/mnt Is Gone

[d_a_parker]

Hello,

I booted up my GP2X yesterday and it would no longer read the SD card. I put it in the cradle and and watched the console output, and any time it tried to mount a device to something under /mnt it failed with a "No such file or directory" error. It appears that /mnt is just gone. I have attempted to reinstall both the firmware and the filesystem, but it doesn't even read from the SD card on boot. It just goes through the normal start up screens and into the main menu, but you can't do much since nothing will mount after that. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[oeildefeu]

by telnet =>

cd /
mkdir mnt
cd mnt
mkdir sd
mkdir ext
mkdir nand

Wait confirmation by another member before do that

 

[EvilDragon]

Hello,

I booted up my GP2X yesterday and it would no longer read the SD card. I put it in the cradle and and watched the console output, and any time it tried to mount a device to something under /mnt it failed with a "No such file or directory" error. It appears that /mnt is just gone. I have attempted to reinstall both the firmware and the filesystem, but it doesn't even read from the SD card on boot. It just goes through the normal start up screens and into the main menu, but you can't do much since nothing will mount after that. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

Well, looks like the firmware is dodgy.
However, a reinstallation should work. Start with FW2.0.0 (the complete one). Download it, extract everything onto the SD Card (except gp2xboot.img), press and hold SELECT and START while switching it on.
The installation should start. (Upgrading Firmware)
If you're lucky, everything will work after the installation.
You can then install 2.1.1.

If the upgrade starts but it still doesn't boot up after that, you have too many marked bad blocks on the NAND.
This is definately fixable with the cradle, I'll tell you if it is needed.

 

[d_a_parker]

Hello,

I booted up my GP2X yesterday and it would no longer read the SD card. I put it in the cradle and and watched the console output, and any time it tried to mount a device to something under /mnt it failed with a "No such file or directory" error. It appears that /mnt is just gone. I have attempted to reinstall both the firmware and the filesystem, but it doesn't even read from the SD card on boot. It just goes through the normal start up screens and into the main menu, but you can't do much since nothing will mount after that. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

Well, looks like the firmware is dodgy.
However, a reinstallation should work. Start with FW2.0.0 (the complete one). Download it, extract everything onto the SD Card (except gp2xboot.img), press and hold SELECT and START while switching it on.
The installation should start. (Upgrading Firmware)
If you're lucky, everything will work after the installation.
You can then install 2.1.1.

If the upgrade starts but it still doesn't boot up after that, you have too many marked bad blocks on the NAND.
This is definately fixable with the cradle, I'll tell you if it is needed.


I successfully installed firware 2.0.0 and then upgraded it to 2.1.1. However, I have tried several time to install 3.0.0 (which was on it before), but it keeps giving me problems. It goes through the updating, patching, and formatting phases without any problems. Watching the console output, it extracts all of the tar files and everythng goes well until it reaches this:

CODE

License/
License/busybox/
License/busybox/LICENSE
tar: License/busybox/LICENSE: input/output error -- File exists
tar: Bad tar header, skipping



The "tar: Bad tar header, skipping" error message repeats a few hundred times in rapid succession, then it bombs out with this:

CODE

License/common/
License/common/lgpl.txt
License/common/gpl.txt
License/GP2X.txt
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
Apply LCD Timing
libpng error: IDAT: CRC error



The blue-themed 3.0.0 menu is on the GP2X screen, but there is a flickering box over whatever icon is currently selected. If I reboot, it goes through the startup screens and then the screen just goes blank, and it drops to a login prompt on the console. I don't have my serial stuff set up for output right now, so I can't type anything. Any idea as to why 3.0.0 just won't install correctly?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[d_a_parker]

Is the 3.0.0 firmware corrupted? A test of the zip file shows it is fine, but gzip says that both of the .tar.gz files have errors:

CODE

$ unzip gp2x-f100_3.0.0.zip
Archive: gp2x-f100_3.0.0.zip
inflating: gp2xupdate.gpu
inflating: gp2xfs.tar.gz
inflating: gp2xnand.tar.gz
inflating: gp2xboot.img
inflating: gp2xkernel.img
inflating: gp2xyaffs.img
$ gzip -t *.gz

gzip: gp2xfs.tar.gz: invalid compressed data--crc error

gzip: gp2xnand.tar.gz: invalid compressed data--crc error



I am downloading the file from the GP2X file archive. I have downloaded it several different times using several different methods (Firefox, Lynx, wget) but that does not make a difference. Also, I can't find any MD5 or SHA1 checksums for the firmware files.

- Dave

 

[Orkie]

Yes, it is corrupt. I pointed this out before, when it was first released, but nothing was ever done about it .

 

[d_a_parker]

Yes, it is corrupt. I pointed this out before, when it was first released, but nothing was ever done about it .

So they've gone months without correcting a broken firmware file? It sucks that if you have 3.0.0 on your GP2X and it gets corrupted, you have to downgrade to 2.1.1. Oh well, I guess that's what I'll do. Thanks.

- Dave

 

[RockOut]

2.1.1 is actually more of a upgrade from what I've heard. If you want to make it look better, just get a different skin.

 

[Alex.]

Think of it as an upgrade, what with the faster boot time

Edit: silly me and my tabs opened for 30 minutes. Sorry for the duplicate

 

[d_a_parker]

Thanks for the info about 2.1.1 vs. 3.0.0.

Okay, I have "upgraded" back to 2.1.1 following the instructions that EvilDragon posted earlier. I copied everything except gp2xboot.img to the SD card and installed 2.0.0, then I upgraded to 2.1.1. The GP2X is running 2.1.1 and is working fine, but it is still using the 3.0 boot loader and the 3.0 boot screen comes up. Is this okay?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Squidge]

If it works, why break it trying to install a 2.0 boot loader which is virtually identical?

 

[EvilDragon]

The "tar: Bad tar header, skipping" error message repeats a few hundred times in rapid succession, then it bombs out with this:

Yep, that happens if the NAND runs out of space.
Since v3.0.0 uses pretty much space, a few marked bad blocks can be too many to install it.
(this also happened with the guys who couldn't install the unofficial FW Rip).

So, unless you run a tool to clean all the marked bad blocks, you can't install FW 3.0.0.

Problem is: The more often you update the firmware, the more marked bad blocks you have (thanks to GPHs dodgy installer).

So, if you upgraded from 1.2.0 to 1.4.0, then to 2.0.0, 2.1.0 and 2.1.1, it's unlikely that 3.0.0 works unless you clean all the bad blocks.

 

[Squidge]

I've recently downloaded both the ripped version of 3.0, and the "proper" version. The ripped one contains the entire nand in a single tar. This means that if your nand already contains files, the install may fail (it doesn't attempt to remove any files before the installation).

On the full version of the 3.0, my normal Linux box (not gp2x), I can't open the .tar.gz files as they are apparently corrupt. This isn't a "nand out of space" error, it's a problem with the files themselves.

Why anyone would want to downgrade to 3.0 however is another question...

 

[EvilDragon]

On the full version of the 3.0, my normal Linux box (not gp2x), I can't open the .tar.gz files as they are apparently corrupt. This isn't a "nand out of space" error, it's a problem with the files themselves.

Hm, but I had at least three or four gp2x where I got exactly that message (tried a few times installing it), then cleared the bad blocks list and after that, it worked.
I know the full 3.0.0 version is dodgy, but the only problem after installing is a graphical error in the menu...
I've installed the full version quite a few times already.

After all, the gp2xupdate.gpu is just a binary file which extracts a tar package, so if the NAND runs out of space, the same should happen as with the unofficial rip, shouldn't it?

 

[Squidge]

The official seems to format the nand, and then unpacks the main file system, then unpacks /mnt/nand seperately later. This ensures the file system gets updated before trying to fill the nand directory full of junk ( ) it also means the only real reason for failing is due to too many nand blocks marked as bad.

But the rip simply runs a script that does a tar extract, and so could fail half way with a full file system, and since everything is thrown into one tar, it could even fail on the /mnt/nand stuff before actually finishing off the real file system.

I appreciate you have installed the full version already a few times, but could you download http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,1,0,0,42,2129 and see if the version in the archive actually works?

 

[EvilDragon]

I appreciate you have installed the full version already a few times, but could you download http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,1,0,0,42,2129 and see if the version in the archive actually works?



It works, I always download it from there myself
The only thing that happens is that the menu graphics are corrupted due to a bad CRC in the tar

 

[Squidge]

The only thing that happens is that the menu graphics are corrupted due to a bad CRC in the tar