[xyz]

recently aquired one of these, have read the v1 is rockboxable while the v2 is not. i don't know how to tell what kind mine is, and also have never installed rockbox. help would be much appreciated right now.

 

[Drpepper]

Go into Settings and check your firmware. If the version starts with 01 it is definitely a V1, if it starts with 03 (I think) it is a V2. Currently, only V1s are Rockbox-able. If you can, Rockbox it, it makes it a much better player.

 

[xyz]

version: 01.01.05

so, rockboxable then?

can you tell me how exactly? i downloaded the zip but there's no self-install that i can se

 

[Febs]

You can find installation instructions in the Rockbox Manual, which you can check out here: Rockbox - Daily Built Manuals

There are basically three steps:

1. You need to put your player into MSC mode in the original firmware.

2. You need to install the Rockbox bootloader, which is the low-level code that tells your player to load Rockbox.

3. You need to install the Rockbox firmware itself, which is known as a "build."

The manual explains how to do each of these. If you have specific questions, please ask.

 

[tstarn06]

Guess I am an idiot. I tried to rockbox my e270 ($49 refurb via Woot!). Despite following directions, all I got was a black startup screen that harkened back to the days of DOS. I finally got frustrated and just reverted back to the original Sansa firmware. My issue is every time I turn the thing on, it refreshes the database (a two-minute process). I googled the problem, but none of the fixes seem to work. Just decided to live with it. Someone online says if you use the sd card, it refreshes every time. But when I remove the card, it still refreshes.

The e270 has 6GB plus I added the aforementioned 2GB sd card. Good price for a decent 8GB DAP with FM, voice recorder, etc.

Anyway, Rockbox is a little too geeky for my limited talents. And not even sure if it would get rid of that refresh database annoyance.

 

[xyz]

i'm still really confused and probably doing this out of order but i believe i downloaded the bootloader and it said no c200 found and to ensure i have it in UMS mode. how do i do that?

 

[Febs]

UMS mode is the same as MSC mode. You do it in the original firmware:

Settings --> USB Mode --> MSC.

The later versions of the Sansa firmware don't have this option. If your version doesn't have this option, then you need to downgrade the original firmware to an earlier version that does, which is a little trickier and involves using what's called "recovery mode."

 

[Drpepper]

Do yourself a favor. Go to rockbox and search for rbutilqt.exe . It's a completely automated installation tool. About as easy as it gets.