4gig cf cards- mount problems

[arthuregg]

So in the effort to create a an amazing little workstation (and to decrease ipod envy) I got myself a 4gig cf card (hitachi 4gig microdrive).

I'm curious if i managed to get the correct one- as the one I have is being stubbern. It mounts on my desktop just fine, but refuses on the zaurus. While the card manager sees it as "anonmous memory" attempts to mount it (mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/cf) fail. attempting to fdisk it, doing some thing like:

fdisk -l /dev/hda

nets me nothing, while

fdisk /dev/hda

fails to open the device.

does anybody have any experience trying to get one of these cards to work that can point me in the right direction? I've tried mounting it both under cacko1.21 and oz3.5.5 and 3.3.6

[iczerxdragon]

Hi there,

you need to fdisk it first, as a whole drive, like fdisk /dev/hda,
and then create at least one partition. Set that partition active.
 
Then, you need to "format" it, with fat16, fat32 or ext2 as you
like. (dos16 means < 2g so you need 2 partitions at least.)

br,

Felix Leung.

[Omicron]

I recommend following my instructions here for a Zaurus/Windows sharable drive:

https://www.oesf.org/forums/inde...?showtopic=3779

[arthuregg]

Thanks for the links and the advice! There are a few quirks here to throw into the mix:

1) i don't have a windows box... i have an osx box and the fdisk binary on osx appears to be vastly different than the standard fdisk as the menu is different than the ones in the tutorial that you did (thanks! that's great! that should be pinned in a faq somewhere!)

2) on the zaurus, fdisk reports that it is unable to access the device even when logged in as root. this seems pretty odd to me

So I did some digging on how to do this with osx, but still haven't got it to work. I took some advice from here: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...030613121738812
and here: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...030613121738812
for tips on how to do this with osx

here's a log of what i tried to do:


quicky:~ arthur$ ls /dev/rdisk?
/dev/rdisk0     /dev/rdisk1     /dev/rdisk3
quicky:~ arthur$ sudo diskutil partitionDisk disk3 1 MS-DOS partOne 4G
Started partitioning on disk disk3
Creating Partition Map
 5% ..Formatting Disk
100% ..
Finished partitioning on disk disk3
/dev/disk3
   #:                   type name               size      identifier
   0: FDisk_partition_scheme                    *3.8 GB   disk3
   1:    Apple_partition_map                    31.5 KB   disk3s1
   2:             DOS_FAT_32 PARTONE            3.8 GB    disk3s2

quicky:~ arthur$ ls /dev/rdisk3*
/dev/rdisk3     /dev/rdisk3s1   /dev/rdisk3s2

quicky:~ arthur$ sudo umount /Volumes/PARTONE/
umount: /Volumes/PARTONE: Operation not permitted

quicky:~ arthur$ sudo newfs_msdos -v fat32 /dev/rdisk3s2
/dev/rdisk3s2: 7983776 sectors in 997972 FAT32 clusters (4096 bytes/cluster)
bps=512 spc=8 res=32 nft=2 mid=0xf0 spt=32 hds=255 hid=0 bsec=7999408 bspf=7797 rdcl=2 infs=1 bkbs=6

at this point, the drive still mounts clean under osx, but the zaurus is still unhappy- fdisk continues to report "unable to open /dev/hda". Is there some other device name that it would be coming in as?

this forum has been super helpful for me- thanks!

[maslovsky]

You need to delete all existing partitions with fdisk, then create a new simgle partition, then format it.

[arthuregg]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Unfortunately I can't seem to make it work yet.

So I formated the 4gig with fdisk, creating 1 partition trying both fat32 and ext and neither one seems to work. The card still comes up as anonmous memory. cartctl sees it and say the card is ready, but trying do fdisk /dev/hda or mount /dev/hda from the zaurus still fails. Mount returns an "unable to open device" and fdisk returns a "device not found"


I have the suspcion that I might have gotten the wrong kind of card? For those of you who have the 4gig cards, what is the model number that you're running? Any suggestions on how get the zaurus to see the card?


thanks again for everybody's help. this fourm is really impressive.

[Omicron]

The one I use is

Model HMS360404D5CF00
Part Number: 13G1766

It is a Hitachi 4GB MicroDrive white label.

The White label drives I got came from the Creative MUVO player, but supposedly Creative (or Hitachi) changed the drive do that it wouldn't work.

The instructions (HOW-TO) I gave in the link in my previous post is so that it works WITH windows, but you DON'T need windows, as everything is done on the Zaurus.

Take a look at that again and I recommend following all the directions beginning to end.  You should end up with a drive that works great on the Z in one huge partition and is setup for FAT32.

How it will work with linux PC, I don't know, but if you do all that then at least it should work with the Z flawlessly.  I have done several of them and the all work great.

Feel Free to PM me if you get stuck or if you post and get no response.

BTW, before I created the HOW-TO I had a real problem getting them working with the Z, so don't b discouraged.  I just hope the part numbers match up.  

UPDATE: I was just re-reading your post and noticed that fdisk doesn't even work in zaurus, which is not good as that is the second step (first being su - root).  I am guessing that you may have a non-compatible-CF drive (as mentioned earlier) or a defective one.  Either way, you might be able to send it back to the seller for another one if it is defective or if they have one with the correct part number(depending on seller and problem). You could also try mounting it as /dev/hda1, since SD is considered mmcda1.

O

POST REGARDING HOW TO FOR SETTING UP MICRODRIVE USING ZAURUS

[arthuregg]

Interesting- the part number and model number on my drive are the same. I'm pretty sure that it isn't defective as it mounts on all the windows, linux (except the zaurus), and mac's that i've tried.

Perhaps the rom that I'm using can't use this drive? I've been trying to do this on cacko 1.21b - what rom are you using?

Anybody know ways of seeing where things are going wrong here? if cardctl can see it, but mount and fdisk can't do anything with it.... is there maybe a newer version of fdisk and/or mount that I should be using?

Looking at /lib/modules does anybody know what module i'd need to have this be recognized?


thanks again!

[Omicron]

Same rom ,but c860 instead of C750

Has anyon run a Microdrive from a C750?

I know it should not matter, but worth asking anyway.

[arthuregg]

I've been playing around with this a bit more- still no luck. Any fellow 750 users using a 4 gig drive?

[mikeyp]

I'm trying the same thing with a Hitachi 4Gb microdrive from a muvo.
It's a white label, 44c barcode model (latest and greatest from Hitachi :-)

c86o with Sharp 1.40-JP rom.

I get pretty much the same results:
1) device insertion/removal is recognised.
2) the system logs '<<<< Init_Module PASS >>>>'
3) fdisk won't open /dev/fda

I stuck the same drive into a Windows 2000 CF Reader, and it formatted as FAT32, so the drive is alive.

I just need to figure out how to get the Zaurus to load the right module........

[Xumbi]

I'm trying the same thing with a Hitachi 4Gb microdrive from a muvo.
It's a white label, 44c barcode model (latest and greatest from Hitachi :-)

c86o with Sharp 1.40-JP rom.

I get pretty much the same results:
1) device insertion/removal is recognised.
2) the system logs '<<<< Init_Module PASS >>>>'
3) fdisk won't open /dev/fda

I stuck the same drive into a Windows 2000 CF Reader, and it formatted as FAT32, so the drive is alive.

I just need to figure out how to get the Zaurus to load the right module........

I should be getting a 750 soon, and I'd love to grab a 4GB card from a muvo2, but this sort of thing makes me worry...

[arthuregg]

Perhaps we could have a roll call of people using 4gig microdrives and what model they have? Now I'm wondering if there is some difference between the 750 and 760....

[kopsis]

I'm running a 4GB Hitachi from a Muvo2 (3BA barcode) in a 760 with Cacko 1.21a and I've had zero problems.

I remember hearing a rumor that newer models of the Muvo2 were going to have their drives "tweaked" (locked into true-IDE mode ala iPod mini) to prevent use in digicams (which would also make them incompatible with most PDAs including the Zaurus) but I have no idea if that ever actually happened.

[mikeyp]

The general discussion on the various photography boards and forums is that Creative/Hitachi are now shipping Muvos' with a modified microdrive that is NOT CF compatible.   It's not clear to me exactly what modifications have been made to the drive, and theres lots of speculation out there on the net as to what was done.

If you're using a Hitachi white label OEM 4Gb microdrive, the key point is to check the barcode on the microdrive.  To date, I've collected the following ino:

Last digits of barcode / CF compatable
3BA                         Yes
41C                         Yes
42B                          Yes
43B                         Yes
44C                         No                    
45C                         No

The changes made are clearly shutting down the extraction of microdrives from Muvos for digital camera use, since the cameras can't be upgraded easily.. but, with an open source Linux OS, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we figure what the trick is.  At which point Zaurus owners can scoop up all the non-CF microdrives from eBay that nobody else wants  

I don't think this is a problem with specific Zaurus models, it's the model of microdrive itself. This link includes a statement from a Hitachi engineer confirming the OEM drives are not CF compatible.
Steve's Digicams

For anyone that has a CF compatible microdrive , the existing howto covers everything.  

Since I got my '44C' working under win2k pro with a CF reader, there is hope. I love to hear what anyone else is learning about the modified 'muvodrives' .