It worked !! I have a functional Rockboxed iPod Classic ! 
 
Well it was not the case at first, I had the same problem as AmberOzl :
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by AmberOzL /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
When I push select and menu button for about 10 seconds to put the iPod in DFU mode (Apple logo comes and goes then screen stays black, then I remove my fingers from the buttons), my computer recognizes something and try to install drivers automatically but drivers can't be installed successfully. At the end, I don't see the new device in my computer as Apple Recovery (DFU) USB Driver, basically I don't see anything. So I can't continue.

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Also, iTunes is not installed on my PC (I used the "drivers only" method), and AppleMobileDeviceService.exe and iTunesHelper.exe were nowhere to be found, they never launched. I checked "Show processes from all users" and no joy either. I found AppleMobileDeviceService in the Services tab of the Task Manager, but it was already disabled.

 
I tried to run the bootstrap anyway and it said it didn't find any device, so after looking around and switching modes a few times (holding select & menu for 12 seconds) back & forth, and still nothing in Windows Explorer (I'm on W7 Home Premium 64bits), I launched bootstrap again and this time it worked (no idea why...) I was finally able to see the 64M UMSBoot and proceed with emCORE installation and then Rockbox.
 
It's now working perfectly with the latest daily build, and when I unplug/plug it I can see the iPodClassic in Win Explorer. Now I'm off to fiddling with settings, themes and music, thanks !!

ziongate said:

   
Also, iTunes is not installed on my PC (I used the "drivers only" method), and AppleMobileDeviceService.exe and iTunesHelper.exe were nowhere to be found, they never launched. I checked "Show processes from all users" and no joy either. I found AppleMobileDeviceService in the Services tab of the Task Manager, but it was already disabled.
 
I tried to run the bootstrap anyway and it said it didn't find any device, so after looking around and switching modes a few times (holding select & menu for 12 seconds) back & forth, and still nothing in Windows Explorer (I'm on W7 Home Premium 64bits), I launched bootstrap again and this time it worked (no idea why...) I was finally able to see the 64M UMSBoot and proceed with emCORE installation and then Rockbox.
 
It's now working perfectly with the latest daily build, and when I unplug/plug it I can see the iPodClassic in Win Explorer. Now I'm off to fiddling with settings, themes and music, thanks !!

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Congrats! 
 
This just goes to show the importance of dogged persistence sometimes, esp. with Rockboxing an iPod Classic.

Will they ever make iPod Classic easy to install? I mean like Clip+ for example?

Hi guys,
 
I have just bought an iPod Classic 7th Gen 160GB, Model A1238, Part nr MC293LL/A
 
I would like to Rockbox it as most of my music is in flac format and Apple's stock firmware does not support it ;(
 
I was wondering if some of you with this setup could advise me on what kind of battery life should I expect after installing Rockbox on my brand new iPod Classic 7th Gen 160GB?
 
Thanks,

r100 said:

  It can be an indication that your hard drive is damaged or corrupted. Which Emcore and Rockbox version are you using?
Use the backup image, connect to USB on your computer, let it check the 'external drive' for errors and damaged sectors and automatically repair them. After that format your iPod's hard drive one more time from the Emcore boot menu. Connect it again and copy a new Rockbox build and your music.
 
If the issues return after the steps above your hard drive probably suffers from actual failures.

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I also posted the same question on the Rockbox tech forums.
 
The reply was to boot the fallback image and try again.
 
I did that, but got the same error. Then I formatted the data partition again using EmCore's menu, and managed to mount the partition.
 
But there was an I/O Error on the drive (I confirmed that on the terminal).
 
So it seems the HDD is busted.
 
Time to change to another player.

dombera said:

  Hi guys,
 
I have just bought an iPod Classic 7th Gen 160GB, Model A1238, Part nr MC293LL/A
 
I would like to Rockbox it as most of my music is in flac format and Apple's stock firmware does not support it ;(
 
I was wondering if some of you with this setup could advise me on what kind of battery life should I expect after installing Rockbox on my brand new iPod Classic 7th Gen 160GB?
 
Thanks,

Click to expand...

Hello dude,
 
The battery life is far more than 15 hours of music per cycle, maybe more, but only if you make sure that the backlight is off after few seconds of inactivity, for sure. For my part, using the ipod to listen to big flac musics is not a real problem for the battery (compared to the previous mp3 use with the Apple firmware).

25-32 hours.

I think I am getting a bit less than 19-20 hours. Need to do more testing. Obviously backlight matters a lot. If you keep on changing the songs etc the battery goes down a lot faster.

Hi guys,
 
Thank so much for your input and insights on battery life, truly appreciated!
I have just installed Rockbox on my iPod 7th gen, changed theme and I am in love it it!!
 
Thanks,

Yeah, installing is not easy but can be done, even a computer noob like me could do it (after some problems). Now I installed a nice/clean theme, I am really loving it. It might not be the highest end sound around but it provides very good capacity + battery life. It plays all my files, it has easy UI and user experience. Also it has a line out, so I can connect an amp later on. The size is nice too.
 
Mine didn't even crash once after I Rb'd it. Seems quite stable.

In my iPod Classic 7th Gen, the problem with the battery is the quick fluctuation. It goes from 76% to 66% in a few minutes, although from 66% to 65% could last an hour.
 
Any idea why?

janguita said:

  In my iPod Classic 7th Gen, the problem with the battery is the quick fluctuation. It goes from 76% to 66% in a few minutes, although from 66% to 65% could last an hour.
 
Any idea why?

Click to expand...

 
I think everyone here experiences this to a certain degree. It seems reading the battery percentage is done improperly or too often. Each time the Classic's hard disk starts spinning the percentage will drop because a relatively large amount of power is needed to spin the hard disk. If you listen to a complete playlist of low quality lossy files the hard disk can be inactive for more than an hour, while listening to lossless requires updating the buffer every 2 songs or so.
 
I can't give a proper explanation to this phenomenon, maybe someone else can. All is know is what I experience myself:

1. Upon booting the battery percentage is a bit lower than the previous shutdown
2. Hard disk activity quickly decreases battery percentage, otherwise it drains quite slow
3. While charging, the battery percentage is even more unpredictable, it seemingly goes from 30 to 80 percent in 5 minutes, but when you disconnect the charger it slowly drops to the actual percentage, say 35 percent
4. Doing a full battery cycle (from 100% to 0% and fully charge again) helped for me, but after copying a new Rockbox build it seems to lose this 'calibration'

r100 said:

   
I think everyone here experiences this to a certain degree. It seems reading the battery percentage is done improperly or too often. Each time the Classic's hard disk starts spinning the percentage will drop because a relatively large amount of power is needed to spin the hard disk. If you listen to a complete playlist of low quality lossy files the hard disk can be inactive for more than an hour, while listening to lossless requires updating the buffer every 2 songs or so.
 
I can't give a proper explanation to this phenomenon, maybe someone else can. All is know is what I experience myself:

1. Upon booting the battery percentage is a bit lower than the previous shutdown
2. Hard disk activity quickly decreases battery percentage, otherwise it drains quite slow
3. While charging, the battery percentage is even more unpredictable, it seemingly goes from 30 to 80 percent in 5 minutes, but when you disconnect the charger it slowly drops to the actual percentage, say 35 percent
4. Doing a full battery cycle (from 100% to 0% and fully charge again) helped for me, but after copying a new Rockbox build it seems to lose this 'calibration'

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree with you more!
I would just like to add that I believe that rockbox has ruined ipod's battery the first time I installed it.
It completely drained my battery while scanning for music and originally building it's database (I'm talking indexing about  27,000 files).
At that time I didn't know about this rapid drain and wasn't monitoring my ipod.
I left it unplugged from the charger not thinking that it would drain battery.
As a result of that, Ipod started , due to low battery, rebooting endlessly for a long time before noticing it.
As far as I can remember , I think that it finally shut down.
I plugged it to the charger of course but I believe that permanent damage to battery had already taken place.
Of course I know that I can not blame anybody, as it was my own decision to RB my Ipod which is a kind hacking it.

Are you using one of the newer builds? Compared to the fallback image they have a fair amount of powersaving features.
Then again, indexing 27000 files is a lot, so maybe indexing while charging is the only way
 
What I meant to say was that my battery indication is unpredictable, but battery life itself is good. 20 hours of FLAC playback with my 'shuffle-like' behaviour and 30 hours for MP3.

r100 said:

  Are you using one of the newer builds? Compared to the fallback image they have a fair amount of powersaving features.
Then again, indexing 27000 files is a lot, so maybe indexing while charging is the only way
 
What I meant to say was that my battery indication is unpredictable, but battery life itself is good. 20 hours of FLAC playback with my 'shuffle-like' behaviour and 30 hours for MP3.

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Yes I'm upgrading regularly.
Yes I agree battery indication is totally unreliable.
I estimate that battery does not last more than 8 hours while with original firmware lasted more than 20.
Anyway I cannot do much , so I'll live with it.