Rockbox

Rockbox is a free replacement firmware for digital audio players (MP3 players). Its enhancements include support for pretty much all codecs, advanced sound settings, applications, utilities and games.

Tip: Rockbox can often be installed alongside the original firmware.

Check if your device has a usable Rockbox port: https://www.rockbox.org/.

Installation

Rockbox Utility

The official tool to manage Rockbox can be installed with the rbutil package. Rockbox Utility can install the replacement boot loader, the main firmware, and any extra features like fonts, themes and applications.

Installing Rockbox on your device

The Rockbox project has fantastic install instructions. You can find them at https://www.rockbox.org/manual.shtml.

Boot loader

It is recommended to install the boot loader using #Rockbox Utility. For Rockbox Utility to detect your player, it must have write access to the internal disk of the player.

Tip: As you need write access to the player disk, you could grant that when mounting. For example:

# mount -o uid=1000,gid=1000 /dev/sdb /mnt

Backup

#Rockbox Utility can make backups of your device.