I despise all the mess and uncertainty about Rockbox, even though the community has made so much progress with the updater, Innioasis themselves, and overall Rockbox support on the Y1.

It's hella impressive, but takes time to understand the setup, so I'm here to help all those really unsure noobies, and help you tackle some driver issues, if they come up.

Why Rockbox?

- Better UI and UX
- Changing wheel vibration sensitivity: in stock UI you can't and the vibration amount is bad
- Equalizer, crossfade, max volume limit, channel config, stereo width, dithering, and many other sound settings
- Database offers sorting by Album Artist, Genre, Year, Composer, First Letter, User Rating, Recently Added...
- Android settings like Airplane Mode
- More customization and vast themes collection
- Better Bluetooth (from what I've seen; may be wrong)
- Mixing themes for various parts of software

Cons of Rockbox:
- Slightly worse battery life. Workaround: enable Airplane mode
- No videos.

Before we start

What are we doing exactly? To install Rockbox on your Y1, means keeping both the stock firmware, and Rockbox at the same time, which means you can do something called 'dual boot' into both UIs at any time easily, we'll talk more on that later.

You can brick your device doing this installation, there's always that non-zero chance, but if you do everything correctly, you should be fine, and you can always restore your device EASILY!

Requirements
- Y1 + the cable it came with, or any other data USB-C cable to connect to your PC
- A Windows [Best], MacOS, or Linux [Ubuntu recommended] computer

Step 1 - Innioasis.app

Go to the website, and here you're going to install the Innioasis Updater app. It is a tool to quickly download any available version of Rockbox for the Y1, update your Y1 stock firmware, and be able to restore it if you brick your device.

In the top right of the website, hit "Get Updater", then on the new page in the top right corner hit "Get Started"

Step 2 - Driver and updater installation

This step is divided into whichever OS you use:

- Windows: hit "Download USB Development Kit Driver", download the DriverInstall.exe file and then run it. Go through the setup, and then restart your PC. That is CRUCIAL. After driver installation, go back to the website, hit "Next", and hit "Download Windows Installer", which will download the "installer.exe" file, which you should run, go through the setup and install the Innioasis Updater app. Continue to the next step.

- MacOS: go to the Homebrew website and continue with the simple installation. After installing Homebrew, go back to the website and hit "Next", after that hit "Download for Mac", and then double-click the installed .dmg file, drag the Innioasis Updater app to your Applications folder, Restart your Mac (I cannot stress this enough, it's CRUCIAL), and after restarting, open the Innioasis Updater app from your Applications folder. If you have security prompts and/or issues, visit this. Continue to the next step.

- Linux: Ubuntu is recommended, but other distros should work fine. Clone the repo on your system and follow the MTKclient setup instructions, and once you've completed the setup process for MTKclient, simply open a terminal window, change into the directory you cloned Innioasis Updater into and run the command below, after which, continue to the next step.

python updater.py

Step 3 - Updating your Y1

Before continuing with Rockbox installation, let's quickly go on our Y1 and do this:
- Go to the Settings page
- Scroll to the very bottom until you see "About"
- Hover on 'About', and verify your version.

If it is the newest version you see in the Innioasis Updater app's "Original Software", then continue to the next step.
Newest version as of November 2025: 2.8.2

If it is not, then you have to update your Y1. It's simple - in the Updater app, select the newest software from "Available system software", click "Install / Restore", and then wait for the download and extraction, and continue with the installation. If your download cancelled or you have errors, make sure to unplug and power off your Y1, and then right click any software in the Updater app, and then hit "Delete Local Zip File" and "Delete All Cached Zips", and then restarting the process. I will cover installation a bit deeper after this step.

Step 4 - Installing Rockbox

In the updater:
- Choose your Device type, which is either type A or B. Always choose Type A first, and only switch to Type B if your scroll wheel doesn't work after installation.
- Make sure your Device model is set to the Y1.
- Choose "Rockbox ROM" in the Software type

Now, let's pick a Rockbox version to install. Here's how to choose.

- "Nightly" versions are BETA. Unless you know what you're doing, don't choose these.
- "Stable" versions are stable builds you should choose.
- 240p (also called "iPod Themes Compatible") will have more themes, but slightly worse resolution
- 360p (also called "Y1 Theme Compatible) will have WAY less themes, but slightly better resolution.

I suggest choosing a Stable 240p build, for several reasons: more themes, less hassle and risk of using an early 'nightly' release, and are generally safer, and should be good enough for you.

Now, let's ACTUALLY install Rockbox.

- Select your build, and hit "Install / Restore" on the bottom

Errors? Right click the build, and then hit "Delete Local Zip File" and "Delete All Cached Zips", and then restart the process. If that doesn't solve it, make sure to either restart your device, or download the same version zip from here and then just click "Install from .zip" in the Updater.

- Wait until the zip installs and extracts (this can take a while)
- Then, whenever the Updater tells you to, Power off your Y1. On Windows, Powering off should be enough, however on other OSes, it might prompt you to take a paperclip and hit a secret button on the bottom, in between the headphone jack and the charging port, until you hear a CLICK. Then continue.
- Connect your Y1 via a compatible USB-C cable

During my install on Windows, I had driver usb2ser.sys issues after this step, meaning my Y1 couldn't connect. Here's a temporary fix: go to Settings, hit the "Privacy & security" tab, go to "Windows Security", and hit the "Device security" button. In the newly opened app, under "Core isolation" click "Core isolation details", and turn off "Memory integrity". After that, restart your PC and try again. That fixed it for me.

- Put down your Y1 and don't touch it
- If all went well, the Updater should congratulate you and prompt you to Disconnect the cable

Hooray, Rockbox is installed!

If you bricked your device, go to the Updater, hit any 'Original software' build, and click "Install / Restore". Follow the steps and see if it fixed it. If you have more issues, comment on this post.

Step 5 - Rockbox, themes, and more

Turn on your Y1 (hold down the middle button), and if all went well, you should see Rockbox. It looks ugly, so let's fix that.

- Download the Rockbox fontpack (required for many themes) by clicking this
- Download 240p themes here and Download 360p themes here

After you've downloaded a theme, connect your Y1 via a USB-C cable, extract your theme's zip file, go to the Y1's contents in File explorer (or any other app), and drag in your theme's ".rockbox" folder into your Y1 contents.

After disconnecting your Y1, Rockbox should automatically see the theme over at Settings > Theme Settings > Browse Theme Files.

If a theme doesn't work, make sure you downloaded the correct format (240p vs 360p), you have the fontpack installed on your Y1's .rockbox folder (here), and try again!

Go to the Stock firmware in Rockbox: System > Reboot to Stock Firmware
Go to Rockbox from the Stock firmware: Press the top button; Back (Menu) first and hold it, then hold the play/pause button at the same time as Back. Continue this for 10-15 seconds and the screen should turn black. (found by u/After-Acanthaceae547 and u/ThinkVHS)

Have more issues and/or questions? Comment down here.
Did this guide help? Let me know!