Thursday Aug 24 2006 - 5:18pm
How To Dual-Boot Your iPod with Rockbox
by Sean
under No Tags
with 47 comments
These instructions are almost assuredly deprecated as they were written before the 5G video iPods came out. I would check elsewhere for updated instructions rather than trying to follow these if you have a new iPod.
So you’ve got an iPod, right? (Who doesn’t these days?) Maybe you’ve been using it for a while, but you’re bored with Apple’s interface. Or maybe you want more features, like the ability to play OGG and FLAC files, advanced audio filtering, or the ability to change the appearance of the interface with user or self-created themes. If so, you should check out Rockbox.
Rockbox is essentially an alternative operating system for portable music players. It was originally made for the Archos and iRiver players, but has since been ported to the iPod and other players. It’s built from scratch, instead of being based on Linux as other alternative iPod OS’s are. (This isn’t really good or bad, just different. I happen to prefer Rockbox to something like iPodLinux.) Rockbox keeps a more complete list of their features if you’re curious.
Well, my friends, if you’ve got an iPod which is 4th generation or newer (check this page to find out which iPod you have if you’re not sure), a little bit of time, and the ability to follow simple instructions, then this post is for you. I’m going to guide you through getting Rockbox installed on your iPod using iPL’s Loader 2 to give you a handy menu-based choice of which OS to use every time you start your iPod. This process is really easy and shouldn’t cause you to lose any of your music or data (but keep a backup just in case.)
These install instructions assume that you’re using Windows (ugh), but the process should be very similar in Linux and MacOS.
Step One: Install the Bootloader
First, we’re going to install the iPodLinux project’s Loader 2 bootloader. A bootloader is simply the software that runs when your iPod (or any computer) starts up and tells it what operating system to use. Apple’s default bootloader doesn’t show you anything. It just boots Apple’s operating system. The iPL Loader 2 bootloader allows you to choose from available operating systems through a handy visual menu when your iPod starts up. I like it a lot better than Rockbox’s default loader because it makes it easier to remember how to get back into the default Apple OS when you want to use it. (There are no crazy button combinations to remember.) Below is a photo of what Loader 2 looks like once it’s installed.
Ok, here’s how you install the bootloader:
-
Plug your iPod into your computer. Make sure it shows up as a removable drive in “My Computer”.
-
Create a folder somewhere for storing stuff in and download all of the following stuff into it:
- ipod_fw.exe
- ipodpatcher.exe
- Loader 2.4 (unzip this one into the folder)
These are the patching programs and the bootloader code that you will need.
-
Open a command line window to this folder. Do this by choosing “Run” from the start menu and typing “cmd”. In the terminal that pops up, type “cd c:\path\to\your\new\folder” and you’ll be all set.
-
Now it’s time to find out what device number your iPod is on. Start typing “ipodpatcher 0″, “ipodpatcher 1″, etc. into the command line and watch for it to spit out a partition table that looks like your iPod. My iPod happened to be device number 5, so the result looked like this:
Remember this device number. In later steps, you’ll replace NUMBER with your device number.
-
Next, you’ll need to type this series of commands into the command line. This will construct the bootloader for your specific iPod and then load it on.
ipodpatcher -r NUMBER bootpartition.bin ipod_fw -o apple_os.bin -e 0 bootpartition.bin
If you have an iPod video (5th generation), type this next. Otherwise, skip it:
ipod_fw -o apple_sw_5g_rcsc.bin -e 1 bootpartition.bin
Now that you have the original boot stuff extracted, build the new bootloader and install it with these:
ipod_fw -g IPOD MODEL -o iplboot.bin -i apple_os.bin loader.bin ipodpatcher -w NUMBER iplboot.bin
Be sure to make all the necessary replacements in these lines. NUMBER with your device number and IPOD MODEL with one of the following (depending on which model you have): 4g, 5g, mini, nano, photo, video.
-
If you’ve done everything correctly and the planets were all aligned, you should now be able to disconnect the iPod from your computer. It will reboot and you will see the screen above. Now you can choose to startup Apple’s original firmware (”Apple OS”), switch to “connect to computer” mode (”Disk Mode”), or turn the iPod back off (”Sleep”). Now we’ll install the Rockbox OS so that you have another choice to choose from in that menu.
(These steps come from the iPL Loader 2 page if you’d like to follow along with their version instead.)
Step Two: Install the Rockbox OS
Installing the Rockbox OS onto your iPod is substantially easier than getting the bootloader set up properly. It’s basically as simple as copying a folder. Here’s what you’ll need to do:
-
Download the appropriate latest version of Rockbox from the downloads page. You’ll be looking for the “latest” link by the picture of your iPod model down in the “Daily Builds” section. Doesn’t it feel good to be on the bleeding edge? New builds can come out daily, so be sure to check back occasionally (if you care).
-
Unzip the zip file straight onto your iPod. Just open up the iPod drive from “My Computer” and put everything from the zip file right in there.
-
And you’re done! Easy huh? Disconnect/restart your iPod and you’ll see Rockbox as a choice in your new bootloader menu. Scroll to it and press the center button to launch your new OS!
Step Three: Set Up the Rockbox OS
In general, Rockbox is pretty different that Apple’s OS, so you’ll want to read through the manual at least a little bit to get an idea of the way things work. I’ll address one of the biggest initial problems here: where the heck is all the music?
When you first start the Rockbox OS, you won’t see much. Rockbox has a file-based browser by default, which means that it browses the physical files on the iPod’s drive. Apple’s OS, on the other hand, keeps all the music files in a huge jumble of nonsensical hashed folders, and all of that within a hidden folder so you can’t even see it with Rockbox. Never fear, though. Rockbox has a program called TagCache that will allow Apple OS and Rockbox to play nicely together. Here’s how to activate it:
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Click the “menu” button on your iPod to bring up Rockbox’s menu. Use the scroll wheel and center button to navigate to “General Settings > File View > Tag Cache”.
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First you’ll want to turn on the “Load to RAM” option. This will load your database of songs into RAM and make navigating your library much faster.
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Next, you’ll need to tell Rockbox that you want it to display files by tag info. Choose the “Show Files” option and set it to “ID3 Database”.
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Finally, you’ll need to initialize the tag cache. Choose the “Initialize now” option. You should see a disk icon in the upper right appear. Your iPod is building a database of all the music you have sorted by tag info. Once it’s done you’ll need to restart your iPod and then you’ll see the new TagCache navigation in Rockbox. (Shut Rockbox down by pressing and holding “Play”. Shut down Apple OS by pressing and holding “Menu” and the center button at the same time.)
You can also change the theme used by Rockbox while playing. The install comes with defaults, but you can also download more. Some of them are quite beautiful. For my iPod 4g, I like the “boxes” theme that comes with the default install.
Wrapping Up
There’s a whole lot more customization that you can do with Rockbox (and your iPod in general). Rockbox has some awesome filtering options and a full equalizer that you can use to improve sound quality. There are various themes and modules for it that you can add on. In addition, there are other projects like iPodLinux and iPodWizard if you want to explore further customizing and extending your iPod.
It’s really amazing that these rich user communities have sprung up around a piece of hardware that has virtually no publicly-available documentation. I guess it just speaks to the popularity of the iPod and the persistence and hard work of the programmers that have made this possible.
If you have any other cool tips or tricks for pimping out your iPod, please share them!
1
(aβ Member)
Nice! Now you just need to write that elusive Foobar guide
2
if i had an ipod i would definitely do this :O
3
oh man sean
i read this delicious post with great vigor and also a welcoming hospitality
someday all the world shall follow one leader
and that leader will be a modded ipod
with and x box for his queen
and they will listen to promiscuous (by nelly furtado)
for days and days
4
“Easy”? Not for most of us. But I’ll show it to a guy named Chase who may like to go to the effort to do it.
5
Thanks for the nice how-to Sean!
6
Sean,
Thanks for the great instructions. I bit the bullet and installed it on my 5g video. Had to reformat the damn thing as windows and transfer my files over again, but now i have rockbox. My god it’s hot. Interface is a little bit sketch, often a bit unresponsive, taking a bit to get a hang of, but when you install the black glass themes. GORGEOUS.
Pretty fun stuff. And the amount of plugin’s installed? holy shit! i can even have my ipod become a mendelbrot fractal generator. Tons of fun in this stuff. Thanks for shareing.
-ducker
7
wait wait.. did I mention the games?! OMG!
Doom. Bejewled. Snood. PACMAN. Snake, Snake 2. Tetrs. holy bleep. It’s worth the dual boot just to have all these other apps on your ipod.. and the themes. gorgeous.
-ducker
8
Hmm, you are beginning to make me regret taking the 4g iPod instead of the Photo iPod. Those extra pixels of colory goodness would look a lot better than the black and white screen.
My brother once attempted to install iPod Linux on our Photo iPod without reading the “DO NOT INSTALL ON PHOTO IPODS” text and nearly bricked the thing. I have noticed that half of the computers I try don’t like restoring iPod firmware. It’s odd.
9
Sean, in Step #5, I think it should read iplbootl.bin, not iplboot.bin.
10
(Post Author)
Really? It shouldn’t actually matter as long as you’re consistent with the naming. Did you mistype something or did I?
11
can rockbox read my playlists?
12
(Post Author)
I’m pretty sure that it can read M3U format playlists, and probably lots of others as well, but I haven’t tried it, so I couldn’t say for sure. If you find out, let us know!
13
(Trackback)
LesGonzes.net
Rockbox, ça roxe!!!…
Rockbox est un firmware open source destiné aux meilleurs baladeurs mp3 du marché (Apple, Archos, Cowon, et iRiver).
C’est absolument génial car cela permet de contourner les limitations imposés par les constructeurs (encore que Cowon et iRiv…
14
(Trackback)
napyfab:blog » Blog Archive » Come avere dual-boot su iPod con Rockbox
[…] Ecco la traduzione del post con le istruzioni per avere il dual-boot sul nostro amato iPod, di Sean McBride.. A me ha funzionato, ma non mi prendo alcuna responsabilità se qualcosa vi va storto Avete un iPod, giusto? (Chi non ce l’ha oggigiorno?) Magari l’avete usato per un po’, ma siete stanchi dell’interfaccia grafica di Apple. O magari volete qualcosa in più, come la possibilità di produrre file OGG e FLAC, filtri audio avanzati, o la possibilità di poter cambiare l’interfaccia grafica con altre create da voi o altri utenti. Se è così, dovreste dare un’occhiata a Rockbox. Rockbox è praticamente un sistema operativo alternativo per per i lettori musicali. E’ stato originariamente creato per i player Archos e iRiver, ma in seguito è stato fatto il porting anche per iPod e altri lettori. E’ stato scritto da zero, al contrario di basarsi su Linux come sono altri OS per iPod. (Non è meglio o peggio, solo differente. Io preferisco Rockbox rispetto a qualcosa come iPodLinux). Rockbox ha una lista più completa delle sue caratteristiche se siete curiosi. […]
15
I installed it on my 4gb iPod mini and it’s quite interesting and a nice change, though I ended up having to reformat since it somehow deleted some of my songs and it’s impossible to get out of some games unless you turn the whole system off. I couldn’t put new songs on the damn thing because I couldn’t find out how.
All in all though, it’s alright.
16
nice read. it gives sway in my ongoing debate with myself as to what sort of portable music player to buy. does using something like rockbox also get around the “devices contected to” limits of an ipod?
17
sean i have a question.
IF i dual boot my nano will my battery life not last as long?
I just want to know
18
(Post Author)
Shawn: I have no idea. I don’t own a Nano. I guess you’ll just have to try it and see!
19
hi guys
i am just about to install rockbox, i was just wondering how i could put music on it without using itunes?????????????
20
Hi there
you can just drop whole music folders on the root drive of your ipod and rockbox will playthem.
Enjoy
P
21
Absolutely awesome guide. Made it so simple to install and now I can listen to my FLACs on my iPod :D.
Thanks a lot!
22
Something you may want to add is that Rockbox (at least when I installed it) didn’t come with any of the Default fonts installed. To get these default fonts you go here and extract that zip into your iPod (it should create /.rockbox/fonts).
Hope that helps.
23
Yep. rockbox rules. no doubt to it. and also, get Doom for your ipod. considering it is the greatest game of all time.
24
someone please help me because when i boot it rockbox isn’t on the menu and i have followed all the steps
25
Dude,this is the best thing i ever saw. carry on man you are the best!!!
26
I just installed Rockbox yesterday, using the instructions at the Rockbox website. Today, in looking for a multi-boot option, I came across this webpage. Excellent job, man. Much clearer than the instructions at the Rockbox site.
One suggestion; at the step that reads “Disconnect/restart your iPod and you’ll see Rockbox as a choice in your new bootloader menu”, you could mention that the iPod can be restarted by holding down the Menu and Select buttons. (If you don’t do this, the iPod will just automatically boot into the Apple firmware upon disconnect - at least that was my experience).
Thanks for the excellent webpage.
27
Ok, maybe I spoke too soon, I must’ve screwed something up.
I followed all the instructions, then booted into the Apple OS and synced my iPod (Nano 1G) with iTunes. Although Rockbox sees and plays the songs under iPod_Control/Music without a problem, the songs don’t show up in the Apple OS. Anybody have any ideas why? Thanks in advance.
28
wow i just installed ipod rockbox…. and its really great man… i love it… all the stuff include on it… its really great…thanks…….
29
I have a 5.5g 30gb ipod video. after i reboot after installing the loader but before adding rockbox, on the initial screen that shows the black background and the text, on the last line it says
Detected WinPod Partition
Not valid FAT superblock
then when I try to goto Apple OS, it just reboots back to the loader screen. I’ve tried this over and over again, with the same results every time. Any suggestions?
30
Hi, I have a 30GB 5g video iPod. I have installed the bootloader with no errors. I then disconnected my ipod it rebooted but went straight to Apple iPod as is was before. Do i need to do some thing with the files that were made when i did the cmd? Please help. The files created were:
apple_os.bin
apple_sw_5g_rcsc.bin
iplboot.bin
bootpartition.bin
Do i need to do some thing with the files, like send them to my iPod?
Thanks
Nick
31
sean i am trying to install the loader but when i goto find the device number in the cmd prompt it doesnt appear with a partition table. i have tried upto “ipodpatcher 15″.
32
Suggestion:
go into iTunes with ur iPod plugged in (USB), and resent/reformat ur iPod.
This will delete all ur music and Rockbox off ur iPod and the next time you turn ur iPod on, it will be just like when u first bought it.
Just reload all ur tunes back on to it from ur PC and install Rockbox again.
33
when i’m typing in ipodpatcher 0… it keeps giving me an error saying it is found an illegal action. I’ve tried it up to # 43
34
Hey, Thanks, great guide and i was about to use but the files were deleted, and i have another problem every time i use the normal rockbox installer, it all seems to work but when i reebot my ipod it loads straight to the apple firmware and doesnt seem to even notice rockbox, did i do something wrong? i have a 5G 30G ipod video
thanks again,
Allex
35
during the install of duel boot my ipod was disconnected. Now it doesn’t see the apple iinterface. It gives me an error message that it can’t load rockbox. It wont turn off, its not seen as a drive anymore by my computer… Help !! (Video g5)
36
Sean, i tried this with my 5G video 60 gig and it worked like a charm. Unlike the stupid program made to install it FOR me on the linux wiki website… i had to restore my iPod after that =[ anyways, i tried to do this for a friend on their 5G 30 gig but it didnt work (same problem as so i took off the bootloader and then disconnected it and then the black screen with the apple logo kept appearing and then it would reboot and show it again and again and again. Sooooooo…i ended up having to force it into disk mode (thank god 4 that function it would b a brick right now w/o it) and i dont know if i should try again…im already gonna have to restore the ipod after i back up the files…any ideas? thanks,
Josh
37
wut i meant to say in parenthesis was same problem as Simon who left u a comment as well. O btw JAN, u can force your iPod into disk mode by holding down menu and select buttons and then when u see the black screen w/ the apple logo hold down the select and play buttons and then connect your iPod. it’ll work, i promise. O ya, and then just reset yer iPod.
38
HELP ME!
i hav an ipod video 5g (60 gig)
and hav put on rockbox succesfully and done everything i want with it
but i followed this and cant get it to work
can anyone give me more simple and more detailed directions to doing this?
wikipodlinux and this hav both not worked for me
thank you
39
(aβ Member)
These instructions are almost assuredly deprecated as they were written before the 5G video iPods came out. I would check elsewhere for updated instructions rather than trying to follow these.
40
i wanna know why are 2 types of video ipods in the Rockbox downloads page,;iPod video & iPod video (64mb).
i dont know which model is my ipod or if it is any problem if i download whichever.
please help me
41
hey! can you tell me how to put rockbox and ipodlinux in ipod. I ready have them but when i open my ipod i didn’t see them. I don’t know what wrong.
42
ok, I’m on the line of input “ipod_fw.exe -g IPOD MODEL -o iplboot.bin -i apple_os.bin loader.bin,” I entered it and this is what the output was, “fread length 40 at offset 0 hit EOF, unable to boot entry.” I have a video iPod so for “IPOD MODEL” i entered both “video” and “5g” and the output is still the same. what could be wrong??\
. . . thanks
43
hey i also noticed that in the steps where u have to put the NUMBER u r SUPPOSED to put it IN FRONT of the say, “-r” or whatever the dash followed by a letter is…not behind it.
44
oK, i havent instaled the rockbox on my 30 gb video ipod, but i know more than i knew about this OS Last week so i will tell ya what i found on the website.
the current version of rockbox for the ipod video is only one now instead of 2 versions (that was the problem that i reporteed days ago.)
another thing that i can found is that you will need to download patches for rockbox if you download themes (WPS) that can display album art, but doing this is difficult for beginners and also boring. also i tried to understand how to do that thing but i couldnt
However theres an other way to use the themes, youn eed to download the “EvilGs” build (Fusion Flavor) that is recomended in most of these themes, but MY PROBLEM NOW IS THAT I DONT KNOW WHICH VERSION DO I NEED, AND HOW DO I INSTAL THE PATCH TO THE IPOD.
I HOPE THIS INFORMATION HELPS YOU AND PLEASE HELPME TOO!
45
hi sean
Want to make my ipod 5th g dual boot but the links to..
# ipod_fw.exe
# ipodpatcher.exe
are broken
i was able to locate # ipodpatcher.exe but not # ipod_fw.exe.
I found ipod patcher at http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodPatcher
please help
46
its quite easy there is a automated installer rockbox is a firmware not a real os ipod linux is mroe os but its harder than rockbox, rockbox allmost does all what ipod linux does, u can dual noot bought of them all>apple frimware,rockbox and ipod linux whit loader2
47
(Trackback)
One Shot Design » Blog Archive » Take Your Music Open-Source With Ogg Vorbis
[…] start using it. Even the ubiquitous iPod can be enabled to play Ogg files by dual-booting Rockbox, an open-source operating system developped for audio […]