libprs500 on openSuse 10.3?

[mauibay]

ok, now I'm all screwed up again. I restarted my machine and now it doesn't talk to the prs505 anymore. It gets the same error as I had originally:

Unable to open device
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/libprs500/gui2/device.py", line 52, in run
  File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/libprs500/devices/prs505/driver.py", line 219, in open
  File "build/bdist.linux-i686/egg/libprs500/devices/prs505/driver.py", line 188, in open_linux
DeviceError: Unable to find PRS505. Is it connected?

If I run libprs500_postinstall again, it has the same output as before, except it doesn't fix the problem:

# libprs500_postinstall
Trying to setup udev rules...
Shutting down HAL daemon                                              done
Starting HAL daemon                                                   done
Loading CPUFreq modules                                               done
Setting up bash completion... done
Setting up desktop integration...

So. I don't understand the process well enough to have a clue why it's not working now.

[mauibay]

ok, found some more info by tailing /var/log/messages while connecting/disconnecting my prs505. The internal memory does not always get mounted when I connect the device. The two card slots always do, but for some reason it usually doesn't detect the internal partition.

On my system the prs505 mass storage devices are assigned to /dev/sdh/ dev/sdi and /dev/sdj. sdh is internal memory, sdi is the memory stick and sdj is the SD card. If the cards are inserted, linux sees /dev/sdi1 and /dev/sdj1 as appropriate every time. However, regardless of whether or not the cards are there, it usually does not see /dev/sdh1. When I look at the partition map for /dev/sdh with fdisk, when sdh1 is not detected it's empty and when detected it has a single FAT16 partition. So, it seems the problem is that most of the time there is something causing the internal memory's drive partition from been seen.

What I've noticed is that every time I connect the device and /dev/sdh1 is not detected and mounted, libprs500 fails to see the device. When /dev/sdh1 does get detected and mounted, libprs500 detects the device and I can send to it normally.

I've found there is a timing correlation that affects whether or not /dev/sdh1 appears when I connect the device. I haven't yet found a 100% reliable way to reproduce it, but I have found that if I don't wait for the device display to finish indicating it's done updating after unplugging the USB cable before plugging it in again it will get detected correctly. For example, it takes several seconds after unplugging the cable for the device screen to stop flashing and displaying the rotating sync icon. If I plug the cable back in sometime during this time, I'm now able to somewhat reliably have the device detected properly by libprs500.

I don't know if this problem is something unique to my system or device, or if this is just some quirk due to some difference between the prs500 and prs505 that hasn't been identified yet. I did notice that libprs500 apparently only recognizes one of the card slots when it does work, and that it doesn't always see the same slot. (It usually sees the memory stick, but sometimes sees the SD card, never both. Only one icon and 'send to' choice is offered.)

I can paste this into a ticket if desired, I just hope the info is helpful.

[kovidgoyal]

the prs500 uses a custom USB protocol. The 505 exports itself as a mass storage device. libprs500 will only see the 505 if the OS first sees it and mounts it. Also libprs500 supports only one extension card at a time. That's a feature

[mauibay]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

the prs500 uses a custom USB protocol. The 505 exports itself as a mass storage device.

I have discovered a way to reliably get my 505 to mount and be detected by libprs500 by plugging in the usb cable at a particular time during an onscreen update. If I plug the cable in at any other time such as when the device is idle, it does not connect. I'll keep looking into this, it might be an issue with openSuse or KDE's automount process.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

libprs500 will only see the 505 if the OS first sees it and mounts it. Also libprs500 supports only one extension card at a time. That's a feature

Interesting. Is there any way (other than removing a card) to influence which extension card it decides to support? Right now it's somewhat random. It seems about 30% of the time it chooses my SD card, and the rest of the it's the MS card. It's a bit silly to have to disconnect/reconnect a few times until it gets the card I want, especially with connections issues I'm having.

[kovidgoyal]

That would require playing around with the driver code. Unfortunately, I don't have a memory stick so I can't do that.

[mauibay]

If you are interested at all in looking at the issue I'd be happy to send you one.

[kovidgoyal]

Sure, it shouldn't take more than 10mins of work.

[mauibay]

No problem. Just send me a forum private message with an address to send it to and I'll stick a stick in the mail.

[mauibay]

I've been using libprs500 pretty well for the past few weeks and other than the randomness of which memory card it chooses (It would be great if both memory cards could be selectable,) I've found another simple suggestion to make...

When converting a book, there is a checkbox to use the cover image from metadata. Since there is a big button on the toolbar to edit metadata which includes setting an image for the book cover, I assumed that the conversion checkbox (which is checked by default) meant to use that metadata image set in the libprs500 library. When I converted several books from lit to lrf it used the lit image instead. That's when I discovered that the checkbox means to select the image in the book file metadata, not the library metadata. So my suggestion is to change the checkbox label to make it obvious which image is to be used. Because the user may be selecting between two different metadata images, I think it's likely that people will make the same incorrect assumption that I did that the metadata to be used is the one set in the library.

btw, I hope you got the memory stick I sent ok.

[kovidgoyal]

Ah you were the one that sent me the card (I'd forgotten what it was for). Could you open a ticket for both these issues and I'll look at them asap.

[mauibay]

OK, tickets 463 and 464 opened. Thanks!