Ipod Video 30gb cf

[gustan]

Sooo, I am getting an ata error -1. I have read up on it and concluded that this is due to my bootloader not supporting cf. May anyone please provide me a link with which I may boot Rockbox? Many thanks!

[LambdaCalculus]

First, two questions:

1) What CF card are you using?

2) What CF adapter are you using?

I ask because I just recently CF modded my own iPod video and have been able to successfully boot Rockbox using an unmodified (e.g. vanilla) SVN build and bootloader via iPodpatcher. My mod was done using the iFlash MkII CF adapter and a Transcend 133x 32GB CompactFlash card.

[gustan]

I don't really remember(Its stuck in there), but I am using a somewhat slow Sandisk. Its only 16 gigs. Also the converter is a standard SIF to CF adater that I pulled from my UMPC. As a side-note, all of the iPod's normal functions work well, its just that loader 2 loads to a black screen and the ipodpatcher one works only with a modified build for Rockbox.

[soap]

its just that loader 2 loads to a black screen

Don't care.

and the ipodpatcher one works only with a modified build for Rockbox.

Don't understand.



Don't care about loader2 because loader2 isn't Rockbox software and we can not support it.
But really don't understand what you're trying to say about a modified build.  Likely it is just me.

[LurkAzusa]

Many have the same problem with ATA -1 error on ipods using A-Data 16 and 32 Gb CF.  I had reported it in the bug tracker and posted a patch, but it was closed unresolved.

1) What CF card are you using?  A-Data 16 Gb

2) What CF adapter are you using?  CF-1.8"IDE Adapter Ver: VA1 from eBay

[gustan]

@Soap
After doing some research, I found this site:http://www.tarkan.info/20080702/tutorials/iflash-and-rockbox
The reason for me wanting to have loader2 is to load linux and rockbox together as well as the original apple shizz.
@Lurk
You are right on man. I opened it up, and its a Adata 16 gigger. I'm gonna try a 16 gb Ridata 233x. Thanks for informing me though!

So I changed cf, installed Rockbox and works like a charm. Thanks a bunch to all who helped

[LambdaCalculus]

Regarding this matter, the first card I tried using was an A-Data Speedy 4GB card (that's all I had at the time). The card worked fine in the OF, but Rockbox threw up an ATA -1 error on startup. I had to use a dirty, kludgely hack to get Rockbox to work: commenting out line 320 of firmware/target/arm/system-pp502x.c got Rockbox to run, but with unusual effects (no album art, buffer behavior was wonky, etc.) The Transcend 133x 32GB card that's in my video now works without needing this kludge.

I had previously put a CF card into a 2nd gen iPod mini (A-Data Speedy 16GB), and that worked with Rockbox right out of the box. I figure that slower cards are better meant for DAPs that use microdrives for storage, and faster cards are needed for DAPs using larger 1.8" drives.

[Chronon]

I had previously put a CF card into a 2nd gen iPod mini (A-Data Speedy 16GB), and that worked with Rockbox right out of the box. I figure that slower cards are better meant for DAPs that use microdrives for storage, and faster cards are needed for DAPs using larger 1.8" drives.

A timing issue, maybe?

[dreamlayers]

Regarding this matter, the first card I tried using was an A-Data Speedy 4GB card (that's all I had at the time). The card worked fine in the OF, but Rockbox threw up an ATA -1 error on startup. I had to use a dirty, kludgely hack to get Rockbox to work: commenting out line 320 of firmware/target/arm/system-pp502x.c got Rockbox to run, but with unusual effects (no album art, buffer behavior was wonky, etc.) The Transcend 133x 32GB card that's in my video now works without needing this kludge.

Do you really mean you commented out the DEV_EN line?  Could it have been the DEV_RS line instead?

I have some other ideas regarding what might help (eg. trying a lower PIO mode) but I don't have the hardware to test with.

[LurkAzusa]

I'm willing try any tests you may have for an ipod 4G with a 16 Gb AData.  It is the DEV_RS that I comment out.  After that  I could put it in my Video for testing, as well.

[dreamlayers]

I'm willing try any tests you may have for an ipod 4G with a 16 Gb AData.  It is the DEV_RS that I comment out.  After that  I could put it in my Video for testing, as well.

I think I know why that helped.  The DEV_RS line resets various hardware, including DEV_IDE0.  When DEV_IDE0 is reset, this resets the host and also hardware resets the device.  The ATA standard defines proper timings for hardware reset (assert, wait >25 microseconds, negate, wait >2 milliseconds, and only then check status).  This is totally disregarded in system_init().  An overly short asserted time can incompletely reset a device and cause it to malfunction (eg. lock up).  I think that's what happened because -1 seems to mean wait_for_bsy() failed in init_and_check() in ata.c.  (Checking for status too soon can give false status, but I don't think that happened.)

In ata.c, the initialization code tries a hard reset if the first try doesn't succeed.  A proper reset would probably return the device to a working state.  However, ata_reset() in ata-pp502x.c does nothing.

I've recently submitted a patch which disables DEV_IDE0 resetting in order to speed up startup on the video iPod.  This may be another reason why that patch is a good idea.

Regarding my PIO timings idea, here are timings you can try:
0xC293, 0x43A2, 0x11A1, 0x7232, 0x3131
Array index is mode number (0 to 4).  They go into IDE0_PRI_TIMING0.  The mode is set on the device in set_features() in ata.c.  If you want more help, I can send a patch.
(Note:  Trying with a MK3008GAL is probably a waste of time.  0x10 is faster.)

[LambdaCalculus]

A timing issue, maybe?

I believe so, yes.

[LurkAzusa]

dreamlayers,
I applied your patch to my ipod4G and it booted right up, extremely quick.  Thank you so much.  Sure hope this can get committed right away.

Do I still need to play with the timings?  I don't quite understand what I am doing there, so a little more explanation would help me.

[dreamlayers]

dreamlayers,
I applied your patch to my ipod4G and it booted right up, extremely quick.  Thank you so much.  Sure hope this can get committed right away.

Do I still need to play with the timings?  I don't quite understand what I am doing there, so a little more explanation would help me.

Sorry about the delayed response.

If everything works properly now, you don't need to play with the timings.  If you have other problems, then trying different PIO timings or a different PIO mode may help.  If you want to do this, let me know if you're ok with patches or if you want pre-built binaries.

Actually, I'm extending this offer to anyone with a pp502x based device modded with a different drive or a CF card which works in the original firmware but not in Rockbox.