So, I'm having problems with my Touch. User error?

[crimscrem]

I have a little over 600 GB of music stored on a WD Elements 1.5 TB hard drive. I have that directly connected to my Touch. My entire reason for getting the Touch was so I would not have to use my laptop. My Touch is directly connected to my router (i.e., not using wireless).

I'm having two problems. One is with album art. The second is with speed.

First problem:

That 600 GB of music contains album art. The music that I ripped named all the album art "folder.jpg." These have always show up on my Touch without any problems. The music I received from a friend has all the album art named as "coverart.jpg." I understand that "coverart.jpg" is a name that the Touch will not recognize. So I changed all of them to "folder.jpg." I did a wipe and rescan on the Touch. Still no art. Any suggestions on what I need to do now?

Second problem:

My Touch is operating really, really slowly. It is taking upwards of 40 second to a minute before a song plays. (These are songs stored on the connected HD.) Any suggestions on why?

Plan of action:

I plan to do a factory reset to see if that will work. I'm hoping it will because as is, the Touch is not usable for me. I'd really like to hear your suggestions/advice. Thank you.

[garym]

Have you let it scan your drive for I'm guessing 10 hours before using? While it is scanning the touch is likely very slow.

[crimscrem]

Yes. I've tried wiping and rescanning a couple of times now. I do that directly on the Touch, and at night. I then check to make sure that it's scanning, and then I go to bed. In the morning, I check it out and make sure the scanning is complete. There are three "Completed" notations. I then try to listen to the music.

[peterw]

Regarding the second problem, I'd be curious what 'top' shows when that happens. Are you comfortable enabling SSH on your Touch and logging in to run 'top' while recreating the problem?

FWIW, in the last couple months I've had intermittent trouble with a WD Caviar Green drive in my DVR / SBS server. When the problem occurs, 'top' shows high iowait percentages. Apparently the fix might be as simple as partitioning the drive carefully (http://forums.opensuse.org/get-help-here/install-boot-login/437111-iowait-slows-system-down-2.html#post2154647). One annoying factor for me is that the drive caused no trouble for the first couple months I had it in service.

[crimscrem]

Regarding the second problem, I'd be curious what 'top' shows when that happens. Are you comfortable enabling SSH on your Touch and logging in to run 'top' while recreating the problem?

FWIW, in the last couple months I've had intermittent trouble with a WD Caviar Green drive in my DVR / SBS server. When the problem occurs, 'top' shows high iowait percentages. Apparently the fix might be as simple as partitioning the drive carefully (http://forums.opensuse.org/get-help-here/install-boot-login/437111-iowait-slows-system-down-2.html#post2154647). One annoying factor for me is that the drive caused no trouble for the first couple months I had it in service.

If I had very specific instructions, I would be comfortable.

When I use my laptop to see what devices are connected to my network, I see the following:

logs
media-sda1
media-sdb1
media-sdc1
media-sdd1
printers

All must stuff is in the "sda1" folder. I was told that these are most likely partitions.

[peterw]

If I had very specific instructions, I would be comfortable.

When I use my laptop to see what devices are connected to my network, I see the following:

logs
media-sda1
media-sdb1
media-sdc1
media-sdd1
printers

All must stuff is in the "sda1" folder. I was told that these are most likely partitions.

Really? sda1, sdb1, sdc1? Do you have three other drives? In Linux naming conventions, "sd" means SCSI or SATA, "a" means first disk, "1" means first partition. So if you had one disk, I'd expect sda1, sda2, sda3, sda4 if you had 4 partitions. Anyhow...

First, grab an SSH client if you're on Windows. I like Putty a lot. If you're on a Mac, there's already an ssh command you can run in Terminal.app.
Home > Settings > Advanced > Remote Login and Enable SSH
Log in to your Touch with your SSH client
At the command line, type top and hit return

You should see something like


Mem: 121080K used, 4744K free, 0K shrd, 9988K buff, 20892K cached
CPU: 7% usr 15% sys 0% nic 76% idle 0% io 0% irq 0% sirq
Load average: 0.24 0.37 0.35 1/82 14664
PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %MEM %CPU COMMAND
14664 14474 root R 2720 2% 12% top
687 1 root S 46932 37% 6% /usr/bin/jive
720 687 root S 7024 6% 6% jive_alsa -d default -c default -b 200
14522 1 root S N 47292 38% 0% /usr/bin/perl /usr/squeezecenter/slims
14524 1 root S N 10216 8% 0% /usr/bin/perl /usr/squeezecenter/gdres
719 687 root S 7104 6% 0% jive_alsa -d plughw:2,0 -b 20000 -p 2
639 1 root S 2804 2% 0% /usr/sbin/inetd
616 1 root S 2728 2% 0% /sbin/syslogd -S
14474 14441 root S 2724 2% 0% -sh
689 1 root S 2724 2% 0% /sbin/getty tty3 9600 VC vt100
1 0 root S 2720 2% 0% init
618 1 root S 2720 2% 0% /sbin/klogd
732 1 root S 2720 2% 0% udhcpc -R -a -p /var/run/udhcpc.wlan0.
688 1 root S 2720 2% 0% init
14441 639 root S 2528 2% 0% dropbear -i
456 1 root S < 2036 2% 0% /sbin/udevd -d
674 1 root S 1904 2% 0% /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -Dmarvell
676 1 root S 1812 1% 0% /usr/sbin/wpa_cli -B -a/etc/network/wp
621 1 root S 1804 1% 0% /usr/sbin/watchdog


I expect that when you have trouble you'll see a high %CPU number by one of the perl processes -- slimserver.pl or gdresized.pl. In my case, the process %CPU were low but the overall "io" was high. And the darn disk LED lit constantly.

To quit 'top', you can just tap the "q" key. To log out, it's the "exit" command. Or you could just close your SSH window, no big deal.

I generally recommend that you leave SSH disabled. Oh, and you'll get bigger logs on your hard drive if you make a directory named "log" in the top level of your hard drive (and reboot Touch so Touch sees it; safest way to reboot is to SSH in and run the "reboot" command).

[crimscrem]

Really? sda1, sdb1, sdc1? Do you have three other drives? In Linux naming conventions, "sd" means SCSI or SATA, "a" means first disk, "1" means first partition. So if you had one disk, I'd expect sda1, sda2, sda3, sda4 if you had 4 partitions. Anyhow...

First, grab an SSH client if you're on Windows. I like Putty a lot. If you're on a Mac, there's already an ssh command you can run in Terminal.app.
Home > Settings > Advanced > Remote Login and Enable SSH
Log in to your Touch with your SSH client
At the command line, type top and hit return

You should see something like


Mem: 121080K used, 4744K free, 0K shrd, 9988K buff, 20892K cached
CPU: 7% usr 15% sys 0% nic 76% idle 0% io 0% irq 0% sirq
Load average: 0.24 0.37 0.35 1/82 14664
PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %MEM %CPU COMMAND
14664 14474 root R 2720 2% 12% top
687 1 root S 46932 37% 6% /usr/bin/jive
720 687 root S 7024 6% 6% jive_alsa -d default -c default -b 200
14522 1 root S N 47292 38% 0% /usr/bin/perl /usr/squeezecenter/slims
14524 1 root S N 10216 8% 0% /usr/bin/perl /usr/squeezecenter/gdres
719 687 root S 7104 6% 0% jive_alsa -d plughw:2,0 -b 20000 -p 2
639 1 root S 2804 2% 0% /usr/sbin/inetd
616 1 root S 2728 2% 0% /sbin/syslogd -S
14474 14441 root S 2724 2% 0% -sh
689 1 root S 2724 2% 0% /sbin/getty tty3 9600 VC vt100
1 0 root S 2720 2% 0% init
618 1 root S 2720 2% 0% /sbin/klogd
732 1 root S 2720 2% 0% udhcpc -R -a -p /var/run/udhcpc.wlan0.
688 1 root S 2720 2% 0% init
14441 639 root S 2528 2% 0% dropbear -i
456 1 root S < 2036 2% 0% /sbin/udevd -d
674 1 root S 1904 2% 0% /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -Dmarvell
676 1 root S 1812 1% 0% /usr/sbin/wpa_cli -B -a/etc/network/wp
621 1 root S 1804 1% 0% /usr/sbin/watchdog


I expect that when you have trouble you'll see a high %CPU number by one of the perl processes -- slimserver.pl or gdresized.pl. In my case, the process %CPU were low but the overall "io" was high. And the darn disk LED lit constantly.

To quit 'top', you can just tap the "q" key. To log out, it's the "exit" command. Or you could just close your SSH window, no big deal.

I generally recommend that you leave SSH disabled. Oh, and you'll get bigger logs on your hard drive if you make a directory named "log" in the top level of your hard drive (and reboot Touch so Touch sees it; safest way to reboot is to SSH in and run the "reboot" command).

Thank you for this. I'm using Windows Vista, so I'll download putty. I'll try this when I get home. What is considered to be high %CPU and "io" numbers?

Yes, those are the "Folders" I saw when I used my laptop to see what devices were on the network (my hard drive connected to my Touch). When I have the hard drive connected to my laptop and I look in the F: drive, I don't see those.

I figured out the album art situation. The tracks in the folders were not tagged with the jpg file. So when even though the album art was contained in the folder with the tracks, they weren't linked up. I spent some time using mediamonkey to tag the tracks with the jpg file. I then did a wipe and scan overnight. This morning, I saw the album art for the ones that I "fixed."

[peterw]

What is considered to be high %CPU and "io" numbers?

I usually see about 10-20% CPU for 'jive' and 4-7% each for the jive_alsa processes when playing music from a USB drive. The perl slimserver process sits at about 5% for the first few seconds after a new song starts (and jive takes about 25% CPU then, too) and then drops to 0%. io% jumps to 10-15% for about a second when a new song starts, and then settles down to 0%.


Yes, those are the "Folders" I saw when I used my laptop to see what devices were on the network (my hard drive connected to my Touch). When I have the hard drive connected to my laptop and I look in the F: drive, I don't see those.

And it's one physical drive? Weird. I wonder what 'fdisk -l' would show for b, c, and d. Here's what my 80 GB external disk looks like to Touch:


# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 9733 78180291 b Win95 FAT32
/dev/sda2 * 1 1 0 0 Empty


or what you'd see with dmesg | grep '^sd ' -- I see

sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156368016 512-byte hardware sectors (80060 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 53 00 00 08
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156368016 512-byte hardware sectors (80060 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 53 00 00 08
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

[crimscrem]

Okay, so now when I check the hard drive it only shows one media folder. Strange.

I'm not quite sure how to log into the SSH. I run putty.exe, put in the IP address, and then it asks me, "login as." What am I suppose to put here? I apologize, this is my first time trying this.

[aubuti]

The username is root and the password is 1234. Btw, this is explained on the Touch's screen when you enable remote login (ssh). But it's easy to forget if you enable login one day and then don't login for several days. If you ever forget, just disable login and then re-enable it.

[crimscrem]

Thank you! I had forgotten. Here is what's showing (of course, my Touch keeps having trouble connecting to the hard drive):

Mem: 122056K used, 3768K free, 0K shrd, 3056K buff, 15972K cached
CPU: 0% usr 1% sys 0% nic 98% idle 0% io 0% irq 0% sirq
Load average: 0.57 0.43 0.40 1/88 30325
PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %MEM %CPU COMMAND
1013 988 root S 7024 6% 1% jive_alsa -d default -c default -b 20000 -p 2 -s 24 -f 1
988 1 root S 45264 36% 0% /usr/bin/jive
1012 988 root S 7104 6% 0% jive_alsa -d plughw:2,0 -b 20000 -p 2 -s 16 -f 2
9 2 root SW< 0 0% 0% [sirq-tasklet/0]
30314 30311 root R 2724 2% 0% top
49 2 root SW< 0 0% 0% [IRQ-34]
30309 936 root S 2528 2% 0% dropbear -i
22387 1 root S N 55284 44% 0% /usr/bin/perl /usr/squeezecenter/slimserver.pl --charset utf8 --noweb --notranscoding --nosb1slimp3sync --nostatistics --noinfolog --no
5 2 root SW< 0 0% 0% [sirq-timer/0]
116 2 root SW< 0 0% 0% [IRQ-10]
22389 1 root S N 10220 8% 0% /usr/bin/perl /usr/squeezecenter/gdresized.pl
29164 22402 root S < 6684 5% 0% /usr/sbin/smbd

[peterw]

What does it look like when you have trouble?

[crimscrem]

What does it look like when you have trouble?

Not good:

Mem: 123976K used, 1848K free, 0K shrd, 3536K buff, 16724K cached
CPU: 100% usr 0% sys 0% nic 0% idle 0% io 0% irq 0% sirq
Load average: 3.86 3.68 3.24 3/88 30957
PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %MEM %CPU COMMAND
1012 988 root S 7104 6% 24% jive_alsa -d plughw:2,0 -b 20000 -p 2
22364 1 root S < 3044 2% 20% /usr/bin/ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/sda1
988 1 root R 45972 36% 16% /usr/bin/jive
22387 1 root R N 55552 44% 8% /usr/bin/perl /usr/squeezecenter/slims
1013 988 root S 7024 6% 8% jive_alsa -d default -c default -b 200
30957 30955 root R 2720 2% 8% top
9 2 root SW< 0 0% 4% [sirq-tasklet/0]

[crimscrem]

Here's more info:

sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 2930272256 512-byte hardware sectors (1500299 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 2930272256 512-byte hardware sectors (1500299 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through


Here's more:

Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742255
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742256
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742257
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742258
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742259
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742260
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742261
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742262
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742263
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 180742264
__ratelimit: 28 messages suppressed
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 786433
Buffer I/O error on device sda1, logical block 786433
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 3
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 3
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD Ext HDD 1021 2002 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 2930272256 512-byte hardware sectors (1500299 MB)
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 2930272256 512-byte hardware sectors (1500299 MB)
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sda: sda1
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
usb-storage: device scan complete
usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 3
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using fsl-ehci and address 4
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 4
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD Ext HDD 1021 2002 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 2930272256 512-byte hardware sectors (1500299 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 2930272256 512-byte hardware sectors (1500299 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sda: sda1
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
usb-storage: device scan complete

[JohnSwenson]

Hmmm, that 24% for the jive_alsa is very unusual, thats the process writing to the internal speaker that is used for beeps and such, I don't know why its running so high. The server and jive numbers are not out of the ordinary, but the ntfs one is quite high. Given the messages about errors on the disk I'm wondering if its having to try multiple times to get a good read, that MIGHT be a reason for excessive usage in the ntfs driver which could lead to the maxed out CPU.

John S.

[crimscrem]

Hmmm, that 24% for the jive_alsa is very unusual, thats the process writing to the internal speaker that is used for beeps and such, I don't know why its running so high. The server and jive numbers are not out of the ordinary, but the ntfs one is quite high. Given the messages about errors on the disk I'm wondering if its having to try multiple times to get a good read, that MIGHT be a reason for excessive usage in the ntfs driver which could lead to the maxed out CPU.

John S.

I'm reaching the end of the rope. I can't figure out why I'm having problems. I did another factory reset. It started working fairly decently. Then, when switching to another album, the entire thing crashed. Before it crashed, it lost USB connection again. I hit diagnostics. This time it came up with the IP address, Subnet,gateway, dns server, all blank and ping as not working. that was interesting. Then it crashed (something that hasn't happened before). The Touch shut down and restarted.

I don't think I have an unusually high number of songs. I think I just read someone else say they have 2 TB of music. I have 600 gb.

As I typed, it stopped again. It's almost like a buffering issue.

I appreciate the patience you guys have in trying to help me through this.