ipodlinux+rockbox install

[that_asian_guy]

if i install ipodlinux on my ipod, it says that all of my music will be erased, but does it just erase music, or all the files on your ipod. then if it does, il have to reinstall rockbox and the bootlloader.

[Llorean]

It depends on how you install iPodLinux. If you have enough free space on your drive, it's possible to non-destructively resize the FAT32 partition and then create the ext2 one. But, if it says it'll erase all music, it probably means "all files" and they're probably giving you the destructive install instructions (destructive simply to you files) which are definitely easier (and probably better to give, because it's easy enough to screw up the other way and wipe everything, but at least this way you're prepared for it.)

[that_asian_guy]

what if i use the windows xp installer?

[Llorean]

Well, if they say it'll wipe your music to use their installer, I would assume they really mean "It'll reformat your disk"

[that_asian_guy]

so, basically, if i want ipodlinux, i should back up all my files

[Llorean]

Yes, backup no matter what.

Even a manual installation is risky. I ended up wiping all the files on my Nano the first time I tried, though now that I'm a little more familiar I might be able to do it safely.

[that_asian_guy]

umm.. maybe i'll wait until ipodlinux has better battery management (worse then rockbox) and doom works, and more stuff is compatible.

[travishayes89]

yeah, i got ipl on my pod and its only good for like three or four things neither of them being music.

[JeffElkins]

Yes, backup no matter what.

Even a manual installation is risky. I ended up wiping all the files on my Nano the first time I tried, though now that I'm a little more familiar I might be able to do it safely.

Could you lay out the steps for a non destructive install of iPL when RB is installed?

I'm extremely comfortable with Linux, fdisk,etc. I wiped my boot partition today and installed iPL, didn't really prefer it to RB, so rebuilt boot for apple firmware+RB. Even so, I'd like to have all three installed, but am confused as to how to construct the boot loader.

[theli]

it is simple with rockbox's bootloader ...
just create linux partition as in ipl's installation docs, then put your kernel named linux.bin on the rockbox partition and hold play/pause while booting

[Llorean]

Yep. Our bootloader will load Linux if you hold down Play/Pause, so a non destructive installation of linux is "Resize your Fat32 partition to something smaller, create an ext2 or ext3 partition in the remaining space, then put the ipodlinux root file system there, copy over the newest podzilla or podzilla2 overwriting the one in the ext2 partition, then put the kernel binary in the fat32 root named linux.bin."

Of course it's only nondestructive if you can safely resize your fat32 partition, but that bit should be obviously potentially destructive.

[JeffElkins]

Here's what I'm confused about:

Code: [Select]

make_fw -g photo -o my_sw.bin -l rock.bin 2006-04-29-kernel.bin -i apple_os.bin loader.bin
Building the boot partition. I'd like RB to be default.

[JeffElkins]

Waiiit a minute...duh, I think I get it.

Too much beer last night, not enough coffee this am

So, I don't have to screw around with loader2 at all then?  OK!

[Llorean]

Loader2 is unnecessary unless you feel you *need* a menu. You can access all three OSes with our Loader. Ours boots faster too. The advantage of Loader2 is you get a boot menu, so if you're more interested in ease of use, Loader2 is for you. If you've got the timing thing down (and honestly it's not that hard) the speed and efficiency of ours is probably the way you want to go.

[JeffElkins]

I don't need a menu

I'm almost there. I'm getting a kernel panic when I boot iPL though. I'm being told that no init is found and that I need to pass an init=option to the kernel.