Rockbox Technical Forums
Rockbox General => Rockbox General Discussion => Topic started by: hatchinatore on October 12, 2006, 06:17:19 PM
-
ok i know it will probably not be done for a while, but what exactly is the problem that doesnt allow for macpod users to have rockbox.
what is in the code that doesnt allow hfs+ partions?
i have benn in ipl for a long time, and ive recently been attracted to rockbox, but it pisses me off, since there is no support for macpods.
what needs to be changed in order for it to work? its not like it is impossible, its the same ipod, just a different formatt.
i dont understand...
is there something i could help with to make this possible?
or do not enough people care????
i know alot of people who do though...
-
The lack of a HFS+ filesystem driver in Rockbox is what prevents its use on HFS+ formatted ipods.
IPL has the benefit of the standard Linux HFS+ filesystem driver - so HFS+ support came for free.
Rockbox has been developed from scratch, and only has a FAT32 filesystem driver, and because that's universally compatible, no-one has been motivated to add support for other, OS-specific filesystems like HFS+, NTFS or ext2.
So Mac users have two options - reformat their ipod to FAT32, or implement HFS+ support in Rockbox.
-
There is nothing in the code that "prevents" it other than there not being an HFS+ driver. Something would need to be added to implement it, rather than removing whatever prevents it.
What prevents you from reformatting your iPod?
It's generally thought that HFS+ support is unneeded overhead in Rockbox since conversion is a one-time process, while HFS+ drivers mean either larger code, or additional builds, both of which are a recurring cost.
The main thing preventing it from happening is that nobody who actually *wants* it has bothered to do it, because all that happens is people make posts saying "I think HFS+ support would be a good thing" and then when it is suggested they work on it, their response is either "I don't have the time" or "I don't have the skill" and yet they can never offer any actual benefit HFS+ offers to Rockbox that makes it worth supporting rather than simply being something users can convert from.
-
or do not enough people care????
Probably. FAT32 works fine, is very lightweight and is universally compatable with all PCs (mac, linux, windows), so theres no real reason to use HFS+ on a DAP. I think Apple added it mostly because it's their format and they like to promote their own stuff.
-
couldnt it be possible to make a small side partion and put all the rockbox files on there, and access it through loader 2?
or is there no other way?
-
You could do that. But the main use for Rockbox is as a jukebox. If all of your media is on a non-compatible partition then you won't be able to get the most out of Rockbox.
From what Llorean says it sounds like such a driver would be an unlikely candidate for inclusion into the CVS source. But it sounds like a great candidate for a patch if someone could figure out how to code the driver in the first place.
-
couldnt it be possible to make a small side partion and put all the rockbox files on there, and access it through loader 2?
or is there no other way?
No. An HFS+ formatted ipod has an Apple Partition Map instead of a DOS MBR-style partition table. Rockbox doesn't understand Apple Partition Maps, so wouldn't be able to find the FAT32 partition.
-
Ah okay. But is there a way to only change the partition table? It seems that the partition table is stored in the boot sector so it seems a shame to have to re-format the entire hard drive just to change the format of the partition table.
Anyway, this is basically an academic question since all of the media will be on the HFS+ partition (and therefore inaccessible) on macpods anyway.
-
i'm with hatchinore on this, ive also had ipl for a while, and would really like to be able to use rockbox as well. the reasons i am not converting to FAT32 are as follows:
FAT32 has terrible speeds on macs
iPL on FAT32 ipods sucks, because of having the extra partition
i dont think you can update an ipods firmware from a mac with a FAT32 ipod
i know all this because i have converted my ipod to FAT32 and hated it.
what does it mean to add another driver? wouldnt that mean just adding some code? could we use code from ipodlinux? or the code from loader2 that allows it to be used on HFS ipods?
-
FAT32 has terrible speeds on macs
iPL on FAT32 ipods sucks, because of having the extra partition
i dont think you can update an ipods firmware from a mac with a FAT32 ipod
Then complain to Apple about its lack of support for FAT32 iPods under Mac OS X and general poor support for FAT32, and complain to the IPL devs about its lack of ability to run from a FAT32 partition.
what does it mean to add another driver? wouldnt that mean just adding some code? could we use code from ipodlinux? or the code from loader2 that allows it to be used on HFS ipods?
loader2 only has read-only support for HFS+. Linux has an immature read/write driver for HFS+. However, Rockbox isn't Linux, and we wouldn't want to port the entire Linux filesystem layer and HFS+ driver into Rockbox - the code just isn't suitable.
But if someone wanted to do the work, I would be happy for it to be incorporated into Rockbox, but there are also a lot more things that need doing for the iPod port, which IMO are much more useful:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodStatus
-
FAT32 has terrible speeds on macs
The best way to help for someone interested on fixing this would be to write an updated fat32 driver for MacOS so that people didn't have to use Apple's evidently buggy one. That all fat32 devices would benefit, not just Ipods.