Sunday, November 1, 2009

USB Drive Beta3

I just (actually on Halloween  night) updated USB Drive to the 3rd beta. While I was going to  release USB Drive, the 1st of November came unexpectedly too quickly.  So, this is an update to move expiration date to the 10th of January 2010 only.

The only new "readonly" option works perfectly but has no sense today.

Hope to release it soon.

P.S. Please do not download USB Drive or any of my applications from sources other than apt.dmytro.me. First of all I haven't given any permissions for such distribution and second and most important it seems that USB Drive is broken in such distributions.

61 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear sir, i really like your work and i want to use it, but i cant download beta 3 because it says that the file cannot be found on sinfulaprepo.com/..........

Is there any other link where i can get it?

Regards,
Kemal

c said...

he just said to use his repo, apt.dmytro.me , not sinfulaprepo or whatever other repo

Anonymous said...

I love that app.
but will there be a fix for the windows problem?
it would rock to not have to reboot the iphone everytime i want to use it

Anonymous said...

works fine with me. but i just wish you have some kind of a built in app to view the file on the iphone or maybe at least readable to "iFile" app on cydia.

vit55555 said...

Присоединяюсь к выразившим восхищение данной программой. 3 бета вообще работает и апгрейдит 2-ю без нареканий. Dmytro - гений ;)

Anonymous said...

You Are my hero, I was waiting for a lot an app like this.I hope for the future updates to can view the volume through ifile for copy files in system folders and to can view these folders from my pc.

Anonymous said...

how can i download the beta ?

Benjamin said...

Thank you for all of the work you have placed into this application to bring USB storage to the iPhone.

Anonymous said...

nice app! apple should have included this feature in the iphone long ago. thanks for all your effort in making this possible.

Anonymous said...

unreal app,

Though when creating a partition my phone went into auto locked mode. I think this broke the partition setup. I disabled auto lock and tried again now not only is the app showing less space for me to use, it defaults to "partition2" and there is no partition for me to delete.

how can i get back this "lost" space from the failed partition creation.

Anonymous said...

when copying a file to the phone under on windows 7 in drive only mode i hit cancel part way into the copy. The transfer hangs and refuses to actually cancel causing the transfer window to "stop responding"

Anonymous said...

I'm going to ask it here because I haven't found any answers on the matter elsewhere: Do you intend to release the source for this at any point in the future? Trial and error isn't a very efficent replacement for solid documentation and now I'm faced with reversing the app myself if I want a solid idea of its limits/capabilitys.

Unknown said...

(Same person as last comment)

I've found a method of accessing files out of a image that UsbDrive is serving. I still need to work on allowing both at once but It's workable as of now and depends on only one package directly:

Requirements: diskdev-cmds
What for?:
/sbin/mount_hfs
/usr/libexec/vndevice

/sbin/newfs_hfs <-optional
/sbin/fdisk <-ditto

Also i'm pretty sure diskdev-cmds sets up the files /dev/vn0 and /dev/vn1 for you so if you are installing these tools by hand don't forget them.

Instructions: First thing you need is a disk image in hfs (or iso9660 and use mount_cd9660 instead). You can create this in iphone os using fdisk and newfs_hfs or get it elsewhere.

Once you have that its a simple matter of using /usr/libexec/vndevice (Apples version of freeBSDs vncontrol) to attach your image to a loop device and then mounting said device: (unless you've done some customization you'll need root privilages)

/usr/libexec/vndevice attach /dev/vn0 /PATH/TO/IMAGE
mount_hfs /dev/vn0 /MOUNT/PATH

and your done!

to remove do umount /MOUNT/PATH then
/usr/libexec/vndevice detach /dev/vn0

Now go copy all those files you really need.
(Not liable should you die/blowup/loseyourchild)

todo: refine instructions and test iso9660 image.

Unknown said...

Led where I can download that files or where I can find't?

Unknown said...

Which files do you mean?

dmp said...

Great instructions thank you. I suppose there is no chances with iso9660, as only HPF driver built-in to firmware.

Ry said...

So when I create two virtual disks, in Windows XP I can only access the first one. How do I get XP to notice that I've got two drives and let me read/write to both?

dmp said...

This is a known issue on 3.1 firmware which needs to be fixed before release.

Unknown said...

I'm not sure to what extent the mounting of files is covered in userland (or isnt).

I'm hoping the mount_whatever commands all use some generic interface and all the messy details are self contained but I wouldn't be to hopeful. Anyways I'm gonna try out mount_cd9660 or whatever and after that start figuring what will be required in general to port the other mount_type programs.

apc said...

Lex'd - it seems like you are genius too... But I hope you clearly understand why USB-connected storage can not be simultaneously accessed from iPhone?

Anonymous said...

How do you uninstall the drive and get back original iphone functionality (sync and charge with computer)?
As it is now the iphone is not recognized, nor charges from a computer after USB drive uninstall.
A bug?, or design to force users to keep it and????????

dmp said...

Why do you, last Anonymous, think I am so evil?

Switch to the default mode, reboot iPhone ensure that charging and sync work properly and uninstall USB Drive.

Unknown said...

@apc I'd like to hear your reasoning.

@dmp could you give some idea of what usbdrive expects in a image file? Any little info at all.

apc said...

@lex'd image file is intended for sector-level access as any block device both for kernel filesystem driver and USB mass storage "clients". So there is no chance from this lower level to synchronize higher level (filesystem) changes from the several independent sources and notify each client about modifications. So the only one possible sharing in this case is read-only access for all clients.

Unknown said...

@apc I hope you clearly understand why none of what you've said is actually conclusive. Also usbdrive isnt 100% block device compatable. It will not export for example a image created using dd if=/dev/zero and my original question still stands. "What does usbdrive require of a image file" But I'll probably just do tests and some detective work and figure it out myself seeing as everyone can only provide semi-answers when what is requested is hard facts.

@dmp I noticed yesterday while testing that usbdrive makes your ipod report in as a usb-key as opposed to a usb-hdd. Is there a reason for this? I ask because i've read of there being issues because of this when attempting to create a bootable usb drive. In a similar vein I'm still curiious if your planning a source release. If not thats cool but it'd be nice if I could stop holding my breath for it ;)

Unknown said...

Huh, thank you guys for the great discussion and valuable information.

USB Drive emulates removable device, not a USB HDD mostly because Windows will use write back cache policy for USB HDD which potentially can damage user data if iPhone/iPod is being disconnected without soft "eject". But since this option requires very little efforts from me, I will include it in some release, but experience shows this option is rarely needed.

Next, about virtual disks. USB Drives do not have any headers or something, this is just a sector level image of the disk. It guess number of sectors from a file size with a fixed sector size set to 512 bytes. So the device/fie should support fopen/fstat/fread/fwrite

For one of the next version I am going to allow access to the /dev/disk0s2 with number of warnings of course :)

You can export image created by copying /dev/zero. USB Drive formats images using FAT filesystem purely for user's convince.

I am not a big fan of open source concept, sorry. I am writing software for living :)

Anonymous said...

(Lex'd away from home)
Alright now we're talking. The 512 sector size is a good thing to know. Now I know why lots of things work (most tools use 512 by default) and why some things didn't (512 isn't universal). A way to set the CHS values would be nice. Better yet if you parsed MBRs for them if they were available you would be golden.

Unknown said...

SCSI2 specification (wrapped by USB Mass Storage) do not use CHS, there is LBA style only.

Even more, by default USB Drive do not use MBR for compatibility reasons.

512 bytes sector is for compatibility reason. It isn't too complex to make it variable, but such drives will be readable by modern WIndows for sure, 50% chances for Mac OS and little chances for linuxes, TV boxes, etc.

2352 byte sectors requires support of additional SCSI commands for full CD/DVD emulation. This wasn't my goal.

It's up to you, you can create MBR, create logical disks put any CHS values you want to these structures, you just need to be sure that host will properly translate it to the LBA.

Alejandro A said...

Hi, thanks for your job with this "UBS Drive Beta3". I'm writing to you cuz I found a "bug". Maybe someone else told you this before.
The trouble is when I activate "Drive Only" (I have Windows XP) I can't conect to any Bluetooth device.
My iPod Touch 2G Firm 3.1.1 is incapable to find anything over BT.

That's the only bug.

Thank to you guys.

Sorry my english, it isn't my mother languaje

Andy said...

Very nice app. I would by it.
But one issue. I get ~1,5MB/s during transfer. Is this correct?

Anonymous said...

Cooool. One issue i take 20Mo on memory!!!??? Super it's good. :)

Shaman NL said...

Hi Everyone.
First thanks to Dmytro for the great app!
Here my question:
Yesterday after unlock with blacksn0w my iphone crashes. After some work everything is working again incl. jailbreak :-). The problem is that after reinstall "USB drive" it doesnt show any more my already created 4GB partition. Suggested methods as swipe from left to right doesn't apply. If I check the Iphone INFO the 4GB space is really gone. Someone do know how to manually of automaticly recover these space?
regards,
Shaman

Anonymous said...

Ok! I hope i'm understand why i take 20-30Mo memory. I'v installed iPhone VM2 ( more Ram ) and USB drive. The issue is iPhone VM2 use USB drive for flash disk ( and i take 20/ 30 Mo memory). Can you say me it's right what i say, what I suppose!!!???

Anonymous said...

Hello, I redo my application in English more careful when I installed on my iPhone 3G: iPhone VM2 (to increase the memory) it had not done much. I then installed USB Drive (I would take the final because the latter, for me already), and the Incredible! The iPhone has regained speed. He had lost ( 20 to 30 MB ). so my question is, what the iPhone uses VM2 created by the partition as Drive USB FlashDrive and, what is this outcome was known ( for me it's fabulus ). Here, let me just add, thank you and bravo for that application. I hope I succeeded in making myself understood and awaits a response from you.  . And excuse me for my engish

Paddy said...

hi,

cannot download via cydia. if i try to download the usb drive file (dmytro.me) there poped up a notification = -size mismatch- thats all. cydia loads the windows new and then i have to return to cydia's mainpage. for fact i can't install it. whats the reason?

i deleted the old version (beta 1.0) before i tried to download the new beta. is that the reason? i hope no. pls for information how i can download and install the new beta version.

thx and greetings
paddy

Ciur said...

Hi man!
Great work!
I have a question.
Can we mount the img file on our iphone to access to our file with iFile or MobileFinder? thanks!!!

Unknown said...

Hey there, awesome app you've got going, my question for you is, I've created 3 Volumes, yet I can only get the first to show up, right now. I use 3 different USB thumbsticks as 'keys' to unlock my work stations, I figured it'd be much cooler if I could use this instead. I thought this could emulate the 3 usb drives that I carry around with me. Again I can only get the first volume to show. Should I expect this in an update or what? Again either way, awesome app, I would love to hear future plans and some sort of response to my question, thanks!
- Taylor

Anonymous said...

Hi,
i'm not able to see the files as shown in the tutorials after the reboot stage 'at step seventeen". Is this proper to mac or what? it's like a dead end.

This app is great, and it would be very nice to let people know how they can access the files, videos from cycorder for instance.

Again, thx for this great application.

Anonymous said...

hi Dmytro
Good job! but i have a problem... i downloaded usb drive and i created a 6 gb partition, then suddenly while creating the iphone (2g 8gb) shutdown and when i restarted my iphone i checked usb drive app ate more than 3 gbytes out of my iphone memory!!! i uninstalled the app and reinstalled it again it kept in sayin that i have just 3 gbytes and 500 mbytes left to create a partition!!!!! PLZ PLZ PLZ reply me as soon as u see this comment... I CAN'T LOSE SUCH CAPACITY... PLZ help me recover IT!!!
thanks in advance..
Nathan

StarWolf said...

I install USB Drive Beta 3 on my IPHONE 3Gs (3.1.2), was working fine. I create a virtual disk of 4Gs and put some file. Wow good stuff.

But I can't use anymore ssh or vnc via Itunnel.exe (use to work just fine before I install Usb Drive beta 3).

I test it on 3 modes and reboot each time iphone and my PC, still have no connection.

I switch back to mode default as mention before uninstalling. Still same error. But when I connect it, I can see my photo and Itunes can see the device.

BTW: I able to connect via WIFI to vnc and ssh so the service work fine. Also my firewall was at off.

Any idea which file have been modify I can replace?

Thanks,
Starwolf

Gohumlefum said...

Hey!
I just found out after ERASING a virtual disk created with USB DRIVE,Windows still recogníze it as an external drive but u can´t access it!

Maybe that bug can be overworked!

THNX in Advace

Rohit Khurana said...

nice app, thanks :)

Unknown said...

It is really a very nice app. It finally can make the iphone compare to other mobile phones on this point.

But I've found that after using this app, the Internet Tethering option disappear!!

Pls help to check it out and let's have a perfect app.
Thank you.

Zhuobin.He said...

It seems not work on my iphone 2g so 3.1.2. The program just quit after a while of blank screen.

Anonymous said...

"how can i get back this "lost" space from the failed partition creation."

No-one want to reply to this comment so people can regain lost space due to instable app crashing when creating the partitions???

Anonymous said...

hi, am trying to upgrade my 1.0 to 3.0 but pressing the upgrade button leads me to the safari browser with a message of : file not found, the requested URL /ce2i/beta3.php was not found on this server, my iphone is read only and i have some files to use, plz any help asap

Anonymous said...

hello ,
i downloaded beta 3 but the app is telling => this beta version has expired. please visit ...
what can i do ?
nice app
:)

Anonymous said...

yes why does this beta "expire" today? I don't understand the logic. Also when you hit upgrade, it takes Safari to a 404/Not Found.

Anonymous said...

when could i use the latest virson?

Anonymous said...

it expired..it write protected all of my files and i deleted the volume and went through ssh and deleted lunconfig.plst or somethin switched it back to default mode and uninstalled.
before all of this i tried to upgrade and it opened safari to a not working url that looked similar to the cydia source..so i couldnt upgrade

Andmicro said...

when will the beta upgrade come out? i have heard about this and would love to try it, looks very good but limited to read only, cant wait!

Mark Smith said...

arraaaaahhhhh, just uptdated to beta3 and its says its expired, is this just a minor problem?

Anonymous said...

For all who can't wait and want to use USB Drive Beta3 after the 10 Januar 2010! Set the Systemdate back to the 9 Januar 2010 or any date you want.

Mike Crandall said...

Thanks for the suggestion to set the date back...than works until Dmytro provides the next update...

Henry said...

I've just downloaded this great app, but like some previous posters, my app crashed during the creation of a 2GB virtual drive. My iPhone system now reads 2GB less available and no created drive appears in the USB drive app. How can I reclaim this 2GB lost space so that I can then create another virtual drive.

This question has been asked several times before. Can somebody please provide an answer or advice?

Thank you,
- Henry

Anonymous said...

Would love to see it running.
On Ipod touch 3.1.3 it crashes on start so I can't access any settings at all

Trey Beach said...

This app has broken m iPod touch and I have emailed you I would really appreciate it if you would tell me how to fix it. I have tried 3 times a dfu restore but it will not work. Help me please I want my iPod fixed!!!!

Anonymous said...

YOU RELY NEED TO UPDATE THIS!!!!im runing on 4.2.1 and your last commet was in 2010?

Lost Cause 1138 said...

the app worked great untill i upgraded my ipod thouch 4 to 4.3.3 then your repo stoped working. Any idea why or how to fix it?
Thanks

Rángel said...

de las mejores aplicaciones, excelentísimo trabajo

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...
you can deletes the drive with ifiles
go to var, and look for volumes
you can deletes them and reboot it
should work , it did for me
good luck"
This person from another earlier post saved my life. Thanks for helping people Dmytro, asshole