Ipod nano 4g 1st generation conversion to fat32

[npeters8]

Ipod nano 4g 1st generation conversion to fat32

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

any linux gurus want to dumb this down a little? am I doing this stuff in the terminal?
I already downloaded mbr-nano4gb.bin Im just not sure what to do with it.

running ubuntu 10.10 if that helps at all.
just trying to turn this ipod into a "winipod" so that I can install rockbox.

no access to a windows or mac comp available, stuck with linux

[Chronon]

Yes, the fixed width font indicates commands to be entered in the terminal.

[npeters8]

Okay, Im gonna have to give a buddy a call to help me with that, Im pretty terminal illiterate lol

[torne]

If you can't understand the instructions then the best thing to do is to borrow the use of a Windows computer and use iTunes to do it. It's one button press, takes two minutes, so you shouldn't find it too hard to find a Windows PC somewhere you can use for that long. We generally recommend this unless users are really sure what they're doing; using iTunes guarantees the disk is set up correctly whereas our instructions are infrequently tested and any mistakes might lead to problems later.

[npeters8]

I appreciate the advice, will do that before I go and *%$# it all to hell. I think my friend at work has a windows comp with itunes. reason I didnt want to use itunes is because I tried to restore a old ipod mini and it just looped over and over saying that itunes sees an ipod that is corrupted and I just hit restore repeat repeat repeat, really turned me off from the whole scene. but yeah ill have my friend do that for me and we'll see how that goes.

[torne]

If it didn't restore then the storage was probably failing/failed and thus iTunes couldn't recover it successfully; the iTunes restore process is very reliable.

[npeters8]

good to know, and I kind of thought the same thing, that ipod had been to hell and back and was in pretty rough shape. ill pass this nano to my buddy at work this evening and see how it goes. So if I understand correctly its because this ipod WAS used with a mac, thats why rockbox couldnt install?

[Chronon]

Correct.  Rockbox doesn't have support for HFS+.

[npeters8]

sorry that took so long, been very very busy.

okay I had my friend restore my ipod using windows and itunes, still no success.

I pluged in the ipod, formated to FAT (using linux, ubuntu 10.10) and tried to use the rockbox utility, says failed to add boot loader, restarted computer, reinstalled rockbox utility...  any ideas?

[Chronon]

If it doesn't work after being restored by iTunes then it's likely that the hardware is damaged.  There are some tests you can run in Apple's diagnostic mode that can tell you whether the HD has failed (maybe worth replacing).

[[Saint]]

If the "HD" (so to speak, it's flash memory) is gone, then it's pretty much a paperweight

I have replaced the NAND in a Nano 2nd gen, once, and I wouldn't even recommend trying to be honest. Not unless you just happen to have a spare compatible flash chip sitting around for it, and are handy with a soldering iron.

It's not worth the cost of buying a new flash chip, and potentially butchering the soldering job on the microscopic pitch.

It certainly isn't classed as "user serviceable", the only reason I even tried was because I has three broken Nanos sitting around that I wanted to try kludg into one, I had nothing to lose if it didn't work.

The only replacement option available is buying the entire mainboard from somewhere like iFixit, but it's almost certainly going to be cheaper to buy a complete unit second-hand.


[St.]

[Chronon]

Gah!  I was thinking it was an HD model when I wrote that.  Sorry, I'm a bit under the weather and apparently didn't pay attention.

[robin0800]

I pluged in the ipod, formated to FAT (using linux, ubuntu 10.10)

Just to be quite sure, if you really did do this after it had been restored by I tunes you may have broken it again.
As far as know once restored by itunes you don't need to do anything else.

[torne]

Yes; iTunes deals with everything including formatting the data partition, so if you format it again after that you may well have broken something. Restore it again.

[Chronon]

I understood this bit

okay I had my friend restore my ipod using windows and itunes, still no success.

to mean that an attempt was made to install Rockbox at this point (before the reformatting business) but it's certainly not very clear what was done.