INTRODUCTION
 
Let me first admit to being a huge fan of the Xuelin line of DAPs.  I currently own several of the Xuelin players:  iHiFi 770, iHiFi 770C, modified iHiFi 770C, iHiFi 800, modified iHiFi 960, and iHiFi 960 dual-core.  I really enjoy the sound quality of all these players, but I am especially fond of the 800 and 960-dual core.   But, I am also probably one of their biggest critics when it comes to functionality and firmware.  I have sent numerous emails to Xuelin encouraging them to provide more significant firmware updates that will provide better file format support, gapless playback, cue support, graphic user equalizer, etc, but I suspect that most of my emails are being directly routed to auto delete.  I have found Xuelin to be very difficult to communicate with and I'm not sure why....  In any event, Xuelin has recently released firmware updates for the 770s and 960s; although these updates do represent a step in the right direction, the current firmware still remains somewhat restricted and simplistic. Although many Xuelin DAP users may be satisfied with the current firmware status (and this is perfectly okay with me), I would really like to see much more progress...
 
This is where Rockbox comes in to play.  Let me first admit that I have played absolutely no role in the development or modifications of the 960 Rockbox port.  The credit for the Rockbox port for the 960 goes to several very bight and talented individuals, most (if not all) of whom appear to live in or around Russia.  I do not know any of these people, but I am certainly grateful for and appreciative of their efforts.  The addition of Rockbox to my 960 dual-core player has greatly increased the value of the player to me.  Although there are a few limitations, I feel the benefits of Rockbox clearly outweigh any downsides, and I have not even taken advantage of all the features Rockbox has to offer.  It does appear that Rockbox runs smoother on my 960 dual-core than on the modified 960, and some people who own the original 960 or the modified 960 may not find Rockbox to be as attractive as I do.  
 
In any event, I am going to present information in this primer that will outline the process for rockboxing the iHiFi 960.  All of this information is available in the Head Fi.org forums already, so I am just pulling the information together into this thread.  Hopefully, anyone interested in Rockboxing their 960 will find this information useful and relatively easy to understand.  For me, the biggest hurdle to get over in this process (once you have all the necessary links and files) is to learn how to upgrade the firmware in the 960.  It really is not very difficult, but you do need to follow proper steps and make sure you have downloaded the necessary drivers to your computer.  I will outline these steps in this primer and provide needed links to files you will need.  And remember, if you do happen to load Rockbox onto your 960 and you find you don't like it, you can always replace the Rockbox firmware with the latest firmware offered by Xuelin.  The whole process is completely reversible....
 
 
IMPORTANT LINKS FOR THE ROCKBOX PROCESS 
 
1.  This is the link to the Xuelin file that you will need to update firmware in your 960:  http://www.91avr.com/ihifiupimg.rar
2.  This is the link to the Rockbox firmware that you will load into your 960: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1nI4rgGNPbtanJpVzRGRHI4cm8&usp=sharing 
3.  This is the link to the daily Rockbox build that you will need to extract to your microsd card:  http://www.rockbox.org/dl.cgi?bin=ihifi960
4.  This is the link  to the latest Xuelin firmware upgrade for the 960:  http://www.91avr.com/HIFI-old-chinese-0726.rar
 
I find it very helpful to download link 1 to my computer, but I download the files in links 2, 3, and 4 to a separate thumbdrive, so I can move more easily through the firmware upgrade process.  In my experience, the links to the Xuelin site do not always work.  If you find this to be the case, then go to the Xuelin site, www.i-hifi.com, and look under the "Events and News" section.  You will find the files you need (ihifiupimg.rar and the latest firmware file for the 960) about 1/4 way down the page; and you should be able to download them directly.
 
LET'S GET STARTED...
 
The first thing you need to do is learn how to change the firmware in your 960.  Again, this process works well with Windows 7, XP and Vista, but I do not think you can use Windows 8.  Once you have downloaded the Xuelin file (ihifiupimg.rar) from Link #1, you will need to open the file.  If you have not used the firmware upgrade image before, the process can appear to be a bit confusing, but once you have gone thru the process a few times, I believe you'll find it to be fairly easy. You do have to make sure that you download the drivers to your computer, if you haven't already.  MAKE SURE THE BATTERY ON YOUR 960 IS WELL-CHARGED BEFORE MAKING FIRMWARE CHANGES.
 
Here is the process for downloading the drivers to your computer:   The drivers are contained in the file that you downloaded from the Xuelin website (ihifiupimg.rar). Once you open this main file, you will find the folder "Release_DriverAssistant".  Open this folder and you will then see a subfolder "Release_DriverAssistant".  Open this subfolder and then you will find a file named "DriverInstall.exe".  Click on this file and it will extract and open on your computer.  A pop-up will appear on your screen "RK Driver Assistant".  Select "Install Driver" and another pop-up will appear that asks you if you want to install the device software.  Click on "Install"; after several seconds, the pop-up that asks you if you want to install device software appears again (I'm not sure why this happens, but it does).  Just click on "Install" again.  After another minute or so, you should see a pop-up that says "Install Ok"   Once you see this, then you have loaded the drivers you need, and you can then proceed to change the firmware on your 960.  Good luck.
 
Now comes the process of changing the firmware to the Rockbox firmware.  The firmware you will need is found in Link #2 above.  You only need to download the file labeled as rockbox-ihifi960.zip.  This has the rockbox firmware file (ihifi960_rb.img).  You will need to use the RK27 upgrade image to change the firmware.  Here is the process for this:    Once you feel you are ready to upgrade the firmware, open up the ihifiupimg.rar folder (from Link #1) again and select "RK27Upgrade_I...exe" which should then extract to and open on your computer screen.  The images on the Image tool are not in English in this version, but I can talk you thru the process nevertheless.  First, identify the dialog box in the lower left corner of the image box.  Turn on your 960 and plug your 960 into your usb port; the message in the lower left dialog box should change and will now contain  a message that reads something like "...RK27 MSC...".  Your 960 screen should say something like "iHiFi usb connection".  Once you see these messages, then look towards the upper 1/3 of the upgrade image box on your computer and you will see a small box that has the number 80 in it.  Now, just to the right of the number box, you will see a row of 4 buttons; you will click on the 2nd button just to the right of the number 80 box.  This is the "switch" button.  The message in the left lower dialog box will now change to something that contains "...RK27 Loader..."  Now, just under the row of the 4 buttons, you will see another small dialog box that has the word "Image" on its left side.  Go to the Right side of this same dialog box and click on the button with "..." in it.  This will open a widow where you will select the ihifi960_rb firmware from your thumbdrive.  Select the firmware file and press "open". The firmware img will then appear in the Image dialog box.  After this happens, then go back to the row with the 4 buttons, and click on the 1st box to the right of the number box (the number box now should read 688135).  This is the Upgrade button.  After you press the Upgrade button, you should start to see message lines appear in the large box that fills the bottom half of the Image.  Once the upgrade process is completed, your 960 screen will have 2-3 lines of print at the top of its screen and may appear frozen.  Turn the 960 off with its toggle switch to reset the player.  The Rockbox firmware is now on your 960, but you can not use Rockbox until after your have extracted the Rockbox daily build (.rockbox: found in Link #3) to your microsd card.  So once you have installed the Rockbox firmware onto your 960 and you have inserted your microsd card with the extracted daily build, turn the player back on as you normally would (toggle switch on, then face button on) and you should see the rockbox logo page appear on your 960 screen.   Now you are ready to use and explore the benefits of your Rockbox'd iHiFi960.  Good luck.
 
If you find that the Rockbox firmware is not for you, the process to remove Rockbox and replace with Xuelin firmware is as follows:  OK, so start with your 960 off and make sure the microsd card with the .rockbox file is in the microsd slot.  If the microsd card is not in the player, then the upgrade image will not recognize the player.  Then turn the 960 on by the usual method (toggle switch on, then face button on).  Your 960 screen will have 4 lines of print, with the last line saying "Entering rockchip usb mode...".  Then open up the RK27 upgrade image as outlined above.  The dialog box in the lower left corner will read "...RK27 MaskRom..." Then go thru the same process as above to get to the "image" dialog box.  You will now select the Xuelin firmware (which can be downloaded from the Xuelin website, i-hifi,com, under the section "Events and News"; again download to thumbdrive).  The latest firmware for the 960 is "HIFI-old-chinese-726"  Complete the firmware loading process as above and the latest firmware from Xuelin will now be on your 960.  This version is in Chinese, so to change the language, you will need to go to the Settings menu, go down to the 3rd line, select and you will see your language options.  However, the icons will still be labeled in Chinese with this version.  I do not know why they have not posted an English version....  Good luck.

Here is a picture of the upgrade image.  In the process of changing firmware, the dialog box in the lower left corner is labeled #5.  The first button you select in the process is labeled #2 (switch).  To find the firmware you wish to add to the player, push button labeled #4.  Once the firmware image is listed in the image dialog box, then press the button labeled #1 (upgrade).  Refer to the primer above for more details on the process of firmware upgrades...

Very well done concise tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to do this, and it really must have taken some serious time to put together.

Nick N,
 
Thanks.  I just hope some who own the 960 (at least the dual core) will give Rockbox a try to see how much this player (and all the Xuelin players for that matter) can benefit from firmware improvements.  And I don't mean just with setting options.  I used to have significant problems playing certain FLAC files on my 960.  But since adding Rockbox, I have had no problems at all.  This problem with FLAC files is often brought up in one of the Russian audio forums and the folks over there tend to blame the the the problem on the Rockchip processor...  This is simply not the case; it is a firmware problem...  I think Xuelin may have partially addressed this problem with new firmware updates, but as far as I can tell, the Rockbox program is still a much more complete solution.  Xuelin needs to learn from FiiO:  Determine the most important benefits of Rocbox and modify these benefits for the Xuelin players.  I can guarantee the value of all Xuelin players would increase markedly if they took the time to do this...  I guess, though, it just boils down to whether Xuelin is committed enough to their products to do this.  They certainly have nice hardware, now they need to find a way to improve their software....

I just thought I would add a little bit of an update on the process of Rockboxing the iHiFi960; this update also applies to firmware upgrades developed by Xuelin for the 960, and presumably for all other Xuelin DAPs since they all use an RK27 processor.  When I have changed the firmware on my Xuelin DAPs (960 modified, 960 dual core, 800, 770, original 770C and modified 770C) using the RK27 upgrade image, I have used Dell laptop computers with Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit).  One of my laptops has the Centrino processor and the other has Core 2 Duo processor.  Each of these computers has functioned very well in the firmware upgrade process, the process runs very smoothly.  I have used one other laptop to complete this process successfully:  Lenovo Thinkpad T410 with Core i5 processor and Windows 7 Pro.  However, in my own experience and unfortunately in the experience of one other fellow Headfier, there have been ? insurmountable problems with firmware upgrades using other laptops with Core i5 or i7 processors.  In my experience, a newer Lenovo laptop with Core i5 processor and Windows 7 Enterprise did not work at all (sorry I don't remember the model number of this Lenovo laptop).  In any event, it looked like the drivers for the RK27upgrade image were not compatible with this set-up. I have also been informed that the firmware upgrade process has not worked using a Thinkpad laptop X201 32-bit i5 Windows 7.  If ANY ONE out there with ANY of the Xuelin DAPs has been able to successfully change  firmware using Laptops with Windows 7 and Core i5 or Core i7 processors, PLEASE share with us details of your computer and upgrade process, so we can try to help others upgrade firmware successfully.  By the way, there is still no Rockbox port for any of the 770s or the 800, but the Rockbox port for the 960 (at least for the dual-core version) works very, very well in my opinion, and I am still thoroughly enjoying it....  Thanks.

While looking in on the Chinese forum, Baidu.com, I stumbled upon the following thread re: Rockbox for the iHiFi 960 (http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4050835448):  .  Although I was happy to see that some 960 owners in China are using this thread as a resource, I was let down to see that they were having problems.  I have checked all the download links tonite and they are working well for me.  I'll be honest, I can't really figure out the problem that the OP is having (due to rough translation process), but I would be more than happy to help anyone/someone get Rockbox on their 960.  If any of you all out there reading this post can help our Chinese colleagues or help me help our Chinese colleagues please let me know.  I've tried to sign up as a member on baidu.com, but I've not been successful.  For any of you that have a 960 (I have a 960 dual-core and the 960 modified), the Rockbox program really opens up the function of the player and you should strongly consider at least a trial session; the process of upgrade is completely reversible so there is absolutely nothing to lose by trying...just study the instructions I have put together in this primer....  I will say that the Rockbox is more stable in the dual-core model, but it is very workable in both.  The biggest thing to recognize is that with the 960 (single DAC), you may have to restart the player (toggle off, then on with press center face button) 3-4 times to "boot up" the program on the player.  With the dual-core model, the Rockbox program comes on every time the player is turned on.  Once the Rockbox program is on, it functions well on both players...  The other thing to remember is that the rockbox image has to replace the Xuelin firmware in the player, and the Rockbox daily build has to be extracted to the microsd card...  The other thing to remember is that the microsd card with the Rockbox daily build has got to be in the microsd slot when you attempt to replace the Rockbox image on the player with the Xuelin firmware (this may be the problem the OP is having)...
 
So, if any of you have any friends in China who are wrestling with the Rockbox program, and if there is any thing I can do to help them, just let me know.  Thanks.

Not the best picture in the world, but it does show the Rockbox'd 960 (this is modified version) in action...  I have increased the font on rockbox to make the title easier to read.

What a huge difference there.

I have recently been reminded that some computer systems that use Windows 7 still have to run the "RK27Upgrade_Image.exe" as administrator to complete the firmware upgrade process.  A colleague of ours has a computer with Windows 7 and an i3 processor and he was unable to change the firmware on his iHiFi 770 by simply double clicking on the "RK27Upgrade_Image.exe" and opening it.  He had to right click on the "RK27Upgrade_Image.exe" and choose the "Run as Administrator" option to complete the process.  So please keep this step in mind... Thanks.

For any of you 960 owners, Xuelin has released a new firmware upgrade.  It is still considered beta, and I'm not sure it offers much except improved navigation and new background pictures (not album art).  I will skip this upgrade in favor of Rockbox, but here is the link for the new upgrade:  http://jump.bdimg.com/safecheck/index?url=x+Z5mMbGPAvVIlwZePSt0B3tEqEFWbC4tOatFxkC6cKQ2oLOM00T9IGJL6c+w7nGPP2r4k33urkdBXn8HUlG+NBFtSac4DHeU+xNJoKltI8gFNtJxmF49aN1KlMpdkvddj2oeHoEzTI=

jdog said:

For any of you 960 owners, Xuelin has released a new firmware upgrade.  It is still considered beta, and I'm not sure it offers much except improved navigation and new background pictures (not album art).  I will skip this upgrade in favor of Rockbox, but here is the link for the new upgrade:  http://jump.bdimg.com/safecheck/index?url=x+Z5mMbGPAvVIlwZePSt0B3tEqEFWbC4tOatFxkC6cKQ2oLOM00T9IGJL6c+w7nGPP2r4k33urkdBXn8HUlG+NBFtSac4DHeU+xNJoKltI8gFNtJxmF49aN1KlMpdkvddj2oeHoEzTI=

Click to expand...

Just picked up a used dual core for a great price,love this thing so far,built like a tank and great outputs to connect into mojo if desired,will upgrade to new firmware tonight,will hold off on rockbox for a bit,got an ibasso DX50 at the same time and the 960,s sq is better,rockboxed the DX50 but it doesnt play some of my flac files which play ok in mango and on the 960,can you tell me what advantages you find with the rockboxed firmware,does it change sq?

Any comparisons with dx90 by any chance??? Just asking for future reference.

Havent heard DX90 but its not very far away from AK120.

cattlethief said:

Just picked up a used dual core for a great price,love this thing so far,built like a tank and great outputs to connect into mojo if desired,will upgrade to new firmware tonight,will hold off on rockbox for a bit,got an ibasso DX50 at the same time and the 960,s sq is better,rockboxed the DX50 but it doesnt play some of my flac files which play ok in mango and on the 960,can you tell me what advantages you find with the rockboxed firmware,does it change sq?

Click to expand...

I do not feel that Rockbox has changed the sound quality of the player, but there are sound setting changes you can make with rockbox (stereo width, treble, bass, balance, graphic equalizer) to adjust the sound.  I tend to not use any of these settings, but they are there.  You can also sort your files as you prefer with playback settings, without having to use Drivesort.en or any other manipulation.  There is gapless playback, cue support, and it supports more file formats, including Apple formats.  I have had no problems at all with FLAC files and the player will play high resolution FLAC.  There is also album art display.  The only down-side is that you cannot access music on internal memory, but I've gotten around this by using 128 gb micro card; you have to load the music onto the card outside of the player, but this is faster anyway...  Remember, you can always remove rockbox from your player if you don't like it; if you do, just make sure you have your microcard with the daily rockbox build on it in the microcard slot when you change back to Xuelin firmware...  So for me, going back to Xuelin firmware is not even a consideration, as the 960 dual core is a much better DAP with Rockbox...  Good luck..  By the way, if you have been able to change the firmware on your 960, then you will have absolutely no problems at all putting the rockbox firmware on your player, and you just have to extract the rockbox daily build to your microcard.  Feel free to let me know if you need any help.

Jdog,
many thanks for your great work, really very well firmware and tutorial, I have flash your firmware to my iHiFi 960, It works very well.
I am Chinese and as far as I know, there are many Chinese people use iHiFi 960/800/760.
for post #6, I checked http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4050835448, because many more people in China can not access the Google Driver in your link 2, so once I get your permission, I can put the rockbox-ihifi960.zip to Baidu Cloud, or translate your tutorials into Chinese.