iPod Classic 160GB can't get EmCore to install/run

[rpki]

Hi,
I followed these steps. I also resetted my iPod using iTunes.
http://www.freemyipod.org/wiki/EmCORE_Installation/iPodClassic/UMSboot
I see the UMSBoot volume.
I copied installer-ipodclassic-r859-20120102.ubi to that folder.
Eject the drive.
Nothing.
Tried unplugging, replugging, rebooting, also copying bootstrap-ipodclassic-r859-20120102.dfu to the folder. Nothing. I never see the EmCORE menu.
Can someone help me?

[rpki]

Ha I fixed it.
Installed XP in a virtual machine under VMware and the steps worked fine. Now running Rockbox.

[RockBoxNewB]

Hi there,

I hope anyone reads this although the thread is already some months old. My problem is just SO similar to rpki's, it wouldn't make sense to open a new thread.
So this is the thing: I bought myself a used iPod Classic 160 GB (6G) because I needed the storage space.
I have been using Rockbox on several devices already, so it was clear I would get Rockbox for the iPod as well. However... I didn't get it to work.

Just like rpki did, I followed the instructions for EMCore, up to copying installer-ipodclassic-r859-20120102.ubi to the UMSBoot volume. I get an error message stating that there is some "problem with the attached device", I eject it... and nothing happens. The iPod stays stuck, just showing the Apple logo and a black column on the left side. Only "resetting" the iPod causes something to happen: the original iPod firmware is being started.
Rpki solved the problem using XP in a virtual machine. The problem is: my operating system IS already Windows XP. I guess trying the virtual machine wouldn't make much sense then?
@Rpki: Do you know whether you have an iPod Classic 6G or 7G? Might that make a difference?
I heard about earlier iPod Classic 6G models simply not being compatible because of their IDE hard disk (not a SATA one). Could that be the issue here? Is there any way for me to find out which HDD I have, except for opening the iPod?

I would be REALLY thankful if anyone could help here.

Best,

RBNB

[[Saint]]

Just like rpki did, I followed the instructions for EMCore, up to copying installer-ipodclassic-r859-20120102.ubi to the UMSBoot volume. I get an error message stating that there is some "problem with the attached device"

This, rather hilariously, actually means that (up until that point) everything went as intended.

It would actually be a problem if you *didn't* see this error.

I eject it... and nothing happens. The iPod stays stuck, just showing the Apple logo and a black column on the left side. Only "resetting" the iPod causes something to happen: the original iPod firmware is being started.

This points to the method you are using to eject the device.

If you are just pulling the cable, don't.
If you are using the "Safely remove" icon from the system tray, don't.

Eject from the device manager or My Computer (right click, eject), instead. There's a slight technical difference between eject and safe eject that makes the world of difference in this case.


[Saint]

[RockBoxNewB]

Thank you so much for pointing this out, [Saint]!
I had no idea what was actually meant by "ejecting" the device. What I always did was "safely remove" the device via the system tray icon.
Now I know what I'm going to try next, which is ejecting it via the Device Manager!

Thanks ever so much,
RBNB

[RockBoxNewB]

Hi again [Saint]!

That was really it...you really managed to find the cause of the problem! I ejected the device from the Explorer menu (as it is described in the EMCore installation...I cannot believe I didn't see that in the first place...), and tadaa! The EMCore Installer starts, asking me to continue. I go ahead and end up in the menu (on the iPod) where I can select Rockbox. It goes on, and the USB cable is finally shown on the screen.
In the EMCore installation, it says "follow the instructions on the screen". I don't know if that's supposed to happen, but my computer (Win XP) showed the USB tray icon popping up quite a lot of times...until finally a window pops up, asking me to install "EMCOre debugger" driver. I click yes....and it tells me the installation failed. I guess that is NOT supposed to happen.
I continued anyway, starting Rockbox utility. There, I cannot go anywhere. When I try to select the iPod, it tells me "Mounting point inaccessible" or something like that. The iPod also doesn't show up in the Explorer.
Do you (or somebody else) have ANY idead what I could do now?
If everything fails....can I actually get back to the original iPod firmware? Or are chances high that I wrecked it totally now?

Thanks in advance for any help,
RBNB

[RockBoxNewB]

Update:
I'm REALLY starting to notice that the installation of RockBox on an iPod Classic is a strong case of "the devil is in the detail".
I got at least a small step further, however I still cannot get it working. Maybe this is going to help anyway, as I noticed some things:
1) Obviously the "Emcore Debugger" thing is not important after all, or at least not the cause of my problems. 
2) The reason for all this trouble seems to be the "Apple Mobile Device" driver. It says in the EMcore wizard that the process has to be killed in task manager. Which I did. What I did NOT notice at first, is that this process is being started automatically every half a minute or so! So what I tried is this: Start the boot menu on my ipod, select Rockbox, and wait for all the error messages to disappear. Rockbox starts up (or what I guess to be the fallback image with tiny letters and no colors). Then I opened the task manager on my computer, killing the Apple Mobile Device process. THEN I connected the iPod again, also opening Rockbox utility on my computer.
NOW the mounting point is accepted. The furthest I got was the menu where I can select what I want installed with Rockbox (fonts, themes....). However, then, at the latest, the Apple Mobile Device driver would be started again, and before I could kill it, the installation process would mess up once again, complaining about the wrong mounting point.
My last idea was to prevent Apple Mobile Device from starting in the first place. I opened msconfig and removed the tick next to the process. After the required system restart, I tried everything again. It still didn't work, although the Apple Mobile Driver was not started. The "iPod Classic" would show up at mounting point "G:" for about 5 seconds, and then disappear again completely. Thus, I still could not go ahead with the installation of Rockbox.
I hope this could at least clear up the problem a little!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

RBNB

[RockBoxNewB]

Has no one got any idea? Maybe some similar experience?
At the moment my iPod lies around unused, because it's almost worthless for me without RockBox :-(

[[Saint]]

Since iTunes is now absolutely irrelevant - why not simply remove it entirely?

Though I'm willing to bet that simply uninstalling the device drivers will have a similar effect.


[Saint]

[RockBoxNewB]

Someone gave me the simple idea to check USB connectivity on a different machine, possibly without iTunes.
Luckily, I have a Windows 7 laptop in use, and there has never been any Apple software or any drivers of that kind on it.
So I connected the iPod to the laptop... and I was happy (at first), as it recognized the iPod and successfully installed the drivers. However, when I opened RB Utility to continue the installation...I received the same error as always. "Mounting point does not exist".
So either I forgot something really important during the installation of EMCore or the problem has to be the iPod itself. Otherwise I wouldn't get the same problem on 2 completely different computers, right? What about the rumor that some iPod Classics have an incompatible hard drive? Could that be it?

[[Saint]]

What about the rumor that some iPod Classics have an incompatible hard drive? Could that be it?

I have heard of no such thing, and simply put, it just doesn't make any sense at all.

Anyway...moving on.

Can you achieve a successful mount using the Rockbox fallback image embedded in emCORE?

emCORE main menu -> Tools -> Run Rockbox fallback image


[Saint]

[RockBoxNewB]

Okay, I hope that "rumor" is just false then. I found the source again... but it is in German, so I guess posting the link wouldn't help. It says that RockBox only works with SATA HDDs and controllers, and that early iPod Classics use IDE drives, which don't work. However, I'm not an expert in those matters, so I cannot judge that whether that could be true or not.

The Rockbox fallback image, let me think... isn't hat what is automatically started when I select RB from the EMCore bootloader? It gives me all the error messages stating "no .rockbox directory" and "starting Rockbox fallback image", so I guess that's what I've been doing all this time, or not? And mounting from there didn't work, as I described. As long as I can't get RB utility to work, there's nothing else I could try, or is there?

[gevaerts]

It says that RockBox only works with SATA HDDs and controllers, and that early iPod Classics use IDE drives, which don't work.

That's factually wrong. Early classics had CE-ATA drives, later one has IDE drives. None of them have SATA.

Rockbox works with both IDE and CE-ATA

[RockBoxNewB]

THAT's definitely good to know. Thanks for that info, [Saint].
Because then, I have no reason to stop trying to get RockBox working. There MUST be a reason to solve this problem if the technical side cannot be the cause.

[[Saint]]

RockBoxNewB,

Come and see us over at the freemyipod project's support channel so that I may supply you with an updated emCORE installer which includes a 'Disk Mode' emCORE application, so that we can get you up and running.


[Saint]