freebsd stable - Apr 2008 - Rockbox on a USB device causes kernel panic on 7.0

Hi all,

    I'm running FreeBSD 7.0 on a home file server that holds, among a 
bunch of other stuff, my music collection.  I occasionally hook up my 
iPod Video (5.5) to charge and to synchronize files using rsync; I've 
got Rockbox (http://www.rockbox.org/) running on the iPod.  For as long 
as I've had 7 running on the server (about a year), everything has been 
fine.  However, after a recent Rockbox update, the server reports a 
kernel panic when I plug in the iPod.
    I think that this is related to some changes on the rsync end, 
specifically their "New USB stack with limited capability".  It would
be
great to get this combination working again, and I'm wondering what 
information would be most useful if anyone wanted to take a crack at the 
problem.  I'm working on getting a scratch box together for testing 
purposes so that I can avoid taking down my server.  Thanks for any help 
or suggestions,

Dave

> I think that this is related to some changes on the rsync end, 
> specifically their "New USB stack with limited capability".
The new USB stack is not enabled by default. Rockbox still reboots the 
iPod into emergency disk mode when USB is plugged in, just like it 
always did.

That said, Apple's disk mode has always been very good at panicking my 
6-STABLE machines.

- Bartosz

Just wanted to correct an error in my original note; I intended to 
suggest that a change in Rockbox had caused this problem, not rsync.  
Bartosz picked up on that immediately.  Regarding your note, I think 
that the Rockbox USB stack may in fact be running by default in the 
newest releases.  I write this with some confidence as the same device 
that FreeBSD used to identify as "IPOD" is now identified as
"Rockbox"
something-or-other.  I'm not sure exactly what it is as every time I see 
it I get a panic.

> the same device that FreeBSD used to identify as "IPOD" is now
> identified as "Rockbox"
The Rockbox USB code keeps changing with each build - it used to request 
power (using its own USB stack) until very recently for me, but as of a 
couple of days ago, reboots into the original firmware again.

It will be difficult to debug the FreeBSD side of things when the 
Rockbox code is so volatile and fragile.

- Bartosz