Rockbox for the Fuze V1 "Unstable" release

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Fuze™
1

The last couple months a lot of people have been sneaking builds of rockbox on the Fuze V1 and e200 V2 and provided a lot of feedback.  Based on this we think these two ports are ready for more technical users to play with.  Lots of things don’t work, but most people report few issues and no one has broken anything.  With that in mind, we’ve created the new “Unstable” category of rockbox device to allow more users a chance to try new ports without waiting until they’re completely working.  These are devices that have some functionality, are reasonably safe, but still need more work to be considered fully “Stable” like the e200v1.  

Known issues:

Reduced battery life.  We’ve disabled some power management features for now, and others things aren’t well implemented.  I think for a brand new battery you can expect 15 hours or so for a brand new battery (I.E. 66% of the Sandisk firmware).

No USB.  You’ll have to reboot to the Sandisk firmware for USB.

BREAKS DRM (probably fixed).   Some people lose the ability to play DRMed WMA files forever if they use rockbox.  We think this is fixed but aren’t sure.  Don’t install if thats important to you.

NO Fuze v2.  This will not work on a Fuze v2.  The Fuze v2 appears to use a customized version of the CPU in the Fuze v1, and so far we have not acquired a datasheet for it, nor a list of what has changed verses the v1.

DO NOT ASK SANDISK FOR SUPPORT IF YOU USE ROCKBOX.  If your Sansa breaks running Rockbox Sandisk has every right to ask you to pay for a replacement.  Sandisk has been helpful to us in the past.   Don’t be a jerk and ruin that by defrauding them if you break your Sansa trying to mod it.  We don’t think this should happen (install tools hash check everything before patching to ensure corrupted installs don’t happen) but if you try hard enough I’m sure it can be screwed up somehow we haven’t even thought of yet.

If you like rockbox CONSIDER DONATING AN OLDER SANSA.  We have developers in places where you can’t even buy a Fuze or Clip who would like to get one to work on.  If you’ve got an older one after upgrading, consider contacting me and I’ll find someone who can put it to use.  If you’re GOOD WITH C PROGRAMMING OR ASSEMBLY consider developing for rockbox.  We have a half dozen main people working on the newer Sansas, and we could use some help.  Plus its fun.

Installation 

See http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaAMS for up to date port info and install directions. 

Message Edited by saratoga on 09-22-2009 02:58 PM

Message Edited by saratoga on 10-31-2009 05:01 PM

Message Edited by saratoga on 12-12-2009 07:06 PM

Message Edited by saratoga on 12-12-2009 07:07 PM

2

Thanks for the post. This should be stickied, the regular Rockbox post was unstickied recently but this should be there instead, anyways.

Also, another thing, didn’t Funman get the Datasheets yesterday?

Thanks again for the organized post, I’ve been using Rockbox for 2 months now, and it’s been great, now I don’t have to explain to everyone how to install it etc.

EDIT: Just realized it was re-stickied.

Message Edited by yelped on 09-22-2009 06:38 PM

3

I will surely try this :wink:

4

Thanks for all the hard work saratoga (and others).

I have been using the test builds since they were announced with very few issues and love the freedom Rockbox gives me.

(From what I read, funman got a datasheet but it’s not for the SoC used in the Fuze ‘v2’).

5

Anybody have an idea what this means:

" Run mkamsboot from the command line window you opened in the previous step, passing the name of the OF file you’ve downloaded and the the bootloader file you’ve downloaded, as well as a name you can chose yourself for the patched output file
(e.g. ‘mkamsboot.exe fuzea.bin bootloader-fuze.bin patched.bin’)"

6

What it says.:wink:Ok really what part don’t you understand and I will try to help you.

7

@yelped wrote:
What it says.:wink:Ok really what part don’t you understand and I will try to help you.

This part:

“passing the name of the OF file you’ve downloaded and the the bootloader file you’ve downloaded, as well as a name you can chose yourself for the patched output file
(e.g. ‘mkamsboot.exe fuzea.bin bootloader-fuze.bin patched.bin’)”

I downloaded the requisite files, put two of them in the properly named folder I created on my desktop and unzipped the third file into that desktop folder. Beyond this, it is unclear what else I am to do with those 3 files.

Here’s what I think the message above says:

Forget about or overlook the OF file and the bootloader file…the rest of it, I can’t rationalize it.

Message Edited by MartyLK on 09-23-2009 09:04 AM

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You need to open a command-prompt windows (start, run, cmd.exe), go to the dir that has those files and execute that command.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to include a batch file for Windows people with no command-line experience.

If you want to create your own batch file: 

Create a new text-file in the dir that has mkamsboot.exe, fuzeA.bin and bootloader-fuze.bin, and add this line to it:

mkamsboot.exe fuzea.bin bootloader-fuze.sansa patched.bin

Rename the textfile to patch.bat and double-click it to execute it. You should get a ‘patched.bin’ file created for you in the same directory.

Then delete the original fuzeA.bin, and rename patched.bin to fuzeA.bin, and drop it in the top-level (root) directory on your fuze. Disconnect USB and it should upgrade the firmware.

Message Edited by 7o9 on 09-23-2009 11:10 PM

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@7o9 wrote:

You need to open a command-prompt windows (start, run, cmd.exe), go to the dir that has those files and execute that command.

 

Perhaps it would be a good idea to include a batch file for Windows people with no command-line experience.

 

If you want to create your own batch file: 

 

Create a new text-file in the dir that has mkamsboot.exe, fuzeA.bin and bootloader-fuze.bin, and add this line to it:

 

mkamsboot.exe fuzea.bin bootloader-fuze.bin patched.bin

 

Rename the textfile to patch.bat and double-click it to execute it. You should get a ‘patched.bin’ file created for you in the same directory.

 

Then delete the original fuzeA.bin, and rename patched.bin to fuzeA.bin, and drop it in the top-level (root) directory on your fuze. Disconnect USB and it should upgrade the firmware.

Message Edited by 7o9 on 09-23-2009 10:02 AM

Here what I did and what I have:

797×593 32.8 KB

860×624 36.9 KB

I clicked the patch.bat text file, but it merely opens the text file as shown above.

10

Actually this is what I have in the folder now. I still can’t do anything with the text file, though.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c165/MartyLK/untitled-2.jpg !(file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/LEWISL%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.png)

Here is where I am now:

 http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c165/MartyLK/rb1.jpg

Here is what clicking the patch.bat file gives me:


Message Edited by MartyLK on 09-23-2009 11:13 AM

 I have to say, I’m doing exactly as I’m being directed, but I’m not getting the explained results.

Message Edited by MartyLK on 09-23-2009 11:21 AM

11

Nevermind. Figured it out by taking a chance on bricking my Fuze. This is the cmd line I needed to input:

“mkamsboot.exe fuzea.bin bootloader-fuze.sansa patched.bin”

After some trial and error, this brought success.

Never did figure out that bit, though, where I was to make a text file and such.

EDIT -

Quite impressive, the features for this Fuze that RB has. I especially like the ability to choose what the first button press does when the screen is off. It has a bit of a delay, though. The first button press doesn’t bring an instantanious execution of the desired command. There might be a setting, though, that I haven’t seen yet that alters the delay.

Message Edited by MartyLK on 09-23-2009 02:18 PM

12

I am also trying RockBox on my fuze. The installer worked fine for me… my brief observations are:

  • I like having the ability to download themes and customize almost everything

  • great equalizer settings

  • has  one feature I asked about , seperate backlight settings for battery or external power

  • navigation takes a bit of getting used to, but is quite robust

  • gapless, which is handy when listening to audio books or the like

  • being able to download or create your own FM presets with titles/descriptions is very cool

  • the add-ons are cool to look at once in a while

  • can be rebooted to OF (original firmware)

A few missing things

  • mpg video playback is glitchy, but may not have been optimized for the fuze (every few seconds a half screen shows up) but it does run at almost 30fps

-no true line-out yet or recording or USB (when you hook it up to your PC it reboots to the OF)

One ‘feature’ that is nice right now is that if I plug it into my Altek-Lansing iM413 it reboots to the original sansa firmware which works fine with their remote.

I tend to use RB for portable listening, and the original firmware for video or when docked.

I like that RB is open-source and extensible …

Message Edited by timn on 09-23-2009 06:00 PM

13

I went a long time without USB on my v.1 e200. It was my first foray into RB and the older versions didn’t have USB. It wasn’t until I put RB on my toshiba that I got a taste of of RB USB.

Not having USB on my Fuze is nothing. This build feels like a normal RB FW to me.

EDIT-

For what it’s worth, RB has made my Fuze into a higher end, premium device.

Message Edited by MartyLK on 09-23-2009 06:51 PM

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I agree with your last statement… If they can fix mpg video playback I’d love it even more! (to be able to see 20-30fps video would be great…

15

My videos play normally. Actually, I only have one video on it at the moment.

16

I’m having a problem with songs appearing 2 times in a list and I have made sure that there is only one file for that song. I mean that it will have track three listed 2 times and when I play one It will either pop up (err) next to it. plus when I go to “tracks” it is saying that I have 529, I know I only have 269, And I cannot figure out how to remove the copies, when I go to the OF its fine lol. idk whats up, its not a big problem but It does get annoying.

17

@martylk wrote:

Nevermind. Figured it out by taking a chance on bricking my Fuze. This is the cmd line I needed to input:

There never was a realistic chance of brinking your Fuze. Either the original firmware gets patched and then you can boot to Rockbox, or it doesn’t get patched and you still have the original firmware. Bricking the Fuze with the Rockbox files provided would be really hard.

And you’re right, the bootloader file name is ‘bootloader-fuze.sansa’. Sorry about that.

18

@7o9 wrote:

There never was a realistic chance of brinking your Fuze. Either the original firmware gets patched and then you can boot to Rockbox, or it doesn’t get patched and you still have the original firmware. Bricking the Fuze with the Rockbox files provided would be really hard.

 

And you’re right, the bootloader file name is ‘bootloader-fuze.sansa’. Sorry about that.

Thanks for trying to help.

Now if a Zune version appeared.

@nmnm100 wrote:
I’m having a problem with songs appearing 2 times in a list and I have made sure that there is only one file for that song. I mean that it will have track three listed 2 times and when I play one It will either pop up (err) next to it. plus when I go to “tracks” it is saying that I have 529, I know I only have 269, And I cannot figure out how to remove the copies, when I go to the OF its fine lol. idk whats up, its not a big problem but It does get annoying.

Mine popped into “Auto” USB detection at least once when connecting to the PC. I was going to remove the particular genre of music from the internal memory that I had on the card but I couldn’t find any music files in the internal memory. A disconnect and settings adjustment to MSC brought the files into view when I reconnected my Fuze.

Message Edited by MartyLK on 09-24-2009 06:45 AM

19

@nmnm100 wrote:
I’m having a problem with songs appearing 2 times in a list and I have made sure that there is only one file for that song. I mean that it will have track three listed 2 times and when I play one It will either pop up (err) next to it. plus when I go to “tracks” it is saying that I have 529, I know I only have 269, And I cannot figure out how to remove the copies, when I go to the OF its fine lol. idk whats up, its not a big problem but It does get annoying.

Mine popped into “Auto” USB detection at least once when connecting to the PC. I was going to remove the particular genre of music from the internam memory that I had on the card but I could find any music filesin the internal memory. A disconnect and settings adjustment to MSC brought the files into view when I reconnected my Fuze.

20

I used rockbox for a month, I like it, except well for the themes, I tried to search for another themes which are fuze specific, but I can’t seem to find it, where can I download those themes ? and how do I apply them ?