Bootbox for Archos machines

The following instructions are outdated. An up-to-date description can be found in the "Rockbox in Flash" chapter in the Rockbox manual.

Online Manual > Advanced Topics > Rockbox in Flash (chap. 12.5)

What's This?

Bootbox is a minimalistic Rockbox version, for the Archos models. It is meant to replace the original Archos firmware in the flash, to

1. leave more room there
2. let us distribute flash images without Archos' software, 100% ours.

Item 1) above allows us to run RomBox on all Archos platforms, without worrying about space constraints any more. Rombox has got sufficiently big that it doesn't fit into firmware on some units unless Bootbox is there, making more space available. This was the main motivation for creating Bootbox. Item 2) is important to avoid issues with re-distribution of other people's code.

Bootbox does no more than:

• enabling USB when plugged in while starting, giving access to the disk
• loading and starting firmware from disk (ajbrec.ajz/archos.mod)
• charging

These are the necessary features to serve as a backup firmware when you've screwed up the main one. It allows us to place/load a better one to/from disk and start it, so you can fix the problem.

How to to Flash Your Archos

Warning: Flashing Rockbox is optional. It is not required for using Rockbox on your Archos Recorder or Player, however Rockbox will load much faster when it has been flashed. Please read the whole section thoroughly before flashing.

Before you start, you need to check that your Archos can be flashed. Press F1 (Menu for player, hold Mode for Ondio) -> Info -> Debug -> View HW Info. Look for the line starting with "Flash". If this is shown as "Flash: M=?? D=??", you're out of luck (The "??"s mean that your unit is not flashable). If something other than question marks is shown, your unit is flashable and you can carry on with this section.

There are two procedures to follow to flash your Archos. If you haven't flashed your Archos before or you are not sure that your Archos is flashed with "Bootbox", follow both the Initial and Update procedures, Otherwise you can just do the Update Procedure.

Initial Procedure

To see if you need to perform this procedure, with the Archos powered off, press and hold F1 (Minus on Player, Left on Ondio) then press On. If you see "Bootbox Rescue Boot" appear briefly then you don't need to perform this procedure and can skip down to the Update Procedure.

1. Power on your Archos normally. Install the version of Rockbox you intend to use by unzipping it to the root or top level directory of your Archos, preserving the directory structure in the zip file.
2. On the Archos Player, set the File View option to "All" by pressing MENU -> Settings -> General Settings -> File View -> All.
3. On the Archos Recorders, set the File View option to "All" by pressing F2 -> Show Files -> "All" (click the >> until "All" appears). Click F2 again to exit.
4. Back up the current firmware, using the first option of the debug menu (System -> Debug Info -> Dump ROM Contents). This creates 2 files in the root directory, which you may not immediately see in the Rockbox browser. The 256kB-sized internal_rom_2000000-203FFFF.bin one is your present firmware. Back both up to your PC. You will need them if you want to restore the flash contents.
5. Go to the Download Area of this page and download the appropriate zip file for your Archos. Unzip it to the root or top level directory of your Archos.
6. Connect the charger and make sure your batteries are in good shape. That's just for security reasons, it's not that flashing needs more power.
7. Using the File Browser on the Archos, "play" the ajbrec.ajz file (archos.mod file for the Player). This will load the current version of Rockbox which is necessary for the next step.
8. From the menu screen -> Plugins -> Firmware_Flash. Follow the prompts. (For the Recorder, F1 - check, F2 - "are you sure?", F3 - do it. For the Player the keys are Minus, On, and Plus; for the Ondio the keys are Left, Up, Right.) In the unlikely event that something goes wrong, do not switch off your Archos, but follow the procedure below to restore the original firmware.
9. On the Archos delete the *.bin files you installed in step 4.
10. You also need to carry on with the Update Procedure, below, to complete the initial updating of your Archos.

Update Procedure

1. If you haven't done so already, install the version of Rockbox you intend to use by unzipping it to the root or top level directory of your Archos, preserving the directory structure in the zip file.
2. On the Archos Player, set the File View option to "All" by pressing MENU -> Settings -> General Settings -> File View -> All.
3. On the Archos Recorders, set the File View option to "All" by pressing F2 -> Show Files -> "All" (click the >> until "All" appears). Click F2 again to exit.
4. Connect the charger and make sure your batteries are in good shape. That's just for security reasons, it's not that flashing needs more power.
5. Using the File Browser on the Archos, "play" the ajbrec.ajz file (archos.mod file for the Player). This will load the current version of Rockbox which is necessary for the next step.
6. Using the File Browser on the Archos, enter the .rockbox directory and "play" the rombox.ucl file. Follow the prompts. (For the Recorder, F1 - check, F2 - do it. For the Player the keys are Minus and On; for the Ondio the keys are Left and On.) If the rombox.ucl file is not available, play the rockbox.ucl file. (For more information on this, go to RomBox.)
7. Disconnect the charger, and switch off, then switch on your Archos to load Rockbox from flash. If Rockbox loads up correctlly, then you have successfully flashed your Archos.
8. The ajbrec.ajz file (archos.mod file for the Player) is no longer needed on the Archos, and can be safely deleted.

Restoring The Original Firmware

If you'd like to revert to the original firmware, you can do like you did when you flashed Rockbox for the first time. You simply use the backup files you saved when flashing Rockbox for the first time and rename "internal_rom_2000000-203FFFF.bin" to "firmware_*.bin" (name varies per model, use the filename which "firmware_flash.rock" asks for) and put it in the root.

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