[SOLVED] can't load rockbox.ipod - 5.5g 30GB

[fidelius]

Hi!

I've trying hard to install rockbox on my ipod 5.5G 30GB that I recently got from ebay. The ipod is functioning normally with the apple firmware. After installing rockbox and when trying to boot into it I get this message on my ipod:

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Rockbox boot loader
Version: 2.0
IPOD version: 0xFFFFFFFF
TOSHIBA MK3008GAL
Partition 1: 0x0B 7130MB
Loading Rockbox...
Can't load rockbox.ipod:
File not found
Hold MENU+SELECT to reboot
then SELECT+PLAY for disk mode

I am on a linux PC and I have used the latest SVN. I have used the rbutilqt app to install rockbox and I have also tried manually copying over the .rockbox dir and running ipodpatcher myself. While running ipodpatcher manually I encountered no errors, as I didn't have no errors with rbutilqt either.

Thinking that this might be a linux issue I also tried rbutilqt on a winXP PC but I had the same problem there.

I have been wiping the .rockbox dir from my ipod as long as removing and reinstalling the bootloader for every installation I've tried (must be 6-7 by now). I have tried doing a "full" install with rbutilqt as well as "small" installs, no luck either way.

The rockbox.ipod file is there, but I have no idea why the bootloader can't locate it.

In between some rockbox installation attempts I did a "restore to factory settings" from within itunes in winXP but that didn't help.

What I find troubling is the error message itself. Apart from the fact that the rockbox.ipod file is there, take a look at the reported size for my ipod: 7130MB! This is a 30GB ipod and running "df -h" while having it mounted shows that in fact it has 28GB of space.

Runnind fdisk -l to view the partitions on the ipod I'm getting this:

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Note: sector size is 2048 (not 512)

Disk /dev/sdb: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 912 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 2048 = 32901120 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1           3       96264    0  Empty
/dev/sdb2               4         912    29206170    b  W95 FAT32

Don't really know if there were supposed to be 2 partitions in there or what the sector size should actually be... So, any ideas on how to how to make this work?

EDIT:
Some progress: I have managed to install Loader2 from the ipodlinux project. This one manages to boot into rockbox, I get to see the rockbox menu, but right after boot I get an error that "no .rockbox directory" is there and that "installation is incomplete". But I can't do much other than go around the menus, it can't find my music files on the ipod and in RockBox info it says:

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Free: 2.93GB
Disk: 27.0GB
Buffer: 29.118MB
Version: r16246-080208

which is weird because there are actually about 26GB free at this point in the ipod!

[Chronon]

Please modify your post instead of double posting.  

I'm not sure about what you're seeing here.  

You say that you can now boot Rockbox but you can't see files if you go to the file browser?  Where are your music files located?  And what's the path to rockbox.ipod, by the way?

[fidelius]

Thanks for answering!

Please modify your post instead of double posting.

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware this wasn't allowed.  

I'm not sure about what you're seeing here.  

You say that you can now boot Rockbox but you can't see files if you go to the file browser?

I'm completely stumped too. With Loader2 I do get an RockBox entry in the boot menu. When I select it, I see the yellow RockBox logo, then I get a message saying "no .rockbox directory" followed by another one "installation incomplete". It then shows the main RockBox menu, but when I select "Files" I get nothing at all. And if I try to initialize the Database, it hangs there with "Building database... 0 found".

Where are your music files located?  And what's the path to rockbox.ipod, by the way?

The ipod is mounted at /media/IPOD and the rockbox.ipod file is in /media/IPOD/.rockbox/rockbox.ipod. I have put my mp3s in /media/IPOD/Music.

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$ ls -A /media/IPOD
.rockbox  Calendars  Contacts  Music  Notes  iPod_Control

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$ ls -A /media/IPOD/.rockbox/
backdrops	 docs	langs		  rocks		  wps
codecs		 eqs	recpresets	  tagnavi.config
codepages	 fonts	rockbox-info.txt  themes
database.ignore  icons	rockbox.ipod	  viewers.config

And the md5sum of the rockbox.zip that I used is

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3da4dad0ad7a1b111da257268eae80e0  rockbox.zip

[Llorean]

Since you've done it with loader2 as well, there's an important question: How is your iPod formatted?

[fidelius]

Since you've done it with loader2 as well, there's an important question: How is your iPod formatted?

It's a winipod, with a FAT32 partition if you're asking that. I have posted the partition information in my 1st post. If there's any more info you need I'll be happy to provide it.

EDIT: I have also found this post that describes what seems to be the same problem but sadly he didn't post what the solution was.

I have tried formating the ipod with

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mformat -t 892 -h 255 -s 63 -S 2048 -M 2048 -F i:

as suggested here but it's still the same.

[staen]

I've got exactly the same problem here:

5.5g Ipod, the same error-message as in the first-post.

I double- triple and quadrupel-checked if the .rockbox directory is in the right place and contains rockbox.ipod.

I also started with repartitioning in order to install ipodlinux, some google-search results, forum posts and wiki-entries later (not to mention the sleepless night) I tried the following so far:

First of all, I am trying to install Rockbox on a "clean" Ipod, without ipodlinux to see if it is a rockbox issue. Therefore I restored the original partitioning, trying it in three ways:

• Let Ipodpatcher and dd set the mbr and bootpartition in the state I saved in the beginning
• Restore the bootpartition and mbr using the images found here
• Reset the iPod to factory settings using iTunes (the partition-layout differs from the above, because now the partition-boundaries doesn't match the sector boundaries)
  

Because my iPod has a 2048-Sectorsize I formated the FAT32-partition using windows, (mtools didn't work for me).

When trying loader2 instead of the rockbox-bootloader, rockbox is started, giving the "no .rockbox directory" error. Rockbox is then not able to read any file from disk. As in the rockbox bootloader, it shows the size of the partition as 7130 MB.

I was fearing the ipodlinux has tampered the harddisk in a way the rockbox can't understand it anymore (and will check this in the appropriate forums), but since I did a full reset of the ipod, i think that my problem is right in the rockbox forums, too.

While reading the whole night about this stuff, I got the assumption, that rockbox doesn't understand the partitioning of some 5.5g Ipods regardless if someone tried to install ipodlinux.

[fidelius]

I don't think it's an issue with ipodlinux, because I had not tried Loader2 from ipodlinux before trying to load rockbox. I tried with Loader2 only after the rockbox installation failed as described above.

[staen]

This is what irritates me:

• IPOD version: 0xFFFFFFFF
• Partition 1: 0x0B 7130 MB

May there be some 5.5g Ipods which are not recognized by rockbox and therefore not understood? It seems to me that the partition table is not interpreted correctly.

Is there any information I can provide to get this resolved?

Regards
Carsten

[gevaerts]

Are you sure that windows formatted it properly ?

[staen]

I guessed so (not sure though). Unfortunatly mformat gave me "argssize must be less than 6", so I weren't able to use it.

But at least the "restoring to manufacturer settings" in itunes should have given a correctly formated partition, or am I wrong?

Additional information: while fdisk (in ubuntu 8.04) shows the correct partition table, cfdisk seems to have similar issues as rockbox and shows one ~7600 MB sized partition as sdX2. Some problem with the controller of the harddrive or maybe a problem with the 512 / 2048 byte sized sectors?

Things I haven't tried yet (and will try later):

• As soon as I am at home again, I will look into the 5.5g Ipod of my wife, which works with rockbox. Maybe the differences will give a hint... (don't know why I didn't think at it before)
• I will restore and install it from the same Windows XP Installation I installed my wifes Ipod from.
• I will dd the mbr and bootpartition of my wifes ipod to mine

Grasping at straws, I fear...

[gevaerts]

About the mformat error : older versions of mformat use '-n' for the number of sectors, so if "mformat -t 2428 -h 255 -s 63 -S 2048 -M 2048 -F a:" doesn't work, you can try "mformat -t 2428 -h 255 -n 63 -S 2048 -M 2048 -F a:"

[staen]

It seems my mtools-version (3.9.11) uses a different scaling for the "-S n" option (2^(n+7)). The commandline

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mformat -t 905 -h 255 -n 63 -S 4 -M 2048 -F i:

worked for me.

But still no success:
I tried formating the partition with mformat, I restored and installed the Ipod and rockbox via Windows XP, Itunes and rbutil, I tried different builds, bootloaders, partition-layouts (the original my Ipod shipped with, the one restored by Itunes and the one found here)

But still neither the bootloader nor rockbox is able to find anything in this partition.

I will not give up, I hope I can either provide help or work on the code myself to get this fixed...

[soap]

But at least the "restoring to manufacturer settings" in itunes should have given a correctly formated partition, or am I wrong?

As I understand the iTunes restoration process, the partition table is not touched, only the format and firmware.
So you'll end up with a FAT32 partition with Apple firmware correctly on it, but still whatever non-stock partition layout you made.

[GodEater]

As I understand the iTunes restoration process, the partition table is not touched, only the format and firmware.
So you'll end up with a FAT32 partition with Apple firmware correctly on it, but still whatever non-stock partition layout you made.

Caveat: I've not tried this, but :

I'd be very surprised if the "Restore to factory settings" in iTunes didn't recreate the partition table properly - esp, if you erase all the partitions completely.

[staen]

I checked it: it does recreate the partition table. I've tried it by creating a bogus one. Afterwards I has the standard partitions.

I saw this article the author says, the error turns up after updating to firmware 1.3. My Ipod had the newest firmware from the beginning. Is there a chance to try it with an older version?

Addition

Now I checked my other Ipod, where rockbox runs perfectly. Both are the same Modell (MA446LL) and have the same harddisc (TOSHIBA MK3008GAL, Firmware BU111A). The only difference is that the working one has the Apple firmware 1.2.1

I tried copying the bootpartition and the mbr but still had no luck.

I think that the new firmware does something to the disc layout or the formating of the Music partition which isn't simply reverted by copiing the old firmware.

What I try now is dd'ing the music partition from the working ipod to the new one - if this works we know it could have to do something with the formating. But this will take a while...