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author | Solomon Peachy <pizza@shaftnet.org> | 2024-09-21 11:00:53 -0400 |
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committer | Solomon Peachy <pizza@shaftnet.org> | 2024-09-21 11:00:53 -0400 |
commit | 5d6e4981788c7e9a2fdd710d598cd10cb8f6b6dc (patch) | |
tree | c3b5e88c636115899e74809601db3c93084384e9 /manual/getting_started/installation.tex | |
parent | 9a714939e818f09fa6f693ebc6926ed0ae5b436d (diff) | |
download | rockbox-5d6e4981788c7e9a2fdd710d598cd10cb8f6b6dc.tar.gz rockbox-5d6e4981788c7e9a2fdd710d598cd10cb8f6b6dc.zip |
manual: Document storage/capacity limits and "SSD Mods"
Change-Id: Ida3e4bc2129bfa3481ddcc961f4156c3033189a1
Diffstat (limited to 'manual/getting_started/installation.tex')
-rw-r--r-- | manual/getting_started/installation.tex | 57 |
1 files changed, 57 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/manual/getting_started/installation.tex b/manual/getting_started/installation.tex index b59a4e1f38..633f8ac4ad 100644 --- a/manual/getting_started/installation.tex +++ b/manual/getting_started/installation.tex | |||
@@ -268,6 +268,63 @@ of before installing. | |||
268 | \end{description} | 268 | \end{description} |
269 | } | 269 | } |
270 | 270 | ||
271 | \subsection{Storage/Capacity Limits} | ||
272 | |||
273 | \note{As of this writing, no Rockbox-capable device can handle | ||
274 | total drive capacities exceeding than 2TiB.} | ||
275 | |||
276 | \opt{disk_storage}{ | ||
277 | Rockbox supports larger drive capacities when used on devices | ||
278 | that use ATA storage and GPT partitioning, but due to the limitations | ||
279 | of the FAT32 filesystem, individual paritions cannot exceed 2TiB. Additionally, | ||
280 | there are typically underlying platform limitations that | ||
281 | make it difficult, if not impossible, to boot from a GPT-partitioned | ||
282 | drive. | ||
283 | } | ||
284 | |||
285 | \opt{sd_storage}{ | ||
286 | \note{SD cards exceeding 32GiB are pre-formated using the exFAT filesystem with GPT paritioning. | ||
287 | Before they can be used with Rockbox, they must be reformatted with FAT32.} | ||
288 | |||
289 | Rockbox does not currently support SDUC cards with capacities exceeding 2TiB. However, this is purely | ||
290 | a software limitation with Rockbox's SD card drivers, and will be addressed in a future release. | ||
291 | } | ||
292 | |||
293 | \opt{disk_storage}{ | ||
294 | \subsection{Flash/SSD mods} | ||
295 | It is common to replace the device's original mechanical hard drive with | ||
296 | some sort of solid-state storage. Older versions of Rockbox (3.15 or prior) do not work properly with many | ||
297 | of these so-called ``flash mods'', the most common symptom being data corruption on write operations. All | ||
298 | known data integrity issues have been resolved, but each type of adapter has its own quirks: | ||
299 | \begin{description} | ||
300 | \item[Compact Flash.] True Compact Flash cards \emph{natively} implement the ATA command set, including | ||
301 | advanced power management and the \emph{removeable} attribute. They are performant, reliable, and physically | ||
302 | robust, but tend to be expensive and not available in larger sizes. | ||
303 | \item[SATA.] These are fast, reliable, and available in high capacities, but are typically optimized for high performance | ||
304 | at the expense of power consumption.. However, as they implement the full ATA command set, we are able | ||
305 | to aggressively power them down when not being actively used. | ||
306 | \item[Single Secure Digital (SD).] While these adapters come in different form factors from multiple vendors, | ||
307 | they are all based on the same basic design. The ATA command set is \emph{incompletely emulated}, notably lacking | ||
308 | support for the \emph{mandatory} ATA power management commands that Rockbox uses to flush caches and safely | ||
309 | transition the device in and out of low power states. Additionally, SD cards themselves vary widely in quality | ||
310 | and power consumption, leading to widely varying battery life. Finally, they do not support SDUC cards at all so are | ||
311 | limited to individual cards of 2TiB or less. | ||
312 | \item[Dual/Quad SD.] These are similar to the above, only allowing use of mulitiple SD cards to | ||
313 | increase the overall storage capacity. While typically described as JBOD\footnote{Just a Bunch Of Disks}, this is not accurate as each | ||
314 | card is not individually accessable. Instead, the adapter claims to be to be a single logical drive | ||
315 | that is the combined capacity of the individual cards in a RAID0-like manner. This also means that if any | ||
316 | one card fails, you lose everything. Combined with the poor quality of most SD cards and the lack of support | ||
317 | for proper power management, this means use of multiple SD cards in one of these adapters is the reliable and most | ||
318 | power hungry solution of all. Finally, in another violation of the ATA specification, these ATA<->SD adapters fail | ||
319 | to support addresses exceeding 32 bits, meaning that no matter which combination of cards is used, they simply will | ||
320 | not work if their combined capacity exceeds 2TiB. | ||
321 | \item | ||
322 | All of these flash/SSD mods take up less physical space in the device enclosure than the original hard drive, so care | ||
323 | must be taken to ensure they are securely mounted and resistant to the vibration and impacts that typically occur | ||
324 | in portable devices. Ribbon cables are particularly vulnerable. | ||
325 | \end{description} | ||
326 | } | ||
327 | |||
271 | \section{Installing Rockbox}\label{sec:installing_rockbox}\index{Installation} | 328 | \section{Installing Rockbox}\label{sec:installing_rockbox}\index{Installation} |
272 | There are two ways to install Rockbox: automated and manual. The automated | 329 | There are two ways to install Rockbox: automated and manual. The automated |
273 | way is the preferred method of installing Rockbox for the majority of | 330 | way is the preferred method of installing Rockbox for the majority of |