No More Hundreds Of Small Files

[Executer]

A little wish to the homebrew developers.
I like what u´ve done for the community, but some games come with hundreds of little files which needs just too much time to transfer to the SD-card.
So how about to use an uncompressed archive to store the hundreds of little pics (1-2kb).
It takes me sometimes around 15min to transfer a 5mb game with card reader, which just isn´t really necessary

 

[Vimacs]

sounds like your cardreader is damn slow
also you should activate cacheing wich will have the affeckt that it haves to write way less frequently to the cart and should improve speed on small files.

 

[Squidge]

Windows by default disables write caching of USB connected media that can be disconnected without warning to try and keep the media from being corrupted. However, if your happy to use the "safely remove hardware" feature, then Windows will cache the files instead, which means a big speedup in the transfer of small files as they will be transferred in batches rather than singly.

 

[Executer]

Windows by default disables write caching of USB connected media that can be disconnected without warning to try and keep the media from being corrupted. However, if your happy to use the "safely remove hardware" feature, then Windows will cache the files instead, which means a big speedup in the transfer of small files as they will be transferred in batches rather than singly.

I enabled now the cacheing on my card reader, transfering supertux (700files, 16mb) still takes around 7-8 minutes, a single 35mb file is transfered in max 30 secs...
I think the speed of my card reader is okay, it is used in usb 1.1 mode (12Mbit), i think the filesystem entries slows the whole thing alot.

--- edit
and much better, deleting supertux folder takes as long as copying

 

[Dzz]

I agree with your point and will endeavor to make sure that I keep the file count to a reasonable number on anything I write. A lot of the stuff we get for the gp2x are more-or-less quickly done ports and writing a thing to collect data files into fewer files is a lot more work than the porters are planning to spend.

 

[ravuya]

PhysFS should work on the GP2X.

 

[nickspoon]

If you like, you can tar up the datafiles then untar them on the GP2X using a script.

 

[Executer]

Does the gp2x FW support any image formats, that can bea easy mounted? Like a ISO file or something else..
That could be easily done and needs no programming. Just mount the image at app load, and unmount when finishes.. and for sure this is only a good idea for static things, like needed files and not for rom folders


The tar method could be used, but untar on app launch is "slow" and copy the tar and let it untar by the gp2x to the sd-card doesnt sounds practicable, i´m sure the card reader is faster

 

[Parkydr]

Does the gp2x FW support any image formats, that can bea easy mounted? Like a ISO file or something else..
That could be easily done and needs no programming. Just mount the image at app load, and unmount when finishes.. and for sure this is only a good idea for static things, like needed files and not for rom folders

GP2X doesn't seem to support iso9660 (not surprising really)

The tar method could be used, but untar on app launch is "slow" and copy the tar and let it untar by the gp2x to the sd-card doesnt sounds practicable, i´m sure the card reader is faster

You wouldn't need to untar every time, just once using an install script. I tried it with supertux and it took 2.5 minutes - still not good

 

[nickspoon]

Provided you don't need to write to datafiles, you can use cramfs images.

 

[reallynotnick]

While I am no coder, I think some people can do better then having 250 different files for just one game. I find it really slow to transfer and I am sure it frags up your card even more too. Theres really no excuse to have over 50 files for one game, unless you have loads of music and videos like Final Fantasy.

While I am no coder, I think some people can do better then having 250 different files for just one game. I find it really slow to transfer and I am sure it frags up your card even more too. Theres really no excuse to have over 50 files for one game, unless you have loads of music and videos like Final Fantasy.

 

[NoidZ]

Just buy a new card reader

 

[Executer]

Just buy a new card reader

A good reason to get a new card reader is when i can't adress SD over 1gb and such things. My card reader IS fast (and only 3M old), only when putting those houndreds small files on it it slows down, which just dont has to be.
I think my critic is constructive, your card reader comment not...