FiiO M3K Install (Native port)

[amachronic]

Official FiiO M3K Native installation instructions
The installation instructions and bootloader download links can now be found on the Rockbox wiki at https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/JztoolInstall.

As always if you encounter any issues, spot mistakes, or have suggestions for improvements don't hesitate to point them out.

Update April 06 2022
A new version of the bootloader has been released, bf3e67204c-20220402, which includes a number of dual-boot related bugfixes and adds support for multiboot. Usage instructions for multiboot can also be found on the wiki, at https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/MultibootBootloader.

Update March 27, 2022
The M3K install instructions have now moved to the wiki: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/JztoolInstall

There are no changes to the installation process.

I'll remove the instructions from this post in favor of the wiki at some point, but I'm leaving them up here for a little while since they're not actually out of date.

Update June 14, 2021
Dual boot support was added! You can now boot the original FiiO firmware alongside Rockbox, useful if you want to use the USB DAC feature or the microphone for recording. If you've already installed an earlier version of the Rockbox bootloader, you can update to the latest version using the recovery menu, accessed by holding Vol+ while booting. Just copy bootloader.m3k to the root of your SD card, and pick "Install/update bootloader" from the recovery menu.

To access the FiiO firmware, hold the Play button while booting. You can access the FiiO recovery mode by holding Play and Vol+ while booting, in case you need to update the FiiO firmware. Be warned that updating with the FiiO recovery mode will erase the Rockbox bootloader and you will need to install it again using jztool.

Installing the bootloader
Download the Rockbox bootloader bootloader.m3k and the installation utility jztool for your platform. You will need to refer to the bootloader file later on the command line so it's recommended to put both files in the same folder.

Next, connect the M3K in USB boot mode: plug in one end of the USB cable, and then plug in the other end while holding down the Volume Down button. If you did it correctly then the button light will turn on and the LCD will remain off. Since the USB boot mode is very low level, you might not see any indication on your computer that a USB device was plugged in.

Windows users should now follow the USB driver installation instructions below, before running jztool.

To load the Rockbox bootloader, open a terminal / command prompt in the folder where you downloaded jztool and run the command below. If you have put bootloader.m3k in different folder, you will have to adjust the path accordingly.

Windows:

Code: [Select]

jztool.exe fiiom3k load bootloader.m3k

Linux and Mac: (Linux users will need to run jztool as root, eg. with sudo or su -c)

Code: [Select]

./jztool fiiom3k load bootloader.m3k

You should see the Rockbox recovery menu appear on your M3K. If this doesn't happen, check the terminal window for errors. Should you encounter repeated problems loading the bootloader please post here so we can be aware of the problem.

It is highly recommended that you take a backup of the original firmware's bootloader using the "Backup bootloader" option before installing, just in case anything goes wrong or you need to restore the old bootloader for any reason. The backup file fiiom3k-boot.bin will be placed on the root of your SD card, make sure to copy it to your computer and keep it safe somewhere. If you need to restore the bootloader, copy the backup file to your SD card and repeat the steps above to re-load the Rockbox bootloader. Then pick "Restore bootloader" from the menu.

To install the Rockbox bootloader, copy bootloader.m3k to the root of a FAT32-formatted SD card and plug it into your M3K, and choose "Install/update bootloader" from the recovery menu. Once the bootloader is installed, you can access the recovery menu by holding Volume Up while powering on the M3K.

Assuming everything went smoothly, you need to install Rockbox itself to complete the installation.

Installing Rockbox
Once the bootloader is installed, you will need to extract a copy of Rockbox to your SD card.

1. Download a development build of Rockbox from https://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml.
2. Use your player or another SD card reader to mount the drive on your computer. If you use the M3K, select "USB mode" from the bootloader menu. It's necessary to select USB mode before plugging the cable in.
3. Take the .zip file that you downloaded and use the “Extract all” command of your unzip program to extract the files onto your player.

Note: The entire contents of the .zip file should be extracted directly to the root of your player’s drive. Do not try to create a separate directory on your player for the Rockbox files! The .zip file already contains the internal structure that Rockbox needs.

If the contents of the .zip file are extracted correctly, you will have a directory called .rockbox, which contains all the files needed by Rockbox, in the main directory of your player’s drive.

You can perform the above steps again whenever you want to update Rockbox to the latest development build, to take advantage of bugfixes and new features.

Windows USB driver installation
jztool uses a library called libusb to access the M3K in its USB boot mode, and on Windows you need to enable the WinUSB driver for the M3K to make it accessible by libusb. WinUSB is a Microsoft driver and comes bundled with Windows, but unfortunately it's not easy to enable it directly, as it's intended to be "installed" by 3rd party applications as needed.

The recommended way to install the driver is using Zadig, a tool dedicated to installing various USB drivers on Windows for libusb-based applications (download link is at the end of the post). Zadig will require administrator access on the machine you're using. Also note that Zadig is not supported or maintained by the Rockbox developers, so we generally cannot provide support for any Zadig-specific issues you might encounter.

After connecting the M3K to your computer in USB boot mode, open Zadig and select the M3K from the drop down menu. Note the name may end up displaying strangely (just an "X" and a hollow square), the important thing is that the USB IDs are the correct ones (A108 1000).



Ensure you select the WinUSB driver and click "Install Driver". This can take a couple of minutes to complete. Assuming the driver installs successfully you can continue with the installation instructions above.

Note: if WinUSB does not work for you, you can try installing the libusbk driver instead. It might also be necessary to unplug the M3K, power it off, and reconnect it in USB boot mode to ensure the new driver is used.

Links

• Current version (April 06 2022): bf3e67204c-20220402
• bootloader.m3k
• jztool for Windows (32/64 bit)
• jztool for Mac (x86-64)
• jztool for Linux (x86-64, statically linked)
• Zadig homepage and download (external link)

[GSV3MiaC]

After I used the recovery tool to save a copy of the original boot loader, Windows (10, 64 bit) decided my micro SD card was corrupted and insisted on checking it for errors (which, being a large card full of music, took an age). I guess the 'backup the original boot loader' option may write to the card in some fashion windows does not approve of (at least the card did not provoke the error before I did that step).

Needless to say after the check 'no errors were found'. Gates Lives!!

Apart from that the install was a success, although I struggled to find a set of font files (the link takes me to a page where the FIIO M3K doesn't have any download items), nor is there yet any documentation (beyond how to install), but I am sure I can figure out what the various buttons  and touchscreens do. The wiki is desperately dated - go look at 'hardware you can buy which supports RB' and marvel over how none of it actually exists in the wild anymore (heck some of the makers have vanished too).

[amachronic]

Happy you got it working! From the sounds of it you may have already found it, but the font pack can be downloaded from the Extras page (it's also a link on the sidebar). Though I can't find where that bit of info is actually documented. I'm not sure what other link you're referring to?

I'm not sure why the filesystem is being interpreted as "corrupted". After a little investigation none of the likely culprits that came to mind seem like they should be the issue, so let me know if it reoccurs in normal usage.

[GSV3MiaC]

Yes, it is working.

.. the extras page says "A link to the latest font-pack can be found here.", but 'here' takes me to where there is a list of ancient players, none of which are the FIIO.

The alleged file corruption has not shown up again (but I haven't backed up the original boot loader using the recovery system again, so I doubt it would). I did have one more wrinkle - the new SD card showed up exfat formatted (being 128GB .. well 116GB in real money), and of course no way would RB mount that file system, and Win10 declines to reformat it as FAT32 (although it will sit for hours doing it before telling you it failed, if you force Powershell to try). Downloaded a suitable utility, reformatted the card, and was back in business (RB loaded fine). The original card I was using WAS fat32, stolen from my phone .. I guess I could have tried a reformat with the phone, or a camera or something .. can't reformat with the FIIO as I can't boot RB (the OF would presumably have done it, but that would involve re-undoing the boot loader etc). Not sure if RB has a format facility anyway, never needed it.

[bluebrother]

.. the extras page says "A link to the latest font-pack can be found here.", but 'here' takes me to where there is a list of ancient players, none of which are the FIIO.

If you closely look at the links for the fonts pack you'll notice it's the same file for all players ... So take your pick.

(In other words, the fonts pack is independent of the actual player model)

[GSV3MiaC]

In which case why doesn't the 'here' just take me to the font pack download, instead of a page with a selection of identical font packs downloads masquerading as separate for different player? 

As it happens I already downloaded the X3 version, which works fine, but I still think it could be less confusing! Actually I'm not sure why the font pack isn't just rolled into the release .zip, since practically everyone/every theme is going to need some of it. We are talking GByte (going on TB) memory players these days, not 'gosh I don't have 64k for some extra fonts, what can I leave out'.

[Njones]

I'm Following the install instructions. I have the bootloader and the jztool.exe in a folder on my desktop. Used zadig to install driver. I'm soon to be 70 years and not very computer savy. How do I put a terminal/command prompt in that folder?

[Njones]

Figured that out but got message device not found

[dconrad]

Figured that out but got message device not found

Oh whoops, sorry I typed out a response but I thought you said "command not found". Sorry!

[Njones]

it says username\Desktop\Rockbox M3K install>cd Desktop
The System cannot find the path specified

[Njones]

The files in my folder on the desktop are:
bootloader m3k
jztool.exe

[Njones]

Tried again Got to the recovery menu. back up was succesful. went to install or update got error: -1102

[Njones]

Am I just supposed to start Rockbock after doing backup?

[amachronic]

Tried again Got to the recovery menu. back up was succesful. went to install or update got error: -1102

That error is indicating that bootloader.m3k cannot be opened. (Guess I should've added proper error messages...)

You probably just forgot to copy bootloader.m3k to your SD card:

To install the Rockbox bootloader, copy bootloader.m3k to the root of a FAT32-formatted SD card and plug it into your M3K, and choose "Install/update bootloader" from the recovery menu.

[Njones]

Tried starting over. when trying to install zadig could not find device. could not get to recovery screen. The good news is original firmware 1.4.5 still works!