Recent Posts
91
Iriver - Installation/Removal/Flashing / Re: iHP 120 on Rockbox 4.0 / how to permanently get flash and ROLO right
« Last post by JoeMS2025 on April 21, 2025, 09:56:49 AM »Sorry, but this is becoming even more obscure. I downloaded the bootloader file from here: https://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/iriver/8.0/bootloader-h120.iriver
Then put it in the root directory of the iRiver's drive which didn't work. Found out by looking up in the source code of iriver_flash that the file needs to be renamed to bootloader.iriver in order to be usable by iriver-flash. Eventually, that way, I finally got the flashing process to succeed but there is still no difference in the boot menu. I can still select RAM or ROM and am still getting the outdated versions as shown in my initial post, no sign of version 4.0.
Then looked closer at the manual about writing a bootloader and tried fwpatcher.exe (downloaded from https://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/iriver) to manually create a pached ihp_120.hex, and put that in the root folder. Still no change.
The manual at https://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-iriverh100/rockbox-buildch2.html#x4-60002 claims that the device needs to be restarted with the NAVI key being pushed down to get to a point where the new .hex file is consumed and flashed. As I'm getting a boot menu first that offers me two versions (both outdated), I think the process needs to be a little different here. But even if I select RAM or ROM and then keep the NAVI key down, it only leads to the Files context menu. Same as when the system started regularly, the Files item is the one initially selected, and doing a long NAVI push on it brings up the context menu. Unlike the manual says, there is no Firmware upgrade option anywhere. I think that is because the versions that I can start from the boot menu are vastly outdated, but they are the only ones I can initially start.
I also tried to use ROLO to load Rockbox 4.0 from one of the older systems (Files -> navigate to rockbox.iriver and pushing NAVI to load) and then keeping NAVI pushed down while v4.0 starts up, only to see the same effect and no Firmware update menu anywhere.
I'm now wondering if what I'm trying to achieve here (basically followig the manual) isn't the same as selecting the bootloader.iriver file and opening it with iriver_flash, like I did in the first place? Which told me it succeeded, however with no effect?
Eventually I also tried to use Rockbox Utility again to do a complete re-install, including the bootloader, and still no luck. Even wiped the entire .rockbox root directory and any .bin/.hex files from the drive first. Despite the process completing everything, the boot behavior remains unchanged.
I would even go back to the iRiver original firmware if I could to do a clean restart of everything but that's not possible without the original HDD which I have lost. The Rockbox Utility Uninstall function just doesn't appear to do anything.
My impression is that my iHP-120 is different from the standard in places that the regular toolchain cannot touch. No idea how that happened, and how to improve it. Eventually I know the way to go to v4.0 on each startup manually. It's a nuisance but possible to do. Maybe we better let it settle at that. Thanks for your help!
Then put it in the root directory of the iRiver's drive which didn't work. Found out by looking up in the source code of iriver_flash that the file needs to be renamed to bootloader.iriver in order to be usable by iriver-flash. Eventually, that way, I finally got the flashing process to succeed but there is still no difference in the boot menu. I can still select RAM or ROM and am still getting the outdated versions as shown in my initial post, no sign of version 4.0.
Then looked closer at the manual about writing a bootloader and tried fwpatcher.exe (downloaded from https://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/iriver) to manually create a pached ihp_120.hex, and put that in the root folder. Still no change.
The manual at https://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-iriverh100/rockbox-buildch2.html#x4-60002 claims that the device needs to be restarted with the NAVI key being pushed down to get to a point where the new .hex file is consumed and flashed. As I'm getting a boot menu first that offers me two versions (both outdated), I think the process needs to be a little different here. But even if I select RAM or ROM and then keep the NAVI key down, it only leads to the Files context menu. Same as when the system started regularly, the Files item is the one initially selected, and doing a long NAVI push on it brings up the context menu. Unlike the manual says, there is no Firmware upgrade option anywhere. I think that is because the versions that I can start from the boot menu are vastly outdated, but they are the only ones I can initially start.
I also tried to use ROLO to load Rockbox 4.0 from one of the older systems (Files -> navigate to rockbox.iriver and pushing NAVI to load) and then keeping NAVI pushed down while v4.0 starts up, only to see the same effect and no Firmware update menu anywhere.
I'm now wondering if what I'm trying to achieve here (basically followig the manual) isn't the same as selecting the bootloader.iriver file and opening it with iriver_flash, like I did in the first place? Which told me it succeeded, however with no effect?
Eventually I also tried to use Rockbox Utility again to do a complete re-install, including the bootloader, and still no luck. Even wiped the entire .rockbox root directory and any .bin/.hex files from the drive first. Despite the process completing everything, the boot behavior remains unchanged.
I would even go back to the iRiver original firmware if I could to do a clean restart of everything but that's not possible without the original HDD which I have lost. The Rockbox Utility Uninstall function just doesn't appear to do anything.
My impression is that my iHP-120 is different from the standard in places that the regular toolchain cannot touch. No idea how that happened, and how to improve it. Eventually I know the way to go to v4.0 on each startup manually. It's a nuisance but possible to do. Maybe we better let it settle at that. Thanks for your help!
92
Iriver - Installation/Removal/Flashing / Re: iHP 120 on Rockbox 4.0 / how to permanently get flash and ROLO right
« Last post by speachy on April 21, 2025, 07:44:02 AM »
- select rockbox.iriver (version 4.0) from the files to have ROLO load the latest image
- after restarting, select the same file again and hold the NAVI button longer to show the context menu, then select 'open with...' and select iriver_flash
...You need to flash the file 'rombox.iriver'
Aborting: incompatible bootloader
The actual bootloader is installed separately, downloadable from https://download.rockbox.org/bootloader. Follow the instructions in the manual to install it, or use the rockbox utility. It was last updated a few years ago (after 3.15).
93
Iriver - Installation/Removal/Flashing / Re: iHP 120 on Rockbox 4.0 / how to permanently get flash and ROLO right
« Last post by JoeMS2025 on April 21, 2025, 04:08:58 AM »@speachy: thanks, this looks like what I need. However, I can't get it to work. This is what I do:
This is what I get (same as in the picture, sorry about the cracked screen, I took yesterday's photos from the 'naked' device and then re-assembled it):
The same is happening when I select rombox.iriver, and there are no other .iriver files around, and nothing else that looks like it might contain an actual bootloader.
Sorry about the dumb questions but until now I was rather on the user side, not the developer side...
- select ROM image in the bootloader preface screen
- select rockbox.iriver (version 4.0) from the files to have ROLO load the latest image
- after restarting, select the same file again and hold the NAVI button longer to show the context menu, then select 'open with...' and select iriver_flash
This is what I get (same as in the picture, sorry about the cracked screen, I took yesterday's photos from the 'naked' device and then re-assembled it):
Code: [Select]
Flash: V=00bf, P=2782
SST39VF160
Size: 2048 KB
Aborting: incompatible bootloaderThe same is happening when I select rombox.iriver, and there are no other .iriver files around, and nothing else that looks like it might contain an actual bootloader.
Sorry about the dumb questions but until now I was rather on the user side, not the developer side...
94
Rockbox Utility / Re: http error ssl handshake failed
« Last post by dconrad on April 20, 2025, 09:38:35 PM »Re: compiling rbutil - maybe this page: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/RockboxUtilityDevelopment.html will be of some use? I just used it yesterday to compile rbutil on macos. I think some information there is a little outdated, but it seems to still be mostly correct.
95
Hardware / Re: iPod Nano 1: Mountpoint does not exist
« Last post by FerociousRB on April 20, 2025, 09:10:45 PM »Holy cats! Thank you so much, this worked! Did have issues with power on boot so I uninstalled RB4 and bootloader, restored with Apple Devices app and did RB4 again. Working just like before. 
iPod nano (5th generation) and earlier
Put the Hold switch firmly in the unlocked position. Then press and hold the Menu and Center (or Select) buttons for 8 seconds, or until you see the Apple logo.
iPod nano (5th generation) and earlier
Put the Hold switch firmly in the unlocked position. Then press and hold the Menu and Center (or Select) buttons for 8 seconds, or until you see the Apple logo.
96
Rockbox Utility / Re: http error ssl handshake failed
« Last post by ccaudle on April 20, 2025, 05:16:07 PM »why not build rbutil as well?
Are there any instructions for building rbutil? I downloaded RockboxUtility-v1.5.1-src.tar.bz2 from the web site, but there is no config file to run the usual config; make sequence. There is no README.txt nor INSTALL.txt file to provide instructions for building.
There is a Makefile in the tools directory, but when I run make it generates an error right away:
"make: *** No rule to make target 'scramble.c', needed by 'scramble.o'. Stop."
There is a CMakeLists.txt file in the utils directory, but I am not familiar with cmake, just running cmake in that directory only caused cmake to print the standard help output.
I finally found the INSTALL file in utils/rbutilqt, but the instructions there say "run cmake in the utils/ folder" which as I previously pointed out does not seem to do anything useful:
$ cmake
Usage
cmake [options] <path-to-source>
cmake [options] <path-to-existing-build>
cmake [options] -S <path-to-source> -B <path-to-build>
Specify a source directory to (re-)generate a build system for it in the
current working directory. Specify an existing build directory to
re-generate its build system.
Run 'cmake --help' for more information.
So at least for me the answer to "why not build rbutil as well?" is because the instructions are difficult to find, and when found are either inaccurate or outdated for current distributions and don't result in a working binary.
[Edit] After looking at the INSTALL file in git I realized that cmake probably does not support configuring directly in the source tree, so I made a build directory in utils and ran cmake ../ from there.
After installing a few Qt devel packages I did not have it ran most of the way through, then generated an error at the end because CMakeLists.txt has as the last line "add_subdirectory(themeeditor)" but there is no themeeditor subdirectory.
I commented out that line and ran cmake again, at which point it stopped with the error that it could not find lib/skin_parser/skin_buffer.c.
That would be because in the distributed tar file the only directory in lib is rbcodec, there is no skin_parser directory.
97
New Ports / Re: Echo R1 - new STM32-based open hardware player
« Last post by Oktan on April 20, 2025, 04:06:44 PM »One idea for the case (maybe you've already thought of this): Might be cool to have the battery model number engraved on the battery door so in 5 years when it wears out you don't need to go "okay what was the battery model again???"I mean, as long as you have the old battery, that shouldn't be a problem. But from what I understand there won't be a battery door, you charge it when it's in the device, and you have to open the device to change it out. The easiest way to integrate this on the device would be to have it printed on the circuit board.
98
Audio Playback, Database and Playlists / Re: Some songs play a small section from the middle right at the end
« Last post by speachy on April 20, 2025, 04:06:21 PM »I suspected that it was something similar to this too, but I've fully deleted and reinitialized the database several times and it unfortunately never fixed the issue. I'm on the most recent update of rockbox too (after fully wiping and reinstalling), so I'm not really sure what to do at this point
The database is purely an alternative to directly browsing the filesystem. It has nothing to do with playback; the two do not (intentionally) interact in any way.
During playback all metadata is read directly from the individual files as part of the whole "we need to fully parse it to get to the audio data anyway" process.
99
Audio Playback, Database and Playlists / Re: Some songs play a small section from the middle right at the end
« Last post by BEnh3N on April 20, 2025, 04:00:30 PM »I suspected that it was something similar to this too, but I've fully deleted and reinitialized the database several times and it unfortunately never fixed the issue. I'm on the most recent update of rockbox too (after fully wiping and reinstalling), so I'm not really sure what to do at this point
100
Iriver - Installation/Removal/Flashing / Re: iHP 120 on Rockbox 4.0 / how to permanently get flash and ROLO right
« Last post by speachy on April 20, 2025, 03:50:10 PM »While it is possible to use the latest rockbox.iriver file from the .rockbox root directory on the device to start Rockbox 4.0, I cannot get it flashed to the EEPROM. There just doesn't seem to be a way.
There's the 'iriver_flash' plugin that's supposed to be for that purpose.
....Flash at your own risk, of course.