Current and Daily Builds

[zajacattack]

I know that rockbox is rebuilt after every source change. I also know that voice files, manuals, and fonts are built daily. So here's my question: Why not have a daily bootloader build? Sometimes changes are committed, but rockbox users don't get them for months. This would make it easier.

[Llorean]

No, it wouldn't.

For the very same reason we don't support self-compiled bootloaders. The bootloader is a much more fundamental part, as it's the first thing that runs, and on some players, if it's ever not working the player is much harder to recover.

Because of this we only provide bootloader versions that we know are (or at least, that testing shows to be) good. When a change to the bootloader is essential to using Rockbox, we work as quickly as we can to make sure a new version of the bootloader is available.

Considering how rarely the bootloader is changed (from a code side), what exactly would this make easier?

[zajacattack]

Well, it would make checking for updates to it more easier. It would put less work on the developers. Also, the fonts rarely change, so why would it matter if the BL rarely changes?

[Llorean]

How would it make it easier to check for updates? Right now if the date changes on the file on the server, you KNOW there is a new, working bootloader. If it were updated daily, you'd have no way to know if it works, or if it's even changed, until after you install it and test.

The bootloader rarely changes, but changes to other code can affect how the bootloader works, breaking it, and until someone goes back and fixes it, it's entirely unsuitable for use. DAILY BOOTLOADERS WILL CAUSE MORE BUGS. They need to be tested before they're released to at least verify that they boot up, load Rockbox, and leave your player in a state that it can be recovered if the Rockbox file is bad.