Using the RockBox firmware using the example of the Cowon D2 player
After reviewing D2 + from Boomburum 'a, I was once again happy for my D2 and Cowon as a whole, because I had owned two X5s on which a rockbox was spinning and without which it was very sad to use standard D2 firmware. From the installation of the rockbox I was beaten off by the current unstable status and some muddy reasons, including laziness =) However, now I have found an excellent manual for instant installation and am ready to write a small in-use firmware. 
In this article I will talk about the basics of using rockbox firmware, including installing it on the Cowon D2 player. In principle, this manual is also suitable for the D2 + model, but D2 + users will probably have to roll back to the old version of the official firmware in accordance with the presence of a patched firmware for your player. On this I will focus on the preparation for the firmware.
For those who have had experience with the firmware, I recommend to go straight to the installation part, and if you encounter it for the first time, then the first part of the article is for you. First of all, rockbox is an enhanced support for formats, coupled with great opportunities for customization and lovers of digging. Secondly, it is the sound quality, which is already high on D2, but in combination with a flexible equalizer it can become even better. Third, plugin support (you can even play Doom!). Fourth, convenient music organization, support for cue lists and much more. And once again it is worth mentioning the possibility of setting up everything that comes handy.
Rockbox, rockbox - the firmware itself, which we will install =)
WPS, While Playing Screen - a screen displaying the current song
Dualboot, dual block — install a rockbox with preserving the player’s native firmware and the ability to download any of them.
')
Today, the basic functions of the firmware are implemented: music playback, support for most plug-ins, SD-cards (it is recommended to install the firmware on the card) and touchscreen. Read more about the issues below:
First of all, it is worth making backup of data on the main memory of the player, because they will be erased when flashing to the official firmware. Then it is worth updating D2 to the current official version (now x.59), D2 + - to version x.10 or x.11 (don't hit hard here, I own simple D2 and are not aware of the numbering of the firmware).
Download the necessary files from here :
First of all, you should know that the firmware is based on playlists, that is, when you open a music file, the entire folder (or a separate file - depends on the settings) is hammered into the current playlist and quietly plays. At the same time, we can gradually add other files / directories (recursive adding is supported). To do this, open the context menu with a long tap on the folder (absolute positioning) or in the center of the screen (3x3 mode), select the Playlist item and then choose how to add. This option may seem inconvenient at first, but then you realize that this is exactly how the DPL function should have been implemented in the original firmware.
Unfortunately, there is no documentation for the player yet and you have to figure it out by typing, but this method has rolled out with the X5, so I hope it will work here too.
So, immediately after turning on the player, the default menu appears in front of us, in which everything is logical and understandable. I will only make a reservation that we get to the WPS item on the Now Playing item, otherwise it wouldn’t seem to get to the navigation menu, although there was such an option in the X5. Also, the start screen can always be configured according to your choice in Settings-> General Settings-> System-> Start Screen. Personally, I was very sad about the AutoPlay option from the X5 firmware, so I chose Resume Playback .
The firmware supports two navigation modes - directly through files and using media library creation. From my point of view, if the files are correctly located in the device’s memory, the library will not be needed, and if it is, then it’s easy to understand, so let’s see how the work with the files works.
We get to the file manager from the very first item of the main menu. We immediately see the structure of the memory card and the directory that is responsible for the player’s own memory. It is more convenient to run in files / directories when the touchscreen is operating in 3x3 mode. Everything is very clear: we found the right folder, opened it and chose the file - a playlist was created and the music started playing. You can also use the context menu: a long tap in the center of the screen, a context menu has opened, and we can choose what to do with the folder / file. All sorts of copy / move and tp operations are supported.
Another feature of this firmware is that, unlike the standard one, it does not have any viewing modes for pictures, videos and other things. Everything is implemented through the file manager, which is logical and convenient. Just like in a normal OS. The FM radio mode is selected from the main menu, all other firmware extensions are implemented using plug-ins.
Red marked active areas of the screen. If everything is clear with the arrows, a single tap in the center of the screen will return us to the file manager, a long tap to the center will show the context menu, a single tap to the upper left corner will show a playlist, a long tap will display the settings for displaying files in the explorer / repeating tracks and setting random play. A tap in the upper right corner will pause playback, a long tap will pause and return us to the conductor.
The volume in WPS is controlled by the buttons on the side of the player, the Menu button will take us back to the main menu.
Surely you are used to using the player in your pocket, adjusting the behavior of hardkey buttons in the lock mode. So we will rejoice, because almost anything can be hung on the buttons. To do this, you should read the topic on the iaudiophile forum , select the appropriate config and download the firmware build, since they are updated quite often.
Of course, this article only covers the basics of working with the firmware, but this is quite enough to further figure out for yourself. If someone has any questions, it will be possible to continue the cycle of articles on more fine-tuning the firmware, consider plug-ins and much more. For this I will take my leave, thank you for your attention, I am waiting for your questions. By the way, if you missed the blog - correct it.
Firstly, I completely forgot about scrobbling on lastfm. It is enabled in the playback settings ( Settings-> Playback Settings-> Last.fm log ) and the log itself is written to the root of the memory card under the name .scrobbler.log. We can publish this file later on last.fm using special services . The most convenient seemed to me to be dap-scrob , since it has a web interface.
Secondly, it is worth mentioning the player emulator , with which you can check the performance of the firmware and it is more convenient to edit the interface.
In this article I will talk about the basics of using rockbox firmware, including installing it on the Cowon D2 player. In principle, this manual is also suitable for the D2 + model, but D2 + users will probably have to roll back to the old version of the official firmware in accordance with the presence of a patched firmware for your player. On this I will focus on the preparation for the firmware.
Why do I need a rockbox - a brief educational program
For those who have had experience with the firmware, I recommend to go straight to the installation part, and if you encounter it for the first time, then the first part of the article is for you. First of all, rockbox is an enhanced support for formats, coupled with great opportunities for customization and lovers of digging. Secondly, it is the sound quality, which is already high on D2, but in combination with a flexible equalizer it can become even better. Third, plugin support (you can even play Doom!). Fourth, convenient music organization, support for cue lists and much more. And once again it is worth mentioning the possibility of setting up everything that comes handy.
Small glossary
Rockbox, rockbox - the firmware itself, which we will install =)
WPS, While Playing Screen - a screen displaying the current song
Dualboot, dual block — install a rockbox with preserving the player’s native firmware and the ability to download any of them.
')
So, go to battle! What works on D2 and how to set
Today, the basic functions of the firmware are implemented: music playback, support for most plug-ins, SD-cards (it is recommended to install the firmware on the card) and touchscreen. Read more about the issues below:
- Since for the rockbox the internal memory of the player remains read-only, then when installing the firmware there we will not be able to save the settings and use all the buns. Therefore it is worth putting on the map, but ...
- The driver of the SD card is not yet finalized and the card can be covered with a basin, so here at your own risk and risk, but who does not risk ...
- The touchscreen can be used in the “normal” mode with absolute positioning, or divided into 9 parts, which will be responsible, respectively, for pressing the five-way joystick and four auxiliary zones. Since there is still no approved implementation of the playback screen (WPS or while playing screen) for absolute positioning, it is more convenient to use a virtual joystick and buttons, it is easy to get used to it and the buttons can be expanded by analogy with the settings in the usual firmware. According to the experience of using the 3x3 mode remains preferable.
Preparing to install
First of all, it is worth making backup of data on the main memory of the player, because they will be erased when flashing to the official firmware. Then it is worth updating D2 to the current official version (now x.59), D2 + - to version x.10 or x.11 (don't hit hard here, I own simple D2 and are not aware of the numbering of the firmware).
Download the necessary files from here :
- rockbox-latest.zip - build firmware. Also the current version is always here.
- From the Patched Firmware folder, go to the Cowon Default (normal) folder, if we need to load the usual firmware by single-jerking by the power button or Rockbox Default otherwise. There we go to the folder with the latest revision and then to the Cowon folder, from where we download the firmware we need in accordance with the one installed on the player. At the same time, users of simple D2 will need the file * D2 (N) .bin , owners of old versions of D2 + - the file * D2 (N) _P.bin
Directly installation
- The downloaded file with the loader has a name like Cowon_xx.xx_D2.bin , where xxx is the firmware number. We delete the file prefix Cowon_x.xx_ so that something like D2.bin remains D2N.bin , D2_P.bin , or D2N_P.bin
- We throw the file into the root of the main memory of the player, after which we disconnect the player from the computer and turn it on as usual - the firmware will start, run the progress bar and the player will turn off.
- We unpack the archive with the firmware and put it in the root of the card (for reliability - through the card reader).
Are you still here? Then we deal with the main methods of management
First of all, you should know that the firmware is based on playlists, that is, when you open a music file, the entire folder (or a separate file - depends on the settings) is hammered into the current playlist and quietly plays. At the same time, we can gradually add other files / directories (recursive adding is supported). To do this, open the context menu with a long tap on the folder (absolute positioning) or in the center of the screen (3x3 mode), select the Playlist item and then choose how to add. This option may seem inconvenient at first, but then you realize that this is exactly how the DPL function should have been implemented in the original firmware.
Unfortunately, there is no documentation for the player yet and you have to figure it out by typing, but this method has rolled out with the X5, so I hope it will work here too.
So, immediately after turning on the player, the default menu appears in front of us, in which everything is logical and understandable. I will only make a reservation that we get to the WPS item on the Now Playing item, otherwise it wouldn’t seem to get to the navigation menu, although there was such an option in the X5. Also, the start screen can always be configured according to your choice in Settings-> General Settings-> System-> Start Screen. Personally, I was very sad about the AutoPlay option from the X5 firmware, so I chose Resume Playback .
Navigating directories and library
The firmware supports two navigation modes - directly through files and using media library creation. From my point of view, if the files are correctly located in the device’s memory, the library will not be needed, and if it is, then it’s easy to understand, so let’s see how the work with the files works.
We get to the file manager from the very first item of the main menu. We immediately see the structure of the memory card and the directory that is responsible for the player’s own memory. It is more convenient to run in files / directories when the touchscreen is operating in 3x3 mode. Everything is very clear: we found the right folder, opened it and chose the file - a playlist was created and the music started playing. You can also use the context menu: a long tap in the center of the screen, a context menu has opened, and we can choose what to do with the folder / file. All sorts of copy / move and tp operations are supported.
Another feature of this firmware is that, unlike the standard one, it does not have any viewing modes for pictures, videos and other things. Everything is implemented through the file manager, which is logical and convenient. Just like in a normal OS. The FM radio mode is selected from the main menu, all other firmware extensions are implemented using plug-ins.
While playing screen
Red marked active areas of the screen. If everything is clear with the arrows, a single tap in the center of the screen will return us to the file manager, a long tap to the center will show the context menu, a single tap to the upper left corner will show a playlist, a long tap will display the settings for displaying files in the explorer / repeating tracks and setting random play. A tap in the upper right corner will pause playback, a long tap will pause and return us to the conductor.
The volume in WPS is controlled by the buttons on the side of the player, the Menu button will take us back to the main menu.
A little more about the buttons
Surely you are used to using the player in your pocket, adjusting the behavior of hardkey buttons in the lock mode. So we will rejoice, because almost anything can be hung on the buttons. To do this, you should read the topic on the iaudiophile forum , select the appropriate config and download the firmware build, since they are updated quite often.
Conclusion
Of course, this article only covers the basics of working with the firmware, but this is quite enough to further figure out for yourself. If someone has any questions, it will be possible to continue the cycle of articles on more fine-tuning the firmware, consider plug-ins and much more. For this I will take my leave, thank you for your attention, I am waiting for your questions. By the way, if you missed the blog - correct it.
Some additions.
Firstly, I completely forgot about scrobbling on lastfm. It is enabled in the playback settings ( Settings-> Playback Settings-> Last.fm log ) and the log itself is written to the root of the memory card under the name .scrobbler.log. We can publish this file later on last.fm using special services . The most convenient seemed to me to be dap-scrob , since it has a web interface.
Secondly, it is worth mentioning the player emulator , with which you can check the performance of the firmware and it is more convenient to edit the interface.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/74136/
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