I've got a little Philips 6GB Micro Jukebox (mp3 player). It's constantly giving me problems with it's operating system, or whatever the proper term is for the built-in software that makes it work. (Or the software that's *supposed* to make it work.)

This is actually the second one I've had, so I'm fairly certain that the software they come with is flawed somehow. Philips replaced the first after it finally broke down entirely.

So I was wondering if it would be possible to use linux to make a small, basic operating system for the thing that will (hopefully) work better. I know next to nothing about linux, so this is probably well over my head, but I thought I'd at least explore it as an option before I give in and buy a different mp3 player.

Thanks.

One would have to know the internal chips and how they work with one another to be able to communicate and tell them what to do. Same in a standard PC. Without and OS it is just a pile of circuits with no knowledge of what to do except for the low level basics like input/output and others. Also more than likely the device is using a rom that can't be upgraded. It needs to have like flash eeprom of sorts. If an eeprom type storage for the OS then on needs to now the right pins to jump. During construction some pins may need to be jump in order to write to the chip. Knowledge of that is needed. Can be a fun project for a computer/electtronics expert. It would be easier finding one of the mini embedded units and add the devices needed to make an MP3. It would defiantly be more bulker than items on the market.

Brian1

If your player is listed here there may be someone, somewhere working on porting Rockbox to it. Otherwise chances are slim that you'll find an alternate firmware.

This player is a problem, the hardware is not bad but the software sucks.
On Philips.com/support you can find new firmware but that may change your interface aswell. Philips also prints a warning to not use WMP11beta for synchronizing but to use WMP10 or the software that came with it.
I believe it's possible (as long as your player does connect of course, try a couple of times if it doesn't) to update the songs on your player without using DMM or MM by copying music directly to the correct folder and manually changing the database (a hidden file called MyDB).
Don't ask me for details, I haven't got this player myself.