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could Rockbox Bootloader load apple firmware faster?

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humanista:
Hello, sorry for my poor english, I hope that what I'm writing is understandable.

I want to turn my iPod into eBook reader and I don't want to use Rockbox Firmware because of short battery life issue. So my only option is Apple Firmware. But there's well known 1000 Notes 4 kb per each limit, so I have to connect my iPod to PC every time I want to load next part of my eBook.

To solve this problem, I modified rockbox bootloader a little. Now after every reset it search for next part of my eBook and loads it to Notes folder. The only thing that annoys me is the long time that Rockbox Bootloader needs to load Apple Firmware. The original Apple Bootloader makes it much faster. Is there a way to speed this up?

Thank You very much.

Llorean:
Actually, most of the time spent loading the Apple firmware is the Apple loader that runs before the Rockbox bootloader.

The trick is that the iPod normally doesn't shut down, it just sleeps (it's running, but in a very low power mode). This is why it seems to load so quickly, but if you just have the Apple software on your iPod, and hold Menu+Select to reboot, you'll notice it still takes a decent bit of time to start up.

If you remove the Apple software entirely, on the other hand, you'll notice that Rockbox can be loaded noticeable more quickly.

humanista:
In my case after reset (Menu+Select) Apple Bootloader loads Apple Firmware faster than Rockbox Bootloader. I'm pretty sure of it.

linuxstb:

--- Quote from: humanista on March 10, 2007, 03:33:33 PM ---In my case after reset (Menu+Select) Apple Bootloader loads Apple Firmware faster than Rockbox Bootloader. I'm pretty sure of it.

--- End quote ---

"pretty sure" ?  It's an easy thing to test for sure.

Llorean:
Yes, it will load it about two seconds faster.

Because when you Menu+Select with Rockbox installed, you get the Apple Bootloader, then the Rockbox Bootloader, then finally the Apple firmware. It is obvious that if both of them have to run, it will take longer than if only one of them has to run. It's also impossible to tell from that, it will never be possible for Apple+Rockbox to be less than Apple. The Rockbox bootloader cannot take a negative amount of time to run.

You'll notice I said most of the time is from the Apple bootloader, not all of it.

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