How to. firmware

[chesterland]

Hi guys,
was wondering if anyone nows how iriver make their firmware. I think if we can get a hold of the utility used for making firmware then we maybe able to fix our own bugs. If we could fix the shuffle 'function' then who know how much more we can fix. The reason I think we ought to do it ourselves is iriver won't do anything since they have a whole new range of products. I anyone can get info it would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

[toja92]

The firmware is programmed by a team developers that iRiver has. You MIGHT BE ABLE to edit the .hex file, you need the firmware compiler plus the project files for the firmware, and i don't think that iRiver just 'passing it on' to some random people (hey, no offense)... So the only solution (if no-one works at iRiver) is probably to port the Linux version: http://www.rockbox.org/ There's a version for the H10, i don't know if it's easy to fix the firmware + bootloader, but it would indeed be nice!

EDIT: It might be able to change in the .hex file, but if you do the wrong way the E10 might dont boot up next time, so it is risky... Besides that, it's hard to understand the code, so it's hard to do something useful with it... And it might be a checksum, and if it fails the player becomes un-usable.

["haxx0"]

Toja is right.

A few people out there are trying to port Rockbox to a few IFP models. The firmware images (dot hex) are encrypted in the same way as E10's, so it's possible to decrypt E10s firmware (i've done that), and maybe even do small changes and re-encrypt it. (One developer has patched IFP 790's firmware...)

But newer irivers (U10, U20, E10) uses a completely different System On Chip from Samsung that Rockbox isnt being ported to at all... But i dont think it is IMPOSSIBLE to do it... E10 has an ARM CPU just like the others.

[toja92]

Port rockbox: Definitively possible, someone just need to start
Change firmware: Dont even think about it (NOT FUN, but you're still able if you want to)

["haxx0"]

Toja: are you sure you know what you are talking about?

it is not easy to modify the firmware. the firmware file is encrypted, so you need special software to decrypt it. then, after you have made the modification, you need special software to encrypt it again, and i don't even think that such software exists yet.
you have to follow this procedure. you can not just edit the HEX file and flash your e10, because checksums are embedded in the hex file, and e10 verifies that the hex file is sane using these checksums prior to flashing. if your hex file isn't sane, then e10 will refuse to update the firmware. so you can not make your e10 broken just by modifying the hex file.

and how can you be so sure it is possible to port rockbox to e10? even if experts tries to port it, it is not sure they will succeed. there are many really popular digital audio players without rockbox support out there.