the frig blig

My iPod was crashing after I tried to load a playlist after adding additional playlists. It drove me crazy for a few days, examining the playlists in detail, they were all valid…but I finally figured out the problem. After downloading the source code (Rockbox is open source) I discovered that the file playlist_catalog.c defined MAX_PLAYLISTS 400. I had 430 playlists already — clearly I was trashing memory. I changed the value of MAX_PLAYLISTS to 512, rebuilt rockbox, reloaded it onto my iPod and what do you know — no more crashes!

I submitted my mod as a patch to the Rockbox project, and it was rejected (rightfully so) since it’s not an actual bugfix but a kludgy hack. This is correct. But in my case the memory it adds is minimal (112 ARM pointers == 32*112 = 3.5k bytes) and since I’m running it on a 64M iPod that’s no concern. Before I add a hundred more CDs I’ll have a better solution in place.

The root cause why I have so many playlists in the first place is because my method of ripping CDs creates music files that match the actual track name. If I modify that to prepend the sequential track number, rockbox won’t need a playlist to play the album in the proper order. That’s probably a pretty simple fix, and I’ll be able to delete 90 percent of my playlists. It’s on my to-do list.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 6:06 am and is filed under geeky. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.