Fiio M3k

[Njones]

Do you load the zip file or do you unzip it first? Also do you delete the previous rockbox file first?

[Njones]

Nevermind updated rockbox through tools. The problem that no matter which theme I use it only fills about 1/4 of the screen.

[speachy]

It seems I need to repeat myself:

The port code has landed in the main rockbox repo, and builds are now being generated by the build farm.

Again, this can *not* be deployed on top of an existing xVortex port.  Please do not attempt to do so.

[Njones]

Does that mean Delete the previous version and then install this latest one or is this one not ready yet. Please Bear with me , I'm a 69 year old non tech savvy music lover who has used rockbox on several sansa players and the agptek Rocker.

[vitt13]

1. FiiO's buildroot is based on Ingenic's Halley2 buildroot BSP. The Halley2 BSP kernel, u-boot, buildroot and other misc files can be obtained from their FTP server. Please try to mirror it if you can, ingenic has a habit of silently removing files from their FTP server: ftp://198.13.102.99/ingenic_support/X1000_X1000E_X1500/01_SW/00_Board-Level_Consolidation_Version/Kernel3.10.14_X1000_New_Version/08_ingenic-linux-kernel3.10.14-x1000-v9.0-20191212/ingenic-linux-kernel3.10.14-x1000-v9.0-20191212.tar.bz2

Removed... But I found the tutorial and the link on that archive http://www.ingenic.com.cn/?newsshow/tp/228/id/775.html. It's on Baidu net disk.

[alexs]

The tool I used for getting shell access / injecting files into the rootfs. Base64 ZIP. Instructions inside.

Best I can tell, this trick should also work on M3 Pro, I have one ordered and I'll try it once it arrives.
But it's 2020 so that might be next week or next year.

Also I got my test device into the USB boot mode and it works great! but I cannot boot the system like that yet.

[alexs]

Removed... But I found the tutorial and the link on that archive http://www.ingenic.com.cn/?newsshow/tp/228/id/775.html. It's on Baidu net disk.

The kernel itself is here: https://github.com/FiiOapp/FiiO_Kernel_M3K
They did not even bother renaminig halley2 files, so arch/mips/xburst/soc-x1000/chip-x1000/halley2 is in fact M3K.
The docs for the SoC are also easily available on Github.

Getting the rest of the SDK from Baidu would be nice though.

[bahus]

Base64 ZIP. Instructions inside.

Well.. That's doesn't look as simple instruction for windows user... Just in case attaching decoded txt directly to zip (just remove .txt extension from downloaded file)..

[vitt13]

The tool I used for getting shell access / injecting files into the rootfs. ... Also I got my test device into the USB boot mode and it works great! but I cannot boot the system like that yet.

Nice! It would be great to steal raw content (with dd tool?) as is all the partitions to be able re-flash (be able recover) with the factory tool "USB cloner v2.5.0". We have only bootloader, kernel image and system ubi image extracted from M3K.fw.
I mean the tool I found here under "burning tools" http://www.ingenic.com.cn/en/?product/id/9/lm/4.html
Just found that Chinese page has the newest tools http://www.ingenic.com.cn/?product/id/9/lm/3.html
Someone have to find out what config we need to use with M3K.

[alexs]

Well.. That's doesn't look as simple instruction for windows user... Just in case attaching decoded txt directly to zip (just remove .txt extension from downloaded file)..

The only idea of a simple solution for Windows (or Mac) users I can come up with right now is to provide them with a pre-modified M3K.fw. So somebody would build Rockbox, prepare the files and put them up for download. All that on a Linux host of course. The Window users would need to transfer a couple of files onto an SD card and boot the device with the button pressed.

[alexs]

We have only bootloader, kernel image and system ubi image extracted from M3K.fw.

There are two more partitions there: recovery, which we also have, and userdata which doesn't containt anything important.
Keep in mind rootfs and userdata are both ubi partitions, so dd'ing them is not the best idea.

Someone have to find out what config we need to use with M3K.

One of the -sfc-nand- options. There's no NOR flash there and this device is not configured to boot from MMC.

That tool will only work with the device in bootrom / USB boot mode. There are two ways to get there: wiping the bootloader (which is what I did on my device) or soldering one of the bootconfig resistors (which should be possible but requires opening the case). Unmodified device running stock firmware will not respond to those requests.

You don't need their Windows tool either. There's a Linux package called ingenic-boot which has the tools to do all of that I think. It's for earlier Ingenic chips but it did not take much for me to make it work with x1000. It's also very simple on the Linux side, because fundamentally all it does is uploading raw code into device's RAM and letting it run there.

[bahus]

So somebody would build Rockbox

Well this part is already done - daily fiio m3k builds available here: https://build.rockbox.org/data/rockbox-fiiom3k.zip

[vitt13]

alexs, Thank you for clarifying.

You don't need their Windows tool either.

Just a note: they also provide Linux tool.

[vitt13]

alexs, I thought it should have a trick action to get fastboot mode and then use "Clone tool".
I found there is a set of action for Ingenic XBurst M200S based smart watch https://forum.xda-developers.com/smartwatch/other-smartwatches/amazfit-boot-fastboot-directly-t3546829 and how recovery it with Ingenic Clone tool https://forum.xda-developers.com/smartwatch/amazfit/tutorial-ingenic-cloner-tool-aamzfit-t3908237
but as you say it's not possible for M3K...

[speachy]

Well this part is already done - daily fiio m3k builds available here: https://build.rockbox.org/data/rockbox-fiiom3k.zip

That's actually updated on every commit; there are no "daily" build snapshots kept for the M3K.

But while there is a rockbox build, the necessary platform integration (ie the rockbox loader application, system scripts, etc) remains to be done.  And there's a lot of work to be done on that front -- While the loader is written, it has seen no meaningful testing, and worse yet, the m3k's underlying Linux kernel and base OS is a real hacky mess, with stuff we take for granted on every other platform simply not working. As an example of this, custom userspace code needs to be written to *shut down* the player because the kernel doesn't have the correct stuff hooked up to be able to use the standard Linux APIs that have been around for literally decades.