Break Out Board/boxand Usb Drives.


BenScar

What does this do again?
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Hello there,

A while ago I made myself a EXT2 to Serial/USB board, with FW v1.4 and ARTaylors "Userfiles" to kick the infterface into life, it worked and the the USB drive was mounted as EXT in the menus (as the mount.gpe tells it to).

Since I've updated to FW2 the drive is no longer mounted as EXT once I've turned on the "USB Host" and then the "Storage" options.
If I telnet into the 2x and issue "mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/ext" (took me a while to work that out :) Being a windows man!), restart the menu and volia, one USB hard drive all ready for use.

Does anyone with a BoB use a USB HD that gets automatically mounted?
I've looked though the BoB user manual that was posted, which seems to say it will appear under the EXT once you've turned it on but I'd like it confirmed (or someone could tell me why it doesn't happen with mine :) )

I don't mind all that much having to issue a command to get the HDD to show up, I'm just wondering what's different between the offical BoB and the one I've built.

Thanks
 
I built one and the hard drive was mounted automatically - I just navigated to 'EXT' in the menu.
 
Orkie posted on Jul 5 2006 at 08:11 PM said:
I built one and the hard drive was mounted automatically - I just navigated to 'EXT' in the menu.
I assume you're using FW2 as well, that right?

cowai posted on Jul 5 2006 at 08:23 PM said:
I'm a make a BoB.. Do I need any filters? to filter the usb signal?
Yep, you'll need the filtering. As shown on the Wiki page. The signal is to "dirty" otherwise.
 
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I've made 2 BOB's and now use my custom cable, and it works without any glitches whatsoever with FW2.0 ..

Prior to FW2.0, I had a .gpu that mounted the external USB battery-powered datatank at /mnt/sd/ext (so that I could use it from the Menu), but now its all irrelevant because FW2.0 does it all automatically to /mnt/ext/sd[x] where [x] is the relevant SCSI node provided by hotplug ..

Got back from vacation this week, where I'd been watching 60gigs of Movies on my GP2X during the hours of driving and relaxing .. was pretty impressive to all and sundry, I think I sold a few more GP2X's on that trip .. ;)
 
torpor posted on Jul 5 2006 at 08:56 PM said:
I've made 2 BOB's and now use my custom cable, and it works without any glitches whatsoever with FW2.0 ..

Prior to FW2.0, I had a .gpu that mounted the external USB battery-powered datatank at /mnt/sd/ext (so that I could use it from the Menu), but now its all irrelevant because FW2.0 does it all automatically to /mnt/ext/sd[x] where [x] is the relevant SCSI node provided by hotplug ..
Hhmmmpppph, so I'm doing something wrong somewhere then.
So what excatly is it the firmware does? Does it mount the first USB drive it comes across as EXT or as a folder (from what I read) in EXT as sd0 or sd1?

My EXT "drive" is totally empty once I've started up the storage and USB host.
Code:
sing /lib/modules/2.4.25/kernel/drivers/usb/storage/usb-storage.o
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
  Vendor: WDC WD40  Model: 0UE-00HCT0		Rev: 09.0
  Type:   Direct-Access					  ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 78140160 512-byte hdwr sectors (40008 MB)
 /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
USB Mass Storage support registered.
Even tells me (on the serial link) that it's "available" at sda, just doesn't show up in the EXT folder.

torpor posted on Jul 5 2006 at 08:56 PM said:
Got back from vacation this week, where I'd been watching 60gigs of Movies on my GP2X during the hours of driving and relaxing .. was pretty impressive to all and sundry, I think I sold a few more GP2X's on that trip .. ;)
*grin* Taking mine to Turkey in september, one 40gb HD going with me. Plus a whole load of batteries of course :)
Thinking about a little inline USB power thingy so that I don't have to mess about with power supplies to much.
 
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I think your answer is in the "Manual", I forgot the name, but it is the scene-made PDF to help out people, my GP2X from Play-Asia.com had it on a CD.

If you choose "Automount NAND on boot" it will mount your USB drive.

I hope this is one of the things that they plan on fixing in the next firmware.

Edit, it seems crappy and I think it is making my GP2X unstable, no proof but I think if you have a script it might be better.

I don't like the fact that I am blind when I am trouble-shooting my Filtering Schematic, it takes a lot of troubleshooting. (there is a 5 or 6 leg surface mount IC that will properly terminate USB, and the power regulator already in the GP2X is capable of making 5 volts out of 3.3 volts, someone should be marketing a simple cable already, just a damn cable with the filtering circuit and power neatly encased under the shell.)
 
Take a look at :

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=29675

I've been having the same trouble as yourself getting a FAT drive to auto-mount, and have had to write a small script to do it for me, with an added fdisk "twist" (as you'll see in that article). This is firmware 2 too. FAT32 drives mount automatically just fine; it's only FAT16 formatted ones that have the trouble.

If you get to the bottom of why it's not working automatically, please let me know!

Cheers
 
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Barns posted on Jul 6 2006 at 12:31 AM said:
Take a look at :

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=29675

I've been having the same trouble as yourself getting a FAT drive to auto-mount, and have had to write a small script to do it for me, with an added fdisk "twist" (as you'll see in that article). This is firmware 2 too. FAT32 drives mount automatically just fine; it's only FAT16 formatted ones that have the trouble.

If you get to the bottom of why it's not working automatically, please let me know!

Cheers
Sorry I can't check your link ATM, I am leaving the house in a minute.

I didn't know you were mounting FAT drives, I will check the format on my brothers MuVo, but all my SD and external HDD and memstick are Fat32 IIRC.

My 2GB A-Data SD is still using the stock FAT format, is this going to cause a problem at any time? I have no real problems with the GBC SNES, PSX, Genesis emus, or either Qtopia 1 or 2, or playing MP3s off of a memstick or external device or internal SD, but the Mplayer freezes randomly so I cannot get through a music video.

Is that format related or just a buggy mplayer?
 
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nubie posted on Jul 6 2006 at 12:36 AM said:
I think your answer is in the "Manual", I forgot the name, but it is the scene-made PDF to help out people, my GP2X from Play-Asia.com had it on a CD.
If you choose "Automount NAND on boot" it will mount your USB drive.
Sadly that hasn't worked for me. If I have the auto mount on, then turn on the USB Host and Storage, I get the same thing, nothing appearing in my EXT folder/interface.

Barns posted on Jul 6 2006 at 08:31 AM said:
Take a look at :

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=29675

I've been having the same trouble as yourself getting a FAT drive to auto-mount
The drive I'm using is formatted FAT32, at least I believe it is. I'll have to double check in a moment. It's currently connected to my main machine taking a Ghost image.
If I get any where with this little issue I'll give you a shout :)
 
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BenScar posted on Jul 5 2006 at 11:47 AM said:
If I telnet into the 2x and issue "mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/ext" (took me a while to work that out :) Being a windows man!), restart the menu and volia, one USB hard drive all ready for use.

Does anyone with a BoB use a USB HD that gets automatically mounted?
I've looked though the BoB user manual that was posted, which seems to say it will appear under the EXT once you've turned it on but I'd like it confirmed (or someone could tell me why it doesn't happen with mine :) )

I don't mind all that much having to issue a command to get the HDD to show up, I'm just wondering what's different between the offical BoB and the one I've built.

Thanks
I made a simple filtering circuit from scavenged Caps and Radio Shack Resistors, it mounts my drives as hda, hdb, hdc, etc. (haven't tried connecting more than 3 at a time yet :)) under the EXT in all of the included apps.

It is buggy, I sometimes have to disable all of it, then B to save and it freezes, must re-boot GP2X.

Then I turn it back on, then select all three options again, USB Host, ALWAYS ON, USB Mass Storage, then I select the automount NAND, THEN I hit B to save and exit, then a reboot and it is all working perfectly again.

If you want you could just make a .GPU file and run it to connect your USB HDD, then you wouldn't have to telnet in, you can use an autorun.gpe script too you know, then it will always happen as you start your GP2X.

I found that it did start working, but I always enable Host (to always on), then Mass Storage, Then do the automount. Just seemed to be the logical order to me :).
 
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nubie posted on Jul 7 2006 at 01:16 AM said:
I made a simple filtering circuit from scavenged Caps and Radio Shack Resistors, it mounts my drives as hda, hdb, hdc, etc. (haven't tried connecting more than 3 at a time yet :)) under the EXT in all of the included apps.

It is buggy, I sometimes have to disable all of it, then B to save and it freezes, must re-boot GP2X.

Then I turn it back on, then select all three options again, USB Host, ALWAYS ON, USB Mass Storage, then I select the automount NAND, THEN I hit B to save and exit, then a reboot and it is all working perfectly again.

If you want you could just make a .GPU file and run it to connect your USB HDD, then you wouldn't have to telnet in, you can use an autorun.gpe script too you know, then it will always happen as you start your GP2X.
Duly noted :) I'll have to try 4 drives next then, just to see!
I'll have a play with the options. I think the power supply with come in handy this weekend!
So, USB Host (Always on), then USB Storage (Always on) and then the AutoMount NAND.
Reboot with the BoB connected and HD spinning, see what I get :)

nubie posted on Jul 7 2006 at 01:16 AM said:
I found that it did start working, but I always enable Host (to always on), then Mass Storage, Then do the automount. Just seemed to be the logical order to me :).
Logical, what's logic got to do with this? This is a computer ;)
 
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BenScar posted on Jul 7 2006 at 04:19 PM said:
nubie posted on Jul 7 2006 at 01:16 AM said:
I found that it did start working, but I always enable Host (to always on), then Mass Storage, Then do the automount. Just seemed to be the logical order to me :).
Logical, what's logic got to do with this? This is a computer ;)
I build most of my computers logically. (lets not talk about the other ones I build :ph34r: :ph34r: :lol: )

I figured that if you enable the host function, then see that working,

Then do the storage support, see if that stays on,

Then get it mounting properly.

I suppose it would have been much more logical to use a serial cable or a logfile to see if that was the case, doh!!

On another wierd note, the sda (and sometimes the sdb and sdc folders) stay visible in the /mnt/ext through 2 sets of batteries away from the USB host. Hmmm, buggy much? I wait for that new firmware.

Edit: I forgot to add that once I get it working I can unplug the drives, put in a hub, and re-connect different drives and they all show up again in a few seconds, you know "plug 'n' play" and all that.
 
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