M8S OpenElec - Questions / Issues / Seeking Guidance

[odicraig]

Hey all - I have recently purchased a few M8S OpenElec units from a vendor in China. These are 2GB / 8GB units that arrived with Android 4.4 on them (with the MBox Media Launcher) - The current version on them is KOT49H.20151208 test-keys Kernel version 3.10.33 and I CAN recover them to stock with my Android files on SD if I brick one of the boxes.

I am having a tricky time getting OpenElec working (ok, let me rephrase that, getting Wifi working under OpenElec) I have tried a variety of versions of Openelec from http://amlinux.ru/image/6.0.0/ or even the Devel section on there or previous versions (5.9.5 for instance). Now, here's where things get really weird.

If I use Openelec supposedly designed for an M8 but replace the bootloader with what came on my android stock firmware, I can get it up and going fine.. 2 GB Ram.. No Wifi. If I use the 6.0 build for M8S+ (Specifically, this one) - http://amlinux.ru/image/6.0.0/OpenEL...Plus-6.0.0.zip I get the box up and running (without having to swap the bootloader) - 2GB Ram and Wifi works.. HOWEVER - Wired Ethernet doesn't work. (The box will occasionally spontaneously reboot if I try to force a wired connection.. it never gets an IP - but, fascinatingly enough, it DOES pull the DNS server info over DHCP)

As best I can tell, the file being called up to run Wifi is called dhd (discovered by SSH'ing into the box and running 'lsmod').

Also, ALL of this testing is on the same physical piece of hardware - another thing I should mention is it seems like NONE of the builds I've test with, thus far, like their remote control at all.. none of the buttons work. I know I can replace the remote file eventually, so not a big issue. Also, I have opened up the unit and verified it is an AP6330 Wifi chip on the inside.

Anyone have any thoughts / insight? - if nothing else, I'm learning a fair amount about Linux and how things work.. just thought I'd turn to those more knowledgeable than myself to see if someone can point me in the right direction.

[Kezz]

These boxes are a problem with Openelec ...I used OpenELEC-Amlogic.arm-M8S-5.95.3.3.zip and everything works very well perhaps this will do it for U!

[redshift]

These boxes are a problem with Openelec ...I used OpenELEC-Amlogic.arm-M8S-5.95.3.3.zip and everything works very well perhaps this will do it for U!

does it see 2 gb ram?

edit

the answer is no in my case



odicraig i use the latest devel build and everything works fine except ram,it sees only 786mb but mine is a clone m8s

OpenELEC-AmlMedia.arm-M8S-6.0.0.2-update.zip


edit

strangely enough when i install the m8s+ build you mentioned swaping bootloader.img from the dev build above i have a fully working 2 gb ram (1.5 gb free) (i didnt test wifi but ethernet works) m8s

my box is this one so i guess its a matter of luck to find a build which works with all the hardware variations out there

http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-...ethernet-pulse

[mitty69]

I have OpenElec 6 fully working on my M8S box, but have to agree on the first install none of my networking would work, no wifi, no ethernet and it constantly would freeze and a lot of menus were inaccessible.
What I found was that doing a factory reset on the box via the old pin in the AV socket after installing OpenElec 6 seemed to clear all these problems up for me and now my box is fully up and running.
Hope this helps

[Kezz]

Redshift Thanks for the heads up I only gave 1 gig working so I will try your method.....I hope not to Brick it again!!!

[redshift]

3 days of use later and i can confirm my first post here ,kodi works beatifully ,it sees all ram ,ethernet works fully ,no freezes ,i will only test another build when i will need a newer kodi version

perform an advance wipe and select all except sd card before flashing

fix bootloader if it doesnt boot


@all see my findings at this post ,sometimes you can fix a non booting install just by fixing bootloader

http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-...865#post550865

[Fratam]

I had a lot of m8s+ boxes and THE first 5 had WiFi after flashing them to OpenELEC with THE m8s + 6.0.0.1.zip

The other 5 has not
Very strange
I think there are different boxes
I bought them not at THE same store

@redshift
@ what firmware is your box running NOW? If want that firmware too please

Thank you

[acemaxtec]

I had a lot of m8s+ boxes and THE first 5 had WiFi after flashing them to OpenELEC with THE m8s + 6.0.0.1.zip

The other 5 has not
Very strange
I think there are different boxes
I bought them not at THE same store

@redshift
@ what firmware is your box running NOW? If want that firmware too please

Thank you

your wifi module is not AP6330

[Fratam]

your wifi module is not AP6330

Ok nice info
Could I take out the right wifi module software out of the android software and replace it with winscp Or so?

[buzzmarshall]

to the one with only 1 gig of ram showing up... usually that means the config file for the chipset was wrong and is putting the wrong device info into the device tree...

none functional parts of the networking infrastructure - again it goes back to the build for those compiled firmware images.... in this case its probably because the wrong device tree info loaded into the boatloader's kernel device tree is wrong when the kernels tree running the operating system is different... generally its better to not swap bootloaders from the particular builds as they tend to get built together with OpenElec's running system at build time and most bulds are built together as a set... i think what happens at times is OpenElecs system get built with a more encompassing device tree file while the bootloader is more specific to the hardware by people playing around with the system portion of the build... its easy to add something into the systems kernel tree while its not in bootloader kernel tree so it doesnt get carried forward when the system kernel takes over...

personally i used a alter-d version of OpenElec's build system as i like the cross-compiler setup part of his build but outside that ive got a heavily custromized version of OpenElec with other appz then Kodi running but did notice that most of the public Openelec sources like surko's and codesnake and others as there all cloning each other tend to use device tree configuration files that usually cover a bunch of drivers for various boards and at times one steps on the other depending on how the kernal mods try and load in the order there loaded in the build...

my builds because there my own are very narrow and specific boards im using which gives me almost rock solid performance and up-tiime as a result...

its so hard now adays to know what your really getting without going the extra yard and paying more to buy from a premuim dealer where you know they got the right software as you can at least get the proper bootloader or information at least to create a proper build... i know you pay a bit more and at least places like this where the software coders put out builds for mainstream boards may have better suited versions...