Operation Manual

Chapter 2. Installation 13
2. Installation
Installing Rockbox is generally a quick and easy procedure. However before beginning
there are a few important things to know.
2.1. Before Starting
USB connection. To transfer Rockbox to your player you need to connect it to your
computer. For manual installation/uninstallation, or should autodetection fail
during automatic installation, you need to know where to access the player. On
Windows this means you need to know the drive letter associated with the player.
On Linux you need to know the mount point of your player. On Mac OS X you
need to know the volume name of your player.
The installation requires you to use UMS mode. In order to start up your Vibe
500 in UMS mode you need to:
1. Turn off the player (Original Firmware).
2. Connect your Vibe 500 to the computer using the data cable.
3. Push and hold Power (for about 2 seconds) until the “USB” screen appears.
The player will now appear as a regular disk on your computer.
2.2. Installing Rockbox
There are two ways to install Rockbox: automated and manual. The automated way is
the preferred method of installing Rockbox for the majority of people. Rockbox Utility
is a graphical application that does almost everything for you. However, should you
encounter a problem, then the manual way is still available to you.
There are three separate components, two of which need to be installed in order to
run Rockbox:
The Packard Bell bootloader. The Packard Bell bootloader is the program that tells
your player how to load and start the original firmware. It is also responsible for
any emergency, recovery, or disk modes on your player. This bootloader is stored
in special flash memory in your Packard Bell and comes factory-installed. It is not
necessary to modify this in order to install Rockbox.
The Rockbox manual (version 3.10) Packard Bell Vibe 500