I am having trouble installing and running rockbox on my ipod

[Billdoe84]

I have a 5G ( I believe, it's black on front, silver on back and it's a 60 gig with the ability to watch video on it).  I am trying to install rockbox and I continue to run into problems.  I don't know if you need to know this but since it has been the cause of other problems in the past, I am using Windows vista.  I have had to restore the ipod multiple times.  I am also using the newest version of i tunes and the latest update to the ipod.  Let me give you a run down of what it is that I am doing.

1.  with a brand new slate, freshly restored, I run the rockbox utility.

2.  it is unable to auto detect my ipod so i entered it in as (location: L:\) and (device: apple ipod video (5th gen) 60/80GB) both which i believe to be correct.

3.  I click complete installation

4.  it asks if i really want to do this, I click yes

5.  then a message comes up saying, and i quote (especially the bad spelling and grammar) "It seem your Bootloader is already uptodate.  Do really want to install it?"

6. this is where it gets tricky because first off, remember how i said it was a clean slate, freshly restored? If that's the case, how do i already have a bootloader installed on my ipod, unless I'm stupid and that's not what a bootloader is.  If i say "ok" it pops up the "progress" window and it says "starting bootloader installation, searching for ipods, no ipods found." and that's the end of that option.  If I go back and choose ignore, it skips the bootloader entirely and completes the rest of the installation without a problem.  I select a skin and so on until the window closes. (i hear the ipod wiring away and I can see the .rockbox folder in the ipod tree)

7.  Now, according to the manual, I am supposed to be able to hold down menu and select at the same time and rockbox will start.  However, as you have guessed, this is not the case.  It continues to load right back to the apple OS with that big white apple staring up at me, almost laughing at my incompetence.  No matter what buttons i press from the hold button to the left and right button combos i have read on other threads, it just won't work.  

What I guess I am asking for is step by step instructions to get games playing on my ipod.  I am sure I am not the only one with this problem.  Please help me and/or correct my if I'm wrong on something.  If this option won't work for my ipod/operating system/version please direct me to a solution that will.  Thank you for your help in keeping me from shooting my ipod.

[linuxstb]

You could try the "manual" instructions in the Manual - for the bootloader install step, some people have reported that ipodpatcher works when rbutil doesn't.

[Billdoe84]

While I appreciate the reply, I need to remind you that you are speaking to an ipod/rockbox illiterate.  I am just starting out in this stuff, could you possibly help me by breaking what you said down a bit further?

[AlexP]

While I appreciate the reply, I need to remind you that you are speaking to an ipod/rockbox illiterate.  I am just starting out in this stuff, could you possibly help me by breaking what you said down a bit further?

Try following the instructions in the manual.

Edit:  I didn't realise RBUtil was in the manual already.  Try the manual install instructions from section 2.3.2

[bluebrother]

5.  then a message comes up saying, and i quote (especially the bad spelling and grammar) "It seem your Bootloader is already uptodate.  Do really want to install it?"

This spelling issue in Rockbox Utility is known (at least to me ) but I haven't got around to fix it ... thanks for reminding me.

7.  Now, according to the manual, I am supposed to be able to hold down menu and select at the same time and rockbox will start.  However, as you have guessed, this is not the case.  It continues to load right back to the apple OS with that big white apple staring up at me, almost laughing at my incompetence.

I assume you hold Menu + Select until the Ipod reboots properly? I remember Rockbox Utility being rather short especially with those messages.

As the Ipod is not detected, do you run Rockbox Utility with administrator priviledges? Also, I *think* there are issues with UAC on windows vista -- I haven't managed to get hands on a test setup here so I don't know any details. You might want to try installation on a Windows XP machine (which is tested and should work). Please note that Rockbox Utility can't detect the Ipod 5.5G 60GB / 80GB correctly -- it will get detected as Ipod 5.5G 30GB. If autodetection of the Ipod fails completely you will get trouble installing the bootloader (as you described). No idea why Rockbox Utility claimed you have the bootloader installed, I'll look into this.

What I guess I am asking for is step by step instructions to get games playing on my ipod.

You know that Rockbox is about playing music, not games? Well, either try Rockbox Utility on a Windows XP machine or the manual installation -- it seems there are differences running ipodpatcher (which installs the bootloader) directly (i.e. the command line version) or through Rockbox Utility (which has it build in) on Vista. You might also try disabling UAC (unless you already did of course). If you can fix the problem by disabling UAC I'd interested in hearing about it.

Too bad Microsoft added new, "exciting" new "security features" that makes life much more difficult for bootloader installation.

[Billdoe84]

AWESOME, THANK YOU ALL FOR THE HELP.  Doing the install manually worked perfectly, and to be honest, I don't think I will ever use the Apple OS again.  The fire background is gorgeous, and the plasma.... thingy (is that a screen saver? if that's the case how do you set it as such) is trippy.  The music skin I picked looks awesome.  The only beef I seem to have left is the doom game.  It says I'm missing some file of some sort.  Any help here?  Also, just wondering, is there any possibilities of taking the game portion a bit further with game boy emulators and roms? If so, do you have any info you can provide me in that regard?  I know it's about the music but I'm in an accounting class in college and the games you guys provide help me escape the torture if only for 5 minutes.  

[soap]

AWESOME, THANK YOU ALL FOR THE HELP.  Doing the install manually worked perfectly, and to be honest, I don't think I will ever use the Apple OS again.  The fire background is gorgeous, and the plasma.... thingy (is that a screen saver? if that's the case how do you set it as such) is trippy.  The music skin I picked looks awesome.  The only beef I seem to have left is the doom game.  It says I'm missing some file of some sort.  Any help here?  Also, just wondering, is there any possibilities of taking the game portion a bit further with game boy emulators and roms? If so, do you have any info you can provide me in that regard?  I know it's about the music but I'm in an accounting class in college and the games you guys provide help me escape the torture if only for 5 minutes.  

Please read the fine manual, I believe every question you ask is answered there.
Besides, reading the manual and documentation is part of the agreement for posting in these forums.