Can no longer sync my empeg??? Help!

When I sync it attempts to sync, quits, reboots the player. Does the same thing with jemplode and emplode. HELP. What's going on?

Adding Swap: 16596k swap-space (priority -6)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda4 is mounted.
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hdc4 is mounted.
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Restart code received
Starting player

Have you done anything like changing your init?

I'm using the preinit with hijack. why??

Calvin

Because if something were wrong with the way the player app were being called from this nonstandard init, then it might manifest itself in the way you describe.

See if you can blast a fresh Beta13 onto the player (without changing the init) and see if it synchs then. After that, add the nonstandard init back into place to see if it breaks.

I also see the following text in the hyperterminal:

empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux................................... done, booting the kernel.

Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg51-hijack-v286 ([email protected]) (gcc ve
rsion 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Sun Jul 28 13:09:50 EDT 2002
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 10101933)
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15072k/16M available (928k code, 20k reserved, 360k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 67706d65 'empg'
Found custom animation at offset 0x9877c
Scheduling custom logo.
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004200).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: IBM-DJSA-230, ATA DISK drive
hdb: IBM-DJSA-230, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DJSA-230, 28615MB w/1874kB Cache, CHS=58140/16/63
hdb: IBM-DJSA-230, 28615MB w/1874kB Cache, CHS=58140/16/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman ([email protected])

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:22:07:8
d
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 4k init
empeg-preinit starting...
empeg-preinit complete
empeg init 0.8
I see this is a developer image!
Mounting proc
Mounting first music partition
Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as reiserfs but got error 19
Mounting second music partition
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To Comply...
Starting player

hijack: removed menu entry: "Hard Disk Detection"
khttpd: listening on port 80
kftpd: listening on port 21
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00-beta13 2002/07/24.
opening display...
opening font file...
cannot open font file
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Jul 24 2002
Vcb: 0x4086d000

Calvin

I tried putting in hijack 291, and syncing. Nothing. From emplode:

Failed to open database connection error 0x80040015.

I don't see how init could have something to do with this? I backed out the preinit.d scripts. rebooted and tried sync. Nothing. I'm working progressively backward.

Calvin

Have you installed a fresh Beta13 .upgrade file as I suggested?

edit: Also reboot your PC...

I put in a fresh Beta 13.
Same thing! Argh!

Adding Swap: 16596k swap-space (priority -1)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No suc
h file or directory while determining whether /dev/hda4 is mounted.
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No suc
h file or directory while determining whether /dev/hdc4 is mounted.
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Restart code received
Starting player
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00-beta13 2002/07/24.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Jul 24 2002
Vcb: 0x4086d000

What's going on?

Calvin

Yes. I installed a fresh beta 13.

Calvin

Ok, I rebooted the PC. Still no luck. This is really, really bad isn't it?

Adding Swap: 16596k swap-space (priority -1)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No suc
h file or directory while determining whether /dev/hda4 is mounted.
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No suc
h file or directory while determining whether /dev/hdc4 is mounted.
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Restart code received
Starting player
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.00-beta13 2002/07/24.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Jul 24 2002
Vcb: 0x4086d000

Calvin

Okay, NOW I'm stumped.

I've tried the following. fsck on /dev/hda4 and /dev/hdc4 show CLEAN. Then I tried the following:

empeg:/# cd /
empeg:/# fsck /drive0
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda4 is mounted.
/dev/hda4: clean, 4806/228352 files, 2488799/7304850 blocks
empeg:/# fsck /drive1
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /driv
e1 is mounted.
fsck.ext2: Is a directory while trying to open /drive1

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

empeg:/#

could this have anything to do with anything?

Calvin

I'm reasonably sure that if your player is a single-disk player, the "dev/hda4" error is normal and does not indicate a problem (since there is no dev/hda4).

Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

On my two-drive player I get the "Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as reiserfs but got error 19", which is also normal, I believe.

No, I take that back. Hda4 is the music partition according to the developer info. Uh oh...

Except... I have two disks.

There is nothing wrong with the player. No missing files. I can access drive0 and drive1 and look around freely. I can mount and unmount rw, ro. With hijack in I can ftp in and out. streaming is ok. Everything is ok, except sync from emplode.

!!!

Calvin

First, you don't want to fsck while they're mounted.

See if you can do a ``umount /dev/hda4''. Make sure the player application is stopped (that is, press `q' at the serial port) and make sure you're not cd'd into /drive0 anywhere. Then run ``fsck /dev/hda4''. If it claims that it's clean, try a ``fsck -f /dev/hda4''.

If any of those steps fail, don't go any further. Reboot and get back to us.

Then let us know what happens.

ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether [mount point or device] is mounted.

IIRC this error is normal, and due to fsck looking for which filesystems that are mounted in /etc/mtab, but the empeg doesn't have an /etc/mtab file...

/Michael

Can you do an ls -l / so we can see if you've lost mount points?

I don't believe I have. If I can go into drive0 and drive1 and observe all the files and nothing is wrong with them, then that wouldn't be the case right? I did an ls anyway here are the results:


empeg:/empeg/bin# ls -la /
total 31
drwxr-xr-x 15 502 220 1024 Jul 24 17:22 .
drwxr-xr-x 15 502 220 1024 Jul 24 17:22 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 0 0 1024 Jul 24 17:18 bin
drwxr-xr-x 2 0 0 1024 Jul 4 2000 dev
drwxr-xr-x 5 0 0 4096 Mar 14 2001 drive0
drwxr-xr-x 6 0 0 4096 Nov 2 2001 drive1
drwxr-xr-x 4 0 0 1024 Jul 24 17:22 empeg
drwxr-xr-x 3 0 0 1024 Sep 15 1999 etc
drwxr-xr-x 2 0 0 1024 Feb 9 2000 lib
drwx------ 2 0 0 12288 Jul 24 17:22 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 2 0 0 1024 Jun 2 1999 mnt
dr-xr-xr-x 28 0 0 0 Aug 17 00:42 proc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 3 Jul 24 17:22 sbin -> bin
lrwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 10 Jul 24 17:22 swapfile -> ./dev/hda6
drwxr-xr-x 2 0 0 1024 Apr 13 1999 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 4 0 0 1024 Feb 6 2000 usr
drwxr-xr-x 3 0 0 1024 Aug 28 1999 var
empeg:/empeg/bin#

Calvin

empeg:/empeg/bin# cd /
empeg:/# umount /drive0
empeg:/# umount /drive1
empeg:/# ls drive0
empeg:/# ls drive1
empeg:/# fsck drive0
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
empeg:/# mount
/dev/root on / type ext2 (ro)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
empeg:/# fsck /dev/hda4
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda4 is mounted.
/dev/hda4: clean, 4806/228352 files, 2488799/7304850 blocks
empeg:/# fsck /dev/hdc4
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hdc4 is mounted.
/dev/hdc4: clean, 23839/228352 files, 2507951/7304850 blocks
empeg:/#

I rebooted, then tried to sync again, and it does not sync. It just reboots instantly when a sync is attempted. (!?)

Calvin

Right. It claimed both filesystems were clean. So go back, do it again, and add a `-f' option to fsck to force it to actually check the filesystems. That is, ``fsck -f /dev/hda4'', etc. Make sure you remember to umount them first again.

Note that I have no idea if this is actually where your problem lies or not.

I am not able to sync tunes or playlists over. I am able to sync the config.ini file over. Strange right? If I attempt to sync over a tune or a playlist, and it fails in the following manner.



Calvin

Ah, it's not even trying to synch. It's not getting that far. It wants to do a disk check, and the disk check is failing.

It's actually now a different error than before. So it's failing at a different place.

The following is a more detailed manual fsck, as per the FAQ, but alas, with the same results. I don't really see an error, except for the "no such file or directory" thing, but I'm told that is normal? So if that's the case, there is theoretically nothing wrong but it will not sync. :-( The good news is I can still *listen* to music, I can still operate the hijack web server, the hijack ftp server, etc etc. Nothing else seems out of the ordinary.

empeg:/empeg/bin# cd /
empeg:/# ro
empeg:/# umount /dev/hda4
empeg:/# umount /dev/hdc4
empeg:/# swapon /swapfile
Adding Swap: 16596k swap-space (priority -1)
empeg:/# fsck -fay /
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda5 is mounted.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/hda5: 1527/4096 files (0.5% non-contiguous), 9701/16384 blocks
empeg:/# fsck -fay /dev/hda4
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda4 is mounted.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/hda4: 4806/228352 files (3.5% non-contiguous), 2488799/7304850 blocks
empeg:/# fsck -fay /dev/hdc4
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hdc4 is mounted.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/hdc4: 23845/228352 files (0.7% non-contiguous), 2507959/7304850 blocks
empeg:/# swapoff /swapfile
empeg:/# sync


Calvin

Is there anything else he can try short of reformatting? Maybe a fresh install of emplode on a different computer?

Stu

Does anyone know precisely what's happening during ``Checking Media''? I would think that it would be a cursory fsck, but, given that it's working properly from the command line, that wouldn't seem to be the case.

Do you have any third party software running on the empeg? If so, try disabling it all and then try to sync again.

Perhaps not reformatting. Perhaps a fresh load of a standard upgrade would be enough. It would wipe the root partition, but leave the music intact. Question: are you syncing over ethernet, USB or (heaven forefend) serial?

yeah, i was just about to say. i've encountered this problem when i ran a userland app that was on my music drive. if you kill -hup all the 3rd party, you should be able to sync.

Why SIGHUP? While, by default, it will kill a process, it's often overridden to do something else, usually restart. SIGTERM (15) would be a much more obvious choice to kill a process.

I did. It makes no difference. I even downgraded to a fresh Beta 13, didn't work. I downgraded to Beta 11 even, and did not work.

Calvin

I put in a standard upgrade, I tried beta 13, and beta 11 with no luck. This is *completely* fresh. I ried ethernet, usb and serial. No luck. Doesn't sync.

Calvin

Was this ever resolved?

Stu

Not yet. I'm going to attempt to sync from a different computer this week. I'm still in the process of moving all my stuff from my ex-employer back home.

Calvin

[screenshot of error 0xc0041010]

Errors of the form 0xc0041??? are errno values being reported from the player. The ??? is the errno value, here 0x10 or 16, which is EBUSY. That error typically results from trying to unmount a filesystem that still has a file open on it. I know you've said there's nothing custom being run on your player, but nothing in the Empeg software should be holding a file open at that stage.

As it's obviously running fsck (the "no such file or directory" errors are indeed benign), the failure must be in remounting the filesystems afterwards.

Could you send me ([email protected]) an emplode log of a failed sync, please? (You can turn on logging in Emplode in Tools->Options->Troubleshooting.)

Peter

After a spate of computer problems I finally got around to attempting to sync to my empeg from a completely different machine and I get the exact same problem.

Calvin

It's wednesday now, and I'm starting to get a little worried. :-( I haven't heard anything new from empeg support, and I haven't been able to sync music for a while now. :-(

Calvin

And you're absolutely sure that you've blasted a fresh beta13 onto the player, and not changed the default software in any way after the software installation, and the problem still happens?

Or are you still using a modified init?

Absolutely. I put a completely fresh beta 13 with NO changes and found the same error occured. I then put on a completely fresh beta 11 with NO changes (directly off the empeg support site, using the upgrade tool). This meant all the third party stuff was nuked off the system. I found that even beta 11 did not work so I concluded that the bug had nothing to do with version, and I then reloaded all my third party software (hijack, web site, etc) and still have the same error. Then on the off chance that perhaps the error was occuring because of a problem in the computer emplode was on, I installed emplode on a fresh computer and still have the same problem. Jemplode also has the same problem.

Calvin

have you tried to delete the database and recreate it? or just rename it at least, because if it doesnt work even after that.... no more music til we figure it out

I haven't done that, because what if emplode refuses to rebuild it? Then I will be out an empeg! At this moment my empeg works, in the sense that it plays and does everything it's supposed to... except sync. :-(

Calvin

thats why i said just move/rename all the files instead of actually deleting it.

I'll put it on the list of things to do. *sigh*

*crossing fingers*

Calvin

Just touching this thread again. Still waiting.

Calvin

If it happens from multiple clients, I don't know why you expect anything short of moving the database out of the way and rebuilding is going to help you.

That said, what are you waiting for?

And incidentally, what does /etc/fstab on the player contain? Better if you can attach the actual file rather than copying and pasting, but whatever.

I'll put it on the list of things to do. *sigh*

Have you tried this yet? Basically, something on the player (and as there's no 3rd-party stuff installed it must be our player software) is holding open a file on the music partition, which means the media check can't go ahead. The most likely type of bug that would cause this, would be some kind of bug in the database loading such that it failed, but left the file open. Renaming all three database files (database, tags, playlists) out of the way and rebooting, so that the player isn't loading any database files but is rebuilding the database on startup, would fix the problem if this is the case.

If, after doing this renaming, you can successfully synchronise, I'd like to see the original database files that caused the problem. If, after doing the renaming, you can successfully synchronise once and then the problem comes back, I'd like to see the new database files too!

Sorry I haven't got back to you until now, but we're all (a) very busy and (b) stumped!

Peter

No problem. I'm am trying this now! You guys are the only big company that I have patience for. ;-) brb.

Calvin

#
# /etc/fstab
#
# <device> <mountpoint> <filesystemtype> <options> <dump> <fsckorder>
/dev/hda5 / ext2 defaults,ro 1 1
/dev/hda4 /drive0 ext2 defaults,ro 1 1
none /proc proc defaults

Where are the database, tags and playlists files located? I never had to mess with those before. I assume I have to repeat this for both drives?

Calvin

/drive0/var

Here's what happened. I renamed the files to database.old, tags.old and playlists.old. I set the disk to ro, then rebooted. Upon reboot it rebuilt databases. Then I ran emplode, and it ran down the list:

Initializing (check)
Connecting to player (check)
Getting player version information (check)
Checking database (check)
Checking media (X) (failed) -- Error 0xc0041010.

argh! :-( as if it can not get any worse, now it is worse. Before, I was able to connect to the player and view all the contents and playlists and click on items and "play" them remotely. Now opening emplode induces a "building database" on the empeg, and when that fails nothing opens up in emplode. oh crud. :-( I'll see what happens when I put the .old files back.

I'm on the player, (via telnet) and there are no database, playlists or tags file. Just the ".old" ones. Looks like it was simply not rebuilt??

Ok, restoring the .old files back fixed things back. Emplode can now read the database again. Back to square one again.

Calvin

Um. Hmmm. Did you ever send us your fstab?

Also, got strace for (on) your player?

Actually, the earlier errors scream that you have no /drive1 entry in /etc/fstab

Mine is:
/dev/hdc4 /drive1 ext2 defaults,ro 1 1

I'm on the player, (via telnet) and there are no database, playlists or tags file. Just the ".old" ones. Looks like it was simply not rebuilt??

Yes. Gosh. There must be something in your *1 files that the player really doesn't like.

Ok, restoring the .old files back fixed things back. Emplode can now read the database again. Back to square one again.

OK, could you email me ([email protected]) those three database files, please?

Peter

I added the line to my fstab, and the sync process still fails with the same result.

Peter has also determined my database files are OK. Nothing wrong with them. I have further steps and todos to look into. So far no progress. I'm going to remove hijack temporarily to test a few more things and will see if it helps. :-(

Calvin

Yes.

aftyer you added the line to fstab, did you reboot?

and actually, log into the player, umount /drive1
then ls /drive1

is there stuff there? if so, mount /dev/hdc4 /mnt
and then move everything from /drive1 into /mnt
umount /mnt
and reboot.

aftyer you added the line to fstab, did you reboot?

Nothing on the player actually uses /etc/fstab, not even fsck. The /etc/fstab on fresh-from-Empeg upgrades doesn't, in fact, contain a line for /drive1. Fsck scans /proc/mounts if you pass it a mountpoint. And anyway, it's not fsck that's failing; umount(2) on /dev/hdc4 (which the player does before spawning fsck) is giving EBUSY.

and actually, log into the player, umount /drive1
then ls /drive1

He did this upthread somewhere. Nothing's in there.

Peter

Is it an empeg feature that his kernel boot log indicates that the second drive is /dev/hdb, while everyone in the thread is talking about /dev/hdc. I don't have two drives to verify, but to me this looks like it could be caused by a mk1 image that was installed on a mk2 player.

In any case, ps (or better lsof) could be used to see whether any unusual processes are running that have open filehandles on /drive1.

Is it an empeg feature that his kernel boot log indicates that the second drive is /dev/hdb, while everyone in the thread is talking about /dev/hdc.

On a Mark 1 the drives are primary master and secondary master. On a Mark 2 the drives are primary master and primary slave. For software compatibility reasons, the block special devices with filenames "/dev/hdc*" in a Mark 2 image, have the major/minor numbers associated with primary slave, not the ones associated with secondary master.

This is a filthy and bletcherous hack IMO, but that's how it's always been done and everyone else in the world apart from Eternalsun can sync to 2-drive car players. If Eternalsun had a Mark 1 image, he wouldn't be able to sync to it over Ethernet (and these days I don't think it would even boot).

In any case, ps (or better lsof) could be used to see whether any unusual processes are running that have open filehandles on /drive1.

I bunged Eternalsun a player build that does lsof "by steam" just before doing a sync -- at least for the player's own process. It showed that the player had no files open on /drive1. Once he's tried it with no Hijack and no other 3rd-party software, that'll rule out anyone having fd's open on the second drive.

Peter

Incidentally, at any point in this diagnostic process, did we ever have a look at his config.ini? Just to see if anything was strange. Or did we try erasing his config.ini and starting from scratch?

did we ever have a look at his config.ini?

We have it in our text editor at the moment. We can see nothing wrong with it. We note that there's some hijack stuff at the bottom of it (is that a cleartext password?) but nothing that could in any way be a problem.

Peter (Incorrigibly plural)

Might be worth a try to have him remove all the hijack stuff temporarily, especially the password, and see if that fixes it.

Later, we'll decide whether we're schizophrenic or not.

Hmm, Hijack stuff. Password. kFTP server.

ftp myplayer
cd /drive0/var/fids

Will that mark the filesystem in use, the same way as a process with that current working directory would? I bet it wouldn't show up with lsof, either...

Will that mark the filesystem in use, the same way as a process with that current working directory would?

If there's a kernel thread for kftpd that has that directory as its CSD, then yes. Whether that's true or not depends on how kftpd works -- I haven't looked.

I bet it wouldn't show up with lsof, either...

Probably not. (lsof lists the CSDs of user processes on my PC, but not those of any kernel threads.)

Peter

Hijack kftpd/khttpd do not set CWD when browsing. Each file access is from the root level again (nice convenient hack, small performance cost).

It might be possible that they may have forgotten to close a file somewhere, but not likely.

Cheers

Uh..guys....a question from a mere mortal....Obviously this poor lad has been having some terrible problems...to the point that I would not want to ever upgrade the software on my system (Using B2.13). Aside from possible sorting out some minor sync issues via XP, would I ever need to upgrade to a newer realease, and would I ever by chance encounter problems such as the one here if I were to leave 2.13 in my system till hell freezes over?

Please say no!

Thanks...Ed

Ed, I don't think the problems described in this thread are due to the software upgrade. Don't be afraid to upgrade to 2.0b13 or any of the other empeg releases. Everyone else has done so and not had any problems. The situation being debugged in this thread must be something else we haven't nailed down yet.

And since this thread's being brought up again...

Calvin, did you ever check the player for loose solder joints on your IDE header?

I asked for the same problem and someone answered me to stop any process launched by Preinit.

When I stop empacman and Emptris (I start it in a script) then I can sync my player.

I have a MK2a , 1 HDD ....

I first tried to reinstall Beta13, nothing to do ....

The only way I have to sync is that I removed my preinit scripts ....

Thanks, Nosferatu, but I was asking Calvin. He'd said that he had the problem even with the stock software. The problem with other applications preventing the synch is already known and was one of the first things we checked at the top of this thread.

Sorry, It seems even I read all the threads, I haven t all understand ...

I also ran into this problem today trying to sync and the past few days messin with preinit/launcher/TTS.

I ended up taking out launcher and it seems to be working now. I'll play with the different aspects of launcher again to see if it was a certain item that might have caused it.

So, where did this ever get to? I am having a very similar problem.

Thanks.

I am also having a similar problem. Say I drag 80 songs into a playlist, and hit sync. it goes through all the motions, only very fast. It thinks it's complete, but alas, nothing has changed on my player. I am running 2.0 final /w Hijack 340. Also running is emphatic, running on a non - music partition. (Hence no errors on disk integrety check). Oh, I cannot even delete a song. (well, I can, but not if I use the playlists tree. If I used all tracks, it allowed me to delete. Tres bizarre.

I also noticed some bizarre behavior this morning. I was playing a Zeppelin tune I've played a thousand times before and it started to skip. Badly. I hit next, and that song was skipping too. I yanked the player out and slid it back in, all booted and started playing smoothly with no problem. I then wanted to see if emphatic was causing the problem, so I launched it. Then all my keypresses stopped responding except for pause. Very strange.

I've had the problem with skipping/pops with known good songs and it turned out to be a flakey IDE cable. I recrimped it and it's been working fine ever since. I've email Rob to buy a new one but he hasn't replied yet. No hurry anyway as I said it's working perfectly so far.

[edit]If you can connect to the serial port when it's skipping you should see loads of HD errors. This is assuming it happens reasonably often.[/edit]

- Trevor

Cool, I'll try it. Thanks.