iPod Classic 6G in QEMU(reddit.com) |
iPod Classic 6G in QEMU(reddit.com) |
For months I've been trying to emulate the iPod Classic 6G I have in my drawer, without success. After a long time, I finally managed to get it running, although it's still somewhat rough. In QEMU, I managed to boot the original, unmodified Apple retailOS. Navigation, the disc, the screen, and the music library worked for a while, but the music player appeared partially rendered and without sound.
One thing we already know is that the firmware is from Apple and is encrypted, so there's no legal download. I have an iPod Classic 6G from 2008. With the help of Claude Code, I was able to create code to extract it using emCORE. I extracted the contents of the flash memory and decrypted the image myself.
and the boot ROM cannot be read from the running device. I confirmed the latter the hard way, and along the way, my iPod restarted several times (pressing the center and menu buttons for 5 seconds to restart it).
There is no datasheet for the SoC. Each model register that allows unlocking some part of the guest is derived from a write operation performed by the guest itself,
Code and notes, including the ~16 hypotheses I had to retract along the way
If you're going to paste raw claude output, please at least replace "I" with "Claude".
[1] https://github.com/siggifly/ipod-emulator/ I made the PR that allowed it to run dumped games fwiw
-Spore, basically the first phase of PC Spore game, was still fun though.
-This one game which was like guitar hero, but used the clickwheel and would automatically generate tracks from your songs.
wInd3x can decrypt it.
> and the boot ROM cannot be read from the running device
Yes it can, you just need to turn on the right clock gate.
I'm so tired of AI slop. We've been reverse engineering these SoCs slowly and carefully for years, but this is what ends up getting published and shared.
Anyone looking for FW/IPSW https://www.felixbruns.de/iPod/firmware/
https://old.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/1wbapys/zevora_e... https://old.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/1w8b6rk/ruzu_is_... https://old.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/1vz9na6/pc_ports...
It's free_my_ipod and devos50 is not capitalized like (it makes no sense if you knew that it's a derivative of a last name).
You might say all these things but I can't see anything but disrespect if you can't even be bothered to spell the name of the involved project/people correctly.
Your work wouldn't exist in this shape without those who came in before you, and all you're doing is discouraging them (at least me) from ever publishing any code or research again.