Rockbox 3.1 is released!

[soap]

Can anyone expand on this:

"2008-12-25: Preliminary support for Ipod accessories."

Does this mean Rockbox might be able to interface with ipod controls in cars in the future?

Yes

Or does it just mean basic accessories like video cables that plug into the ipod dock etc?

Video no, that isn't part of the Accessory Protocol - that's the fricking Broadcom chip.

[JDub]

I asked awhile back and was told this would probably never happen due to licensing/dev kits costing money.

What changed? Who or what is driving this support? One man? A couple of people? Did apple give you guys the specs or did someone "find" them?

[saratoga]

I asked awhile back and was told this would probably never happen due to licensing/dev kits costing money.

Probably what you were told is that we'd never get a dev kit, since they're not free and probably not compatible with the GPL.  And we haven't.

What changed? Who or what is driving this support? One man? A couple of people? Did apple give you guys the specs or did someone "find" them?

Someone implemented limited support for the accessory protocol, posted it online, and then I eventually added it to SVN.

[JDub]

Could you expand on that a little? Will it be able to output audio and tag information to stereo's and cars? I don't know much about the protocol so I have to ask: How extensive is the protocol and its abilities(ignoring stuff like video output)? How much work will it take to get full support?

Does it look like this person will continue in their efforts? Or was it likely just something someone cooked up for their own limited needs and decided to share?

Thanks for the prompt reply. I am very interested in this feature coming to maturity. The reason I don't use roxbox now is that I have an ipod adapter in my car and want to stick to one copy of my songs and one firmware/music management style. To me it all goes together.

[saratoga]

Could you expand on that a little? Will it be able to output audio and tag information to stereo's and cars?

It will work with some of them.

I don't know much about the protocol so I have to ask: How extensive is the protocol and its abilities(ignoring stuff like video output)? How much work will it take to get full support?

Probably a lot of work, but I don't know how much is actually in the apple protocol.  I don't believe anyone has fully explored it.

Does it look like this person will continue in their efforts? Or was it likely just something someone cooked up for their own limited needs and decided to share?

There hasn't been any work on it in the last few months.

[JDub]

Thanks again for the reply.

Why would it only work with some of them though? I thought all devices used the same protocol, so as long as the feature was implemented on roxbox end wouldnt it work with everything (for the supported features)? Also does roxbox currently support outputting tag information over the apple protocol?

[Chronon]

Think of the protocol as a proprietary language spoken by iPods and their accessories.  Currently, someone has figured out a certain subset of the words in this language.  This doesn't mean that Rockbox is fluent in this language.  Rockbox doesn't understand all "words" uttered by all accessories, nor how to respond in all cases.

[JDub]

I get that much, I wondered how many words roxbox understands and if it now can support track info sending to devices.

[Llorean]

Just a note: It's "Rockbox" not "Roxbox".


There's also simple and advanced versions of the protocol, and although they can do some of the same things, they're done in different ways. Basically, it's really impossible to predict if it will work with a specific device unless someone's already tried it and posted it to the page where they're tracking it.

[cool_walking_]

Also, some devices do stupid things like navigating around the menus in the iPod in order to do something, which won't work in Rockbox because it has a different menu structure.

[go4it420]

Weird, I was not able to install it but 1.0.7 version can.

I'm happy to tell that Rockbox 3.1 was just uploaded!

For the easiest install or upgrade path, use rbutil.

If you prefer getting the zip files "manually", go here

Read up on the most noticable changes done in 3.1

A more detailed log of changes.

Enjoy!

[cool_walking_]

^ I daresay the bug in 1.0.{8,9} was not known at the time Bagder posted.

The first report seems to be 2 days later:
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=19914.0