Everytime I put new music on my empeg the sync fails when it's rebuilding the database. Actually what happens is the rebuild takes longer on the empeg than emplode allows for and when emplode reaches the end of the rebuilding databases progress bar it crashes and the sync fails. Then I have to go through the pain in the ass serial rebuild. This wouldn't be so bad except for my desktop doesn't have a serial or even a parallel port so I have to break out my old pc, hook it up and rebuild....PAIN!!! What the hell is causing these annoying problems!? Please help!!

I have a MKIIA with a 250gb WD hdd and using the developers version.

Doesn't solve your problem, but you can get a USB->Serial adapter for like $3. Seems like it would be less trouble than dragging out the old computer.

Perhaps your music db is getting too large now and causing timeouts. You can always try using mp3tofid https://github.com/empeg/mp3tofid to add tunes to your player. Or you might have better luck with the timeout issue if you try using Jemplode. I'm not sure, but I think I remember reading or being told that version 3 of the empeg software builds doesn't always sync with emplode and that certain 3rd party apps that automatically load during boot and that are running while trying to sync might interfere with the process so if you've added any apps around the time this problem started occurring, it's best to exit those apps or stop them from auto-loading in the boot sequence. That's my 2 cents - I hope it helps.

Not familiar with mp3 to fid, how do I use it? I do have a large db of files, probably 35-45,000 files maybe more, maybe less. Do I need to do anything special to the hdd before hand? Should I rebuild it before I use the mp3 to fid?


thanks

Here's my hyperterminal output if it helps....




























empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 (hugo@empeg.com)
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 kerne
l.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg55-hijack-v508 (hijack@rtr.ca) (gcc version
2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Fri Jan 9 16:06:35 EST 2009
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 9
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read e28cc001
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 30102295) 16MB DRAM
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15000k/16M available (996k code, 20k reserved, 364k 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)
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 0x99380
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1
show_message("Hijack v508 by Mark Lord")
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 d0004e00).
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...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x8080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0xefff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xefff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xefff
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0xefff
hda: WDC WD2500BEVE-00WZT0, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: WDC WD2500BEVE-00WZT0, 238475MB w/8192kB Cache, CHS=30401/255/63, LBA48
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:26:08:f
7
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
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 initempeg 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
Tried to mount /dev/hdc4 but got error 6
Error mounting partitions (possibly already mounted)
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Press Starting player
Timezone: EST
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Abnormal player termination
Player received SIGINT, user interruption
Switching to shell-player loop
Starting bash.
Shell exit
Starting playTimezone: EST
er
Hijack: intercepting config.ini

hijack: removed menu entry: "Serial Port Assignment"
kftpd: listening on port 21
khttpd: listening on port 80
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.01 2004/07/06.
! tags.cpp : 61:Failed to open tags (0xc0041002).
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
No secondary hard disk
Abnormal player termination
Player received SIGINT, user interruption
Switching to shell-player loop
Starting bash.
empeg:/empeg/bin#

Hi,

Yup. That's the failure. I always have to do the commanded database rebuild when that happens.

I know it's a pain but what would you do without the foresight someone had to put the commanded database rebuild in the software?

At least you don't lose your database or have to reload it. Now, that would be real annoying!

Ross

Well, how do I prevent this from happening again? Every time I sync it happens.

Hi,

I always command a re-build through the serial link before I re-sync. It's just easier that way and it saves me time and frustration.

Ross

It's in the FAQ, somewhere..

This is from memory, and undoubtedly is missing a step or two:


rw
player
# wait for it to rebuild everything..
Control^C
ro
exit

I'm pretty sure he's doing that procedure, manually at the shell prompt, already. His problem is (if I'm reading him right) that he does that procedure, and it fixes the problem once. Then the next time he synchs with Emplode, the problem returns.

His theory is that it's because he's got so many songs that the database is too big, and it passes the Emplode timeout for database rebuilds. I'm not sure that's true, but certainly something is going wrong here, above and beyond what that FAQ entry covers.

If he's doing it correctly at the command-line, then emplode is not involved.

Not exactly what I meant, sorry. I'll try to be more specific.

That FAQ entry, that command-line fix, is supposed to be a single-shot fix that solves the problem permanently. It's supposed to correct the error so that you can then start synching with Emplode normally, and it works normally every time thereafter.

What he's saying is, after he applies the fix, the fix isn't permanent. The player works correctly once, immediately after he has done the command-line fix. But then, the next time he tries to run emplode, it re-induces the problem, and now the problem is back and then he has to do the fix again.

What he wants is a permanent fix that allows him to use emplode like the rest of us.

If the command-line thing isn't working, then something's wrong with the commands being used. So either the disks are not being set r/w for the operation, or perhaps the player is crashing.

Enabling swap for the operation would be a good idea to prevent most types of crashes.

Hi,

Thanks to Roger, this is what I do...

---------------------------
COMMANDED DATABASE RE-BUILD
---------------------------

If you get.....


! tags.cpp : 61:Failed to open tags (0xc0041002).


The database and playlist files were not created during the last build.

The player is capable of rebuilding the database completely from scratch.


Type q

rwm
cd /empeg/var
ls -la

If there is no Playlists or Database Files, they need to be created. There
are no tags, if there isn't a database or playlist for them to exist.


mount -n -o remount,rw,nocheck /drive0
mount -n -o remount,rw,nocheck /drive1 - only if it has two drives

Delete /empeg/var/{tags,playlists,database,database3} - if they exist.

Ctrl+D to restart the player and Wait. It will return the following when it completes the re-build.

Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Jul 5 2004
Vcb: 0x4086d000


Ctrl+C to stop player.

rom

Power Cycle the player
_________________________
-- roger



It works every time. Be sure to do the rom command.

Ross

You're right, but I think that you and Tony are arguing at cross-purposes. The fix in the FAQ deals with one-off database rebuild problems. Once done, it ought to be possible to run emplode again and again with no further problems.

Setting the disks r/w and rebuilding the database at the command line only works until the next time he runs emplode. Thus, it's not a permanent fix. In this case, the FAQ is incorrect. This fix is never going to be permanent in the face of emplode or player crashes while rebuilding the database.

That said: even if emplode crashes during the sync, the player is supposed to continue with the rebuild even without it.

Hey, deadsled13, I've never tried using mp3tofid so I can't help you with that option. Ask tonyc or one of these other carpal tunnel guys.

Tony is 100% correct. Everytime I do the the "building databases" fix from the FAQ it works great, just like it's supposed to. UNTIL I want to add new music and I try to sync with emplode and it times out during the final rebuild, almost like emplode doesn't want to wait for the empeg. Once the progress bar reaches it's end emplode crashes and the sync is ruined and I have to rebuild again via hyperterminal.

I didn't used to have this problem until I went with a single large hdd and it didn't start until after I filled it with a crap ton of music.

Okay, here's a question.

When the "progress bar reaches its end and emplode crashes"... What stage of the synch operation does that happen during? Does it happen during the "rebuilding music databases" stage of the synch operation?

If so, then what do you do? Do you reboot the empeg at that point? If so, that very thing might be the problem. I think what Roger is trying to say is, that if you left the empeg completely alone at that moment, and just let it sit there for a while, it should theoretically finish the database rebuild on its own without emplode's help.

Not sure if that's actually true in practice, but it's worth a try.

Yes, that's what happens. I honestly can't remember if I let it sit in the past, seems like I did and it didn't change anything, it takes a long time to rebuild the next time I power cycle.