Installing Rockbox is generally a quick and easy procedure. However before beginning there are a few important things to know.
There are two ways to install Rockbox: automated and manual. The automated way is the
preferred method of installing Rockbox for the majority of people. Rockbox Utility is a
graphical application that does almost everything for you. However, should you encounter a
problem, then the manual way is still available to you.
There are two separate components which need to be installed in order to run Rockbox:
The bootloader is the program that tells your player how to load and start other components of Rockbox and for providing the dual boot function. This is the component of Rockbox that is installed to the flash memory of your Iriver.
Apart from the required parts there are some addons you might be interested in installing.
To automatically install Rockbox, download the official installer and housekeeping tool Rockbox Utility. It allows you to:
Prebuilt binaries for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X are available at the RockboxUtility wiki
page.
When first starting Rockbox Utility run “Autodetect”, found in the configuration dialog (File
→ Configure). Autodetection can detect most player types. If autodetection fails
or is unable to detect the mountpoint, make sure to enter the correct values. The
mountpoint indicates the location of the player in your filesystem. On Windows, this
is the drive letter the player gets assigned, on other systems this is a path in the
filesystem.
Rockbox Utility will ask you for a compatible copy of the original firmware. This is because for legal reasons we cannot distribute the bootloader directly. Instead, we have to patch the Iriver firmware with the Rockbox bootloader.
Download a supported version of the Iriver firmware for your Iriver H320 and H340 from the Iriver website, links can be found on IriverBoot.
Supported Iriver firmware versions currently include 1.28K, 1.28EU, 1.28J, 1.29K, 1.29J and 1.30EU.
Note: The US Iriver H320 and H340 firmware is not supported and cannot be patched to be used with the bootloader. If you wish to install Rockbox on a US Iriver H320 and H340, you must first install a non-US version of the original firmware and then install one of the supported versions patched with the Rockbox bootloader.
Warning: Installing a non-US firmware on a US Iriver H320 and H340 will permanently remove DRM support from the player.
If the file that you downloaded is a .zip file, use an unzip utility like mentioned in the prerequisites section to extract the .hex from the .zip file to your desktop. Likewise, if the file that you downloaded is an .exe file, double-click on the .exe file to extract the .hex file to your desktop. When running Linux you should be able to extract .exe files using unzip.
There are three different versions of Rockbox available from the Rockbox website: Release version, current build and archived daily build. You need to decide which one you want to install and get the appropriate version for your player. If you select either “Minimal Installation” or “Complete Installation” from the “Quick Start” tab, then Rockbox Utility will automatically install the release version of Rockbox. Using the “Installation” tab will allow you to select which version you wish to install.
Note: Because current and archived builds are development versions that change frequently,
they may behave differently than described in this manual, or they may introduce new (and
potentially annoying) bugs. Unless you wish to try the latest and greatest features at the price
of possibly greater instability, or you wish to help with development, you should stick with the
release.
Please now go to section 2.2.3 to complete the installation procedure.
The manual installation method is still available to you, should you need or desire it by following the instructions below. If you have used Rockbox Utility to install Rockbox, then you do not need to follow the next section and can skip straight to section 2.2.3
Note: The entire contents of the .zip file should be extracted directly to the root of
your player’s drive. Do not try to create a separate directory on your player for the
Rockbox files! The .zip file already contains the internal structure that Rockbox
needs.
If the contents of the .zip file are extracted correctly, you will have a directory called .rockbox, which contains all the files needed by Rockbox, in the main directory of your player’s drive.
Installing the bootloader is the trickiest part of the installation. As explained above, we cannot distribute the bootloader directly, and thus need to patch a compatible version of the Iriver firmware, which can be downloaded as described above.
Note: The firmware patcher contains Unicode support, which is not supported by all versions of Windows. If you have difficulty with the firmware patcher, try downloading the alternate firmware patcher fwpatchernu.exe, which is built without Unicode support.
Warning: Before proceeding further, make sure that your player has a full charge or that it is connected to the power adapter. Interrupting the next step due to a power failure most likely will brick your player. Update your player’s firmware with the patched bootloader. To do this, turn the jukebox on. Press and hold the Navi button to enter the main menu, and navigate to General → Firmware Upgrade. Select Yes when asked to confirm if you want to upgrade the firmware. The Iriver will display a message indicating that the firmware update is in progress. Do not interrupt this process. When the firmware update is complete the player will turn itself off. (The update firmware process usually takes a minute or so.). You are now ready to go.
If you wish to use speech support you will also need a voice file. Voice files allow Rockbox to speak the user interface to you. Rockbox Utility can install an English voice file, or you can download it from http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml and unzip it to the root of your player. Rockbox Utility can also aid you in the creation of voice files with different voices or in other languages if you have a suitable speech engine installed on your computer. Voice menus are enabled by default and will come into effect after a reboot. See section 8.10 for details on voice settings. Rockbox Utility can also aid in the production of talk files, which allow Rockbox to speak file and folder names.
When you turn the unit on, Rockbox should load.
Rockbox can be easily updated with Rockbox Utility. You can also update Rockbox manually
– download a Rockbox build as detailed above, and unzip the build to the root directory of
your player as in the manual installation stage. If your unzip program asks you whether to
overwrite files, choose the “Yes to all” option. The new build will be installed over your
current build.
The bootloader only changes rarely, and should not normally need to be updated.
Note: If you use Rockbox Utility be aware that it cannot detect manually installed components.
Note: The Rockbox bootloader allows you to choose between Rockbox and the original firmware. (See section 3.1.3 for more information.)
You can uninstall Rockbox automatically by using Rockbox Utility. If you installed Rockbox manually you can still use Rockbox Utility for uninstallation but will not be able to do this selectively.
Note: Rockbox Utility cannot uninstall the bootloader due to the fact that it requires a flashing procedure. To uninstall the bootloader completely follow the manual uninstallation instructions below.
If you want to remove the Rockbox bootloader, simply flash an unpatched Iriver firmware. Be aware that doing so will also remove the bootloader USB mode. As that mode can come in quite handy (especially if you experience disk errors) it is recommended to keep the bootloader. It also gives you the possibility of trying Rockbox anytime later by simply installing the distribution files. Although if you retain the Rockbox bootloader, you will need to hold the Rec button each time you want to start the original firmware.
If you wish to clean up your disk, you may also wish to delete the .rockbox directory and its contents. Turn the Iriver off. Turn the player back on and the original Iriver software will load.
To fix this, either install Rockbox with the Rockbox Utility which will take care of this for you, or recheck the Manual Install section to see where the files need to be located.