How to determine Ethernet chipset on M8S+ TV Box (or any Android TVBox)? Anyone know how? And bootloader Question....

[morty421]

I ordered 5x M8S+ TV Boxes back in June/July. I sold 3, and kept 2.

I tried OpenElec on one box of mine, and bricked it. I spent a lot of time on these forums learning how to fix it. While I did get the M8S+ back up and running, I could never get Ethernet to work.

I loaded many firmware files on this bricked box. One firmware file got it back up and running, but remote and Ethernet did not work.

I ended up using TWRP to backup my other working M8S+ box, loaded it to my previously-bricked M8S+ box, and I got remote working again. But still no Ethernet.

From what I read, the ethernet drivers and remote configuration data is all located in the Android bootloader. Because my TWRP backup and restore got my remote working again, I can only assume it is using the same Ethernet drivers from my working M8S+ box. But for some reason, Ethernet still does not work on this box that had OpenElec on it.

Is there any way I can verify these 2 boxes really do have the same Ethernet chipset (hardware) inside it? I am quite comfortable accessing the Android shell (I use to be a Unix/Linux guy), but i do not know what logs or where to find info about the Ethernet hardare.

If anyone can lead me in the right direction to solve this mystery of mine I would be very greatful. Thanks!

[mo123]

I ordered 5x M8S+ TV Boxes back in June/July. I sold 3, and kept 2.

I tried OpenElec on one box of mine, and bricked it. I spent a lot of time on these forums learning how to fix it. While I did get the M8S+ back up and running, I could never get Ethernet to work.

I loaded many firmware files on this bricked box. One firmware file got it back up and running, but remote and Ethernet did not work.

I ended up using TWRP to backup my other working M8S+ box, loaded it to my previously-bricked M8S+ box, and I got remote working again. But still no Ethernet.

From what I read, the ethernet drivers and remote configuration data is all located in the Android bootloader. Because my TWRP backup and restore got my remote working again, I can only assume it is using the same Ethernet drivers from my working M8S+ box. But for some reason, Ethernet still does not work on this box that had OpenElec on it.

Is there any way I can verify these 2 boxes really do have the same Ethernet chipset (hardware) inside it? I am quite comfortable accessing the Android shell (I use to be a Unix/Linux guy), but i do not know what logs or where to find info about the Ethernet hardare.

If anyone can lead me in the right direction to solve this mystery of mine I would be very greatful. Thanks!

You have to open the boxes to see if they have the same ethernet chip.
Then you can flash firmware that contain the same ethernet driver in the kernel.

[morty421]

One more piece of possibly useful info.

I also tried LibreElec recently on this tv box. I noticed in LibreElec the status of my Ethernet was not connected. But the interesting part was if I unplugged the Ethernet cable, the ETH0 (I think that was its label) totally disappeard. And when I plugged ethernet cable back into box, the ETH0 interface re-appeared. Clearly the OS was detecting it, but never actually getting any kind of "connected" status.

I can verify the network switch ports work as I tested using the same one on both my M8S+ tv boxes.

[morty421]

You have to open the boxes to see if they have the same ethernet chip.
Then you can flash firmware that contain the same ethernet driver in the kernel.

Hey mo123, thanks for quick reply!

Is there any way via software to check the ethernet chipset?

Honestly, I do not know what the hardware ethernet chipset would look like on the tv boxes. I will open both though and look for any differences.

[morty421]

EDIT: I THINK THIS IS THE FLASH STORAGE eMMC (based on google searching the numbers)


Will keep looking for differences....

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I am not sure what this Samsung chip is, but its the only difference I see (so far).

Original working M8S+ Box (this is box I used TWRP to create backup image): http://imgur.com/lEmpvu0

Restored (broken Ethernet) M8S+ (I restored using my TWRP image from other box): http://imgur.com/a/BRqD4

Can anyone identify this chip? Does it control Ethernet? If so, anyone know what firmware might work?

[morty421]

I checked the backside of the PCB, and the chipset on the back is different on the 2 boxes.

On the original working M8S+ box, the print on the chipset is very dull and extreamly difficult to read. But at least I can make out the last 4 digits "1012"

Original working M8S+ backside chipset: http://imgur.com/a/6WZwC (I think this reads km3301012 xj-a)

Restored (broken Ethernet) M8S+ chipset: http://imgur.com/a/qgX5I (km3304032 xj-a)


Is this the chipset that controls Ethernet?

[morty421]

One last Image...

This is the "full photo" of my M8S+ with the non-working Ethernet: http://imgur.com/a/H54ql

I have no idea where the Ethernet chipset is located, or what it even looks like.

[morty421]

So I think I found the Ethernet chip. I just googled all the labels I see on every chip on the board. Unfortunately, both of my M8S+ boxes seem to have the same chip.

If you look at the "full photo" above, you can see the chip. I have highlighted it in this photo: http://imgur.com/a/g9a1L

Here is a close up of the chip too (rotated to read easier): http://imgur.com/a/DVawB

My eyesight is kinda bad, but I see: RTL8211F

I know for a fact that Ethernet DID work on my box prior to OpenElec.

I will keep updating this thread with any info I have as I know there are many other people who have bricked their M8S+ boxes from OpenElec, only to restore their units but not able to get Ethernet to work. I have not heard of firmware flashes causing physical harm to chips, so I am still hoping there is a way to get Ethernet working again.

The mystery continues....

[morty421]

I am crossing my fingers some Android expert reads through my mess of a post

Here is the "dmesg" output from my M8S+ box with non-working ethernet: http://pastebin.com/QnitLF7P

I searched for "eth0" in the logs and found:

<6>[ 2.139395@0] eth0: PHY ID 001cc916 at 0 IRQ 0 (stmmac-0:00) active
<6>[ 2.143518@0] eth0: PHY ID 001cc916 at 1 IRQ POLL (stmmac-0:01) active

and...


<4>[ 23.095356@0] eth0: device MAC address c4:2f:ac:76:32:43
<4>[ 23.108305@0] mask interrupts MMC
<4>[ 23.108331@0] mask interrupts MMC
<4>[ 23.109273@0] mask interrupts MMC

I am not sure if those "mask interrupts MMC" messages are related to eth0 or not.

If anyone can diagnose my dmesg output please help

[morty421]

I captured the "dmesg" from my WORKING M8S+ hoping I could find some differences. The output is much smaller on my working M8S+.

Working M8S+ dmesg output is: 85kb (see: http://pastebin.com/w2cLwdtm )
Non-Working Ethernet M8S+ dmsg is: 264kb (see: http://pastebin.com/QnitLF7P )

This may not be related to my problem at all as I do not know what "libphy" is... but on my WORKING box I have just 2 libphy lines:
<6>[ 2.139879@0] libphy: stmmac: probed
and
<6>[ 29.106061@0] libphy: stmmac-0:01 - Link is Up - 1000/Full

On my Non-Working Ethernet box, I have a couple:
<6>[ 2.139365@0] libphy: stmmac: probed
and
<6>[ 1410.007539@0] libphy: stmmac-0:01 - Link is Down
<6>[ 1424.507604@0] libphy: stmmac-0:01 - Link is Up - 1000/Full

My non-working shows link is down, but then it seems to come back up?

Still very confused. Just hoping I am leading myself in right direction.

[morty421]

FUC*... I think my dmesg log taken from my non-working ethernet box was taken when I had wifi turned on. Its probably messing up my log and not giving the right data. Will try this again on another day as I am now much too tired

[muncheno]

morty421, you got any finding from your search?
I had the same situation with you now, running 5.1.1 now without ethernet.

From my experiment so far, for my case here Box with pcb - CS_812M8_V1.3, only by flash rom from matricom 2.1 and above will get both wifi and ethernet running. Due to instability of the rom will get hang and brick the box again, it is not really usable.
What I try to know, what to extract and how can I extract the files to get ethernet and wifi working?
For wifi, I know it is keep in /system/etc/wifi and I think that can be extract into flashable zip using TWRP but ethernet really no clues here.

[muncheno]

I found out that my M8S AP6330 is using ip101gr for ethernet.