Release v2.8.1

First version of iPod Loader 2 compiled with modern GCC (arm-none-eabi-gcc (15:8-2019-q3-1+b1) 8.3.1 20190703 (release) [gcc-8-branch revision 273027]), using -O1 optimisation level.

iPL 2.8 0db84c4

Release 2.8 0db84c4 of iPod Loader 2.

Built with arm-uclinux-elf-gcc (GCC) 3.4.3
Linux debian 4.19.0-9-686 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.118-2+deb10u1 (2020-06-07) i686 GNU/Linux

Installation

To install, use iPodPatcher

Run ipodpatcher -ab loader.bin

Changes

• Implement LBA48 PIO reads, which fixes reads on large drives (>128GB).
  If you had a randomly "corrupting" loader config file or kernel file, this was likely the culprit.

• Correct 8.3 and LFN filename handling, which fixes the apple_os.bin not found bug.

• Implement more standard practice FAT type detection.

Testing

Testing includes:

• Loading the Apple OS from ramimg
• Loading Rockbox from FAT32
• Loading the Zeroslackr iPod Linux distro from FAT32 (including kernel arguments).

Test results

• WORKS on iPod mini 1g with 4GB HDD (original microdrive)

• WORKS on iPod mini 2g with 6GB HDD (original microdrive)

• WORKS on iPod mini 2g with 512GB SSD (iFlash SD adapter)

• WORKS on iPod 3g with 15gb HDD (original HDD)

• WORKS on iPod Video 5.5g with 230GB HDD (mac mini HDD swap)

• TODO iPod Video 5g with original 60GB HDD

• TODO iPod Video 5.5g with original 80GB HDD

• TODO iPod Video 5.5g with 512GB SSD (iFlash Solo SD adapter)

• TODO iPod 4g with 256GB SSD (iFlash SD adapter)

Known Issues:

apple_os.bin loads from the FAT32 partition, but hangs at 100% loading.
May just be an issue with the format of my apple_os.bin file.

2.7-beta1

Note: The compiled binary is still tagged as v2.6 for this release.

This is a pre-release version of loader2 with the latest LBA48 support code and a cleaned up FAT driver.

It fixes the major bug where files on drives greater than 128GB in size could be read as corrupt, if the file was located past the 128GB boundary. This is because the bootloader previously used the LBA28 addressing scheme when issuing ATA read commands.

This bug usually manifested itself as a corrupted menu on boot after the config file was edited, or an unreadable kernel. Now it works for drives up to 2TB.

Note: This currently hardcodes the driver to use LBA48 addressing. I have successfully tested it on an iPod Mini 2nd generation with a 512GB drive. It probably won't work with any iPods that only support LBA28, and it also may cause issues with the stock hard drive in the iPod Video 5.5g 80GB (since the read command might be different).

As always, use at your own risk.