Topic: iRiver H120 CF Mod Attempt - Success!

[petur]

I might have a look at getting the REP up to date again but no promise...
and it will be almost the last time anyway because the recording screen will get a serious rewrite soon, so maintaining the REP will be next to impossible. However, it will probably become easier to add some of its stuff

[lordbelial]

I'm really dying in wishes to jump over a dead HD iriver so I can perform the mod myself...

Maybe Petur can answer this, but my impression was that you can't start out with a crashed HD, because you need to juggle the firmware back and forth to the HD before you can boot the CF.
Or was this restriction only for the H3xx series???

/J

mmmm.
Well, that's a VERY IMPORTANT POINT then.

Any aclarations will be really helpful.

[Chuck]

I might have a look at getting the REP up to date again but no promise...
and it will be almost the last time anyway because the recording screen will get a serious rewrite soon, so maintaining the REP will be next to impossible. However, it will probably become easier to add some of its stuff

The only reason I stick with the REP is because of the balance meter it has. I have come to rely on the balance meter when recording with microphones. I never liked the histogram...  If there was a way to integrate that meter as an option in the SVN, I'd be happy.

Thanks Petur, & +T for any help you can provide.

[petur]

Maybe Petur can answer this, but my impression was that you can't start out with a crashed HD, because you need to juggle the firmware back and forth to the HD before you can boot the CF.
Or was this restriction only for the H3xx series???

The point is moot. Rockbox *can* flash the h1x0 itself, but in order to boot rockbox you need a new/modified bootloader.

I have no idea if the h1x0 original firmware supports CF but I guess it doesn't (on h3x0 it doesn't), so you need a HDD at least once to get the new bootloader on it.

On h3x0, you always need the original firmware for bootloader installation. No flashing supported yet.

[sunjan]

Maybe Petur can answer this, but my impression was that you can't start out with a crashed HD, because you need to juggle the firmware back and forth to the HD before you can boot the CF.
Or was this restriction only for the H3xx series???

The point is moot. Rockbox *can* flash the h1x0 itself, but in order to boot rockbox you need a new/modified bootloader.

I have no idea if the h1x0 original firmware supports CF but I guess it doesn't (on h3x0 it doesn't), so you need a HDD at least once to get the new bootloader on it.

On h3x0, you always need the original firmware for bootloader installation. No flashing supported yet.

Petur, can you explain this again in layman terms??? Sorry for being such a dumbass, and T+ for your patience...

[petur]

The point is moot. Rockbox *can* flash the h1x0 itself, but in order to boot rockbox you need a new/modified bootloader.

I have no idea if the h1x0 original firmware supports CF but I guess it doesn't (on h3x0 it doesn't), so you need a HDD at least once to get the new bootloader on it.

On h3x0, you always need the original firmware for bootloader installation. No flashing supported yet.

Petur, can you explain this again in layman terms??? Sorry for being such a dumbass, and T+ for your patience...

1) for rockbox to support CF, you need a new bootloader, which is code we put inside the iriver original firmware. So you need to do a firmware upgrade
2) rockbox can do this firmware upgrade itself on h120/h140, on h320/h340 you need the original firmware (which does not support CF)

conclusion:
- for h320/h340 you will *always* need a harddisk if you need to install a new bootloader (=upgrade firmware), although I admit this happens rarely. Upgrading rockbox itself is not a problem
- for h120/h140 you will need a harddrive *once* to get a compatible bootloader, after that any later firmware upgrades could be done from within rockbox itself.

So whatever the case, you need a harddisk attached at least once to get the CF support.

[sunjan]

1) for rockbox to support CF, you need a new bootloader, which is code we put inside the iriver original firmware. So you need to do a firmware upgrade
2) rockbox can do this firmware upgrade itself on h120/h140, on h320/h340 you need the original firmware (which does not support CF)

conclusion:
- for h320/h340 you will *always* need a harddisk if you need to install a new bootloader (=upgrade firmware), although I admit this happens rarely. Upgrading rockbox itself is not a problem
- for h120/h140 you will need a harddrive *once* to get a compatible bootloader, after that any later firmware upgrades could be done from within rockbox itself.

So whatever the case, you need a harddisk attached at least once to get the CF support.

OK, finally it's dawning on me. 
The bootloader is not considered a part of the firmware itself, but it needs to piggyback on the firmware when transferring to the unit. On H1xx it can piggyback on Rockbox consecutively, whereas on H3xx if can only piggyback on the commercial Iriver firmware before a CF is recognized. Did I get it right?!

I'd hit you with another T+, but i have to wait 12 hours 
/J

[petur]

1) for rockbox to support CF, you need a new bootloader, which is code we put inside the iriver original firmware. So you need to do a firmware upgrade
2) rockbox can do this firmware upgrade itself on h120/h140, on h320/h340 you need the original firmware (which does not support CF)

conclusion:
- for h320/h340 you will *always* need a harddisk if you need to install a new bootloader (=upgrade firmware), although I admit this happens rarely. Upgrading rockbox itself is not a problem
- for h120/h140 you will need a harddrive *once* to get a compatible bootloader, after that any later firmware upgrades could be done from within rockbox itself.

So whatever the case, you need a harddisk attached at least once to get the CF support.

OK, finally it's dawning on me. 
The bootloader is not considered a part of the firmware itself, but it needs to piggyback on the firmware when transferring to the unit. On H1xx it can piggyback on Rockbox consecutively, whereas on H3xx if can only piggyback on the commercial Iriver firmware before a CF is recognized. Did I get it right?!

I'd hit you with another T+, but i have to wait 12 hours 
/J

erm... no

the bootloader is code that is piggybacking on the original firmware. This 'patched' firmware must then be installed by doing a firmware upgrade. The bootloader is responsible for starting rockbox which you install on the disk/CF.

On h1x0, rockbox can do this firmware upgrade for you, on h3x0 we use the original firmware. Either way, you need the original firmware once to upgrade to a firmware version that contains our bootloader.

I hope I explained it clear enough 

[rokpunk]

This mod was so easy even a caveman can do it!

Replaced my clickity clackity hp120 hardrive with a 4gb CF and it worked perfectly from the get-go.
Highly recommended mod that anyone can handle doing.

[Chuck]

I got all the stuff to do this mod recently. I tried putting a Transcend 8 GB 133 speed CF into my iHP-120 a few minutes ago and got an ATA drive error. I was able to boot into the original iRiver firmware, but no luck with my specialized REP, RTC patched version of RockBox. I'll try messing with it again tomorrow.

[petur]

I got all the stuff to do this mod recently. I tried putting a Transcend 8 GB 133 speed CF into my iHP-120 a few minutes ago and got an ATA drive error. I was able to boot into the original iRiver firmware, but no luck with my specialized REP, RTC patched version of RockBox. I'll try messing with it again tomorrow.

You'll need to sync with current rockbox svn or apply my CF patch.
See http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/CFModGuide for bootloader tips and http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/8644 for my patch if you don't want to sync with svn

[zeus163]

Thanks for the idea to do this. I've been thinking my hard drive wasn't sounding quite right and this mod allowed me to save some serious moolah. Instead of buying a new recorder, I spent less than $70 on the ide part and a 16 gig hard drive. I got the parts today and after upgrading to the latest versions of rockbox and upgrading to the version 7 bootloader. Copied my files back to the compact flash once installed and the iRiver booted right up. I was worried about this, but this was fairly easy.

I was using the old recording enhancement pack before upgrading to the latest version of Rockbox, so I really miss not being able to increase the size of my peakmeters though. Is there anyway that could be added back into rockbox? (I don't know how to compile versions though). Sorry.

[petur]

not at the moment.

work is underway to refresh the recording gui, probably bringing bigger fonts.

I had absolutely no time to get the REP building again, and probably not in the future. I'll check how the ui rework is progressing...

[taylordb]

I just got the ide>cf adapter in the mail.  I'm planning on getting either a 16 or 32 gig cf card.  Are there any 16 or 32 cards out there that I need to avoid?
What cards to people have the most success with in that capacity range?

Thanks in advance.....I'm looking forward to doing this!

[petur]

Make sure you get one with a bit of speed, like x133, unless you want to spend a lot of time transferring files...

I heard that transcend has some affordable 32GB x133 cards in their online shop... Not tested yet but another rockbox dev bought one and will soon install it. If it doesn't work, the code will get adapted for it