Minix X8-H Plus - Restore to clean 003 firmware without usb tool

[ntux]

Hi all,

I have a X8-H Plus which was on Finless1.1, upgraded to stock 003 but had some issues and wanted to try to reset to stock "properly" to test if a cleanup would fix things or not, and also try to experiment modding the firmware myself starting from an official release.

You can restore the full 003 image using the usb tool, but since I don't have a Windows PC at hand and didn't want the trouble of setting one up, I tried to do all the restoring only using a sd card (and usb reader) and playing with the recovery menu. (that should work too with a usb drive)

Maybe some people will be in the same position, so I'll share the steps I took.

What I had was : Minix X8-H Plus with Finless 1.1, with TWRP recovery.

What I wanted to have : Minix X8-H Plus with official 003 firmware (clean install), with stock recovery.

These are the steps: (I had to experiment a little, this is a summary with the main steps so I'll edit if there are some things left out)

1/ Clean restore to stock recovery/ Firmware

the only minix firmware available in zip form that cleans everything up that I'm aware of is the the one Finless provided on this forum. This is a stock 001 firmware with stock recovery that performs a device erase. Make sure to download the "a" version because Finless originally released a version with a bad recovery (because the original recovery from minix was bad) and lated updated it. But he deleted the original link some time ago so if you downloaded it recently you should be fine.

Reboot the box to recovery and install the stock firmware zip.

(BTW, I never use the .aml file provided along with zips that automatically start the upgrade process on the official firmware, I prefer to manually chose the zip file using the "upgrade from EXT" menu and select the zip file, but that's just me. I prefer to be sure on what zip will be installed, and check the recovery version)

After rebooting you should be on stock 001 firmware (20141122 if I remember correctly) with stock recovery.

We need to upgrade to 002 firmware which is the first Minix firmware that has OTA upgrade working (that can upgrade to 003 from there).

However one thing to note: the recovery included in the stock 001 firmware actually is too old to perform the update to 002. If you try to install it now, the process will go through but after reboot you'll see you still are on stock 001. To fix that we need to upgrade the recovery.

2/ Upgrade the recovery

To upgrade the recovery to a newer version (actually the one from the 002 firmware), you can download it from the Finless 1.1 release package. In the package you'll see a recovery flasher directory with zips to either install stock or TWRP recoveries. Grab the stock_recovery.zip and copy it on the sd card (or usb drive).

Reboot to recovery and manually select the stock_recovery.zip to install. If you can't because a firmware update starts automatically, make sure to remove any .aml file at the root of the sd card/usb disk (but wait for the update to complete before doing anything!)

After installation and reboot, you should have the updated recovery installed (you can make sure when you reboot to recovery, version should be 20141225, not 20141018).


3/ Update to 002 Firmware

Grab the official 002 firmware from Minix (the FOTA zip package, not the full version that is used with the usb tool). Reboot to recovery and install it.

After the installation you can see that you should be in the android 20141225 release from minix. From there you can use the minix upgrade app to perform the FOTA upgrade to 003. You're done!

If you're still on 20141122, that probably is because the recovery wasn't updated, repeat steps 2 and 3.

I hope that helps some of you ! Hopefully we'll see a zip release of 003 with recovery included and full device cleanup, so we don't have to go all these steps, but in the meantime that's the best I could come up with.

[rpgmaker]

A lot of good knowledge is packed in this thread, thanks for posting this!

I have a X8-H Plus which was on Finless1.1, upgraded to stock 003 but had some issues and wanted to try to reset to stock "properly" to test if a cleanup would fix things or not, and also try to experiment modding the firmware myself starting from an official release.

Could just having a custom recovery cause problems to the functioning of the stock rom?

BTW, I never use the .aml file provided along with zips that automatically start the upgrade process on the official firmware, I prefer to manually chose the zip file using the "upgrade from EXT" menu and select the zip file, but that's just me. I prefer to be sure on what zip will be installed, and check the recovery version

Good to know, I'm still new to minix custom-roming, I have never even seen the stock recovery menu and always used the 'option 1' to install the finless rom. I didn't want to brick my box so I never really tried to find out much by straying from the indications lol.

To upgrade the recovery to a newer version (actually the one from the 002 firmware), you can download it from the Finless 1.1 release package. In the package you'll see a recovery flasher directory with zips to either install stock or TWRP recoveries. Grab the stock_recovery.zip and copy it on the sd card (or usb drive).

Can I have a stock rom (say, 003 firmware install through the usb burning tool) and install a custom recovery, like the TWRP flashable in finless 1.1?

[jimbobvfr]

A custom recovery is fine for normal use of a stock ROM, however the FOTA app won't be able to do updates.

[rpgmaker]

A custom recovery is fine for normal use of a stock ROM, however the FOTA app won't be able to do updates.

Thanks, I mostly want it for TWRP nandroid backup purposes, it is a lifesaver.

[kryptonyte]

The problem is that TWRP cannot do a full nandroid backup on Minix X8 devices as Minix have not released the source code and the device partition map is not known.

Therefore TWRP cannot backup /boot etc partitions. This will most likely cause errors at backup and restore times.

For the time being if you want to install the FOTA updates from Minix as they are released, probably best to avoid a custom recovery.

[rpgmaker]

The problem is that TWRP cannot do a full nandroid backup on Minix X8 devices as Minix have not released the source code and the device partition map is not known.

Therefore TWRP cannot backup /boot etc partitions. This will most likely cause errors at backup and restore times.

For the time being if you want to install the FOTA updates from Minix as they are released, probably best to avoid a custom recovery.

I understand the FOTA updates and custom recoveries issue and I accept it (before using fota updates I have to make sure the stock recovery is installed), but can you talk a little bit more about the issues with nandroid backups? What exactly would it mean for me to restore a twrp nandroid backup right now (I have finless 1.1 and twrp recovery)? Will something not work correctly or at all?

[coolicool]

minix x8-h is the best TV box i ever had, where did you buy it from?

[rpgmaker]

minix x8-h is the best TV box i ever had, where did you buy it from?

That's clearly offtopic and doesn't add anything to the thread.

[Finless]

FYI you can manually install a Minix FOTA using recovery and even TWRP recovery!

Use the Minix FOTA update APP and tell it to download. When download is done DO NOT install it. Just back out of the APP.

Now go look on internal SDcard. You will see a folder called FOTA something or other. In there you will find a ZIP file which is the FOTA download. Now you cannot use that directly.
Copy it off to a USB stick or something.
On a PC unzip that file. You will find a MD5 file which you do not need and another update.zip file.
Copy out the update.zip.

Put the update.zip you extracted back onto SDcard and use the recovery (any recovery) to install that like you would any update.zip file!

I use this to test things. If I want to go back to say 002 and then install the FOTA I do not have to go back through the full setup of wifi, downloading, etc.

So just a tip on how to update faster

Bob

[rpgmaker]

FYI you can manually install a Minix FOTA using recovery and even TWRP recovery!

Hey Finless Bob, thanks for stopping by the thread! Can you talk a little bit more about the issues with nandroid backups and twrp that someone hinted to a couple of posts above? What exactly would it mean for me to restore a twrp nandroid backup right now (I have finless 1.1 and twrp recovery)? Will something not work correctly or at all?

[no_spam_for_me]

FYI you can manually install a Minix FOTA using recovery and even TWRP recovery!

Use the Minix FOTA update APP and tell it to download. When download is done DO NOT install it. Just back out of the APP.

Now go look on internal SDcard. You will see a folder called FOTA something or other. In there you will find a ZIP file which is the FOTA download. Now you cannot use that directly.
Copy it off to a USB stick or something.
On a PC unzip that file. You will find a MD5 file which you do not need and another update.zip file.
Copy out the update.zip.

Put the update.zip you extracted back onto SDcard and use the recovery (any recovery) to install that like you would any update.zip file!

I use this to test things. If I want to go back to say 002 and then install the FOTA I do not have to go back through the full setup of wifi, downloading, etc.

So just a tip on how to update faster

Bob

During and after the download before you start the update at /mnt/shell/emulated/0/adupsfota/ the filename is update.zip
(this file contains the update.zip to install and a md5sum file)

adb shell ls -al /mnt/shell/emulated/0/adupsfota/update.zip
adb pull /mnt/shell/emulated/0/adupsfota/update.zip