Ipod classic - rockbox - its happening.
Apr 2, 2014 at 10:23 PM Post #3,001 of 3,645
 
Felt the same way 2-3 years ago until I discovered Rockbox. Then my Classic was reborn and I still use it every single day.
The Emcore versions I'd recommend are r859 and r862. As for the version of Rockbox, I use new daily builds.
In Emcore you can set to auto boot Rockbox, that saves a bit of time. I'm not sure, but you might be able to make it a bit faster by manually removing the games and apps from the .rockbox-folder. The original firmware has this hibernate function, compared to that Rockbox boots somewhat slowly on the Classic. I've set my Classic to auto resume playback upon booting, from fully switched off to hearing music takes 9 seconds.
 
And remember, Rockbox is firmware/software. It gives you complete freedom to adjust the device according to your preferences, but it doesn't magically increase the quality of the headphone jack :)
 
Edit: 200 pages and almost 3000 posts; this thread got big
biggrin.gif

 


Do you have a link where I can download emcore r862?
 
Apr 3, 2014 at 5:28 AM Post #3,002 of 3,645
   
Could you elaborate on this a little please? I didn't realise there was any under-volting involved..

 
I'm not a dev, just a user, so anyone with knowledge is welcome to correct me if I'm wrong.
The CPU in the Classic originally runs max at 216 MHz. I have no idea how the original firmware scales, but some two years ago Castor Munoz wrote a patch for this port which introduced frequency scaling. Before then, a Rockboxed Classic had a battery life of only 5 to 6 hours. This was because the CPU constantly worked at 216 MHz, and also because there was no LCD sleep (screen was always turned on) and the hdd activity was configured inefficiently.
 
After some updates the patch got more sophisticated, and now the CPU in your Classic will run at 216 MHz on 1.2V when there is a load (like booting or updating your music database). But most of the time it will run at 54 MHz on 1.05V (or .95V in most or aroldans builds), more than enough for decoding music files. This, combined with the LCD sleep patch and a hdd which shuts down directly after filling the buffer, drastically improved the battery life. It was amazing to see my Classic's playback time going from 6 hours to 25-30 hours! Hats off to the devs :wink:
 
You can check out the frequencies for yourself. Go to System -> Debug (yes) -> View HW info. There you can use the scroll wheel to view all the information.
 
In one of aroldans builds (I believe it's 130217) there is a experimental patch which clocks the CPU even lower (to 27 MHz). It feels quite slow, so either it's too low or something is not optimised. However, it could increase the battery life a bit. But in the end the HDD eats by far the most juice.
 
Quote:
Do you have a link where I can download emcore r862?

 
It used to be available here: http://builds.freemyipod.org/
Don't know what happened, but it only shows incomplete current version. I have it somewhere on my computer, I'll let you know if I have found it.
 
Apr 3, 2014 at 8:25 AM Post #3,003 of 3,645
Originally Posted by r100 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
I'm not a dev, just a user, so anyone with knowledge is welcome to correct me if I'm wrong.
The CPU in the Classic originally runs max at 216 MHz. I have no idea how the original firmware scales, but some two years ago Castor Munoz wrote a patch for this port which introduced frequency scaling. Before then, a Rockboxed Classic had a battery life of only 5 to 6 hours. This was because the CPU constantly worked at 216 MHz, and also because there was no LCD sleep (screen was always turned on) and the hdd activity was configured inefficiently.
 
After some updates the patch got more sophisticated, and now the CPU in your Classic will run at 216 MHz on 1.2V when there is a load (like booting or updating your music database). But most of the time it will run at 54 MHz on 1.05V (or .95V in most or aroldans builds), more than enough for decoding music files. This, combined with the LCD sleep patch and a hdd which shuts down directly after filling the buffer, drastically improved the battery life. It was amazing to see my Classic's playback time going from 6 hours to 25-30 hours! Hats off to the devs :wink:
 
You can check out the frequencies for yourself. Go to System -> Debug (yes) -> View HW info. There you can use the scroll wheel to view all the information.
 
In one of aroldans builds (I believe it's 130217) there is a experimental patch which clocks the CPU even lower (to 27 MHz). It feels quite slow, so either it's too low or something is not optimised. However, it could increase the battery life a bit. But in the end the HDD eats by far the most juice.

Hmm...I need to look into this when I give my new iPod a go tomorrow. Just purchased a used iPod Classic 160gb Skinny, and instantly put RockBox following the instructions on freemyipods.org.  All thanks to reading through this thread. I wanted something with a bigger HDD, but needed to do so in a budget.  Seeing that RockBox was a thing, and pretty stable I got convinced and bought one. So far so good. Did a stereo test using the files off here, http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_stereo.php, and worked perfectly.
 
As of right now I have no patches applied. Kinda decided not to do so seeing how much work it was just to do so. Gonna give a full run through test to see if I would even need them first. In the mean time is there an easier way to apply the patches than what can be found on the rockbox wiki?
 
Apr 3, 2014 at 9:10 AM Post #3,004 of 3,645
  Hmm...I need to look into this when I give my new iPod a go tomorrow. Just purchased a used iPod Classic 160gb Skinny, and instantly put RockBox following the instructions on freemyipods.org.  All thanks to reading through this thread. I wanted something with a bigger HDD, but needed to do so in a budget.  Seeing that RockBox was a thing, and pretty stable I got convinced and bought one. So far so good. Did a stereo test using the files off here, http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_stereo.php, and worked perfectly.
 
As of right now I have no patches applied. Kinda decided not to do so seeing how much work it was just to do so. Gonna give a full run through test to see if I would even need them first. In the mean time is there an easier way to apply the patches than what can be found on the rockbox wiki?

 
No need, at least all the patches I mentioned before have been merged, so they are already in the daily builds (and in most of aroldans builds as well).
 
Apr 3, 2014 at 9:27 AM Post #3,005 of 3,645
No need, at least all the patches I mentioned before have been merged, so they are already in the daily builds (and in most of aroldans builds as well).

This is great news to hear. Now I don't have to do the crazy setup to do the patches. Saves me so much time. Thanks!
 
Apr 4, 2014 at 1:36 AM Post #3,006 of 3,645
I have run into a bit of a snag today.  My iPod is not recognized when booted to my Mac OSx side, but recognized when booted to Win7 side. Anyone else run into this type of issue, and is there a fix of some sort? Would be nice not have to boot to Win7 just to load music.  Other than that it is running strong.
 
Apr 4, 2014 at 8:44 AM Post #3,007 of 3,645
Do you have a link where I can download emcore r862?

 
Here are three versions: http://www.head-fi.org/t/532426/ipod-classic-rockbox-its-happening/2055#post_9086639
 
 
  I have run into a bit of a snag today.  My iPod is not recognized when booted to my Mac OSx side, but recognized when booted to Win7 side. Anyone else run into this type of issue, and is there a fix of some sort? Would be nice not have to boot to Win7 just to load music.  Other than that it is running strong.

 
There's no fix for this yet, it seems to be a hit or miss on OSX. For some it works, for some it doesn't. A few users posted that booting the backup image from the emcore menu works for USB transfer..
 
Apr 4, 2014 at 1:10 PM Post #3,008 of 3,645
 
   
Here are three versions: http://www.head-fi.org/t/532426/ipod-classic-rockbox-its-happening/2055#post_9086639
 
 
 
There's no fix for this yet, it seems to be a hit or miss on OSX. For some it works, for some it doesn't. A few users posted that booting the backup image from the emcore menu works for USB transfer..


 
Thanks mate, appreciate it a lot.
 
Apr 4, 2014 at 9:05 PM Post #3,009 of 3,645
  There's no fix for this yet, it seems to be a hit or miss on OSX. For some it works, for some it doesn't. A few users posted that booting the backup image from the emcore menu works for USB transfer..

 
Thanks for the tip. I will give this a try, and see how it goes.
 
Apr 5, 2014 at 4:04 AM Post #3,010 of 3,645
Has anyone done this successfully on a Windows 8? Specifically the iPod classic 7th version. 
 
Apr 6, 2014 at 8:44 AM Post #3,011 of 3,645
   
There's no fix for this yet, it seems to be a hit or miss on OSX. For some it works, for some it doesn't. A few users posted that booting the backup image from the emcore menu works for USB transfer.
 
   
Thanks for the tip. I will give this a try, and see how it goes.
 

 
Worked like a charm.  I have to say thanks to this mod I don't see me buying another source for sometime.  The battery life is excellent imho.  Too bad my FiiO E11 cannot keep up with it when it comes to terms of battery life.
 
 

 
Apr 6, 2014 at 6:31 PM Post #3,012 of 3,645
  I have run into a bit of a snag today.  My iPod is not recognized when booted to my Mac OSx side, but recognized when booted to Win7 side. Anyone else run into this type of issue, and is there a fix of some sort? Would be nice not have to boot to Win7 just to load music.  Other than that it is running strong.

 
Actually, there is a "fix" for this. I had the same issue. The main reason I wanted to Rockbox my iPod Classic was to get away from iTunes and the inability to automatically sync with my media server. I was disappointed once I Rockboxed it and realized it wouldn't connect as a drive to my Mac. Sort of defeated the purpose. I have no desire to use a Windows machine or boot it on my Mac just for transferring files. In a nutshell, what you have to do is change the Vendor/Product ID in the iPod to an ID from another USB device such as a memory stick. It's a bit of work but well worth it in my opinion. You have to download the RB source code and modify the ID codes in one file then compile the code and copy to your iPod. You won't lose any music when you do it but it will reset back to the default RB settings because it will be from the original code. It's well worth it.
 
I will see if I can find the links to the instructions to do all of this because I don't remember all of the steps. I will post this then post the links once I find them.
 
Dave
 
Apr 6, 2014 at 6:43 PM Post #3,013 of 3,645
Here is where you should start for the steps to changing the V/Pid. One other thing I should note is I did all of this in Linux (Ubuntu) as I have my Mac setup with it in dual-boot configuration. That's a bit of work in itself. But, if you're adventurous and have any interest in Linux, it's the way to go. You may be able to do it in Windows but I'm not sure. You won't be able to do on the Mac until you get it to recognize the iPod. Catch 22!
 
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,43493.msg220761.html#msg220761
 
IMO, it's all worth it to be free from iTunes AND Windows. I hope this helps. Mac users shouldn't be left out of this awesome iPod mod. 
k701smile.gif

 
Good luck. Let me know if you have any questions and I will try and help.
 
Dave
 
Apr 6, 2014 at 8:16 PM Post #3,014 of 3,645
   
Actually, there is a "fix" for this. I had the same issue. The main reason I wanted to Rockbox my iPod Classic was to get away from iTunes and the inability to automatically sync with my media server. I was disappointed once I Rockboxed it and realized it wouldn't connect as a drive to my Mac. Sort of defeated the purpose. I have no desire to use a Windows machine or boot it on my Mac just for transferring files. In a nutshell, what you have to do is change the Vendor/Product ID in the iPod to an ID from another USB device such as a memory stick. It's a bit of work but well worth it in my opinion. You have to download the RB source code and modify the ID codes in one file then compile the code and copy to your iPod. You won't lose any music when you do it but it will reset back to the default RB settings because it will be from the original code. It's well worth it.
 
I will see if I can find the links to the instructions to do all of this because I don't remember all of the steps. I will post this then post the links once I find them.
 
Dave
 
Quote:
  Here is where you should start for the steps to changing the V/Pid. One other thing I should note is I did all of this in Linux (Ubuntu) as I have my Mac setup with it in dual-boot configuration. That's a bit of work in itself. But, if you're adventurous and have any interest in Linux, it's the way to go. You may be able to do it in Windows but I'm not sure. You won't be able to do on the Mac until you get it to recognize the iPod. Catch 22!
 
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,43493.msg220761.html#msg220761
 
IMO, it's all worth it to be free from iTunes AND Windows. I hope this helps. Mac users shouldn't be left out of this awesome iPod mod. 
k701smile.gif

 
Good luck. Let me know if you have any questions and I will try and help.
 
Dave

 
Sounds like a challenge I will accept.  I have Win7 loaded on my MacBook for work purposes, mainly just to do a game review that is not Mac supported, but hate having to boot it even for that.  If like you said this fix will rid me of that, and be a solution of all solutions then I will gladly do the work needed to do so.  Just need to make the time for it.  In the middle of wrapping of some work items, and on my way to Boston for the weekend.  Don't want to do much messing around right now with a 18 hour flight coming up this week.
 
Thanks again for the info.
 
Apr 7, 2014 at 12:59 AM Post #3,015 of 3,645
   
Sounds like a challenge I will accept.  I have Win7 loaded on my MacBook for work purposes, mainly just to do a game review that is not Mac supported, but hate having to boot it even for that.  If like you said this fix will rid me of that, and be a solution of all solutions then I will gladly do the work needed to do so.  Just need to make the time for it.  In the middle of wrapping of some work items, and on my way to Boston for the weekend.  Don't want to do much messing around right now with a 18 hour flight coming up this week.
 
Thanks again for the info.

How did you get windows 7 on your mac if you don't mind me asking 
 

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