[geisterfaust]

I also have a question regarding modding iPod Classics (mine is a 6th gen).

1) I want Rockbox on it! I ran Rockbox on a third generation iPod some 10-15 years ago, and I've disliked the Apple firmware and how OSX handles music since.
2) I want to upgrade the storage to solid state technology, and the iFlash mSATA adaptor looked really good for price vs. storage.
3) I intend to use the iPod as a portable source and player for a portable DAC, with the iPod passing the file to the DAC for actual processing. I understand that the external DAC would require its own power, and the mSATA drive would likely necessitate an external power source as well, like a pair of wall warts or a portable backup battery, so my use of the word "portable" is more like a travel setup.
4) As far as portable DAC/amps go, I'm really eyeballing the Schiit Fulla2, primarily for their Linux friendliness.

Is this doable?

Howdy!

1) Yes, it is doable, there is a Rockbox build for the 6th gen Classic. Keep in mind that this build does not allow you to have the dual boot option. More info here: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodClassicPort
2) Yes, the mSata is the best storage-price ratio, but keep in mind that the battery will last much less than using SD cards. I'm going for the iFlash Quad + SD cards, I want my iPod to have the best runtime as possible. Also keep in mind that you have to keep an eye on the battery level, don't let it go bellow 25% or the drive will shut down or might even corrupt itself.
3) You don't need a different power source for the mSata + iPod, you most likely be okay using one of those 3000 mAh batteries that you can find on Ebay.
4) Can't help you with that since I do not own one.

 

[Erich]

Howdy!

1) Yes, it is doable, there is a Rockbox build for the 6th gen Classic. Keep in mind that this build does not allow you to have the dual boot option. More info here: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IpodClassicPort
2) Yes, the mSata is the best storage-price ratio, but keep in mind that the battery will last much less than using SD cards. I'm going for the iFlash Quad + SD cards, I want my iPod to have the best runtime as possible. Also keep in mind that you have to keep an eye on the battery level, don't let it go bellow 25% or the drive will shut down or might even corrupt itself.
3) You don't need a different power source for the mSata + iPod, you most likely be okay using one of those 3000 mAh batteries that you can find on Ebay.
4) Can't help you with that since I do not own one.

1) Sweet!! I don't want the dual-boot.
2) That was the reasoning behind getting a backup battery that you mentioned in...
3) That's basically what I was going to get. My wife has an awesome battery, and I'd love to get a couple more.
4) Ok, cool. I think I'm going to email Schiit directly and see what they have to say.

 

[MikeyFresh]

4) Ok, cool. I think I'm going to email Schiit directly and see what they have to say.

You should first confirm Rockbox compatibility with the Classic's digital output via the 30-pin dock connector.

Last I knew, that functionality was not supported in Rockbox, though that may have changed.

 

[morefilling]

I'm unable to join the Rockbox forum. I've tried multiple times, but my confirmation email never comes through. Anyone else having this problem?
I'm trying to reorder the playlists on my ipod. Rockbox seems to place them in a different order than the source folder. I searched the Rockbox forum and the suggestion seems to be to rename the tracks; however, some of my playlists have thousands of songs. Does anyone know a way to keep the track order of the source folder? Or perhaps a way to change the order of the songs once they are already on the ipod? iTunes has a "copy to play order". Does Rockbox have something similar? Also, I don't use the database.

 

[ThinWalls]

I'm unable to join the Rockbox forum. I've tried multiple times, but my confirmation email never comes through. Anyone else having this problem?
.

Hesitate to suggest it as it's such a common issue chances are you've already checked for it - but could it be getting mistakenly diverted to fo a spam folder?

I'm trying to reorder the playlists on my ipod. Rockbox seems to place them in a different order than the source folder. I searched the Rockbox forum and the suggestion seems to be to rename the tracks; however, some of my playlists have thousands of songs. Does anyone know a way to keep the track order of the source folder? Or perhaps a way to change the order of the songs once they are already on the ipod? iTunes has a "copy to play order". Does Rockbox have something similar? Also, I don't use the database
.

Not clear what you are asking. I assume when you say 'reorder the playlists' you mean re-order the tracks within a given playlist, rather than reorder the playlists in the list of playlists?

Also you flip between talking about 'playlists' and talking about 'folders' - which do you mean?

How do you create your playlists in the first place?

 

[morefilling]

Hesitate to suggest it as it's such a common issue chances are you've already checked for it - but could it be getting mistakenly diverted to fo a spam folder?



Not clear what you are asking. I assume when you say 'reorder the playlists' you mean re-order the tracks within a given playlist, rather than reorder the playlists in the list of playlists?

Also you flip between talking about 'playlists' and talking about 'folders' - which do you mean?

How do you create your playlists in the first place?

It's not in the spam folder.
Yes, the tracks get re-ordered. My playlists are folders. I copy say "Classic Rock" folder (or playlist) from my computer to my ipod but the tracks are in a different order in the folder on the ipod than they were in the original folder. Is there a way to keep this from happening?

 

[turkeyphant]

I'm unable to join the Rockbox forum. I've tried multiple times, but my confirmation email never comes through. Anyone else having this problem?

Joined without issue very recently using custom-domain Google Apps email. Regular Gmail should also be fine but whitelist the domain if you still have issues.

 

[ThinWalls]

It's not in the spam folder.
Yes, the tracks get re-ordered. My playlists are folders. I copy say "Classic Rock" folder (or playlist) from my computer to my ipod but the tracks are in a different order in the folder on the ipod than they were in the original folder. Is there a way to keep this from happening?

To me, folders and playlists are two completely different concepts. I don't see you can say they get re-ordered as folders don't _have_ an intrinsic order for their contents, you specify an order when you say what property to sort by when you come to view them or do something with them.

I don't get how you expect rockbox to know the order you want the tracks in. Are they numbered in sequence in some tag field?

Anyway, if you create a dynamic playlist from the contents of a folder in Rockbox it will use alphabetic order by default. From what you've said I don't get what else it could do.

Are you asking for it to create a dynamic playlist based on ordering the contents of the folder by some particular tag field? If so, you could either use the database or just run something like mp3tag to prefix the filename with the tag-field you want to sort by (which will only take a minute or so for even hundreds of tracks)

 

[ThinWalls]

1) Sweet!! I don't want the dual-boot.
2) That was the reasoning behind getting a backup battery that you mentioned in...
3) That's basically what I was going to get. My wife has an awesome battery, and I'd love to get a couple more.
4) Ok, cool. I think I'm going to email Schiit directly and see what they have to say.

I'm not sure whether this applies to the SSD mod or not. But with sdcard mods you really do need dual-boot as it's the only way to safely sync. Perhaps SSDs don't have that issue, been so long since I had an ssd pod I can't remember.

 

[Imod]

I'm not sure whether this applies to the SSD mod or not. But with sdcard mods you really do need dual-boot as it's the only way to safely sync. Perhaps SSDs don't have that issue

With SSDs, you can sync without any issues in Rockbox. It is only with SD or micro SD cards that the files get corrupted. The only thing is that file transfer is slower in Rockbox than in OF.

 

[morefilling]

To me, folders and playlists are two completely different concepts. I don't see you can say they get re-ordered as folders don't _have_ an intrinsic order for their contents, you specify an order when you say what property to sort by when you come to view them or do something with them.

I don't get how you expect rockbox to know the order you want the tracks in. Are they numbered in sequence in some tag field?

Anyway, if you create a dynamic playlist from the contents of a folder in Rockbox it will use alphabetic order by default. From what you've said I don't get what else it could do.

Are you asking for it to create a dynamic playlist based on ordering the contents of the folder by some particular tag field? If so, you could either use the database or just run something like mp3tag to prefix the filename with the tag-field you want to sort by (which will only take a minute or so for even hundreds of tracks)

I like to specify the playlist folders to be re-ordered by artist. On my OF ipods, I can re-order by artist, right click & choose "copy to play order" and the songs will stay in that order on the ipod. Is there a way to do this in Rockbox? Would something like mp3tag arrange a 2000+ song playlist in order by artist?

 

[ThinWalls]

I like to specify the playlist folders to be re-ordered by artist. On my OF ipods, I can re-order by artist, right click & choose "copy to play order" and the songs will stay in that order on the ipod. Is there a way to do this in Rockbox? Would something like mp3tag arrange a 2000+ song playlist in order by artist?

Really, that sort of ordering is what the database is for, because 'artist' is in the tag, and the file browser doesn't really know about tags, just the file name and directory., Only the database browser knows the tag stuff. I suppose they could have written a file-browser that incorporated the database tag info as well, but they didn't and it's probably too late to add it in now.

You could certainly use mp3tag or something like it to prepend the artist name at the start of the filename for a track, though that might look a bit untidy (but some music files, come to think of it, come named like that to start with, so it's not unknown). So SomeAritstOrOther_ThisSongOftheirs.mp3


ITunes + original firmware builds it's own database, no?

Hey, this thread pretty much explains the topic - file browser can't access tags without reading the file, and that would slow it down massively. That's why there's a database builder to do all that tag-reading work beforehand and put it in a database.
(just a pity database update doesn't work on flash modded ipods!)

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=14487.0

 

[iamloco724]

Anyone know of a small carrying case for this? I have only been able to find ones that are either too small or way too big. Would like as close to a perfect fit as possible it would just be holding the ipod and my gr07 iems.

 

[Erich]

I'm not sure whether this applies to the SSD mod or not. But with sdcard mods you really do need dual-boot as it's the only way to safely sync. Perhaps SSDs don't have that issue, been so long since I had an ssd pod I can't remember.

Just found out that the iPod -> Fulla 2 won't work how I want it to, so I've figured I'll just jazz up my iPod and leave it at that.

 

[Erich]

You should first confirm Rockbox compatibility with the Classic's digital output via the 30-pin dock connector.

Last I knew, that functionality was not supported in Rockbox, though that may have changed.

Just checked, and it won't work out like how I wanted, so I think I'm going to try a Raspberry Pi-based "portable" Hi-Fi system and just upgrade the storage in the iPod. Thanks for the heads-up!