Resume playback same spot after auto-off (i-pod nano)

[perceptionist]

Hey guys,  I have an i-pod nano 1st gen 4gig.  I tried Rockbox about 5 years ago but there was a feature I did not like, I was attached to the fast forward on the ipod software where you press the center select button and then spin the touch wheel allowing me to scan through 5 hours of audio very quick while seeing the timer whereas in Rockbox you must hold down the forward button which gives little control over the speed of your scanning.  I don't believe this has changed. 

So now I am back to try it again and so far I have noticed another issue that may be easily resolved with the correct settings.

With my factory Apple firmware, when I pause the player and then the player eventually shuts off after the designated amount of time, all I need to do to resume playback exactly where I left off is press play once (this turns the unit back on)  and then press play a second time (this resumes playback from where I left off)  that's it! 

I like this because I don't need to look at the screen and navigate menus to get to the "resume playback" option.  Many times I have the ipod secured in my hat or in a chest pocket under layers of clothing and pressing play twice is very simple as I know where play is on my ipod and don't need to get it out to look at it which comes in VERY handy while on my motorcycle or just driving in general.

With rock box, once it has auto shut off, I first need to press the middle select button which turns the unit back on, and then.......  well I just spent the last half hour trying this to figure out what to write here, but it seems the result is not consistant...  One time after turning it back on, I had to navigate the menu to locate the "resume playback" option,  another time after turning it back on I got a screen full of garbled unreadable text,  then next time I got a screen that read:

*panic*
Dir entry 0 in sector 3 is not free! E1 40 54 41

So I reset the unit using select and menu

Ok now it looks like I am only getting the panic screen...... *sigh*  Rockbox has awesome sound quality, and tons of settings but beyond that, I am not seeing the allure. 

Does any of this make sense to anyone?  Maybe someone could set me straight before I revert back to my old faithful Apple firmware?  This Rockbox is a great idea, and my player is on the stable supported list, but it just isn't coming through for me.

Advice?

[Llorean]

Well, you might want to start with what version of Rockbox you have installed, how you installed it, what settings you've changed from the default, etc.

Since the very first day music played on the iPod Nano you've been able to resume playback by booting up and then tapping "play." The fact that you had to "locate" an option that's visible in the default menu you see when you turn the player on makes it unclear what exactly you're doing. As well, the controls are covered in the manual assuming you didn't try to use "Play" to resume playback, but it works.

All the crashes and such shouldn't be happening, but again, it'd be nice to know installation details so we know if it's a buggy version or what.

[perceptionist]

Ok, I just uninstalled Rockbox, formatted my Ipod Nano, now it is all fresh and clean....

Proceeding to re-install, I will type as I go to ensure accuracy...

Running rockbox utility v1.2.6 to install Rockbox v3.6 (released June 3, 2010)

Autodetect found and identified my device as:

"Apple Ipod Nano (1st gen) (Stable) at G:\"

Selected "Complete Installation"



Clicked "Ok"



Selected the "Cabbiev2 Blue" theme then clicked "Install"



Installation appears to have been successful, clicked "Ok"  Install window goes away.

I am now transferring a 5 hour mp3 format audio file (radio show) into the "Data Files" folder which is where I assume all audio files should go, but for the purposes of this test, I am only transferring the single 5 hour mp3.



Now I properly eject my ipod and disconnect.  Rockbox is now on the ipod screen, but a second later the screen went black,  it appears the ipod has shut down.

Nothing I press is bringing it on.... trying select (center) and menu (top) simultaneously....

ok that worked,  now it's on.

Selecting "files"  "Data Files" and then my file which is now playing.

Went into "settings\general settings\system\Idle Poweroff" and changed from the 10 min default to 1 min.

Returned back to "Now Playing"

Hit Pause, waiting for auto off....Device has shut off.

I have discovered that the Select (center) button turns on the Ipod. Then after letting it shut down again, I also discovered the Menu (top) button does the same.

When it comes on, it is on the main menu with "Files" selected...2 lines below this is "resume playback"  but in order to select "resume playback"  I need to be looking at the screen. 

Maybe I was just spoiled with the way the Apple firmware functioned.  Is there a way to make Rockbox work this way?  I know to some this may sound petty, but consider the following scenario which describes how it works with the Apple firmware:

Example:  Driving on the freeway, a phone call comes in on the hands free, I tap the ipod to pause, during the call the ipod shuts off, after the call I simply tap the ipod twice on the play button and playback is resumed, painless and simple without a need to look at the screen or navigate menus or anything.

The way this works with Rockbox is not impossible while driving, but when the ipod is in my chest pocket and I am on a motorcycle, there's just no simple safe way I know of to resume playback when using Rockbox.

It has been suggested that I set my auto off time to a longer duration.  The reason I set it for 1-3 minutes is to conserve my battery for when I am away from a mode of charging.

Hope this makes sense...

Thanks

[Llorean]

As I explicitly said, just tapping "Play" resumes playback once Rockbox is booted. This is also covered in the manual. You might also want to set it to automatically resume playback on boot. This is also covered in the manual...

Have you read the manual?

[perceptionist]

But I did not change anything in the options other than the default auto off time from 10 min to 1 min.  Are you saying Rockbox is supposed to resume playback after boot by tapping play without having to alter settings?  If there is a way to make it behave this way, I had been looking through the manual and must have missed the way to configure it to simply resume without the need to do any navigating, which is why I decided to post here.

I admit my initial searching through the manual involved searching for key words and mainly just reading the sections that seemed to pertain to my issue.  I will go over the entire manual word for word this time, just thought maybe someone on here would understand where I was coming from.

Thanks,

[torne]

Yes, pressing play after Rockbox boots *always* resumes whatever was playing at shutdown (if there was anything; if the last playlist finished, then it will instead bring up a splash that says "Nothing to resume"). There is no setting for this, so if it doesn't work for you then there's a problem...

To have it resume automatically, see http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-ipodnano1g/rockbox-buildch8.html#x11-1420008.5.1

[perceptionist]

Thank you for the replies. 

I did manage to get it to work correctly for a short time, but then it gets all buggy.  I wish I could be more specific but the few times this occurred today I was driving and could not see the screen with the sun out. 

When I had time to stop, I started it up and got an error screen, I just grabbed it to see what it says, but of course it is working fine now.   This has happened like 3 times through the day where it becomes un usable and when I am finally able to get it working by rebooting a couple times,  all the fonts get tiny and it can not find any files, then I reboot or leave it sit for 30 min or so and then it works perfect again.

A thought came to mind, my nano is a 1st generation.  The rockbox site says the 1st generation nano is supported.  But in all the searching I have done on the site, they only specify the 1 gig 1st gen nano.  However nowhere does it say the 2 or 4 gig 1st gen nanos are not supported, but they only specify 1 gig.  So could it be that my 4 gig nano is not supported by a fully stable port?  Could this explain why Rockbox occasionally goes haywire on my ipod nano.

i searched the forums and did not find any info on this, any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks

[GodEater]

All models of the 1st Gen Nano work exactly the same way with Rockbox - they're no fundamental difference between them, only the amount of storage they have available.

In your case, I'd be very tempted to run a chkdsk against the Nano the next time you have it plugged into a PC.

[AlexP]

Also, could you point me to anywhere it specifies the 1GB nano (note that 1G means first generation, not 1 gigabyte of storage) as it shouldn't and needs changing.

[perceptionist]

All models of the 1st Gen Nano work exactly the same way with Rockbox - they're no fundamental difference between them, only the amount of storage they have available.

In your case, I'd be very tempted to run a chkdsk against the Nano the next time you have it plugged into a PC.

I just ran a chkdsk with no issues.  I bought this new in 2005 and the only issue I have ever had with it on the original Apple firmware was that auto shut off would stop working and it would stay on till the battery was dead if left unchecked.  If hard reset did not fix it, usually mounting & unmounting it in Anapod on my PC would solve the problem.  This happens maybe twice a year.

Also, could you point me to anywhere it specifies the 1GB nano (note that 1G means first generation, not 1 gigabyte of storage) as it shouldn't and needs changing.

Alex, 

I just went back to look and it appears I was seeing things, "Must lay off the insanity peppers"

Thanks that eliminates that worry, so that brings me to another question...  Does it make any difference which version of the ipod firmware I am running?  I don't believe I have updated it since I bought it.  The current firmware version says: "1.x Series"  and the driver version says "1.0.0".

In any event I plan to update to the most current version (Apple FW) sometime tomorrow evening to eliminate that as a possible cause for my Rockbox issues.

[torne]

It shouldn't make any difference which version of the original firmware is installed, but you can upgrade it if you want; note that this will erase the Rockbox bootloader (but not the actual build) and you will thus need to reinstall the bootloader afterward.