Porting Rockbox to YP-R0 (FAQ in the 1st post)

[lebellium]

Originally Posted by Mikah

and the not mentioned invisible testers xD!

Yeah that's funny, even though before each release we say to each other with lorenzo and VanniX "we have to carefully test the firmware before releasing to offer the user the best experience possible without any bug, so actually just acting the contrary of the Samsung R&D, in the end we also release buggy firmware like Samsung But it's VanniX fault after all, not mine lol

Thanks again, time to "chmod" myself to read only^^

To keep the community alive, we need people who regularly and actively participate here, not "read-only" users


BTW, I updated the 1st post of this thread with fw 2.50.

[CrowdAds]

[VanniX]

Originally Posted by lebellium

Yeah that's funny, even though before each release we say to each other with lorenzo and VanniX "we have to carefully test the firmware before releasing to offer the user the best experience possible without any bug, so actually just acting the contrary of the Samsung R&D, in the end we also release buggy firmware like Samsung But it's VanniX fault after all, not mine lol

I just forgot to try it without sd...

[Appick]

Originally Posted by VanniX

I just forgot to try it without sd...

Yikkkeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss

()

[lebellium]

Originally Posted by Predelnik

By the way for those who desperately want to use graphical eq, apply this simple patch:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7694232/graphical_eq_fix.patch

or just download compiled rockbox with applied patch here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7694232/rockbox.zip

Probably I should add this on their patch tracker but I guess I'll check if all other keymappings are good to make patch more serious .

Your patch is now included to the official builds, thanks

[Predelnik]

Originally Posted by lebellium

Your patch is now included to the official builds, thanks

Yeah I've seen it, thank you, proud to be of at least a little help in developing rockbox build for this player

[saxonwolfcock]

Hey lebellium, first just wanted to say thanks for your hard work with the R0 and rockbox! I used to own a 16gb R0 but never got round to installing rockbox, then I lost the R0... I just the other day bought another one (this time a 4gb with a 32gb MicroSDHC card) and finally got round to installing rockbox and had it working perfectly. However I have encountered a problem...

First I put the modded firmware v2.51 on there then copied the rockbox software to the root of the R0, and some mp3 files onto the MicroSD and all seemed to work perfectly... however when I copied some more of my music onto the MicroSD card via Winamp, the transfer kept failing and the folders that did transfer were corrupt. I assumed this was a problem with the SD card so I reformatted the card using FAT32 (as before) and re-copied my music onto it. However, this time when I loaded the MicroSD into the R0 and tried to build the database, it keeps hanging after 7000 or so files and I have to reboot the player.

I have tried building the database with the MicroSD not inserted in the player (I was certain it was a problem with the card), also I have removed everything from the R0 internal memory except for the .rockbox folder, I have even re-downloaded the rockbox folder and re-copied it onto the R0, but no matter what I try it still hangs after roughly 7000 files when building the database...I don't understand what else it might be!

Do you have any suggestions?

Many thanks

[lebellium]

For the hard work on the R0 and Rockbox you should rather thank Lorenzo, Vannix and the other developers. I'm not a developer at all, I'm just the Community Manager who kicks the ass of the developers when they are too lazy

Theoretically Rockbox can handle a 7000 files and more database but in reality it can get problems to build it.
I would rather recommend you to transfer your files in several times and update the library every time you added new files (cursor on database, long press on the central button and select Update Now). That will be probably easier for Rockbox that way rather than Initializing the database with already 7000 files on the player.
From my personal experience on my 16GB R0 without microSD card, the database builds up very fast until the ~4900th file then it gets very slow, almost stuck for several minutes 4936.....4937....4938....one by one... and finally it speeds up again at the end.

Of course there can be another reason but that's a technical topic, maybe it's better to ask on the Rockbox forum/IRC

[Lorenz092]

Originally Posted by lebellium

For the hard work on the R0 and Rockbox you should rather thank Lorenzo, Vannix and the other developers. I'm not a developer at all, I'm just the Community Manager who kicks the ass of the developers when they are too lazy

perfectly said

Anyways, speaking of the patch, many many thanks @Predelnik. That's what we want, active people Again thanks

I try to sum up what else could (...must...) be made for rockbox, something is quite hard for me at the moment so I'll ask help!

- Radio Recording: is possible!! But the ALSA wrapper has to be implemented, I'm done with the initialization part (quite easy since it's share same by all the devices with ascodec)
- RDS: this should be easier, but still to do
- Fixup some codecs
- Possible trivial optimization / code cleanup

On the linux kernel / rom side:

- enable automount of the SD card (still to think about a kind of safe removal from rockbox -> ask community)

[saxonwolfcock]

Originally Posted by lebellium

For the hard work on the R0 and Rockbox you should rather thank Lorenzo, Vannix and the other developers. I'm not a developer at all, I'm just the Community Manager who kicks the ass of the developers when they are too lazy

Theoretically Rockbox can handle a 7000 files and more database but in reality it can get problems to build it.
I would rather recommend you to transfer your files in several times and update the library every time you added new files (cursor on database, long press on the central button and select Update Now). That will be probably easier for Rockbox that way rather than Initializing the database with already 7000 files on the player.
From my personal experience on my 16GB R0 without microSD card, the database builds up very fast until the ~4900th file then it gets very slow, almost stuck for several minutes 4936.....4937....4938....one by one... and finally it speeds up again at the end.

Of course there can be another reason but that's a technical topic, maybe it's better to ask on the Rockbox forum/IRC

Of course! My apologies, I haven't been following the development since the beginning so I wasn't really aware of who did what. But thanks to everyone who has worked hard on the project so far!

As regard my issue, I won't post too much more about it in here since I appreciate this isn't really the place, but hopefully if it can be solved it will help others who stumble across this thread.

So I have done some tests to try to ascertain when the database build will hang and when it is successful:

If I remove the SD card, load a single mp3 onto the R0 internal memory and try building the database, it is successful.

Then I replace the SD card with only a handful of mp3s loaded onto it, (I have also kept the single mp3 on the internal memory), I can access the database again on start-up but it only displays the single mp3 located on the internal memory. If I manually update the database through the settings menu, it says 'updating in background', but when I try to access the database again, the database file counter displays and it has stuck around ~7000 files again and has to be rebooted.

So there must be a problem with Rockbox accessing the SD card files. I thought it was perhaps a SD hardware issue so I re-formatted (as mentioned before) and tried again but with the same results. However if I load up the Samsung firmware I am able to view all files and folders on the SD card and play all songs without issue, so I'm pretty sure the SD card is working correctly, it just won't work with Rockbox at the moment! If it makes a difference, I use a file structure of SD:\Music\[Artist]\[Album]\song.mp3 though I may try removing everything off the SD and internal memory except for a single mp3 in the root of the SD and try it again.

If you can offer any more advice in the meantime that would be appreciated!

[lebellium]

Well, of course Rockbox can access the SD card files on R0. If there was an issue there, that would be known as many R0 users have a microSD card.
You can see the files on microSD that way: Files>mnt>mmc

I just did a test on my 4GB R0:
-Delete the current database, that is to say remove all the database_x.tcd files from the .rockbox folder
-Insert the 32GB microSD card I usually use for my Sansa Clip Zip.
-Start the R0 and Rockbox
-Initialize the database: 8332 files found, "please reboot to enable" message
-Reboot, "committing database" and no issue

So it should work for you!
Connect the R0 to your computer, delete all database files from the .rockbox folder, just let the default database.ignore file. Then reboot the R0 and Initialize the database.
If it still gets stuck, then there is probably a 'problematic' file on your microSD and this is not related to the R0.

[VanniX]

@Lorenzo and all other interested users
Auto mount for microSD is supported. We must use the linux file system table (fstab).
I already try this way, but sometimes (very often) it mount sd with standard fat parameters, so file names less than 8 char, only europeans characters, read only and other problems with unmounting.
However hotplug should be supported by the ROM, so when rockbox will be able to handle it i'll try add this feature ;-)

[Predelnik]

By the way, I've noticed that rockbox.log is no more being written (I mean new firmware version). Am I doing something wrong or maybe it was done on purpose? I just wanted to use this file to help me to debug some things...

[Lorenz092]

Originally Posted by Predelnik

By the way, I've noticed that rockbox.log is no more being written (I mean new firmware version). Am I doing something wrong or maybe it was done on purpose? I just wanted to use this file to help me to debug some things...

I think it's done on purpouse...it was my old script that used to do that
btw could you please tell us what you're doing on it?
And moreover, have a look at the new logging system for rockbox, maybe it helps you in your work!!

[Predelnik]

Originally Posted by Lorenz092

I think it's done on purpouse...it was my old script that used to do that
btw could you please tell us what you're doing on it?
And moreover, have a look at the new logging system for rockbox, maybe it helps you in your work!!

Nah, I'm not doing anything too serious, just wanted to check out why doom plugin is crashing. Though looks like this new logging system is really that I'm looking for, thanks

[Lorenz092]

Originally Posted by Predelnik

Nah, I'm not doing anything too serious, just wanted to check out why doom plugin is crashing. Though looks like this new logging system is really that I'm looking for, thanks

Yeah! That's one of the "serious" points to figure out

[Yamashiita Ren]

Hello Lebellium, french user here
I would like to know, between the lightrom and the 2.51 firm, which one is the better for a rockbock only use.
Thank you everyone for your work !

[VanniX]

@Yamashiita Ren:
LightROM is faster and optimized for rockbox, but in 2.51 has been added some important tools and improvements, that they was not present in LightROM. Kernel is the same, but the ROM structure is different.
I'm releasing LightROM 4.3 in these day, with a new kernel and other new important features. So, if you can wait for about a week i suggest you to install the LightROM 4.3, otherwise if you can't wait you have to choose between a faster but older ROM or a slower but more recent ROM.

[Yamashiita Ren]

In that case, it will be hard but i will wait for the LightROM 4.3 release. With my studies, I sadly can't afford extra time for testing new things when I want to do so ...
Nevertheless, I'm really excited about these improvements
Have a good day

[VanniX]

New important announcement.
USB will probably work soon on rockbox, thanks to Me and Lorenzo92.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oroep5fvs7...2022.53.35.jpg

All new features will be included and tested in the next ROM (the LightROM 4.3).

Stay tuned ;-)

[Predelnik]

Originally Posted by VanniX

New important announcement.
USB will probably work soon on rockbox, thanks to Me and Lorenzo92.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oroep5fvs7...2022.53.35.jpg

All new features will be included and tested in the next ROM (the LightROM 4.3).

Stay tuned ;-)

Oh that's really cool, thank you for all the hard work