| Rockbox FAQ |
| |
| $Id$ |
| |
| Q. What is a FAQ? |
| A. A rare small animal of the species 'Textius Electronicus'. It is known for |
| its' helpful attitude and vicious misspellings. |
| |
| Q. What is Rockbox? What is it's purpose? |
| A. The purpose of this project is to write an Open Source replacement |
| firmware for the Archos Jukebox 6000, Studio 20 and Recorder MP3 players. |
| |
| Q. I want to write code for my Archos, how do I proceed? |
| A. First make sure to read the file CONTRIBUTING in the firmware directory |
| on Sourceforge. See http://bjorn.haxx.se/rockbox/firmware/CONTRIBUTING |
| if you do not want to have to wade through the CVS directories. |
| |
| Q: Whats CVS? |
| A: Concurrent Versions System (http://www.cvshome.org). We have a small |
| help page about how to use this to get, update and commit files on the web |
| at http://bjorn.haxx.se/rockbox/cvs.html |
| |
| Q. What exactly is the CONTRIBUTING file? |
| A. Just like the name implies, it lists conventions that the project follows, |
| and in turn asks you to follow, for the formating of source code in |
| general. |
| |
| Q. Okay, so I read CONTRIBUTING and although I don't agree with all your |
| conventions, I am going to be sensible and follow them anyway. Now what? |
| A. Start by reading up on the information about the jukeboxes on our web page. |
| Then go into CVS and look at the code we've written. Then take what you |
| need and start writing. |
| |
| Q. Okay, so how do I submit a patch? |
| A. Run: "diff -u oldfile newfile" against the file(s) you have changed. Then |
| mail the output to any member of the development team and we will take it |
| under consideration. (Please remember that all submissions are not |
| automatically accepted.) |
| |
| Q. I want to join the development team, but don't have a SourceForge account, |
| what should I do? |
| A. Head on over to http://sourceforge.net/account/register.php and create an |
| account for yourself. |
| |
| Q. Do you have a mailing list? |
| A. Sure do! The list is rockbox@cool.haxx.se. To subscribe, you need to |
| send a message to majordomo@cool.haxx.se with the words "subscribe rockbox" |
| in the body. |
| |
| Q. Great you have a mailing list! Is there anyway for me to catch up on |
| past posts? |
| A. Check out the archives at: http://bjorn.haxx.se/rockbox/mail.cgi |
| |
| Q. How can I meet the developers working on the project? |
| A. One way is by visiting us on IRC. Head on over to the server |
| irc.openprojects.net, and then join "#rockbox". There is usually at least |
| one person there. If you don't see any activity, feel free to post |
| questions anyway, serveral of us log the channel and will get you answers |
| when we unidle. |
| |
| Q: Wow, you guys talk on IRC alot? I wish I had been around for those |
| conversations to see what happened. |
| A: We are glad you mentioned that! http://bjorn.haxx.se/rockbox/irc happens |
| to have a list of various logs we have recorded of events in the channel. |
| Feel free to read up, and ask questions on what you find. |
| |
| Q. What is this "SourceForge" you keep mentioning? |
| A. http://www.sourceforge.net |
| |
| Q. Can the changes or the software that Rockbox suggests or offers |
| possibly damage my Archos Player? |
| A. All firmware mods that are presented are still highly experimental. |
| Try them at your own risk. We offer no guarantee that this software, or the |
| hardware modifications we show, will not damage your player or void your |
| warranty. |
| That said, we have not been able to damage any of our units by modifying |
| only the firmware. You can accidentally password protect your harddisk, |
| but there are ways around that. (See below.) |
| |
| Q. I want to see what the inside of my player looks like, but I would really |
| like to avoid voiding my warranty. Is there anything you can suggest? |
| A. We have a collection of photos of both the player and recorder. Look at |
| http://bjorn.haxx.se/rockbox/internals/ |
| |
| Q. What exactly are you trying to achieve with this line of development? |
| (A.K.A. whats your purpose for being here?) |
| A. Firstly, we wouldn't start something like this if we didn't simply enjoy |
| it profusely. This is great fun! |
| Secondly, we feel the firmware is lacking some features and contain a |
| number of annoying bugs that we want to fix. |
| Some ideas would include (in no particular order): |
| - No pause between songs |
| - Mid-song resume |
| - Mid-playlist resume |
| - No-scan playlists |
| - Unlimited playlist size |
| - Autobuild playlists (ie: "all songs in this directory tree") |
| - Auto-continue play in the next directory |
| - Current folder and all sub-folder random play |
| - Full disk random play |
| - REAL random |
| - Multi song queue |
| - Faster scroll speed |
| - More cool features with the wire remote control (including |
| controlling your Archos from your car radio (req hw mod)) |
| - Support playing of other files types (ie: Ogg Vorbis support) |
| - Support for megabass switch (req hw mod) |
| - Player control via USB |
| - Memory expansion? |
| Note: Just because something is on this list, does not mean that it is |
| technically feasible. (But hey we can dream) And something not |
| being on the list does not mean it isn't a neat idea. Bring it to |
| the list. |
| |
| Q. I tried one of your firmware files and now I can't access my harddisk! |
| When I turn on my jukebox, it says: |
| Part. Error |
| Pls Chck HD |
| A. Your harddisk has been password protected. We're not 100% sure why it |
| happens, but you can unlock it yourself. Look at: |
| http://rockbox.sourceforge.net/rockbox/lock.html |
| |
| Q: This FAQ doesn't answer the question I have. What should I do? |
| A: You have a couple options here. You could forget the question, find an |
| easier question, or accept '42' as the answer no matter what. We don't |
| really recommend any of these (though I do opt for '42' often myself). |
| What we do recommend is stopping by IRC, reading |
| http://bjorn.haxx.se/rockbox to see if the question was answered else where |
| and just not included here, or ultimatly dropping an email to the mailing |
| list (rockbox@cool.haxx.se). |
| |
| Q: Are there other ways to contact the developers? |
| A: Yes. |
| |
| Q: Are you going to tell us what they are? |
| A: No. Post to the mailing list and we will get back to you. |
| |
| Q: But I _really_ want to talk with you in person, |
| A: I'm sorry. My girlfriend/boyfriend/pet says I'm not allowed to, and the |
| doctors here won't let me have pens or pencils. They say its some rule |
| about us not having sharp objects. I'm sorry. Now please stop calling me |
| here. |