What Happens When an iPod Battery Totally Runs Out?

Question: What Happens When an iPod Battery Totally Runs Out?

Many iPod users have likely seen the red battery icon on the iPods that tells them they’re running low on juice and need a charge soon. Fewer, though, have let their iPod batteries run all the way down. But how big a deal is that? What happens when an iPod battery totally runs out?

Answer: How big a deal it is depends on how much time you have and whether you’ve synced content recently.
When an iPod battery totally runs out, all content – music, movies, podcasts, photos, etc. – gets deleted from the iPod and the iPod goes into a non-functional mode.
The next time you connect the iPod to your computer, you’ll have to set the iPod up again as if it was brand new. As long as all the content from your iPod was backed up on your computer, this is annoying, but not serious. You’ll need to recreate all your settings and then wait for your content to sync to your iPod again.
If you had things on your iPod (maybe apps on an iPod touch or video on the 5th generation iPod nano) that weren’t yet synced to your computer and let the battery run all the way down, they’ll be deleted.
That’s a good reason to keep your battery charged, I’d say.

iPod Battery and iPhone Battery Basics, Tips, and Tricks

For a pretty wonderful line of products, iPod battery life can be a sore spot. The situation is even worse with the iPhone, where a recharge every day or so is common.
The problem, though, is that unlike other consumer electronics, iPhone and iPod batteries can’t be replaced by users. This is the result of a calculated trade-off by Apple: to get the high-end, smooth-lined industrial design that have helped the iPod and iPhone be so successful, batteries have to be locked inside the device’s case.
This can mean, in some cases, that an otherwise perfectly good iPod can be done in by a failing battery – which can be a frustrating situation. This site offers a number of articles to help you get the longest battery life out of your iPod or iPhone and to understand your options when batteries fail.

How Long Do iPod Batteries Last?

Question: How Long Do iPod Batteries Last?

Apple doesn't provide a project lifespan in months or years for the batteries in iPods. This is because the lifespan of a battery is influenced by how the battery is used and charged.

Answer: Apple says that iPod batteries will maintain up to 80% of their capacity through 400 charge/discharge cycles. A charge/discharge cycle is just what it sounds like - using the iPod until its battery is substantially run down and then recharging it. How long that translates to depends on how often you need to full recharge your iPod. Light users could get three or four years of use out of a battery, while heavy users might only get 18 months.
Apple recommends that you perform at least one charge/discharge cycle a month, as iPod batteries benefit from this and retain their ability hold juice longer that way.
If you've come to the end of your iPod's battery lifespan, you've got options, including replacing the battery or buying a new iPod.

iPod Battery Replacement

A well-cared-for iPod can last many years, but there’s a downside to that longevity: sooner or later, you’re going to face the need for iPod battery replacement.
An iPod used and charged regularly can start to show decreased battery life after 18-24 months (though some last much longer) and, if you’ve still got the iPod after two or three years, you’ll likely notice that the battery holds less juice, making the iPod less useful. If you’re still satisfied with everything else about the iPod, though, you may not want to buy a whole new iPod when all you need is a replacement battery.
But, the iPod’s battery is not (easily) replaceable by users because it is sealed into the device’s case, which has no doors, hinges, or screws. So what are your options?

iPod Battery Replacement Options

Apple – Apple offers an iPod battery replacement program for out-of-warranty models through its retail stores and its website. There are conditions on the program, but many older models should qualify.
Repair Shops – Many websites offer iPod battery replacement services. Google “ipod battery replacement” and you’ll likely find a decent selection. Send your iPod to these companies and, for a fee, they’ll install a new battery. Make sure to sync your iPod before you send it, though, so all your data is safely backed up on your computer.
Do It Yourself – If you’re handy, or tinkerer, you can replace your iPod’s battery yourself. This is a little trickier, though, but Google will supply with you many companies willing to sell you the tools and battery you need to do this. Make sure you’ve synced your iPod before you start and know what you’re doing. Otherwise, you could end up with a dead iPod.

Is iPod Battery Replacement Worth It?

Replacing the dead or dying battery in your iPod may seem like a good idea, but is it always worth it?
As of May 2009, Apple charges US$49-$79 for its services, while repair shops will charge $15-$50 for their services or a kit for you to do it yourself.
While those prices are fairly affordable, before you lay out the money, decide whether putting $50 to the purchase of a new iPod makes more sense. It may not – your current iPod may be all you need – but for just $100 or $200 more than that $50, you can get a brand new iPod with more capacity and features than your old one.

iPod Touch Review

The iPod touch is widely referred to as the iPhone without the phone. That’s because the iPod touch has almost all of the iPhone’s features except for the connection to AT&T’s EDGE network, meaning that it doesn’t offer nationwide connections to the Internet. Still, with its big screen, WiFi connection, and 16GB and 32GB storage capacities, if you like the features of the iPhone, but don’t want to pay its price tag or two-year mobile phone commitment, give the iPod touch a look.

The iPod touch may be an indication of where Apple is taking the iPod line: instead of a small device focused on music playback with some video features added to it, the iPod touch may signal that Apple is envisioning the iPod growing into a full portable media player. These devices tend to include large storage capacities, big screens, and WiFi to connect to networks.
The iPod touch has all of these things, though its storage could stand an upgrade. The key difference here is that the touch uses flash memory, which is lighter and thinner than the hard drives used in most portable media players. The touch comes in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB models currently.
Apple rates the iPod touch as offering 22 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of video.
The touch features the biggest screen in the iPod line up at 2.5 inches. Like the iPhone, it plays video horizontally and allows you to scroll through your music library in both standard and CoverFlow modes.
Though the touch has a WiFi connection to allow users to download content and take advantage of services like Google maps, Safari, and YouTube, there is one key difference between the touch, the iPhone, and other iPods: Apple charges for software updates to the touch. While new features are rare on the iPod, and freely and regularly released on the iPhone, touch users must pay a small fee to add software updates that offer substantial new features. The fees have run around US$20 recently, but that extra fee for features that are included on the iPhone may put off some users.

Rockbox 3.0 Released. Quietly.

Three years after its last major release, Rockbox 3.0 is now available. This popular app is a great open source solution for replacing the firmwear on many types of portable media players including Sansa, iRiver, Archos, and iPod.
Rockbox's developers say that the most important changes to the software won't be particularly obvious to the average user. "The first players supported by Rockbox decoded MP3 files using a chip specifically for this purpose. This made things a lot simpler for Rockbox, but also limited the amount of formats supported to variants of MPEG audio. Newer players don't use this approach, and as such, it was needed to expand Rockbox to do sound decoding in software on these players. This opens up the possibility of supporting a lot of different file formats, which is of course exactly what we did! "
Other changes include a new installation tool and support for SWCODEC targets.
In addition to an all around great app, developers have also had a hand in making the features of the Archos Jukebox MP3 player accessible to visually impaired and blind users.
Surprisingly, hype surrounding this release is relatively minimal for such a useful alternative to simply tossing out old MP3 players. As LWN's Jon Corbet points out, "Now would seem like the time for the project to begin its hype campaign with lots of screenshot-heavy articles on all of the features this major release will bring. Evidently the Rockbox developers have some strange ideas about actually working on the code, though; they haven't gotten around to the promotional side of things yet."

Rockbox ipod... wikipedia

Rockbox is a free software replacement for the firmware held on various forms of digital audio players (DAPs). Rockbox offers an alternative to the host device's operating system firmware (in many cases without removing the original firmware) which provides a plug-in architecture for adding various enhancements and functionality to DAPs which are not present in the original OS. Enhancements include PDA functionality, applications, utilities, and games. Rockbox can also retrofit video playback functionality onto DAPs first released in mid-2000. Rockbox also includes a voice-driven user-interface suitable for operation by blind and visually impaired users.
Rockbox runs on a wide variety of portable audio devices with very different hardware abilities: from early Archos players with 1-bit character cell-based displays to modern players with high resolution color displays, digital optical audio hardware and advanced recording capabilities.
Rockbox is free software released under the GNU General Public License.

Rockbox... wikipedia

Development

The Rockbox project began in late 2001 and was first implemented on the early Archos series of hard-disk based MP3 players and player/recorders, including the flash-only model Ondio, because of owner frustration with severe limitations in the manufacturer-supplied user interface and device operations. These devices have relatively weak main CPUs and instead offload music playback to dedicated hardware MP3 decoding chips (called the MAS). Rockbox, therefore, was unable to significantly alter playback capabilities. Instead, it offered a greatly improved user interface and added plugin functionality not present in the factory firmware. Rockbox is capable of being permanently flashed into flash memory on the Archos devices, making it a literal firmware replacement.
Versions of Rockbox have since been produced for more sophisticated devices. These perform audio decoding in software, allowing Rockbox to potentially support many more music formats than the original firmware as well as bringing the extensibility and increased functionality already present in the Archos ports. Rockbox is run from the hard disk on these devices, after being started with a custom bootloader, so to upgrade Rockbox users need only copy the files onto the player's drive and restart the device. Reflashing is only necessary when changing the bootloader, and on some platforms, is not required at all.
The first of these ports, beginning in late 2004, was for the ColdFire-powered devices manufactured by iriver, focusing on the H1xx series of hard drive players (H110/H120/H140). Approximately one year later a port for the H3xx series became functional, offering similar functionality.
In late 2005, work began on a port of Rockbox to Apple iPod portable players. Throughout 2006, Rockbox ports were made available for a variety of iPod models (iPod photo, iPod nano, iPod 4g, iPod mini, and iPod Video), as well as the Cowon iAUDIO X5 series. As of February 2007, usable ports are also available for the iriver H10 and Toshiba Gigabeat F & X series. As of March 5th, 2007, a new port for the Cowon iAUDIO M5 became functional. On March 11th, 2007, the SanDisk Sansa e200 series became the next addition to the Rockbox lineup. On May 23rd, 2007, support for the iPod video 80 GB model was added, completing the iPod video lineup. On July 27, 2007, initial support was added for the iPod 1G and 2G. On September 23, 2007, the Sansa c200 series was welcomed into the lineup. On March 18th, 2008, the Olympus m:robe 100 became the first new port of 2008, and the iAUDIO M3 joined the lineup days later. Rockbox now includes video-support for MPEG playback through the included work-in-progress mpegplayer plugin.^[1]
To date, all Rockbox ports have been accomplished by reverse engineering with little or no manufacturer assistance. However, as free software, many Rockbox developers and supporters hope to eventually see official manufacturer support for new ports, or at least unofficial assistance in porting Rockbox to new devices. To date, only a few companies have expressed interest in Rockbox, and none have officially contributed code to the project or included it with their hardware. The Sansa port is the first to be started at the request of the hardware manufacturer who gave the Rockbox team samples of their devices.
Rockbox is continuously developed, with new SVN builds being released after every source change, and stable releases every 4 months for targets deemed sufficiently mature. Additionally builds are often available to developers of unsupported targets, which while somewhat functional are typically not ready for general users due to incomplete features or poor stability.

[edit] Customization

Subject to the limitations of each particular platform, the appearance of Rockbox can be customised in various ways. Fonts and foreground and background colours can be added and selected, while a simple markup language can be used to create themes for the menu and while-playing screens. These themes can include background and other images (such as icons), plus various formats for filenames, ID3 tags, Album art, file progress, time and system information.
Rockbox has been essentially a file-tree based player, to which folders could be dragged and dropped, then navigated by folder structure. More recent versions, however, have included a database feature which allows the player to compile information from the files' ID3 tags. The user can then navigate the files using this database regardless of file structure.

[edit] Features

[edit] Codecs

Rockbox on software decoding platforms (non-Archos) supports playback (depending on how you count them) of ten lossy codecs, five lossless, two uncompressed and six miscellaneous formats. This makes a conservative total of 23 supported audio formats, although a few of them do not operate in realtime on all platforms.
MPEG audio layers I-III (MP3/MP2/MP1), Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-4 AAC (in MP4 or RM containers), Musepack, AC3, WMA, Speex, Cook, ATRAC3 and the lossy portion of WavPack hybrid files are supported lossy formats. Lossless formats include FLAC, WavPack, Shorten, Apple Lossless and Monkey's Audio. Rockbox plays Intel-style WAV and Apple AIFF uncompressed audio. In addition, there are playback of game audio types ADX, SID, NSF, SAP and SPC. The MOD tracker format is also now supported.^[2]
Note that some profiles in Monkey's Audio are not real time on all targets due to extremely high CPU requirements. Also note that any file with DRM scheme will not play in Rockbox.

[edit] Rockbox features

Beside the ability of playing and recording audio files, Rockbox offers many playback enhancements that other firmware packages may not have implemented yet. Listed below are a handful of these features.

• Gapless playback
• Crossfading
• Replay Gain^[3]
• 5 band fully parametric equalizer^[3]
• Variable speed decoding with pitch correction
• Crossfeed^[3]
• OTF ("on the fly") playlists
• True random shuffle (fresh randomly shuffled list every time)
• Custom UI themes
• Dynamic Playlists (queue files to play next, or in other parts of a dynamic playlist)
• Stereo recording to WAV/AIFF/WavPack (lossless) and MP3^[4] (supporting devices)
• FM radio, including FM recording (supporting devices)
• Remote control (supporting devices)
• Digital SPDIF input/output (supporting devices)
• Last.fm support (even on players lacking RTC)
• Cue sheet support
• Changeable selector bar
• Album art^[5]
• Sleep timer

[edit] Plug-ins

Rockbox developers can create plug-ins, which provide the user with other enhancements that may not be available on various firmware modules.
Available plug-ins include:

• JPEG viewer (16 bit color/129 shade greyscale)^[6]
• Rockboy Game Boy emulator (port of Gnuboy)^[7]
• ZXBox ZX Spectrum emulator (port of Spectemu)^[8]
• Doom (port of the PrBoom engine)
• WAV to MP3 encoder
• WAV to WavPack encoder
• MPEG video player^[1]
• PictureFlow, an album art viewer similar to Apple's Cover Flow
• Various games including sudoku, solitaire, minesweeper, pong and many others (see http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PluginIndex for an official list of plugins)
• MIDI player, realtime on some targets. Requires external instrument set, available on Rockbox page.

[edit] Unimplemented features

Rockbox development is always ongoing. However, either due to the lack of support from external companies or platform drawbacks, Rockbox has a few features which are not yet implemented.

• Firewire
• Digital rights management (or Digital Restrictions Management) (intentionally unimplemented)
• USB host capability ("USB On-The-Go")

[edit] Architecture

Rockbox uses a simple kernel,^[9] with a flat memory model (allowing it to run on platforms without a memory management unit) and single process. Thin threads run cooperatively, returning control to a scheduler that prioritizes the audio thread; the only form of preemption is through interrupts. The operating system and plugins are written in C, with assembler used for device- and platform-specific code, in addition to performance sensitive code. The simple and lightweight architecture allows Rockbox to run on a variety of targets, with memory ranging from 1 to 64 MB, and CPU speeds ranging 12 to 532 MHz. Rockbox also provides limited support for multicore and asymmetric multiprocessor systems based on ARM, Coldfire, MIPS and SH.

[edit] Supported devices

iPod mini with Rockbox software

The following should be considered to be a list of devices that at least substantially work (listed as "Supported" or "Usable" on the Rockbox wiki Device Chart). See the Rockbox Device Chart for details.

[edit] Archos

• Archos Jukebox series:
  • Jukebox 6000
  • Jukebox Player/Studio
  • Jukebox Recorder
• FM Recorder
• Recorder v2
• Ondio FM
• Ondio SP

[edit] iRiver

• H10 series (H10 5, 6, and 20 GB)
• H100 series (H100/H110/H115/H120/H140, aka iHP-100/110/115/120/140)
• H300 series (H320/H340)

[edit] Cowon

• X5 and X5L
• X5V
• M5 and M5L
• M3 and M3L
• D2

[edit] Apple

• iPod 1^st generation
• iPod 2^nd generation
• iPod 3^rd generation
• iPod 4^th generation (grayscale)
• iPod 4^th generation (color/photo)
• iPod 5^th and 5.5 generation (video)
• iPod mini 1^st generation
• iPod mini 2^nd generation
• iPod nano 1^st generation
• iPod nano 2^ndgeneration (basic can play music and supports plugins)

[edit] Toshiba

• Gigabeat F series (F10/F11/F20/F21/F30/F31/F40/F41/F60)
• Gigabeat X series
• Gigabeat S series (Standard build works, requires a couple of external steps.)

[edit] SanDisk

• Sansa e200 series
• Sansa e200r series
• Sansa e200 v2 series (unstable)
• Sansa c200 series
• Sansa Fuze—V1 support only (unstable)

High density microSDHC memory cards can be read by Rockbox in the c200 and e200 series.
The current versions of the Sansa ("v2" or "AMS"), including the c200v2, m200v4 and Clip are not yet supported and are under development. However, as of July 2009 a test build of the Rockbox firmware has been known to successfully run on the Sansa Fuze.

Doom on ur ipod

Introduction

The Doom plugin is NOT a viewer. It is run from the plugins list, similar to Jewels and the others.
Rockdoom is a modified version of PrBoom version 2.2.6. PrBoom is a source port of the Doom engine that adds many new features to the original game. Most of these features are only noticeable in addon WADs, but some are visible immediately for example translucent sprites (fireballs, plasma, etc..). An explanation of PrBoom's history is also available.

---

Getting Started

To play Doom you need at least the base WAD called rockdoom.wad plus one or more game WADs.

Install rockdoom.wad

Create a directory called /.rockbox/doom/ on your player (i.e. F:\.rockbox\doom\ for Windows users - where F: is the drive letter for your DAP) and save the following file in that directory:

• rockdoom.wad

Install the Game WADs

Copy the Doom WADs you wish to play into that directory and start Doom. The files which Doom looks for are:

• doom1.wad: Doom (Shareware)
• doom.wad: Doom
• doomu.wad: Doom
• doom2.wad: Doom 2 - Hell on Earth
• doom2f.wad: Doom 2 French
• plutonia.wad: Doom 2 - Plutonia Experiment
• tnt.wad: Doom 2 - TNT - Evilution

A free alternative for Doom 2 is Freedoom. This can be used in place of doom2.wad or it may be used as an addon in Doom by placing it in the addons directory. It may also be renamed to doomf.wad and placed in the .rockbox\doom directory.
The Heretic and Hexen WADs are not supported by Rockdoom.

Disable Voice Options

All settings in General Settings -> Voice must be disabled. See Bugs/Known issues (bottom of this page).

(Optional) Addon WADs

To play addon WADs place the files in this directory: .rockbox\doom\addons. Here is a good link for addons:

• Top 100 wads: Note: Addons that work with PrBoom 2.2.6 will work in Rockdoom.

NOTE: Please do not upload Doom WADs to this wiki. Aside from copyright issues, this content is better suited to a website specializing in Doom WADs. Feel free to add links to such websites here. WADs that should not be directly linked include ones that contain characters, artwork, sounds, music, or other items that are copyrighted by someone who has not given explicit permission to distribute. Additionally, all links should be to a site where the unencumbered WADs are permanently hosted.

(Optional) Demos

To play demos create the "demos" directory within /.rockbox/doom. Place the LMP files in this directory. Here is a good link for demos:

• Doom Demos

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Menu & Key Descriptions

Please refer to your player's manual.

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Screenshots

Doom running on the X5(TNT.wad)

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Bugs/Known issues

There are still outstanding bugs in Doom. Please either post them on the tracker or here so that they can be looked at.

Music

• Ingame music is not currently supported.

Addons

• WADs from GP32 wads - These WADs have modified, non-standard graphics that cause buffer overruns in doom. Rockdoom does/will not support these WADs exiting immediately.

• A good way to test WADs on the computer to see if they should work is to run PrBoom 2.2.6 with the software renderer. The OpenGL renderer will not work as a check. If the addon runs on PrBoom 2.2.6 with the software renderer a bug report should be filed.

• These WADs can be fixed using a WAD editor like Deutex to change all the graphics that are oversize or out of range to follow the Doom standards.

Doom Engine

• Occasionally the game will stall when flipping a switch. This happens because the caching code does not load all of the switch animations. The game resumes after a second or so.

• All options under General Settings -> Voice must be disabled.
  ("Voice Menus" is on by default, but the voice file needs to be present for this to take effect). Otherwise the engine will crash on plugin menu or game startup with "Undefined Instruction at (Address)" or similar, requiring a hard reboot. The rockdoom plugin code should be corrected to automatically disable voice during use.

Installation rockbox

2  Installation

Installing Rockbox is generally a quick and easy procedure. However before beginning there are a few things it is important to know.

2.1 Before Starting
2.2 Installing Rockbox
2.2.1 Automated Installation
2.2.2 Manual Installation
2.2.3 Finishing the install
2.2.4 Enabling Speech Support (optional)
2.3 Running Rockbox
2.4 Updating Rockbox
2.5 Uninstalling Rockbox
2.5.1 Automatic Uninstallation
2.5.2 Manual Uninstallation
2.6 Troubleshooting

2.1  Before Starting

Supported hardware versions.

The Video is the 5th/5.5th generation Ipod only. Rockbox does not run on the newer, 6th/Classic generation Ipod. For information on identifying which Ipod you own, see this page on Apple’s website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61688.

USB connection.

To transfer Rockbox to your player you need to connect it to your computer. For manual installation/uninstallation, or should autodetection fail during automatic installation, you need to know where to access the player. On Windows this means you need to know the drive letter associated with the player. On Linux you need to know the mount point of your player. On Mac OS X you need to know the volume name of your player.

If you have Itunes installed and it is configured to open automatically when your player is attached (the default behaviour), then wait for it to open and then quit it. You also need to ensure the “Enable use as disk” option is enabled for your player in Itunes. Your player should then enter disk mode automatically when connected to a computer via USB. If your computer does not recognise your player, you may need to enter disk mode manually. Disconnect your player from the computer. Hard reset the player by pressing and holding the Menu and Select buttons simultaneously. As soon as the player resets, press and hold the Select and Play buttons simultaneously. Your player should enter disk mode and you can try reconnecting to the computer.

Administrator/Root rights.

Installing the bootloader portion of Rockbox requires you to have administrative (Windows) or root (Linux) rights. Consequently when doing either the automatic or manual bootloader install, please ensure that you are logged in with an administrator account or have root rights.

File system format.

Rockbox only works on Ipods formatted with the FAT32 filesystem (i.e. Ipods initialised by Itunes for Windows). It does not work with the HFS+ filesystem (i.e. Ipods initialised by Itunes for the Mac). More information and instructions for converting an Ipod to FAT32 can be found on the IpodConversionToFAT32 wiki page on the Rockbox website. Note that after conversion, you can still use a FAT32 Ipod with a Mac.

2.2  Installing Rockbox

There are two ways to install Rockbox: automated and manual. The automated way is the preferred method of installing Rockbox for the majority of people. Rockbox Utility is a graphical application that does almost everything for you. However, should you encounter a problem, then the manual way is still available to you.

There are three separate components, two of which need to be installed in order to run Rockbox:

The Ipod bootloader.

The Ipod bootloader is the program that tells your player how to load and start the original firmware. It is also responsible for any emergency, recovery, or disk modes on your player. This bootloader is stored in special flash memory in your Ipod and comes factory-installed. It is not necessary to modify this in order to install Rockbox.

The Rockbox bootloader.

The Rockbox bootloader is loaded from disk by the Ipod bootloader. It is responsible for loading the Rockbox firmware and for providing the dual boot function. It directly replaces the Ipod firmware in the player’s boot sequence.

The Rockbox firmware.

Similar to the Ipod firmware, most of the Rockbox code is contained in a “build” that resides on your player’s drive. This makes it easy to update Rockbox. The build consists of a directory called .rockbox which contains all of the Rockbox files, and is located in the root of your player’s drive.

Apart from the required parts there are some addons you might be interested in installing.

Fonts.

Rockbox can load custom fonts. The fonts are distributed as a separate package and thus need to be installed separately. They are not required to run Rockbox itself but a lot of themes require the fonts package to be installed.

Themes.

The appearance of Rockbox can be customised by themes. Depending on your taste you might want to install additional themes to change the look of Rockbox.

2.2.1  Automated Installation

To automatically install Rockbox, download the official installer and housekeeping tool Rockbox Utility. It allows you to:

• Automatically install all needed components for using Rockbox (“Minimal Installation”).
• Automatically install all suggested components (“Complete Installation”).
• Selectively install optional components.
• Install additional fonts and themes.
• Install voice files and generate talk clips.
• Uninstall all components you installed using Rockbox Utility.

Prebuilt binaries for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X are available at the RockboxUtility wiki page.

When first starting Rockbox Utility run “Autodetect”, found in the configuration dialog (File → Configure). Autodetection can detect most player types. If autodetection fails or is unable to detect the mountpoint, make sure to enter the correct values. The mountpoint indicates the location of the player in your filesystem. On Windows, this is the drive letter the player gets assigned, on other systems this is a path in the filesystem.

Note: Autodetection is unable to distinguish between the Ipod 30 GB and 60 GB / 80 GB models and defaults to the 30 GB model. This will usually work but you might want to check the detected value, especially if you experience problems with Rockbox.

Choosing a Rockbox version

There are three different versions of Rockbox available from the Rockbox website: Release version, current build and archived daily build. You need to decide which one you want to install and get the appropriate version for your player. If you select either “Minimal Installation” or “Complete Installation” from the “Quick Start” tab, then Rockbox Utility will automatically install the release version of Rockbox. Using the “Installation” tab will allow you to select which version you wish to install.

Release.

The release version is the latest stable release, free of known critical bugs. For a manual install, the current stable release of Rockbox is available at http://www.rockbox.org/download/.

Current Build.

The current build is built at each source code change to the Rockbox SVN repository and represents the current state of Rockbox development. This means that the build could contain bugs but most of the time is safe to use. For a manual install, you can download the current build from http://build.rockbox.org/.

Archived Build.

In addition to the release version and the current build, there is also an archive of daily builds available for download. These are built once a day from the latest source code in the SVN repository. For a manual install, you can download archived builds from http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml.

Note: Because current and archived builds are development versions that change frequently, they may behave differently than described in this manual, or they may introduce new (and potentially annoying) bugs. Unless you wish to try the latest and greatest features at the price of possibly greater instability, or you wish to help with development, you should stick with the release.

Please now go to section 2.2.3 to complete the installation procedure.

2.2.2  Manual Installation

The manual installation method is still available to you, should you need or desire it by following the instructions below. If you have used Rockbox Utility to install Rockbox, then you do not need to follow the next section and can skip straight to section 2.2.3

Installing the firmware

1.

Download your chosen version of Rockbox from the links in the previous section.

Note: There are separate versions of Rockbox for the 30GB and 60GB/80GB models. You must ensure you download the correct version for your player.

2.

Connect your player to the computer via USB as described in the manual that came with your player.

3.

Take the .zip file that you downloaded and use the “Extract all” command of your unzip program to extract the files onto your player.

Note: The entire contents of the .zip file should be extracted directly to the root of your player’s drive. Do not try to create a separate directory on your player for the Rockbox files! The .zip file already contains the internal structure that Rockbox needs.

If the contents of the .zip file are extracted correctly, you will have a directory called .rockbox, which contains all the files needed by Rockbox, in the main directory of your player’s drive.

Installing the bootloader

Bootloader installation from Windows

1.

Download ipodpatcher.exe from http://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/ipod/ipodpatcher/win32/ipodpatcher.exe and run it whilst logged in with an administrator account.

2.

If all has gone well, you should see some information displayed about your player and a message asking you if you wish to install the Rockbox bootloader. Press i followed by ENTER, and ipodpatcher will now install the bootloader. After a short time you should see the message “[INFO] Bootloader installed successfully.” Press ENTER again to exit ipodpatcher.

3.

Note: If ipodpatcher fails to install the bootloader for you, please be certain that you do indeed have a supported iPod model and are logged in as an administrator. If you do, run ipodpatcher once more and try again. If you don’t, then do not attempt to install again.

Bootloader installation from Mac OS X

1.

Attach your player to your Mac and wait for its icon to appear in Finder.

2.

Download and open ipodpatcher.dmg from http://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/ipod/ipodpatcher/macosx/ipodpatcher.dmg and then double-click on the ipodpatcher icon inside. You can also drag the ipodpatcher icon to a location on your hard drive and launch it from the Terminal.

3.

If all has gone well, you should see some information displayed about your player and a message asking you if you wish to install the Rockbox bootloader. Press i followed by ENTER, and ipodpatcher will now install the bootloader. After a short time you should see the message “[INFO] Bootloader installed successfully.” Press ENTER again to exit ipodpatcher and then quit the Terminal application.

4.

Note: If ipodpatcher fails to install the bootloader for you, please be certain that you do indeed have a supported iPod model. If you do, run ipodpatcher once more and try again. If you don’t, then do not attempt to install again.

5.

Your player will now automatically reconnect itself to your Mac. Wait for it to connect, and then eject and unplug it in the normal way.

Note: You should unplug your ipod immediately after ejecting it to prevent Rockbox immediately rebooting your player into disk mode when it detects that your player is attached to a computer.

Bootloader installation from Linux

1.

Download ipodpatcher from http://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/ipod/ipodpatcher/linux32x86/ipodpatcher (32-bit x86 binary) or http://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/ipod/ipodpatcher/linux64amd64/ipodpatcher (64-bit amd64 binary). You can save this anywhere you wish, but the next steps will assume you have saved it in your home directory.

2.

Attach your player to your computer.

3.

Open up a terminal window and type the following commands:

  cd $HOME
  chmod +x ipodpatcher
  ./ipodpatcher

Note: You need to be the root user in order for ipodpatcher to have sufficient permission to perform raw disk access to your player.

4.

If all has gone well, you should see some information displayed about your player and a message asking you if you wish to install the Rockbox bootloader. Press i followed by ENTER, and ipodpatcher will now install the bootloader. After a short time you should see the message “[INFO] Bootloader installed successfully.” Press ENTER again to exit ipodpatcher.

2.2.3  Finishing the install

Safely eject / unmount the USB drive, unplug the cable and restart.

2.2.4  Enabling Speech Support (optional)

If you wish to use speech support you will also need a voice file. Voice files allow Rockbox to speak the user interface to you. Rockbox Utility can install an English voice file, or you can download it from http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml and unzip it to the root of your player. Rockbox Utility can also aid you in the creation of voice files with different voices or in other languages if you have a suitable speech engine installed on your computer. Voice menus are enabled by default and will come into effect after a reboot. See section 8.8 for details on voice settings. Rockbox Utility can also aid in the production of talk files, which allow Rockbox to speak file and folder names.

2.3  Running Rockbox

Hard reset the Ipod by holding Menu+Select for a couple of seconds until the player resets. Now Rockbox should load.

Note: If you have loaded music onto your player using Itunes, you will not be able to see your music properly in the File Browser. This is because Itunes changes your files’ names and hides them in directories in the Ipod_Control directory. Files placed on your player using Itunes can be viewed by initialising and using Rockbox’s database. See section 4.2 for more information.

2.4  Updating Rockbox

Rockbox can be easily updated with Rockbox Utility. You can also update Rockbox manually - download a Rockbox build as detailed above, and unzip the build to the root directory of your player as in the manual installation stage. If your unzip program asks you whether to overwrite files, choose the “Yes to all” option. The new build will be installed over your current build.

The bootloader only changes rarely, and should not normally need to be updated.

Note: If you use Rockbox Utility be aware that it cannot detect manually installed components.

2.5  Uninstalling Rockbox

Note: The Rockbox bootloader allows you to choose between Rockbox and the original firmware. (See section 3.1.3 for more information.)

2.5.1  Automatic Uninstallation

You can uninstall Rockbox automatically by using Rockbox Utility. If you installed Rockbox manually you can still use Rockbox Utility for uninstallation but will not be able to do this selectively.

2.5.2  Manual Uninstallation

To uninstall Rockbox and go back to using just the original Ipod software, connect the player to your computer and follow the instructions to install the bootloader but, when prompted by ipodpatcher, enter u for uninstall instead of i for install.

If you wish to clean up your disk, you may also wish to delete the .rockbox directory and its contents. Turn the Ipod off. Turn the player back on and the original Ipod software will load.

2.6  Troubleshooting

Bootloader install problems

If you have trouble installing the bootloader, please ensure that you are either logged in as an administrator (Windows), or you have root rights (Linux)

“File Not Found”

If you receive a “File Not Found” from the bootloader, then the bootloader cannot find the Rockbox firmware. This is usually a result of not extracting the contents of the .zip file to the proper location, and should not happen when Rockbox has been installed with Rockbox Utility.

To fix this, either install Rockbox with the Rockbox Utility which will take care of this for you, or recheck the Manual Install section to see where the files need to be located.