iPod Photo 40GB: not working

[steph24]

Hello there,

I have been following the installation instructions for the Rockbox precisely. I am running the setup procedure on a Mac.

The installation went smoothly. Using "ipodpatcher" bootloader and installing Rockbox went well. I confirm finding the ".rockbox" directory including the "rockbox.ipod" file in it, but when starting up the iPod i get this error message:

The iPod is a Photo but with 40GB instead of the 60GB version - maybe that makes the difference? On that listing on the rockbox.org home page it was not explicitly mentioned that the iPod Photo maybe needs differentiation for the 40GB vs. 60GB models...

The iPod holds the latest firmware update (v1.21 i think) and thus i have no idea what else to do...

Who can "cook" a 40GB rockbox for me and the others? Or did anybody manage to successfully install rockbox on a 40GB iPod photo?

[bluebrother]

but when starting up the iPod i get this error message:

errr ... what's the error message?

The iPod is a Photo but with 40GB instead of the 60GB version - maybe that makes the difference? On that listing on the rockbox.org home page it was not explicitly mentioned that the iPod Photo maybe needs differentiation for the 40GB vs. 60GB models...

No. As long as it's the same hardware the disk size doesn't matter at all.

[steph24]

Sorry, i was too fast here...

the error message is

"can not find rockbox.ipod"

although it does exist in the "/.rockbox" directory...

so... what next can i do?

[linuxstb]

Is your ipod a "MacPod" (i.e. HFS+ format) ?  If you've been using it on a Mac (and have ever restored it using itunes on a Mac), then this is almost certainly the case.

ipodpatcher would have given you a large warning it was HFS+ formmated though - Rockbox doesn't support HFS and ipods need to be converted to FAT32 (aka "WinPod").  Instructions for this are here:

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodConversionToFAT32

[steph24]

Hi,

I know what you mean - the ipodpatcher though did not display the 4 line warning notification about MacPod - it was properly shown as a WinPod device.

Also the rockbox utility did not display any warning message such as "this is a macpod but you can only install on a winpod"...

So this assumption of yours was not the cause. sorry...

Meanwhile i went to my old-fashioned PC, went to iTunes, did a "restore" (=factory reset, win-based) of my iPod photo, so it is back to its maiden state.

i did the ipodpatcher and rockbox utility installation routines. no error messages, all went fine, rockbox installed, fonts installed etc.

eg. here is the result of ipodpatcher:

[INFO] Scanning disk devices...
[INFO] Ipod found - Photo/Color ("winpod") - /dev/disk1
[INFO] Reading partition table from /dev/disk1
[INFO] Sector size is 512 bytes
[INFO] Part    Start Sector    End Sector   Size (MB)   Type
[INFO]    0              63         80324        39.2   Empty (0x00)
[INFO]    1           80325      78124094     38107.3   W95 FAT32 (0x0b)
[INFO] Ipod model: Photo/Color ("winpod")
Enter i to install the Rockbox bootloader, u to uninstall
 or c to cancel and do nothing (i/u/c) :i
[INFO] Volume IPOD on disk1s2 unmounted
[INFO] Using internal bootloader - 46204 bytes
[INFO] Moving images to create room for new firmware...
[INFO] Reading original firmware...
[INFO]  Wrote 5434368 bytes to firmware partition
[INFO] Bootloader installed successfully.


again, when starting up the iPod, i get this message:

Rockbox boot loader
Version: 3.0
IPOD version: 0x00060000
Toshiba MK4006GAH
Partition 1: 0x0B 38107 MB
Loading Rockbox...
Error!
Can't load rockbox.ipod:
File not found
Hold MENU+SELECT to reboot
then SELECT+PLAY for disk mode


now here is the contents on my ipod - as you can see, there is the .rockbox directory:

$  pwd
/Volumes/IPOD/.rockbox

$ ls
backdrops      fonts         rockbox.ipod
codecs         icons         rocks
codepages      langs         tagnavi.config
database.ignore      rbutil.log      themes
docs         recpresets      viewers.config
eqs         rockbox-info.txt   wps


since this sequence of installation etc. all seemed to be fine for me, i strongly speculate that there is an issue with this "rockbox.ipod" file or configuration related to the a.m. device...

[linuxstb]

Yes, that all seems fine...

Everything seems to point to a problem with the bootloader.  You could test an older version of ipodpatcher (which comes with an older bootloader):

http://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/ipod/2.0/ipodpatcher/

Just run this version, and select "i" for install - that should replace the existing bootloader with the older version.

In the meantime, I'll try a fresh install on my ipod Photo, and see if it works...

EDIT: I've just tried the current ipodpatcher and current Rockbox daily build on my ipod photo (60GB) and it's working fine.