Rockbox Technical Forums

Rockbox General => Rockbox General Discussion => Topic started by: Shinryuu on October 02, 2009, 09:14:39 PM

Title: Booting Rockbox from microSDHC card in SanDisk Sansa Fuze?
Post by: Shinryuu on October 02, 2009, 09:14:39 PM
Hello!

I'm going to buy SanDisk Sansa Fuze soon and I've been thinking for a while if it is possible to boot Rockbox from microSDHC card. Basically when the player starts shouldn't it be reading everything what's inside of it and be able to boot straight from the card section? I'm new to this stuff because my current player Creative MuVo has served me for ages before it began to broke. I didn't find any regarding information to my issue so I decided to make this topic here.
Title: Re: Booting Rockbox from microSDHC card in SanDisk Sansa Fuze?
Post by: saratoga on October 02, 2009, 09:27:00 PM
Depends what you want to do.  The bootloader must be stored in the Sandisk flash's hidden partition and that cannot be changed.  It then loads /.rockbox/rockbox.sansa from the main flash. 

You could probably change the location of the rockbox.sansa with some programming and a little trail and error though.  Not sure what good it would do you though.
Title: Re: Booting Rockbox from microSDHC card in SanDisk Sansa Fuze?
Post by: Shinryuu on October 03, 2009, 02:16:59 AM
Depends what you want to do.  The bootloader must be stored in the Sandisk flash's hidden partition and that cannot be changed.  It then loads /.rockbox/rockbox.sansa from the main flash. 

You could probably change the location of the rockbox.sansa with some programming and a little trail and error though.  Not sure what good it would do you though.

I was just a bit curious to know if I can use it like a portable firmware replacement and yeah I don't think programming would do anything good there. Other thing was.. if I have to repair my player someday and send it to it's manufacturer I just would remove card from my player to keep it's warranty and leave no trace and to avoid possible problems if something happens when I have rockbox installed in Fuze's own space. Maybe I'm just way too careful with things.

Thanks for the answer
Title: Re: Booting Rockbox from microSDHC card in SanDisk Sansa Fuze?
Post by: AlexP on October 03, 2009, 06:31:37 AM
You wouldn't leave no trace, as saratoga said the Rockbox bootloader must be stored on the Fuze main flash.  You would need to also uninstall this.
Title: Re: Booting Rockbox from microSDHC card in SanDisk Sansa Fuze?
Post by: GodEater on October 03, 2009, 11:38:52 AM
Also, attempting to send a broken player back so that the manufacturer can't tell you installed Rockbox on it is an attempt to defraud that manufacturer.

In 99% of cases installing Rockbox on a player invalidates your warranty. This is something you have to make your own choice about. Either you use Rockbox and accept that you no longer have a warranty, or you keep your warranty, and don't use Rockbox.
Title: Re: Booting Rockbox from microSDHC card in SanDisk Sansa Fuze?
Post by: Shinryuu on October 03, 2009, 02:44:58 PM
You wouldn't leave no trace, as saratoga said the Rockbox bootloader must be stored on the Fuze main flash.  You would need to also uninstall this.

I see so that's how it works. This is some good knowlegde for me to train my experience a bit ???

Also, attempting to send a broken player back so that the manufacturer can't tell you installed Rockbox on it is an attempt to defraud that manufacturer.

In 99% of cases installing Rockbox on a player invalidates your warranty. This is something you have to make your own choice about. Either you use Rockbox and accept that you no longer have a warranty, or you keep your warranty, and don't use Rockbox.

I'm ready take the risk with this firmware replacement because I got the information I needed to know, thanks again.