CompactFlash based iPod mini

[dude52]

I recently performed this mod on my iPod mini:
http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/753/how-to-turn-your-ipod-mini-into-a-flash-based-ipod
I tried putting rockbox on it and it boots fine, but since it now uses a solid state flash card, accessing files has become broken. My guess is that rockbox is trying to send signals to a hard drive, but no hard drive is listening so it gets flummoxed and hangs. Is there any way to make this compatible?

[bluebrother]

does it work with the Apple OS? As far as I know the interfaces of the CF card and the Microdrive are completely identical, so this might be related to the addition on the website you linked:

There seem to be some questions about which CF-card works or not.

[dude52]

It works with the apple OS. I lucked out with a card I got on ebay.

[Llorean]

What format is the filesystem? Specifically, many flash cards end up FAT16 instead of FAT32.

[linuxstb]

There's a page in the Rockbox wiki about exactly this - putting a CF card in an ipod mini.  But I forget the name of it...

[dude52]

You were right. It looks like all I need to do is add the diff file into a build. I'll post again when I have results.

Compact Flash page
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/MiniCF

[dude52]

I tried patching rockbox with the diff file, but it failed. I'm not a big coder, so I can't tell what needs to be changed. But if someone could looks things over for me, I could test things out and post results. Any volunteers?

[bluebrother]

You could try searching for the lines that get changed by that patch. From a quick look ata.c:713 might be the solution ... can't try it though, and as I don't know the ATA code I might be completely wrong.

[dude52]

I tried mucking about with the code, but no change. I notice the diff file refers to an ata.c that is at least 1400 lines long, but the current file ends at 1016. Could this portion that needs to be changed have been moved elsewhere or removed?

[dude52]

It would appear that I got things to work. Essentially, there was a section of code that I commented out and that took care of things. However, the USB seems a little spotty (sometimes it works and sometimes it hangs). But I don't know if this is a result of what I commented out.

Here is the function from ata.c that was causing problems:

static int perform_soft_reset(void)
{
/* If this code is allowed to run on a Nano, the next reads from the flash will
 * time out, so we disable it. It shouldn't be necessary anyway, since the
 * ATA -> Flash interface automatically sleeps almost immediately after the
 * last command.
 */
#ifndef IPOD_NANO
   
    int ret;
    int retry_count;
   
    SET_REG(ATA_SELECT, SELECT_LBA | ata_device );
    SET_REG(ATA_CONTROL, CONTROL_nIEN|CONTROL_SRST );
    sleep(1); /* >= 5us */

    SET_REG(ATA_CONTROL, CONTROL_nIEN);
    sleep(1); /* >2ms */

    /* This little sucker can take up to 30 seconds */
    retry_count = 8;
    do
    {
        ret = wait_for_rdy();
    } while(!ret && retry_count--);

    /* Massage the return code so it is 0 on success and -1 on failure */
    ret = ret?0:-1;

    return ret;
#else
    return 0; /* Always report success */
#endif
}

I made the function return 0 whenever it gets called (ie. a success) so it doesn't bother trying to tell the flash card to sleep. If I understand correctly, one could replace IPOD_NANO with whatever the correct name for the iPod mini is. It's not IPOD_MINI because I tried that and it didn't work.

[bluebrother]

There are two definitions -- IPOD_MINI and IPOD_MINI2G depending on the generation of your mini. You made me quite curious, and I tried replacing the microdrive with a CF card in my mini. It worked, but only with the OF. Later I realized that the bootloader also uses ata.c and thus needs to be adjusted as well... I already reassembled my mini, but when my new battery arrives I might try it again. The mod itself is really simple to do

[Dankoozy]

I compiled rockbox for a ipod mini 2g / compactflash. but unfortunately no ipod to test on

http://97k.eu/ul/bin/rockbox-20070621-ipodmini2g_cf.zip

[LambdaCalculus]

Dankoozy: YES! This sounds like the solution! I'm looking to buy a mini and a 16GB CompactFlash card to give to my brother, and with Rockbox installed... we can RULE THE WORLD!!  

Have you given thought about making it an "official" unofficial build? I'm sure lots of hardware hackers out there would love this combination!

[dbpaddler]

Well I've got the 16gb Adata card running on a 2nd gen mini. I can load music and play it, but not much more. I try to get the database going and the menu freezes. I try to explore the fonts and it freezes. And actually, getting it to play is sporadic as it freezes when trying to select files.

I've rockboxed my iriver h10 and my sansa e280. This is the first time I'm stumped. I loathed getting an ipod to begin with, but my Rio Carbon didn't like the 16gb card. Tempted to try a Creative Micro, but I figured I could stomach the ipod since I wasn't using Apple's firmware or itunes. I'm an extreme novice when it comes to the coding and programing of things, but I'm still willing to give this project a shot.

Was about to give dankoozy's build a shot, but it doesn't seem to exist through that link.

[Febs]

Please note that I moved this to the hardware forum because it is not related to installation of Rockbox on an iPod.  It is, however, related to "discuss[ion] [of] the actual hardware, and very hardware specific issues with the software."  And this forum is therefore the appropriate forum for this thread.

Let me also note that it is NOT appropriate to use the "report post" button to express disagreement with my decision of where to place a thread.  The "report post" button sends an e-mail to multiple recipients, and should be used ONLY to report inappropriate posts.