Re: [Banshee-List] Rock Box and iPod DAP extensions

["Charles Mason" <charlie mas gmail com>]

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 5:54 PM, David Spreen <netzwurm debian org> wrote:
> "Charles Mason" <charlie mas gmail com> writes:
>
>> 2008/10/17 David Nielsen <gnomeuser gmail com>:
>> My problem is the iPod extension effectively grabs the device before
>> the new Rock Box one so it can't load the device. I was thinking of
>> modifying the iPod extension to ask the user if they have Rock Box
>> installed how they want to sync it. If they indicate they don't want
>> to sync the iPod DB it simply rejects the device as if it had the Mass
>> Storage .is_audio_player file. Then the Rock Box extension could pick
>> it up. I was thinking of storing this response on the player so the
>> user isn't asked every time.
>
> The iPod extension doesn't touch the device if a .is_audio_player file
> is present in the root directory. You need this becuase it helps people
> configure album_art size (look at how the dap plugin does this, this was
> explicitely designed for rockbox).

I can the problem is rockbox doesn't install a .is_audio_player file
it has to be created manually. I was hopping to let it detect a clean
install of Rock Box. Since if we know its Rock Box much of the need
the files fields goes away or at the least it can provide sensible
defaults.

The extension currently just uses 100x100 sized artwork however Rock
Box now supports multiple sizes so the Rock Box theme can select the
most appropriate artwork since RockBox can't resize it on the fly.

Can't we get the DAP extension to detect if Rock Box is installed via
the .rockbox folder. Then if it is give the user the option via a
dialogue box and store the result in a field in a new .is_audio_player
or something similar.

> Please, rather add a field to the is_audio_player that has something
> like is_rockbox or better even rockbox_version (in case we need to deal
> with compatibility issues in the future). If that field is present, use
> rockbox extension.

Well the Rock Box DB file has its own version header, so it already
reads that to check its compatibility. RockBox also has a file which
contains the RockBox version and lots of info about the device,
although it currently doesn't parse that.

> Is your code public somewhere so people can have a look? In any case,
> thanks for your work.

Its not yet although after a bit of a clean up I shall post a patch
for it. I am a little unsure of the correct procedure for integrating
it in to the banshee build system. I have hacked the make system to
build it like it does the other DAP extensions but I am unsure of how
to make it optional during configure like the others DAP extensions.
To be honest Make and Automake are a bit of a mystery to me I am more
used to nant and msbuild. It would be helpful if someone how does
understand them can point me in the right direction.

The other problem I am currently having is syncing playlists. I can
drag and drop them or get it to sync their tracks, but I would like to
actually get the playlists themselves syncing as .m3u files to the
device. I have tried to follow the iPod extension, but when it comes
to sync it finds two playlist sources both null. I will have to
investigate that further.

I also need to clean it up a bit to meet the Banshee code style guide
lines. As at the early stages it was more of a proof of concept.

Thanks for the info.

Charlie M