Printable View
Does anyone familiar with Rockbox here? Actially the Rockbox is a replacement firmware which is compatible to most of the digital music players and it is free. This firmware is capable to run wide range of players. On the Stable ports list SanDisk Sansa Clip is listed but the Sansa Clip Zip is listed in Unstable ports. This means the Rockbox capable to run on these players but might be incomplete and give problems which will be going limit advanced functionality.
As far as I know that the Rockbox firmware capable to run on Clip v1, Clip v2, Clip+ and ClipZip models. All of these models are stable enough to use this firmware without much problem. There is no problem with the installation also. It is safe and reliable except the Clip v2. If you try to install Rockbox Clip v2, it may brick the player. However in order to recover the device, you need to do delicate hardware modifications
As you know that the Sansa Clip Zip replacement of Sansa Clip+. It is also based on AS3525v2 SOC. You can see this by AMS header on the firmware file: I don’t think that the format of the firmware has changed significantly. It just seems to be another SansaAMS device which you can see by revealing firmware contents. If the Sansa Clip+ will be capable to run Rockbox stable, then why not Sansa Clip Zip?
It is a Basic firmware which has been committed. With this you can to at least *compile* clip zip bootloader. There is still doubt about some components drivers. LCD and backlight drivers are still a stub. The button’s driver basically. But still there is a problem with GPIO-to-button mapping. I know that Rockbox programmer are keep on updating the thing.
I have updated the mkamsboot for CLIP ZIP in order to recognize the original firmware file. Due to this I can able to patch it with the rockbox bootloader. The problem is there is no way you can create a flashable firmware. The rockbox does not provide the dualboot. These parts are still missing. The dualboot feature checks a button/USB connection so that it can able to decide whether the device should start the original firmware or the rockbox bootloader. I know that this is a very tricky part. Any error in this process could brick your device.
I have flashed the Clip Zip with Rockbox and luckily now it boots and playa audio. But the problem is, the firmware still lacking many things and so that some things don’t just work in the device or don’t work correctly. The Display colors are odd. Audio playback delay. It looks like a very narrowest display. No WPS and problem with plugins
It is pretty to install and use the Rockbox. Simply extract the bootloader and firmware to the computer. You will see a bin file and ".rockbox" folder from two zip files. You don’t need info file. Connect the sansa and copy the bin file and ".rockbox" folder to root directory. Disconnect the device and turn it on. Now it will update the firmware. Make sure that you had selected the MSC mode. I know it is little bit tricky and sensitive. I hope that you will not see any kind of error message during the update.