iRiver E100's internal memory doesn't automount

Zibi1981 · 11-10-2008, 02:22 AM

Hi there!

I'm an Arch Linux user and recently I've bought iRiver E100 portable media player. I'm very satisfied with it and it works fine. The problem I have is related to connection with my Linux machine. Under Windows Vista after I connect my E100 through an USB port, two disks are being automounted - one for internal memory, and the other for external microSDHC card. Everything goes very smooth there and I'm connecting my iRiver in MSC(UMS) format. As everyone can imagine things won't go so smooth under Linux... The device is being properly recognized

Code:

bash-3.2# lsusb
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0c45:62c0 Microdia
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 046d:c50e Logitech, Inc. MX-1000 Cordless Mouse Receiver
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001
Bus 001 Device 011: ID 4102:1041 iRiver, Ltd.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001

but my KDE environment automounts only microSDHC card. Here's the main system log for the whole operation

Code:

Oct 29 23:43:33 felipe usb 1-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
Oct 29 23:43:34 felipe usb 1-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8
Oct 29 23:43:34 felipe usb 1-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 9
Oct 29 23:43:58 felipe usb 1-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 11
Oct 29 23:43:58 felipe usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Oct 29 23:43:58 felipe scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     iriver   E100                  PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 15667200 512-byte hardware sectors (8022 MB)
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 15667200 512-byte hardware sectors (8022 MB)
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sdb:
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe scsi 4:0:0:1: Direct-Access     iriver   E100                  PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:1: [sdc] 15946752 512-byte hardware sectors (8165 MB)
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:1: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:1: [sdc] 15946752 512-byte hardware sectors (8165 MB)
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:1: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sdc:
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:1: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
Oct 29 23:44:03 felipe sd 4:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
Oct 29 23:44:08 felipe hald: mounted /dev/sdc on behalf of uid 500

As you can all see the bottom line tells that HAL is mounting only /dev/sdc, which is aforementioned microSDHC card. The internal memory can be accessed only after manual mounting. Then it's working fine, but it's a very uncomfortable.
Now I know several people have had similar issues, as descriptions of these are all over the Internet, especially on Ubuntu forums. Unfortunately I wasn't very lucky with finding proper solution. Can anyone help me with this?

P.S.1 My E100 works under firmware version 1.10 at the moment.
P.S.2 The entry in /usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/10-usb-music-players.fdi for my E100 seems to be O.K.

Code:

<!-- E100 -->
      <match key="@storage.originating_device:usb.product_id" int="0x1041">
            <addset key="portable_audio_player.access_method.protocols" type="strlist">storage</addset>
            <append key="portable_audio_player.output_formats" type="strlist">audio/x-ms-wma</append>
            <append key="portable_audio_player.output_formats" type="strlist">application/ogg</append>
            <append key="portable_audio_player.output_formats" type="strlist">audio/flac</append>
            <append key="portable_audio_player.input_formats" type="strlist">audio/mpeg</append>
        <append key="portable_audio_player.playlist_format" type="strlist">audio/x-iriver-pla</append>
        <append key="portable_audio_player.playlist_path" type="strlist">Playlists/%File</append>
            <append key="portable_audio_player.audio_folders" type="strlist">Music/</append>
            <append key="portable_audio_player.audio_folders" type="strlist">Recordings/</append>
          </match>
    </match>

      </match>
    </match>

trickykid · 11-10-2008, 04:15 PM

So does it mount if you manually mount it?

Zibi1981 · 11-11-2008, 03:05 AM

Yes, as I described above it does. The command that does the trick is something like

Code:

mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /xxx/xxx

But how to make hald do it automatically, like it does with the SDHC card?

Zibi1981 · 11-12-2008, 03:26 PM

Can anyone give me a clue or something? I'm stuck with this at the moment

Zibi1981 · 11-14-2008, 05:02 PM

I was finally able to locate and solve the problem. It seemed that after manual mounting the internal memory was accessible in read-only mode. Moreover QtParted wasn't able to recognize it's filesystem, whereas it didn't have such problems with external microSDHC card. Those brought me a thought, that it could be something wrong with the filesystem, especially as it was created by iRiver's software (it has an option to format it's memory). So I decided to re-format the internal memory under Windows and now everything is O.K.

Here's the output of dmesg

Code:

usb 4-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
usb 4-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usb-storage: device found at 7
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access     iriver   E100                  PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 15667200 512-byte hardware sectors (8022 MB)
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 12 00 00
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 15667200 512-byte hardware sectors (8022 MB)
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 12 00 00
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sdb:
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
scsi 3:0:0:1: Direct-Access     iriver   E100                  PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
sd 3:0:0:1: [sdc] 15946752 512-byte hardware sectors (8165 MB)
sd 3:0:0:1: [sdc] Write Protect is off
sd 3:0:0:1: [sdc] Mode Sense: 00 12 00 00
sd 3:0:0:1: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 3:0:0:1: [sdc] 15946752 512-byte hardware sectors (8165 MB)
sd 3:0:0:1: [sdc] Write Protect is off
sd 3:0:0:1: [sdc] Mode Sense: 00 12 00 00
sd 3:0:0:1: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sdc:
sd 3:0:0:1: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 3:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete

netfreighter · 12-26-2008, 03:36 PM

Hi,
I would like to add to that a few words on how to enable support for writing files in Linux on the iriver E100 internal memory using just Linux tools (without having to format the memory in Vista).
I just bought the E100 and I had the same problem - the mp3 player did not automount on my Linux laptop. It also threw some odd errors.

What worked?
iriver E100 device settings
- set it to "UM mode" (the player has 2 USB connection modes) and used its menu to also "format" the device to use this connection type
- then turn off and plug in the Linux computer

steps on Linux PC (no Windows needed)
- plug in the E100 with the usb cable
- unmount the device (in case it mounts somehow) to be able to format it

Code:

# umount /dev/sdc

- format the partition with msdos fs (as root, of course)

Code:

# mkfs.msdos -I /dev/sdc

- note that /dev/sdc here could also be /dev/sda/ or sdb, depending on number of devices one has mounted
- then turn off the iriver E100 and unplug it
- plug back in and the iriver automounts and is writeable by the current user; on my Linux box it shows up as "iriver E100: 7.5 GB Removable Volume"
- start loading songs!

So no Windows needed.
Testing environment (quite an old kernel!) is
Debian Linux with Gnome and 2.6.18-6-686 kernel.

So far I only tested with copying a few mp3 files and regular .txt files and both work on the E100, but I read that to display pictures and format videos, the conversion software is required and that only is available for Windows. If anyone has tested those with Linux let me know.
Also should soon check out if it works on MacOS X on the iMac.

Thanks for the post, it helped get it done, in fact just did what the original post here said, only without need for Windows.

Note: This is not a review of the E100, just a note on how to use its internaly memory with Linux. Anyone has an idea where to post such a review when done writing it? Here is not the place.

P.S. Formatting the iriver E100 from Linux using mkfs.msdos worked on my device which has firmware version 1.04.

Zibi1981 · 12-27-2008, 01:40 PM

Unfortunately after latest firmware update (ver. 1.13) I'm back to the start point. I had to reformat my internal memory using my iRiver's firmware, as otherwise iRiverPlus3 wouldn't update it - it was complaining of corrupted firmware or similar. Now of course I could reformat it again, but it's quite pointless, as this has to be repeated every time there'll be new firmware released! Maybe someone will find better solution than this workaround...

P.S. There's also possibility to manually update the firmware, but it's more complicated, requires more effort and still I don't get the answer why Linux tools doesn't properly recognize the FS created by E100 itself.

BostonPeng · 09-02-2009, 08:27 AM

I meant to post this sooner but my mobo had developed enough issues that I forgot to post it before my comp died. I tried netfreighter's steps and still had some issues, but I tried a slightly different method that works beautifully.

Backup all of the data from your E100 to your hard drive, including the following
- /E100.sys
- /tuner.dat
- /System/Rating.bin
- any media/text files you currently have on your E100
Go to System > Advanced and select Format Internal Memory
Once the format is completed connect it to your GNU/Linux box. It should autoload as E100, and you can then drag and drop your backed up files with no data loss.

Those steps worked for me on Ubuntu Linux 9.04, and the automount may work due to steps I followed previously that didn't work so well. Of course YMMV.*

-----
*YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary

Zibi1981 · 09-06-2009, 04:19 PM

Well, to be honest I didn't experienced this issue since I've had a clean install of Arch Linux x86_64 with KDE 4.3-branch. Now my E100 internal and external memory auto-mounts beautifully

Szergio · 09-27-2010, 08:39 AM

Thanks! It also works with the E150.