Filesystems on the iPod.

[Surreal Killa]

I don't know if this has been asked before, but basically I want to use the ReiserFS filesytem on my iPod but if I format it to ReiserFS it works as a hard drive but when I actually try to physically use the iPod it says I have to run the Apple updater thing to fix it, and if I do it puts it back to FAT32 so is there any way to get around this?

And I posted this in hardware because I'm thinking the only way to get around it would be to remove the original iPod firmware and only have Rockbox, I'm also wondering if this is possible. I hope it is.

[gevaerts]

rockbox only supports FAT filesystems. ReiserFS is probably more complex than all of rockbox put together.

Why would you actually want this ?

[Surreal Killa]

I see. Disappointing. But also, is it possible to remove the original firmware anyway? Since I have no use for it.

Why would I want this? For obvious reasons. I don't trust FAT* or NTFS. I prefer Linux FS like ext3 or ReiserFS. Plus restrictions FAT* has on file names, etc. The issue seems to be with the original firmware being pissy about it being formatted, because obviously when I format it I erase all the needed data for the original firmware and it needs to be refreshed, so I just wanna get rid of it. I'm wondering then if iPodLinux would do this for me. I still don't understand why Rockbox wouldn't function on a different filesystem. Unless it relies somehow on the original firmware.

[gevaerts]

Implementing support for a filesystem is a lot of work, especially for the more advanced ones like ext3 and reiserfs. You are aware that rockbox is not based on linux, right ?

I think you can remove the apple firmware, but I'm not sure, and I don't know how.

[Surreal Killa]

I am aware that it isn't based on Linux. I originally thought it was though a while ago. I didn't figure the filesystem would have much effect, I can see how it could though. I'll look into getting rid of the Apple firmware though.

[bascule]

I didn't figure the filesystem would have much effect...

Remember that Rockbox is an Operating System, it doesn't sit on top of anything; there's no abstraction layer between it and the filesystem.

So, given that disk access is one of the most frequent Rockbox operations, essential to its operation, Rockbox has to have a file system driver that interacts intimately with the filesystem