A bunch of basic questions.

[nathanotis]

Ok, so I'm a day into Rockbox and it very cool. I have a few (probably very) simple questions that aren't made clear in the faq or anywhere I've searched...

1. Adding new music. Do I just drag and drop the the iPod and when I update the database Rockbox will see it or should I put new music files in the iPod Control folders?

2. (dependent on the answer to #1) What is the best way to organize music (files) on the iPod? should I go to the trouble of ridding my iPod of the iPod control folders?

3. Themes that have different backgrounds... How does one switch? Specifically the various versions of the "Black Glass" theme for iPods.

4. The Database menu... Is it possible (for a noob) to alter what is shown on this screen? I rarely if ever browse my files by anything other than artist, album or song... The rest of the options just look messy to me.

5. (showing the depths of my noobness) I can't for the life of me figure out how to play all the files on my iPod randomly... It seems like it should be easy enough... I'm just missing something somewhere.

6. Rockbox handles playing files via playlists... I notice a growing number of "database_#.tcd" files in /.rockbox. They are very small, but do I ever need to worry about my drive filling up with these files?

7. (slightly less basic) I speak and read English and don't need the rest of the language files in /.rockbox/langs... Can I/Should I ditch them? (They're small... I know).

8. I have games that work with the Apple firmware. Those sound files show up in the Rockbox database. I've deleted the games folder via Rockbox file menu and updated the database, but the sound files from the games are still there... How can I get rid of those?

Stopping before 10... I hope I haven't broken any rules here.

Thanks in advance.
n.

[GodEater]

1. Adding new music. Do I just drag and drop the the iPod and when I update the database Rockbox will see it or should I put new music files in the iPod Control folders?

I really can't believe you couldn't find this out with a search of the forums. It gets asked at least once a week. Anyway, for the 1000th time :

You can either continue to use iTunes to sync your iPod, *or* you can drag and drop your music over as you would any other sort of file. Rockbox really doesn't care.

2. (dependent on the answer to #1) What is the best way to organize music (files) on the iPod? should I go to the trouble of ridding my iPod of the iPod control folders?

This is another one which gets asked (and answered) on a weekly basis. The answer is :

It's entirely up to you. Rockbox still doesn't care. The only thing to consider is that *if* you continue to  use iTunes to sync your iPod - your music isn't grouped logically on the disk - it's scatter here, thither and beyond all over the iPod_Control folder. This doesn't matter if you continue to use Rockbox's Database feature to access your music - but if you get into making your own playlists, then they will look like a complete mess. Most people who stop using iTunes stick to a file structure like this :

\Music\Artist_Name\Album_Name\[nn] - Track Name.mp3

But as I said, that's just most people. If that doesn't blow your hair back - organise your music however you want.

3. Themes that have different backgrounds... How does one switch? Specifically the various versions of the "Black Glass" theme for iPods.

No clue - I don't use that theme. Try asking that question in the WPS forum.

4. The Database menu... Is it possible (for a noob) to alter what is shown on this screen? I rarely if ever browse my files by anything other than artist, album or song... The rest of the options just look messy to me.

Check out the section of the manual (and the wiki) which covers the tagnavi file.

5. (showing the depths of my noobness) I can't for the life of me figure out how to play all the files on my iPod randomly... It seems like it should be easy enough... I'm just missing something somewhere.

Create a playlist from the root folder of your iPod. This will add all music located across the entire disc. Then load up the list, and put Rockbox into shuffle mode.

6. Rockbox handles playing files via playlists... I notice a growing number of "database_#.tcd" files in /.rockbox. They are very small, but do I ever need to worry about my drive filling up with these files?

They won't fill the drive up no. These files make up the content of the database (i.e. all the metadata about your music).

7. (slightly less basic) I speak and read English and don't need the rest of the language files in /.rockbox/langs... Can I/Should I ditch them? (They're small... I know).

I guess you could get rid of them if you're THAT anal about disc space.

8. I have games that work with the Apple firmware. Those sound files show up in the Rockbox database. I've deleted the games folder via Rockbox file menu and updated the database, but the sound files from the games are still there... How can I get rid of those?

Look at using the database.ignore file.

[ryran]

re #3: You can make any appropriately-sized bmp file become the backdrop by finding it in the file browser and [for ipods] holding down the select button on it to bring up a context menu and picking "Set As Backdrop". I also don't know details about that theme, but they might be in the .rockbox\backdrops folder.

re #5: The easiest way to do this would be using the "Track" entry in the database. You could hold down the select button on "Track" then > "Playlist" then > "Insert shuffled." Alternatively, pick a track from Track menu and just make sure you're in Shuffle mode.

re #8: I am not an expert on the database, but from what I remember, it sounds like your immediate problem might be fixed by doing an "Initialize Now" (instead of an update) again. For the future, as GodEater said, you can put empty "database.ignore" files in directories to make the database not include files from that and all its subdirectories.