From: Paul Erkens <pjealt_at_xs4all.nl>
Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 15:03:40 +0200

Hi Clement,

You or I could help Amy install Rockbox on a regular I Audio x5, once she
buys herself one, over skype. It's not that hard. I have done it to a
friend's Iriver too, and my own I audio was even easier. Amy, drop me a note
if you want some step by step help.

Paul.
----- Original Message -----
From: <chou.clement_at_gmail.com>
To: "Rockbox" <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 5:14 AM
Subject: Re: question to all blind rockboxers


> Well, a question, on Amy's behalf. Does anyone have an IAudio with rockbox
> installed and operating that they could sell for a low price?
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Amy" <amy_at_faylen.com>
> To: "Rockbox" <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 6:24 PM
> Subject: Re: question to all blind rockboxers
>
>
>>I wish I could get mine working. Still waiting to look for a decent price
>>on eBay. I would prefer one with rockbox installed already, but I'm
>>thinking it very unlikely at this point. sigh
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <chou.clement_at_gmail.com>
>> To: "Rockbox" <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
>> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 6:03 PM
>> Subject: Re: question to all blind rockboxers
>>
>>
>>> Actually, just one minor correction if I may, Paul. The fourth whole on
>>> the subpack as you described is not a line jack. Rather, it's not a line
>>> out jack. It's actually a line in / out jack, ad I believe it can be
>>> changed via the firmware and settings. The other jack that is right next
>>> to your usb is actually a remote jack. And the slit's purpose is unknown
>>> right below the headphone jack. Under the slit is actually a piece of
>>> plastic, which reveals the USB 1.1 OTG port. If you feel carefully, you
>>> will feel something that is not quite smooth. It should be noticible.. I
>>> Thought it was the internal microphone, but you don't want to get that
>>> mistaken... that's where you said it was. Just a few things I thought I
>>> would point out.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Clement.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Paul Erkens" <pjealt_at_xs4all.nl>
>>> To: "Rockbox" <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
>>> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 3:48 PM
>>> Subject: question to all blind rockboxers
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Since I got my IAudio x5, I really had a whole bunch of stuff to learn.
>>>> I was rather a novice. The information on the net aimed directly at
>>>> blind people is there to some degree, and that's wonderful already. But
>>>> it is not very extensive up till now.
>>>> I'm writing a document right now, from which other blind folks can
>>>> learn what I had to learn. I started writing this afternoon, and I'd
>>>> like to know from you guys out here, if you think I should do it
>>>> differently, keep going this way, or leave it altogether because I'm
>>>> completely wrong.
>>>>
>>>> If any of you cares to take a look at my first attempts, I am pasting
>>>> it below. If the reactions are okay and I can get it finished in the
>>>> near future, I'm planning to send it off to the rockbox team, and see
>>>> if they find it useful enough to place it on their site for other blind
>>>> adventurous souls to use. Rockbox is made by very knowledgeable people,
>>>> but introductory docs for the unknowing like myself, I haven't found so
>>>> far. Would you as a blind reader find this a useful document?
>>>> Especially the section describing the IAudio mp3 player itself.
>>>>
>>>> Comments welcome. It is my first attempt to write it, unfinished nor
>>>> polished. I'm not a native English speaker. I just want to know if I'm
>>>> on the right track to really make a difference when I get it done. I'd
>>>> like to contribute my little bit.
>>>> ---
>>>> Guide for the blind: rockbox on your IAudio x5 mp3 player.
>>>>
>>>> Contents ideas:
>>>> ========
>>>> introduction
>>>> What are we talking about?
>>>> -walkmans and accessibility
>>>> -what is mp3 really?
>>>> Description of the IAudio x5
>>>> Hearing the demos on the unit
>>>> an explanation of firmware
>>>> what is rockbox for us?
>>>> How the speech system works
>>>> About the files to download and what they do
>>>>
>>>> Introduction
>>>>
>>>> Welcome. This guide is intended for blind folks, wanting to have an
>>>> accessible mp3 player. I am blind myself, and from the directions on
>>>> the internet, I finally managed to get rockbox to work on my player.
>>>> The information I needed was not bundled in one place, and most
>>>> documents were very brief. Now that I have my own player going and now
>>>> that I've seen how great rockbox just is for us once it's running, I
>>>> want to share my knowledge and experience with you, so you don't have
>>>> to invent the wheel again.
>>>>
>>>> In short, if you already know what an mp3 walkman is: with rockbox, you
>>>> can now navigate almost all menus, configure almost all options and do
>>>> almost anything a sighted user is capable of, using the display screen
>>>> on the unit. New functions and possibilities are added constantly, and
>>>> what you can't do today, may be possible next week. Rockbox makes your
>>>> mp3 player talk, so you will know what you are doing as you operate its
>>>> controls. That is what rockbox is all about for blind people. A work in
>>>> progress, already working on many different mp3 players, talking to
>>>> you, and improving continuously.
>>>>
>>>> This is not a technical document, because I'm not technically inclined
>>>> myself. I will explain what you are required to do, why you must do it,
>>>> and in our case without vision: how it should be done.
>>>>
>>>> I can only describe the procedure for the IAudio x5 mp3 player. Other
>>>> players, I don't have any experience with so far. If you have something
>>>> other than the IAudio x5, this document will provide you with
>>>> background information so you will understand what's up, but the
>>>> specific installation details for other players than the IAudio x5 are
>>>> not covered here.
>>>>
>>>> We will begin by providing you with some useful background information.
>>>> Only read it if you're interested. We will discuss audio compression,
>>>> and similar background topics. Then, we'll dive into describing the
>>>> IAudio x5 unit, showing you how to get started with rockbox.
>>>>
>>>> In many cases, I will refer to the IAudio x5 rockbox manual on the
>>>> rockbox site. This document is an addition just to get you started;
>>>> It's by no means a replacement for anything.
>>>>
>>>> If you have any suggestions for this document, please write me at
>>>> pjealt_at_xs4all.nl. I can't provide support for general rockbox problems,
>>>> because all I do is write and maintain this document. Please write me
>>>> only if you think an important concept is missing from this document.
>>>>
>>>> What are we talking about?
>>>> =====================
>>>>
>>>> So, what are we talking about in this document in the first place?
>>>> Simply put: until rockbox came, we did not have good access to digital
>>>> walkmans. But now we do. If you buy yourself an x5 walkman from IAudio,
>>>> this document tells you how to set it up for yourself, so that it talks
>>>> to you as you operate it.
>>>>
>>>> walkmans and accessibility
>>>>
>>>> If you like music, talking books, radio plays or other forms of
>>>> recorded audio, it is great to have a mobile device, on which the audio
>>>> you want to listen to is stored. When I was young, I used to have one
>>>> of the first walkman players that could play cassette tapes. It weighed
>>>> almost two American pounds, which is near to 1 kilo gram in European
>>>> measurement. It required six pen light batteries, it had head phones
>>>> attached, the batteries lasted less than two hours, and I was extremely
>>>> proud to walk around with that brick. But after two months of intensive
>>>> use, the tape started to slow down, the sound became bad and I did away
>>>> with it finally. Not only had the player been expensive, but it wore
>>>> out pretty quickly.
>>>>
>>>> These days, walkmans have improved dramatically. The music is no longer
>>>> stored on cassette tapes but on different media. The modern media are
>>>> digital in nature. How digital audio works exactly, falls outside the
>>>> scope of this document. The advantage of using digitally stored audio
>>>> in your walkman is however, that its sound quality is much better.
>>>> Besides, it is now much easier to instantly play a song of your liking.
>>>> You don't have to change tapes and cue back and forth, to find the song
>>>> you want to hear. Instead, you navigate through your collection using a
>>>> small display screen on the walkman, to find and play it.
>>>>
>>>> And here is our problem. If you can't read the display on the unit, you
>>>> won't be able to access most of its functions and settings. These
>>>> devices become more and more menu based, with logical categories in
>>>> which you can find the option you want to tweak. Absolutely fabulous
>>>> for sighted people, but by far not for us. You know how computers are
>>>> made accessible though. The screen is read to us by an electronic
>>>> voice, and because of that, we can navigate our files, do text
>>>> processing and many other computer tasks, even including installing
>>>> windows XP without sighted assistance. If you are determined, that is.
>>>>
>>>> Generally, most manufacturers of modern digital equipment don't really
>>>> adapt their stuff such, that people with disabilities can make good use
>>>> of them. We can get along some by memorizing key stroke sequences, but
>>>> modern devices have become way too complex. This meant, that the
>>>> pleasure of digital walkmans was only available for us if we didn't
>>>> demand too much. You could buy yourself one, but only 20% or so of its
>>>> functions that you payed for, will be usable for you.
>>>>
>>>> Well: no more. Thanks to the time and effort spent by the rockbox team,
>>>> we now have the possibility to use these modern walkmans, and not just
>>>> that. We can also make a well informed choice among the different
>>>> models on which it runs. Rockbox won't work on all modern walkmans, but
>>>> more are added over time and what these people have achieved so far, is
>>>> impressive. Just take a look on the rockbox site, and see which mp3
>>>> walkmans are already currently supported. Go to your local dealer and
>>>> get yourself one from that list.
>>>>
>>>> What is mp3 really?
>>>>
>>>> Next, we need to understand what mp3 really is. Mp3 is not a walkman, a
>>>> player, nor a dvd feature. Mp3 is a file format. Let's see what this
>>>> means.
>>>>
>>>> A file on your computer is something you will be familiar with. A file
>>>> can contain a letter or other text, it could contain a picture, and
>>>> likewise a file on your computer can also contain audio. If you play an
>>>> audio file on your computer, you will hear the sound from the file out
>>>> of your pc speakers. There are a number of different audio file types
>>>> that are currently used throughout the world. Simply put, there are
>>>> only two basic types of audio files: compressed, and uncompressed.
>>>> Let's talk about what this means.
>>>>
>>>> On a regular audio cd, audio is stored plainly. The original sound has
>>>> been encoded into small groups of digits: ones and zeroes, and these
>>>> are stored on the compact disk. It is possible to have your computer's
>>>> cd or dvd drive read that digital audio information off the cd, and
>>>> storing it in regular computer files on your hard drive. This process
>>>> is called "ripping a cd", i.e. copying the audio data over from the cd
>>>> on to your computer's hard disk.
>>>>
>>>> However, a simple cd contains an enormous amount of data. If we speak
>>>> in megabytes, a cd contains roughly 800 megabytes worth of audio data.
>>>> Once you have the contents of your cd inside your computer, you can
>>>> hook up your digital walkman to it, and then transfer those files.
>>>>
>>>> You should be aware however, that the storage capacity of your digital
>>>> walkman is usually quite limited, if you compare it to the capacity of
>>>> your computer's hard disk. Audio, in its plain form, is quite big. When
>>>> digital walkmans first came to market, we had devices that could
>>>> contain 32 megabytes max. Now if you realise that in plain storage
>>>> format, an audio file eats up 10 megabytes for every minute of music,
>>>> you will understand that in these players, there was only room for a
>>>> song of about 3 minutes in length, and obviously, you want more music
>>>> in your walkman than just one little song.
>>>>
>>>> Two things have been done to overcome this problem. First, a group of
>>>> clever people invented a method of reducing the size of regular audio
>>>> files down to a tenth of what they used to be. This is what is now
>>>> called: audio compression. It essentially just means, bringing down the
>>>> size of the audio file whilst retaining the maximum possible sound
>>>> quality. The human ear is not very accurate, compared to a computer.
>>>> What audio compression does, is throw away those parts of the audio
>>>> that we are not likely to perceive. The more of the audio you throw
>>>> away, the smaller the resulting file can be.
>>>>
>>>> And now we have something to work with. On a windows machine, a file
>>>> containing plain audio is called a wave file, usually having a period
>>>> and the letters w a v at the end of its name. Wave files can be quite
>>>> big. Usually, they are uncompressed. Plain.
>>>>
>>>> On the other hand, the most common way of compressing audio these days,
>>>> is called mp3. So the word mp3 just refers to the way the audio itself
>>>> is compressed. Compressed audio files usually have a dot and the
>>>> letters m p 3 at the end of their name.
>>>>
>>>> To summarize: if, for example, you see a file called song.wav on your
>>>> computer, you know that it usually is an uncompressed audio file,
>>>> because of the dot wav at the end. If you encounter something like
>>>> song.mp3 or today.mp3, you know that it is compressed audio, because of
>>>> the dot m p 3 at the end of the file's name. This is only a rule of
>>>> thumb, because we did not take into account the fact that even wave
>>>> files can be compressed, and still be called .wav. But let's not get
>>>> lost in the details.
>>>>
>>>> We mentioned before, that mp3 reduces file sizes by throwing away
>>>> frequencies in the audio you are not likely to hear. The better
>>>> compression you want to achieve, the more audio you need to throw away.
>>>> If you keep going, you will get to a point where the audio damage
>>>> becomes perceptible. You will hear it. So there's always a tradeoff
>>>> between filesize and quality. In mp3 jargon, the compression factor
>>>> that determines both the final file size and also the resulting sound
>>>> quality, is called the mp3 bitrate. If you are going to create your own
>>>> mp3 files from cd's you have, then the bitrate is something you can
>>>> configure. Bitrate and compression factor refers to the same thing, as
>>>> far as mp3 is concerned.
>>>>
>>>> A song in wave format containing 3 minutes worth of cd quality audio,
>>>> would become 30 megabytes in size on disk. If you make an mp3 out of
>>>> this, then you will still have a file of reasonable quality if you
>>>> compress it down to a tenth of its original size. One song in mp3
>>>> format could then become 3 megabytes rather than 30, and still sound
>>>> quite okay. And if you only have 32 megabytes of storage available on
>>>> your player, that's quite an improvement. You can now store ten songs,
>>>> rather than just one in uncompressed format. In other words: audio used
>>>> to be way to large to handle. Mp3 has given us a solution, by
>>>> drastically cutting down the file size of our digital audio.
>>>>
>>>> Old mp3 players were equipped with a memory chip and these devices are
>>>> still widely used, except that the memory capacity has grown
>>>> enormously, which is the second improvement over the first digital mp3
>>>> players with limited capacity. Mp3 walkmans in the form of a small
>>>> plastic stick can well contain 4000 megabytes, 4 gig, which is really
>>>> quite something. And that's not all.
>>>>
>>>> Modern mp3 walkmans don't store their audio in a memory chip. Instead,
>>>> they have a tiny hard disk built in to them. This leads to walkmans
>>>> with great storage capabilities. 40 to 60 gigabytes (being 40000 to
>>>> 60000 megabytes) is no exception these days, giving you ample space for
>>>> thousands of songs.
>>>>
>>>> There are many brands to choose from, if you want such a walkman or mp3
>>>> player. Before purchasing one, you need to decide for yourself how much
>>>> you are going to store on it. If a couple of gigabytes is enough, a
>>>> player with a memory chip will suffice. But if you want 40, 60 or 80
>>>> gigabytes worth of music, then you should buy a player that has a hard
>>>> drive built in.
>>>>
>>>> Description of the IAudio x5
>>>> ============================
>>>>
>>>> I chose the Cowon x5, which is an mp3 walkman manufactured by a company
>>>> called IAudio. This player comes in a few flavours. The things that
>>>> make the difference between the various models are the capacity of the
>>>> hard disk inside it, and the battery life. If you have an x5l, then the
>>>> l stands for long battery life. The player is thicker because of the
>>>> bigger battery. Mine has a normal battery life, it is not the thicker
>>>> one, and the hard disk can contain up to 60 gigabytes worth of data.
>>>>
>>>> The player is as small as a packet of cigarets. It is a metal casing
>>>> that feels very solid. It has only a few buttons, and a joy stick. You
>>>> can buy an optional leather protection for it, and even when the player
>>>> is inside the protection leather, you can operate it well. Let's
>>>> describe the unit, so you will know what is where.
>>>>
>>>> Put the player on a flat surface in front of you. If you feel its roof
>>>> and all you encounter is four tiny dots, one on each corner, then you
>>>> now have the unit upside down. The side that is now facing the table,
>>>> should face the sky. If however, you now feel a very smooth rectangle
>>>> and a button inside a circle, then the unit is already half way in the
>>>> correct position.
>>>>
>>>> Now, we must make sure that the player is in the same position as I
>>>> have it here, in order for the side descriptions to match. As you can
>>>> feel, the roof of the player consists of two distinct levels. A thick
>>>> and a thin part. Now, the thicker part that feels all smooth, is the
>>>> visual display screen. Rotate the unit, so the display is at the top of
>>>> the unit, furthest away from you. The bottom part of your x5 contains
>>>> this little knob inside a small circle. This is your joy stick, and we
>>>> will discuss what it does later on. Now, we can describe the four sides
>>>> of your x5 in succession.
>>>>
>>>> The left side contains your head phone connector, and a slit to make
>>>> the player act as a USB host. The top has a light, the right has
>>>> power/hold, record, play, microphone and reset hole, while the bottom
>>>> has the subpack connector. Okay, slowly this time.
>>>>
>>>> We'll start with the left side. Sliding your finger from top to bottom,
>>>> so from the top left towards the bottom left corner, the first thing
>>>> you encounter is a tiny round hole for your head phones.
>>>>
>>>> A little further down is a slit, which is probably a connector you
>>>> won't be using very often. Sighted people can use it to have the x5 act
>>>> as a USB host, so they can connect their digital camera to the x5, and
>>>> transfer the pictures they have in the camera, over to the x5. This
>>>> way, the camera's internal memory card can be wiped out and the photo
>>>> shooting can continue again. Rockbox may utilize this connector for
>>>> other purposes, but to my current knowledge, it is of no use for us
>>>> right now. The rest of the left side does not contain any extra
>>>> connectors or controls.
>>>>
>>>> The top side, running your finger across, reveals no more than a visual
>>>> indicator, showing wether the x5 is currently charging. If you're
>>>> totally blind, this is of no use to you.
>>>>
>>>> Then the right side of the player. Again, slide your finger from top to
>>>> bottom, from upper right to bottom right. First, you will find a switch
>>>> that you can slide up or down. Initially, it is always in its middle
>>>> position. This switch has many functions, but to begin with, remember
>>>> this as your power switch to turn the x5 on and off. Push upwards and
>>>> let go. Then listen closely if you hear the hard disk spin up. If not,
>>>> just try again until the device switches itself on. After a few
>>>> seconds, the hard disk will shut off again, but the device is still
>>>> awake. Making the hard drive spin, takes power from the battery, so as
>>>> soon as the x5 is done reading and writing to the disk, it stops to
>>>> save power. To turn the x5 off again, do the same thing. Push the
>>>> switch up and let go, until the device switches off.
>>>>
>>>> This power switch has yet another function. If you slide it down, it
>>>> won't flick back to its original position in the middle. After sliding
>>>> the switch down, it just stays there. In this position, the unit is on
>>>> hold. This means that none of the other buttons perform any function.
>>>> Very handy if you want to tuck away the x5 somewhere in a pocket, and
>>>> you want to be sure the battery won't go flat by accidentally starting
>>>> playback without head phones, which obviously wastes battery life.
>>>>
>>>> Note: you can test wether the device is on or off, by making sure this
>>>> switch is in the middle so that the x5 accepts key strokes, and then
>>>> attempting to play, see below. If it playes, then the unit is still on.
>>>> This is no guarantee that the player is on or off indeed, but is is
>>>> something to begin with.
>>>>
>>>> Further down the right side, just below the power/hold switch, you will
>>>> find two rectangular buttons. The top one is rec, the bottom one is
>>>> play. More on these later.
>>>>
>>>> Further down, you may feel a couple of teeny weeny holes in the metal
>>>> strip. The top hole is the internal microphone, and the bottom hole is
>>>> reset. To reset the unit, you can stick a long, thin object into it,
>>>> which will touch the hidden reset button. Use it in case your firmware
>>>> crashes and you want to start over.
>>>>
>>>> Finally, the bottom side. In the middle, this side contains a metal
>>>> slit that almost feels like a slot for an sd memory card, but that is
>>>> not what it's meant for. This is the connector for the subpack, being a
>>>> small plastic device that you got together with your x5. One side of
>>>> the subpack plugs into the x5, and on the other side of the subpack
>>>> which, when connected, is now the bottom side of the device, you will
>>>> find a number of connectors.
>>>>
>>>> From left to right, the connectors on the subpack are as follows: AC,
>>>> USB, line in and line out. The last two I am not sure about. They may
>>>> be line out and then line in.
>>>>
>>>> Hearing the demos on the unit
>>>> =============================
>>>>
>>>> If you are like me, before doing anything else, you will want to hear
>>>> what your x5 really sounds like. If all goes well, you won't be
>>>> disappointed. Wear your ear phones and plug the cable into the socket
>>>> on the top left side of your x5, as described earlier. Then, turn the
>>>> unit on as described. When the hard disk spins up, wait for it to spin
>>>> down again and then press play. If you don't hear anything, try play
>>>> again. I heard music immediately and it sounded just awesome. Not that
>>>> I love the demo itself, but the quality is pristine.
>>>>
>>>> Now, feel your joy stick. This joy stick can be moved in all four
>>>> directions: east, west, north and south, or three o'clock, nine
>>>> o'clock, twelve o'clock and six o'clock if you prefer. Place your
>>>> finger south of the joy stick, six o'clock, and push upward, away from
>>>> you. The volume will increase. Likewise, place your finger north of the
>>>> stick and gently pull the stick towards you, down. The volume will
>>>> decrease.
>>>>
>>>> Pushing right will move to the next file on the player. Moving left
>>>> first goes to the start of the current song or, when done in the first
>>>> few seconds of the track, moves you to the start of the previous track.
>>>>
>>>> You will notice that the demos more or less all sound the same. There's
>>>> video together with the audio, but just forget about that because it's
>>>> useless to us.
>>>>
>>>> What is firmware?
>>>>
>>>> You may wonder, how your mp3 player is capable of playing digital
>>>> music. Your pc has a micro processor to read from disk, process sound,
>>>> create video etc. But what about your mp3 player? Well, your x5 is a
>>>> computer on its own. It too has its own memory, its own hard disk and a
>>>> micro processor. The operating system is usually stored on the hard
>>>> disk. In a pc, that is usually windows (sorry linux lovers, just by
>>>> means of saying), and on mp3 players, the operating system is going to
>>>> be rockbox.
>>>>
>>>> Now to understand what we are actually changing to make the player go
>>>> rockbox, we need to go over some concepts first. You know that your
>>>> computer has a processor and that it has memory too. If you turn the pc
>>>> on, it loads its operating system from hard disk, and then waits for
>>>> you to do something with it. But let me ask you. How does your pc know
>>>> that the operating system to load is stored on hard disk? You know that
>>>> the computer can only do something if it has software that tells it
>>>> what to do, and the operating system is exactly the piece of software
>>>> to do that. But, when you first turn on your computer, the operating
>>>> system still needs to be loaded from hard disk first. So, how can the
>>>> computer know
>>>> how to perform its very first steps, if the operating system has not
>>>> been loaded yet? The computer tests its memory for errors right after
>>>> you turn it on, but at that time, the hard disk has not even been
>>>> touched to start loading the operating system. What makes the computer
>>>> perform its startup tasks?
>>>>
>>>> The answer is: the bios. Bios, b i o s, stands for basic input output
>>>> system. It's a small piece of software, not stored on a hard disk, but
>>>> on a tiny chip somewhere on your motherboard, deep down inside your pc
>>>> case. When you turn on your pc, what happens is that the bios first
>>>> checks to see if all hardware is connected properly, and the bios then
>>>> takes care of loading the operating system, windows. The bios only
>>>> knows a few very basic functions to communicate with the hardware,
>>>> enough to get the computer started. The operating system does the rest.
>>>>
>>>> The same goes for your mp3 player, your x5. When you turn it on, the
>>>> first thing that happens is that the microprocessor starts running the
>>>> program code, stored in the player's rom memory. After initializing the
>>>> hardware, this code is responsible for loading the rest of the
>>>> operating system from the hard disk.
>>>>
>>>> Because software is something created by humans, it can always contain
>>>> errors, called bugs. Every now and then, computer manufacturers release
>>>> new versions of this code on the internet. But as I said, bios code in
>>>> a pc is stored on a chip inside the computer, not on the hard disk.
>>>> Well, it is easy to download a new version of a certain file, on to
>>>> your computer's hard drive. But how would you reprogram the contents of
>>>> a special bios chip, deep inside your computer? Luckily, you don't need
>>>> to worry about it, because the computer has a mechanism to do this for
>>>> you. If you want to update your computer's bios, for example when USB
>>>> functions strangely and you read on the manufacturer's site that the
>>>> latest bios version fixes this, then you can simply download a file
>>>> containing the new code. You then put this file in a special location,
>>>> turn your machine off and on, tell it to look for the new bios file,
>>>> and let it reprogram its own bios chip as you wait a few seconds.
>>>>
>>>> Now. Your x5 also has sort of a bios, and an operating system. When you
>>>> first buy your x5, it's got startup code and an operating system inside
>>>> it, provided by Iaudio. The code programmed into the rom memory of the
>>>> player itself, is called the firmware. According to wikipedia, firmware
>>>> is embedded software, but this can be a confusing and difficult term.
>>>> Firmware in your x5 is like the bios code in your pc. It runs when you
>>>> start the player, and makes the player react to your key presses and
>>>> joy stick movements.
>>>>
>>>> However, this initially provided operating system from IAudio is not
>>>> blind friendly at all. It does not speak, and you'll have a hard time
>>>> remembering how many times to push your joy stick left, down, right
>>>> etc, in order to get to a certain function.
>>>>
>>>> What rockbox is, is a complete replacement for the player's internal
>>>> operating system. From the ground up, it has built in support for
>>>> speech, so that we can use it as well. Part of rockbox must live inside
>>>> the player's rom memory, and part of rockbox resides on the hard drive.
>>>>
>>>> So we need to get rid of the original IAudio operating system and
>>>> startup code in our x5, and replace it with startup code and the
>>>> operating system from rockbox. There are two separate processes to
>>>> carry out.
>>>>
>>>> First, we need to put the disk part of rockbox onto the hard drive of
>>>> our player. Next, we need to replace the boot code, so that the player
>>>> knows how to load rockbox when we turn it on. A property of this x5
>>>> player is, that the original firmware can not continue to exist in the
>>>> player after rockbox has been installed. On other players, at startup,
>>>> you can choose to either run the IAudio firmware or the rockbox
>>>> firmware. On our x5, this is not possible. Once you install rockbox,
>>>> you loose your original firmware. No problem, because rockbox is better
>>>> for us than Iaudio's firmware.
>>>>
>>>> Which files to get?
>>>>
>>>> Everything you need can be downloaded off the internet, from
>>>> www.rockbox.org. For blind people using screen reading programs to
>>>> access the information on the computer screen, this site is not easy to
>>>> work with. If you need to, ask some sighted assistance if you can find
>>>> someone willing to help you some. It's up to you to know what to get
>>>> and where to look for it. You don't want to frustrate your helper by
>>>> leaving it up to them to hunt for something they haven't read or learnt
>>>> about.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> No virus found in this incoming message.
>>> Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database:
>>> 269.7.1/807 - Release Date: 5/16/2007 6:05 PM
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> I'm protected by SpamBrave
>> http://www.spambrave.com/
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database:
> 269.7.1/807 - Release Date: 5/16/2007 6:05 PM
>
Received on 2007-05-18