in the fstab file, yet it mounts. I'm hesitant too mess with it because of some of the PFM that Sharp does to make Linux work on such a tiny kernel. Don't want to break anything that might require a call into their nonexistant support organization...

Regards,

gdog
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: stuffman on March 12, 2005, 12:24:23 am
I had a few problems initially with my Seagate ST1 (ripped from a Rio Carbon), but everything seems to work well after fdisk-ing it to use Win95 FAT32 (LBA) (I think it's hex C), and using mkfs.vfat -F 32. Things seem to work much better now, as before I would copy files and get that "out of space" message, or the drive would stop responding. Occasionally, when the Zaurus "sleeps," it will stop responding, but a quick cardctl eject followed by cardctl insert get things back on track. Probably should add that to the suspend script...
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: Omicron on March 12, 2005, 09:51:35 pm
Did you guys try fdisking and formatiing using this method ?

(originally for the C860, but should work for all Z's)

Formatting a Microdive for use with Z. (https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Formating_A_Microdrive_For_Use_With_Cxx0_And_Windows_Simultaneously)
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: sgtron on March 13, 2005, 01:19:28 pm
I had tried that exact method with my 5GB Seagate, but it didn't work completely.. drive kept freaking out on me.. losing data at odd times.. things like that.  I switched it for a 4GB Hitachi and it works much better.. out of the box..

Only thing is I couldn't get my voice recorder to save data to it, or install programs on it.  No such problems with my 1GB SD card.. that seems to be cool.  

Interesting thing, for some reason, for like a day or two... , suddenly I could record to my Microdrive.. then I couldn't again.. I didn't do anything special either time.. it makes no sense.  Please note I've always been able to save data on the drive.. just not install proggies or record voice data.. wild.
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: scheck.r on March 13, 2005, 06:29:29 pm
Same problem here with my Hitachi microdrive formatted as ext2 following the HowTo for formatting microdrives. I can't install on it ("Not enough storage memory for installation") nor record audio on it.
I don't have any problem with my standard CF formatted as ext2.
I have set the permissions on the microdrive the same as on my regular CF to be sure. I did also
umount /mnt/cf
mount -t ext2 /dev/hda1 /usr/mnt.rom/cf
in case the automounting went wrong. I tried formatting starting at block #1 and at #2, same problem. But I can read/write on it.

Any idea ?

I am using stock Sharp rom on my 6k
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: cosmos7 on March 16, 2005, 01:22:02 am
My Hitachi 4GB works fine.  Couldn't get the ext2 partition to automount from fstab, but I added a line at the end of init to get around that.  Once mounted, symlinked a bunch of stuff to give me plenty of room to install things...
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: scheck.r on March 17, 2005, 02:51:30 am
Can you please provide more precisely what you did ?
What you wrote ? in which file ? which directory ...

Thanks
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: cosmos7 on March 17, 2005, 07:57:26 pm
Quote
Can you please provide more precisely what you did ?
What you wrote ? in which file ? which directory ...

Thanks
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=71068\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Sorry, my mistake.  I had added a line to /etc/rc.d/rc.modules to load the shfs module I had compiled.

To enable swap (I run a swap partition on the Hitachi) and to mount the main partition, I created a boot script in /etc/rc.d/rc5.d to do what was needed.  Kind of a tacky hack I'll agree, it works.

Code: [Select]
/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S10cf_mount
---------------------------------

#!/bin/bash

mkswap /dev/hda1
swapon /dev/hda1

mount /dev/hda6 /files
of course that will likely be different on your Z, depending upon how you partitioned...
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: undrwater on March 17, 2005, 09:45:15 pm
I was wondering if maybe you couldn't format the drive ext2, then create a directory and make a symbolic link in your /home/zaurus?

It's what I'm doing for NFS mounts to watch vids and listen to mp3's (since you can't seem to browse the full directory structure).

You should even be able to save your emails there.

I'm interested as I've discovered that files created by the voice recorder can be used by Dragon NaturallySpeaking!

I'm in the ebay market for a 4GB Hitachi.
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: cosmos7 on March 20, 2005, 08:01:53 pm
Well I do have the main partition on my Hitachi formatted ext2, but I'm not symlinking it to /home, I'm symlinking most of /usr to it; anything not required at boot time.  That way I have tons of space to install applications... easy to go the other way though.
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: scheck.r on March 21, 2005, 02:04:45 am
Quote
Quote
Can you please provide more precisely what you did ?
What you wrote ? in which file ? which directory ...

Thanks
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=71068\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Sorry, my mistake.  I had added a line to /etc/rc.d/rc.modules to load the shfs module I had compiled.

To enable swap (I run a swap partition on the Hitachi) and to mount the main partition, I created a boot script in /etc/rc.d/rc5.d to do what was needed.  Kind of a tacky hack I'll agree, it works.

Code: [Select]
/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S10cf_mount
---------------------------------

#!/bin/bash

mkswap /dev/hda1
swapon /dev/hda1

mount /dev/hda6 /files
of course that will likely be different on your Z, depending upon how you partitioned...
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=71198\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

For me it didn't work even while formatted as FAT 32 (b or c)
So from what I understand, I need a module I don't have for it to work ?
Can you install on your microdrive using the installer UI ?
Can you use Voice Recorder and save om the Microdrive ?

Thanks
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: inode0 on March 22, 2005, 10:09:51 am
Quote
Same problem here with my Hitachi microdrive formatted as ext2 following the HowTo for formatting microdrives. I can't install on it ("Not enough storage memory for installation") nor record audio on it.
...
Any idea ?

I am using stock Sharp rom on my 6k
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=70505\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
I'm also using the stock Sharp rom and haven't really noticed any problem with either a 2GB or 4GB hitachi microdrive. The 4GB is a permanent resident in my 6k. How are you trying to installl packages to it? I did stop using the lame graphical installer. Have you tried installing with ipkg from the command line?

I haven't played around with recording, but I've installed tons of stuff on the microdrive using ipkg directly.

John
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: scheck.r on March 22, 2005, 10:59:16 am
I only use the graphical interface.
I don't even know how to install using the command line
Can you try using the graphical interface to install one apps to see if it works ?

I will try the command line.

Thanks
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: inode0 on March 22, 2005, 10:33:04 pm
Quote
I only use the graphical interface.
I don't even know how to install using the command line
Can you try using the graphical interface to install one apps to see if it works ?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=71797\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Yes, with the 4GB microdrive I get the same idiotic error you do using the graphical installer. Which I will add to my list of reasons to never use that program to install things on the Z. I'm sure there is nothing wrong with the microdrive and you can use ipkg directly to install programs to it just fine.

To use ipkg directly you need to add a bit to your /etc/ipkg.conf file, I use

dest sd /mnt/card
dest cf /mnt/cf
dest cf2 /mnt/cf2

Then something like

# ipkg -d cf install some-package.ipk

will do the trick.

John
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: scheck.r on March 25, 2005, 10:53:25 am
thanks Inode0

I tried to install in RAM using command line, everything is OK.
I tried the same on SD, regular CF, microdrive, it extracts the files it misses a lot of links.
For example I tried to install petitepeinture_1.0-2_arm.ipk on microdrive.
I get :
Unpacking petitepeinture.............done
Configuring petitepeinture..............done
It creates
/mnt/cf/home/tmp/ipkg (which is empty)
/mnt/cf/opt/QtPalmtop (with the main files)
/mnt/cf/usr/lib/ipkg/info/petitepeinture.list
but nothing in /home, no icons.
It should create the files in /mnt/cf/QtPalmtop (with no mnt/cf/home)
and create the links in /home no ?
Is there a command to update the links on the sharprom like I read for OZ ?

It's becoming a little off-topic now so I will post somewhere else if I get stuck

Thanks
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: inode0 on March 25, 2005, 07:23:14 pm
I haven't looked at that package but it sounds like it isn't prepared properly to install in oddball locations. If something needs to actually be in /home or /etc or whatever and you divert the installation to /mnt/cf/home or /mnt/cf/etc instead, there should be a script included in the ipk tarball that checks for the ROOT of the installation and adds links where needed. If the package doesn't support installing to other locations you can add the links yourself, add the script and send it back upstream to help the maintainer, or perhaps just ask the maintainer if they could add the support.

John
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: scheck.r on March 27, 2005, 07:33:35 pm
Hi all,

On my 4gb Hitachi microdrive, I finally managed to get the GUI installer to work like a charm and I am able to use the voice recorder and to save on it (AT LAST...). The problem was that my partition was bigger than 2gb (why is it a problem ???). So I created 2 partitions of equal size. Apparently, it works for any file system (at least FAT32 and ext2). In my /etc/fstab, there is nothing related to /dev/hda1 or /dev/hda2(it didn't change anything if I added something). I didn't change /etc/pcmcia/ide.opts nor /etc/pcmcia/ide. It mounts automatically the 1st partition on /mnt/cf but I have to mount manually the 2nd one on /mnt/cff(directory that I created before mounting, mounting on /mnt/cf2 doesn't work).
I couldn't find a way to mount both partitions automatically on insert (I tried so many combinations in ide.opts and fstab, i just gave up).
You need to have the 1st partition as FAT if you want to read it in windows.
I can't get voice recorder to save on the ext2 partition.
You can mount /dev/hda1 on /mnt/cff and /dev/hda2 on /mnt/cf also so that you install on the ext2 partition.

These are the relevant posts to look at if you want to tweak
https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Multip..._a_CF_/_SD_card (https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Multiple_partitions_on_a_CF_/_SD_card)
https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=9945&hl= (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=9945&hl=)
https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showt...light=partition (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1066&highlight=partition)
https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5574&hl= (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5574&hl=)

Many thanks to everybody and good luck.
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: xjqian on March 27, 2005, 08:46:46 pm
Code: [Select]
The problem was that my partition was bigger than 2gb (why is it a problem ???)
I have the similar problem on my hdd using debian+x/qt. I had a 10G ext2 partition. Everything works fine until the content reached close to 2G. The system hangs at "reading packages 22% ..." for example doing apt-get update. The hdd drive light remains red, which means it's going an infinite loop of reading/writing. Otherwise the debian enviroment is just fine and after reset you can chroot into as well. But apparently, you can't install anymore. I don't have time to google about this problem yet. But I've read somewhere in this forum about the 2G partition limits.

Code: [Select]
mounting on /mnt/cf2 doesn't workThis might be 6k specific. cf2 could be reserved only for the second cf on the expansion sled.
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: inode0 on March 29, 2005, 10:12:35 pm
Quote
On my 4gb Hitachi microdrive, I finally managed to get the GUI installer to work like a charm and I am able to use the voice recorder and to save on it (AT LAST...). The problem was that my partition was bigger than 2gb (why is it a problem ???).
This is interesting. I see 3936904KB using the system info program and df -h reports 3.8G for my 4G microdrive. So is this a problem with some applications only?

John
Title: Microdrive Problems
Post by: jomo on March 30, 2005, 11:53:17 am
I believe this is a common problem with all zaurus devices.  My SL-C860 has the same issue.  The issue, for me, manifests itself with certain applications.  For instance, the backup software doesn't work for me, nor does NAND backup/restore.  Hancom Sheet can read FROM the microdrive, but cannot write TO the drive.