Ipod Mini 2G will NOT go into disk mode

[mace1337]

Hi,

I just installed the latest rockbox on my ipod mini 2nd gen.
For some reason it will not go into disk mode.
It just goes to a blank screen, and has to be reset in order for the ipod to boot again.

If I plug in a USB cable while running rockbox it shows that it's charging, it shows the picture of the USB plug, and immediately after that it goes to a blank screen! So it would appear that it tries to run the disk mode software, but it does not work.

Using the Select + menu > Select + play it also goes to the blank screen and locks up.

When I go into the original firmware I can transfer files okay but it's a bit cumbersome to have to boot into it every time I want to transfer files.

I wonder what the cause of this could be, any thoughts?

[linuxstb]

This sounds very odd - when you press SELECT+PLAY to enter disk mode, you're entering Apple's "emergency disk mode" which is safely stored in (flash) ROM.  A Rockbox installation doesn't touch this, so shouldn't stop that from working.

When you reset your ipod, code is run in the following order:

Apple Bootloader (in flash ROM)
Rockbox Bootloader (on disk)
Rockbox (on disk)

"SELECT+PLAY" is interpreted by the Apple Bootloader, which would make the order in that case:

Apple Bootloader (in flash ROM)
Apple Disk Mode (in flash ROM)

If I was you, I would restore my ipod (using itunes) which should re-install the Apple bootloader/disk mode in flash, and see if SELECT+PLAY works then.

If it does, then re-install Rockbox, and see if it still works then.  If not, then I'm not sure what to suggest...

[mace1337]

Actually, I did just that. Restored using itunes and installed rockbox, before I encountered this problem.

I forgot to mention: I upgraded the 4gb Microdrive to a 8 GB CompactFlash card, this is the only reason I can think of that will make this not work. This should not matter unless the emergency disk mode cannot handle the CF card. Which it can because after installing the (empty) CF card the emergency disk mode was the only thing that did work on the ipod (obviously). This was used to restore the ipod.

Strange.

[linuxstb]

This does seem to be a problem with Apple's emergency disk mode - but I agree that it's odd that it seemed to work when the card was empty, but doesn't now.

Does it work immediately after restoring with itunes?  i.e. before you install Rockbox?

[mace1337]

I'll do that later today, I'm having some small computer issues here, nothing related but I need to fix them.

Thanks for the help so far, and I'll report in later today.