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Wiki > Main > ImxInstall

Overview

This page document the installation of Rockbox bootloader on the following targets:

To install Rockbox, you need to install two components:
  • Rockbox bootloader: you only need to install it once
  • Rockbox firmware

Rockbox firmware

The firmware is what you interact with all the time. It is easy to install, upgrade and remove. There are two types of builds: stable, development. Stable builds are infrequently updated but well-tested. Development builds contains all the latest feature but may be less tested. As of december 2016, we recommend development builds because the current stable (3.13) is very old. To install the firmware, you can either use RockboxUtility or manually download and install it.

Rockbox Utility

See RockboxUtility. The tool allows you to choose between stable and dev builds. The following targets are supported:

Manual installation

Follow the instruction from this page. Some less supported targets are not listed in the previous page, in which you can find the link on the dev builds page.

Rockbox bootloader

The bootloader only needs to be installed once. We sometimes release bootloader updates to fix major issues or add more feature but this is very infrequent. The recommended way to install the bootloader is to use RockoxUtility if it supports your device. Otherwise we provide some prebuilt bootloader for some targets. This page all documents the gory details of creating the bootloader yourself if you really want to.

Rockbox Utility

See RockboxUtility. The following targets are supported:

Prebuilt bootloaders

To install the bootloader, follow the instructions carefully:
  • Plug your device in the computer, it should appear as a mass storage device. If you have a previously installed rockbox bootloader, make sure you are using the original firmware usb mode. See the wiki page of your device to find out how to enter this mode.
  • Download the corresponding bootloader from the table below
  • Copy the file to internal storage of your device (NOT the sd card if it has one), and RENAME IT to firmware.sb
  • Safely eject/unmount your device
  • Reboot your device. If you have a previously installed rockbox bootloader, make sure you reboot to the original firmware. See the wiki page of your device to find out how to enter this mode.
  • You should see an upgrade screen, wait until the installation is finished, it can take several minutes. DO NOT reset your player during that time.

Target Link to bootloader image
SansaFuzePlus use RockboxUtility or build it manually
CreativeZENXFi2 see below
CreativeZENXFi3 creative_zenxfi3_1.00.25.sb
CreativeZENXFiStyle TODO
SonyNWZE360 sonynwze360_rb_firmware.sb
SonyNWZE370 sonynwze370_rb_firmware.sb
SonyNWZE380 sonynwze380_rb_firmware.sb
Dropbox Mirror SonyNWZE

Particular case of the Creative ZEN X-Fi2

The CreativeZENXFi2 is special, see CreativeZENXFi2Port for install instructions.

Crafting the bootloader image

If you do not want to download a prebuilt bootloader and your target is not supported by RockboxUtility, you can manually build it. Note that building a bootloader is a two stage process:
  • compile the bootloader from source (or download a prebuilt one)
  • modify an original firmware upgrade to integrate this bootloader

Compiling or getting a bootloader

If you really want to, you can compile the bootloader yourself by following the instruction from HowToCompile. Note that this requires a cross-compiler and this procedure is therefore not recommended. Note that we only recommend installing officially released bootloader (those are tagged in the repository). Alternatively, you can download a prebuilt bootloader from the table below:
Target Link to compiled bootloader
SansaFuzePlus bootloader-fuzeplus.sansa
CreativeZENXFi2 no release, you need compile it
CreativeZENXFi3 bootloader-zenxfi3.creative
CreativeZENXFiStyle no release, you need compile it
SonyNWZE360 no release, you need compile it
SonyNWZE370 no release, you need compile it
SonyNWZE380 no release, you need compile it

Once you have compiled the bootloader, you should have a file bootloader-XXX.YYY where XXX is the target and YYY the vendor (for example bootloader-fuzeplus.sansa).

Creating the bootloader image

To create the bootloader image you need:
  • the compiled bootloader bootloader-XXX.YYY (for example bootloader-fuzeplus.sansa)
  • a copy of the source code, see HowToCompile
  • a copy of the original firmware ZZZ (for example ZENX-FiStyle_PCFW_L22_1_03_04e.exe), see table below

Target Link to original firmware Comment File name
SansaFuzePlus fuzeplus02.38.06.zip You need to unzip it and only keep firmware.sb firmware.sb
CreativeZENXFi2 ZEN X-Fi2 support page Download firmware 1.23.01 ZEN_X-Fi2_PCFW_L22_1_23_01.exe or ZEN_X-Fi2_PCFW_L22_1_23_01e.exe
CreativeZENXFi3 ZEN X-fi3 support page Download firmware 1.00.25e ZENFWUpdater_X-Fi3_v1.00.25.exe or ZENFWUpdater_X-Fi3_v1.00.25e.exe
CreativeZENXFiStyle ZEN X-Fi Style support page Download firmware 1.03.04 ZENX-FiStyle_PCFW_L22_1_03_04e.exe
SonyNWZE360 Dropbox Extracted from a device sonynwze360_1.0.0.firmware.sb
SonyNWZE370 Dropbox Extracted from a device sonynwze370_1.0.1.firmware.sb
SonyNWZE380 Dropbox Extracted from a device sonynwze380_1.0.0.firmware.sb
Dropbox Mirror SonyNWZE
Then you need to build the mkimxboot tool in rbutil/mkimxboot. To do so, just cd into rbutil/mkimxboot and run make. It should produce a mkimxboot executable.

Finally, you need to run the tool with the correct parameters. Assuming you are in rbutil/mkimxboot, run:

./mkimxboot -i ZZZ -b bootloader-XXX.YYY -o firmware-rb.sb -t dualboot

You should replace ZZZ by the path to the original firmware you downloaded, and replace bootloader-XXX.YYY by the path to the file produced by the compilation. Note that this command will produce a file called firmware-rb.sb.

Once you have the firmware-rb.sb file, proceed as in the Prebuilt Bootloaders.

Uninstalling the bootloader

To uninstall the bootloader, simply install an unpatched original firmware. Most manufacturers offer a tool to perform firmware upgrade, you can use it to upgrade the firmware and remove rockbox by doing so. Alternatively, you can proceed as in Creating Bootloader Image but run the following command instead: ./mkimxboot -i ZZZ -w -o firmware-rb.sb

Expert instructions

The following instructions are not recommended until you know what you are doing

Getting rid of the original firmware (aka no dualboot)

WARNING: it will make recovery and upgrade much more difficult

If you do no want to be able dualboot and get rid of the original (almost) entirely, you can proceed as in Creating Bootloader Image but run the following command instead: ./mkimxboot -i ZZZ -b bootloader-XXX.YYY -o firmware-rb.sb -t single

WARNING: it will make recovery and upgrade much more difficult

Building a recovery image

WARNING: do not flash this image, only use it with the USB recovery mode!

If you need to build a recovery image, you can proceed as in Creating Bootloader Image but run the following command instead: ./mkimxboot -i ZZZ -b bootloader-XXX.YYY -o firmware-rb.sb -t recovery

WARNING: do not flash this image, only use it with the USB recovery mode!

Extracting a firmware image from the device

If you do not want to download a firmware image, or if it is not available anymore, you can extract from the device. Make sure your device is in USB Mass Storage mode and you a copy of the rockbox repository. You will need the libsgutils2-dev package. Go into utils/imxtools/scsitools, run make. You should have an executable called scsitool, run it as root to extract the firmware as follows: ./scsitool -x firmware.sb /dev/sdX. where you replace /dev/sdX by the path to your device (for example /dev/sdb).

-- AmauryPouly - 16 Dec 2016

r5 - 02 Apr 2021 - 20:46:06 - UnknownUser

Copyright © by the contributing authors.