A bunch of questions about the 30gb iPod Rockbox

[Hoboman]

now i have read through the faq and the manual( most of it anyways) and i still have some unresolved issues with Rockbox on my 30gb ipod. any help will be appreciated  


1.)  how do i know if any updates have been made to the 30gb iPod Rockbox build?


2.) is there a way to add a "Shuffle Songs" button to the main menu like in the original apple firmware, i know i could turn shuffle on and then go to databse--> artists and play all songs but i am looking for a shortcut


3.) is there a way to somehow modify the database on my ipod to prevent some songs from being played while i am using Rockbox. recently i have bough some ipod games, so when i choose to play all the songs on my ipod, the .wavs from the games keep getting played  


4.) is it possible to change the brightness while while using the Rockbox firmware. if not, will it be possible in the future?


5.) is it possible to somehow make my iPod run faster? for example, when I try to play videos or play rockboy games through Rockbox it is LAGGY AS HELL.


6.) could i change the font or at least increase the font size in the Rockbox menu without changing it in the "now playing" screen (since this would screw up the layout of the themes )


7.) could constantly reseting my ipod, to change switch between firmwares, damage my iPod

[saratoga]

1.)  how do i know if any updates have been made to the 30gb iPod Rockbox build?

Theres changes several times a day.  They're listed here:

http://www.rockbox.org/since-4weeks.html

Or with less detail here:

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/MajorChanges

7.) could constantly reseting my ipod, to change switch between firmwares, damage my iPod

No.

[lights0ut]

1) check the Major changes page in the wiki
     also, you could just update to the current build every week to be sure

2)as far as I know, no, is it really that hard to go to database and then hold select to bring up the context menu, and select "insert shuffled" (this way you don't need to turn shuffle on first)

3) um

4)if you want to change the brightness either modify the source code with the correct patch, and compile yourself, or checkout the unsupported builds forum (my build has the brightness patch, see my sig for a link) I have no idea on if/when this patch will be considered for inclusion in SVN, as it may not be supported on all targets.

5) If you have information on how to make your iPod run faster I'm sure the devs would be glad to help you. Video support is in its very early stages, and will take time. As far as games go, they should play fine. Remember, the ipod has a ~80MHz processor which is used for everything, that is why video is slow. I've had some success playing a few episodes of South Park at ~300kbps  video and 128kbps audio resized to 220x176.

6) the multifonts patch allows different fonts for WPS and menu, but you either need to compile yourself, download an
unsupported build, and even then it's not as easy as simply selecting the fonts through the menu, you need to set them in a .cfg.

7) no

hope that helps

[Hoboman]

ah yes, that helps, thanks a lot 8-)

and about #3, you guys do know that you can buy games for iPod in the iTunes store right?
anyways, i bought a couple of iPod games such as Mini golf, Zum, Texas Hold'em, etc...
the sound files that come with those games still get listed in the Rockbox database ( there are about a hundred of them ), so when i choose to play all the songs on my iPod, the sound files from the iPod games get added in the mix.
it is no biggie i guess, i could just create a huge play list right and just play that right