Just A Few Support Questions...

[DAXP]

I've had a GP2X for a while now (I believe it's an MKII, or something of the like, came with firmware 2.0.0), and love it. <_< There are a few things I'm wondering though...

First, I'm having problems with some movie files. I've tried three files - a 2 hour movie (in multiple formats, also tried it split into two files, tried whatever it came in (.avi, was unsupported), converted to a different form of .avi, and am converting to another type now), a 20 minute animation thing (Illegal Danish: Super Snacks >_>) and a 10 or so minute thing (Zinwrath: A Story <_<). The last two are fine, but the first has some problems. Occasionally the video slows down, and the sound almost always ends up ahead of the video. =/ I've tried with the standard movie player and MP2X. Don't really need this, as I usually use the GP2X for music or games, but it'd be nice.

Second, is there any way to use SDHC cards? I was given an SDHC card (just 4GB - same as my SD cards) that I'd like to put to use. Not really sure what I'd use it for, but I like to have my options. I've read that Open2X supports this, but I've never even updated my firmware, and don't want to accidently brick the GP2X. If it's been released and is easy to upgrade to, I'd love to change to it just for SDHC support. If not, I'd love it if there is another way to use SDHC card.

There's probably a very simple solution to both things that I've somehow missed... >_>

 

[Mudi]

SDHC cards should be supported in an upcoming release of the Open2X firmware, so they aren't supported yet but they will be soon(ish).

As for movies, all I can say is you have to be sure they are encoded as XVid or DivX for the video track and MP3 as the audio track. Looking around the forums you'll find a lot of recommendations on what software to use to encode the video this way.

 

[Godmil]

If you fancy taking a chance there is an experimental firmware update with SDHC support here. I tried it but it didn't work with my cards (nor did it break anything though).

 

[DAXP]

They are encoded that way. I just tried encoding it in XVid - didn't work. I've been using Blaze Media Pro (15 day trial). I might look into other encoders, but it could just be that the file is too screwed up or something. Maybe. =/

I'll try it. Especially since an old SD card just broke from a 2 foot drop. >_< The write protection thing came off, and it's stuck in write protected mode. *sigh* Don't suppose there's a way to fix this? Maybe some wacky Windows/Linux program (don't have Linux installed, but I could get a crappy old PC running it fairly quickly if needed).

 

[Orkie]

The write protect tab is just there to activate a physical switch in the device using the SD. If you could somehow build something the same size into the appropriate place it'd work again. Maybe a small cardboard tab securely attached would do the trick?

 

[DAXP]

I'll try, but I'm horrible with making tiny things. =/ Nothing to lose, though.

Another thing about the SDHC firmware. Since it's based on 2.1.1, do I need to upgrade to 2.1.0 first? I'm still using 2.0.0. I want to be careful. Even with little chance of bricking the system, I'm still fearful of it happening.. >_>

 

[Orkie]

You should probably upgrade to 2.1.1, but there is almost no chance of bricking your system. If it doesn't work, get gp2xkernel.img from the 2.0 upgrade zip file and flash only that. As long as you don't ever flash gp2xboot.img, you can recover your GP2X easily.

 

[DAXP]

Alright, thanks a lot.

And I hate to be a burden, but two more things. With GMenu2X, is there a way to keep it on the NAND memory? I switch between two SD cards (Music & games), and I'd prefer not to have to put it on both cards.

The other.. I have a BoB (just with USB connections, forgot where I got it) that I use with the GP2X, so that I can plug a reader into it and have access to both SD cards at once. Without GMenu2X the card in the reader was accessible almost immediantly after starting the GP2X, but with it I have to go to the system settings and save the settings. I don't have to change anything, just save. Just a little annoying. =/

EDIT: I'd be fine with having GMenu2X stored on the NAND, if that's possible, or doing something to allow me to swap SD/SDHC cards without restarting. Also, the firmware works! SDHC cards for me! If only it was an 8GB card. =/ I belive that would solve the card swapping problem.. >_>

EDIT 2: Well, it looks like there's a fix for keeping GMenu2X in the NAND. Just had to change the autorun file. BUT! It doesn't work with 2.1.X firmware. >_< There was a fix for that, too, but the link is dead. So I decided I would try the beta. In my infinite wisdom, I also chose to go ahead and place it on the NAND, after editing the autorun file. Now I get a black screen of doom after the green loading screen. >_> Gonna try reflashing, I suppose.

EDIT 3: Back to working SDHC firmware. Woo. Gonna try GMenu2X on an SD card now, and wait for someone to tell me what to do to get it on the NAND. <_< Or at least get it to autorun.

 

[tomj]

Yeah I've had the same problem with Gmenu2x and external storage it doesn't seem to mount it.

 

[nubie]

EDIT 3: Back to working SDHC firmware. Woo. Gonna try GMenu2X on an SD card now, and wait for someone to tell me what to do to get it on the NAND. <_< Or at least get it to autorun.

Why not change the autorun.gpe to point to the NAND? Then you only need an autorun.gpe on each SD card. You can make a copy of the autorun.gpe for the NAND and then copy it to a new SD card using the file explorer if you get a new SD card.

Or make a script gpe that renames the autorun and places it in the new SD when you run it from the nand? A quick run-once on each new card.

 

[DAXP]

I had a script pointing to the NAND (placed on the NAND), and that actually would autorun. The problem was that it just gave me a blank screen, and I couldn't figure out how to get past that. Now that I've reflashed and gotten back to a working frontend, the autorun doesn't actually autorun. =/ Doesn't work with it in the SD card (pointing at NAND or the card) or on the NAND, I have to go to utilities and use it. This has been tested with the beta (.9 something) and normal (.8 something) in the archives.

Some others have the problem, too (http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=35770). May as well do some searching to see if there is a fix.

EDIT: Oh. If I put an autorun script pointing to the SD card in the NAND, it'll work. Just need to figure out how to run the launcher from the NAND.

 

[nubie]

I had a script pointing to the NAND (placed on the NAND), and that actually would autorun. The problem was that it just gave me a blank screen, and I couldn't figure out how to get past that. Now that I've reflashed and gotten back to a working frontend, the autorun doesn't actually autorun. =/ Doesn't work with it in the SD card (pointing at NAND or the card) or on the NAND, I have to go to utilities and use it. This has been tested with the beta (.9 something) and normal (.8 something) in the archives.

Some others have the problem, too (http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=35770). May as well do some searching to see if there is a fix.

EDIT: Oh. If I put an autorun script pointing to the SD card in the NAND, it'll work. Just need to figure out how to run the launcher from the NAND.

You mean pointing to the NAND on the SD card? Have you enabled autorun in the utilities?

Ok here is what I mean:

SD= autorun.gpe (edit to start gmenu2x from the NAND)

NAND= install of Gmenu2x

Here is my new autorun.gpu

#!/bin/sh
cd /mnt/nand/gmenu2x
exec ./gmenu2x

I copied the gmenu2x to the NAND and then left the above .gpu on the SD, this way you can remove the SD if there is ever a problem with the menu.

You can reach the menu with another autorun.gpu placed in the gmenu2x folder on the NAND for when you use a new SD without the autorun.gpu on it already.

You can either copy the autorun.gpu to the new SD card in the file explorer yourself, or create an autoinstall.gpu to copy it for you, something like this:

cd /mnt/nand/gmenu2x
cp autorun.gpe /mnt/sd

It worked great for me on 2.1.1

This way each SD card only needs a 49 byte file on it (well, technically it uses a whole allocation unit, but we can't stop that )

 

[DAXP]

Yes, it is enabled. And the only difference between my autorun and yours is that mine was all on one line. >_>

And that seemed to fix it, too. But the original autorun file was on one line.. =/ Ah well. Either way, thanks a lot!

 

[flydpnkrtn]

SDHC cards should be supported in an upcoming release of the Open2X firmware, so they aren't supported yet but they will be soon(ish).

Any ideas on whether the Open2X guys are going to start doing nightly builds of the SVN code?

I would set up the build environment and pull down the SVN repo, however I'm in Iraq and this isn't exactly easy to do between the bandwidth caps, I'm on my laptop, etc. etc.