ProkBox5g: a device-tuned fork of Rockbox for the iPod Video (5G/5.5G).
ProkBox5g is a community-driven, open-source firmware from the ProkBox project. It brings the look, feel and behaviour of the iPod Classic's final software (2.0.5) to the iPod Video 5.5G. It is built on the Rockbox open-source firmware, which supplies the kernel, drivers, playback engine, codecs and music database. On top of that sits a native user interface designed to feel like the iPod Classic 7G: split-screen menus with live previews, smooth lists, a 7G-style Now Playing screen, video, and first-class audiobooks with chapters, per-chapter art, resume and speed control.
It is a community-driven project. Development started on one modified iPod Video 5.5G (1 TB flash, 3000 mAh battery, USB-C, haptic clicker), and the same build is meant for stock 5G and 5.5G units. The 5g in the name marks this build line; other hardware, if it ever comes, gets its own.
 Main menu, with your album art drifting beside it |
 Albums, each with its cover |
 Now Playing |
 Videos, with posters from your films |
 Settings, showing how much room is left |
 Plugged in: copy music across, no sync app needed |
Everything above is the simulator running a made-up test library: the artists, albums and cover patterns are generated by our test scripts, and the screens are regenerated for each release by scripts/readme_visuals.sh.
Full list in CREDITS.
- ProkBox is by prokopto-dev, released under the GNU General Public License v2 or later (
docs/COPYING). Every file the project adds carries the ProkBox header (docs/templates/prokbox-header.txt). - Rockbox: this firmware is a fork of Rockbox (https://www.rockbox.org, https://github.com/Rockbox/rockbox), the work of many contributors over two decades, also GPL v2 or later. Files taken from upstream keep their original headers and credits. This repository keeps Rockbox's own history up to the upstream commit we forked from; on top of it sit one commit that removes the upstream code this build never compiles, then one import commit per ProkBox5g release and later development.
- ipodpatcher (the install tool attached to releases): Dave Chapman and Rockbox contributors (https://www.rockbox.org), GPL v2 or later, built unmodified from
utils/ipodpatcherin the matching source download. - Fonts: TeX Gyre Heros (GUST Font License), shipped as "ShellSans", with ten glyphs from DejaVu Sans (Bitstream Vera Fonts licence; DejaVu changes public domain). Licence texts are in
apps/ipodui/fonts/. - Codec and support libraries (under
lib/) keep their own licences and notices. - Artwork: all glyphs, gradients and images are original to this project.
- Test footage: the video clips used by the developer device test are not in this repository or in any release.
bcmfw/video/mkclip-real.sh(a 13-second excerpt) andbcmfw/video/mkclip-conv.sh(a 40-second excerpt) make them from the Sintel trailer, (c) Blender Foundation | durian.blender.org, licensed under CC BY 3.0; the clips they make keep that credit.
ProkBox5g is not Apple software and not an Apple product. It is free, open-source, community-driven firmware: a fork of Rockbox, tuned for the iPod Video (5th generation and 5.5). Apple Inc. did not make it, has not approved or endorsed it, does not support it, and has no connection with this project. If something goes wrong with ProkBox5g, ask the ProkBox community, not Apple. iPod, iPod classic, iTunes, Click Wheel, Cover Flow and Apple are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. We use those names only to say which hardware ProkBox5g runs on. ProkBox5g contains no Apple software, fonts, logos or artwork. Reference material used during development stays private and is never committed.
Questions, bug reports that don't fit the issue tracker, and trademark or takedown requests: prokbox.project@gmail.com. We answer complaints within a few days.
- Code: GNU General Public License, version 2 or (at your option) any later version (
docs/COPYING). Rockbox's own files keep their original copyright headers; files we changed are listed, with what changed, indocs/changes-from-rockbox.md, and each also carries a "Modified for ProkBox5g" line in its header. - Third-party code and fonts: their own licences, kept in
docs/LICENSES, underlib/and inapps/ipodui/fonts/. - Docs and site prose: CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Every release ships its complete corresponding source next to the binaries. How each obligation is met is recorded in
docs/legal.md.
Pre-release (0.8.0), in daily use on real hardware. Every release is installed and checked on the developer's own iPod Video 5.5G (flash, 64 MB, modded) before it is published. The other variants (hard drive, 32 MB, stock battery and dock) build from the same code but haven't been tried on a real player yet; testers are very welcome. Back up your music before installing. Planned next: Album Flow (an album cover browser), sleep and hibernation, and Photos. See docs/ROADMAP.md for phases and status.
ProkBox5g is developed with the help of AI coding assistants. A person directs the work, reviews and tests it, and decides what ships; the assistants write much of the code and documentation under that direction. Every change goes through the same build, test and review gates whoever wrote it.
The developer reference, The ProkBox Reference, is in docs/manual/ and on the site under Developers: start with its Part V, Writing firmware, for building, testing and contributing. Then docs/process.md, docs/hardware.md and docs/design/spec/index.md. Build instructions are in the reference's FW-4. Rockbox's own build notes are in docs/README.