Porting Rockbox to YP-R0 (FAQ in the 1st post)

[Mr.Frost]

Originally Posted by Lorenz092

- More battery life
- No strange crackings when starting songs
- Faster I/O on disk (-> rockbox will run smoothly)
- Faster boot-up
- Smaller ROM file size

Awesome work guys! Rockbox runs smoothly even now, I can't imagine how it can be even more smoother
Will it be released soon?

[Appick]

Sounds exciting! Can't remember if it has been mentioned before but can it be possible to have USB recognition on the PC with RB (to load music). I sometimes forget to activate the OF when I plug it into the PC and it's a bit annoying!

[VanniX]

@Mr.Frost:
A release candidate is available at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...Rv3.5c1.ROM.7z
This version (differing from alpha and beta releases) has passed all tests with success except for partitions mounts, so in these days we'll probably fix this bug and we'll release the final version.
You (and the other abi users) can test it and report us the bugs you found ;-)

Install HOW-TO:
Backup all data in both partitions (R0 and NEO-GHOST will probably be formatted)
Flash rom with Unbrick tools and special cable (with 300kΩ resistor)
Enter in Safe Mode
Copy rockbox loader in NEO-GHOST
Copy .rockbox dir in R0
Unmount player from pc
Disconnect and power off R0
Power on again and try rockbox with new linux kernel and with new rom.

A complete changelog will be available in official release

@Appick:
Currently we are working on this feature, but we are stopped due some problems with communication between linux kernel and rockbox app.

[Martus0]

Is special cable going to be necessary in the future to flash final rom?

[lebellium]

Originally Posted by Martus0

Is special cable going to be necessary in the future to flash final rom?

Might be so. As there is no sysdata included in this Rockbox-only ROM, the "firmware checking" on device could fail with the usual upgrade procedure.
But we cannot be sure before testing. And as I have 3 R0, I'll have to act as guinea pigs, sacrifice for the community

[VanniX]

@Martus0:
Probably not!
And also this release *could* be flash without flash cable, however we have not tried yet, so if you want to try with classic method (R0.ROM in nand at startup) we suggest you to make a flash cable before, for restore old fw in case of brick.
The problem is in the SYSDATA.bin, that in official rom is 30-40mb, in this rom is 400kb. As lebellium told you the firmware checking probably avoid the flash.

[Mr.Frost]

VanniX,
Could you please provide the schematics of this special cable?

[VanniX]

@Mr.Frost:
Here there is a tutorial by lebellium: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=69099. In the attached archive you'll find needed files and a russian pdf with basic schematics.
The special cable is a normal usb cable with a 300kΩ resistor between pin 4 and gnd (pin 5) of the microusb connector.
If you can't do it yourself you can contact me via PM.

[Predelnik]

Well having to make DIY cable to install rockbox will be too hard condition for me, so i really hope it won't be necessary

[lebellium]

Good news for you guys
I tried a normal upgrade from fw 2.30 to this LRv3.5c1 fw:

-Copy/Paste 20120719-LRv3.5c1.ROM at the root. Rename the file to R0.ROM

Firmware checking OK
Firmware upgrade OK

-After installation, a Linux penguin displays. Turn off the player
-Connect it to the computer in Safe Mode ("back" key).
No reformatting for me so no lost data
-If you were using fw 2.30, delete the si4709.ko file from the root and move the rockbox_loader.sh file from the R0 root to the NEO-GHOST root

That's it

[Martus0]

I have just flashed rom according to lebellium instruction. All works fine and finally no strange sound and read from sd card is much faster Great job! Could you tell me if there is a way to start OF or after flash new firmware R0 can only run rockbox?

EDIT:

Just have strange sound during switch to next track Hopefully it is not final version

[lebellium]

This is a Rockbox-only firmware, no dualboot

For a dualboot firmware, check here the progress on fw 2.50 http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=69325

[Predelnik]

Originally Posted by lebellium

This is a Rockbox-only firmware, no dualboot

For a dualboot firmware, check here the progress on fw 2.50 http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=69325

Well then there should be dualboot in official release or connection through usb with rockbox because then it's kinda useless for me Don't have any sound glitches and rockbox loading takes 0.5-1 seconds, but i'm using ability to connect player to pc very very often.

[lebellium]

Originally Posted by Predelnik

Well then there should be dualboot in official release

There is dualboot in fw 2.50!
This Light_ROM LRv3.5c1 is a dedicated Rockbox firmware for those who don't need the OF. What's the point of developing 2 different firmwares if they both have dualboot and same features? Just for fun?

[VanniX]

Originally Posted by Martus0

EDIT:

Just have strange sound during switch to next track Hopefully it is not final version

Can you be more specific?
Which kind of tracks was you playing? Bitrate?
Where are you reading tracks from? MicroSD or internal memory?
Which class is microsd? Which is the track size?

If you provide me more information and if it's a kernel / linux os problem i can fix it for the next release.

[Martus0]

I have tried to reproduce this event, but I couldn't do this again. It was 320 kbps, external memory class 4 8gb, size about 10mb. I'm going to test more and give you more specific info if it occurs again.

[VanniX]

It was probably an sdcard issue. SDHC class 4 means that nominal speed is about 4MBps, if your track is more than 4MB it need more than 1 seconds to analize it. After do that it start reading blocks and copy them to ram. Probably in ext3 you gain speed in reading tracks, but you lose in cpu usage.
So, try again and again, if the bug persist report it to me

P.S: New release available soon

[Martus0]

SDHC class tells us about write speed, I think when we play some track read speed is important. SD class 4 has much more speed than 4MB/s. As I said before I let you know if I meet something unexpected crack

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by VanniX

It was probably an sdcard issue. SDHC class 4 means that nominal speed is about 4MBps, if your track is more than 4MB it need more than 1 seconds to analize it.

On lots of targets it takes several seconds just to spin up the disk and start transfer. Thats why we buffer several minutes worth of compressed audio, so a second to transfer a file is basically nothing.

Usually problems on track change are due to driver bugs or codec bugs.

[VanniX]

LightROM for Rockbox Port - Ver 4.2 Final UTF8


Warning: This is a Rockbox-only ROM!


New final release:
Version : LightROM for Rockbox Port - Ver4.2_Final_UTF8
Release_Code : 20120802-LRv4.2FX || Host : VanniX-IBM-ThinkPad-T60
User : root
Dir : /home/pietro/Dev/R0/rom_light
BuildTime : 12/08/02 23:30:25
MBoot : size(337824),checksum(a68d6e6c5d638926e9ac34e982e3 3da6)
Linux : size(1064288),checksum(a82e2812a85538090fb4e030ee9 12010)
RootFS : size(13049856),checksum(897147d28b540772dcaba846a9 7284ac)
Sysdata : size(415154),checksum(e8bbf4ad5778e76b71a7f09b734f 8f57)


New-features v4.1FX:
Re-compiled kernel with some modifications in cpu driver
Removed lorenzo cpu mod (now useless)
Modded Lorenzo92's safe mode version 2.20 - added auto mode and removed some useless lines
Updated safe mode wallpaper
Optimized some scripts - startup (average boot time: 7-8 seconds)
Modded rockbox loader, removing useless lines
Added external CFG in media0
Removed and optimized all other mods (reset_time_mod, safe mode, cramfs structure)
Added ROM_Version.txt file in cramfs
New-features v4.2FX:
Added 5 sec reset in safe mode
Removed some useless modules (thanks to Lorenzo92)
Deleted some useless lines from other scripts - it boot faster
Added support for non-latin file names
Final size: 13.98Mb


Install How-To:
Download "ROM" and "Other files" archives and extract all files from them
Install the Rom (for info and tutorial for classic method read mine and lebellium post)
Enter in safe mode
Copy the sys.cfg in media0 partition (R0 nand)
Overwrtite/Copy the rockbox_loader in media1 (neoghost)
Safely remove player
Reset it and enjoy


Link (NEW VERSION):
ROM: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...Rv4.2FX.ROM.7z
Other Files: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...4.1FX.FILES.7z


Link (OLD RELEASED VERSIONS) - Please do not flash these versions:
ROM: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...Rv4.1F3.ROM.7z
ROM: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...Rv4.1FX.ROM.7z
ROM: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...Rv4.0F1.ROM.7z
Other files: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...4.0F1.FILES.7z
ROM: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...Rv3.5c1.ROM.7z
ROM: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...Rv3.0c1.ROM.7z
ROM: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21543264/YP-...Rv2.1b8.ROM.7z


Thanks:
To Lorenzo92 for "base rom" (modfirm), help, suggestions and info about code and scripts
To lebellium for test, bug report and suggestions
To all users of ABI that have tested my beta roms


If you are interested in my work, please donate!
All money earned in donations will be spent in new device for developing.