So what do y'all think of 1.02?

Bug fixes mostly, but any interesting finds?

- Jon

Well, the release notes are available here.

But sofar sogood, interesting is this: (from release notes)
*developer image
fsck.ext2, fsck and mke2fs have been upgraded to the versions in e2fsprogs-1.19.

Is the new 2.4 kernel going to be placed into 1.2 or 2.0 ??
Seeing as 1.1 is pretty much finished (except for testing as Tony Fabris explains)

Smoker_Man
#080000449 MkII - 36Gb Blue

Is the new 2.4 kernel going to be placed into 1.2 or 2.0 ??

Upgrading the kernel is not easy - we need to forward port a lot of our custom drivers and do lots of testing.

We've already got a 2.4 based kernel running on other hardware and are quite please with it. We'd like to run a consistent kernel across all platforms so it will happen - just not soon.

--
Mike Crowe
I may not be speaking on behalf of empeg above :-)

In reply to:

---

So what do y'all think of 1.02

---

OK. I've got to ask these questions 'cos they've been bugging me for ages. Installing the latest Emplode has just prompted my posting them here.

1 - Why does Emplode installation require a company name? I don't have a company. OK, so it's only a small amount of effort to type in "n/a", but why should I have to do it in the first place.

2 - What the hell does "pumping partition" mean? Shouldn't that be changed to something a little more descriptive?

Nick.


--
18Gb blue (now AR red) - s/n 080000299 (original queue position 8724)

Bug fixes mostly, but any interesting finds?

Oh, yeah, there's some interesting stuff to find in the changes to the kernel that Mike just posted.

(Hint: I'll be uploading a new version of my Logo Editor sometime today.)

___________
Tony Fabris

Did you happen to catch this little ditty in the release notes:

" In emplode
- When importing a folder of files the files are now imported in alphabetical order."

If I am reading this correctly, does that mean it ignores how I have named the files and grabs the ID3 tag info and sorts them based on the Song title?

If that is the case, THAT SUCKS!!!!!!! I name all my files in a folder like 01_song1.mp3 02_song2.mp3 specifically so that when I drag and drop a folder into emplode, it loads the album in proper song order. A better solution would be to have emplode read the ID3v2 tag and take the default song order from how they are defined int he tag for the source.

I really hope I am reading this wrong.

Greg

Oh, yeah, there's some interesting stuff to find in the changes to the kernel that Mike just posted.

Have kernel release notes/changes been posted anywhere? I can't find any.

Thanks,
Borislav

Upgrading the kernel is not easy - we need to forward port a lot of our custom drivers and do lots of testing.

This reminds me - have you considered my one-liner for the ethernet driver? I deterministically get mangled packets without it.

Regards,
Borislav

Have kernel release notes/changes been posted anywhere? I can't find any.

The release notes don't always tell you everything that has changed. Sometimes you have to look at the actual changes made to the source code.

___________
Tony Fabris

I really hope I am reading this wrong.

Yes, I think you are reading it wrong.

As I understand it, it makes sure that those numerically-numbered files you created always end up in the correct order. It's talking about the file names, not the tag data. I think it's actually something you want.

As it stands in 1.01, if you drop a folder onto Emplode, the songs drop in the MS-DOS file order, which isn't necessarily the numeric sort based on the file name. This is supposed to take care of that in 1.02.

If you drop a group of song files, they drop in the reverse of the order you selected them in, not the file name order. I don't know if this change affects that particular problem. (Hang on a sec... testing it...) Yeah, it only seems to work if you drop a folder onto emplode, not a selected group of files.

___________
Tony Fabris

The release notes don't always tell you everything that has changed. Sometimes you have to look at the actual changes made to the source code.

I wasn't in the mood for reading a 2000-line patch tonight but if you're going to tease me like that I really have no choice.

Borislav

I wasn't in the mood for reading a 2000-line patch tonight but if you're going to tease me like that I really have no choice.

Heh. I already gave a hint in my first reply to this thread. Perhaps you should do a search on the word "Logo"?

___________
Tony Fabris

Heh. I already gave a hint in my first reply to this thread. Perhaps you should do a search on the word "Logo"?

There's that, but the most interesting thing is at the very end. I want a 16MB empeg now.

Borislav

I want a 16MB empeg now.

You're not kidding!

___________
Tony Fabris

This reminds me - have you considered my one-liner for the ethernet driver? I deterministically get mangled packets without it.

Yes, it's even made it into our code temporarily - but not on the 1.0 branch. We'd rather understand exactly why it is needed though.

I'll discuss it with people today and we'll consider putting it in the next release.



--
Mike Crowe
I may not be speaking on behalf of empeg above :-)

This reminds me - have you considered my one-liner for the ethernet driver? I deterministically get mangled packets without it.

Yes, we get 'em too -- and we're using that patch in our empeg-serving-music-to-rio-receivers demo currently at CES -- but it does smell slightly of bodge to me, and we suspect (from reading the sa-1100-linux mailing list) that there's a proper fix in the works in both 2.2.19 and 2.4.x.

Peter

we suspect (from reading the sa-1100-linux mailing list) that there's a proper fix in the works in both 2.2.19 and 2.4.x.

Excellent.

Borislav

Question:

Did anyone else notice the line from the release notes:

"Changes have been made to the user interface, in particular the equaliser to support a new style of remote."

Now, I know that prototypes of the new, empeg branded, remote were made, but does this mean that the new remote will be available soon? If so, I would assume it would be Rio branded. Any more news about the new remote???



Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Green)

On the subject of branded remotes:
What is the chance/possibility that the new remote will use a different IR codeset?
You see, I have a Kenwood unit feeding radio and CD to the empeg. Using the remote is ... fun.

What is the chance/possibility that the new remote will use a different IR codeset?

One hundred percent. It has already been stated here on the BBS that the new remote uses an empeg-specific codeset, for the very reason that you want it to.

___________
Tony Fabris

releasing a steering wheel remote then?

Thought I'd try out 1.02

"The upgrade failed.

Error "Flash program failed" occoured during stage 0X10"

Although the disks spin up I think the flash is now fooked,as nothing else happens.
Let me guess, solution is send it back to the empeg guys ??

Any alternative ideas for fixing this problem ?

Its a great toy, get great support, but it seems to spend more time with them than me.

Any Ideas ?

Dobbin

Try the upgrade again; the empeg has protected boot block flash and so it's impossible to toast it beyond the point of no return (without fitting an internal link).

Hint: try plugging the empeg PSU into the empeg, but not into the wall. When it says it's searching for the empeg, wait a few seconds then plug the PSU into the wall.

Hugo

I'd tried the upgrade a number of times before posting with no luck.

Tried the upgrade about another 6 times before it worked. It appears that it doesn't like you providing the power to the empeg too early in the scaning process.

All is OK now.
Phew!
Thanks for that.

It appears that it doesn't like you providing the power to the empeg too early in the scaning process.

It shouldn't require you to apply the power at any exact certain moment, just any time after the dialog box tells you to plug in the power.

Also, with all the recent versions of the upgrading software, the need to apply power after starting the upgrade hasn't been necessary. (Although doing the power pull has been known to work around bugs.) You should have just been able to double-click on the .upgrade file and it should have worked the first time.

This leads me to believe something else might be wrong with your setup or with the cabling.

Here's some simple questions that might help narrow it down:
- What version of Emplode and what version of the player were installed in the first place? Were you upgrading from 1.0 or something?
- Did you make sure to install the latest version of Emplode before running the upgrade file on the player?
- Does connecting to the player with hyperterminal seem to work OK?

___________
Tony Fabris

Any particular reason why now in 1.02, that when flipping between Equaliser settings the Disc - REW/FF (on remote) buttons dont flip between presets? (They used to in 1.01) They just move the cursor around to highlight the available options on that screen. IOW they do the same thing as the track skip buttons.
And it seems that the Empeg is "forgetting" what equaliser settings are used in docked and undocked situations. Though I have not been able to completely verify this, I had the Empeg setting as "CD Player" when I pulled it this morning to go into work, and when I dropped it on my desk, it should have been in "Headphones" but it was stuck in the previous setting. But I suspect this could be due to the flash upgrade, and the empeg hasn't gone througha complete dock/undock cycle.

Any truth to my statements?


And what happened to the spell check?

Smoker_Man
#080000449 MkII - 36Gb Blue

...as his player was no longer booting, you would have *had* to reapply power to get the upgrade to start.

These issues will be addressed by future versions which upgrade over usb/ethernet.

Hugo

Is this a hint at 1.1 functionality that has not been mentioned before?!?!?!

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Green)

as his player was no longer booting, you would have *had* to reapply power to get the upgrade to start.

Ah, I had forgotten about that part. (/me slaps forehead).

Still, dunno why he got the first error in the first place, but maybe that was just a fluke.

___________
Tony Fabris

Any particular reason why now in 1.02, that when flipping between Equaliser settings the Disc - REW/FF (on remote) buttons dont flip between presets?

Yeah, Mike said in the release notes that they had changed some of the remote buttons in the EQ user interface. This is because the new remote has different sets of buttons, and the layout needed to be tweaked just a tiny bit.

When the main Preset field is active, use the volume buttons to cycle the preset. When the individual bars are active, use the volume buttons to raise and lower the bars.

And it seems that the Empeg is "forgetting" what equaliser settings are used in docked and undocked situations.

I haven't experienced this...

I had the Empeg setting as "CD Player" when I pulled it this morning to go into work, and when I dropped it on my desk, it should have been in "Headphones" but it was stuck in the previous setting.

Ah. You're confusing how the docked/undocked EQ works. It doesn't switch presets when you dock/undock it. It works differently. Here is how it works:

- There are 16 presets.
- You can assign a name to each of those 16 presets.
- Each of those 16 presets has two personalities, one for car-docked mode and one for AC power mode.
- When you plug it into the car, you get (and can adjust) the car personality of each of the presets.
- When you plug it in at home, you get (and can adjust) the home personality of each of the presets.
- The home and car personality of each preset share the same name. Preset number seven has only one name. However it has two personalities which appear depending on where it's plugged in.

This is the way the EQ has behaved since the early beta days, so this isn't a 1.02-specific thing.

Does that help?

___________
Tony Fabris

Yes, that did help. The volume thingy works better, IMHO.
As for the "profile" type setting of the EQ, your statement would make sense. I will have to try that.

Thanks

Smoker_Man
#080000449 MkII - 36Gb Blue

Fluuuuuke, oh Fluuuuuuke.

Sorry, Hardware Wars flashback.

May the Farce be with you :-)

Bill B.
Mk.2 SN 080000183 - 38 GB / Green

when I was testing my custom init executable, it did output a lot of garbage which would result in a total lockup of the serial port. I had to shut down win2k, swith off the empeg, switch on the PC, start upload, then apply power.
Believe me, I rebooted several times. The upload failed when the player had finished it's boot-sequence connected to serial.

Frank van Gestel

Did nobody else notice the function keys on the MKII remote have switched? I tried to use the "cd" button to reset the funnel web visual when i noticed the were different. I think the "cd" button is now the AUX. Strange? guess I will have to get one of the new remotes when they come out :-)

-Doug
(Mk2-12G-Blue)

Ethernet sync seems to be faster too. I just got 8.5 hours for 15.8GB of uploads
= 540 KByte/second. I used to get about 330 KByte/second

I think the "cd" button is now the AUX.

Hmm. "Tape" still goes to Aux like it always did. But now the CD button toggles between Aux and MP3.

This is nice, as I'm sure it frees up another button on the new remote for something more important. But now we've lost the ability to reset the visuals with a single button.

Mike, are you reading this? We know that the reset-visuals-with-the-CD-button thing was just a coincidence and was never meant to be a feature. But we've grown to like it. Perhaps there's a way you could sneak that into another button somewhere?

___________
Tony Fabris

But now the CD button toggles between Aux and MP3.

This is nice, as I'm sure it frees up another button on the new remote for something more important. But now we've lost the ability to reset the visuals with a single button.

Ah. That's a bug. As you spotted, it's due to the fact that on the new remote, empeg/aux is a toggle. But we didn't mean to break the old remote's behaviour here.

We know that the reset-visuals-with-the-CD-button thing was just a coincidence and was never meant to be a feature. But we've grown to like it. Perhaps there's a way you could sneak that into another button somewhere?

Button real estate is very scarce. The entire development staff at empeg stood around and argued for hours before we could fit all the functions we wanted onto the new remote. But we'll have a look and see if there's somewhere we could squeeze it in. (Press-and-hold on the Visual button, perhaps.)

Peter