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Some questions about large drives and non-native installs

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:34 pm
by Ragueneau
I have a softmodded 1.1 xbox that I've fitted with a 300gb drive. I've been wanting to use the space as a sort of backup or limited use NAS, but I like my Halo and XBMC so I don't want to go native. Right now my drive is formatted with a big F rather than a 137gb F and the rest in G.

Because FATX has weird restrictions, I'd like to be able to store files in a loopback filesystem on the F volume, and allow it to grow as needed.

My question is, what distros if any allow mounting of a FATX drive >137gb? I've tried Xebian 1.1.4 (2.4 kernel) , but it seems to fail to address anything beyond 128gb, and df -h shows an F volume of 128 rather than ~270gb. I don't have enough space on E to try a pro e installation of Gentoox, and when I try an f installation it fails, saying "An error occured, halting [Error writing to install device]".

Additionally, are there any distros that will allow me to install a 2.6 kernel, rather than 2.4? I wonder if it might be able to cope with the drive size better.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:17 pm
by Pyrite
My F: is 200GB on my v1.4 XBOX (Xecuter2 4983) and am using X-DSL's loopback option. Only thing is, you can't set the size to continually grow as needed. You have to set a fixed size for the loopback on install, but it works fine. It really just depends on your bios I think, knowing that it can do the full LBA48 (which allows your F: to be bigger than 137GB, instead of having the rest on G: ). Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this though?

I chose X-DSL so I could just ftp over the folder (43MB) and run it. Since that xbox doesn't have a CD drive. I'm not sure if GentooX can do it that way or not?

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 6:26 pm
by Ragueneau
I think you misunderstood me a little- I want a little linux install somewhere on a loopback filesystem, but to store data I want to mount a FATX volume and then create storage.iso or something similar, so I can store desktop files without needing to conform to FATX's lack of permissions or filename restrictions.

No idea if that changes your suggested fix or not.

Since you say it depends on the BIOS, would something like a TSOP flash help? Mine is still stock.

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:39 am
by Ragueneau
More data- I just booted X-DSL and mounted F, df -h tells me it's a 120.5gb volume rather than the ~280 it should be.

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:34 am
by Pyrite
But what BIOS are you using? that is the kicker ...

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:32 pm
by Ragueneau
I used a softmod autoinstaller disc, how can I tell?

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:42 pm
by Pyrite
I see. Well if you do the hardware mod (unlock your TSOP) and reflash with Xecuter2 it will let you repartition your F: drive to use the full 300 GB. Can't tell you how to do all that though, apparently it is not allowed on these forums. But hey, that's what google is for.

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:48 pm
by Ragueneau
I don't think that's quite the problem- as is, XBMC can access the large 280gb F drive, which has been formatted as such since I first modded the box. It's just linux (and possibly just 2.4) that can't.

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:24 am
by Pyrite
Well dude, my F: drive is 200GB, abeit not as big as yours, but Linux can see it just fine (and yes XDSL frugal does too). :roll:

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:20 am
by Surrender
i think i see what your saying... you just want to create an image file you can toss files into kind of like the rootfs, just so you can save files into that so there's no filename character limit, pretty much make that show up as another hard drive? if thats the case i'm having the same issue, plan on setting up a web server, but the rootfs doesnt have enough space on it for all the files i need to store, so i've been wondering if there's any way you can increase the size of that rootfs image

EDIT: okay, since i just created my account apparently i can't place url's, lol but check out the [HOW-TO]overcame 4GB fatx limitation here post