Drive Upgrades with Linux

There doesn't seem to be much support in our excellent FAQ to guide poor Linux users through the hard drive upgrade process. I've successfully performed a drive upgrade in the past using Windows, but now I only have a Linux box and I keep running into problems.

First off, I'm using minicom, as suggested, to monitor the empeg's serial output. However, it's not working very well at all. I've set it up for the correct baud rate, parity etc. but upon the rebooting empeg I only receive a tiny, randomly timed, amount of output from the empeg. Typically just something like "let the pegui", or "empeg-ca", etc. and there's now way of accessing the player software. Any ideas what's happening here?

When it comes to upgrading the player's flash with the drive builder firmware (and then later the 2.0 firmware) can I use Jemplode? I remember in the past that serial connections in Jemplode were near on impossible to get working, but can I perform the upgrade over the ethernet connection? If not, then is emptool the only way to go? And is there any advice on how to safely use emptool with respect to a drive upgrade?

Thanks for your help,
Ross

While entire flocks of penguins swear by minicom, I very much prefer the longevity of ckermit for all of my serial comms situations.

And since you are already using Linux, you could do a drive-to-drive copy or direct-to-drive installation rather than deal with the tedious upgrade "tools" that we are otherwise stuck with. I believe Roger (or was it peter?) recently posted step-by-step instructions for such.

Cheers

It was me. See this and this.

OK, looks good, but the only way to do that is to get hold of one of those laptop to PC IDE adaptors, right? Looks like I need a trip to the shops...

And is it really easier to do a manual partition and format???

Ross

OK, looks good, but the only way to do that is to get hold of one of those laptop to PC IDE adaptors, right?

You can follow these instructions on the empeg itself (I did) as long as you keep the original drive for hda in there while you upgrade hdc.

You'll still need to get serial working in order to install the software upgrade at the end of the process. This means that you still need to work out why you're getting corrupted serial output from the empeg.

Try a different cable. Try a different serial port. Try a different PC.

There ought to be a Unix console serial upgrader somewhere. All the code you need is in the emptool sources, in lib/protocol/upgrader.cpp. I think you'll need to write a main() for it, though.

And is it really easier to do a manual partition and format???

No. You'll need to solve your serial problems either way.

In reply to:

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There ought to be a Unix console serial upgrader somewhere. All the code you need is in the emptool sources, in lib/protocol/upgrader.cpp. I think you'll need to write a main() for it, though.

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I think upgclient is one of the things that gets built from the emptool sources - i.e. the main() is provided. It's a while since I built it, though - and next time I'll probably upgrade around Hijack using mlord's via-ethernet upgrader.

but the only way to do that is to get hold of one of those laptop to PC IDE adaptors, right?

Yes, that, or a 2.5" IDE USB 2/FireWire case, or run it from the Empeg itself, like Roger said.

Pim

I think upgclient is one of the things that gets built from the emptool sources

I don't think so -- the Makefile makes references to the 'pump' directory, but it doesn't appear to be released.

A binary of upgclient is available here, though:

http://www.empeg.com/downloads/empegcar-v2.00.i386-linux.tar.gz

Does that mean in theory with Hijack you can do the complete hard drive upgrade without a serial connection? Assuming that you've got telnet access over ethernet to the empeg to do the drive partitioning, formatting, and music copying; you can then upgrade the software on the new drive using the Hijack ethernet upgrade ability. Or am I missing something here...?

Ross

Assuming that you've got telnet access over ethernet (...) Or am I missing something here...?

Yes. You are missing the fact that there is no telnet access over ethernet unless you've got a working hard disk with telnet server software installed to it. Telnet over ethernet is not (as far as I know) built into Hijack.

Telnet over ethernet is not (as far as I know) built into Hijack.

No, but it does have "site exec" over ftp which may be close enough...

I was under the impression that someone had written a telnet server for the empeg which could be installed under Hijack. Having a quick look through the third party software list... http://www.trejan.com/empeg/#EMPTELNETD

So are there any other obvious potential problems?

Ross

I was under the impression that someone had written a telnet server for the empeg which could be installed under Hijack.

Right. And to install that telnet server, you need a working hard disk. It's gotta go somewhere. So if you want the telnet server to help you in replacing the disk drive, then you don't have a disk to put it onto until after you don't need the telnet server any more.

Ah, but in my case I have two hard discs and am replacing the second drive. So with the telnet server already installed on the first drive I should be able to replace the second drive, manually partition and format it, and then install the player software to the new drive all without using a serial connection.

Though to make life easier I think I'll just get hold of a laptop hdd to PC IDE adaptor and do everything on my PC!

Thanks for all your suggestions.
Ross

AH! Yeah, that should work then.

I still get leery of people talking about manually partitioning their drives because of a horror story someone once told of losing the partition during an upgrade once because they'd done it manually and it wasn't exactly the same as the way the builder does it. It worked fine right up until the point where they applied the next software upgrade and then poof.

But I definitely trust Roger's instructions, so yeah, that should work.