Just finished installing and the player is stuck on "writing"

[tooquick]

First I am using a Windows XP computer.  I just got my 6 gig e270 and I used the guide to install rockbox manually.  I used 7zip to extract the files to my player, so instead of choosing extract all I chose extract files. Here are the steps I took.

First extracted the sandisk rockbox file
Second I extracted the fonts package to the same directory.
Third I downloaded and ran the bootloader rom the link in the manual
Fourth I clicked "i" then enter to install the bootloader

When I went to disconnect my player like the manual said it says "writing" on my sandisk player. I don't want to pull out the usb, since it sounds like it is installing, but it has been on this for about 15 minutes.  I have installed custom firmware on my PSP and I know if you mess with it while it is installing you can brick the system and thats is what I am afraid of. Any help would be appreciated.

[JEJ]

Something similar happened to me and i had no choice but to unplug it. It worked fine after that. Dare to take the risk.

[tooquick]

Something similar happened to me and i had no choice but to unplug it. It worked fine after that. Dare to take the risk.

I went ahead and took it out. This is the first time I have used rockbox, so it may be correct, but I don't think it is.  The system loads up OK, but when I connect it to my computer I can't load any songs onto it, because the music folder is missing. I tried making my own music folder and it wouldn't let me. I then turn it off and back on holding the left button, so I can go to the sansa OS and I am able to play the songs, which I wasn't able to do in rockbox. I re-connected it to my computer and it was still misssing the music folder.

In the end I just un-installed rockbox and restored to factory settings.  It now has the music folder and everything else. I still want to use rockbox, but I am weary of using it.

If it is installed correctly, is it supposed to have the same folders as it does in factory settings, when the unit is connected to the computer? If not how do you install music?

Also I have one more question. I want to watch videos and that is one of the main reasons I want to use Rockbox, because I read somewhere that Rockbox will play more video formats. Is this true? If so which ones? Thanks for the help.

[bluebrother]

Also I have one more question. I want to watch videos and that is one of the main reasons I want to use Rockbox, because I read somewhere that Rockbox will play more video formats. Is this true? If so which ones? Thanks for the help.

No. Rockbox only plays mpeg2 videos, but as you have to transcode videos to match the screen size anyway there is no point in having other video codecs (besides most other codecs being much more cpu intensive).

[Chronon]

tooquick: The Sansa firmware hides the MUSIC folder.  You can see it in Rockbox if you change the "Show files" setting to ALL.  Or you can put your music in a different directory that the OF won't hide.  You can also see the files via the database.  Make sure you transfer your files via MSC mode. 

[MarcGuay]

When I went to disconnect my player like the manual said it says "writing" on my sandisk player. I don't want to pull out the usb, since it sounds like it is installing, but it has been on this for about 15 minutes.

It seems as though sansapatcher doesn't send a "done" signal when it's finished working.  This should either be fixed or documented properly as it is a bit worrisome.

[tooquick]

Thanks guys, I think I will give Rockbox another chance and reinstall it. I do have one more questions.  I know you can run two firmwares and rockbox is the default and you hold the left button when booting to change to the sansa firmware.  I was wondering if you can make the sansa the default and you hold the left button to switch to the rockbox?

[MarcGuay]

You can, but not without an unsupported bootloader.  If it's something you really want, check in the Unsupported Builds forum; I believe the reverse-bootloader is still posted there. 

[tooquick]

Thanks, is this unsupported loader less stable?

[saratoga]

Thanks, is this unsupported loader less stable?

It should be more or less the same, but its hard to say.

[bluebrother]

Thanks, is this unsupported loader less stable?

Why would one use the OF if he's got Rockbox?

[tooquick]

tooquick: The Sansa firmware hides the MUSIC folder.  You can see it in Rockbox if you change the "Show files" setting to ALL.  Or you can put your music in a different directory that the OF won't hide.  You can also see the files via the database.  Make sure you transfer your files via MSC mode. 

Ok so I did that reverse install so I got it all hooked up the way I want. I am having trouble playing songs in rockbox now though.  Chronon said that sansa hides the music folder, so i did his suggestion and made a new folder called songs and put all of my songs in there. It worked fine in the sansa firmware, but they won't play in rockbox, it lists them all, but it won't play them.

I then tried going to the settings and switching it to show all, and when I plugged it in to my cpmputer I am still not seeing the music folder, I think this is due to it loading the sansa firmware when I connect to my PC(it did this even though I had it on the rockbox firmware at the time). Are there any suggestions? On my desktop I just unhid the folders, but on my laptop I am running vista and thats a pain to do.

Also I have noticed it does not refresh the database, when I add or delete songs when I load the rockbox firmware like it does when I load sansa firmware.

[MarcGuay]

2 suggestions:

- Read the SansaFAQ in the wiki

and

- Start a new threads for different questions, it keeps things organized.

[JEJ]

...I then tried going to the settings and switching it to show all, and when I plugged it in to my cpmputer I am still not seeing the music folder, I think this is due to it loading the sansa firmware when I connect to my PC(it did this even though I had it on the rockbox firmware at the time). Are there any suggestions? On my desktop I just unhid the folders, but on my laptop I am running vista and thats a pain to do.

Connect your player to the computer and boot the original firmware. Open Windows Explorer and click on the letter assigned to the player. Go to the Organize Menu. Click on "Folder and search Options" or whatever it is called. Click on the View tab. Choose Show all hidden files and folders.

Now you should be able to see a folder named MUSIC. Right click on it and dis-select the hiddden property.

Now Rockbox should be able to see your folder. Reboot RB and rock on