Could the installation instructions be reworded?

[piscator]

WE ARE ROCKBOXING, ONCE AGAIN!!!

My H320 arrived to replace my fried H340 and I've successfully installed The World's Best Music Software -- Rockbox!!

I've read the installation instructions many times, but I re-read them again to make sure this install went smoothly.  I noticed some hitches I'd seen during past installs and wanted to suggest some minor improvements to the instructions.

This paragraph has always been a little challenging and it might be expanded or otherwise clarified.

Note: The US Iriver H320 and H340 firmware is not supported and cannot be patched to be used with the bootloader. If you wish to install Rockbox on a US Iriver H320 and H340, you must first install a non-US version of the original firmware and then install one of the supported versions patched with the Rockbox bootloader.

I believe this paragraph is saying that the U.S. firmware on an Iriver H3xx must be replaced with non-U.S. firmware before...anything else happens. 

If that's the case maybe it would be clearer if typeset as a list, something like:

 1. Choose the non-U.S. firmware of your preference
 2. Install that firmware to your Iriver h3xx
 3. 'patch' a copy of the chosen non-U.S. firmware using Fwpatcher
 4.  Install the patched non-U.S. bootloader

I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with the original paragraph, just that it might be made clearer.  Maybe it could be reworded along these lines, (my bold)

The US Iriver H320, H340 firmware is not supported and cannot be patched to be used with the bootloader. If you wish To install Rockbox on a US Iriver H320 and H340, you must first install a non-US version of the original firmware.  Check to see that the player operates properly with this non-US firmware.

Next, patch a copy of that non-US version (or any non-US version) with the Rockbox bootloader.  Install the patched version to your player

Also, the necessity and method for installing the non-US firmware might benefit from greater elaboration and emphasis.   Neils wrote this excellent instruction in the forum:

I recomend to first flash a clean international firmware for example the 1.29j that you mentioned and then flashing a patched version, this is only neccesary when going form US -> Patched international firmware.

This also speaks to my misunderstanding.  I think the installation instructions would be enhanced if they better explained the ramifications of flashing the patched non-US bootloader vs. flashing an 'un-patched' version first.

The process of flashing the 'un-patched' version is simply to put the non-US version of the hex file in the root directory and follow the normal upgrade firmware procedures. 

This, I think, might be explained more fully, before the reader is encouraged to click to

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

If you follow this page, 'point to point,' like an instruction sheet, it can lead you to believe that the process of creating viable non-US firmware requires 'descrambling the original firmware' and maybe even scarier things!

It's easy to do this, because the prior page that contained the link is constructed to be followed sequentially.  Clarifying the firmware goals (US non-US, etc) on the first page, before the 'link' should prevent confusion on the linked page.

A small item, also from the forum, Ego wrote,

make sure the patched firmware file is named h300.hex. any other name won't be recognized when you run the firmware upgrade.One more point,

It might be useful to include this in the manual, as well.  If it's there I didn't see it. 

But I did make the mistake of naming my downloaded non-US firmware 'H300 Unpatched' so I'd recognize it.  I didn't catch the mistake until I found Ego's comment.

Of course it's certainly possible that any confusion lies solely in my feeble grey-matter, but I'm not the only one out here getting older 

I love Rockbox and don't mean to seem critical.  I really just want to help!

Thanks, piscator

[AlexP]

Thanks, we always welcome improvements and are looking to make things clearer.  When you know the process inside out it is not always easy to spot what may not be as clear as it could be!  Perhaps you could write a patch for the manual and put it on flyspray?  Ideally in the latex format the manual uses, but if not in plain text and someone else can latexify it.