Trouble installing on my new 30GB iPod

[Leasara]

First off, I was very excited to find Rockbox, since I believe it's like the system I've been using for the last 10 years (browse to a song, play the song, browse to a folder, play the folder (and it's sub folders?)) I'm not very fond of the way iTunes wants to organize everything it's own way.  So I want to say thanks much to the Roxbox community in advance, for giving me a much preferable alternative.

I'm assuming that my problems installing are that I actually have a 5.5 Gen iPod, though I'm not sure how to verify this.  The software version is shown as 1.2.1, if that helps.  As near as I can see, 5.5 Gen iPods aren't supported, but there are patches that have showed some success on the 30 GB versions?  If I have a 5.5 Gen iPod, I won't mind waiting for it to become officialy supported, but I would greatly prefer to start running Rockbox asap.  Any help you folks would be willing to provide would be greatly appreciated.

I've been following the instructions at http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodInstallationFromMacOSX, starting by formatting the iPod on my friend's windows machine.  She likes iTunes, so that works out fine, and I've just been restoreing after each unsuccessfull install.  Once I have a properly formatted iPod, I do the following:

download a fresh copy of diskdump , bootloader-video.bin, and ipod_fw, and stick them in a rockbox folder on the desktop.

Set terminal to the Rockbox folder and run the chmod +x ipod_fw diskdump command

Find and unmount the iPod, as per the linked instructions page

Run the command ./diskdump -r /dev/disk2 bootpartition.bin which looks like this:

Code: [Select]

Harpo:~/Desktop/rockbox Amalthea$ ./diskdump -r /dev/disk2 bootpartition.bin
diskdump v0.1 - (C) Dave Chapman 2005
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] Reading partition table...
Part    Type   Start Sector    End Sector    Size (MB)
   0    0x00             63         48194          23
   1    0x0b          48195      14651279        7130
[INFO] Seeking to sector 63
[WARN] Seek error - reading 63 sectors instead
[INFO] Writing 48132 sectors to output file
[INFO] Done.
Harpo:~/Desktop/rockbox Amalthea$ 

and leaves me with a 23.5MB bootpartition.bin file

run ./ipod_fw -o apple_os.bin -e 0 bootpartition.bin which leaves me with a 108kb apple_os.bin file

run ./ipod_fw -o apple_sw_5g_rcsc.bin -e 1 bootpartition.bin which leaves me with a 4kb apple_sw_5g_rcsc.bin file

run ./ipod_fw -g video -o rockboot.bin -i apple_os.bin bootloader-video.bin which leaves me with a 176 KB rockboot.bin file

run ./diskdump -w /dev/disk2 rockboot.bin which looks like this:

Code: [Select]

Harpo:~/Desktop/rockbox Amalthea$ ./diskdump -w /dev/disk2 rockboot.bin
diskdump v0.1 - (C) Dave Chapman 2005
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

[INFO] Reading partition table...
Part    Type   Start Sector    End Sector    Size (MB)
   0    0x00             63         48194          23
   1    0x0b          48195      14651279        7130
[INFO] Seeking to sector 63
[WARN] Seek error - reading 63 sectors instead
[INFO] Writing input file to device
[INFO] Wrote 177212 bytes.
Harpo:~/Desktop/rockbox Amalthea$ 

"Eject" the iPod and watch it reboot.

Upon rebooting, it tells me to connect to my computer and use iTunes to restore it.  iTunes tells me that it sees an iPod in restore mode and will restore my iPod to it's factory defaults.  At this point, I go to my friend's computer, restore the iPod, and start over again with the same results every time.

If it's simply not supported at this time, then I hope the information I've been able to provide helps.  However, if I can get this working, I'd be very grateful.

[Llorean]

It sounds like yours is a 5.5G iPod. The good news is we will soon have new installation instructions (for all iPods currently supported, including 5.5G) that are easier to follow. It will make use of a new version of the ipodpatcher tool that should be usable on all platforms.

[Leasara]

Excelent!  I guess I'll make due with iTunes in the meantime and check back every now and then.

Thanks for the quick reply as well

Just so I know how often to check back, would 'soon' be more relative to days, weeks, or months?

[Llorean]

Soon would be "If you can compile, we'd welcome your help ironing out any bugs it has on OSX, but at the moment it *should* be working for Linux and Windows NT5 (2k, XP) base PCs."

[Leasara]

Coolbeans!  I'd love to help, but I'm a complete novice in the codeing/compileing area.  Still, if you can point me in a direction (what software might I need, where can I find documentation on that software) and you wouldn't mind a (totaly) fresh pair of eyes, I'd be happy to take a swing.

I'm getting better on OS X, but I grew up on DOS and Windows. I've also flirted with Linux a bit, but never actually run it.  What I know about scripting or codeing or whatever has come from ancient HTML (back when ewb pages proudly displayed that they were made with Notepad) and playing around with ACTool scripts to run a buffbot and a tinkerbot in the MMORPG Asheron's Call.  I wouldn't say I'm unexpierianced, just that I've scratched the surface.

[Llorean]

I honestly don't know if the program even compiles yet on OSX, so I really can't help you much there. In theory you should be able to just get the /ipodpatcher/ folder in the /tools/ folder of the Rockbox source archive (or downloaded from CVS) and run "make" in it, but that's all stuff done in the terminal, and I'm not sure whether OSX comes with the compilers and make or if those have to be installed.

I'm sorry I can't offer much in this case, as I'm really not sound on a Mac.

[Leasara]

No worries, I'll see what I can figure out from my end then.

[Llorean]

Or, apparently I'm slightly stupid, the person who wrote the program has a Mac, and is confirming that everything is still working well (it was apparently last time he checked, but there have been some changes since).

In which case, if we're lucky, we'll see some pre-compiled versions, and new, much simpler installation instructions in the next few days (if not sooner)

There are a few more plans for making the tool even easier to use, and I imagine precompiled versions may wait for those changes (not sure how long they'll take) but the current tool will probably suit your need if you can compile it.

[Leasara]

In that case, since I suppose I'm more likely to make a lucky mistake rather than contribute to real progress, I'll just wait for an official release

If you're in need of a technical writer, however, I would be more than happy to offer my limited expertise in the field.