Rockbox Archos Ondio 128 FM User manual

The Rockbox Manual
for
Archos Ondio 128 FM
rockbox.org
October 20, 2008

2
Rockbox
http://www.rockbox.org/
Open Source Jukebox Firmware
Rockbox and this manual is the collaborative effort of the Rockbox team and
its contributors. See the appendix for a complete list of contributors.
c
2003-2008 The Rockbox Team and its contributors, c 2004 Christi Alice
Scarborough, c 2003 Jos´ e Maria Garcia-Valdecasas Bernal & Peter Schlenker.
Version r18824:18843M-3.0.1-081020. Built using pdfL
A
T
EX.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document un-
der the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any
later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invari-
ant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of
the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation
License”.
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CONTENTS 3
Contents
1. Introduction 9
1.1. Welcome ..................................... 9
1.2. Getting more help ................................ 9
1.3. Naming conventions and marks ....................... 10
2. Installation 11
2.1. Overview ..................................... 11
2.2. Prerequisites ................................... 11
2.3. Installing Rockbox ............................... 12
2.3.1. Automated Installation ........................ 12
2.3.2. Manual Installation ........................... 13
2.3.3. Enabling Speech Support (optional) ................. 14
2.4. Running Rockbox ................................ 14
2.5. Updating Rockbox ............................... 14
2.6. Uninstalling Rockbox .............................. 15
2.6.1. Automatic Uninstallation ....................... 15
2.6.2. Manual Uninstallation ......................... 15
3. Quick Start 16
3.1. Basic Overview ................................. 16
3.1.1. The player’s controls .......................... 16
3.1.2. Turning the player on and off ..................... 17
3.1.3. Putting music on your player ..................... 17
3.1.4. The first contact ............................. 17
3.1.5. Basic controls .............................. 17
3.1.6. Basic concepts .............................. 18
3.2. Customising Rockbox ............................. 18
4. Browsing and playing 19
4.1. File Browser ................................... 19
4.1.1. File Browser Controls ......................... 20
4.1.2. Context Menu .............................. 20
4.1.3. Virtual Keyboard ............................ 21
4.2. Database ..................................... 22
4.2.1. Introduction ............................... 22
4.2.2. Initializing the Database ........................ 22
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CONTENTS 4
4.2.3. The Database Menu .......................... 23
4.2.4. Using the Database ........................... 24
4.3. While Playing Screen .............................. 25
4.3.1. WPS Key Controls ........................... 26
4.3.2. Peak Meter ............................... 26
4.3.3. The WPS Context Menu ........................ 27
4.4. Working with Playlists ............................. 29
4.4.1. Playlist terminology .......................... 29
4.4.2. Creating playlists ............................ 30
4.4.3. Adding music to playlists ....................... 31
4.4.4. Modifying playlists ........................... 32
4.4.5. Saving playlists ............................. 32
4.4.6. Loading saved playlists ........................ 32
4.4.7. Helpful Hints .............................. 33
5. The Main Menu 34
5.1. Introducing the Main Menu .......................... 34
5.2. Navigating the Main Menu .......................... 34
5.3. Recent Bookmarks ............................... 35
5.4. Files ........................................ 35
5.5. Database ..................................... 35
5.6. Now Playing/Resume Playback ....................... 35
5.7. Settings ...................................... 35
5.7.1. Sound Settings ............................. 36
5.7.2. General Settings ............................. 36
5.7.3. Manage Settings ............................ 36
5.7.4. Theme Settings ............................. 36
5.7.5. Recording Settings ........................... 36
5.8. Recording .................................... 36
5.8.1. While Recording Screen ........................ 36
5.9. FM Radio ..................................... 37
5.10. Playlist ...................................... 38
5.11. Plugins ...................................... 39
5.12. System ...................................... 39
6. Sound Settings 40
6.1. Volume ...................................... 40
6.2. Bass ........................................ 40
6.3. Treble ....................................... 40
6.4. Balance ...................................... 41
6.5. Channels ..................................... 41
6.6. Stereo Width ................................... 41
6.7. Loudness ..................................... 41
6.8. Auto Volume ................................... 42
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CONTENTS 5
6.9. Super Bass .................................... 42
6.10. MDB – Micronas Dynamic Bass ........................ 42
7. General Settings 44
7.1. Playback ..................................... 44
7.2. Playlist ...................................... 46
7.3. File View ..................................... 46
7.4. Database ..................................... 48
7.5. Display ...................................... 48
7.6. System ...................................... 50
7.6.1. Start Screen ............................... 50
7.6.2. Battery .................................. 50
7.6.3. Idle Poweroff .............................. 50
7.6.4. Limits .................................. 50
7.7. Bookmarking .................................. 51
7.8. Language ..................................... 52
7.9. Voice ....................................... 52
8. Theme Settings 54
9. Recording Settings 55
9.1. Quality ...................................... 55
9.2. Frequency .................................... 55
9.3. Source ...................................... 56
9.4. Channels ..................................... 56
9.5. Independent Frames .............................. 56
9.6. File Split Options ................................ 56
9.7. Prerecord Time ................................. 57
9.8. Clear Recording Directory ........................... 57
9.9. Trigger ...................................... 57
10.Plugins 59
10.1. Games ...................................... 59
10.1.1. Blackjack ................................. 59
10.1.2. BrickMania ............................... 60
10.1.3. Bubbles ................................. 61
10.1.4. Chessbox ................................. 62
10.1.5. Chopper ................................. 63
10.1.6. Dice .................................... 63
10.1.7. Flipit ................................... 63
10.1.8. Jewels .................................. 64
10.1.9. MazezaM ................................ 65
10.1.10.Minesweeper .............................. 65
10.1.11.Pegbox .................................. 66
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CONTENTS 6
10.1.12.Pong ................................... 67
10.1.13.Robotfindskitten ............................ 67
10.1.14.Rockblox ................................. 68
10.1.15.Rockblox1d ............................... 68
10.1.16.Sliding Puzzle .............................. 69
10.1.17.Snake ................................... 69
10.1.18.Snake 2 .................................. 70
10.1.19.Sokoban ................................. 71
10.1.20.Solitaire ................................. 72
10.1.21.Spacerocks ................................ 73
10.1.22.Star .................................... 73
10.1.23.Sudoku .................................. 74
10.1.24.Wormlet ................................. 75
10.1.25.Xobox .................................. 78
10.2. Demos ...................................... 78
10.2.1. Bounce .................................. 78
10.2.2. Credits .................................. 79
10.2.3. Cube ................................... 79
10.2.4. Demystify ................................ 80
10.2.5. Fire .................................... 80
10.2.6. Logo ................................... 81
10.2.7. Mandelbrot ............................... 81
10.2.8. Mosaique ................................ 82
10.2.9. Oscilloscope ............................... 82
10.2.10.Plasma .................................. 83
10.2.11.Snow ................................... 83
10.2.12.Starfield ................................. 83
10.2.13.VU meter ................................ 84
10.3. Viewers ...................................... 84
10.3.1. Shortcuts ................................. 85
10.3.2. Chip-8 Emulator ............................ 86
10.3.3. JPEG viewer ............................... 86
10.3.4. Movie Player .............................. 87
10.3.5. Rockbox flash .............................. 87
10.3.6. Search .................................. 87
10.3.7. Sort .................................... 88
10.3.8. Text Viewer ............................... 88
10.3.9. VBRfix .................................. 89
10.3.10.Wavplay ................................. 90
10.3.11.ZXBox .................................. 90
10.4. Applications ................................... 92
10.4.1. Battery Benchmark ........................... 92
10.4.2. Calculator ................................ 94
10.4.3. Chess Clock ............................... 94
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CONTENTS 7
10.4.4. Disk Tidy ................................ 95
10.4.5. Firmware flash ............................. 96
10.4.6. Keybox .................................. 96
10.4.7. Random Folder Advance Configuration ............... 97
10.4.8. Split Editor ............................... 97
10.4.9. Stats ................................... 101
10.4.10.Stopwatch ................................ 101
10.4.11.Text Editor ................................ 101
11.Advanced Topics 103
11.1. Customising the User Interface ........................ 103
11.1.1. Getting Extras .............................. 103
11.1.2. Loading Fonts .............................. 103
11.1.3. Loading Languages .......................... 103
11.2. Configuring the WPS .............................. 103
11.2.1. WPS – General Info ........................... 103
11.2.2. WPS – Build Your Own ........................ 104
11.3. Managing Rockbox Settings .......................... 107
11.3.1. Introduction to .cfg Files. ...................... 107
11.3.2. Specifications for .cfg Files. ..................... 107
11.3.3. The MANAGE SETTINGS menu .................... 108
11.4. Firmware Loading ............................... 108
11.4.1. Using ROLO (Rockbox Loader) .................... 109
11.5. Rockbox in Flash ................................ 109
11.5.1. Introduction ............................... 109
11.5.2. Terminology and Basic Operation .................. 109
11.5.3. Initial Flashing Procedure ....................... 110
11.5.4. Updating the Rockbox Image in Flash ................ 111
11.5.5. Restoring the Original Flash ROM Contents ............ 111
A. File formats 112
A.1. Supported file formats ............................. 113
B. WPS Tags 114
B.1. Status Bar .................................... 114
B.2. ID3 Info ...................................... 114
B.3. Power Related Information .......................... 115
B.4. File Info ...................................... 115
B.5. Playlist/Song Info ................................ 116
B.6. Runtime Database ................................ 116
B.7. Virtual LED ................................... 116
B.8. Repeat Mode ................................... 117
B.9. Playback Mode Tags .............................. 117
B.10. Images ...................................... 118
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CONTENTS 8
B.11. Alignment .................................... 119
B.12. Conditional Tags ................................ 119
B.13. Other Tags .................................... 120
C. Config file options 121
D. User feedback 125
D.1. Bug reports .................................... 125
D.1.1. Rules for submitting new bug reports ................ 125
D.2. Feature ideas ................................... 125
D.2.1. Rules for submitting a new feature idea ............... 125
D.2.2. Features we will not implement ................... 126
E. Changelog 128
E.1. What is new since v2.5? ............................ 128
E.1.1. New features .............................. 128
E.1.2. Enhancements .............................. 129
E.1.3. New codecs supported ......................... 130
F. Credits 131
G. Licenses 134
G.1. GNU Free Documentation License ...................... 134
G.2. The GNU General Public License ....................... 142
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 9
1. Introduction
1.1. Welcome
This is the manual for Rockbox. Rockbox is an open source firmware replacement for
a growing number of digital audio players. Rockbox aims to be considerably more
functional and efficient than your device’s stock firmware while remaining easy to use
and customisable. Rockbox is written by users, for users. Not only is it free to use, it
is also released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), which means that it will
always remain free both to use and to change.
Rockbox has been in development since 2001, and receives new features, tweaks and
fixes each day to provide you with the best possible experience on your digital audio
player. A major goal of Rockbox is to be simple and easy to use, yet remain very cus-
tomisable and configurable. We believe that you should never need to go through a
series of menus for an action you perform frequently. We also believe that you should
be able to configure almost anything about Rockbox you could want, pertaining to
functionality. Another top priority of Rockbox is audio playback quality – Rockbox,
for most models, includes a wider range of sound settings than the device’s original
firmware. A lot of work has been put into making Rockbox sound the best it can, and
improvements are constantly being made. All models have access to a large number
of plugins, including many games, applications, and graphical “demos”. You can load
different configurations quickly for different purposes (e.g. a large font for in your car,
different sound settings for at home). Rockbox features a very wide range of languages,
and all supported models also have the ability to talk to you – menus can be voiced and
filenames spelled out or spoken.
1.2. Getting more help
This manual is intended to be a comprehensive introduction to the Rockbox firmware.
There is, however, more help available. The Rockbox website at http://www.rockbox.org/
contains very extensive documentation and guides written by members of the Rockbox
community and this should be your first port of call when looking for further help.
If you cannot find the information you are searching for on the Rockbox website there
are a number of support channels you should have a look at. You can try the Rockbox
forums located at http://forums.rockbox.org/. Another option are the mailing lists which
can be found at http://www.rockbox.org/mail/. From that page you can subscribe to the
lists and browse the archives. For searching the list archives simply use the search field
that is located on the left side of the website. Also you can ask on IRC. The main channel
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 10
for Rockbox is #rockbox on irc://irc.freenode.net. A bunch of helpful developers and
users are usually around. Just join and ask – if someone knows the answer you’ll usu-
ally get an answer pretty quickly. More information including IRC logs can be found
at http://www.rockbox.org/irc/. We also have a web client for joining the rockbox IRC
channel so there is no need for you to install additional software to your computer.
If you think you have found a bug please make sure it actually is a bug and is still
present in the most recent version of rockbox. You should try to confirm that by using
the above mentioned support channels first. After that you can submit that issue to our
tracker. Refer to section D(page 125) for details on how to use the tracker.
1.3. Naming conventions and marks
We have some conventions especially on naming that are intended to be consistent
throughout this manual.
Manufacturer and product names are formatted in accordance with the standard
rules of English grammar, e.g. “Archos playback is currently unsupported”. Manu-
facturer and model names are proper nouns, and thus are written beginning with a
capital letter.
This manual has some parts that are marked with icons on the margin to help you
finding important parts or parts you could skip. The following icons are used:
Note: This indicates a note. A note starts always with the text “Note”. For easier finding b
of notes we have put this an icon in the margin like here. Notes are used to mark infor-
mation that could help you or indicate a possible “weirdness” in rockbox that would
be explained.
Warning: This is a warning. In contrast to notes mentioned above, a warning should be !
taken more seriously. While ignoring notes will not cause any serious damage ignoring
warnings could cause serious damage. If you are new to rockbox you should really read
the warnings before doing anything that is warned about.
This icon marks a section that is intended especially for the blind and visually im- ¸
paired. As they cannot read the manual in the same way sighted people do we have
added some additional descriptions. If you are not blind or visually impaired you most
likely can completely skip these blocks. To make this easier, there is an icon shown in
the margin on the right.
Links to the wiki are abbreviated by the name of the wiki page. Those names are still
linked so you can simply follow them like any other link in this manual. If you want
to access a wiki page manually go to Zhttp://www.rockbox.org/wiki/ and type the
page name in the “Go” box at the top of the page. Links to wiki pages are also indicated
by the symbol Zin front of the page name.
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 2. INSTALLATION 11
2. Installation
2.1. Overview
There are two ways of installing Rockbox: automated and manual. While the manual
way is older, more tested and proven to work correctly, the automated installation is
based on a nice graphical application that does almost everything for you. It is still
important that you have an overview of the installation process to be able to select the
correct installation options.
Rockbox itself comes as a single package. There is no need to install additional soft-
ware for running Rockbox.
Apart from the required parts there are some addons you might be interested in in-
stalling.
Fonts. Rockbox can load custom fonts. The fonts are distributed as a separate package
and thus need to be installed separately. They are not required to run Rockbox
itself but a lot of themes require the fonts package to be installed.
Themes. The view of Rockbox can be customized by themes. Depending on your taste
you might want to install additional themes to change the look of Rockbox.
2.2. Prerequisites
Before installing Rockbox you should make sure you meet the prerequisites. You may
need some additional tools for installation. In most cases these will already be available
on your computer, but if not, installing some additional software might be necessary.
USB connection. To transfer Rockbox to your player you need to connect it to your
computer. For manual installation/uninstallation, or should autodetection fail
during automatic installation, you need to know where to access the player. On
Windows this means you need to figure out the drive letter associated with the
player. On Linux you need to know the mount point of your player.
For manual installation and customization additional software is required.
ZIP utility. Rockbox is distributed as a compressed archive using the .zip format.
Your computer will normally already have a means of handling such archive
files. Windows XP has built-in support for .zip files and presents them to you
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 2. INSTALLATION 12
as directories unless you have installed a third party program that handles com-
pressed files. For other operating systems this may vary. If the .zip file for-
mat is not recognised on your computer you can find a program to handle them
at http://www.info-zip.org/ or http://sevenzip.sf.net/, both of which can be down-
loaded and used free of charge.
Text editor. As you will see in the following chapters, Rockbox is highly configurable.
In addition to saving configurations, Rockbox also allows you to create customised
configuration files. If you would like to edit custom configuration files on your
computer, you will need a text editor like Windows’ “Wordpad”.
2.3. Installing Rockbox
2.3.1. Automated Installation
To automatically install Rockbox, download the official installer and housekeeping tool
ROCKBOX UTILITY. It allows you to:
•Automatically install all needed components for using Rockbox (“Small Installa-
tion”)
•Automatically install all suggested components (“Full Installation”)
•Selectively install optional components
•Install additional themes
•Install voice files and generate talk clips
•Uninstall all components you installed using Rockbox Utility
Prebuilt binaries for Windows, Linux and MacOS X are available at the ZRockboxUtility
wiki page.
Warning: When first starting ROCKBOX UTILITY run “Autodetect”, found in the con- !
figuration 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 Win-
dows, this is the drive letter the player gets assigned, on other systems this is a path in
the filesystem.
Note: Rockbox Utility currently lacks some guiding messages. Please have a look at the b
manual installation instructions if you are stuck during installation.
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 2. INSTALLATION 13
2.3.2. Manual Installation
Choosing a Rockbox version
There are three different types of firmware binaries available from the Rockbox website:
Release version, current build and daily build. You need to decide which one you want
to install and get the appropriate version for your player.
Release. The release version is the latest stable release, free of known critical bugs. The
current stable release of Rockbox, version 3.0, is available at http://www.rockbox.
org/download/.
Current Build. The current build is built at each source code change to the Rockbox
SVN repository and represents the current state of Rockbox development. This
means that the build could contain bugs but most of the time is safe to use. You
can download the current build from http://build.rockbox.org/.
Archived Build. In addition to the release version and the current build, there is also
an archive of daily builds available for download. These are built once a day from
the latest source code in the SVN repository. You can download archived builds
from http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml.
Warning: Because current builds and daily builds are development versions which !
change frequently, they may behave differently than described in this manual, or they
may introduce new (and maybe annoying) bugs. If you do not want to get undefined
behaviour from your player, you should stick to the current stable release if there is
one for your player. If you want to help with project development, you can try devel-
opment builds and help by reporting bugs. Just be aware that these are development
builds that are highly functional but not perfect!
Installing the firmware
1. Download your chosen version of Rockbox from the links in the previous section.
2. Connect your player to the computer via USB as described in the manual that
came with your player.
3. Take the .zip file that you downloaded and use the “Extract all” command of
your unzip program to extract the files onto your player.
Note: The entire contents of the .zip file should be extracted directly to the root b
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.
Note: If the contents of the .zip file are extracted correctly, you will have a file called b
ajbrec.ajz in the main directory of your player’s drive, and also a directory called
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 2. INSTALLATION 14
.rockbox, which contains a number of other directories and system files needed by
Rockbox. If you receive a “-1” error when you start Rockbox, you have not extracted
the contents of the .zip file to the proper location.
Installing the fonts package
Rockbox has a fonts package that is available at http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml or
from the extras link in the menu on the Rockbox website. While the current builds and
daily builds change frequently, the fonts package rarely changes and is therefore not
included in these builds. When installing Rockbox for the first time, you should install
the fonts package. The release version, on the other hand, does not change, so fonts are
included with it.
1. Download the fonts package from the link above.
2. Take the file that you downloaded above, and use the “Extract all” command of
your unzip program to extract the files in the .zip file onto your player. As
with the firmware installation, the entire contents of the fonts .zip 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 fonts! The .zip already contains the correct
internal structure.
2.3.3. Enabling Speech Support (optional)
If you wish to use speech support you will also need a voice file, English ones are
available from http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml. Download the “voice” package for
your player and unzip it directly to the root of your player. You should now find an
english.voice in the /.rockbox/langs directory on your player. Voice menus
are enabled by default and will come into effect after a reboot. See section 7.9 (page 52)
for details on voice settings.
2.4. Running Rockbox
Remove your player from the computer’s USB port. Unplug any connected power
supply and turn the unit off. When you next turn the unit on, Rockbox should load.
When you see the Rockbox splash screen, Rockbox is loaded and ready for use.
2.5. Updating Rockbox
Updating Rockbox is easy even if you do not use the Rockbox Utility. Download a
Rockbox build. (The latest release of the Rockbox software will always be available
from http://www.rockbox.org/download/). Unzip the build to the root directory of your
player like you did in the installation stage. If your unzip program asks you whether
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 2. INSTALLATION 15
to overwrite files, choose the “Yes to all” option. The new build will be installed over
your current build.
Note: If you use Rockbox Utility be aware that it cannot detect manually installed com- b
ponents.
2.6. Uninstalling Rockbox
2.6.1. Automatic Uninstallation
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.
2.6.2. Manual Uninstallation
If you would like to go back to using the original Archos software, connect the player
to your computer, and delete the ajbrec.ajz file.
If you wish to clean up your disk, you may also wish to delete the .rockbox direc-
tory and its contents. Turn the Archos off. Turn the player back on and the original
Archos software will load.
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 3. QUICK START 16
3. Quick Start
3.1. Basic Overview
3.1.1. The player’s controls
Throughout this manual, the buttons on the player are labelled according to the pic-
ture above. Whenever a button name is prefixed by “Long”, a long press of approxi-
mately one second should be performed on that button. The buttons are described in
detail in the following paragraph.
Additional information for blind users is available on the Rockbox website at ZBlindFAQ.¸
The main characteristic of the Ondio case is the dent on its lower right side which is
the MMC slot. Holding the player with this slot in the described position you’ll find
the following:
On the curved top it has the headphone jack to the left, the On/Off button is in the
middle and the line in jack to the right. Apart from the already mentioned MMC slot
you will find the USB connector on the player’s right side. Placed on the upper side
of the device right below the flat display there is the main button pad of the player. A
strong deepening marks the center of it and helps to operate the directional keys from
there. Left and Right form some sort of a strip and divide Up and Down. The raised
button positioned in the lower left of this round crosspad is labelled Mode.
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 3. QUICK START 17
3.1.2. Turning the player on and off
To turn on and off your Rockbox enabled player use the following keys:
Key Action
On/Off Start Rockbox
Long On/Off Shutdown Rockbox
On shutdown, Rockbox automatically saves its settings.
In the unlikely event of a software failure, hardware poweroff or reset can be per-
formed by holding down On/Off until the player shuts off or reboots.
3.1.3. Putting music on your player
With the player connected to the computer as an MSC/UMS device (like a USB Drive),
music files can be put on the player via any standard file transfer method that you
would use to copy files between drives (e.g. Drag ’n’ Drop). The default directory
structure that is assumed by some parts of Rockbox (album art searching, WPS missing-
tag fallback) is: /ArtistName/AlbumName/*.ext. See section ?? (page ??) for a list of
supported audio formats.
3.1.4. The first contact
After you have first started the player you’ll be presented by the MAIN MENU. From
this menu you can reach every function of Rockbox, for more information (see sec-
tion 5.1 (page 34)). To browse the files on you player select FILES (see section 4.1
(page 19)), and to browse in a view that is based on the meta-data1of your audio files,
select DATABASE (see section 4.2 (page 22)).
3.1.5. Basic controls
When browsing files and moving through menus you usually get a list view presented.
The navigation in these lists are usually the same and should be pretty intuitive. In the
tree view use Down and Up to move around the selection. Use Right to select an item.
When browsing the file system selecting an audio file plays it. The view switches to the
“While playing screen”, usually abbreviated as “WPS” (see section 4.3 (page 25). The
dynamic playlist gets replaced with the contents of the current directory. This way you
can easily treat directories as playlists. The created dynamic playlist can be extended
or modified while playing. This is also known as “on-the-fly playlist”. To go back to
the FILE BROWSER stop the playback with the Long On/Off button or return to the file
browser while keeping playback running using Mode. In list views you can go back
one step with Left.
1ID3 Tags, Vorbis comments, etc.
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 3. QUICK START 18
3.1.6. Basic concepts
Playlists
Rockbox is playlist oriented. This means that every time you play an audio file, a so-
called “dynamic playlist” is generated, unless you play a saved playlist. You can mod-
ify the dynamic playlist while playing and also save it to a file. If you do not want to
use playlists you can simply play your files directory based. Playlists are covered in
detail in section 4.4 (page 29).
Menu
From the menu you can customise Rockbox. Rockbox itself is very customisable. Also
there are some special menus for quick access to frequently used functions.
Context Menu
Some views, especially the file browser and the WPS have a context menu. From the
file browser this can be accessed with Long Right. The contents of the context menu
vary, depending on the situation it gets called. The context menu itself presents you
with some operations you can perform with the currently highlighted file. In the file
browser this is the file (or directory) that is highlighted by the cursor. From the WPS this
is the currently playing file. Also there are some actions that do not apply to the current
file but refer to the screen from which the context menu gets called. One example is the
playback menu, which can be called using the context menu from within the WPS.
3.2. Customising Rockbox
Rockbox’ User Interface can be customised using “Themes”. Themes usually only affect
the visual appearance, but an advanced user can create a theme that also changes vari-
ous other settings like file view, LCD settings and all other settings that can be modified
using .cfg files. This topic is discussed in more detail in section 11.3 (page 107). The
Rockbox distribution comes with some themes that should look nice on your player.
Note: Some of the themes shipped with Rockbox need additional fonts from the fonts b
package, so make sure you installed them. Also, if you downloaded additional themes
from the Internet make sure you have the needed fonts installed as otherwise the theme
may get displayed garbled.
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 4. BROWSING AND PLAYING 19
4. Browsing and playing
4.1. File Browser
Figure 4.1.: The file browser
Rockbox lets you browse your music in either of two ways. The FILE BROWSER lets
you navigate through the files and directories on your player, entering directories and
executing the default action on each file. To help differentiate files, each file format is
displayed with an icon.
The DATABASE BROWSER, on the other hand, allows you to navigate through the
music on your player using categories like album, artist, genre, etc.
You can select whether to browse using the FILE BROWSER or the DATABASE BROWSER
by selecting either FILES or DATABASE in the MAIN MENU. If you choose the FILE
BROWSER, the SHOW FILES setting lets you select what types of files you wish to view.
See section 7.3 (page 47) for more information on the SHOW FILES setting.
Note: The FILE BROWSER allows you to manipulate your files in ways that are not b
available within the DATABASE BROWSER. Read more about DATABASE in section 4.2
(page 22). The remainder of this section deals with the FILE BROWSER.
Unlike the Archos Firmware, Rockbox provides multivolume support for the Multi-
MediaCard, this means the player can access both data volumes (internal memory and
the MMC), thus being able to for instance, build playlists with files from both volumes.
In the FILE BROWSER a new directory will appear as soon as the device has read the
content after inserting the card. This new directory’s name is generated as <MMC1>,
and will behave exactly as any other directory on the player.
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO

CHAPTER 4. BROWSING AND PLAYING 20
4.1.1. File Browser Controls
Key Action
Up/Down Go to previous/next item in list. If you
are on the first/last entry, the cursor will
wrap to the last/first entry.
Left Go to the parent directory.
Right Executes the default action on the se-
lected file or enters a directory.
Mode If there is an audio file playing, returns
to the WHILE PLAYING SCREEN (WPS)
without stopping playback.
On/Off Stops audio playback.
Long Right Enter the CONTEXT MENU
Long Mode Enter the MAIN MENU
4.1.2. Context Menu
Figure 4.2.: The Context Menu
The CONTEXT MENU allows you to perform certain operations on files or directories.
To access the CONTEXT MENU, position the selector over a file or directory and access
the context menu with Long Right.
Note: The CONTEXT MENU is a context sensitive menu. If the CONTEXT MENU is in- b
voked on a file, it will display options available for files. If the CONTEXT MENU is
invoked on a directory, it will display options for directories.
The CONTEXT MENU contains the following options (unless otherwise noted, each
option pertains both to files and directories):
Playlist. Enters the PLAYLIST SUBMENU (see section 4.4.3 (page 31)).
Playlist Catalog. Enters the PLAYLIST CATALOG SUBMENU (see section 4.4.2 (page 30)).
Rename. This function lets the user modify the name of a file or directory.
THE ROCKBOX MANUAL ARCHOS ONDIO