Apple iPod Video 30GB -- Trouble Installing bootloader -- Images provided

[Takua1]

I have an Apple 30GB iPod video.  I have tried installing everything and so far I have not succeeded.

I will refer to this image: http://takua1.hcchosting.com/img/pic_all.png

I natively run Mac OS X 10.4 (PPC), however at my work I have access to Mac OS X 10.5 (PPC), Mac OS X 10.5 (Intel), and Fedora Linux (I don't know the distribution, I'm not fully acquainted with Linux).

Of course, the first thing I did was manually format the iPod to FAT32, and that was successful.  I then downloaded the ZIPs for Rockbox and the font pack and unzipped those.  As you can see, they're in ".rockbox" on my iPod.  When I try to install the bootloader, and I've tried to install it on a PPC Mac, Intel Mac and a Linux computer, it will not detect my iPod.

The iPod is connected via USB, and I do have it unmounted when I try.  iTunes is not open.

Any help?

[gevaerts]

Try running "sudo ipodpatcher" instead of "ipodpatcher". It needs administrative rights

[Takua1]

All right.  I'm at my work, where I don't have administrative privileges, so I'll try this when I get to my home computer. Thanks!

[bluebrother]

Oh -- and make sure the Ipod is unmounted when running ipodpatcher. On OS X this is required (if I remember correctly ipodpatcher tries to unmount the ipod before installing, but I'm not completely sure about that -- and checking yourself won't hurt )

[Takua1]

Okay, I got home and tried to finish the job and I was unsuccessful.

Here's a screenshot of Disk Utility when I go into terminal and type "sudo /ipodpatcher" (/ipodpatcher is my path to the file). http://takua1.hcchosting.com/img/rockbox2.png

[linuxstb]

It looks like the conversion to FAT32 wasn't done correctly - your FAT32 partition is showing as "disk3s1" - the 1 at the end means the 1st partition on the disk.  The FAT32 partition should be the 2nd partition (the first is a special partition containing the ipod's firmware).

Does the original Apple firmware still work OK on your ipod?  Does itunes recognise and sync with it? 

When converting to FAT32, did you follow the instructions here?

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodConversionToFAT32

(they are linked to from the manual)

[Takua1]

The original firmware doesn't work.  It goes into "recovery mode".
iTunes does recognize and sync with the iPod, interestingly enough.
I'm fairly sure that I followed the instructions correctly, but if I need to do it again I will.

[linuxstb]

The original firmware doesn't work.

ipodpatcher requires a working ipod to modify.  I would suggest you restore it (using itunes) and then try the conversion again.

[Takua1]

The conversion to FAT32 is not working for me.  After I convert and nothing looks wrong, I eject my iPod and it goes into recovery mode.  I can't tell anything I'm doing wrong.  I'm following all of the directions, including the fact that I'm using the correct (mbr-video30gb-2048.bin) bin.  Any common mistake that I could be making?

[gevaerts]

Are you sure about the 2048-byte sectors ?

[Takua1]

(This is pre-conversion to FAT32, of course)
[INFO] Reading partition table from /dev/disk3
[INFO] Sector size is 2048 bytes
[INFO] Part    Start Sector    End Sector   Size (MB)   Type
[INFO]    0              63         81982       160.0   Empty (0x00)
[INFO]    1           81984      14651271     28455.6   HFS/HFS+ (0xffff)
[INFO] Ipod model: Video (aka 5th Generation) ("macpod")

[bluebrother]

Have you tried manually restoring the Apple firmware after the conversion? I'm not 100% sure but it might be needed; unfortunately IpodConversionToFAT32 doesn't mention this. This page explains how to do it: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodManualRestore

[Takua1]

Okay, I've figured out the problem this time.

In step e of IpodConversionToFAT32, it instructs you to erase the ipod partition of the iPod.  I was clicking on the "2.79GB iPod Media" and erasing that.

I am now installing the bootloader, I'll see if it works.

EDIT: Success! Rockbox is installed on my iPod.  Thanks for all of the help bluebrother, fg, linuxstb!

[linuxstb]

Have you tried manually restoring the Apple firmware after the conversion? I'm not 100% sure but it might be needed; unfortunately IpodConversionToFAT32 doesn't mention this. This page explains how to do it: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodManualRestore

That's not needed because the firmware is stored in the same physical sectors regardless of whether it's a "macpod" or "winpod" - assuming "factory-standard" partition layouts.