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Unrecognized second partition

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Offline canonator

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Unrecognized second partition
« on: 27 / January / 2013, 12:50:03 »
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Hello,

I have been using CHDK on another camera and really enjoy it. I just got a new A810 to play around with, but I've been having trouble getting the camera to recognize the second partition.

I used ACID to detect the firmware, and downloaded the 1.1 release. I used LICKS to prepare a 32gb card with two partitions. I placed the DISKBOOT.BIN and PS.FI2 files in the small FAT16 partition (label BOOT) and CHDK (and all its subdirectories) in the large FAT32 (label CANON).  Then I locked the card and fired up the camera. I am able to get the CHDK splash screen. However, it tells me that I only have 15MB, which looks to me that it doesn't recognize the second partition.

When I pulled the card back out and inspected it with gparted, the partition table, labels, and flags look exactly the same as another 32gb card I'm using to run CHDK on another camera. I looked at the FAT32 partition on that card and noticed it had a vers.req file on it and a DCIM directory, so I copied the vers.req file from the distribution to it and made an empty DCIM directory. I locked the card and fired up the camera again to no avail.

I'm not sure what I'm missing here that I did before for my other camera (I vaguely remember there was some sensitivity to the partition label, but it was a long time ago, and I've set it to what worked last time). I noticed in some other threads that some cameras don't support multiple partitions, but I don't see an indication on the wiki for the A810 that this is the case for that camera. I assume I'm missing something obvious, and I'd appreciate it if someone could steer me in the right direction.

Thanks!
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Unrecognized second partition
« Reply #1 on: 27 / January / 2013, 12:58:20 »
Quote from: canonator on 27 / January / 2013, 12:50:03
I just got a new A810 to play around with, but I've been having trouble getting the camera to recognize the second partition
The A810 was released in 2012 and so does not need to use dual partitions.  As a result,  dual partition code was not included in the port.   Format the whole card FAT32 and set it up to boot that way.

More info here - follow the instructions for cameras released after 2010 : http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Prepare_your_SD_card
« Last Edit: 27 / January / 2013, 13:00:16 by waterwingz »
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Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16
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Offline canonator

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Re: Unrecognized second partition
« Reply #2 on: 27 / January / 2013, 13:54:54 »
Okay! That worked perfectly.

Thanks!
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Offline BBdownloader

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Re: Unrecognized second partition
« Reply #3 on: 27 / January / 2013, 15:25:59 »
Hello,

Today I was exploring how to use my A630 with an 8GB card. I partitioned it in a 500MB primary and the rest as logical.
Copied the diskbot.bin to the 500MB part and the rest of the chdk to the big part. Got to start-up manually by firmare update and found the menu to swap the partitions.
Then put the card in my laptop and it still only shows the first partition. Put it back in my camera and that now "sees" the big part and not the 500MB boot section. Since bootdisk.bin is on there I can not load chdk anymore to swap the partitions back in the camera and I can not copy the bootdisk.bin because the laptop does not "see" that part of the card.

I now use 3 pieces of 2GB cards and exchange then to make my timelapses. Getting the big card to work save some work and allowes me to leave the camera over night.

Does anybody have any tips? I do not want to use my SX30IS to leave outside for the night that is why I want to use my older A630.

thnx BB
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Powershot A620 (not anymore), A630 and SX30IS.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Unrecognized second partition
« Reply #4 on: 27 / January / 2013, 16:00:32 »
Quote from: BBdownloader on 27 / January / 2013, 15:25:59
Copied the diskbot.bin to the 500MB part and the rest of the chdk to the big part. Got to start-up manually by firmare update and found the menu to swap the partitions.
You don't need to do this for CHDK's benefit. It prefers to load off the first partition and then it internally switch to the bigger partition if it finds one.  The SD card format is not modified when this happens - the first partition stays as the first partition.  And if you were doing a firmware update method then you were using a ps.fi2 file - not diskboot.bin - for booting.

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Then put the card in my laptop and it still only shows the first partition.
Strange.  In the step above you made the big partition primary.  The camera confirms this and your laptop should have seen it too.  Its normal for a PC to only recognize one partition on an SD card by the way.

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Put it back in my camera and that now "sees" the big part and not the 500MB boot section. Since bootdisk.bin is on there I can not load chdk anymore to swap the partitions back in the camera and I can not copy the bootdisk.bin because the laptop does not "see" that part of the card.
You can use something like SDMinste.exe to swap card paritions on your PC.  Or you can put the CHDK ps.fi2 file for your camera onto the large partition - that should then be able to load via the "firmware update" method.  Once loaded,  you can use CHDK to swap the partitions back and then autoboot normally after that.
« Last Edit: 27 / January / 2013, 16:02:50 by waterwingz »
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Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16
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Offline 1SennaFan

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Re: Unrecognized second partition
« Reply #5 on: 30 / June / 2013, 11:04:25 »
Im having a similar issue with SD1400is firmware version A,
I loaded it to a 4g card (lock booting method) and it boots right up.
However I have run into a problem with anything larger than a 4 gig card.

With the small partition as primary with DISKBOOT.bin it boots right up and works great until I try to download the pictures. I can't get the computer to see the big partition with the images without using SDMinste.exe to swap card paritions. Then before putting card back in I have to use SDMinste.exe to swap card paritions back for the camera to boot.
What am I missing?
I have tried both
Method 1 - Using a CHDK itself to make the SD card bootable and
Method 2 - Using EOSCard to make the SD card bootable.
on both 16gig and 32gig cards with the same results every time.

FYI I have two differnt size DISKBOOT.bin files
Downloaded from Waterwingz for testing= 132k
Autobuild Download =214k
I guess the larger is the newer? And the one I should be using?

( Note also that newer cameras do not support dual partition CHDK booting. )
Anybody know if this is one of "those" cameras?
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Unrecognized second partition
« Reply #6 on: 30 / June / 2013, 11:34:06 »
Quote from: 1SennaFan on 30 / June / 2013, 11:04:25
However I have run into a problem with anything larger than a 4 gig card.
Actually,  its running correctly based on what you describe here.

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With the small partition as primary with DISKBOOT.bin it boots right up and works great until I try to download the pictures. I can't get the computer to see the big partition with the images without using SDMinste.exe to swap card paritions. Then before putting card back in I have to use SDMinste.exe to swap card paritions back for the camera to boot.
What am I missing?
You are not missing anything - that's how it works.   Windows does not understand that an SD card (or USB stick) might have multiple partitions and so ignores the inactive partition.  There are 3rd party drivers you can download that will fix this.  http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=2332.0

There is also an option in the CHDK Miscellaneous | Sd Card menu that lets you swap the parition right in the camera.  You put the ps.fi2 file on the root of both partitions,  swap the partitions with the menu item, and copy the files from the SD card to your PC.  Then you use the firmware update booting method to load CHDK and make the small partition the primary partition again using the menu item  ( i.e. when the SD card has the large partition selected as primary you can't autoboot from it).

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FYI I have two differnt size DISKBOOT.bin files Downloaded from Waterwingz for testing= 132k
Autobuild Download =214k
I guess the larger is the newer? And the one I should be using?
Strange - I'll have to look at that.  Its possible I posted a version 1.2.0 file and you are using the 1.1.0 from the autobuild.   Meanwhile,  stick with the most current autobuild version.

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( Note also that newer cameras do not support dual partition CHDK booting. )
Anybody know if this is one of "those" cameras?
They don't support them because they can boot from FAT32 and don't need them.  Your camera was released prior to 2011 and so will not boot from a FAT32 paritition - you need dual partitions for cards bigger than 4G.
« Last Edit: 30 / June / 2013, 12:57:49 by waterwingz »
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Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16
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Offline 1SennaFan

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Re: Unrecognized second partition
« Reply #7 on: 01 / July / 2013, 01:20:40 »
Can't autoboot on cards over 4g, OK got it! 
4g cards are fine if not saving raw files but...Firmware update it is then.
Thanks Again Waterwingz! ::)

It just really sucked when I would forget to swap the partitions back and when I get out there to shoot no CHDK!
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Unrecognized second partition
« Reply #8 on: 01 / July / 2013, 02:25:30 »
Quote from: 1SennaFan on 01 / July / 2013, 01:20:40
4g cards are fine if not saving raw files but...Firmware update it is then.
An alternative to partition swapping is to download the files using camera USB instead of using a card reader. You can use the PTP extension http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/PTP_Extension to transfer raw files. You may also be able to configure a combination of prefix/extension that lets you download them using regular windows software.

None of these options are hassle free.
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It just really sucked when I would forget to swap the partitions back and when I get out there to shoot no CHDK!
If you put the PS.FI2 from the CHDK package on both partitions, you can load manually with firmware update and then swap using CHDK.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Unrecognized second partition
« Reply #9 on: 01 / July / 2013, 08:49:05 »
Quote from: 1SennaFan on 01 / July / 2013, 01:20:40
Can't autoboot on cards over 4g, OK got it!
I didn't actually say quite that.  You can't autoboot a FAT32 partition with your camera.  Partitions larger than 4G need to be formatted FAT32.   Your camera will only boot from a FAT16 partition.  Hence the need for dual partitions on older cameras if you want to autoboot.
 
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4g cards are fine if not saving raw files but
You can still get almost 400 RAW images on a 4G card,  and 4G cards are cheap and small - carry a few.  Do you remember the days when a 36 exposure roll of film was a "big" roll?

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...Firmware update it is then. It just really sucked when I would forget to swap the partitions back and when I get out there to shoot no CHDK!
As reyalp and I have pointed out,  you only need Firmware update once each time you copy images to your PC (to switch from the large partition back to secondary status and make the small partition your primary). After that you are back to autobooting your large card. Not perfect but very workable.
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Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16
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