Rockbox Build (3.5.1) for 120/240GB iMod/iPod

I just received my iMod today and promptly proceeded to install the latest built of Rockbox (3.5.1) on my iMod.

However, due to the larger size (120GB/240GB vs 80GB/60GB) of the hard-disk used in the latest generations of iMods, Rockbox in its original build (3.5.1) or daily builds, is unable to work without first modifying and changing certain parameters and then recompiling both the bootloader and rockbox.

My question goes out to anyone who is currently using the latest version of Rockbox with a 120/240GB hard-disk iPod/iMod.

Did you guys recompile the bootloader and rockbox or did you just install an older unsupported build (3.2, 3.4)? And are there any issues/bugs? A quick check to the unsupported build forum at Rockbox didn't yield any result as all.

Although i am from an IT background, it's been a while (3 years) since i even looked at source code of any sort and was wondering if any kind soul might be able to distribute his rockbox build that supports the larger hard-disks.

I'm sure as these bigger capacity hard-disks become more main-steam in iPods/iMods, more people could benefit from this free distribution of rockbox builds as well.

Many thanks in advance!

For any one still looking for a easy workaround without need for the latest version of Rockbox (3.5.1), support for the 120GB/240GB hard-disks are available here!

It's the unsupported build for Rockbox 3.4 and apparently works well.

I've just converted all my Flac to Alac and i can detect no loss/difference in quality between using the default apple software and Rockbox so until support appears for 3.5.1, i'm pretty contented just using the default iPod interface with ALAC.

Hi Allen,

I've actually converted all my FLAC to ALAC to work around the above problem and have been using Foobar+ASIO4ALL for playback on my computer. The m4a extension applies to both ALAC as well as AAC which is lossy so it can get quite confusing. But this is less of a problem to me since i don't have any AAC files at all.

There is a scroll down selection menu in dbpoweramp that allows for the conversion of any file type including .wav or .flac to ALAC or AAC which both have the .m4a extension.

I didn't understand your question about the loading of files via iTunes into the iMod. It shouldn't be any different from loading it into a normal iPod. I do it manually and just drag and drop the newly converted files into my iMod.

On your final question about which format would be best, there shouldn't been too much of a difference between WAV, FLAC and ALAC since they are all lossless and converting to one or the other formats preserves the file perfectly. Of course, there are people who claim they can hear a discernible difference, and for what it's worth, i think that gift has become their curse. I on the other hand am perfectly contented with apple lossless.

You could also check out ipodwizard here if you so choose to customize the feel of your iMod.

Just a quick update: A new build for larger hard-disks (>80GB) of Rockbox 3.5 has just been released.

Find it here!

I for one, am contented with using ALAC with the iMod but it could benefit someone else who can't live without having Rockbox installed.

Hi Allen,

It shouldn't be too difficult now with the release of the latest build (3.5). You would just need ipodpatcher to "patch" the iMod into booting up rockbox on the onset.

More details are in the rockbox forum. I haven't been using the iMod at all these past weeks and have been streaming music from my laptop so lack any motivation to try out the build.

Maybe you could try it out and keep us posted!

Cheers!
Jeremy

Did you use the link in Post#5 of this thread? The build listed on the Rockbox site with the install utility is definitely a no go.

2) OSOS contains Rockbox and the Rockbox bootloader

This method is only possible if you build the bootloader yourself from svn. The bootloader included in ipodpatcher (and in rbutil) will not work.

Advantages

* Rockbox boots faster (over 2 seconds faster than standard on an ipod video 80GB).
* Dual booting the Apple firmware works as usual (hold switch or Menu button).

Disadvantages

* Installation is manual and making a mistake can result in having to restore the ipod.
* Updating Rockbox requires that you re-run ipodpatcher - forgetting to do this will remove the 2 second boot time improvement, but your new version of Rockbox will still run.
* Requires a development build of the bootloader.
* Booting the Apple firmware is slightly slower than usual.

Instructions

1. Back up the Apple firmware! Run ipodpatcher -rf apple_os.ipod and save the file apple_os.ipod somewhere safe. You can restore this later with ipodpatcher -wf apple_os.ipod if something goes wrong.
2. Unzip your Rockbox build to .rockbox on the ipod as usual.
3. Place a copy of apple_os.ipod in the .rockbox directory (this enables dual booting).
4. Install your copy of Rockbox to the OSOS image with ipodpatcher -wf rockbox.ipod
5. Append the Rockbox bootloader to the OSOS image with ipodpatcher -a bootloader-youripodmodel.ipod (this must be a development build of the bootloader, not the one included in ipodpatcher).
6. Delete or rename rockbox.ipod in the .rockbox directory. The bootloader will always load Rockbox from the main partition if it's present.
7. Reboot the ipod. Dual booting should function as before, but Rockbox should load faster.

To update Rockbox, follow the same instructions except for step 1 (as once you've already installed Rockbox to OSOS, that command would back up Rockbox, not the Apple firmware).

Download the files in the link i sent and use the method above.

It works for me! I just tried it!

Cheers!

No worries! In my opinion, there is no discernible audio difference between ALAC and FLAC.

I've actually tried installing the Rockbox on my iMod and although i used to be crazy about Rockbox before, i decided to uninstall it almost immediately upon installation and use the default apple firmware instead.

I think the biggest gripe about using iTunes is the inability to actually decide where the audio files go after dragging and dropping in iTunes. So to work around this problem, i'm using a 3rd party app (ImTOO iPod Computer Transfer) to extract the physical files if i need too. Otherwise, uploading files to the iMod using iTunes is a breeze.

Glad to be of some help.