Rockbox & V2's

Have not seen it mentioned here, but it looks like Rockbox on the V2’s is getting close.

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaAMS#Port_Status   :smileyvery-happy:

I’ve just checked the date - and it is not April 1st! :slight_smile: In this case this is a great news!

Someone posted a photo of their Rockboxed Clip+ the other day.

Someoen posted a photo of their Rockboxed Clip+ about a week and a half ago.

I installed the raw version of the Rockbox on my Fuze v2. It works! Many functions are not activated as the developers are struggling with the write function, no radio yet… But what I see is great. The textreader is excellent with sharp fonts even on Fuze small screen: now I can read my podcast /audiobook descriptions and annotations. Shame on you SanDisk for not implementing a text reader in the Fuze - the screen is perfectly readable contrary to what some people used to tell me.

Plenty of games and gadgets. 

But it needs much more extra work and I wouldn’t recommend it for users at its present stage.

On the whole it is a great effort. I am very pleased, all the more so I never expected Rockbox being ported on v.2.

Good luck to Rockbox developers!

Message Edited by Etoja on 04-04-2010 03:29 AM

I tried it as well and it works fine except for some crashing plugins here and there and being unable to write access the internal memory & sd card. But audio quality is great.

Being the vintage computer lover that I am, I spent nearly an hour listening to some C64 SID files (great emulation, btw.) and playing Doom. Pure awesomeness!

Message Edited by Navarre on 04-05-2010 12:14 PM

Well maybe this is a duplicate question–but I’m clearly desperate :

Where can I get the reverse boot-loader to do just the opposite if you wish (boot into Sansa OF by default, unless the REW button is held) as opposed to booting into Rockbox by default.

I’ve not seen a reverseBL for the fuze.  You would be better asking on ABI or rockbox.org.

Changing how the bootloader works on the Fuze is really hard and you risk trashing your player if you make any mistake at all.  I don’t recommend trying to do it.

I still can’t get RB to load while plugged into a wall charger with my V1 Fuze. I boot it up with RB then hold down the center select button while plugging in the USB cable into the bottom of the Fuze. Still loads the OF.

OF latest

RB 3.5.1 latest build

Message Edited by Njones on 04-05-2010 08:36 PM

@njones wrote:

I still can’t get RB to load while plugged into a wall charger with my V1 Fuze. I boot it up with RB then hold down the center select button while plugging in the USB cable into the bottom of the Fuze. Still loads the OF.

OF latest

RB 3.5.1 latest build

Message Edited by Njones on 04-05-2010 08:36 PM

Same here, although experienced it little differently-I switch on my Fuze, it boots to RB. Then I plug it into a wall charger for charging. It then seems to reload the OF instead…Wiered.

@saratoga wrote:
Changing how the bootloader works on the Fuze is really hard and you risk trashing your player if you make any mistake at all.  I don’t recommend trying to do it.

Strange and confusing…Look here : http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&thread.id=10767&view=by_date_ascending&page=1 where Tapeworm stated, and I quote :

If you want to boot into the Sansa firmware upon start-up, you hold the REW ( |<< ) button down during start-up. You can also install a reverse boot-loader to do just the opposite if you wish (boot into Sansa OF, unless the REW button is held).

@mnong wrote:

 

Same here, although experienced it little differently-I switch on my Fuze, it boots to RB. Then I plug it into a wall charger for charging. It then seems to reload the OF instead…Wiered.

That is exactly as how it is supposed to work given the current state of USB support in Rockbox for the Sansa Fuze. Rockbox on the Fuze can’t detect if the USB connection is to a PC or to a wall charger and any powered USB connection made forces a reboot to the Sansa firmware.

@mnong wrote:

Strange and confusing…Look here : http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&thread.id=10767&view=by_date_ascending&page=1 where Tapeworm stated, and I quote :

I don’t think this ‘reverse bootloader’ exists. At least not an “official” one from the Rockbox developers. If real, I would still stay away from it after saratoga’s warning.

@7o9 wrote:


@mnong wrote:

Strange and confusing…Look here : http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&thread.id=10767&view=by_date_ascending&page=1 where Tapeworm stated, and I quote :


 

I don’t think this ‘reverse bootloader’ exists. At least not an “official” one from the Rockbox developers. If real, I would still stay away from it after saratoga’s warning.

There was one for an older player (e200 I think), although I don’t think it was “official”.  I don’t really see the point tbh, I spend as little time in the OF as possible.  Tapeworm doesn’t use rockbox, that’s probably why there is confusion.

@summerlove wrote:

There was one for an older player (e200 I think), although I don’t think it was “official”.  I don’t really see the point tbh, I spend as little time in the OF as possible.  Tapeworm doesn’t use rockbox, that’s probably why there is confusion.

Eh? But Tapeworm posted that in the Fuze forum. That’s why it is potentially misleading.

Well, my wife loves the radio and the videos (accessible thru the OF but not thru RB), and hates depressing the << to boot to OF. This is one need for the reverse bootloader, which, from the comments I have received, is non-existent.

“and any powered USB connection made forces a reboot to the Sansa firmware.”

Unless you hold SELECT down. This allows you to stay in the RB FW and charge the device.

mnong wrote:


@summerlove wrote:

There was one for an older player (e200 I think), although I don’t think it was “official”.  I don’t really see the point tbh, I spend as little time in the OF as possible.  Tapeworm doesn’t use rockbox, that’s probably why there is confusion.


Eh? But Tapeworm posted that in the Fuze forum. That’s why it is potentially misleading.

 

Well, my wife loves the radio and the videos (accessible thru the OF but not thru RB), and hates depressing the << to boot to OF. This is one need for the reverse bootloader, which, from the comments I have received, is non-existent.

I was indeed referring to the e200v1 series player when I mentioned the reverse boot-loader. And yes, I do use RB on my player of that vintage. I even created/wrote my own theme.

I don’t have a Fuze at the current time (as it’s on semi-permanent loan-out), but saratoga would be in a position to know whether or not this BL was available or advisable on the Fuze port. You could also review and search the Rockbox site itself for more info on it. Remember the e200v1 port has been out for several years; the Fuze (and all the AMS or v2 variants) have just successfully been ported fairly recently. This feature/function/option may come in time, or it may not as demand or hardware restrictions may discourage it.

When just venturing into Rockbox some time ago, I too thought this would be a handy feature, but have to say in actual usage, it’s not a big deal to hold the REW |<< button during start-up to boot into the OF.

Sorry for the confusion; one tends to lose track of where one is when jumping around all the different boards around here, and general information sometimes gets posted without conscious thought to individual idiosyncrasies of all the different players.


mnong wrote:

@summerlove wrote:
There was one for an older player (e200 I think), although I don't think it was "official".  I don't really see the point tbh, I spend as little time in the OF as possible.  Tapeworm doesn't use rockbox, that's probably why there is confusion.

Eh? But Tapeworm posted that in the Fuze forum. That's why it is potentially misleading.

 

Well, my wife loves the radio and the videos (accessible thru the OF but not thru RB), and hates depressing the << to boot to OF. This is one need for the reverse bootloader, which, from the comments I have received, is non-existent.


 

I was indeed referring to the e200v1 series player when I mentioned the reverse boot-loader. And yes, I do use RB on my player of that vintage. I even created/wrote my own theme for it.

 

I don't have a Fuze at the current time (as it's on semi-permanent loan-out), but saratoga would be in a position to know whether or not this BL was available or advisable on the Fuze port. You could also review and search the Rockbox site itself for more info on it. Remember the e200v1 port has been out for several years; the Fuze (and all the AMS or v2 variants) have just successfully been ported fairly recently. This feature/function/option may come in time, or it may not as demand or hardware restrictions may discourage it.

 

When just venturing into Rockbox some time ago, I too thought this would be a handy feature, but have to say in actual usage, it's not a big deal to hold the REW |<< button during start-up to boot into the OF.

 

Sorry for the confusion; one tends to lose track of where one is when jumping around all the different boards around here, and general information sometimes gets posted without conscious thought to individual idiosyncrasies of all the different players.

 

Just to be clear theres no reason you can’t make a reverse bootloader safely.  Its just harder since:

  1.  The dual boot choice is actually made before the bootloader in the mkamsboot program, which is written in ARM assembly 

  2.  Theres no way to recover from flashing a broken binary with mkamsboot

  3.  Theres no easy way to test the binary before flashing it

So basically you have to be at least a little familiar with ARM assembly and be willing to break your player to write one.  Thats not most people who use the Sandisk firmware :slight_smile: