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USB disk space limit and SD card size

PostPosted: 09 Jan 2019, 10:51
by bnilsson
Hi!

If you enable the smb feature, you can open a Windows share to access the connected USB disks which is great.

However, the reported storage space for the share is limited to the available SD memory, not the TeraBytes of the actual disk.
The available memory of the out-of-the-box installed Rune image is about 1GB.
This means that it is not possible to drag a 24/96 HD album folder with a size of 1-2 GB directly into the USB disk via the open share from you Windows desktop, you have to drag the tracks one by one.

This is not a big deal, just a minor inconvenience.

But if you think about the Rune image in relation to what SD-cards you can buy today, there is currently a mismatch.
The image is designed to fit in a 4GB SD-card, but it is acually difficult to find that small cards today.
The minimum is 8GB or 16GB on the major markets.
If you would expand the size of the image to 8GB, the memory limit problem of the smb share would go away, since very few albums, even HD, are more than 2GB. The drawback would be that it would take twice as long to burn the image onto the card. For me, this is acceptable.

Another solution would be to re-format the card from the inside, to expand the memory partition to fit the physical limit. If I am correct, Volumio is doing this at the first boot after installation. It takes a while, but it is very handy. Then the user can plug in any card size and make use of it.
I have found an instruction on this forum on how to do it manually, but it could very well be automated. Maybe there could be a setting or command added for it for it in the UI? "Expand memory to available card size"?

Or simply find a way to remove the SD memory limit and actually report the available USB disk space limit to the smb share.
I am sure it is possible for a clever programmer to do.

Anyway, Rune is a GREAT product, it gives me joy every day.

BN

Re: USB disk space limit and SD card size

PostPosted: 09 Jan 2019, 12:40
by janui
Hi bnilsson,
bnilsson wrote:...If you enable the smb feature, you can open a Windows share to access the connected USB disks which is great.
However, the reported storage space for the share is limited to the available SD memory, not the TeraBytes of the actual disk....This is not a big deal, just a minor inconvenience.
But if you think about the Rune image in relation to what SD-cards you can buy today, there is currently a mismatch.
The image is designed to fit in a 4GB SD-card, but it is acually difficult to find that small cards today. The minimum is 8GB or 16GB on the major markets...
Thanks for posting this, I agree entirely.
To solve this in version 0.5b there is an option the /dev UI (type in runeaudio.local/dev or <yourplayername>.local/dev) which will expand the Linux partition to the maximum size of your Micro-SD card. To use it you need to switch Dev mode ON, save and then refresh the UI. The option then becomes active. Don't forget to switch Dev mode OFF when you are finished.
Alternatively you can install Rern's Addons Menu, this also contains a function to expand the Linux partition.
janui

Re: USB disk space limit and SD card size

PostPosted: 09 Jan 2019, 15:47
by bnilsson
janui wrote:Hi bnilsson,
bnilsson wrote:...If you enable the smb feature, you can open a Windows share to access the connected USB disks which is great.
However, the reported storage space for the share is limited to the available SD memory, not the TeraBytes of the actual disk....This is not a big deal, just a minor inconvenience.
But if you think about the Rune image in relation to what SD-cards you can buy today, there is currently a mismatch.
The image is designed to fit in a 4GB SD-card, but it is acually difficult to find that small cards today. The minimum is 8GB or 16GB on the major markets...
Thanks for posting this, I agree entirely.
To solve this in version 0.5b there is an option the /dev UI (type in runeaudio.local/dev or <yourplayername>.local/dev) which will expand the Linux partition to the maximum size of your Micro-SD card. To use it you need to switch Dev mode ON, save and then refresh the UI. The option then becomes active. Don't forget to switch Dev mode OFF when you are finished.
Alternatively you can install Rern's Addons Menu, this also contains a function to expand the Linux partition.
janui


Thanks a lot, I did not know this dev option, It will solve my problem completely.

Re: USB disk space limit and SD card size

PostPosted: 13 Jan 2019, 19:36
by Stella365
Thanks janui. You solved a problem of mine too.