using the openmoko neo101 in mass storage mode

AVee openmoko-comunity at avee.org
Fri May 30 18:18:54 CEST 2008


On Friday 30 May 2008 14:31, Andy Green wrote:
> Somebody in the thread at some point said:
> | On Fri, May 30, 2008 10:09 am, Andy Green wrote:
> |> ~ But not mass storage: this operates in block mode and requires
> |> complete ownership of the storage by the host then (since if we have it
> |> mounted too, we will write conflicting things to directory structures,
> |> etc).
> |
> | Could we emulate a block device, so that Windows thinks it has sole
> | ownership of a USB block device with a FAT32 FS on it, but for every
> | block access call it makes we intercept the call, figure out what file
> | windows is trying to read or write to, make the corresponding change to
> | our local files (on and ext3 volume), and return emulated results back to
> | windows.
> |
> | I dare say windows would get confused if I file it had cached got changed
> | by Linux, but the user could probably put up with that.
>
> This was proposed before, but it sounds horrible to me.  Linux knows
> already how to deal with sharing a mounted filesystem over the network,
> better to go on leveraging stuff at that layer.

PC use might not be the only reason to be interested in getting the neo to do 
mass storage. There are quite a few consumer devices (like my dirt cheap car 
stereo) which are able to read from mass storage devices. I'd be nice if the 
neo could be used to feed data to those devices. 
(Ultimate dream: a mass-storage device which fakes an endless audiofile 
allowing the freerunner to stream audio to mp3 playing devices. That could 
provide in-car internet radio, and stuff like navigation instructions...)

Apart from that, the end-user usability of USB mass-storage is far better then 
any other solution. I'd be perfectly happy useing sftp or whatever, but that 
not really grandma proof.
But, yeah, from a purely technical perspective it's horrible...

AVee

-- 
There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto 
the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.
  -- Sir Francis Drake




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