Partitions on ipod

[delt]

Hello,

I have an ipod nano 1st gen, 4gb. Its partitions are setup a bit strangely:

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[pts/8][root@deimos]:~# fdisk /dev/sda

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 4095 MB, 4095737344 bytes
241 heads, 62 sectors/track, 535 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 14942 * 512 = 7650304 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1          11       80293+   0  Empty
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(0, 1, 1) logical=(0, 1, 2)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(9, 254, 63) logical=(10, 181, 8)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2              11         536     3919418+   b  W95 FAT32
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(10, 0, 1) logical=(10, 181, 9)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(497, 240, 62) logical=(535, 88, 61)

Command (m for help): 

This is the way they come back after "restoring" the ipod to factory defaults on a windows machine, using the "itunes" software. The main partition (sda2) is only 3.7gb instead of 4gb. If i try to delete the partitions and remake them -- even just the second one, not even touching the firmware -- then the ipod refuses to boot up, and gives me an error "Use itunes to restore".

Is there some way i could use the extra 300mb? I don't use the apple firmware at all. Perhaps if the "ipodpatcher" utility didn't check for the apple copyright...?

Thanks for any advice on this.

[Llorean]

There's not an extra 300 MB. The "4GB" that they advertised is actually not "4GB" as your computer normally labels it, it's about 3.7. Blame storage manufacturers for creating a second labeling scheme that claims to have the same units but doesn't really.

[cool_walking_]

Aren't we supposed to use GiB (Gibibyte, 1024^3 * 8) instead of GB (Gigabyte, 1000^3 * 8) now?

I get some sort of message similar to "different physical/logical endings" as well (can't remember the exact message).  It doesn't seem to be anything to worry about.  It acts fine.

The first partition is where the Apple firmware lives, and I think the Rockbox installer modifies something in there so that Rockbox can boot.  I'm not sure if you can do some sort of alternate install that doesn't rely on that partition.

[bluebrother]

Blame storage manufacturers for creating a second labeling scheme that claims to have the same units but doesn't really.

In fact, storage manufacturers are right by using SI units (G = 10^9) while windows / linux is wrong (it uses G as prefix but calculates with the base 2^12. This has been standardizes as prefix Gi but this hasn't been adopted widely yet, and unfortunately there are lots of resistance against using the correct terms, mostly by "oldtimers". At least it has been adopted partly on linux).

as cool_walking_ said, the first partition is the firmware partition of Apple. It has to be the way it is, and Rockbox writes its bootloader to that partition.

[delt]

Thanks for your insight on this.

However, i believe apple use the 2^10 based number of bytes for the ipods:

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Aug 10 22:36:42 deimos kernel: usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 15
Aug 10 22:36:43 deimos kernel: usb 1-4: configuration #1 chosen from 2 choices
Aug 10 22:36:43 deimos kernel: scsi125 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Aug 10 22:36:48 deimos kernel: scsi 125:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Apple    iPod             1.62 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Aug 10 22:36:48 deimos kernel: sd 125:0:0:0: [sda] 7999487 512-byte hardware sectors (4096 MB)
Aug 10 22:36:48 deimos kernel: sd 125:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Aug 10 22:36:48 deimos kernel: sd 125:0:0:0: [sda] 7999487 512-byte hardware sectors (4096 MB)
Aug 10 22:36:48 deimos kernel: sd 125:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Aug 10 22:36:48 deimos kernel:  sda: sda1 sda2
Aug 10 22:36:48 deimos kernel: sd 125:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk

/* edit */ I just noticed in my post above fdisk says 4095 MB. Weird....

as cool_walking_ said, the first partition is the firmware partition of Apple. It has to be the way it is, and Rockbox writes its bootloader to that partition.

... but the only reason it -has- to be like that is that the device itself does a checksum or something, otherwise you'd just need a very small partition for the boot loader, right?

[bluebrother]

... but the only reason it -has- to be like that is that the device itself does a checksum or something, otherwise you'd just need a very small partition for the boot loader, right?

It could work with a smaller partition if, and only if, you don't use the Ipod firmware at all anymore and replace it completely on disc -- the firmware partition is also used for resume information by the apple firmware. I don't know if the bootloader (the one in ROM that comes before anything else) checks the size of the firmware partition but I imagine it'd do. Feel free to try yourself ...

[Llorean]

As far as I know the firmware partition can be resized, I'm almost positive I remember people doing it safely. But yes, you really only do it if you've completely removed the Apple firmware.