Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion

Starting up iPod

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Tijn22:
Hi, I don't know if this post belongs here, but i've no idea were to post it otherwise.
Well, this is my question: How is Rockbox getting started on an iPod Nano?
So: which file does the ipod starts up (i guess that is the bootloader, but were can i find the file) after that i think that the bootloader starts up Rockbox.ipod (when i start this file, rockbox will load again).

How does it work exactly?

Thanks, Tijn Kersjes

GodEater:
Are you asking how to install Rockbox on your Nano ?

Or are you asking for detailed technical information for some reason ?

(You *did* post in the wrong place by the way).

linuxstb:
Assuming you're after technical information, the ipodpatcher documentation could help explain:

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

You could also browse the ipodlinux wiki - that has lots of technical info as well.

Tijn22:
Yea, i'm asking how my ipod starts up Rockbox (i know that it works, i want to know HOW it works) well, im reading the given page now, so thank you so far.  ;)

linuxstb:
The ipod power-on behaviour is the following:

1) Like all ARM processors, the code at address 0x0 is executed when the ipod is powered on.  On the ipods, this is the flash ROM, and contains the Apple bootloader, disk-mode, diagnostics mode and (on the 5g), some firmware which is transferred to the Broadcom processor.

2) After initialising the hardware, the Apple bootloader checks for the key combinations to enter either disk mode or diagnostics mode, and if they aren't being pressed, it will load the main Apple firmware from the firmware partition.  The firmware partition is the first partition on the disk, and is marked as type 0 (Empty).  This prevents operating systems like Windows/Mac OS X/Linux from attempting to mount it.

3) ipodpatcher attaches the Rockbox bootloader to the end of the Apple firmware in the firmware partition and changes the header information in the firmware partition so that the Apple bootloader will load both the Apple firmware and Rockbox bootloader into RAM, but execute the Rockbox bootloader.

4) The Rockbox bootloader then either loads and executes the main Rockbox firmware (the rockbox.ipod file on the FAT32 partition) or executes the Apple firmware already loaded to RAM by the Apple bootloader, depending on whether MENU/Hold is pressed.

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