Ipod classic question, not directly about rockbox...

[Frankenpod]

Not really a rockbox question, but presumably people here know something about the internals of ipods.

I am completely confused as to where ipod classics store their (original) firmware. Is it on flash memory on the logic board, or on a hidden partition on the internal storage - or a mixture of both?

Just had an ipod logic board seem to change from reporting 2.0.5 firmware to 2.0.4 when I paired it with storage that used to be in a 2.0.4 ipod.  Wondering if it's somehow ended up with 2.0.4 firmware with 2.0.5 hardware.  Or if I've just gotten confused.

I mean, it still seems to work, but it's rockboxed so I don't use the original firmware anyway.  Could maybe find out by restoring it and seeing which firmware iTunes installs, but that would mean resyncing it again, which takes an insanely long time.

[rockbox_dev123]

The FW is stored on the disk to the best of my knowledge. I believe only the boot loader is stored on internal flash. However, someone more knowledgeable may correct me.

EDIT: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodPatcher.html#Overview_of_the_ipod_firmware_partition

[Frankenpod]

Thanks, that's very helpful.  That would explain why the firmware version now seems to be out-of-step with the logic board.

  Is it important for the ipod firmware to be consistent with the particular logic board, do you (or anyone) know?  i.e. would I be best advised to go ahead and restore this ipod with iTunes, in order to get it back to 2.0.5, which I _think_ is what the ipod the board was from was using.  As I understand it late iPod Classics with 2.0.5 firmware have slightly different hardware to those with 2.0.4, but the difference in the two isn't major, and I only use Rockbox anyway.

Just reluctant to go through all that if it's not important, as it takes such a long time.
 
Alternatively, does anyone know if there any way to restore the correct firmware version without completely wiping the ipod and starting again?

[rockbox_dev123]

As I understand it late iPod Classics with 2.0.5 firmware have slightly different hardware to those with 2.0.4

https://ipodwiki.com/wiki/Firmware shows that versions 1.1.2 through to 2.0.5 are compatible with "7th generation" iPods. My reading of that table is that the "6th generation" iPods cannot use a firmware version greater than 1.1.2. Because you are already > 1.1.2 then you don't have to worry.

Alternatively, does anyone know if there any way to restore the correct firmware version without completely wiping the ipod and starting again?

Restore the iPod using a different disk to the desired firmware. Take an image of the 15MB firmware partition before the FAT32 partition which contains the prepared firmware and then overwrite the same partition on the disk you're using with this one.

I only use Rockbox anyway.

Don't waste your time then