Rephrasing the Sansa Clip + Manual to Improve Clarity

[sansaclipplus]

I recently encountered an issue with the manual install of RockBox on the Sansa Clip +. I didn't select the appropriate drive during the automatic install. You can check out my post to read more about it. It occurs to me that I wouldn't have encountered this if the Sansa Clip + manual was clearer. I'm referring to this url: http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclip/rockbox-buildch2.html. More specifically, I'm referring to the following section regarding the automatic install:

"When first starting Rockbox Utility run “Autodetect”, found in the configuration dialog (File → Configure). Autodetection can detect most player types. If autodetection fails or is unable to detect the mountpoint, make sure to enter the correct values. The mountpoint indicates the location of the player in your filesystem. On Windows, this is the drive letter the player gets assigned, on other systems this is a path in the filesystem."

The sentence that I bolded for effect led me to believe that autodetection either works successfully or that it is unable to detect the mountpoint. Those are the two possibilities outlined by Rockbox regarding the Rockbox Utility configuration. I encountered a third possibility during my install using the Windows Vista OS. The device was autodetected so in my mind the configuration was successful. The mountpoint, however, remained C when in retrospect it should have been F.

Therefore, I suggest an amendment to the phrasing above to reflect this third possibility. Perhaps instead of the sentence in bold, you could say: "If autodetection fails to accurately reflect both the correct device type and mountpoint, make sure to enter the correct values."

Thanks for looking over this...

[[Saint]]

One thing we certainly could guard against is the fact that under no circumstances is the install location ever going to be C:\

I'm not sure the manual text is incorrect, as it does cover the case you describe (autodetect indeed did fail). It could be clearer, though. What really should be happening is a pop-up or so, like:

"Are you sure its C:\? This almost certainly is wrong...are you really, *really* sure?"

I guess the thing that should be made clear is that the user should double check even if autodetect succeeds, as it may still be wrong.


[Saint]

[AlexP]

Patches welcome, to the manual or Rockbox Utility.

[bluebrother]

One thing we certainly could guard against is the fact that under no circumstances is the install location ever going to be C:\

Detection in Rockbox Utility development versions has been reworked and will now skip all drives that don't contain a usable filesystem -- i.e. FAT. Since Windows uses NTFS these days this should be good enough. If anyone tries the development version (link in my signature) feel free to send me feedback about it.

Patches welcome, to the manual or Rockbox Utility.

Testers as well