Should I put RockBox on my friends Classic 160GB iPod?

[cormie]

Guys I'm wondering if you can help. I'm a long time admirer of RockBox. It's been a long time since I've logged in here but my friend has a 160gb Classic iPod (6 gen?) and I was hoping I'd be able to put Rockbox on it, but it says it's unusable, but I thought I remembered reading that it was actually usable, it just didn't have every feature ironed out?

All she needs it for is music. I don't want to put it on for her if it's going to be unstable and buggy, but if she can get to play her music care free and not have any hiccups, then I'd put it on for her. She's been using the Apple system on it of course since she's owned it, which is years and uses it all the time. I want to make it better, not worse so wouldn't want to put something buggy on that will frustrate her and introduce problems she's never had

Is this a possibility? I'm guessing development has pretty much ceased and there will never likely be a proper release for the Classic, so just wondering is there any hope of achieving the above at the current stage?


Also a side question: She has about 60gb of music already on it and wants to keep this. I don't have iTunes and I don't want iTunes near my computer, if RockBox is indeed an option, is there any way to get all the music off and put it on  so that RockBox will recognise it? I'll also be putting some music on which is all in mp3 format so want both her current music and the music I put on to be available easily

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[[Saint]]

Please don't spam your question across multiple threads. Its completely unnecessary.

I'm not sure what makes you draw the conclusion that development for the iPod 6G has ceased. This is not the case at all.
The "unusable" moniker the port has is due to it not meeting a specific set of requirements, at this stage it relies on a third party bootloader (emCORE), so that alone is enough to keep it marked as "unusable", due to there being no officially sanctioned means of installation.

The port itself is in active development and quite stable indeed.

As for the question of should you install this on your friends iPod, I would say that's entirely up to her, is it not? If she is happy with the way things are at the moment with her device, go with it. If you do decide to install emCORE and Rockbox, you should be aware that it _will_ format the storage partition and _completely_ remove the original Apple firmware. You will lose any and all media on the device during installation, so backups of your media are essential. You will also lose the ability to boot the original firmware, no dual-boot support is currently offered for this device.

There is a Rockbox bootloader based off emCORE in the works behind the scenes, but I couldn't give any estimates as to if or when it will be ready for end users. Should this eventuate, along with Rockbox Utility integration and a manual (the manual for this device would be very trivial as it is almost identical to the iPod Video in terms of features), it could be promoted to "unstable" (which doesn't imply instability, again its a definition for a specific set of requirements).


[Saint]

[cormie]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Apologies, I first asked in one thread and then decided to expand on my full requirements in a new thread.

My friend isn't entirely happy with the the ipod and reliance of iTunes to get music on it so if it was just a case of a quick and easy install of emCORE and then it replaces the apple software with a functional, working and mostly bug free operating system of RockBox then this might be her best option. She wouldn't be any way technically inclined, I barely am myself, so having any kind of issues and requiring frequent updates for bug fixes would mean she'd be better off just sticking to Apple.

If however I could set it up for her and give it back to her safe in the knowledge it will work and not present any issues then she'd be happy with this option.

I'm the one who is suggesting the idea, she doesn't know anything about Rockbox, but I just want an easier way for her to get more music with a plug and play, file tree view device   Excuse my ignorance, but is emcore still going to provide the Rockbox software, or is it something completely different to rockbox?

[__builtin]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Apologies, I first asked in one thread and then decided to expand on my full requirements in a new thread.

Well, the "modify" button's there for a reason.

I'm the one who is suggesting the idea, she doesn't know anything about Rockbox, but I just want an easier way for her to get more music with a plug and play, file tree view device   Excuse my ignorance, but is emcore still going to provide the Rockbox software, or is it something completely different to rockbox?

emCORE is the bootloader that loads Rockbox. When you first install it, it will give you  bare-bones Rockbox install. After that, you'll need to connect it to your computer and extract a full build (which one is up to you, though the latest dev build is usually the best choice).

[cormie]

Thanks again for the reply. My friends iPhone is also beginning to die, the battery is lasting hardly any time and the storage isn't enough for her either.

I'm thinking to suggest android to her and at the same time do Rockbox on the ipod and just have everything drag and drop for her.

Is Rockbox reversible? I know it's mentioned above it wipes everything, but can the Apple OS be put back on the ipod if she doesn't like it or it proves to be too buggy?

I just searched youtube for "rockbox ipod classic" and saw a video where it looks pretty nice.

would anyone know how I can get all her music off her ipod and save it as mp3 so I can put it back on when rockbox is installed?