Rockbox small question etc

[ThaCrip]

first of all i want to say thanks to the developers! this is a great app/firmware and i just got my Sansa e250 2GB player today from ebay (i made sure it was a v1 before i ordered) for 47 dollars out the door.

it's great to have a firmware for a mp3 player device that's not handicaped! , as this is what manufacturers SHOULD give the people who buy there MP3 players instead of the shaft.

but now that i got that out of the way i have a small question...

can i delete ALL the files on the 2GB partition? (well, delete everything besides the .rockbox folder of course ) cause i see music etc etc folders that are there or does the original sandisk firmware need those?

thanks for your time

----------------------

p.s. the volume output is MUCH better on this e250 vs my old mp3 player (RCA 2010A 128MB internal) which was crap compared to this as i got a major upgrade ... and 45kbps encoded .ogg files are a huge plus! as there sound quality is quite good considering how low the bit rate is and it's even arguable that it sound at least as good as 128kbps MP3's give or take a little which aint bad at all

p.s. it was also a accident how i found out about Rockbox in the first place as i was just looking into possibly getting a new mp3 player and just checking prices on newegg.com etc and starting reading reviews on the sansa e250 etc and happening to see something about something called 'rockbox' and they said the v2 dont support it etc so i went to google and searched for rockbox and ran into this website and i was like hell yeah i gotta get one that supports this so then i looked into the details on how to run it and found out i needed a v1 player so i went to ebay and found one at a reasonable price and then emailed the guy and asked him if it was a v1 or v2 and it was a v1 and then BAM i choose 'buy it now'

[Strife89]

I'm using a c250, but our situations should pretty much be the same:

Every time you boot to the OF, I believe it will recreate the folders if they do not exist. So deleting them is a waste of time (since you have to boot to the OF to transfer music or charge the battery right now).

Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure you can safely delete the following folders. Make sure there's nothing inside of them if you do (i.e., music, photos) DO NOT FORMAT THE PARTITION!!!!

-MUSIC
-PHOTO
-PLAYLISTS
-RECORD
-tmp

(Don't delete the file(s) in the root, which should be something like "VERSION.TXT". Also, do not delete the folder called SYSTEM.)

[ThaCrip]

thanks for the reply Strife89 ... before i read your post i deleted all the stuff on the main fat32 2GB partition. BUT i kept a backup of all the files i deleted on my pc and just restored the parts you said to not delete.

also i thought the 'format' wont hurt it as long as you dont format (or in general dont touch) the 20MB partition where the bios files are? ... cause i was talking strictly about files on the 2GB main data storage section.... i did not format anything though but i was just trying to clear stuff up.

so far, so good... rockbox working great!

[bascule]

Every time you boot to the OF, I believe it will recreate the folders if they do not exist. So deleting them is a waste of time (since you have to boot to the OF to transfer music or charge the battery right now).

Yes, it will recreate them, but IMHO it's not a waste of time to delete them, as they annoy me intensely 

You can configure the disktidy plugin to delete the extra files. Unfortunately, the config instuctions are not in the manual, but I'll post them if you want.

Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure you can safely delete the following folders. Make sure there's nothing inside of them if you do (i.e., music, photos) DO NOT FORMAT THE PARTITION!!!!

-MUSIC
-PHOTO
-PLAYLISTS
-RECORD
-tmp

(Don't delete the file(s) in the root, which should be something like "VERSION.TXT". Also, do not delete the folder called SYSTEM.)

Again, I happily delete all those plus the VERSION.TXT file and the SYSTEM folder and it continues to work fine for me...

[AlexP]

As Bascule, I deleted everything non Rockbox or music (including system, version.txt etc.) and it still works fine.

[Strife89]

I'm pretty sure you can safely delete the following folders. Make sure there's nothing inside of them if you do (i.e., music, photos) DO NOT FORMAT THE PARTITION!!!!

-MUSIC
-PHOTO
-PLAYLISTS
-RECORD
-tmp

(Don't delete the file(s) in the root, which should be something like "VERSION.TXT". Also, do not delete the folder called SYSTEM.)

I was erring on the side of caution. I didn't want to risk screwing up his DAP!

[AlexP]

I was erring on the side of caution. I didn't want to risk screwing up his DAP!

Very wise, thanks

[ThaCrip]

thanks for everyone's time. now i know what i can delete.

and i appreciate you taking caution with me just to be 'extra safe' , cause as the saying goes, "it's better to be safe than sorry"

p.s. if i find bugs ill do my best to report them. i wont be one of those people who find a bug and then ask for help and once it's fixed i wont vanish from these forums like im sure some people do. ill get back to this forum and tell you guys how i fixed it etc to do my little part on making rockbox a better piece of software.

EDIT: ... just wondering but does anyone know what the battery life is playing .ogg files (45kbps) vs stock firmware doing 128kbps etc MP3 files?

cause i was just curious as to what rockbox battery life is vs original firmware on a e250.

[Strife89]

Here you go.

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaRuntime

[ThaCrip]

thanks Strife89 for that page

so it appears i probably can get roughly 10hours out of the player im 'guessing' cause some of the ones that got higher looked like they had to do extra stuff that most people might not do to squeeze out more run time... like completely turn off back light screen disable EQ etc etc

plus i might gain some runtime back, right? ... cause of the low bitrate 45kbps .OGG im using which takes less power right cause of the lower bit rates.

im basically using default settings with EQ on though with bass up a little bit and treble up a little to and i think thats about it and i have the screen backlit to turn off after about 10seconds... besides that i think im pretty much defaults running r17713 build.

p.s. on a side note if i ever have to update rockbox to a newer build and want to clean install it... i can just boot into original firmware and delete the .rockbox folder right and then transfer in a new copy and then disconnect USB and reboot the device and it should load fine right? (im fairly sure that would be good but i just want confirmation )

[LambdaCalculus]

You don't really have to delete the .rockbox folder before an update. Simply unzipping a new build to the root will overwrite the current Rockbox build on your player with the new version you downloaded.

Besides, deleting the folder also deletes your database and settings. You don't want to have to sit there and readjust everything again, do you?

[Strife89]

so it appears i probably can get roughly 10hours out of the player im 'guessing'

That page is for both the c200s AND the e200s. You must've been looking at the cs; I'm pretty sure the E200 can get almost 20 hours!

You don't really have to delete the .rockbox folder before an update. Simply unzipping a new build to the root will overwrite the current Rockbox build on your player with the new version you downloaded.

Besides, deleting the folder also deletes your database and settings. You don't want to have to sit there and readjust everything again, do you?

Dang, Lambda, you beat me to it. By the way, if your PC asks about overwriting files, you should of course say yes. Only the build files (not your settings, etc.) will be overwritten (just wanted to be sure that was clear).

[ThaCrip]

Ok, thanks both of you for the replies so i guess i can overwrite stuff. i was just assuming it was 'safer' to clean install but i guess if everything is overwriten it would be fine as long as it can still read the settings file etc

"You must've been looking at the cs; I'm pretty sure the E200 can get almost 20 hours!"

my reply... well for the e250 (which is what i got) it says RB Runtime = about 10hours45min vs stock 15hours ish ... but that was based on 192kbps average bitrate mp3's ... im pretty much only using .ogg @ 45kbps. so i would assume i would get a little better.... plus in there test they had the backlight off etc so that's why i figure ill get roughly 10hours give or take a little (but the other e200 series ones where noticeably over 10hours so i might get more than 10)... plus im not using the headphones that came with it as i hate those earbuds type headphones that plug inside your ear... im using basically a standard cheap pair of the ones that are standard side.

just some thoughts as i guess ill just have to play around with it and get a good feel for the device and then get a fairly good idea of how long it lasts.

also, does anyone know how long it takes to charge the e250 when it's completely dead? ... cause i hear 1hour 30min and some places i think i heard 4hours.

does anyone know the real charge time cause i dont want to overcharge it to much

[saratoga]

my reply... well for the e250 (which is what i got) it says RB Runtime = about 10hours45min vs stock 15hours ish ...

Those numbers are from last year before all the power savings stuff was committed.  Keep scrolling down until you get to a recent test.

FWIW,  if your battery is in good shape, you'll probably get about 20 hours at that bitrate.

also, does anyone know how long it takes to charge the e250 when it's completely dead? ... cause i hear 1hour 30min and some places i think i heard 4hours.

Most portable devices, regardless of what they are, will take about 3 hours since thats how long it takes to recharge a typical lipoly battery.

does anyone know the real charge time cause i dont want to overcharge it to much

You can't overcharge a lipoly battery.  The charge controller makes sure of that.

[ThaCrip]

thanks for the reply saratoga  ...

as that's what i was hoping to hear

so how is the rockbox runtime's vs stock firmware? (better or worse?) (it dont appear to mention anything about runtime on the newer builds on that link he gave me above) ... is it pretty much about the same one way or the other now i assume?