Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion

buggy dircache activity renders ipod almost completely unresponsive

<< < (6/8) > >>

jhMikeS:
Nothing can catch all disk resources. The various threads trying to access the disk at the same time are granted it in first-in-first-out order so anything waiting for it will be given access in turn. The only major disk activity at boot would be the dircache and database scans. If both dircache and database auto update are both off and you're getting 30s of disk activity at boot then that's not right at all. It should stop after the disk spindown timeout which defaults to 5 seconds.

Clearly some things will take longer if the various caching schemes are disabled; that's why they're there. I of course experience that on any of my players as well-- including flash players-- and know it's normal. However, the sorts of changes within the daily build mentioned previously have no negative impact on any of them (look below this post for a list which actually includes an occasionally borrowed 5.5g 30GB).

What's interesting so far is that you don't have a problem with database updating in the backgound after HD has had a chance to cycle off. Now, check with dircache disabled, database auto update on and don't wait for the HD to stop at boot. Compare with the first two tests which sounded normal.

dip:
I have now disabled loading dircache to RAM, set database auto update to on and then started browsing the database without waiting that the HD stopped spinning. The result was the same as when I disabled dircache AND automatic database update (that means it takes ages until the menu entries are shown and the "searching..." popup counter is repeadeatly interrupted). This was expected since why should setting automatic database update on improve the situation.

But then I found (hopefully) the reason for the intial disk spinning. I usually have set the option to show the database after startup. I now have changed that to show the main menu and after the next reboot the initial 30 sec disk spinning was gone. It seems that showing the top level of the database menu after reboot causes the disk spinning which then conflicts with other disk access like browsing the database or playback. Could the be the reason for the problem?

squidkidd:
I'm using resume playback on startup and I hardly ever use the database, so there is still something in there besides the database access that is spinning the disk and making playback skip.

Regards,
Brian

dip:

--- Quote from: dip on June 02, 2008, 12:30:32 PM ---But then I found (hopefully) the reason for the intial disk spinning. I usually have set the option to show the database after startup. I now have changed that to show the main menu and after the next reboot the initial 30 sec disk spinning was gone. It seems that showing the top level of the database menu after reboot causes the disk spinning which then conflicts with other disk access like browsing the database or playback. Could the be the reason for the problem?

--- End quote ---
Sorry, I was wrong, the problem is independet from the chosen start menu. I double checked and could not reproduce that hd spinning does not occur when start menu is the main menu. So my conclusion was wrong, sorry for that.

There is alwas about 25 sec hd spinning after the rockbox logo disappears when dircache and database update is off. When dircache is on spinning takes about 5 sec longer. And when automatic databse update is in addition on there are another 5 seconds. But the initial 25 seconds are always there and cause the problem

jhMikeS:
So, the virtual LED is on during this period indicating actual activity? This may be irrelevant depending on the following: be absolutely sure it's not just the HD spindown time set to 25 sec as well under settings|general settings|system|disk|disk spindown.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page