summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/www/docs
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorRobert Hak <adiamas@rockbox.org>2002-08-21 10:51:03 +0000
committerRobert Hak <adiamas@rockbox.org>2002-08-21 10:51:03 +0000
commita475898f8c96dd722eed5f083d0f059cccdae9d5 (patch)
tree838309fe328dec8d61caecb6bb9f08c20776ca06 /www/docs
parent370128fc45ecb5448936a624d4ead75b21ba1f26 (diff)
downloadrockbox-a475898f8c96dd722eed5f083d0f059cccdae9d5.tar.gz
rockbox-a475898f8c96dd722eed5f083d0f059cccdae9d5.zip
file moved to ../../docs/
git-svn-id: svn://svn.rockbox.org/rockbox/trunk@1860 a1c6a512-1295-4272-9138-f99709370657
Diffstat (limited to 'www/docs')
-rw-r--r--www/docs/FAQ280
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 280 deletions
diff --git a/www/docs/FAQ b/www/docs/FAQ
deleted file mode 100644
index 8f522c84d8..0000000000
--- a/www/docs/FAQ
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,280 +0,0 @@
1Q1. What is a FAQ?
2A1. A rare small animal of the species 'Textius Electronicus'. It is known for
3 its helpful attitude and vicious misspellings.
4
5Q2. Okay, fine, what is _this_ FAQ?
6A2. This FAQ is for questions (that we have answers too) that have been asked
7 repeatedly either in emails or on IRC.
8
9Q3. What is Rockbox? What is it's purpose?
10A3. The purpose of this project is to write an Open Source replacement
11 firmware for the Archos Jukebox 6000, Studio 20 and Recorder MP3 players.
12
13Q4. I want to write code for my Archos, how do I proceed?
14A4. First make sure to read the file CONTRIBUTING in the firmware directory
15 on Sourceforge. See http://rockbox.haxx.se/firmware/CONTRIBUTING
16 if you do not want to have to wade through the CVS directories.
17
18Q5: Whats CVS?
19A5: Concurrent Versions System (http://www.cvshome.org). We have a small
20 help page about how to use this to get, update and commit files on the web
21 at http://rockbox.haxx.se/cvs.html
22
23Q6. What exactly is the CONTRIBUTING file?
24A6. Just like the name implies, it lists conventions that the project follows,
25 and in turn asks you to follow, for the formating of source code in
26 general.
27
28Q7. Okay, so I read CONTRIBUTING and although I don't agree with all your
29 conventions, I am going to be sensible and follow them anyway. Now what?
30A7. Start by reading up on the information about the jukeboxes on our web page.
31 Then go into CVS and look at the code we've written. Then take what you
32 need and start writing.
33
34Q8. Okay, so how do I submit a patch?
35A8. Run: "diff -u oldfile newfile > patchfile" against the file(s) you have
36 changed. Then mail the output to any member of the development team and
37 we will take it under consideration. (Please remember that all
38 submissions are not automatically accepted, this is nothing personal.)
39
40 Of if you would like to run the diff against the current cvs code:
41 cvs diff -ub [file(s)]
42
43Q9. I want to join the development team, but don't have a SourceForge account,
44 what should I do?
45A9. Head on over to http://sourceforge.net/account/register.php and create an
46 account for yourself.
47
48Q10. Do you have a mailing list?
49A10. Sure do! As a matter of fact, we have several of them for specific
50 things. Please check out: http://rockbox.haxx.se/mail/
51
52Q11. Great you have a mailing list! Is there anyway for me to catch up on
53 past posts?
54A11. Check out the archives at: http://rockbox.haxx.se/mail.cgi
55
56Q12. How can I meet the developers working on the project?
57A12. One way is by visiting us on IRC. Head on over to the server
58 irc.openprojects.net, and then join "#rockbox". There is usually at
59 least one person there. If you don't see any activity, feel free to post
60 questions anyway, serveral of us log the channel and will get you answers
61 when we unidle.
62
63Q13: Wow, you guys talk on IRC alot? I wish I had been around for those
64 conversations to see what happened.
65A13: We are glad you mentioned that! http://rockbox.haxx.se/irc happens
66 to have a list of various logs we have recorded of events in the channel.
67 Feel free to read up, and ask questions on what you find.
68
69Q14. What is this "SourceForge" you keep mentioning?
70A14. http://www.sourceforge.net
71
72Q15. Can the changes or the software that Rockbox suggests or offers
73 possibly damage my Archos Player?
74A15. All firmware mods that are presented are still highly experimental.
75 Try them at your own risk. We offer no guarantee that this software, or
76 the hardware modifications we show, will not damage your player or void
77 your warranty. That said, we have not been able to damage any of our
78 units by modifying only the firmware. You can accidentally password
79 protect your harddisk, but there are ways around that. (See below.)
80
81Q16. I want to see what the inside of my player looks like, but I would really
82 like to avoid voiding my warranty. Is there anything you can suggest?
83A16. We have a collection of photos of both the player and recorder. Look at
84 http://rockbox.haxx.se/internals/
85
86Q17. What exactly are you trying to achieve with this line of development?
87 (A.K.A. whats your purpose for being here?)
88A17. Firstly, we wouldn't start something like this if we didn't simply enjoy
89 it profusely. This is great fun!
90 Secondly, we feel the firmware is lacking some features and contain a
91 number of annoying bugs that we want to fix.
92 Some ideas would include (in no particular order):
93 - No pause between songs
94 - Mid-song resume
95 - Mid-playlist resume
96 - No-scan playlists
97 - Unlimited playlist size
98 - Autobuild playlists (ie: "all songs in this directory tree")
99 - Auto-continue play in the next directory
100 - Current folder and all sub-folder random play
101 - Full disk random play
102 - REAL random
103 - Multi song queue
104 - Faster scroll speed
105 - More cool features with the wire remote control (including
106 controlling your Archos from your car radio (req hw mod))
107 - Support playing of other files types (ie: Ogg Vorbis support)
108 - Support for megabass switch (req hw mod)
109 - Player control via USB
110 - Memory expansion?
111 Note: Just because something is on this list, does not mean that it is
112 technically feasible. (But hey we can dream) And something not
113 being on the list does not mean it isn't a neat idea. Bring it to
114 the list.
115
116Q18. I don't see you mentioning other file types on your list of ideas. What
117 about supporting those?
118A18. Pessimist's Answer: At the current time we belive this is not very likely
119 The Micronas chip (MAS3507) decoder in the archos does not natively
120 support decoding and there is very little program space in the player to
121 implement it ourselves. The alternative would be to write a software
122 decoder as part of the RockBox firmware. However, as much as we love
123 our players, the computing power of the Archos (SH1 microcontroller) is
124 not fully sufficent for this need.
125
126 Optimist's Answer: We can play any format if only we can write code for
127 the DSP to decode it. The MAS 3507 (and 3587) are generic DSPs that
128 simply have MP3 codecs in ROM. We can download new codecs in them and
129 we will be the first to celebrate if we can get OGG or FLAC or anything
130 into these DSPs. Unfortunately, we have no docs or tools for writing new
131 MAS DSP code and Intermetall is very secretive about it. If anyone can
132 help, please get in touch!
133
134
135Q19. What about supporting playing of WMA files?
136A19. Dear Mr. Gates, you have two options. Re-read question #17, or go buy
137 your own project.
138
139Q20. When do you think there will be a version available for my Archos?
140A20. We recently released version 1.2, so head on over to
141 http://rockbox.haxx.se/download.html and pull it down.
142 Make sure to read the release notes.
143 (http://rockbox.haxx.se/download/rockbox-1.2-notes.txt).
144
145Q21. What do you plan to add to coming versions?
146A21. We have a rough idea of which features we plan/expect/hope to be included
147 in which versions. Once again, remember that none of this is written in
148 stone (noticing a pattern yet?)
149
150 Version 1.3
151 Persistent settings for Player, UI improvements
152
153 Version 1.4
154 Recording?
155
156Q22. I tried one of your firmware files and now I can't access my harddisk!
157 When I turn on my jukebox, it says:
158 Part. Error
159 Pls Chck HD
160A22. Your harddisk has been password protected. We're not 100% sure why it
161 happens, but you can unlock it yourself. Look at:
162 http://rockbox.haxx.se/lock.html
163
164Q23: This FAQ doesn't answer the question I have. What should I do?
165A23: You have a couple options here. You could forget the question, find an
166 easier question, or accept '42' as the answer no matter what. We don't
167 really recommend any of these (though I do opt for '42' often myself).
168 What we do recommend is stopping by IRC, reading
169 http://rockbox.haxx.se to see if the question was answered else
170 where and just not included here, or ultimatly dropping an email to the
171 mailing list (rockbox@cool.haxx.se) or the FAQ maintainer listed on the
172 project homepage.
173
174Q24: Are there other ways to contact the developers?
175A24: Yes.
176
177Q25: Are you going to tell us what they are?
178A25: No. Post to the mailing list and we will get back to you.
179
180Q26: But I _really_ want to talk with you in person.
181A26: I'm sorry. My girlfriend/boyfriend/pet says I'm not allowed to, and the
182 doctors here won't let me have pens or pencils. They say its some rule
183 about us not having sharp objects. I'm sorry. Now please stop calling me
184 here.
185
186Q27: Will you ever port Quake II to the Archos?
187A27: If you ask that again, I'm sending your address and phone number to the
188 guy that mailed us with question #23.
189
190Q28: Umm, was that sarcasm?
191A28: That's it, I'm mailing him now.
192
193Q29: Is this legal? I mean, I'd just hate to see something like that
194 challenged under the DMCA in all its ridiculousness. Any thoughts or
195 ideas?
196A29: We believe we are in the green on this. We are not violating anyone's
197 copyright and we are not circumventing any copy protection scheme.
198 This has been a big point for the project since its inception. Some
199 people wanted us to distribute patched versions of the original firmware,
200 but seeing as that _would_ have violated Archos' copyright, we didn't
201 follow that course of action.
202
203Q30: On the website [and various information postings] you state
204 "Every tiny bit was reverse engineered, disassembled and then
205 re-written from scratch".
206 If it was rewritten from scratch then why was it first reverse-engineered
207 and disassembled? Instead this sounds more like someone disassembled it
208 then used the understanding that they gained to create a new version,
209 which is not quite the same as "from scratch".
210A30: Don't confuse the terms. Reverse engineering means examining a product
211 to find out how it works. Disassembling the firmware is merely one tool
212 used in that examination. Oscilloscopes and logic analyzers are other
213 tools we have used. We have written every single byte of the Rockbox
214 firmware. But we could not have written the software without first
215 researching how the hardware was put together, i.e. reverse engineer it.
216 All of this is completely legal. If you define "from scratch" as writing
217 software without first researching the surrounding interfaces, then no
218 software has ever been written from scratch.
219
220Q31: Wait a minute here. When you released version 1.0 you did not have a
221 single one of the ideas you have mentioned on your website actually
222 implimented! Calling this version 1.0 is really misleading. Whats the
223 story?!
224A31: In simple terms, the first release was called 1.0 because it had a basic
225 working feature set that worked and had no known bugs. That is what 1.0
226 meant. It is true that Rockbox 1.0 lacked most of the feature set that
227 every sane user wanted. However, we never said it was more
228 feature-complete or better in any way then the original firmware that early
229 in the project. The first release was done as a proof of concept that our
230 ideas are moving in the right direction. We also hoped that it would help
231 bring the project some attention, and some additional developers.
232 Adding the missing features was just a matter of time. In more recently
233 releases we have completed many of our desired goals, and several new ones
234 that were implimented to fullfill user requests.
235
236Q32: I've heard talk of a 'Rolo'. What is that? (Or 'All you ever wanted
237 to know about Rockbox boot loaders')
238A32: The developers have discussed the possibility of a boot loader. (Mainly
239 because having one sounds cool, and isn't Rolo just a great name?)
240 The idea would be that a user could use the load to choose between
241 different verions of Rockbox or the Archo firmware itself. We have a
242 working version of ROLO implimented for the players, and a version in
243 development for the recorders. However, at this time, the patch for ROLO
244 is not optimal for use and is not part of the main branch of the CVS.
245 Once this improves and has been tested sufficently, it will become part of
246 the main release. Please check the mailing list logs and irc logs for more
247 information.
248
249Q33: I was thinking about making the USB a bit more usable. What are the
250 chances of using the USB port to [play games / share files / list
251 the device as something other then a hard drive / sell my soul to you
252 for a nickel]. What do you think?
253A33: You really don't want to know what I think, it involves road flares,
254 microwave ovens and shaved cats. Enough said. But regarding the USB
255 portion of your question, this is not feasible. First, any ideas
256 regarding special communications over the USB port will not work because
257 we have no control over the USB port itself. We are capable of
258 dectecting if it is in use (so we know which mode to switch to) but that
259 is it. Second, if you would like to have your Archos as a harddrive for
260 another device, know that this will not work either. The Archos unit is
261 a slave. Most other USB devices are slaves as well. So without some
262 master involved there can be no communication. Sorry. Now about your
263 soul. Would you settle for 3 cents and a small wad of belly button lint?
264
265Q34: When I use RockBox my jukebox's red "error" light turns on a lot, but this
266 doesn't happen on the factory firmware. Why?
267A34: Rockbox uses the red LED as harddisk activity light, not as an error
268 light. Relax and enjoy the music.
269
270Q35: How do I use the loadable fonts?
271A35: Loadable fonts are a work in progress. We do not have full documentation
272 for it. The best we can do now is tell you that you need a valid .bdf
273 font, and to use the tool "bdf2ajf" from CVS to conver to the .ajf format.
274 The final .ajf font must be stored in the archos root as 'system.ajf'
275 We do expect more documentation on this process shortly.
276
277Q36: I have a question about the batteries...
278A36: STOP! We have put togeather a completely different FAQ for battery
279 related questions. Check out: http://rockbox.haxx.se/docs/battery.html
280