Ipod 2nd Generation with bad FireWire Port, Manual Installation Options ?

[Alan Tochterman]

Good Morning:

If anyone out there can assist me it would be greatly appreciated, in advance.

I have a 2nd generation iPod. The exterior is in very good condition and the unit plays well. My only issue with it that my firewire connection will not sync with my computer, a Mac Pro 5,1. It does charge, however. I am in the process of attempting to make a CF flash mod using a 1st gen iPod Mini. I have two computers, a PC that has both iTunes and iPod Wizzard and only uses USB. I also have the Mac Pro with FireWire but since my 2nd gen has a bad port, it is unavailable to me.

I followed the instructions from a Reddit post about using an iPod Mini as a surrogate. I formatted the CF card to FAT32 on the PC.  I then used iPod Wizzard to manually install the firmware for the 2nd Gen.  I then transferred files to the Mini, then swapped CF card to the 2nd It works well up to a point where I have over 4,000 entries. After that, when I transfer the CF Card to the 2nd generation it will not boot up at all. I am using a KingSpec 128gb drive.

Without firewire connectivity I cant use the automated installer for my ipod with either computer. And firewire is incompatible with CF cards also.

I was wondering if I could do a manual install ?

I have already formatted the drive for FAT32 on the PC with the Mini.

From my reading, it would not be that difficult to transfer the firmware manually with the CF card plugged into the mini. There seems to be an installer software for both Mac and PC so I have that part covered.  And if I am correct, the firmware resides on the drive only. 

My question is more directly related to the bootloader. If I were to install it on the CF card when inserted to the surrogate drive, will it attempt to modify the surrogate or does it write directly to the disk? If the latter, then I could install Rockbox, manually transfer my files, and in the future, when I wanted to add music, I would not need the surrogate Mini. I could just put the CF card in a card reader and be done.

Again, if the bootloader loads into the iPod's ram, I can't do it. All that I would do is possibly mess up my Mini for future use.

Again, any help would be appreciated

[bluebrother]

I don't think you need the mini at all.

First, on all those Ipods everything is on disk. Rockbox doesn't modify anything else (technically there is code in flash rom, but Rockbox doesn't touch that.)

Second, you should be able to simply use a card reader for the CF card, put the correct filesystem and files on it, then insert into the Ipod. I did this several times for a Mini 2G:
First, get the correct MBR (that's important, see here: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodConversionToFAT32.html). From my experience you can use one for the correct Ipod with a different drive size (I did so when preparing a CF card for the Mini: used the largest one for the Mini 2G, wrote it to disk as per instructions on that page, then use fdisk to delete the data partition and recreate it to span the real disk size. Make sure to keep that "empty" partition intact).
Then restore the Ipod OS (see https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodManualRestore.html). Then use ipodpatcher to install the Rockbox bootloader on that now-Ipod drive, manually install Rockbox, transfer your data. Worked fine for me back then, there should be a good chance for this to work with your Ipod 2G too.

That being said I'm not sure if the install is your actual problem -- since you mentioned 4000 files, I assume you organized them in folders? The FAT filesystem has some limitations, so if you have too big folders you might run into problems.

[Alan Tochterman]

Thank you so much

It Worked Perfectly !

I forgot that one can write directly to the drive without having to have the drive in Rockbox.

The best part is I don't need the mini anymore.  When I ordered it, I was looking for the most inexpensive one out there.  When it arrived, it was pink and in excellent condition.  I have decided to order another drive and format it as a regular iPod, then give it to my wife.  It is small and feminine.  Just like her.

One other added bonus, is that I can use 320kbps files instead of 256.  Although I don't know if it makes that big of a difference.

Again Thank You.

[Alan Tochterman]

P. S.

I am using the Flatery Font.  Looks just like the original