How to use Custom Bootloaders?

[knight4led]

I am very excited by the news that some progress was made on the patch that allows 80gig iPods to run Rockbox and am eager to try it and report my findings.

The problem is that it requires a custom bootloader and while I know how to compile a custom, patched build, I don't know how to do the same for a bootloader.

I have gotten as far as configuring and making the bootloader, now I am stuck. I have a bootloader.bin file, which is what I assume I need, what do I do now?

I was looking for the old instructions that explained how to convert to an MBR system instead of HFS and how to use the bootloader file I have made, but they don't seem to be anywhere I can see on the wiki since the install page now just refers to the manual.

[linuxstb]

In your bootloader build directory, you should also have a bootloader-ipodvideo.ipod file - that's the file to install on your ipod.

To install it, use ipodpatcher.  To tell ipodpatcher to install your custom bootloader, run the command "ipodpatcher -a bootloader-ipodvideo.ipod".

[knight4led]

Thanks. I'll give that a go as soon as I can.

As a side note, nobody happens to have the MBR for an 80gig iPod do they?

[elborak]

Wasn't one added to the wiki just today?

[knight4led]

yes one was, mere hours after I posed the question. But the end result is that I think this subject is relevant for more than just the 80gig iPod and should have a bit more documentation.

I want to eventually try creating my own bootlogo...

[Llorean]

Generally modifying a bootloader is something we don't suggest users do as it can produce unexpected results.

If you want to create your own boot logo, the one that's displayed isn't actually in the bootloader, it's in the main binary.

[GodEater]

And there's no point in issuing instructions for a custom bootloader for the 80GB now, since the one it needs is now in the current version of ipodpatcher anyway. You only needed to use one for the three days before amiconn's changes hit svn - hence it was a core dev team thing only, and not something ever intended that an end user be required to use.

[linuxstb]

ipodpatcher itself is documented via its --help option, and this wiki page:

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodPatcher

More documentation is, of course, always welcome.