SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ User manual

The Rockbox Manual
for
Sansa Fuze+
rockbox.org
April 30, 2017

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
2003-2013 The Rockbox Team and its contributors, c
2004 Christi Alice
Scarborough, c
2003 José Maria Garcia-Valdecasas Bernal & Peter Schlenker.
Version 3.14. Built using pdfL
A
T
EX.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later
version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sec-
tions, 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 (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Contents 3
Contents
1. Introduction 12
1.1. Welcome ..................................... 12
1.2. Getting more help ............................... 12
1.3. Naming conventions and marks ........................ 13
2. Installation 14
2.1. Before Starting ................................. 14
2.2. Installing Rockbox ............................... 14
2.2.1. Automated Installation ........................ 15
2.2.2. Manual Installation .......................... 16
2.2.3. Bootloader installation from Windows ................ 17
2.2.4. Bootloader installation from Mac OS X and Linux ......... 18
2.2.5. Finishing the install .......................... 18
2.2.6. Enabling Speech Support (optional) ................. 18
2.3. Running Rockbox ................................ 19
2.4. Updating Rockbox ............................... 19
2.5. Uninstalling Rockbox ............................. 19
2.5.1. Automatic Uninstallation ....................... 19
2.5.2. Manual Uninstallation ......................... 19
2.6. Troubleshooting ................................. 19
3. Quick Start 21
3.1. Basic Overview ................................. 21
3.1.1. The player’s controls .......................... 21
3.1.2. Turning the player on and off ..................... 21
3.1.3. Starting the original firmware ..................... 22
3.1.4. Putting music on your player ..................... 22
3.1.5. The first contact ............................ 22
3.1.6. Basic controls .............................. 22
3.1.7. Basic concepts ............................. 23
3.2. Customising Rockbox ............................. 23
3.3. USB Charging ................................. 24
4. Browsing and playing 25
4.1. File Browser ................................... 25
4.1.1. File Browser Controls ......................... 26
4.1.2. Context Menu ............................. 27
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Contents 4
4.1.3. Virtual Keyboard ............................ 29
4.2. Database .................................... 30
4.2.1. Introduction .............................. 30
4.2.2. Initializing the Database ........................ 30
4.2.3. The Database Menu .......................... 31
4.2.4. Using the Database .......................... 32
4.3. While Playing Screen .............................. 33
4.3.1. WPS Key Controls ........................... 35
4.3.2. Peak Meter ............................... 35
4.3.3. The WPS Context Menu ....................... 36
4.4. Working with Playlists ............................. 39
4.4.1. Playlist terminology .......................... 39
4.4.2. Creating playlists ............................ 39
4.4.3. Adding music to playlists ....................... 41
4.4.4. Modifying playlists ........................... 42
4.4.5. Saving playlists ............................. 43
4.4.6. Loading saved playlists ........................ 43
4.5. Hotkeys ..................................... 43
5. The Main Menu 44
5.1. Introducing the Main Menu .......................... 44
5.2. Navigating the Main Menu .......................... 45
5.3. Recent Bookmarks ............................... 45
5.4. Files ....................................... 46
5.5. Database .................................... 46
5.6. Now Playing/Resume Playback ........................ 46
5.7. Settings ..................................... 46
5.7.1. Sound Settings ............................. 47
5.7.2. Playback Settings ........................... 47
5.7.3. General Settings ............................ 47
5.7.4. Theme Settings ............................. 47
5.7.5. Recording Settings ........................... 47
5.7.6. Manage Settings ............................ 47
5.8. Recording .................................... 48
5.8.1. While Recording Screen ........................ 48
5.9. FM Radio .................................... 49
5.10. Playlists ..................................... 51
5.11. Plugins ..................................... 51
5.12. System ...................................... 51
5.13. Quick Screen .................................. 52
5.14. Shortcuts .................................... 52
6. Sound Settings 54
6.1. Volume ..................................... 54
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Contents 5
6.2. Bass ....................................... 55
6.3. Volume Limit .................................. 55
6.4. Treble ...................................... 55
6.5. Balance ..................................... 55
6.6. Channels .................................... 55
6.7. Stereo Width .................................. 56
6.8. 3D Enhancement ................................ 56
6.9. Crossfeed .................................... 56
6.10. Equalizer .................................... 58
6.11. Dithering .................................... 61
6.12. Timestretch ................................... 61
6.13. Haas Surround ................................. 61
6.14. Perceptual Bass Enhancement ......................... 62
6.15. Auditory Fatigue Reduction .......................... 62
6.16. Compressor ................................... 62
7. Playback Settings 64
7.1. Shuffle ...................................... 64
7.2. Repeat ...................................... 64
7.3. Play Selected First ............................... 65
7.4. Fast-Forward/Rewind ............................. 65
7.5. Fade on Stop/Pause .............................. 65
7.6. Party Mode ................................... 65
7.7. Crossfade .................................... 65
7.8. Replaygain ................................... 66
7.9. Track Skip Beep ................................ 67
7.10. Auto-Change Directory ............................ 67
7.11. Constrain Auto-Change ............................ 68
7.12. Last.fm Log ................................... 68
7.13. Cuesheet Support ................................ 68
7.14. Skip Length ................................... 68
7.15. Prevent Track Skipping ............................ 69
7.16. Rewind Before Resume ............................. 69
7.17. Rewind on Pause ................................ 69
7.18. Frequency .................................... 69
8. General Settings 70
8.1. Playlist ..................................... 70
8.2. File View .................................... 70
8.3. Database .................................... 72
8.4. Display ..................................... 72
8.5. System ...................................... 75
8.5.1. Disk ................................... 75
8.5.2. Limits .................................. 76
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Contents 6
8.5.3. Use Shortcuts Menu Instead of Quick Screen ............ 76
8.5.4. Car Adapter Mode ........................... 76
8.5.5. Keyclick ................................. 77
8.5.6. Touchpad ................................ 77
8.5.7. Advanced Key Lock .......................... 77
8.5.8. USB HID ................................ 78
8.5.9. USB Keypad Mode ........................... 78
8.5.10. USB Hide Internal Drive ........................ 80
8.6. Startup/Shutdown ............................... 80
8.6.1. Start Screen ............................... 80
8.6.2. Idle Poweroff .............................. 80
8.6.3. Sleep Timer ............................... 81
8.7. Bookmarking .................................. 81
8.8. Automatic resume ............................... 83
8.9. Language .................................... 84
8.10. Voice ....................................... 84
8.11. Hotkey ...................................... 85
9. Theme Settings 86
10.Recording Settings 88
10.1. Format ...................................... 88
10.2. Encoder Settings (MP3 only) ......................... 88
10.3. Frequency .................................... 89
10.4. Source ...................................... 89
10.5. Channels .................................... 89
10.6. Mono Mode ................................... 89
10.7. File Split Options ................................ 89
10.8. Prerecord Time ................................. 90
10.9. Clear Recording Directory ........................... 90
10.10.Clipping Light ................................. 90
10.11.Trigger ...................................... 90
11.Time and Date 92
12.Plugins 93
12.1. Games ...................................... 93
12.1.1. 2048 ................................... 94
12.1.2. Blackjack ................................ 95
12.1.3. Boomshine ............................... 96
12.1.4. BrickMania ............................... 96
12.1.5. Bubbles ................................. 97
12.1.6. Chessbox ................................ 98
12.1.7. Chopper .................................100
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Contents 7
12.1.8. Clix ...................................101
12.1.9. Codebuster ...............................102
12.1.10.Dice ...................................102
12.1.11.Doom ..................................103
12.1.12.Flipit ..................................105
12.1.13.Goban ..................................106
12.1.14.Invadrox .................................111
12.1.15.Jackpot .................................112
12.1.16.Jewels ..................................113
12.1.17.Maze ...................................113
12.1.18.MazezaM ................................114
12.1.19.Minesweeper ..............................115
12.1.20.Pacbox .................................116
12.1.21.Pegbox .................................117
12.1.22.Pong ...................................118
12.1.23.Puzzles .................................119
12.1.24.Reversi .................................120
12.1.25.Robotfindskitten ............................121
12.1.26.Rockblox ................................122
12.1.27.Rockblox1d ...............................123
12.1.28.Sliding Puzzle ..............................123
12.1.29.Snake ..................................124
12.1.30.Snake 2 .................................125
12.1.31.Sokoban .................................126
12.1.32.Solitaire .................................128
12.1.33.Spacerocks ...............................129
12.1.34.Star ...................................130
12.1.35.Sudoku .................................131
12.1.36.Superdom ................................132
12.1.37.Wormlet .................................134
12.1.38.Xobox ..................................137
12.1.39.XWorld .................................137
12.2. Demos ......................................138
12.2.1. Bounce .................................138
12.2.2. Credits .................................139
12.2.3. Cube ...................................139
12.2.4. Demystify ................................140
12.2.5. FFT ...................................141
12.2.6. Fire ...................................141
12.2.7. Fractals .................................142
12.2.8. Logo ...................................142
12.2.9. Matrix ..................................143
12.2.10.Mosaique ................................143
12.2.11.Oscilloscope ...............................144
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Contents 8
12.2.12.PictureFlow ...............................145
12.2.13.Plasma .................................147
12.2.14.Rocklife .................................147
12.2.15.Snow ...................................148
12.2.16.Starfield .................................149
12.2.17.VU meter ................................150
12.3. Viewers .....................................150
12.3.1. Shortcuts ................................151
12.3.2. Chip-8 Emulator ............................152
12.3.3. Frotz ...................................153
12.3.4. Image Viewer ..............................154
12.3.5. Lua scripting language .........................155
12.3.6. Midiplay .................................156
12.3.7. MPEG Player ..............................156
12.3.8. MP3 Encoder ..............................158
12.3.9. Rockboy .................................159
12.3.10.Search ..................................160
12.3.11.Shopper .................................160
12.3.12.Sort ...................................161
12.3.13.Speedread ................................162
12.3.14.Text Viewer ...............................163
12.3.15.Theme Remove .............................168
12.3.16.VBRfix .................................169
12.3.17.ZXBox ..................................170
12.4. Applications ...................................172
12.4.1. Alarm Clock ..............................172
12.4.2. Battery Benchmark ..........................172
12.4.3. Calculator ................................174
12.4.4. Calendar ................................175
12.4.5. Chess Clock ...............................176
12.4.6. Clock ..................................177
12.4.7. Dict ...................................179
12.4.8. Disk Tidy ................................180
12.4.9. Keybox .................................181
12.4.10.Lamp ..................................181
12.4.11.Lrcplayer ................................181
12.4.12.Main Menu Configuration .......................184
12.4.13.md5sum .................................185
12.4.14.Metronome ...............................185
12.4.15.One-Time Password Client ......................188
12.4.16.Advanced Settings ...........................189
12.4.17.Periodic Table .............................189
12.4.18.Pitch Detector .............................189
12.4.19.Random Folder Advance Configuration ...............190
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Contents 9
12.4.20.Resistor Calculator ...........................190
12.4.21.Rockpaint ................................191
12.4.22.Stats ...................................194
12.4.23.Stopwatch ................................195
12.4.24.Text Editor ...............................195
13.Advanced Topics 197
13.1. Customising the User Interface ........................197
13.1.1. Customising The Main Menu .....................197
13.1.2. Getting Extras .............................197
13.1.3. Loading Fonts .............................197
13.1.4. Loading Languages ...........................198
13.1.5. Changing Filetype Colours ......................198
13.1.6. Loading Backdrops ...........................199
13.1.7. UI Viewport ..............................200
13.2. Configuring the Theme .............................200
13.2.1. Themeing – General Info .......................200
13.2.2. Themes – Create Your Own ......................201
13.2.3. Info Viewport (SBS only) .......................204
13.2.4. Additional Fonts ............................204
13.3. Managing Rockbox Settings ..........................207
13.3.1. Introduction to .cfg Files .......................207
13.3.2. Specifications for .cfg Files ......................207
13.3.3. The Manage Settings menu ....................208
13.4. Firmware Loading ...............................209
13.4.1. Using ROLO (Rockbox Loader) ....................209
13.5. Optimising battery runtime ..........................209
13.5.1. Display backlight ............................209
13.5.2. Replaygain ...............................209
13.5.3. Peak Meter ...............................209
13.5.4. Audio format and bitrate .......................210
13.5.5. Sound settings .............................210
A. File formats 211
A.1. Supported file formats .............................212
B. Audio and metadata formats 213
B.1. Supported audio formats ............................213
B.1.1. Lossy Codecs ..............................213
B.1.2. Lossless Codecs .............................214
B.1.3. Other Codecs ..............................215
B.1.4. Codec featureset ............................216
B.2. Supported metadata tags ...........................217
B.2.1. Featureset for generic metadata tags .................217
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Contents 10
B.2.2. Featureset for codec specific metadata ................218
B.2.3. Limitations of metadata handling ...................218
C. Album Art 219
C.1. Limitations ...................................219
C.2. Where to put album art ............................219
D. Theme Tags 221
D.1. Status Bar ....................................221
D.2. Hardware Capabilities .............................221
D.3. Information from the track tags ........................222
D.4. Viewports ....................................222
D.5. Additional Fonts ................................223
D.6. Misc Coloring Tags ...............................223
D.7. Power Related Information ..........................223
D.8. Information about the file ...........................224
D.9. Playlist/Song Info ...............................225
D.10.Playlist Viewer .................................225
D.11.Runtime Database ...............................226
D.12.Sound (DSP) settings .............................226
D.13.Hold .......................................226
D.14.Virtual LED ..................................227
D.15.Repeat Mode ..................................227
D.16.Playback Mode .................................227
D.17.Current Screen .................................227
D.18.List Title (.sbs only) .............................228
D.19.Changing Volume ................................229
D.20.Settings .....................................229
D.21.Images ......................................230
D.21.1.How to display the album art .....................231
D.22.FM Radio ....................................232
D.23.Alignment and language direction .......................233
D.24.Conditional Tags ................................233
D.25.Subline Tags ..................................234
D.26.Time and Date .................................234
D.27.Text Translation ................................235
D.28.Bar Tags .....................................235
D.28.1.Options .................................235
D.29.Other Tags ...................................236
E. Config file options 238
F. Menu Overview 244
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Contents 11
G. User feedback 245
G.1. Bug reports ...................................245
G.1.1. Rules for submitting new bug reports ................245
G.2. Feature ideas ..................................245
G.2.1. Rules for submitting a new feature idea ...............245
G.2.2. Features we will not implement ....................246
H. Credits 247
I. Licenses 251
I.1. GNU Free Documentation License ......................251
I.2. The GNU General Public License .......................259
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Chapter 1. Introduction 12
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
customisable 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/. The mailing lists are another option, and
can be found at http://www.rockbox.org/mail/. From that page you can subscribe to
the lists and browse the archives. To search the list archives simply use the search field
that is located on the left side of the website. Furthermore, you can ask on IRC. The
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Chapter 1. Introduction 13
main channel for Rockbox is #rockbox on irc://irc.freenode.net. Many helpful developers
and users are usually around. Just join and ask your question (don’t ask to ask!) – if
someone knows the answer you’ll usually 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 so that you can join the Rockbox IRC channel without needing to install additional
software onto 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 G(page 245) for details on how to use the tracker.
1.3. Naming conventions and marks
We have some conventions (especially for 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. “Sansa playback is currently unsupported”. Manufacturer 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”. In order to b
make finding notes easier each one is accompanied by an icon in the margin as here.
Notes are used to mark useful information that may help you to get the most out of
Rockbox.
Warning: This is a warning. In contrast to notes mentioned above, a warning should !
be taken more seriously. Whereas ignoring notes will not cause any serious damage,
ignoring warnings could cause serious damage to your player. You really should read the
warnings, especially if you are new to Rockbox.
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 can
probably 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 (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Chapter 2. Installation 14
2. Installation
Installing Rockbox is generally a quick and easy procedure. However before beginning
there are a few important things to know.
2.1. Before Starting
DRM capability. It is possible that installation of the bootloader may lead to you per-
manently losing the ability to playback files with DRM.
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 know the drive letter associated with the player.
On Linux you need to know the mount point of your player. On Mac OS X you
need to know the volume name of your player.
Note: The following steps require you to change the setting in Settings →USB b
Mode to MSC from within the original firmware.
2.2. Installing Rockbox
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 Rockbox bootloader. 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 Sansa.
The Rockbox firmware. Unlike the Sansa firmware, which runs entirely from flash mem-
ory, most of the Rockbox code is contained in a “build” that resides on your
player’s drive. This makes it easy to update Rockbox. The build consists of a
directory called .rockbox which contains all of the Rockbox files, and is located
in the root of your player’s drive.
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Chapter 2. Installation 15
Apart from the required parts there are some addons you might be interested in
installing.
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 appearance of Rockbox can be customised by themes. Depending on your
taste you might want to install additional themes to change the look of Rockbox.
2.2.1. 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 (“Minimal Instal-
lation”).
•Automatically install all suggested components (“Complete Installation”).
•Selectively install optional components.
•Install additional fonts and themes.
•Install voice files and generate talk clips.
•Uninstall all components you installed using Rockbox Utility.
Prebuilt binaries for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X are available at the ZRockboxUtility
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 Sansa firmware with the Rockbox bootloader.
Download a supported version of the Sansa firmware for your Sansa Fuze+ from the
Sansa website, links can be found on ZSansaFuzePlusPort.
Note: Although the only tested version of the original firmware is 02.38.6, Rockbox b
Utility should be able to patch any newer version.
Note: If the file that you downloaded is a .zip file, use an unzip utility like mentioned in b
the prerequisites section to extract the firmware.sb from the .zip file to your desktop.
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Chapter 2. Installation 16
Choosing a Rockbox version
There are three different versions of Rockbox available from the Rockbox website: Re-
lease 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 “Min-
imal 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.
Release. The release version is the latest stable release, free of known critical bugs.
For a manual install, the current stable release of Rockbox is available at http:
//www.rockbox.org/download/.
Development Build. The development build is built at each change to the Rockbox
source code 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.
For a manual install, 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 repository. For a manual install, you can download
archived builds from http://www.rockbox.org/daily.shtml.
Note: Because current and archived builds are development versions that change fre- b
quently, they may behave differently than described in this manual, or they may in-
troduce 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 2.2.5 (page 18) to complete the installation procedure.
2.2.2. Manual Installation
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 2.2.5
(page 18)
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 in MSC mode as described in the
manual that came with your player.
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Chapter 2. Installation 17
3. Take the .zip file that you downloaded and use the “Extract all” command of
your unzip program to extract the files onto the main data partition of your
player.
Note: The entire contents of the .zip file should be extracted directly to the root of b
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
In order to install the bootloader, you will need to download the following files:
•An original firmware (OF) from Sansa’s website: http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/
Fuze/bd-p/Fuzeplus
•The bootloader: http://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/sandisk-sansa/fuzeplus/
bootloader-fuzeplus.sansa
•The version of mkimxboot for your operating system from Rockbox’s server: http:
//download.rockbox.org/bootloader/sandisk-sansa/mkimxboot/
2.2.3. Bootloader installation from Windows
1. Create a folder called “rbinstall” on your desktop, and then extract the OF, the
bootloader and mkimxboot into it.
2. Open a new command prompt, and navigate to the “rbinstall” folder.
3. Run mkimxboot.exe, passing according to the following syntax the name of the OF
and bootloader files that you downloaded, in addition to a name for the output
file and the option argument for dualboot.
Code
mkimxboot.exe -i firmware.sb -b bootloader-fuzeplus.sansa -o patched.sb -t dualboot
If mkimxboot.exe does not report success, then retry or abort.
4. Copy the output file (“patched.sb” in the example given above) to the root of the
device and rename it to the same name as the OF file you downloaded earlier
(“firmware.sb” above).
Please now go to section 2.2.5 (page 18) to complete the installation procedure.
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Chapter 2. Installation 18
2.2.4. Bootloader installation from Mac OS X and Linux
1. Create a folder called “rbinstall” in your home directory, and then extract the OF,
the bootloader and mkimxboot into it.
2. Open a new terminal, and navigate to the “rbinstall” folder.
3. Run mkimxboot, passing the name of the OF and bootloader files that you down-
loaded, in addition to a name for the output file and the option argument for
dualboot.
Code
./mkimxboot -i firmware.sb -b bootloader-fuzeplus.sansa -o patched.sb -t dualboot
If mkimxboot does not report success, then retry or abort.
4. Copy the output file (“patched.sb” in the example given above) to the root of the
device and rename it to the same name as the OF file you downloaded earlier
(“firmware.sb” above).
Please now go to section 2.2.5 (page 18) to complete the installation procedure.
2.2.5. Finishing the install
Warning: Before proceeding further, make sure that your player’s battery is enough !
charged. Interrupting the next step due to a power failure most likely will brick your
player.
Note: If you are updating/reinstalling the bootloader on a previously rockbox installed b
bootloader you will need to boot into the original firmware in order to perform the
following step. See section 3.1.3 (page 22) for details on how to do so
Update your player’s firmware with the patched bootloader. To do this, safely eject
/unmount your player. The update process should start immediatly. The Sansa will
display an animation indicating that the firmware update is in progress with words:
“Updating Fuze+”. Do not interrupt this process. When the firmware update is com-
plete the player will restart (The update firmware process usually takes one to several
minutes.). You are now ready to go.
2.2.6. Enabling Speech Support (optional)
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 (page 84) 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.
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Chapter 2. Installation 19
2.3. Running Rockbox
When you turn the unit on, Rockbox should load.
2.4. Updating Rockbox
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 b
components.
2.5. Uninstalling Rockbox
2.5.1. 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.
Note: Rockbox Utility cannot uninstall the bootloader due to the fact that it requires a b
flashing procedure. To uninstall the bootloader completely follow the manual uninstal-
lation instructions below.
2.5.2. Manual Uninstallation
Copy an unmodified original firmware to your player, and then reboot into the Sandisk
firmware. See section 3.1.3 (page 22) for more information.
If you wish to clean up your disk, you may also wish to delete the .rockbox directory
and its contents. Turn the Sansa off. Turn the player back on and the original Sansa
software will load.
2.6. Troubleshooting
Immediately loading original firmware. If the original firmware is immediately loaded
without going into updating the firmware, then the Rockbox bootloader has not
been correctly installed. The original firmware will only perform the update if the
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+

Chapter 2. Installation 20
filename is correct, including case. Make sure that the patched Sansa firmware is
called firmware.sb and present in the root directory of your player.
“File Not Found” If you receive a “File Not Found” from the bootloader, then the
bootloader cannot find the Rockbox firmware. This is usually a result of not
extracting the contents of the .zip file to the proper location, and should not
happen when Rockbox has been installed with Rockbox Utility.
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.
The Rockbox manual (version 3.14) Sansa Fuze+
Table of contents
Other SanDisk Media Player manuals