Rockbox Technical Forums

Rockbox General => Rockbox General Discussion => Topic started by: Scunky on October 03, 2007, 08:06:52 AM

Title: mac osx and rock box
Post by: Scunky on October 03, 2007, 08:06:52 AM

I have a 30g ipod 5th gen and a macbook pro I want to use my mac to install rock box. I have
downloaded the osx install utility and run the auto install option, but because my ipod is set up to
work on a mac (macpod) the software won't install on my ipod. it says I have change to winpod
can someone explain the point of having mac software if I cant use it????

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: LambdaCalculus on October 03, 2007, 08:08:30 AM

You can use the Mac software, and it works just fine. What it's telling you is that you have to reformat your iPod to use the FAT32 file system, which is what Rockbox requires. The HFS+ file system (which is what a Mac formatted iPod and Mac OS X make use of) is not supported.

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: GodEater on October 03, 2007, 08:09:10 AM

Once you've done this reformatting, your iPod will still work fine on your Mac.

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: Scunky on October 03, 2007, 08:15:24 AM

thanks for the quick response!

if I re-format will I loose eveything on my ipod ie music, vids etc?

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: LambdaCalculus on October 03, 2007, 08:18:29 AM

Yes, but you can use iTunes to restore all of your music back. You just have to build a Database in Rockbox, and the manual explains how to do this.

Your videos won't play under Rockbox, since Mpegplayer only plays MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files... and rather poorly at this point, since all video decoding is done in software by Rockbox. We don't have support for the Broadcom video chip at this point. This page (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PluginMpegplayer) explains more about the Mpegplayer plugin.

If there are other questions you may have, a search around the forums will point you in the right direction.

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: GodEater on October 03, 2007, 08:22:18 AM

I seem to recall at least one issue with FAT32 (WinPod) formatted iPods on OSX, which is apparently it takes ages for your computer to mount the iPod after the conversion. Not sure if this is still an issue or not - but bear it in mind.

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: Scunky on October 03, 2007, 08:25:31 AM

thanks guys!

I guess I'll need a PC to format to fat32 or can I do it in itunes (osx) ?

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: Scunky on October 03, 2007, 08:43:54 AM

I just checked disk utility in osx and it will not format ipod to fat32
so i'll have to dust off my old PC and use that.

by the way this forum Rocks !!!!!!!

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: GodEater on October 03, 2007, 08:53:03 AM

Try not to double post please - use the modify button if no-one has replied to your previous post. Otherwise Llorean will shout at you ;)

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: linuxstb on October 03, 2007, 09:03:02 AM

Quote from: Scunky on October 03, 2007, 08:43:54 AM

I just checked disk utility in osx and it will not format ipod to fat32
so i'll have to dust off my old PC and use that.

by the way this forum Rocks !!!!!!!

It's not just a simple matter of reformatting - please read this page (which ipodpatcher links you to when it informs you it can't install on a MacPod):

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodConversionToFAT32

Title: Re: mac osx and rock box
Post by: linuxstb on October 03, 2007, 09:09:04 AM

Quote from: GodEater on October 03, 2007, 08:22:18 AM

I seem to recall at least one issue with FAT32 (WinPod) formatted iPods on OSX, which is apparently it takes ages for your computer to mount the iPod after the conversion. Not sure if this is still an issue or not - but bear it in mind.

Yes, Apple haven't fixed this yet.