Sony NWZ-E370

[pamaury]

Hi,
thank you for your support
I have never witness this setting reset when booting back to the OF, I will check it out. It is possible that the OF simply wipes out some of the file, but then why did it not wipe out rockbox ?
I admit I never tried timestretch so I'll dig into the code to see how it works. Ideally I should write the manual for this player but i never found the courage to do it

[kofaz]

OK, I tried this several more times, and now I'm even more confused.  Perhaps it's just me and my player?

First, I backed up what was new on the player since installing Rockbox.  Then I boot into OF, it took a very very long time to "creating library". Then I used the radio.  OF works fine.  Then I went into OF standby mode, then hit the reset button on back of player.  When I booted into Rockbox, all settings were default settings.  Cfg, theme, wps, and bookmark files were gone.  A folder in my music directory was also gone.  In this folder were all the playlists I had made using the player, I also created the folder using the player.  Another folder, containing a bunch of text files, was still on player.  This folder was created with a computer, and the files were transferred to the player. 

I was curious if it was OF or Rockbox deleting files.  So as a quick test I copied the backed up folder of playlists to device and booted into OF.  Then connected to a computer to see if it was still there.  Hmmm...I was surprised that even though I was in OF, the player was displaying rockbox usb screen...?  The folder was still there.  Once disconnected I was instantly back in Rockbox, and folder remained.

So now I'm guessing that only the files created on the player are getting deleted, not files transferred to it.  I transferred all the backed up files to player, boot into OF, then back into Rockbox...everything is still there, and player is just like it was before all these tests.

For one final test, I created a few new bookmarks, boot into OF, then into Rockbox.  I was assuming that everything would be there except the bookmarks I just created...But it was all gone again?!

A few more observations:
-There are now many new files on root of player.  They're named 137918_cache through 137935_cache.  When opened as text, they display garbled nonsense.
-The firmware.sb file is not on root of player.  Not sure if it ever was since after installing rockbox.
-I looked in my rockbox fonts folder.  I'd recently added all the fonts from the fonts pack, and "played" them all, to see what they looked like.  After playing them, a .gc file was created for each font.  The fonts were all still there.  But the font.gc files were not.  Again, the .gc files were created by the player, and disappeared.  Whereas the fonts were transferred to it, and stayed.

I think I'll just stay out of the OF.  Luckily, even if one accidentally long presses the back/home button, OF won't boot up until after a longpress on the hold button to unlock.

[mxyzptlk]

I recently picked up a NWZ-E384 to replace my poor, dead Sansa Clip Zip, and had some real difficulty getting it Rockboxed. It's not an option on the utility, and there were some issues with the bootloader firmware provided at the beginning of this thread.

However, after visiting the IRC, I got some stellar assistance from Saint, who patiently listened to me trying to explain how nothing changed after putting the bootloader in the root directory, and then compiled a new bootloader and everything.

And it worked.

Saint will be in touch with the right folk about what was done to get it to work, and I can post anything I've found with it here. I still have muscle-memory from years and years of Sansa Clip use, and am finding that not all the keys work quite the same. Take the game plugin solitaire; in order to get it to deal new cards, need to hold the Option and then Up (it's the upper-left Back button on the Sansa).

(EDIT: After completing a game of solitaire, when the cards bounce all over, it locked up the entire device. Had to press the reset button on the back in order to restart the device.)

It seems like it could be a handy little device, and I may look at adapting the Cleanscreen theme for it.

[mxyzptlk]

Something else I noticed that's another difference from the Sansa Clip Zip: Can't seem to browse the settings or anything else while playing a file.

In the Sansa, to browse the other options in Rockbox during play, you click the Home button (upper-left). With that you can browse other files, themes, plugins, etc.

In the Walkman, the button to get to the files, settings, plugins, and other options is the Play/Pause button, which also stops play. After over a decade of Clips, I'm probably a little too used to hitting the Walkman's Home/Back button to get to those options, because it's in the same location as the Clip's Home button -- but that does nothing. Would using the Home/Back button on the Walkman make more sense? Or would there be a way to get to those same options through the Context Menu? Because the Context Menu can be reached by holding down the Option button for a moment.

(And if you're still looking for lab rats to test builds, I'm in.)

[kofaz]

I use an nwz-385.  While an mp3 is playing in the wps pressing the home/back button takes me to the file browser, pressing it again takes me to the main menu.  I have no trouble browsing files or settings.

I had no trouble installing.  There is a different bootloader for 37x models and 38x models.  Download the rockbox firmware/bootloader, rename it firmware.sb, put it in the root folder.  Perhaps your problems are from the bootloader saint built for you, keys not remapped?

[kofaz]

In addition to my nwz-e385, I put it on someone else's nwz-e384.  Both work just fine.

Also, there is one other theme available for our screen size at the themes page-
http://themes.rockbox.org/index.php?themeid=2054
Too bad there's no way to rotate the screen.  Because there are many 160x128 themes, but just the one 128x160.

[mxyzptlk]

I use an nwz-385.  While an mp3 is playing in the wps pressing the home/back button takes me to the file browser, pressing it again takes me to the main menu.  I have no trouble browsing files or settings.

I had no trouble installing.  There is a different bootloader for 37x models and 38x models.  Download the rockbox firmware/bootloader, rename it firmware.sb, put it in the root folder.  Perhaps your problems are from the bootloader saint built for you?

I might just be having the "keys not always acting right" problem. Earlier today the home/back button worked for the first time. But after it came out of screen blank, it didn't work again, and pressing play/pause wouldn't even pause the file that was playing.

And sometimes if I pushed and hold the option button until that Context Menu appears and then press the option button again, it would take me out to other areas home/back does, but other times it just takes me back to the wps screen.

As for bootloader, do you mean the bootloader from the second post of this thread? Giving that a try now.

[kofaz]

Yes, I used the 380 bootloader from second post in thread, stored on dropbox.

I read the irc logs, and your issues reminded me of some wierdness I had on both installs (384 & 385).  After ejecting/unmounting player and unplugging, there was a sony graphic saying do not discconnect.  But it was already disconnected.  Nothing happened, both seemed frozen...was worried I bricked them.  But after poking the reset button, they boot up and rockbox was there.

As far as the buttons not working, that rarely happens to me.  Although I do notice that when player is cold (outside in winter) the play button stops working, and once the back/home button too.

All in all, I'd say rockbox is very stable and dependable on my player, too bad the radio doesn't work. I got mine in May.  The 384 I put it on was purchased in December.  I put rockbox on both in december.  Perhaps, like Saint said on IRC, yours may have a newer original firmware that was incompatible with pmaury's bootloader (he made over two years ago)?  On the root of both of these players is a file called deviceinfo.txt. they both say :
comp.1.00.0000
prod.1.00.0000
I'm guessing that was the sony firmware version?

Good to know someone else is using these players.  They're probably the only players still being made that have a usable rockbox port.

[mxyzptlk]

kofaz, you're right, this device I have seems to be a bit different. In my DeviceInfo.txt, I have

COMP.1.00.0100
PROD.1.00.0100

So yeah, looks like there's been an update.

I re-installed the bootloader from the second post, and home/back is working more often now, but not consistently. But it didn't really work at all before, so that's an improvement. Aside from that little inconsistency, everything else is working fairly well, although I had that one hard lockup after finishing a game of solitaire (from the plugins).

If there are any more updates to this device's firmware, I'd be happy to test them.

[[Saint]]

Observational bias.

The bootloader has absolutely zero bearing on the buttons under Rockbox, or, anything in Rockbox at all, for that matter.


[Saint]

[mxyzptlk]

Observational bias.

The bootloader has absolutely zero bearing on the buttons under Rockbox, or, anything in Rockbox at all, for that matter.


[Saint]

So, since according to my DeviceInfo.txt I have different, updated version, I'm guessing this must be an issue with the version of Rockbox that was whipped up for the device a couple years ago.

[saratoga]

Observational bias.

The bootloader has absolutely zero bearing on the buttons under Rockbox, or, anything in Rockbox at all, for that matter.


[Saint]

So, since according to my DeviceInfo.txt I have different, updated version, I'm guessing this must be an issue with the version of Rockbox that was whipped up for the device a couple years ago.

The wiki links to the current version.  If not that, which build of rockbox did you use? 

[mxyzptlk]

The wiki links to the current version.  If not that, which build of rockbox did you use?

Yep, I'm currently using the rockbox from the wiki. The only real issue I'm having is that home/back button almost never works. Re-installed the .rockbox today, and it worked at first after I disconnected. But whenever the screen blanks, the home/back button ceases to do much of anything. However, it's random; about 10% of the time, maybe ever three or four hours, the home/back button will work, but only until the screen blanks again.

[pamaury]

Hi all,
I'm the dev of the port. Unfortunately I don't have the device anymore (I can't find it, I must have lost it ) so it's hard for me to test, I will try to buy one. Some thoughts:

• There are clearly two versions of the software: 1.0.0 and 1.0.1
• It is possible that the update process failed because the image I posted on the wiki was produced with an older version of my patch tool, I will update it
• For the buttons: I will reply to this post later today to describe a procedure that will help me troubleshoot this, would be great if you can do it and report the results.

[mxyzptlk]

Hi all,
I'm the dev of the port. Unfortunately I don't have the device anymore (I can't find it, I must have lost it ) so it's hard for me to test, I will try to buy one. Some thoughts:

• There are clearly two versions of the software: 1.0.0 and 1.0.1
• It is possible that the update process failed because the image I posted on the wiki was produced with an older version of my patch tool, I will update it
• For the buttons: I will reply to this post later today to describe a procedure that will help me troubleshoot this, would be great if you can do it and report the results.

Thanks -- I hope you find your device.

The one thing I've noticed with the home/back issue is that it almost seems to be linked to how warm the device is. (Think something like this was mentioned earlier in the thread.) Where I'm at, we're currently having a winter cold snap, so if I'm outside, sometimes even play/pause doesn't work at first. I don't often keep the device in my hip pocket, and home/back usually never works. However, if it has been in my hip pocket (where it's warmer). then home/back is far more likely to work. Strange.

Also, since re-installing the .rockbox, I haven't had the lock-up with the solitaire plugin I had before.

Since I'm the one with the different version of the software, I'm willing to test things out.