detail information

The good thing about Rockbox is that only the Bootloader (the programmed instructions needed to initiate the device and boot Rockbox) is flashed into memory. The actual operating system - Rockbox, in this case, is loaded from the hard disc, resulting in a very fast booting operation. Therefore, updating is even easier: you just need to unzip the .rockbox folder to your player and restart it! This means you will only flash your player once. If you ever run across problems due to a bad Rockbox build (corrupted files, for example), you have one of two choices: reset the settings of your Rockbox build (a long press on a specific button, for example) or connecting your player via USB on the Bootloader mode, before loading Rockbox from the hard disc. If you want, you can now copy a more recent build or go back to the working version! There is a possibility of running Rockbox from the flash memory on the Archos players, with the advantage of booting Rockbox even faster, but it is completely optional, since future updates required flashing the memory again [1]. Here is a summary of the bootloader options on a variety of platforms:

• iRiver and iAudio: Rockbox Bootloader in Flash Memory plus Rockbox loaded from disk (always).
• iPod: Rockbox Bootloader and Rockbox loaded from disk. The only software in the Flash Memory is the Apple Loader, which is left untouched. The Bootloader is merged with the retail firmware and put on the special firmware partition.
• Archos: By default, Rockbox is loaded from disk with the Archos Loader, which would normally look an on-disk update of the Archos firmware (Flash ROM isn't touched). Optionally, you can flash the memory with the Bootloader plus the whole Rockbox core in a modular way, but this isn't possible on all units (depends on the type of Flash Memory Archos built into it) [1].

New patches with corrected bugs or new functionalities are also an important contribution to the Rockbox development. Generally, these patches aren't on the official Rockbox daily builds, because the Rockbox crew has to make sure they follow the Rockbox architecture and will not cause problems. I'd like to compare patches to medical pills: you have to make sure the lateral effects will be inferior to what the good benefits are. Sometimes developers might think a certain feature is nice but it not mature enough to be part of the official builds or they plain disagree it should be added.

But the Bootloader advantage isn't just the faster booting. It also functions as a dual-boot (or triple-boot, in case of the iPods) software, allowing to boot the original firmware and Rockbox. For instance, if you need a particular feature only present on the original firmware (like video playback), you can boot it right away without any hassle. Currently dual-booting is officially supported on all players except the iAudio X5, which can be installed by a patch created by Rani Hod. On the Archos models, dual-boot also requires flashing, but since Rockbox always has disk access via the Archos firmware in flash memory, it is not mandatory. iPod Linux (a similar project like Rockbox, but exclusive for iPods and based on a Linux kernel) is also supported by the Rockbox Bootloader. In the same way, iPod Linux Loader (iPL) also provides support for the Rockbox software. Contrary to Rockbox Bootloader, iPL presents a menu in which users can select the firmware they want to boot, while Rockbox Booloader loads Rockbox as fast as it can, unless you're holding a button whilst it starts.

Rockbox can be installed and compiled on a variety of platforms, like Windows, Linux and Apple. In most of the cases, installing Rockbox doesn't take more then five minutes if you're comfortable with general firmware upgrades.

The Rockbox community considers these points as the key-features of Rockbox:

• Support for MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AC3, AAC, Musepack, Midi , AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, Shorten, WAV, and Wavpack Sound Codecs (On Archos, only MP2/MP3 playback is possible because they do the decoding in hardware. One exception is WAV, which is already supported via a plugin and will hopefully be integrated into the playback engine before Rockbox v3.1).
• Gapless Playback.
• 5 Band Parametric Equalizer (except on Archos - however, Rockbox offers all the advanced audio settings provided by the chip, unlike Archos).
• High Resolution Volume Control, 82 levels (Note: The number of volume levels varies with target).
• Abilty to create your own theme or use one of these.
• Crossfade, Crossfeed, and Replay Gain (except on Archos).
• Picture and text viewing
• Calendar
• Doom
• Real Time Clock on the player's that have the necessary hardware
• Tag Database
• Unicode Support
• On The Fly Playlists
• Voice Interface, and Multilingual Interface
• Many Plugins and Games to enhance Rockbox even further.
• Open Source, so Rockbox is constantly improved.

The Rockbox webpage has a detailed feature description for each player the platform works for. Rockbox outperforms all the original firmwares in almost all fields.