First Day PIPO X8 Mini TV BOX Windows 8.1 Android 4.4 Dual Boot Intel Z3736F Update

[pmcd]

One USB is FAT32 with Android. The other is NTFS, labeled WINPE with win8.1w/o. I also have a gparted bootable USB which does boot and I can run gparted in order to delete partitions. I have 29gigs of unallocated space on the internal drive.

Edit: It is the built in EFI shell startup causing the problem. Perhaps if I could bypass that?

Sent from my Fire HDX.

[trebor]

Ok so looks like stuck in Android mode...it wont boot of either Win or Android Stick.
And your files on the files on your Adndroid stick look like this


What if you try to boot of Android then at shell type efilinux-eng.efi -f droidboot_b.img

[pmcd]

If I boot from the Android stick I end up at Shell> . It can't see the contents of the stick so I only have access to the built in commands. I can't cd anywhere because it doesn't know where I am.

[trebor]

If you plug it in your PC and have a look at what files on the USB stick ?

[pmcd]

Hmm ... I am missing startup.nsh, installer.cmd, installer.cmd.no, flash*, efilinux-eng.efi, droidboot_b.img

If I cd to fs0: or blk1: and issue ls I get no mapping error which is why it can't open anything.

[trebor]

I think you need this one....not 100% sure

https://mega.nz/#!P1Z2ADLA!zlJTnXNT_l0ScwM10JzJYEow_7n7XE1gIRox7Xh8KxU

Or locate another Android for the X8
Google may be your friend

[pmcd]

I think you need this one....not 100% sure

https://mega.nz/#!P1Z2ADLA!zlJTnXNT_l0ScwM10JzJYEow_7n7XE1gIRox7Xh8KxU

Or locate another Android for the X8
Google may be your friend

Well this one booted but it ends up with a Flash Failed ( flash_cmds error) and it then restarts and tries again. I assume it would keep going forever! Perhaps it is because I don't have Windows installed?

Is there a corresponding Windows to this distribution? The only one I have is the win8.1 upgrade from Pipo referenced in the how to upgrade article on Geek buying.

There does seem to be a ray of hope though... Thanks.

[trebor]

Google hard it should find you one.....
Maybe the Bios update did something none of us know about and that may be the Big Issue.

[Savage93]

pmcd: Maybe you could also try adding an EFI boot entry pointing to droidboot.img on your USB flash drive with efibootmgr or a similar tool.
By the way what was the last OS you could boot into? This is important, because if you've booted Android then your box is in 64bit mode (thus you can install Android this way), but if it's Windows you've booted the last time then the box is in 32bit mode and you won't be able to install Android (it will show an error: Image type X64 is not supported by this IA32 shell.) You can change the boot mode via either WinToAnd or the OS Switch option in Android, but since you've erased your eMMC completely, you are stuck with either one of the boot modes. (Well, I'm not sure about this, I've read somewhere, that holding the volume button while rebooting changes the boot mode to either 64bit (Vol-) or 32bit (Vol+). At least this is the case with PIPO W3F, not sure about this particular device, but I wouldn't be surprised if it worked the same way.

[trebor]

It is Android Mode he is stuck in for sure, something went wrong
If he can get Android it on and does the OS Switch he may get back to put Windows.

Is not there some Linux ute thingy that can do this switch.
Cheers

[pmcd]

I know the bios is a no go zone but there is one entry under boot I think that sets the default boot mode ( Linux, Windows, disable). There might even be something that disables UEFI and uses the old mode of booting. If I could re flash the bios from a USB stick I might be able to go back to the pre-win10 bios.

Before deleting everything on the PiPO I was running Android on a 16 gig partition. I couldn't install Windows because there wasn't enough space. I did read something about that volume button combined with the reset button in the back but it was in Chinese so the details didn't quite sink in. Will try that next. I have to have a foolproof method of making these USB sticks so that they aren't the problem. Maybe using an external DVD reader would be better? Also, perhaps it would be better to change the order of what boots in the bios. I know people have gotten into trouble going in there and changing stuff but at this point I don't have a lot to lose.

I have a win8.1 + bing distribution. Is there a best Android version to use? I wonder if these dual boot boxes all use the same methods?

[trebor]

Most Androids for these boxes are close, WIFI and Ethernet are the main issues I recall and possible sound.
One stage I put Minix on the RKM MK36 lost ethernet.

Cheers

[pmcd]

pmcd: Maybe you could also try adding an EFI boot entry pointing to droidboot.img on your USB flash drive with efibootmgr or a similar tool.

All this UEFI material is really new to me. Unfortunately I know next to nothing about it. The X8 seems to have a BIOS which is not usually required in UEFI systems ? I wouldn't know how to use efibootmgr. I'm really puzzled by the whole bootable removable disk thing. I gather mbr is a thing of the past? So I'd need to create UEFI bootable media? I guess that is where Rufus simplifies things?

[Savage93]

All this UEFI material is really new to me. Unfortunately I know next to nothing about it. The X8 seems to have a BIOS which is not usually required in UEFI systems ? I wouldn't know how to use efibootmgr. I'm really puzzled by the whole bootable removable disk thing. I gather mbr is a thing of the past? So I'd need to create UEFI bootable media? I guess that is where Rufus simplifies things?

Manual for efibootmgr: http://linux.die.net/man/8/efibootmgr

I don't think you have to prepare the USB flash to be able to boot from it - well, apart from getting the file system right: you need to be able to read the files - you just need to point the system to use efilinux-eng.efi bootloader and load the droidboot.img image file. This should be done naturally by startup.nsh, but it doesn't seem to work in your case I guess. Other software that could possibly help you in editing the boot entries is EasyUEFI, I haven't used it myself but according to its webpage it has a similar functionality to efibootmgr.

This might be also an interesting read.

[TheMafioso]

I want to buy an android box as gift for someone who is not too much tech savvy. Their requirement not much, just to play videos upto 1080p smoothly on TV. I was thinking of buying some cheap android stick for it, however I stumbled upon this and it got me interested as its quite unique to have screen and dual boot OS. I want to know, if I this device is stable on stock firmware(s), or any major issues ? or should i stick with more reputed brands like tronsmart or beelink ? Also is buying 64gb version advised or can I buy 32gb also and still hope that it might be upgraded to Windows 10 in future ?