Early Rockbox Discussion [old info]

[D260]

I Know I should post this at the Rockbox Forum but the thread there died I guess I need to bump it or something but anyway....

I'd just like to see the amount of interest for Rockbox on the D2.
I think that getting it ported would really make the great D2 even better.

I'm wondering, would Rockbox be able to help with stuff such as:
640x480 video. I've heard rumours that the D2 could support it because of the very high bitrates it supports 320x240. I hope this could work for the TV Out as well because then that feature would be alot more useful.

EQ settings:
The custom EQ doesn't have a very far range of frequencies to tweak which doesn't bother me but may bother some people.

Line Out:
I know alot of people want Line Out for the D2 and if it is possible with a firmware change, the people at Cowon probably won't bother.

Those are just a few things of the top of my head please comment and add ideas. I have a feeling that the D2 has alot of potential but is being restricted by the stock firmware.

[Tac21]

who knows? Gapless of course is a must if it's gonna be rockboxed.

personally, I'm not sure if there gonna pick it up this time.

[LostPhil]

Well, as much as I'd love to see rockbox on the D2, I can't realistically see it being ported. But I guess people can find a way...

Problems:

Interface: This would be the first touch screen Rockbox'd player, I'm not sure how it would be handled, if at all possible.

Video: It would be very optimistic that the video playback will be better than the stock firmware, but it has been a while since I last checked up on the Rockbox video progress...

Line out: Its a hardware limitation really, the only thing Rockbox could do is to make a setting which changed the volume to 49, all effects off and equaliser to flat.

Besides that though, the gapless playback, tag browsing, themes and EQ settings would be very welcome! I just hope that someone with the experience neccessary can dedicate some time to it. Unfortunately, having zero programming knowledge means I can't exactly help...

[ProDigit]

Rockbox is a great replacement of a crappy device OS like the Sansa's Os, which basically doesn't allow you to do anything with it.

I choose cowon, because this OS is pretty broad, and works kinda ok!
The sound quality is loads better then rockbox too!

[punit]

I was very interested in the effort to port rockbox to D2. Even made some effort in that direction. But there are some big problems to be solved before a port can be possible -

The datasheets for the processor on D2 are not available. Which means there is no way to find how to communicate with peripherals and other such things. To get this info you will need to reverse engineer the firmware. And so on and forth..

Now all this though not easy is still possible. But there needs to be enough people/knowledge going around to get things done. Most people are sort of satisfied with they way things are and/or don't have the necessary skills. And so the efforts languished (both on rockbox and D2 forums).

I guess in reply to your post, there is still some latent interest in a rockbox port and I am curious to see where things go.

[D260]

I'm also wondering if theres anyone in this forum that has experience coding for rockbox. I think rockbox would be good for the D2 not because the OF sucks, it just could take advantage of the player more.

[morgan]

is anyone else interested in helping them over at Rockbox in getting a port for our beloved D2 back on track?http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.0

even though the interface to D2 is already pretty good it would be nice to see what other functions and plugins they could bring to the D2 such as gapless playback, better playlist handling, game emulators, better sound quality and much much more.

here are some other related D2 rockbox threads already started here...
http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15473&highlight=rockbox
http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14928&highlight=rockbox
http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14628&highlight=rockbox
http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=12887&highlight=rockbox
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14618
maybe they should be merged into one rockbox thread.

of course rockbox isn't everyones cup of tea but just look what it has done for other cowon players such as the X5 and M5. i know i'd love the option of it.
http://www.rockbox.org/

[in_flames]

The only thing I want is a last.fm scrobbler

[emjay1]

The only thing I want is a last.fm scrobbler

Hear hear, that's what I want, and I'm sure Cowon could implement it easily if they listened to their users

[Yeeze]

Would rockbox support some kind of file management like move or copy files and folders?

I would also put time in developing rockbox, I have even some programming experience, but just no experience on rockbox....

Anyways, I would love to see rockbox on the D2 even if its still a long way to go...

[morgan]

Would rockbox support some kind of file management like move or copy files and folders?

I would also put time in developing rockbox, I have even some programming experience, but just no experience on rockbox....

Anyways, I would love to see rockbox on the D2 even if its still a long way to go...

i know you can delete files and folders on the go i'm not sure about moving them around?

most important thing is getting the port working on the D2 then we can request some more advanced features.
looks like the guys working on it have stalled - no progress since 19th June.
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.0
does anyone here know anyone that works for Telechips?

i know there are a lot of features and plugins that Rockbox could bring to the D2 which we'll never see Cowon release in firmware.

[Yeeze]

Has there ever been a rockbox port to a unit that uses telechips?

And aren't the recovery mode drivers released for the D2?

[morgan]

Has there ever been a rockbox port to a unit that uses telechips?

And aren't the recovery mode drivers released for the D2?

Conclusions on just scanning the binary and strings
1) Layout of D2 firmware similar to U3
2) Layout of D2 firmware similar to M-bird rom !!!!

The firmware for M-bird XY-22 Player can be downloaded here
http://www.m-bird.se/soft...are/XY-22/XY22SMV1320.rom

Further,
M-bird XY-22 based on TCC76x (ARM 940T core)
Cowon U3 based on TCC77x (ARM 946 core)
Cowon D2 based on TCC78x (ARM 926/946 core)

more info...
http://www.rockbox.org/mail/archive/rockbox-dev-archive-2007-07/0076.shtml
TCC78x (http://www.telechips.com/product/p_025.asp#) - The same chip is used in Mobile, TVs, Laptops and PDAs that run Windows Mobile.
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-14750.html

yes i think some people here have their hands on the D2 recovery drivers...

[laropo]

I´d love to help, but I´m don´t think I´m very usefull right now...

I´ll keep up with this topic.

[theRightNee]

i was wondering, is there a hardware difference between multitouch touchscreens (like the Apple iPhone) and the touchscreens on the D2 and Palms?
if there isn't, and Rockbox manages to work...we could have an iTouch killer on our hands...

[ManchesterBaby]

I think the first thing that needs to be done is fiddle about with the official firmware to see how things work. This could be very useful: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/TelechipsInfo

I'd be willing to help if a rockbox port got off the ground.

i was wondering, is there a hardware difference between multitouch touchscreens (like the Apple iPhone) and the touchscreens on the D2 and Palms?

Yes, i believe there is a physical, hardware difference in the way the touch screen works. (I could be wrong...)

[ManchesterBaby]

Tried testing out the CRC generating method in the link given in my last post. I modified firmware 3.51 (just changing a couple of strings), re-generated new checksums and loaded the custom firmware onto the D2. Works perfectly.

Have to explore the firmware file in more detail now to figure out how stuff works...

[laropo]

Wow, this sounds interesting! Maybe rockbox development for the D2 is actually possible any time soon now!

If there is anything I can do (without the risk of bricking my D2, or with, but with the recovery files available). Please let me know!

[jpshark]

you did? thats amazing![thumbsup][laugh][excited]

[theRightNee]

go manchesterbaby! thanks for the info, btw.
i was wondering, if it is possible to modify the FW, is it possible to implement a moblie Opera web browser, to use with wifi SD cards? if it is, the D2 would be elevated to a whole new level of wonderful goodness! i know that idea has been around for sometime now...

[Yeeze]

When I understood you right ManchesterBaby, when we change the checksum in the firmware file according to the checksum of the modified firmware, we are actually able, to load any firmware on the D2 and it will load it?

The next steps would now be to kind of reverse engineer the original firmware, and understand it, so we can write our own firmware, that can be understand by the processor of the D2 right?

I would like to help too!
I don't have a lot of knowledge, I used a couple of times W32Dasm and Hview, to play with .exe files, I have programming experience in C, C++, and Java....
Is there something useful I could do at this point?

[Dicky Dave]

For anyone interested, I have posted C and Perl programs that can generate the checksums once you modify the firmware. They can be found in this thread:

http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=17390

These are just small wrappers over the Telechips code available from Rockbox.

I have been going over the ARM documentation recently as a first step to reverse engineering the firmware. It is slow going and it is only in its infancy at the moment. So I would be keen too to help out a reverse engineering project in anyway I can.

[theRightNee]

this is getting good...!!!!

[Taustin Powers]

Maybe all this new knowledge should be shared with / discussed in the Rockbox Development forum as well? There's a thread for the D2 that's been quiet for awhile:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.0

There will probably be helpful people there as well.

[ManchesterBaby]

When I understood you right ManchesterBaby, when we change the checksum in the firmware file according to the checksum of the modified firmware, we are actually able, to load any firmware on the D2 and it will load it?

Yes. Previous attempts to load modified firmware failed due to the checksums being incorrect. Using the information in the rockbox wiki to generate new checksums allows modified firmware to be loaded.

The next steps would now be to kind of reverse engineer the original firmware, and understand it, so we can write our own firmware, that can be understand by the processor of the D2 right?

Yes, i've had a bit of a look at it but not really spent too much time figuring it out. All i changed were simple strings (changing the text in the menu for example (i was looking for the misspelled "scientific" but haven't found it yet) and i changed the filename used for album art from "cover.jpg" to something else). This is basic stuff; i haven't tried fiddling with the acutal instructions yet.

I would like to help too!
I don't have a lot of knowledge, I used a couple of times W32Dasm and Hview, to play with .exe files, I have programming experience in C, C++, and Java....
Is there something useful I could do at this point?

It's all ARM code. If you understand x86 assembly you should be able to pick up ARM fairly easily. You'll need a disassembler... I understand ARM resonably well but i don't have much experience with dismantling programs to see how they work - particularly low-level OS type stuff which is the important stuff to figure out here...

[Yeeze]

I saw someone posted his lsusb output for the U2 in the rockbox forums...
I'm not registered there, and the thread is kinda dead right now, so I thought I just go ahead and send a lsusb output about the D2 with inserted SD card.
I used
lsusb -v

I think "Device 004" is the D2 and "Device 001" seems to be the SD card


Bus 005 Device 004: ID 0e21:0800 Cowon Systems, Inc.
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0e21 Cowon Systems, Inc.
idProduct 0x0800
bcdDevice 1.00
iManufacturer 1
iProduct 2
iSerial 3
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 32
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0x80
(Bus Powered)
MaxPower 90mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 8 Mass Storage
bInterfaceSubClass 6 SCSI
bInterfaceProtocol 80 Bulk (Zip)
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x02 EP 2 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0

Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 9 Hub
bDeviceSubClass 0 Unused
bDeviceProtocol 1 Single TT
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0000
idProduct 0x0000
bcdDevice 2.06
iManufacturer 3 Linux 2.6.20-16-generic ehci_hcd
iProduct 2 EHCI Host Controller
iSerial 1 0000:00:1d.7
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 25
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xe0
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 0mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 9 Hub
bInterfaceSubClass 0 Unused
bInterfaceProtocol 0 Full speed hub
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0004 1x 4 bytes
bInterval 12
Hub Descriptor:
bLength 11
bDescriptorType 41
nNbrPorts 8
wHubCharacteristic 0x000a
No power switching (usb 1.0)
Per-port overcurrent protection
TT think time 8 FS bits
bPwrOn2PwrGood 10 * 2 milli seconds
bHubContrCurrent 0 milli Ampere
DeviceRemovable 0x00 0x00
PortPwrCtrlMask 0xff 0xff
Hub Port Status:
Port 1: 0000.0000
Port 2: 0000.0100 power
Port 3: 0000.0000
Port 4: 0000.0100 power
Port 5: 0000.0100 power
Port 6: 0000.0100 power
Port 7: 0000.0503 highspeed power enable connect
Port 8: 0000.0100 power
Device Status: 0x0003
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup Enabled



It's all ARM code. If you understand x86 assembly you should be able to pick up ARM fairly easily. You'll need a disassembler... I understand ARM resonably well but i don't have much experience with dismantling programs to see how they work - particularly low-level OS type stuff which is the important stuff to figure out here...
I read through articles on wikipedia about ARM and RISC...
Since I only know really basic stuff in assembly code, I want to start to learn it, as far as I understood, ARM is the type of chip the firmware is compiled for, and RISC is the chips design... right?
So is it right when I start reading a x86 book?

The disassembler:
I am using ubuntu Feisty 7.04 right now, I looked for a disassembler, but did not find a good one... which one are you using? (I also got windows... so I can also use a windows one....

[Yeeze]

Maybe we should bring this thread to the rockbox forums, as suggested by Taustin Powers...
I have never created a wiki for anything at rockbox, so I'm only suggesting this here right now...
But has anyone experience with that?

I am really interested in computers, and I really would like to see rockbox on the D2...
So I am willing to learn new programming languages, open up my D2 and take pictures, test run firmwares etc... I just don't have that much experience with all of that...
So when someone could tell me what to do exactly...

[henrycow]

Sounds like this pig might just fly after all ! (prepares larger balloon). Love and best wishes from all of us non techie types on the forum - we can't help, but we can send a huge positive vibe your way. Those of you who are in any way spiritual - pray, meditate, make offerings to your gods. The rest of us - cheer and shout - come on Manchesterbaby, come on Yeeze, Come on Dicky Dave - You can do it !!!!

[levidec]

Hi everybody !
It's my first post on this forum. I just bought a D2, it's a fantastic mp3 player. Today i found something strange on my D2, when you press simultaneoustly the M button (Menu) and power button, the D2 doesn't start and when you toggle it on usb it doesn't recognise it as a D2.To rollback that just press the reset button.

I think it's a mod to unbrick bricked D2, perhaps it could be useful.

[ZPlayer]

Yesssss!!!

After praying, offering almost everything to god, cheering and shouting I really still can't beleive that there would be a possibility to port rockbox (very nice post, henrycow)

What a nice piece of hardware to mod.
Whishing everybody envolved great success!!!!!

[Judge]

Wow, this recent development show a lot of promise. I echo henrycow's sentiments. Rockbox on the D2 would be totally awesome.

[man.dovvn]

what the title says.

Can start working on assembly code late November.

Keeping an eye on the topic(s).

[Dicky Dave]

For anyone interested, I used arm-elf-objdump to produce rudimentary disassembly output for the 0 and 1 binaries of v2.50b (which is the version I am currently using). These can be found here:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~cannahanda/

It is very crude and I don't believe it is using the extended instruction set for the ARM926EJ-S but some of it makes sense.

Just to clarify. I too am keen on a D2 Rockbox port but that is a fair way off. What I am trying to achieve is to reverse engineer the firmware just enough to fix (hopefully) basic things like OGG tags, MSC playlists, adjust some timeouts, rejig the main menu etc. For the most part, I am happy with the Cowon firmware but some of these long standing bugs are just pissing me off and whilst new versions are addressing some of them, they are introducing a whole new set of bugs. I am not intent on adding lots of new features.

Having said that, there seems to be enough software engineering experience on this forum that could continue reverse engineering the firmware to a point where it is conceivable that new features could be added. Although I think the time would be better spent on helping out a Rockbox port than radically altering the Cowon firmware.

[W33nie]

Is anyone trying to revive the D2 at the rockbox forums?

[Yeeze]

There are two new posts on the D2 thread (http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.0)!!

[shotofadds]

Is anyone here in possession of the 'recovery mode' USB drivers, who could answer a question on the Rockbox forum?

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.msg100745#msg100745

[Dalmane98]

There are two new posts on the D2 thread (http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.0)!!

Yeeze,

You need to read the following post:

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.30

This guy needs a Linux user to work with. You just might be the one!

I tried but I have Windows XP.

[W33nie]

there are tons of linux experts over at the ubuntu forums

just don't know if any of them are interested..

[linuxstb]

there are tons of linux experts over at the ubuntu forums

I'm not looking for a Linux expert, just a D2 owner who uses Linux.

[W33nie]

I think someone uses Linux here, I'm not sure

[Yeeze]

I use linux (Ubuntu)...
But I don't have a recovery driver for the D2...
With other words, does anybody have the drivers, and can give them to me...?

[Yeeze]

Is somebody here using Mac OS X and wants to help to develop rockbox?
We need to get some information, we can only gather with Mac OS X, as you can read here (http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.msg100845#msg100845)
if you got a Mac, a D2, and want to help, please contact linuxstb (http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?action=profile;u=986)!
Your help will be greatly appreciated!!!

[punit]

Wow! Things seem to be picking up on the D2 rockbox port.

I am a linux user. I have a D2. I have access to Windows as well as OS X. I also have access to the USB recovery driver. Seems like I fit the bill.

I would be willing to help with the port. At this point though time is a little precious and I can only help with testing.

Let me know if you want me to try anything.

[Dalmane98]

Contact lunixstb.

See post number 42...the one above yours

[W33nie]

Bump, i really want this to happen

[W33nie]

Wow! Things seem to be picking up on the D2 rockbox port.

I am a linux user. I have a D2. I have access to Windows as well as OS X. I also have access to the USB recovery driver. Seems like I fit the bill.

I would be willing to help with the port. At this point though time is a little precious and I can only help with testing.

Let me know if you want me to try anything.

Actually, they need someone who can access OS X at the boards

[linuxstb]

Just to be clear, no-one involved with Rockbox is directly working on a port to the D2.

What is happening is that I'm porting Rockbox to a device (the Logik DAX MP3/DAB player) with a similar CPU to the D2, and someone else has started work on porting to the iAudio 7 (also with a similar CPU).

These ports are still in the very early stages, but a lot of the work will be able to be reused for a D2 port. However, nothing will happen unless at least one skilled owner of a D2 steps up and starts actually writing code.

[Amtwk]

What is it "RockBox"?
And could i install it on my D2?
if not,why?
If i can,how?
Tnx alot.[blush]

[Who Am I?]

RockBox is Firmware that is used in a list of DAPS that including the X5L, X5, M3, and M3L. RockBox has no plans in making it for D2 as of i know. RockBox also has Firmware for certain models of the iPods and iRiver DAPs.

[iPork]

ERM ...

QUOTED from Rockbox.org

"Rockbox is an Open Source replacement firmware for hard-disk digital audio players including the Archos Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio MP3 players. Development of Rockbox for the iriver H1xx, H3xx and H10 series of players as well as the iPod 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G grayscale, Color/Photo, 1G and 2G mini, 1G nano and Video (5G and 5.5G), Toshiba Gigabeat F and X, Sansa e200 and more is underway."

D2 is currently unable to install Rockbox ... they are currently looking into D2 as a possible candidate for Rockbox ...

Quoted from rockbox.org

"There is absolutely no point in suggesting new platforms for the "team" to port Rockbox to. If there is enough interest and skills to port Rockbox to a new platform, it will be done. If not, people expressing their wish to see Rockbox on yet another player does not help much."

oh yeah ... if you really want to install rockbox ... try experiencing it on other platforms first ... the sonic improvements is IMO rather significant ... but the way it sucks up power , it is a no-go for me ~

[morgan]

RockBox is Firmware that is used in a list of DAPS that including the X5L, X5, M3, and M3L. RockBox has no plans in making it for D2 as of i know. RockBox also has Firmware for certain models of the iPods and iRiver DAPs.

a D2 Rockbox port is actually well under way and has been since april... http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=26eb5f6e997b60ea0a00fdbcab0e60 83&topic=10164.0
they are slowly making progress, good luck to them.

[doniago]

Please don't use such vague thread titles in the future. "im sorry lamey question ^_^" doesn't really give anyone browsing the forum an idea of what your thread is about.

Thanks.

Also- it turns out there was already a thread on Rockbox for the D2 which I was able to find fairly quickly. You should probably do a search in the future before starting a new thread. I've taken the liberty of merging the new thread with the existing one.

[shotofadds]

a D2 Rockbox port is actually well under way and has been since april...
You only need to read linuxstb's reply a few posts back to realise that's not true. AFAIK there's only one person actively working on the D2 (me), and I've only been able to reliably run code on the device within the last week.

While that is a huge step forward, it doesn't mean a port is coming any time soon, or even at all - it just means one may be technically feasible. The amount of work required to get a port going is huge, as drivers will need to be written for each of the hardware components from scratch (eg. buttons, touchscreen, filesystem, USB, audio etc etc). Although I'm happy to do the groundwork to get the project off the ground, I certainly can't commit to doing all that myself.

On a positive note - it's practically impossible to brick the device now we have Tcctool, makes development all that much easier [smile]

[LostPhil]

You only need to read linuxstb's reply a few posts back to realise that's not true. AFAIK there's only one person actively working on the D2 (me), and I've only been able to reliably run code on the device within the last week.

While that is a huge step forward, it doesn't mean a port is coming any time soon, or even at all - it just means one may be technically feasible. The amount of work required to get a port going is huge, as drivers will need to be written for each of the hardware components from scratch (eg. buttons, touchscreen, filesystem, USB, audio etc etc). Although I'm happy to do the groundwork to get the project off the ground, I certainly can't commit to doing all that myself.

On a positive note - it's practically impossible to brick the device now we have Tcctool, makes development all that much easier [smile]

Thanks for putting all of the effort into the Rockbox port. It would be perfect to have rockbox on the D2.

Unfortunately I'm pretty much useless to the effort (next to no programming knowledge) otherwise I would help! Unless there's something else you would need besides programmers? Although I guess you've got the testing covered anyway as you can run it yourself...

[Freddy]

AFAIK there's only one person actively working on the D2 (me), and I've only been able to reliably run code on the device within the last week.

The amount of work required to get a port going is huge, as drivers will need to be written for each of the hardware components from scratch (eg. buttons, touchscreen, filesystem, USB, audio etc etc). Although I'm happy to do the groundwork to get the project off the ground, I certainly can't commit to doing all that myself.

How far have you gotten? Is it pretty much just the screen and the memory I/O working right now? Or is it just USB? Obviously, you must have made some progress to be able to run code on the thing, and I'm very excited to find out exactly what you've done.

If you can get these components working, that's 90% of the work done right there. It would be a simple matter of porting Rockbox or uClinux, I believe (though I'm not an expert).

I'd be very willing to help if you could give me some simplish tasks to do. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to see a third-party OS on the D2, especially since the Cowon firmware wastes about 95% of the D2's hardware capabilities (the CPUs in the D2 are about 4-6 times as powerful as the ones in the Nintendo DS, if a simple megahertz comparison of similar ARM processors is accurate). Hey--that just gave me an idea: Hook up a USB game controller to your D2 running Linux, plug a TV into the TV-out, and you've got your own miniature game console that's about twice as powerful as the Nintendo 64, and 1000 times as cool.

I am very excited to hear that someone has made major strides here. Can we get a sort of progress report from you, Shotofadds? What do you have working? What looks like it's going to be very difficult to get working? I'd expect that interfacing with the extension port won't be easy.

But another thing: I don't suppose that simply asking Cowon for the device drivers would yield results? I never understood why companies don't like to make development of third-party operating systems as easy as possible. It seems to me that Cowon could sell about 100 times as many units if you could run Linux on them, especially with the D2's hardware, which is of the higher-end PDA type.

[laropo]

Freddy: see http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.0 for the progress.

[shotofadds]

Only a quick answer for the moment as I'm on my Xmas holidays still ([laugh]). So far I can build code for the device using the Rockbox development environment, and the resulting binary can be uploaded and run on the device using linuxstb's Tcctool.

The sum total of progress so far (almost 2 months!) is to turn on the LCD and print "Hello, World!". To give you an idea of the level it's at, I'm currently in the process of establishing how to read the physical buttons (today's news: the hold switch state is in GPIOA bit 3). Anything more complicated than that eg. touchscreen, filesystem, audio, USB is a long LONG way off - I can't stress that strongly enough.

Unfortunately the only way to figure out how those things work is to disassemble and try to understand the original Cowon firmware.

But still, I agree - it should be possible to run some quite nifty stuff on this baby, given time [yes]

[laropo]

I feel safe to assume any single D2 owner can´t thank you guys enough for the effort.

It´s to bad that´s about all we cán do.

[Xhit]

There is a lot of activity at the Rockbox thread, Shotofadds has been promoted to an official Rockbox developer and more people seems to be getting involved which is fantastic! As a bystander I just want to cheer them on and wish them the best of luck with the port! [thumbsup]

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.0

[morgan]

yeah i've been following their progress very closely, good luck to shotofadds and the others!

i'm sure they can always use more help from other knowledgeable D2 owners who understand it all.

[just.another.blue]

There's been some VERY good proggress..

Just a quick update: during the the last few days I've had some success getting the flash FAT32 filesystem working, at least partially. The boot sector, cluster map & root directory all appear to be read correctly, as far as I can tell.

I can open() and read correct-looking data from some files, but there are clearly still some bugs in the block translation, since junk is being returned for certain files. I might just take the hit and dump the whole 3811Mb partition to my HDD and match up the junk vs. the real data...

I'll post some details of all this to the wiki eventually (when I've found the right words to describe the 'interesting' block translation!). I've been concentrating on trying to make it work first - shattofads

[B]we might be getting rockbox on our d2's within a year if all goes well.
i for one will be welcomming the possible mono option[surrend] and maybe doom if possible.

[man.dovvn]

haha doom. Yea...could happen.

A start
http://necromanthus.com/Games/Flash/doom.html

[dxps26]

personally, i'd just want it to be a bare-bones music/video device, with an emphasis on performance, ease of use(playlists, gapless, better file management etc.) and a better interface than the one available currently. Oh, and better power management.

[4ki]

personally, i'd just want it to be a bare-bones music/video device, with an emphasis on performance, ease of use(playlists, gapless, better file management etc.) and a better interface than the one available currently. Oh, and better power management.

Power management might be tough, but the rest are what I feel rockbox already excel at. Parametric EQ, gapless, and interface are all checks, at least from the other rockbox releases for other players.

I wonder what other sort of crazy games you could fit, though the controls would be tough to negotiate (nil for anything that needs a d-pad, unless they integrate it into touchscreen functionality).

Read that news above a couple nights ago, though; yeah, a bit jump, but still hurdles to go until it's available. It'll be hard to upgrade DAPs after this goes through [cool]

[Punnisher]

Yeah, there just aren't many good players on the market. I'm thinking about picking up an additional 8gb. : P

[Traveler0612]

Some nice progress.

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.msg118325#msg118325

[adamorjames]

Some nice progress.

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=10164.msg118325#msg118325

Beautiful.[cry]

[Dominic]

OMG.... getting there!

so awesome!!!!

[laropo]

I don't believe it is as good as it looks (as in this is not such a big step). But hey! Progression is good in any way, right?!

Anyway, great job shotofads!!!

[remsar72]

really nice that the programming too make rockbox working on the d2, is going so much ahead...

[D260]

I remember when that thread was only a couple pages long, I really though I'd never see Rockbox in any form on the D2. Impressive.

[4ki]

No freaking way.

This progress is quite...fast. Almost scary, really, especially considering how it had to be built from scratch.

There are some dedicated people, there.

[Tim-0]

I'm wondering how the touch screen support will be. As far as I can see, no touch screen player is supported yet. That means, the basic rockbox is built for players with enough keys on them so you can do the navigation with them. For a touch screen player thats completely different. The default Rockbox UI has so small fonts that you can never use it with a finger precisely. Perhaps the first working builds will be operated through the prev, M and next buttons, which would be very annoying. Did they say something on that topic over there?

[LostPhil]

If I remember correctly I think the touch screen support was discussed and that it was agreed that dividing the screen into 5 areas (d-pad & select) would be a good way of doing it. But that's from memory and that doesn't mean that's what is going to happen! (I'm not working on the port).

Thanks for all the hard work Shotofadds & chums, I hope that the community as a whole will see the port through to completion!

[Lenny]

Oh man, i want this sooo bad

[shotofadds]

If I remember correctly I think the touch screen support was discussed and that it was agreed that dividing the screen into 5 areas (d-pad & select) would be a good way of doing it.
Yes, I think that's a good starting point - and the majority of the plugins can probably stay that way long-term. The intention is for the main menus/WPS/etc to be properly touchscreen-aware, with the d-pad & select idea being used for screens that don't support it yet.

There are other touchscreen Rockbox ports in development (eg. the Olympus m:robe 500), so work has already been done in this area. But at this stage, I'm more concerned with making it boot at all...

[ezzieyguywuf]

Wayda go shotofadds and all you other guys that are putting all this hard work in! I haven't gotten my D2 yet, but when I do (by the end of the month hopefully) I think it'd be great to eventually have rockbox running on it.

As far as the touchscreen issue is concerned, I agree with shotofadds about priority number one being to actually boot the darn thing, but I think that perhaps in the long run the WPS will have a menu type touch areas like the current D2 OS and then the apps and whatnot will have the d-pad select stuff.

Is that exactly what you were sayin shotofadds, when you said 'touchscreen-aware?'

[shotofadds]

Yes, that's what I meant. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. [wacko]

[steveanglais]

(Sorry but I don't know how to start a new thread on here).

I am having a problem with the touchscreen on my Cowon D2.
I recently sold this player on amazon and after 30 days a refund was demanded by the new owner because the overlay on the touchscreen has gone crazy (none of the icons to the left of the screen work, and you have to touch quite a long way to the left of other icons to make them work).

In a way I'm pleased to get this player back, it's not such a bad player after all - but I would have liked it sent back in the condition it was sent!

There is also an issue with this buyer as it seems he may have switched my player with a faulty one to get a good one at no cost.

Either way, I am stuck with a player that only part functions.

Can anyone help?

[just.another.blue]

did you keep the (reg?) code that comes with the d2? if you remember it you can check the back of the d2 and if it doesn't match then you'll know they sent a different one. also if you still have 1 yr warranty you can try (and i stress the try if it indeed is a different player) to get cowon to repair it.

but first i would recommend to try reinstalling the firmware again.

i myself had to send back my cowon player (it would not play through the left earphone) so maybe cowon's distributors are getting lazy? (with quality)

[4ki]

yes; *always* keep the serial number/product code on-hand with receipt so that you have proof in case of issues such as this. If you still have your packaging, check your player's number. If anything, I'd always demand proof of a defect, unless you've already stated that the player's had issues.

[steveanglais]

Thank you for you reply.

I've been in touch with the dealer from whom I bought his player but he has said the supplier never notes serial numbers of players he sends to retailers.

I am horrified at Amazons' behaviour in this issue. They are too "buyer satisfaction" obsessed even to the point of "You can scam us and we will let you get away with it - at the sellers expense".

First thing I've ever sold thru the net - and the last!

The guy who bought of my D2 registered on here the day he received my player, stayed quiet and never said anything.
He now appears to have gone.

It is of course, possible that he had mugged someone for their mp3 player + other things and this was his way of exchanging a faulty player for one that he can sell on the black market.

Yes I've tried reinstalling the firmware but without any success.

I can access videos on this player as the video icon is far enough from the left side of the screen for me to touch quite a way left of the video icon - and the videos come up.

I'm wondering if physical damage has caused this problem or is it a software fault?

I only bought this player 10 months ago so I hope I can get it repaired under guarantee.

I have used a "file recovery" tool to reveal whether any of the files I've had on this player show themselves - and no files at all show up!
I don't know however, if deleted files on a flash drive show up when using a file recovery tool as they do on a hard drive.

I am convinced my buyer is crooked, but hey, guess I've got to put it down to experience.

My D2 is fabulous for playing music vids but somewhat lacking when playing mp3 files (that's why I sold it - see my other posts on here).

I've now got an i-river 140 with rockbox installed - fabulous sound, plenty of top-end and plenty of bottom-end bass.

I'm still trying to raise funds for the Gregory Lemarchal charity in france (the very talented young guy who stunned france with his angelic voice by winning the french Star Academy talent contest - then suddenly died of cystic fibrosis, leaving virtually the entire population of france absolutely stunned, and horrified).

Any suggestions on my touchscreen would be greatly appreciated.

I won't be selling my D2 (once bitten, twice shy). Gonna keep it.


Steve

[shotofadds]

I'm wondering if physical damage has caused this problem or is it a software fault?That is almost certainly a hardware fault.

[eViLrAcEr]

Thank you for you reply.
Yes I've tried reinstalling the firmware but without any success.

I can access videos on this player as the video icon is far enough from the left side of the screen for me to touch quite a way left of the video icon - and the videos come up.


i havent got a d2 so i dunno what im talkin here, but have u tried a different theme? maybe the video icon shows in that??

[steveanglais]

Curiously, the software on this player now has facility for line-in recording (which it didn't have when I owned it), and also an external microphone facilty that the new owner had setup.

Does this show that he has installed alian software on this player (which always has some risks attached)?

[just.another.blue]

???

don't really know..... i know you can add a microphone (external) to the d2 but that doesn't require any software to be installed to the best of my knowledge - i never used it anyway and i can't test since I'm waiting for my d2 to come back from repairs.

i feel really bad about you getting your d2 back crapped, makes me think twice before selling anything on amazon/ebay (not that i have - i only bought a really cheap pda phone which i love)

like i have said before try to send back your player and see what happens since thats your only option left. come back and say what happens after you get a reply from them.

[Dominic]

I praise you all for your efforts to assist this member but this off-topic conversation has gone on too long. As an FYI if you need to start a thread what you have to do is hit the "New Thread" icon above the forum you wish to post in. [thumbsup]

Now can we keep this thread going in the right direction (praising shotofadds [blush]) or do I have to beat all your asses? [devil]

[steveanglais]

Tahnx for your comment Dominic but thats me sunk then - I can't follow much on this forum at all - too complicated for me.

[Dominic]

Tahnx for your comment Dominic but thats me sunk then - I can't follow much on this forum at all - too complicated for me.

If you want to start a http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/images/buttons/newthread.gif (http://www.iaudiophile.net/forums/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=53) click that button [smile]

[steveanglais]

Thanx Dominic - Every time I want to start a new thread I'll us this hyperlink - I STILL don't know where to find that button, lol.

[X-Nemesis]

Are there plans for Rockbox to maximize the video potential of the D2? I have read that although the D2 is limited to 320x240 it could theoretically play higher rez files since the bitrate that you can encode the 320x240 files can be ridiculously high.

If Rockbox could unlock the D2 to play 640x480 then this would be the ultimate player for me. To be able to tv-out files of that quality would result in a much better image on large screen tv's.

[dfkt]

Rockbox doesn't even support MPEG4 at the moment, only MPEG1/2. There's a long way to go for Rockbox video...