Operation Manual

Chapter 13. Advanced Topics 141
13.4.1. Using ROLO (Rockbox Loader)
Rockbox is able to load and start another firmware file without rebooting. You just
“play” a file with the extension .ajz. This can be used to test new firmware
versions without deleting your current version.
13.5. Rockbox in Flash
13.5.1. Introduction
When you bought your Recorder V2/FM, it came with the Archos firmware in flash
ROM. When you power on your player, this Archos firmware starts, and then loads an
updated firmware from disk if present (ajbrec.ajz). An ordinary Rockbox installation
only replaces the on-disk firmware, leaving the flash ROM contents intact. That means
the Archos firmware still controls the boot process.
The main reason to change this is to improve the startup time of your player. The
Archos bootloader is rather slow. With Rockbox in flash, your player will boot much
faster, typically in three to five seconds. Furthermore you might prefer a clean Rockbox
environment, with as little remnants of the Archos software as possible.
Warning: Flashing your player is somewhat dangerous, like programming a mainboard
!
BIOS, CD/DVD drive firmware, mobile phone, etc. If the power fails, the chip breaks
while programming or most of all the programming software malfunctions, you’ll have a
dead box. We take no responsibility of any kind, you do that at your own risk. However,
we tried as carefully as possible to bulletproof this code. There are a lot of sanity checks.
If any of them fails, it will not program.
There’s an ultimate safety net to bring back boxes with even completely garbled flash
content: the UART boot mod, which in turn requires the serial mod. With that it’s
possible to reflash independently from the outside, even if the flash ROM is completely
erased. This won’t work if you have one of the rare “ROMless” boxes. These have no
boot ROM and boot directly from flash. If the first ≈2 KB of the flash ROM are flashed
OK, Minimon can be used for the same purpose.
13.5.2. Terminology and Basic Operation
Firmware: The flash ROM contents as a whole.
Image: One operating software started from there.
The replacement firmware contains a bootloader and two images. The first image is
the permanent rescue software, to be used in case something is wrong with the second
(main) image. In current firmware files this first image contains Bootbox (see wiki for
details). The second image is what is booted by default. The current firmware files
contain a copy of Rockbox 3.2 in the main image. It can easily be updated/replaced
later.
The Rockbox manual (version 3.10) Archos Recorder V2/FM