ILoader Howto

From Linux4Nano Wiki

This page explains how to install iLoader, Rockbox and the apple firmwares on iPod Nano 2G only

Contents 1 iLoader Installation 2 Installing Rockbox 3 Making the apple firmware work 4 Updates 5 Uninstallation 6 Known issues

[edit] iLoader Installation

BEWARE: As usual, these instructions are supplied in the hope that it will be useful but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY! Don't blame me if you trash your data or even brick your iPod. You should also read through the "Known Issues" section below.

Fetch ipodpatcher - there are versions for Linux (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows and OS X.

Fetch installer.ipodx.

Put those two in the same folder.

Connect your ipod to your computer.

Open a terminal(or equivalent) and cd to the directory of those files.

Run the following command: ./ipodpatcher -a iloader-installer.ipodx

Now safely eject your iPod and unplug. The iPod will reboot and start the installation, which can take up to 5 minutes.

After the installation completes, it will ask you for a theme. You can download one at iLoader Themes.

There should be an "iLoader" folder on the iPod, that contains a file named "NORFLASH.BAK". Copy that file to a safe place! It's your only way back! Apple doesn't offer this as as download, and it is device-specific!

Now you can move on to installing Rockbox!

[edit] Installing Rockbox

First you need to download rockbox. The latest Rockbox build, updated automatically on each source code change, is available here:

http://build.rockbox.org/data/rockbox-ipodnano2g.zip

Remember this a a development build and can contain bugs.

Then unzip this file to the root of your ipod. Then from iLoader select the play/pause button to boot rockbox.

For more information on the current status of the Rockbox port is at http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IPodNano2GPort.

[edit] Making the apple firmware work

The apple firmware won't work out of the box because whoever wrote their file system code mixed up decimal and hex at some point. In order to fix it, you need to patch 2 bytes in the APPLEOS.BIN file:

• offset 0x64d48: replace 0x2b by 0x43
• offset 0x64d54: replace 0x34 by 0x52

If you also want to remove the EU volume limit ("uncap"):

• offset 0x3acd8: replace 0x01 by 0x00

These offsets are for the most recent firmware verison (1.1.3). The offsets for older versions might differ.

[edit] Updates

The theme and iLoader itself can usually be updated independently.

To update the theme, just re-download it and extract it to your iPod, overwriting the old files.

To update iLoader, fetch installer.bin and update.cfg from here. Copy both files to the iLoader directory on your iPod. Reboot to the iLoader menu, press the "menu" button to get the advanced menu, and select "Update iLoader".

• Last theme change: TheSeven 03:42, 10 March 2010 (UTC)
• Last iLoader change: TheSeven 03:42, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Uninstallation

Fetch uninst.bin and uninst.cfg from here. Copy uninst.bin and NORFLASH.BAK (if it isn't there any more) to the iLoader directory on your iPod. Delete iloader.cfg, copy uninst.cfg to the iLoader directory and rename it to iLoader.cfg. Unmount and unplug your iPod and wait some seconds.

[edit] Known issues

• This has been tested on at least 14 iPods so far (please adjust this number if you have tested it, some people apparently didn't).
• If something should go terribly wrong, this might semi-brick your iPod. Contact me on IRC for recovery instructions.
• If it should complain that it can't mount the FTL, unplug it, reset it and boot into disk mode, don't connect it to the PC, and just reset it again when it says "OK to disconnect". It should work now. If not, please let us know.
• There is currently a very high rate of flash problems. We're still investigating what the root cause is. Just hit "run nandfsck" and wait some seconds. If that doesn't help, run disk mode. Fixed.
• Some iPod accessories (especially Nikepod) may refuse to work if iLoader is installed. (This could also be worked around if need be.)
• Do not reboot via the Menu+Select key combination shortly after you have booted up the apple firmware for the first time after installing iLoader. If you do, it will probably not save it's settings and start up with the language selection menu again the next time you boot it. I don't know at which point it will save the settings, but I have found a trick: Just connect the iPod via USB, add or remove a file, and properly unmount and unplug it. This will cause a controlled reboot, which will save the settings.
• Depending on your file system contents, it is possible that all data on the iPod will get erased during the installation.
• iTunes will probably want to restore your iPod, as with every other firmware replacement.