Detailed description for r20921: FS #9730?

[SacredTerror]

I've read through the flyspray page for FS #9730, but unfortunately most of the discussion is not understandable to me.  The last sentence in the comments indicates that instructions for this patch may never be available in the manual, so I was wondering if I may be able to receive some personal instructions regarding this. 

Personally, I haven't used the Apple Operating System since the Rockbox USB stack was implemented in current builds for the ipod.  I have no use for it and see no problem in getting rid of it.  I would much prefer the fastest start-up possible.  Is anyone willing to give me a more detailed description?

[dreamlayers]

See http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=19814.0

[SacredTerror]

I'm sorry man, but your going to have to really hold my hand with this thing.  Seems like something I really don't want to mess up.  All I have to do is run ipodpatcher.exe and type these 3 lines:

ipodpatcher -rf apple_os.ipod
ipodpatcher -wf rockbox.ipod
ipodpatcher -a bootloader-ipodvideo.ipod

And save the apple_os.ipod file that will be created to the root directory, right?  Do I first have to uninstall the current bootloader that I'm using, or will it be overwritten?  And will this change my current method of updating (unzipping to the the root directory)?  Thanks very much for your help.

[ryran]

I'm no expert but I just went through this process myself (albeit in linux) five minutes ago, with apparent success. Here's how I understand it...

ipodpatcher -rf apple_os.ipod saves a backup of the apple firmware for later. You could put that in / or /.rockbox IF you want to be able to boot into it (with hold).
ipodpatcher -wf rockbox.ipod writes out rockbox to the bootloader area, (OSOS, whatever the heck that is). Apparently you don't need to do anything else to get this to work. I was expecting to have to do something with the bootloader, but it works with just that command...

If the bootloader sees a rockbox.ipod on disk (in root or .rockbox) it will load that BEFORE the one you wrote into OSOS (?) with ipodpatcher. So you should/could do this every time you upgrade your build in the future (for full effect make sure to delete rockbox.ipod from /.rockbox after unzipping a new build).

[SacredTerror]

OK when I type in either of those commands ipodpatcher.exe shows a few lines of text, but before I can read what it says it closes (crashes?).  Is this supposed to happen?  I don't see any files being created from the first command.  And I'm a little worried to try deleting rockbox.ipod just to see if it worked. 

[Chronon]

OK when I type in either of those commands ipodpatcher.exe shows a few lines of text, but before I can read what it says it closes (crashes?).

Are you doing it from a command prompt?  Try Start --> Run --> Cmd first.  Then enter the commands given here.

[SacredTerror]

I'm obviously in way over my head here, I apologize.  I was just opening ipodpatcher.exe and typing in the commands there.  Now I'm first opening a command prompt, dropping ipodpatcher.exe in there, and then typing the commands.  This way I get to see what ipodpatcher.exe is writing before it closes, since the command prompt stays open. 

When I type in the first command, it's telling me that it's writing firmware and the bootloader was installed successfully.  What?  I thought all it was supposed to do was copy some files for me?  Second command results in the same output. 

If you want to just look at a screenshot of what I'm doing....    http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3803/clipboard01v.jpg

Thanks again.

[Llorean]

You really shouldn't be dragging iPodpatcher to the command prompt. The program does several things, and you're basically running it without the additional parameters, so you're getting its default actions (which is to install the bootloader).

What it does is not just copying files. It writes files to the hidden firmware partition.

You should start out with doing a little Google research on basic command prompt use, that will help you understand instructions on how to use it much better.

[yapper]

Do as Llorean says, then see below for an example of a successful sequence

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\M.BFF>ipodpatcher -rf apple_os.ipod
ipodpatcher v3.0 with v3.0 bootloaders - (C) Dave Chapman 2006-2007
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] Scanning disk devices...
[INFO] Ipod found - 1st or 2nd Generation ("winpod") - disk device 2
[INFO] Reading partition table from \\.\PhysicalDrive2
[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      39054014     19030.1   W95 FAT32 (0x0b)
[INFO] Ipod model: 1st or 2nd Generation ("winpod")
[INFO] Reading firmware (3234816 bytes)
[INFO] Padding read from 0x00315c00 to 0x00315c00 bytes
[INFO] Firmware read to file apple_os.ipod.


C:\Documents and Settings\M.BFF>ipodpatcher -wf rockbox.ipod
ipodpatcher v3.0 with v3.0 bootloaders - (C) Dave Chapman 2006-2007
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] Scanning disk devices...
[INFO] Ipod found - 1st or 2nd Generation ("winpod") - disk device 2
[INFO] Reading partition table from \\.\PhysicalDrive2
[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      39054014     19030.1   W95 FAT32 (0x0b)
[INFO] Ipod model: 1st or 2nd Generation ("winpod")
[INFO] Padding input file from 0x00074334 to 0x00074400 bytes
[INFO] Reading input file...
[INFO] Checksum OK in rockbox.ipod
[INFO]  Wrote 476160 bytes to firmware partition
[INFO] Firmware rockbox.ipod written to device.

C:\Documents and Settings\M.BFF>

[SacredTerror]

Alright I'm getting closer.  Or at least now I know what's happening.  The first part worked.  But I'm still getting an error when trying to write the new firmware, saying it can't open rockbox.ipod.  Is it supposed to be in a different location besides the default of /.rockbox/?

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ipodpatcher -rf apple_os.ipod
ipodpatcher v3.0 with v3.0 bootloaders - (C) Dave Chapman 2006-2007
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] Scanning disk devices...
[INFO] Ipod found - Video (aka 5th Generation) ("winpod") - disk device 9
[INFO] Reading partition table from \\.\PhysicalDrive9
[INFO] Sector size is 2048 bytes
[INFO] Part    Start Sector    End Sector   Size (MB)   Type
[INFO]    0              63         64259       125.4   Empty (0x00)
[INFO]    1           64260      39075370     76193.6   W95 FAT32 (0x0b)
[INFO] Ipod model: Video (aka 5th Generation) ("winpod")
[INFO] Reading firmware (7550976 bytes)
[INFO] Padding read from 0x00733800 to 0x00733800 bytes
[INFO] Firmware read to file apple_os.ipod.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ipodpatcher -wf rockbox.ipod
ipodpatcher v3.0 with v3.0 bootloaders - (C) Dave Chapman 2006-2007
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] Scanning disk devices...
[INFO] Ipod found - Video (aka 5th Generation) ("winpod") - disk device 9
[INFO] Reading partition table from \\.\PhysicalDrive9
[INFO] Sector size is 2048 bytes
[INFO] Part    Start Sector    End Sector   Size (MB)   Type
[INFO]    0              63         64259       125.4   Empty (0x00)
[INFO]    1           64260      39075370     76193.6   W95 FAT32 (0x0b)
[INFO] Ipod model: Video (aka 5th Generation) ("winpod")
[ERR]  Couldn't open input file rockbox.ipod
[ERR]  --write-firmware failed.

[yapper]

Have you downloaded a build, and copied rockbox.ipod from it to C:\Documents and Settings\Owner?

[SacredTerror]

Oh, I thought it would just know to take it from the .rockbox folder on the ipod.  So I did that and then I deleted the rockbox.ipod on the ipod and hey, it's working.  All this for a couple seconds  .  I turn my ipod on 3 or 4 times a day so it's definitely beneficial.  Thanks guys.