Rockbox with no gui

[contractartist]

For those who have sandisk versions e260, and have broken the LCD screen, and just want it to play music again.....I am sure there are other media players out there longing for someone to bring them a new "NON gui menu OS" please help!

[MarcGuay]

What are you saying/asking?

[LambdaCalculus]

I think he's asking for something Rockbox already does.

[contractartist]

Ok,..... I want to know how to set up a config file so rockbox auto updates the database, and sets itself to play all tracks, with shuffle on, without the need for a menu system. As I want to install it on a sandisk sansa e260 that does not have a funtional LCD screen.

[MarcGuay]

When you install Rockbox for the first time the menus should be voiced.  Which would let you do what you want and more.

[contractartist]

I thank you both for your help. But this is not what I've been asking. I have a sandisk sansa e260 with a broken LCD screen, I only need music playback, from the very start, not lots of menu's to listen through to find the update database, and then to playback, I'm asking for help setting up a autorun config file, to bypass all but the (database update) and then play all/shuffle.

[MarcGuay]

You don't need the database to update as you won't be using it.  There are many easy ways to create a playlist of all the songs on your player, and simply leaving the shuffle option on will take care of that aspect.  Having a custom script run at boot time would require you to patch your own build, I do believe.

[contractartist]

any suggestions on where to start? Or how to add a script, what line in what file do you edit?

[MarcGuay]

I guess searching the manual for the actions you want it to perform would be a good place to start.  Then finding how those actions are triggered in the code.  Then finding out the where's and what's of the Rockbox bootup process, and calling those functions in there.  Just using logic here, by the way, I have no practical experience modifying the code in this way.

The other option is much simpler:  Learn the two seconds worth of navigation required to do this manually.  

[Chronon]

How about this idea:

1) Set your start screen to the file browser.  
2) Create a playlist of your music library and save it to the root of your player.
3) Hide all other files/folders in the root.
4) When you start up the playlist will be the only selectable file.

You shouldn't need the screen to do any of this.  The settings can be set with a .cfg file. The creation of the .cfg file and the other operations can be done from your computer.

[MarcGuay]

Or, perhaps even easier...

Have the start screen set to the database (I assume this is possible), so that when the player starts up you simply have to click into All Tracks and then click once more to create a playlist of all the files.  With database auto-update and random on this should do the trick pretty quickly.

[Chronon]

That method wins because you don't have to hide any folders/files.  Just make a .cfg file that sets all of those properties and you're set.

[MarcGuay]

I want to know how to set up a config file so...

If you go through the menus using the voice and set up all the options the way we've described (with the help of the manual, of course), the options will be written to the config file and loaded the next time you start up.  It's also possible to type them manually into a .cfg file, I just thought I'd provide a second option.  There's also a page in the wiki called MenuLayoutDiscussion or something like that which has the Rockbox menu structure written out almost in it's entirety, which could be useful.

[Chronon]

You'll find this wiki page helpful:
CustomConfigFile

[nls]

I would go for.

1) setting up voice ui (real easy, just download a voicefile and copy to your player)

2) enable auto resume (Start screen: resume playback) and shuffle, repeat and whatever other options you like.

3) create a playlist of all your tracks (see manual or do it on a computer)

and it will resume playing that playlist when started.