Rockbox Technical Forums

Support and General Use => Hardware => Topic started by: DTSyX on September 07, 2011, 10:06:57 AM

Title: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: DTSyX on September 07, 2011, 10:06:57 AM
[For the solution I found and that works for me, see some posts further down: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,28808.msg186099.html#msg186099]


Hi, especially to the guys who already succeeded at the quest I'm currently on!

The problem I have has been described already, several times, but not really solved, at least not published to the public as far as I could find out via the forum search.

And this just isn't true, at least for me:

Support for large disks is included in Rockbox 3.6 (http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/ReleaseNotes36) and current builds.


Why not? Well, I have Rockbox 3.9.1 installed on my H140 and still get that "ATA error: -32" message.

So I guess one has to use a patched bootloader. But if this problem is to solved by inserting something like "#define HAVE_LBA48" into the bootloader (-> patched firmware) code it should be the same for all H140s out there and only one person needs to do it and can upload this bootloader here for all others to download. Or am I wrong?

I wonder: If some people are said to have succeeded why haven't they published their solution?


Well, that's what I've done and far I've come:

See the pictures to see what adapter I used with the Toshiba MK2431GAH.

I used the FAT32formatter (quickformat) to format the disk.

After installing Rockbox, iRiver OS can read the disk and data, but Rockbox gives me that "ATA error: -32" message.

So, I guess "all" I need would be a / that patched bootloader, right?

That's why I would like to asked the guys who have a large hdd running on their H140 to come out of the closet and tell us how they did it, i.e.:

1. Is a current version of rockbox really enough to get the disk running or is some bootloader patching still necessary?

2a. If the latter is true and the bootloader should be the same for all H140 on this planet, could someone please upload it to the iRiver port section for download?

3b. If no bootloader patching is necessary, what might I have done wrong?


I think I'm pretty close to having the best iRiver possible so I would very appreciate the help from the people who knew already years ago what to do to make this project working!

So, sorry for bringing that topic up again, and thanks for your kind help!

And sorry in advance if I did some stupid mistake while the solution would have been very simple and right in front of my eyes!

Sincerly,

DTSyX
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: torne on September 07, 2011, 11:53:17 AM
No patches are required, but there has not been a bootloader release for the iRivers since the change was made. The current bootloader code for those devices is broken and if you build and install it you will no longer be able to boot your player. We don't know why this is (it has been broken a while) and it's difficult to fix as only a few people have the ability to recover these devices after a bad bootloader has been installed; it requires special hardware.

Your best bet is to find a pre-existing binary somewhere that somebody built in the past which incorporates the patch already and which has already been used by someone else so you know it works. It's not possible for anyone to build you a current bootloader without risking bricking your player.
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: DTSyX on September 08, 2011, 04:29:51 AM
Well, thanks for your reply.

You're basically suggesting what I implied with my post: To get at least one of the successful heroes out of the closet to share his/her build with the rest of us.
So I thought I'd have a good shot asking via the forum of the community/group that created the phenomenal rockbox in the first place. :-)

Well, if only a few people have the ability to recover these devices then there ARE at least some out there who can!

And by the way:

What is that ominous hardware that is needed to recover a dead iRiver (or maybe any similar electronic device), what is it called? What type of device is it?
If I'm right, the device (and the person operating it) has to be able to access the SST 39VF160 Flash ROM, right? (Just to et clear on the principle.
Maybe I can find someone who has such a device, but just for a totally different reason and he / she can offer me the opportunity to make the step and try patching myself. But without backup strategy I'm not brave enough / willing to risk the life of my H140 by trying something I've no experience with.

But the best way would just be if only one successful person would step forward and share his oder her file with the rockbox community. I know I would if I were capable of such a task.

On the other hand, when you say that fixing the broken bootloader is difficult then it really must be, because building a working bootloader in the first place seems a huge thing to me. But it exists. So, if those guys aren't able to fix that particular problem it sounds bigger than just simply adding some LBA48-line to the code as I've read in some other threads, at least not for the iriver port. Just trying to get an idea of how big the task really is... :-)
OR: The responsible guys for the booloader just don't have a spare iRiver (anymore) for testing and that mysterious device for reanimation, respectively. Then it would be not so much a problem of knowledge and solutions but of opportunity...

Well, anyway. Thanks though for the rockbox idea as a whole and the support.

And thanks for any genious who might come up and out with a working binary! :-)
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: torne on September 08, 2011, 07:53:17 AM
What is that ominous hardware that is needed to recover a dead iRiver (or maybe any similar electronic device), what is it called? What type of device is it?
If I'm right, the device (and the person operating it) has to be able to access the SST 39VF160 Flash ROM, right? (Just to et clear on the principle.
Maybe I can find someone who has such a device, but just for a totally different reason and he / she can offer me the opportunity to make the step and try patching myself. But without backup strategy I'm not brave enough / willing to risk the life of my H140 by trying something I've no experience with.
You need a BDM wiggler. :)

The current bootloader code is *definitely* broken; there is no point trying it at all, even if you have the ability to recover the device, unless you actually have some idea how to go about fixing it. It is guaranteed not to work.

Anyway, yes, hopefully someone has a bootloader binary that works and has LBA48 enabled; I didn't mean to imply nobody can help, just that nobody can build one for you now; it needs to be one they already built a long time ago (it's probably been broken for a year or more...)
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: iRiverer on September 08, 2011, 10:25:23 AM
Wow, what a timing!
I strongly want to support the search for the heroes with the good bootloader ;)

Happens I bought me a Toshiba MK1634GAL to work with my iRiver H140, which arrived 2 days ago. My experience is the same as for DTSyX, the original iRiver firmware recognizes the drive just fine, but with rockbox I get a ATA error: -32.

I tried a lot of things in these 2 days to get it working: opened/closed the player several times, switched with my old drive, put different firmware versions on it, reformated the drive... All with no success and partly with a very bad feeling cause the reset button of my iRiver is not working all the time so I never was sure I could reset after errors (after connecting to the computer or the -32 error you have to reset the device)
I almost thought I have a bad drive and considered buying another one, but luckily now I spoted this thread by chance.

Unluckily, no answer from one of these heroes by now.
But like you wrote, there should be a couple of people outside which were able to get a large drive working.
If someone has a working bootloader for DTSyX, would he be kind enough to also send it to me? This would be very much appreciated.
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: torne on September 08, 2011, 11:55:23 AM
If someone has such a binary we can probably host it somewhere for download until a proper fix can be found; given that we now enable LBA48 for all hard disk based players anyway, this is a patch that we don't mind :)
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: DTSyX on September 09, 2011, 03:37:38 AM
You need a BDM wiggler. :)

Thanks for the info!


The current bootloader code is *definitely* broken; there is no point trying it at all, even if you have the ability to recover the device, unless you actually have some idea how to go about fixing it. It is guaranteed not to work.


I'm not planning to try right now. But if time moves on and there's still no binary coming up, I guess, now that I have the new drive and can't really use, I might grow an urge to try - given I had the assurance of being able to reanimate my drive. But right now that I have absolutely no idea what I would be doing there's no such urge whatsoever... :-)



Anyway, yes, hopefully someone has a bootloader binary that works and has LBA48 enabled; I didn't mean to imply nobody can help, just that nobody can build one for you now; it needs to be one they already built a long time ago (it's probably been broken for a year or more...)


Well, I was never thinking of someone building a bootloader just for me. Given the fact that this problem was talked about already in 2009 I thought there just MUST be such an bootloader out there somewhere...  :'(


*knock knock knock*
Heroes?

*knock knock knock*
Heroes?

*knock knock knock*
Heroes?
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: iRiverer on September 11, 2011, 04:55:06 AM
Well, I have seen that in this forum someone was able to use a 240 GB drive with a H340 with an selfbuilt bootloader. The post is over a year ago:
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,24215.msg163767.html#msg163767

Unluckily, the guy hasn't posted since then and I tried to write him an email, but got an error.
So I wrote him an PM, asking if he would be so kind to send me his bootloader. But I'm not sure he will read it, since he hasn't logged in since a year.
I suppose theres no other way to contact him?

So we just can wait and hope.
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: torne on September 11, 2011, 12:30:03 PM
The bootloader linked in his post is for an H300, but you could *probably* build a bootloader for H120 from the same revision of the source (applying the LBA48 patch) and it would hopefully work. He had r17607M-080522 so it's probably okay to check out r17607 from SVN, patch it to support large disks, and flash it (though we still can't guarantee that it's safe...)

If you do try this, let us know if it works. If the answer is that it doesn't, then, er, it's possible someone can recover it for you, but you may have to ship the device internationally :p
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: iRiverer on September 11, 2011, 05:09:32 PM
Uh, the possibility of bricking the player and having to ship it internationaly is pretty pretty pretty scaring me...
Damn, think I have to wait some more time for heroes that already tried it.
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: DTSyX on November 13, 2011, 09:58:25 AM
Eureka!!!!

I found a solution to the large HDD problem on the H140!

Just a few minutes ago I found the following thread:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,27190.msg185957.html#msg185957 (http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,27190.msg185957.html#msg185957)


The user TriTL mentions the bootloader 7pre4 which can be found for download here:

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IriverFlashing#Issues_with_the_bootloader (http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IriverFlashing#Issues_with_the_bootloader)


Just as explained here

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IriverFlashing#Upgrading_the_bootloader (http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IriverFlashing#Upgrading_the_bootloader)

I just copied the bootloader.iriver file into my .iriver folder on my iriver (with the original hdd still installed, of course), long pressed the joystick and selected iriver_flash as executing plugin. Then there came a message asking if I wanted to install/flash, and I pressed "play" to confirm. After a few seconds there was a "success" info.

That's it, that's all.

After installing the new hdd the player booted like usually and I can finally use my H140 with that monster with 240GB! Finally using the H140 as a FLAC-player has come reality for me. No more crappy low res ogg (which was still ok) or having to use the iriver-OS with it's limitations to the number of files and folders which make it practically impossible to use it as a 240GB-player.


So, thanks again to the Rockbox developers in general for that great liberation for music players and a special thanks to TriTL for bringing that solution to my attention!

Regards,

DTSyX

Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: iRiverer on November 17, 2011, 05:01:25 AM
First of all, thx DTSyX for spreading the good news that one can use larger Harddrives.

I did the procedure, but sadly I encountered problems. Now I'm not sure if something went wrong with the flashing procedure or the bootloader is buggy, I mean, its a pre Release.

After the flashing, I installed my new hdd. It booted fine, but because i had nothing installed on it except rockbox, no music was on it to test. So I plugged it to my computer, and restored a backup of my old hdd on it with all my music. Than I installed rockbox new with the rockbox installer. The iRiver booted, but I think the Theme was the standard Theme and I think the standard font was used. And all was in English, before I had german on it. So I tried to change the settings, but when I went on languages for example, I pushed the navi on it, the red light flickered but nothing else happened. Very strange. So I wanted to test the music playback, but when I went on a mp3 file, a message of this kind appeared:
"*Panic* dir entry 2 in sector 5 failed". Luckily I could reset via the play button (my reset button seems not to be working anymore :( ).
So I restartet, but I got the same error message every time I tried to play music, I tested it with different mp3's.

After error checking the disk (no errors), I copied the original rockbox folder (also version 3.9.1) from my old hdd to the new hdd. This time, I have my old theme, language is german and the music plays fine. But there still seems to be problems.
Wenn I navigate through the menues, the navi is not always working correctly. Sometimes when I push down, the cursor does nothing. On other times, the menues switch without me pushing any buttons. And when I want to activate automatic resume, the player says the database is not ready and if I want to initialize it. But the automatic resume should have nothing to do with the database!?

DTSyX, do you have similar problems? Can anyone tell me, what the reason may be? Could it be the new bootloader?
Before restoring the backup, I formated the new hdd with fat32, and sectorsize 4092. Was this correct or can the error lie there?
And strangely, I have seen that the hdd has 2 partitons on it, the one I use which has almost all the 160GB, and another one with only 10 Megabyte, it says not in use. I wanted to get rid of it, but I didn't know how, so I didn't touch it. Could this be another source of the error?

And a last question, DTSyX, have you loaded the rockbox into your ROM or RAM, like it is said in the guide you linked? It says it has advantages, but I don't know what they are exactly, for now I still start rockbox from hdd.

Post Merge: November 17, 2011, 11:14:13 AM
It's getting more and more strange.

Rockbox doesn't seem to care which settings I make. They are shown in the settings menu, but take no effect.
And the navi seems to take actions of its own. Can anyone help me plz?
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: DTSyX on November 17, 2011, 12:53:50 PM
Ok,

sorry you experience such problems. I hope they get solved!

As for the 10MB partition. I'm not sure what the correct technical explanation is, but it's by design. Might have something to do with the FAT32 file system.


As for the problems. I havent't experienced such problems so far. I've hardly used the player for actual listening as I'm currently about to reencode all my cds to the flac format.
But I had some freezing. But that also happened before, so I'm not really concerned. And I'm also not surprised as it is a pre-version of a bootloader. I noticed some lagging sometimes (looked like the player froze, but after a while he reacted again).


I used the fat32formatter to format the hdd. Then I copied all the files from the original hdd. That was at the time, when I learned that doing just that won't get rockbox running on the large drive. And now I just copied the bootloader file into the .rockbox folder and "flashed" it. That's all.
I didn't do anything else. So no copying "the roxbox into ROM or RAM".

My setting are still the same as on the original drive, and I changed them a lot, created my own theme and so on.

But if settings get mixed up, I'd check the "line of command" or simply delete the .rockbox folder and install rockbox again. When I say "line of command" I think of checking config.cfg, see if the files it points to are all there, also in the right place, not write protected, no typos, then checking each of these files. Perhaps one of these got screwed up and only contains crappy characters (compare to the original hdd to see what each should look like).


Sorry, I can't help you more. But that not only means that I'm not one of the pros here, but also that I have none of those problems myself, yet. So there might be hope.

I'd say, if the flashing process went without errors, then it's "just" a problem of the "rockbox-os", meaning something is not right within the .rockbox folder rather than something being wrong with the player itself, i.e. RAM, ROM. But that's just my guess.

I hope, You'll get the problem solved quick, easy and painless.

DTSyX
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: iRiverer on November 17, 2011, 01:23:18 PM
Thanks for your reply.

Good to know the 10MB Partition is normal, one potential error source eliminated. I used fat32 formater to for formating the drive, too. Do you remember which sector size you chose? As I said, I used 4096, and I'm still fearing this might be another source of error, but I don't want to format again on suspection and recopy, because this is a very time consuming process.

The line of command checking is a good idea, I will do that when I am at windows PC to which I can connect the iRiver. But I am not very hopefull in this, because I copied the rockbox folder from my old hdd so it will probably be alright.

Reinstalling rockbox is another possibility, but like I wrote, when I installed it, I had much more problems and errors, since I copied the folder over I can at least listen to my music.
Btw is it normal that it takes almost 20 minutes to copy the rockbox folder? It has about 2800 files and 56MB, it seems a bit long for this little amount of data.

As for the screwed up navigation in the menu, the more I think about it, the more I'm afraid the navi may got broken when I opened the player to switch the hdd. But I just switched the hdd, did nothing else, and I switched it in the past a few times without any problems.
How likely is it to screw the navi by opening the player?
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: DTSyX on November 18, 2011, 11:32:31 AM
I think 20 minutes for transferring just 56MB is definitively too much. In that amount of time I transferred 10-20GB.

But maybe here's you problem: I just checked my drive. The sector size of that partition is 512 bytes. When checking fat32formatter right now, I don't see anywhere an option to select the sector size...

Not sure if you could damage the joystick by just exchanging the hdd. I did this several times, nothing ever happend.
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: iRiverer on November 18, 2011, 05:18:15 PM
Thx for looking.

After your post, I downloaded gparted, and checked for myself that my drive also has sector size 512. But I could remember that I set somewhere size 4096. So I startet fat32 formatter to look, and I recognized I used a complete different program called Windows Disk Management before. D'oh, how stupid of me!
I checked with a very small file in the rockbox folder, it has size 300 bytes, but on the drive it reserves 32kb. Very strange, perhaps you are right and this has something to do with the slow copying and the not correct settings.
The broken joystick navigation on the other seems really to be a hardware malfunction, cause I checked with the original firmware, there I have the same problems :(

At the moment, I'm reformating with fat32 formatter. Then I have to restore the old backup and copy the missing files.
It will consume some hours again, but if then I can use my iRiver again (even with a malfunctioning joystick) I'm satisfied.
Title: Re: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: iRiverer on November 21, 2011, 05:50:51 PM
Well, after a very long weekend with formating, restoring and recopying for hours and hours, I think I have my iRiver in a status where the settings actually take effect, but as I assumed, the joystick doesn't work correctly.

I think I will keep it this way for now. Perhaps after a little time I will buy an old H140 or H120 from ebay and install my drive to that one to get a device with a working joystick.
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: DTSyX on February 04, 2012, 02:43:51 PM
I have some new information that others, that modded their H1X0 the same way I did, might find interesting.

First regarding the problem that iRiverer was experiencing regarding transfer speed (or shall I say slowness). Even though I haven't experienced that slow transfer speed as iRiverer did, I also have the feeling that the transfer speed of the H140-MK2431GAH combination is lower that with the original setup. I've found some information about the probable cause. But I haven't solved the problem yet because I have no experience in doing such operations, don't even know if I would have all the necessary tools and - most of all - don't really understand yet, what parts they are really talking about, because I find two of the members talking of different parts for the solution. I have to asked them first before I can even think of trying to fiddle around with that problem.
But here are the links:

The general rockbox wiki regarding that problem:

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/UDMAonUSB


The thread regarding the probable solution:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=20402.0





The second information I wanted to share involving the H140-MK2431GAH combination is as follows.

I updated to the latest rockbox version (3.10, from 3.9.1) using rockbox utility. As I got used to the process was slow but - seemingly - sucessful. When done and pulling the usb cable the system told me to restart/reboot as the system had been updated. I pressed the respective buttom (I think it was the joystick) and the system rebooted (though I think it was not a complete booting process all the from the "normal" beginning), no problems here.
But when I shut the player down later and started it again, I got an error message telling me that the checksum of the "firmware" was not correct and the player booted the original iriver os.

See attached pictures. Also note that the model name is cryptic.
I found a thread where someone describes a similar problem with his ipod:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=29689.0


I tried several things, including renaming the '.iriver' folder and "installing" rockbox (3.9.1 and 3.10, respectively) anew. When booting the error message now was 'file not found' (I guess rockbox.iriver was meant). Anyway, the player was 'broken'. When changing to the original hdd of the player, the player started whithout any problem. So it was purely a problem of the hdd (file system, file table, whatever).

I ran chkdsk /r /f. No errors found, nothing changed.

So I pulled out the bazooka: I copied all needed files to another hdd and formatted the 240GB-hdd using fat32formatter completely, meaning not using the quick format option. That obviously took some time, but after reinstalling rockbox 3.10 the player started as usually.

So, when it comes to the H140-MK2431GAH combination, it works but it apparently has it flaws one has to live with, at least using the setup decribed in this thread above.

Other than that I had no problems in the daily use of this H140 mod - using .flac and .ogg, respectively.


[Edit]:
Though rockbox 3.10 generally worked with my iriver mod, it didn't want to play a larger .ogg file and froze every time when I tried to play it. So I switched back to rockbox 3.9.1 which instantly played this file.

So, as an information for all users with the same or a similar iriver mod, you might want to save yourself some time and stay with 3.9.1 in the first place.

I want to remind you that the problems I decribe most probably originate from the bootloader 7 pre 4 that is essential to be able to run a big hdd like Toshiba MK2431GAH on the iriver H140. So, no rockbox 3.10 bashing here. I acutally like(d) the new sleep timer implementation and features in 3.10 better...
 
 
 
[Edit 08.12.2012]

As I found out today, the problem with updating Rockbox on a modified H140 (at least the kind I have) - meaning no successful update unless one formats the whole disc and starts anew (otherwise 'bad checksum error' when trying to boot) - only occurs when trying to update from 3.9.1 (maybe also "and before") to 3.10 and higher. Updating (or downgrading) from 3.10 (and higher) to any version from 3.10 on works as usual by simply extracting the .zip file or using Rockbix Utiliy, meaing just overriding the files. So, no hassles with switching Rockbox versions from 3.10 on.
I haven't noticed that before because I always started with 3.9.1 when trying to update to 3.10, 3.11.2 and 3.12.
 
[Edit 17.01.2013]
 
Regarding the problem mentioned just above. It seems to be a problem of either the bootloader 7 pre 4 or the 240GB hdd drive. I can up- and downgrade between the different Rockbox versions as I please as long as I haven't filled the drive with all my music. If the hdd is filled up (with my H140 there a 5GB free) the mentioned bad checksum error occurs and can only be "healed" by formatting the drive and start anew.
I even checked, if after a version upgrade on a filled hdd there would be some heavy fragmenting going on that prevents some important rockbox files from beeing loaded during the boot process. But it looked ok, no fragmentation within the rockbox files.
Strange bug...
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: Uwe Z on January 14, 2013, 06:44:14 PM
Hi all,
just wanted to express my sincere thanks for the incredible help this thread provided in upgrading my H140 to a 240gb Toshiba MK2431!! :) :) :) :) :)
For years I dreamt of getting all my music on my H140 and now I finally succeded!!!
- Flash the bootloader with the 7pre4,  make a copy of the files on the old hard drive, take the old hd out, put in the new one connect via USB to laptop, create a fat32 partition  with free MiniTool Partition Wizard, copy the whole directory of the old hd on the formatted drive, DONE!
Slam dunk! 8)
For the next years or decades I got enough storage space (I hope  ::) ::))
Kudos to those who tried and tried and who were bold enough to take the risk of briking their H140.
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: Uwe Z on January 21, 2013, 03:00:03 PM
Hi All,
thought everythings perfect but after I copied all my music files on the new HD I observe some problems. Upfront before I go into details:
- folders structure "A-Z" and as subdirectories "Artist" and subdirectory "Albums"
- total: 151GB in 27000 files and 2600 folders
2 problems  :-[
A)After I copied the files and intialized the database about 16000 files were imported into the data base which took very long but ok I can wait.
But it stopped which results in an ncomplete database!In the "developers section" under "System" "View database info" I can see the 100% progress are reached after the letter L which equaly to the 16k files.
B) If i browse through the "Files" there are no files ("Artists" and Albums" and no "songs" displayed after the letter "L"
I checked all settings but the only one which I think may have an influence is the directory cache: enabled and the max number of files per directory set to max = 10000 files.
If I connect the H140 to the laptop via USB all of the Artists, Albums and Songs are there! I can even play them on the laptop using for example VLC player.
Questions:
- has anybody experienced this before and if yes how to solve
- is there a wrong setting on my H140?
- or is there a general Rockbox restriction which doesnt allow to load more than 16k files?
- do I need to change the file structure for example just put all "Artist" folders in the top level?
I am not sure if this post is in the right forum section but it is certainly related to the H140 and the use of the 240gb HD.
Thanks for your HELP!

Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: gevaerts on January 21, 2013, 07:56:45 PM
Hi All,
thought everythings perfect but after I copied all my music files on the new HD I observe some problems. Upfront before I go into details:
- folders structure "A-Z" and as subdirectories "Artist" and subdirectory "Albums"
- total: 151GB in 27000 files and 2600 folders
2 problems  :-[
A)After I copied the files and intialized the database about 16000 files were imported into the data base which took very long but ok I can wait.
But it stopped which results in an ncomplete database!In the "developers section" under "System" "View database info" I can see the 100% progress are reached after the letter L which equaly to the 16k files.
B) If i browse through the "Files" there are no files ("Artists" and Albums" and no "songs" displayed after the letter "L"
I checked all settings but the only one which I think may have an influence is the directory cache: enabled and the max number of files per directory set to max = 10000 files.
If I connect the H140 to the laptop via USB all of the Artists, Albums and Songs are there! I can even play them on the laptop using for example VLC player.

I'm going to concentrate on this one. If you can't get at the files from the file browser, the database won't get at them either.

Quote
Questions:
- has anybody experienced this before and if yes how to solve
- is there a wrong setting on my H140?

I don't think so, but maybe you're hitting a bug. Can you try disabling the directory cache (in Settings->System->Disk) to see what happens? I wouldn't be surprised if that helps (although it comes at a price, file browsing will feel slower, the directory cache is there for a reason...). If that makes a difference, we can investigate more.

Quote
- or is there a general Rockbox restriction which doesnt allow to load more than 16k files?

No. In fact, 27000 files isn't *that* many. People who enjoy chiptunes routinely have twice as many.

There is a (configurable) limits for the maximum number of files per directory (as you noted), but from your description of your directory structure that can't be it.

Quote
- do I need to change the file structure for example just put all "Artist" folders in the top level?

No. Your setup sounds entirely reasonable to me.
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: Uwe Z on January 22, 2013, 04:50:41 AM
Gevaerts, thanks for your quick response.
I agree it sounds logic to me that if the files are not accesible the database wont find either.
Yesterday evening after my post I did delete Rockbox and installed again and until I started to initialize the data base all files were there! Then I did run the database over night but when I started agin this morning there was an error on the database and the files are gone again. Today I tried with dir cache on and off ....no difference. What I saw today as well was for the first time when I start a short message is displayed: "filetype array full".
Deinstalled/installed  Rockbox again but no luck , files are not there.... and even worse now the ones which are there dont play if I open them. A quick message flashes saying "codec failed".
 FYi rockbox version r23925-091211.
I am lost. No clue what to do. I am getting desperate.
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: Uwe Z on January 22, 2013, 06:24:13 AM
Additional info: just installed developers version a2ab22e-130121 and to my surprise the files are there!!! Did not dare to start database...But once I turn off and restart r23925-091211 is back on  :o :o. and the files do not show again!
I was not able to install the a.... version again using Rockbox Utility or by extracting after deleting the rockbox folder.
Strange....
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: Uwe Z on January 22, 2013, 06:00:46 PM
I found a solution!
With bootloader 7pre4 and starting from disc image (NOT from RAM or ROM image!!) i can run the last development build a2ab22e and with this system ALL files show and also the database builds up without causing any trouble!
But as soonas I start from ROM or RAM image suddenly stable build r.... = 3.12 is mounted aagain and this build does not take more files thn 16k.
This version is even on when I delete the rockbox folder!
Why this is the case is a mystery to me but I dont really care because I got it fixed! 8) However I would still like to understand .... :-\
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: bluebrother on January 23, 2013, 05:39:38 AM
But as soonas I start from ROM or RAM image suddenly stable build r.... = 3.12 is mounted aagain and this build does not take more files thn 16k.
This version is even on when I delete the rockbox folder!

Sure, since it is in flash memory, not on disk. Have you actually updated the flashed Rockbox after updating?

Also, a flashed Rockbox still loads some files from disk (like the codecs). If you update the build on the disk to a development version but don't update the flashed Rockbox you will get a mismatch, resulting in "codec error"s and the like.
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: Uwe Z on January 24, 2013, 05:27:33 AM
Thanks Bluebrother,
Not sure about the flashing procedure. I flashed it with 7pre4 and I think you are right I still had the stable build 3.12 on the disc. That makes sense.
So that means I should flash again with 7pre4??
(I will go through the procedure again but I am not sure as right now EVERYTHING works perfect. Database did build up, files are all there, themes are set ..... Nothing to complain about. Just happy. But if I do a reset I have to avoid starting from ROM or RAM image.)
Any risk involved with flashing 7pre4 and having the development build on the disc?


 
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: Uwe Z on January 24, 2013, 07:09:14 AM
Questions answered!
I just did it: flashed rombox.river and rockbox.iriver using iriver_flash plugin  .....SUCCESS! 8) 8) 8).
Restarted from ROM image ....done!
This made my day :). Now I am set for future travel.....see picture!
Thanks to the Rockbox team!
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: DTSyX on August 20, 2017, 03:25:39 AM
Just as FYI and future reference:

I stepped away from using FAT32formatter because I think it might had something to do with my ssd having died off after about 2,5 years (= several Rockbox updates = several ssd reformats).

I think it's the bootloader (7pre4) that forces me to format and reinstall the whole disk every time I want to do an Rockbox update - even if I go back to the version that was on the disk before I get an checksum error at boot time.


[edit August 21st 2017]

Seems like others experience the same problem (see comment section of the linked site). Also, it might be that this problem affects only certain rockbox (main) releases:

https://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/12769?string=h140&project=1&type%5B0%5D=&sev%5B0%5D=&pri%5B0%5D=&due%5B0%5D=&reported%5B0%5D=&cat%5B0%5D=&status%5B0%5D=open&percent%5B0%5D=&opened=&dev=&closed=&duedatefrom=&duedateto=&changedfrom=&changedto=&openedfrom=&openedto=&closedfrom=&closedto=

[/edit]


And as the FAT32formatter seems to work "with brute force" (initialising disk) or maybe it's the sector size of 512 bytes it's using one sometimes has to tried a few times until the disk is finally formatted correctly.

Since I found out about the new main release of Rockbox (3.14) I did this procedure all over again and the ssd was reaction slowly afterward I got the feeling the FAT32formatter "did it again".

I also "updated" my 240GB hdd (as backup). But with that one I used the FAT32format (guiformat) tool (http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm). That proposes 32768 which work fine, too (the H140 boots).
I just found out that that's not 32768 bytes per sector but 512 bytes per sector * 64 sectors per cluster - so it's bytes per cluster. The program says allocation unit size. I thought that was bytes per sector because one can also choose 512 - my bad.
Anyway - I feel more comfortable using the FAT32format (guiformat) than the FAT32Formatter for now.

And thinking about that having to reformat every time I update Rockbox I came across https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IriverFlashing (and http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/RoLo). I think I visited that page a few years back and fiddled with my H140. So, I thought maybe I flashed my H140 but never updated the flash version after updating the files on the disk. But as it turns out I never did it right, so I never actually flashed my H140.

So, this time I actually flashed my H140. But if you do so, please do NOT forget to do a backup = ROM dump first! I somehow missed it and would have been screwed (kind of) if I didn't have a backup H140 with which I could do a dump that also worked on my first H140. So I could reverse everything and start from scratch.

But now I'm booting from ROM. That's not only faster but I think I can bypass the having to re-format etc. with every update. Because now I just update the flash and ROM immediately after (as in before reboot) the Rockbox update and should be fine with subsequent reboots - no more checksum errors as I don't boot from disk anymore.
At least that's what I'm thinking and hoping. :-)
Title: Re: [Solved]: Looking for help: iRiver H140 with Toshiba MK2431GAH
Post by: TheHistorian on November 20, 2017, 03:18:35 AM
I had attempted to get the 240GB drive working in my H140 five years ago. I ended up with an unusable player, got frustrated, stuck it in a drawer, and mostly ignored music while enjoying other things.

This weekend I was inspired to take a look at it, found your recent post, and after charging, was back up and running in a few minutes! You made my year - thank you!




Just as FYI and future reference:

I stepped away from using FAT32formatter because I think it might had something to do with my ssd having died off after about 2,5 years (= several Rockbox updates = several ssd reformats).

I think it's the bootloader (7pre4) that forces me to format and reinstall the whole disk every time I want to do an Rockbox update - even if I go back to the version that was on the disk before I get an checksum error at boot time.


[edit August 21st 2017]

Seems like others experience the same problem (see comment section of the linked site). Also, it might be that this problem affects only certain rockbox (main) releases:

https://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/12769?string=h140&project=1&type%5B0%5D=&sev%5B0%5D=&pri%5B0%5D=&due%5B0%5D=&reported%5B0%5D=&cat%5B0%5D=&status%5B0%5D=open&percent%5B0%5D=&opened=&dev=&closed=&duedatefrom=&duedateto=&changedfrom=&changedto=&openedfrom=&openedto=&closedfrom=&closedto=

[/edit]


And as the FAT32formatter seems to work "with brute force" (initialising disk) or maybe it's the sector size of 512 bytes it's using one sometimes has to tried a few times until the disk is finally formatted correctly.

Since I found out about the new main release of Rockbox (3.14) I did this procedure all over again and the ssd was reaction slowly afterward I got the feeling the FAT32formatter "did it again".

I also "updated" my 240GB hdd (as backup). But with that one I used the FAT32format (guiformat) tool (http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm). That proposes 32768 which work fine, too (the H140 boots).
I just found out that that's not 32768 bytes per sector but 512 bytes per sector * 64 sectors per cluster - so it's bytes per cluster. The program says allocation unit size. I thought that was bytes per sector because one can also choose 512 - my bad.
Anyway - I feel more comfortable using the FAT32format (guiformat) than the FAT32Formatter for now.

And thinking about that having to reformat every time I update Rockbox I came across https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IriverFlashing (and http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/RoLo). I think I visited that page a few years back and fiddled with my H140. So, I thought maybe I flashed my H140 but never updated the flash version after updating the files on the disk. But as it turns out I never did it right, so I never actually flashed my H140.

So, this time I actually flashed my H140. But if you do so, please do NOT forget to do a backup = ROM dump first! I somehow missed it and would have been screwed (kind of) if I didn't have a backup H140 with which I could do a dump that also worked on my first H140. So I could reverse everything and start from scratch.

But now I'm booting from ROM. That's not only faster but I think I can bypass the having to re-format etc. with every update. Because now I just update the flash and ROM immediately after (as in before reboot) the Rockbox update and should be fine with subsequent reboots - no more checksum errors as I don't boot from disk anymore.
At least that's what I'm thinking and hoping. :-)