SD/SDHC card problems? Click here.

[andrewthecoder]

In theory, all SD and SDHC cards should work perfectly when using Rockbox on the Cowon D2/D2+.

However in practice this does not seem to be true, as people have reported problems with certain cards not working and at least one card has been certified to not work.

The aim of this thread is to catalogue (if possible) cards which do and do not work.
If you own an SD/SDHC card (or several), I would appreciate it if you could PM me with the details in this format:

1) Brand name (SanDisk, Kingston, A-DATA, PNY etc.)
2) Model name / Product line ("ultra II", "premium series" etc.)
3) Capacity (512MB, 4GB, 16GB, 32GB etc.)
4) Image (entirely optional but if you could take a photo/scan of the card it would aid identification as there may be several slight variations of the same spec card from the same manufacturer)
5) Supplier (ebay.com, amazon.com etc.)
6) Functional with Rockbox? Yes/No/Partially (give details)


Whenever I receive a PM, i'll confirm it has the info required and update this post.

To anybody who bothers to do this, thankyou very much
Hopefully we can help advise people who wish to buy a card which will work, and perhaps help figure out why some cards don't work.

-Andrew


Responses:

1) A-Data
2) Turbo Secure Digital SDHC CL6 Memory Card
3) 32GB
4) Image
5) memoryc.com
6) Working perfectly


P.S - here is the contents of this post before I edited it and changed the aim of this thread, for reference and to dispel confusion;

I created this thread so anybody who has trouble with Rockbox regarding SD/SDHC support could post here instead of making a new thread.
Also, anybody who finds it works perfectly may

I'll start

I don't seem to be able to get it working properly on any of my cards, SD or SDHC.
Following my own instructions does not work - precisely, the following happens:

Rockbox bootloader revision 21979 loads Rockbox successfully.
The first thing once the bootloader hands over control to the Rockbox binary is two errors; "No .rockbox directory" then "Installation Incomplete".
The menu then shows up, but white text on black background with no graphics.
Trying to play a song gives me the above errors again, then a few errors about not being able to load codecs, and fails to play.

Movingthe .rockbox directory from the SD card to the internal memory allows Rockbox to boot normally into the usual usable-but-readonly system. (as long as the SD card is not inserted - if it is, the bootloader fails to find the rockbox binary. Perhaps a fallback should be implemented if rockbox is not found on the SD card?)

The Rockbox build I am using is 21884, since that is what I get from http://build.rockbox.org/dist/build-cowond2/rockbox.zip

The bootloader I am using, as mentioned above is 21979 (patched into the firmware files for the how to guide)

The same happens on all four cards I own - two 32GB, one 16GB, one 256MB.

I would be very grateful if anybody who has Rockbox working perfectly from an SD card could tell me what they did exactly, and/or if anybody has any advice for me.

Thanks,
Andrew

P.S - well done shotofadds, awesome achievement despite my problems. I'd call this a pretty big milestone for the D2 port, no?

[shotofadds]

Originally Posted by andrewthecoder

I'd call this a pretty big milestone for the D2 port, no?

It would be if it worked!

The good news is that, since you tried 4 cards and none of them worked (and I haven't seen a single other report of cards not working), there's a good chance that you're just doing something wrong...

When you get the "No .rockbox directory" error, does the File browser show any files at all? Are they files from the SD, NAND, or none at all? Make sure "General Settings" -> "File View" -> "Show Files" is set to "All" or you might not see any files except music...

All I did was:

1. Build bootloader from r21976
2. Patch it into a Cowon firmware using mktccboot (I used 4.02+ , but that won't make any difference)
3. Flash it to the D2
4. Unzip rockbox.zip r21976 to the root of your SD card.

Alternatively, you could try using an old bootloader, and just unzip rockbox.zip r21976 to the root of the internal memory. You should still be able to see files on the SD card in the File browser...

EDIT: If it boots as far as a "No .rockbox folder" error, it means it successfully powered up the card and mounted the FAT filesystem, but the expected files were not present. The only two possibilities are that 1) the files really aren't on the card or 2) for some reason the card became un-mounted during bootup. I don't know what would cause that.

EDIT2: Also, what font was the error displayed in?

[shotofadds]

Just a thought, it's possible that this change broke it:

http://svn.rockbox.org/viewvc.cgi?vi...revision=21981

I haven't tested this change yet since I was at work when he committed it. I'll check and see...

EDIT: Yes, confirmed here too. Until it's fixed, make sure you use a version between r21976-r21980.

[andrewthecoder]

Originally Posted by shotofadds

there's a good chance that you're just doing something wrong

I hope so ;-)

When you get the "No .rockbox directory" error, does the File browser show any files at all? Are they files from the SD, NAND, or none at all?

Good point - NAND only.

What *I* did was:

1. Build bootloader from r21979
2. Patch it into a Cowon firmware using mktccboot (I use firmware 1.11)
3. Flash it to the D2
4. Unzip rockbox.zip r21884 from the build service to the root of my SD card.

EDIT2: Also, what font was the error displayed in?

I don't know - browsing Settings->Theme->Font does nothing... other than make the battery icon flash in the corner (!).
It is a fixed-width, roughly 6px font? (the same as the revision text on the bottom of the bootloader screen)

Originally Posted by shotofadds

Just a thought, it's possible that this change broke it:

http://svn.rockbox.org/viewvc.cgi?vi...revision=21981

I haven't tested this change yet since I was at work when he committed it. I'll check and see...

EDIT: Yes, confirmed here too. Until it's fixed, make sure you use a version between r21976-r21980.

Uhhh, not sure how that could have affected it, since I haven't used any revision later than 21979?

[shotofadds]

Except you said in your first post:

The Rockbox build I am using is 21884, since that is what I get from http://build.rockbox.org/dist/build-cowond2/rockbox.zip

Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix it so you'll have to use an older version for now (eg. do "svn up -r21976" before building and you should be ok).

EDIT: You'll get 21984 from that link, not 21884.

[kulhous]

For me it's 100% stable and functional. I used this procedure
1. copied .rockbox (recent release) to SD root (and deleted the one I had on the internal memory. I read it should be either on IM or on SD)
2. flashed to 2.11
3. used recently uploaded patched 2.11 fw (from "how to" topic)
4. booted RB as usual
For me it's really milestone of D2 RB. I appriciate constant enthusiasm of our developers

NB: when I switch on D2 and boot RB, display shows first splashscreen of RB "boot version 21979" and than changes to second with "version 21977" both with today's date. Is that normal? (I assume that first splash is from bootloader and second from RB itself)

[andrewthecoder]

Originally Posted by shotofadds

Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix it so you'll have to use an older version for now (eg. do "svn up r21976" before building and you should be ok).

EDIT: You'll get 21984 from that link, not 21884.

Nope, I definitely get 21884 from that link.

Which tells me two things;
1) I am an idiot for not realizing that was an old revision in the first place
Obviously that revision is too old (no SD support, hence my problems - the bootloader loaded the binary but rockbox was looking for files on the internal memory)

2) The link I was using is not providing the latest, but revision 21884 - http://build.rockbox.org/dist/build-cowond2/rockbox.zip
Not sure why that is, but the current link (from the dev page) is http://build.rockbox.org/data/rockbox-cowond2.zip and seems to work fine.
I wonder why it was changed...?

Anyway, having copied my own build to my SD card, all works perfectly =)
Thankyou very very much - as I use 32GB SD cards, this now means I can switch fully to Rockbox on my player!

Just to clarify, I did;

linux-pzb8:~/rockbox # svn update
linux-pzb8:~/rockbox # cd devel-d2-build
linux-pzb8:~/rockbox/devel-d2-build # make
linux-pzb8:~/rockbox/devel-d2-build # make zip
linux-pzb8:~/rockbox/devel-d2-build # unzip rockbox.zip -d /media/32GB_SDHC_2
linux-pzb8:~/rockbox/devel-d2-build # umount /dev/sdc1

Also, I'm not sure how you "confirmed" that gevearts' r21981 broke something, but 21984 is working perfectly right now for me on my SD card.

[Biaxident]

I had the same expirience as andrewthecoder first post and I followed his guide.
tried on kingston 16GB.
I only see folders from internal memory when in "file"
says 21979 build when loading firmware, but says 21884 in system/rockbox info

any other info I can provide that should help?

[andrewthecoder]

@Biaxident: Please re-do step 5, I have updated the link =)

[shotofadds]

Right, there's a whole load of issues here.

1) The Rockbox build system changed a few days ago, and you're quite right, that link no longer works (how stupid of me, I was confused by the version number!). I need to change all the references to this now.

2) When I updated to r21981 my D2 did not boot properly from the SD card I was using. It hangs for at least 10 seconds, and then boots from the internal memory only.

3) This seems to because my 16Gb SDHC is destroyed. It doesn't work in a PC card reader either. Other cards work fine in the D2. Not happy at all.

Moral of the story:

BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHICH CARDS YOU USE. EXPECT THINGS TO GO WRONG. YOU RUN THE RISK OF DESTROYING YOUR CARDS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Please don't use any valuable cards with Rockbox until this driver has seen plenty more testing and we have more confidence in it.

[andrewthecoder]

1) Ah, ok, well they probably ought to stop the old link from working, or at least redirect. (else there could be a *lot* of confusion)

2/3) Uh oh, that's not too good. That said, I really can't see how the driver could totally screw a card like that - short of applying too high/low voltages, the controller inside the SD card itself should not be affected by anything the computer sends to it.

I have two spare 16GB cards which work, but don't have the plastic case, if that would help you at all? I don't have any plastic cases to put them in so can't use them (they work in my usb card reader if I hold them in the right position)

Well, I've updated my guide to have a big warning at the top - I would have removed the mention of SD cards completely and reverted to read-only internal instructions, but I figured the SD driver isn't going to see much more testing unless other brave/nonchalant/ignorant people try it and report any problems that may occur, right?
(besides, I've been playing music from my 32GB SDHC in Rockbox for the past hour with no problems)

P.S - I have an unrelated irk which I am wondering if you have ever experienced; on the WPS, there is a straight-ish, 2 pixel-ish, multicoloured pixelated line across the screen, from far left to far right, just above the progress bar. It is not affected by the SD card. It is very strange, I would expect a quirk like that to at least be straight, but this seems to be slightly wavy (by a few pixels either direction in places)
I'll take a photo of it and try out a few revisions to try and narrow it down.

[Biaxident]

Originally Posted by andrewthecoder

@Biaxident: Please re-do step 5, I have updated the link =)

works fine now!
it reads files form internal and external.
the screen sometimes flashes, not sure it this is a known problem.
thank you two so much

[andrewthecoder]

Please make sure you read the text in BID RED LETTERS at the top of the guide

[bkd11]

First of all I want to thank you for all your hard work. I sure picked a bad day to forget my d2. I've been waiting for this day since the Rockbox "hello world" was first booted on the d2. I will definitly be testing this tonight when I get home.

Originally Posted by shotofadds

This seems to because my 16Gb SDHC is destroyed.

Sorry to hear about your card. If you set up a PayPal donation link i'm sure people (myself included) would be willing to help you replace it.
Just wondering if you tried the Panasonic formatting tool to see if that could recognize your card.

[Biaxident]

Originally Posted by andrewthecoder

Please make sure you read the text in BID RED LETTERS at the top of the guide

yeah, didn't bother to read at first because I was hyped, I'll wait for more testing form others before I'll switch rockbox again.
worked for me for that little while though.

sorry to hear about your card shotofadds, I'll be glad to help it the way bkd11 suggested.