Can't See Filesystem Over Usb


gtoal

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I can see my (FAT formatted) SD card OK in a card reader, but not when I connect the GP2X to a PC over USB.

I've tried 2 PCs, both USB and USB2 slots. The USB itself is recognised by the plug&pray but no filesystem icon appears.

Could that be because it is FAT, not FAT32? (I only have one card at the moment, shared with a Treo650 and a camera, so I'm reluctant to reformat it as FAT32 - I'll wait until I can pick up another one...)

Are the warnings I've read about not using FAT in case you trash your machine to be taken seriously? How much of a risk is it really?

I can make do with the card-reader route, but I wanted to get the USB FS working because I had an idea for a hack that would let me set up a remote session from a PC with a keyboard (STerm is cute, but not a serious option) by using shared files to communicate over!

Hopefully by this weekend I'll be producing some code for this platform. The machine only turned up yesterday so I may be a little late for the coding competition this weekend, but we'll see... I think I did an SDL version of Tailgunner once, that should be an easy and quick port to get my sea legs.

First impressions are that it is a very nice machine. I just hope that not all GP32 developers jump ship for the GP2X and leave us all with orphaned GP32s :)


Graham
 
* doesn' t read entire post *

Get a card reader. For ~$10, all your problems with USB will go away ...
 
For what you appear to be trying to do, USB Serial would be a better option.

If you can't see the file system, try looking in the device manager, I think there's a way to give a device a drive letter.
 
Shikaku posted on Feb 16 2006 at 04:12 PM said:
Try using USB 1.1 ports/disabling USB 2.0 support. GP2X + USB = annoyance...

Already did:
gtoal posted on Feb 16 2006 at 04:09 PM said:
I've tried 2 PCs, both USB and USB2 slots.

One of the two PCs I tried doesn't even have USB2.
 
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TelcoLou posted on Feb 16 2006 at 04:54 PM said:
* doesn' t read entire post *

Get a card reader. For ~$10, all your problems with USB will go away ...

Strange that you should brag on not reading someone's post before replying. In the first line I said:

gtoal said:
I can see my (FAT formatted) SD card OK in a card reader, but not when I connect the GP2X to a PC over USB.

I have a card reader. However I wanted to try using files to communicate interactively with the gp2x - either to submit simple batch scripts, or to fake a socket or named pipe-like interface in order to have a terminal session to the handheld from my desktop. Not owning a serial cable and not knowing how to use the USB cable as a serial cable, this seemed like a quick and easy hack just to get something going in a hurry. And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those pesky kids! Oh wait, wrong show...
 
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nickspoon posted on Feb 16 2006 at 05:17 PM said:
For what you appear to be trying to do, USB Serial would be a better option.

Now that's a constructive comment. So do you know how to use the USB cable to talk to the GP2X like a serial port? I would have assumed that if it were easy, there would not be a market for homebrew serial cables... :) Of course I didn't order a serial cable when I bought the machine because I foolishly assumed that I'ld be able to talk to it over the USB cable. Or the built-in wireless. Oops, guess I didn't read the ads to closely ;-)

nickspoon posted on Feb 16 2006 at 05:17 PM said:
If you can't see the file system, try looking in the device manager, I think there's a way to give a device a drive letter.


Unfortunately it really doesn't see the drive, even in the Storage/Disk Management section of the Computer Management program. It's not just a case of the letter or the icon being missing.

So how is everyone talking to their GP2X's? Are y'all using STerm and it's clunky data entry, or did everyone buy a serial cable? Or have I missed some other mechanism? Or do you just download images and never actually use the command line?

(talking of clunky data entry, did I get a defective unit or do they all have problems with the buttons and the joystick? Navigating the top-level icons, it frequently doesn't see a stick movement; and using STerm to type, sometimes it misses movements and other times it jumps several characters at once - hardware probs or just poor switch debouncing algorithms?)


Graham
 
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USB Serial is exactly what I advised you to do. And yes, I do have a USB Serial setup. The only reason people want actual serial cables is to log the startup, before USB is initialised.
 
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