Question about using rockbox for audio and original firmware for video- ipod 5g

[mrufino1]

Hi, My first post here, and apologies for it being LONG. I purchased a used 80gb ipod video last week to install rockbox. I love it, much better than using itunes! However, for video, I have read that using the ipod firmware is better, and I have found that to be true. Anyway, I use ubuntu, so I want to play ogg and flac files, etc.
So here is my question- since I began using the ipod firmware, I have "crashed" rockbox twice, where it won't load up- the bootloader gets stuck. It happened the first time because something on my computer froze and I disconnected the ipod (at least, I am thinking maybe that's why it crashed). I restored the ipod and reloaded rockbox and all of my music.
 
Now, tonight, I was using the player in the car, worked great. I went into an appointment, came back out, started up the ipod, and the bootloader was stuck again! So, here is my question- first of all, I was eventually able to delete the rockbox folder after unzipping a new rockbox folder onto the ipod, and all is functional again. On my previous installs, I unzipped the rockbox folder to my computer first, then copied that, rather than unzipping directly to the ipod as suggested. Now that I followed those directions all is well.

In the future, if I am loading video via itunes (that is the only way to load to use the ipod firmware, right?), should I have the ipod in disk mode or ipod firmware? I have been leaving it in rockbox and using itunes, would that corrupt something? It loaded the video with no problem and has worked for the past few days, but as I said it suddenly wouldn't load rockbox. Is it okay to switch between the original firmware and rockbox like this? I thought that I read that it was.

Thanks again, sorry for the long post but I want this to work!

[AlexP]

It would be much more useful if you supplied some details.  When the bootloader gets stuck, what does this actually mean?  What can you see on screen?  What version bootloader and build do you have?

If you want to transfer films for the OF to use, you must do it via itunes.  Rockbox doesn't have a USB mode on portalplayer targets, both the OF and diskmode are Apple software.

[mrufino1]

The bootloader getting stuck wasn't my question really, but it says this:
Rockbox Boot Loader
Version: 2.0
IPOD Version :0xFFFFFFFF
TOSHIBA MK8010GAH
Partition 1: 0x0B 76183 MB
Loading Rockbox...
Error!
Can't load rockbox.ipod:
File not found
Hold MENU+SELECT to reboot
then SELECT+PLAY for disk mode

I found the answer on some other posts- I copied a folder to the ipod, rather than unzipping it.

Sorry if I wasn't more clear- my question is, if I am on my windows machine and connected via itunes, is it better for me to have the ipod booted in the original firmware rather than rockbox or does it make a difference? I am trying to figure out why my rockbox would have worked and then suddenly not be found, but it wasn't as a result of being connected to the computer- I was listening in my car, went into an appointment, came back out, turned on the ipod and that error message came up. Anyway, it is working now after unzipping the rockbox folder on there- I had to rename the rockbox folder that was already on there in order to delete it. There were all sorts of files in there that were named using characters I've never seen (certainly not the English alphabet!). I was wondering if being booted in rockbox then connecting to itunes maybe put those files in there, and somehow eliminating the rockbox.ipod file. But then it shouldn't have worked after being connected to the computer.

[AlexP]

If you want to transfer films for the OF to use, you must do it via itunes.  Rockbox doesn't have a USB mode on portalplayer targets, both the OF and diskmode are Apple software.

In addition, if you have garbled filenames try running chkdsk on the ipod when in disk mode.  It sounds like some part of the filesystem got corrupted.  Perhaps you unplugged it from USB without ejecting first?

[mrufino1]

Yes, I unplugged without ejecting the first time this happened, but not the second time. How do I run chkdsk? Is that on the ipod itself or am I doing that in my OS (ubuntu)?

[GodEater]

You run it from your computer with your ipod attached.

Since you're using ubuntu, the command is not chkdsk - it's fsck.vfat.

[mrufino1]

Thanks, if it happens again I will try that.
Does anyone have any advice on my question about which OS the ipod should be booted into when using itunes to transfer videos? I just need to know if having it booted in rockbox, then attaching it to my windows computer and using itunes is corrupting the rockbox file at all. Thanks for all of the help so far.

[Chronon]

Rockbox has no USB mode.  When you make a USB connection to a computer Rockbox reboots into Apple's Disk Mode.  So, there's no fault of Rockbox as far as USB communication goes.  However, the USB mode within the Apple firmware seems to be quite a lot faster than that achieved in Disk Mode, so a lot of people prefer just to reboot into the Apple firmware when transferring lots of data.

As was suggested, a more likely culprit is removing the iPod from your system without properly unmounting, ejecting, etc.

[mrufino1]

Well, a few minutes ago, more weird issues- I was out walking with my ipod, everything was fine, using rockbox with no problem. I got home, turned it off, put it on my shelf. I was reading the rockbox manual to learn more about themes, etc., and went to turn the ipod back on to start exploring a little. The ipod was not connected to the computer at any time today or yesterday and worked fine both days all in rockbox. Now, my font was again tiny. I went to browse the fonts, and it said there were no font files present. So I plugged the ipod into my linux laptop to check the folder, and it won't mount or even get recognized. I went to the command line, no indication the ipod is even connected. Strange. So I plugged into my windows laptop, ipod is recognized right away. I browsed the rockbox folder and the fonts folder, among others, is now renamed with very strange characters, empty squares and such.I  And there's more- windows will not let me access the rockbox folder to delete it, so I renamed the folder and unzipped a new rockbox folder on there. I still cannot delete the renamed folder, however, and now the computer  will not eject my ipod, saying it can't be stopped. What the heck is going on? Why are these files continually being correupted without being connected to a computer? The ipod works fine in ipod firmware, so I am not understanding what is the issue here. I DEFINITELY would rather use rockbox than the apple firmware. Thank you, sorry this has been dragging on so long.

EDIT: I was able to open itunes on the windows machine, eject the ipod, then I reconnected it to the linux computer and it is recognized.

SO:
The issue seems to be different from my original question about firmwares (which has now been answered with "It doesn't matter, it always goes to disk mode.", thank you for clarifying that). The issue seems to be, "Why is the rockbox folder being messed up without being connected to a computer?" As I said, files are being renamed in there. Replacing the folder seems to work, but I don't want to have to do this every day. Thanks again for all of the help so far, let me know if there is more info needed.

[Chronon]

Have you run either chkdsk or fsck.vfat as was suggested?  This really sounds like filesystem corruption to me.  It's not surprising to me that it won't let you delete the folder/file.  Your file allocation table apparently contains invalid information and the OS therefore doesn't actually know where to find the data.  The problems will probably worsen if you do not fix them.  

[mrufino1]

I'm sorry, I did not run that- I am trying to do it now. I am new to linux  (and not too good at dos either_ so I am trying to figure out how to do this with some help at the moment.

[scharkalvin]

Actually at this point you might have to reformat the ipod and start all over again.
Use the itunes function to restore the ipod to a fresh factory condition (which will erase all your music and video files) then re-install rockbox.
You should now be able to use itunes OR just drag and drop files to
put the music back on the ipod.  (itunes for anything you want to be able to
play from the ipod OF, and just drag and drop for anything that will play via
rockbox.  Good idea to create a separate folder for the rockbox only media files,
the ipod OF and itunes should ignore this).

[mrufino1]

I have done that once before as well, I don't mind doing it if it will actually fix the problem permanently. So are you saying that the root ipod drive should contain the original 3 folders, the .rockbox folder (does it need to be hidden?), and a folder that I make that I then put all of the folders into with my music? If I just have my music files in the same root ipod folder, is that what could be messing things up?

Also, the IPOD keeps coming up as read only, on windows and linux

[Chronon]

You should be able to change the write permissions in linux by using chmod.  There's also sometimes an option in the context menu (right click) to change the read/write mode of the drive.

Are you saying that you reformatted and have since been diligent about unmounting or ejecting your iPod before disconnecting it?

[mrufino1]

Yes, I have been diligent about ejecting it properly. I am in the process of restoring the factory settings and trying fresh. When I originally installed rockbox I unzipped the file to my computer then dragged that folder onto the ipod, so since the directions state to unzip directly I will follow exactly, and I will put all of my music files in a folder called "music" on the ipod's drive. Will that be of help? Maybe for some reason when I browse files or play something since everything is in the ipod root directory it is screwing something up? Also the fsck wouldn't work, it kept saying that the ipod was a directory, and chown didn't work, didn't try chmod. We'll see how it all goes this time! Thanks again, let me know your thoughts.