rockbox/www/docs/FAQ

Rockbox FAQ

Q. What is a FAQ?
A. A rare small animal of the specius 'Textius Electronicus'.  It is know for
   its helpful attitude and vicious misspellings.

Q. What is Rockbox, what is it's purpose?
A. The purpose of this project is to write an Open Source replacement 
   firmware for the Archos Jukebox 6000, Studio 20 and Recorder MP3 players.

Q. I want to write code for my Archos, how do I proceed?
A. Well, you have two options.  If you are a member of SourceForge then
   you can request to be added to the developers list.  If you would like to 
   remain anonymous, then please feel free to submit patches for consideration
   to the project.

Q. Okay, so how do I submist a patch?
A. Run: "diff -u oldfile newfile" against the file(s) you have changed.  Then
   mail the output to any member of the development team and we will take it 
   under consideration.  (Please remember that not all submissions are 
   accpeted.)

Q. I want to join the development team, but don't have a SourceForge account,
   what should I do?
A. Head on over to http://sourceforge.net/account/register.php and create an
   account for yourself.

Q. Do you have a mailing list?
A. Sure do! The list is rockbox@cool.haxx.se.  To subscribe, you need to
   send a message to majordomo@cool.haxx.se with the words "subscribe rockbox"
   in the body. 

Q. Great you have a mailing list!  Is there anyway for me to catch up on
   past posts?
A. Check out the archives at: http://bjorn.haxx.se/rockbox/mail.cgi

Q. What is this "SourceForge" you keep mentioning?
A. http://www.sourceforge.net

Q. Can the changes or the software that Rockbox suggests or offers 
   possibly damage my Archos Player?
A. All firmware mods that are presented are still highly experimental. 
   Try them at your own risk. We offer no garuntee that this software, or the
   hardware modifications we show, will not damage your player or void your 
   warentee.

Q. I want to see what the inside of my player looks like, but I would really
   like to avoid voiding my warentee.  Is there anything you can suggest?
A. Well Bj<42>rn Stenberg was kind enough to void his warentee so you don't have 
   to.  Take a look at his dissection of the player at: 
   http://bjorn.haxx.se/rockbox/mods/disassemble.html   
   http://bjorn.haxx.se/rockbox/mods/disassemble2.html

Q. What exactly are you trying to achieve with this line of development?
   (A.K.A. whats your purpose for being here?)
A. Well, some of the ideas that have been presented/discussed for the future
   that we would like to see would include (in no particular order):
              - No pause between songs 
              - Mid-song resume 
              - Mid-playlist resume 
              - No-scan playlists 
              - Unlimited playlist size 
              - Autobuild playlists (ie: "all songs in this directory tree") 
              - Auto-continue play in the next directory 
              - Current folder and all sub-folder random play 
              - Full disk random play 
              - REAL random
              - Multi song queue
       	      - Faster scroll speed 
              - Archos Recorder support. Most of the hardware is the same, 
                but the display and some other things differ. 
              - More cool features with the wire remote control (including 
                controlling your Archos from your car radio (req hw mod))
              - Support playing of other files types (ie: Ogg Vorbis support)
              - Support for megabass switch (req hw mod) 
              - Player control via USB
              - Memory expansion?
   Note: Just because something is on this list, does not mean that it is
         technically feasible. (But hey we can dream)  And something not
         being on the list does not mean it isn't a neat idea.  Bring it to 
         the list.