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Archos Jukebox Recorder: can it use an IDE-CF adapter?

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mbraner:
One step closer, but...

Given that the patch mentioned above is labeled "closed", I was hoping it means that the current build has it included.  So got today's build of Rockbox for this device (Archos JBR) and put it on the CF card.

The good news: Rockbox now boots all the way and plays the MP3s I put on the CF card (via card reader).

The bad news: When plugged into the PCs USB port, Rockbox shows the USB image, but the PC does not bring it up as a storage device.  It doesn't even say "new hardware found".  This is on Windows XP SP2, which normally recognizes the Jukebox right off.  Going into the Device Manager, I see under "Other devices" a "USB Storage Adapter" that has a yellow exclamation mark on it.  Its Properties show: "The drivers for this device are not installed".  What's going on?  Should I install the Archos drivers, the ones for Windows 98?  Or can I point it to some generic USB storage device driver?

BTW I get the same behavior if I boot to the Archos firmware and plug in the USB cable.

gevaerts:
I believe the Archos uses a hardware USBATA bridge that rockbox has no control over (except for enabling/disabling it). I would guess that this controller doesn't like your card.

mbraner:
Well it's refused to fully work with 4 different brand CF cards thus far: 2 didn't work at all, and 2 read files off the card but don't connect via USB.  Could it be that the specific IDE-CF adapter is the problem?  Or perhaps this very old (6GB) Archos JBR (firmware version 1.17) is the problem - would a newer one work better?  (I have a 20GB USB2 model to try out, but should I bother taking it apart too?)  Or perhaps the March 13 build of Rockbox is unstable?

Also I should report that I spoke too soon about it reading file OK.  It actually displays an erratic behavior, sometimes booting into the original Archos firmware and ignoring Rockbox which is on the CF card - but reading songs off the card just fine, and sometimes it boots Rockbox and works for a while but eventually running into this message:

*PANIC*
Dir entry 8 in sector 1 is not free!

This has turned out a lot harder than I bargained for...  I'm still hoping to hear from anybody else who has tried this?

mbraner:
More experimental results:

Installed the old (Windows 98/2000) Archos USB drivers, on Windows XP.  This made the old (6GB, v1.17) JBR, with compact flash card instead of HDD, show up on the PC as a drive, but it behaved erratically, giving error messages when trying to write files.  Uninstalled it.

Put the same IDE/CF adapter and card in a 20GB, v1.28 firmware, USB2 Archos JBR v1.  This seemed to boot and run Rockbox fine, and when plugged into a PC seemed to behave normally too.  Wow!

Tentative conclusion: the flash card idea works for the later JBR but not the earlier one.  But is this a hardware or a software issue?  E.g., if I were to flash Rockbox into the Archos firmware, will it behave differently as far as compatibility with the CF card and the USB connection?

Added later: (now incorporated here - sorry for not following the rules earlier!)

Should also mention that another Rockbox Forums thread is discussing the CF compatibility issue (on other hardware, not Archos JBR):
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=14524.0

Interesting that that thread also mentioned that the Transcend CF card was not compatible - that's fits my experience on the JBR.  I'm having the current partial success with a Ridata Lightning Series card, and may try an A-Data next (good price on a 16G size).

--------------------------------

Added March 25:

Tried the 16GB A-Data "Speedy" CF card, which worked for many on other MP3 players, and it did NOT work on the Archos Jukebox.  The firmware booting never completes, just hangs on 4 dots.

As I've said above, a Transcend 8GB didn't work either, but the RiData Lightning Series 4GB card worked, and now I've also tried the 16GB version of the same, and that worked too.  So I can only recommend the RiData Lightning series for this purpose.

All that's in the 20GB USB2 version of the Jukebox.  Tried putting a (known good) real hard drive in the broken 6GB USB1 Jukebox that started this effort, and it refuses to run: when I press the "on" button it spins the drive for a split second and then turns itself completely off.  So it is possible that this specific Jukebox is broken in some way that both blew the original hard drive and damaged the main unit in a way that prevents it from working with either a hard drive or a CF card via the adapter.  I can't tell for sure, don't have another such Jukebox to try.

Llorean:
Please, be aware that the forum guidelines ask you to modify your post if nobody has responded. You've now posted three posts in a row without  doing this, and have done this earlier in the thread too. If you haven't yet read the guidelines, they're posted in the announcements forum.

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