Playing Music?

[FreeBlues]

Seems simple enough, but the manual doesn't seem to cover this basic topic.

Check section 3.3.4.

[Llorean]

On the daily builds page, the last item should be "Fonts", right after the Source Archive

As for TagCache, once it's initialized you need to shut down and reboot your player. Then, hold "Menu" to pop up the quick menu, and tap Play a few times to cycle the "File View" at the bottom of the screen to "ID3 Database"

[FreeBlues]

Thanks LLorean, but still no happiness.

Doing what you said, when I select artist, track, album, whatever I get a quick little popup that says tag cache is not ready.  Have I not initialized?

Fonts are on the daily build page, but not labeled.  Anyway, I downloaded them and extracted them to my .rockbox folder on the player.  When I try to change the display a small icon comes on in the upper right corner of my screen (disc?) but nothing else happens.

Are there other threads or FAQ's I can go to resolve some of these basic questions?

[Llorean]

What Daily Build page are you looking at? They're labelled here: http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml

The fonts are all in /.rockbox/fonts on your player right? A variety of .fnt files? Make sure it didn't put them in /.rockbox/.rockbox/fonts

And yes, it sounds like your TagCache still isn't initialized.

[Febs]

Once again, I managed to accidentally edit the original post instead of quoting it in a reply.  Sorry about that.

[FreeBlues]

Thanks again.

I'm getting a little frustrated!

Let's start with that tiny little icon in the upper right of the screen.  When visible, does that mean the disc is spinning and that the player is working on a task?  If the icon is still visible does that mean an action hasn't completed?

The reaon I ask, when I initialize tag cache, the icon lights up for a short period then goes off.  I then turn my player off and back on.

Next, following Febs suggestion, I set my file view to show ID3 tags.  Here the icon stayed lit for about 30 minutes until I gave up and turned the player off, then back on.

Now, when I turn the player back on I can see a list of all the artists, but when I select one and press the "play" button, the "nothing to resume" message pops up.

Still no music.

Is it usually this difficult to get Rockbox up and working?

[Llorean]

Well, most people read the manual first. This covers a lot of the questions you've asked. For example, the Play button resumes playback. To enter folders you use the center (select) button.

[Febs]

Now, when I turn the player back on I can see a list of all the artists, but when I select one and press the "play" button, the "nothing to resume" message pops up.

Press select, not play.  Play will resume playback if there is anything to resume.  If music is playing, it will take you to the While Playing Screen.

Is it usually this difficult to get Rockbox up and working?

Nope!

[FreeBlues]

Well Llorean, I take your point.   I did, however, read the manual.  Perhaps I'm just stupid.

You didn't answer my question about that icon in the upper right of the screen.  Does it mean anything?

I just now used iTunes to remove all the songs from my player and then loaded 5 tunes from one album back on.  Trying to keep it simple.  When I turn the player on I can (eventually) get to a list that shows the name of the album.  Selecting that album and pressing the center wheel does nothing.

Does this problem I'm having have anythig to do with my use of ALAC files?

For the record, I want this to work.

[Llorean]

The icon in the upper right corner represents disc activity, yes.

It is *possible* that your user of ALAC is the problem, but I believe the problems regarding interpreting ALAC metadata had been resolved. Really though, I'm not sure if you ever finished initializing your tagcache.

What I'd like you to do is have iTunes remove all the music. Then, delete all the .tcd files in your /.rockbox/ folder.

Then, unplug your iPod, shut it down, turn it on, and immediately turn on the Hold switch to clear settings. Once Rockbox has cleared it's settings, sync over a few songs in iTunes, and try once more to initialize tagcache, following the procedure of initializing, waiting for the icon to vanish and stay gone, shutting down, booting up, and then switching to ID3 view.

[FreeBlues]

As instructed, itunes removed all music and Explorer removed all .tcd files in my .rockbox folder.

Hoding the (play)Hold button immediately after turning the player back on opens the player in Apple firmware.  I know this isn't supposed to happen, but I tried it twice and it happened both times.  Both times I was able to re-boot to Rockbox with the Select/Menu buttons.

Is it possible my player is whacked and not behaving normally?

Anyway, on a batttery that was rapidly dying I moved a couple songs using iTunes.  Because I was in the Apple firmware I checked to see if the songs played, they did.

Re-booting to Rockbox I initialized tag cache.  This time the disc icon showed for a couple minutes then went out.

Unfortunately, at this point I had to plug the player into the wall to get some juice.

I'm inclined to wait for it to charge back up and try the entire thing again.  Drivin' me nuts!

[Llorean]

I never said to hold the "Play" button. I said to flip the Hold switch. Two very different things.

Regardless, once your iPod has some charge, boot into Rockbox and see if it has worked. But please, in the future, if you don't understand one of my instructions, or think that I've made a typo, please simply double check rather than making an assumption as to what I meant and doing it wrong.

[FreeBlues]

Aye!!! - you did say the Hold switch and I wondered about it.  I even looked it up in the manual, section 3.1.2 where it says Hold Play and somehow interpreted that as another way of referring to the Play/Pause button.  Okay, maybe I am stupid! 

[Febs]

Section 3.1.2 is referring to shutting the player down, so it really has nothing to do with what Llorean is asking you to do as the player starts.   Regardles, as used in Section 3.1.2, "hold play" means to press and hold the play button.

[FreeBlues]

I'm almost afraid to post again, but I'm going to hope that maybe some of my questions and issues will help others down the line.

I started over with a mostly fresh battery, following Llorean's instructions (remove music, delete .tcd files,reset Rockbox, etc.) then initialized the tag cache.  It took slightly more than 40 minutes for the disc icon to disappear - not the 5 to 10 minutes reported in the manual.  (I moved over just 4 songs if that is relevant.)

I turned the player off then back on, then told the player to use id3 view.  40 minutes later when I turned the lights out for bed the icon was still displayed.  This morning the battery had died again, so I have no idea if it ever finished its process.

Just for grins, after getting a bit of juice in the battery, I tried to play some music.  Well, at least one song does play!  Thing is though, there appears to be only one song on the player.

It seems unlikely, but did the id3 view not complete?  Is that why there is only one song recognized by Rockbox?  I've once again started the id3 view process.  It's been 25 minutes so far and the disc light is still on.

Any idea why these processes are taking so long?  Is there something else I'm missing here?