dual boot to rhapsody firmware

[P.Opus]

I have been on the fringes quietly monitoring Rockbox development on the E200R series, and you guys have been amazing.

With SDHC support and success in putting Rockbox on the "R" series, I am almost ready to give this a spin.

I have read the instructions and they sound simple enough for someone with some Linux experience, so I may give it a shot.

(Believe me, I will read all the warnings and etc. before proceeding)

However, one question I need answered.  I noted that you needed to modify the original boot loader to prevent the "signature check" that was blocking earlier attempts at putting Rockbox on the R series Sansa.

Does putting Rockbox on an "R" series Sansa change it to a vanilla E200?

The reason is, I'm a longtime Rhapsody Subscriber and am currently addicted to Rhapsody Channels.  

I know Rockbox allows dual booting, but will it disable my Rhapsody functionality in the player?  I know Rockbox itself won't support the special "Rhapsody" features such as "channels" and native .rax file (Rhapsody DRM) tracks.  But can I dual boot into original "Rhapsody" firmware that will restore the special Rhapsody functionality, or does the modified bootloader require me to use "vanilla" E200 firmware from this point.

I hope this is clear enough.  Ideally I want to be able to use Rockbox without loosing the specific Rhapsody feature set.

Thanks in advanced.

Opus

[AlexP]

It was very clear  

I don't know, rockbox on the E200R is very new, and I would be hugely surprised if any of the devs are subscribers to a DRM music service!

You could try popping onto IRC and asking one of the devs.  I suspect the answer will be along the lines of shouldn't do, but no-one has tested it.

[Bagder]

No, putting Rockbox on an R model still makes it boot the original Rhapsody firmware when << is pressed during startup.

[P.Opus]

Thanks, Badger.  Has anyone tried using Rhapsody with a Rockbox modified R after modification?  Any issues discovered?

Thanks for the quick reply.

[chrisjs169]

Thanks, Badger.  Has anyone tried using Rhapsody with a Rockbox modified R after modification?  Any issues discovered?

Thanks for the quick reply.

I didn't have an e200R, so I just put the R bootloader/firmware on my e200 and tried Rhapsody - it complains about a corrupt device certificate.  I think this was more of a problem with trying to fake it into thinking the e200R rather than a problem with the bootloader.  

[xoring]

I've had Rockbox working fine on my e280 for a while so when the instructions for the R series were released I tried it out on my brothers e270R. I went through all the instructions exactly and everything seemed to work fine. Rockbox now runs on his e270R with no problems. HOWEVER, when I try to boot the original (Rhapsody) firmware with Power + |<< I get that black screen with white text scrolling down and then it slowly fades to white until the whole screen is white. The Rhapsody firmware never loads. I though I did something wrong so I used the unbrick instructions to put the latest .mi4 (from sansa.com) on the player. Rhapsody worked fine, but no Rockbox. So I went through the instructions again, line by line, and the same thing happened. It seems like I have to choose between one and the other... and the Rockbox firmware doesn't support USB yet so I'm gonna leave Rhapsody on there for now.

Any ideas what went wrong?

[Bagder]

Not really, your description seems similar to that of at least one other R owner.

It might be due to minor hardware differences or it might just be that the rockbox bootloader needs to do something differently when it loads and runs the Rhapsody firmware image.

[DavidGWRawson]

Im having that same problem too! Can you devs figure out how to fix this? Or do I have to just use recovery mode, update to rhapsody firmware, then use usb? Over and over? Or are you working on usb support for rockbox itself?

[ROCKboxxUser]

Same here, I'm having the same problem on my E260R.  However, my player would slowly fade to white, then slowly to a completely black screen. I'm thinking there are probably minor hardware differences.

I've also tried both the mi4 firmware file in the instructions and with the latest mi4 from Sansa's site with the same result.

[zwaldowski]

I'm getting the same problem, so I just stuck the Rhapsody firmware back on there.  We're so close!

[scorche]

Just to be sure, are you all absolutely sure you followed the instructions exactly and did not deviate at ALL (not one tiny bit, like if you got the OF.mi4 from some other site than the one linked)?  Why I mention this is because my e250R dual boots perfectly, and the process I used is detailed in those instructions.

[zwaldowski]

I hate to admit it, but I replaced the instructions for the OF.mi4 with the recent Rhapsody 1.0.2.165.  Sorry...  

[Bagder]

and if you try with the version in the instructions... ?

[xoring]

I tried it with both versions. The latest from Sansa and the one in the directions. I got the same result both times.

[DavidGWRawson]

it could mean that either the bootloader needs to be changed, or the rockbox startup firmware needs to be changed. or, it's just a hardware problem.