Could someone please root this stock ROM?

[bobones]

Thanks for confirming things folks.

How are you coming along with finding newer versions of XBMC / KODI that will run on this box bobones?

Seems that AMLogic h/w decoding got broken in Kodi after 14.0-alpha4 so neither SPMC nor the current beta releases show any video. Hopefully this problem will be fixed pretty soon.

[bobones]

Seems that AMLogic h/w decoding got broken in Kodi after 14.0-alpha4 so neither SPMC nor the current beta releases show any video. Hopefully this problem will be fixed pretty soon.

Koying posted a test build at http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?...910#pid1844910 which fixes the AML no video problem in 14.0-beta4. He also says he has a fix up his sleeve for the misaligned mini display in LiveTV. He also recently posted a beta version of SPMC on these forums which fixes the black screen problem there. So it looks like Kodi 14.0-release and SPMC 13.3.4 will work properly on the newer AML S8xx boxes. The only issue I'm having with the latest beta is that Xfinity addons are broken due to changes discussed here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=205838

[bobones]

Fix for no video problem with newer AML SDK has been committed and will be in the nightlies:

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/78e7dc773864074f408195931b20aa12684d87c3

[312BhP]

Fix for no video problem with newer AML SDK has been committed and will be in the nightlies:

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/78e7dc773864074f408195931b20aa12684d87c3

Which folder do I choose to grab the latest build from please bobones, x86 or ARM (I am guessing ARM)?

http://mirrors.xbmc.org/nightlies/android/

[bobones]

Which folder do I choose to grab the latest build from please bobones, x86 or ARM (I am guessing ARM)?

http://mirrors.xbmc.org/nightlies/android/

ARM, but be aware that xfinity apps including iStream are all broken by the latest Kodi betas so if you care about that, just stick to the supplied alpha until the xfinity guys adapt their addon code.

Koying has also fixed the liveTV mini-display for 1080p although it's still not right under 720p, but it's shaping up that Kodi release will work perfectly on the newer AML boxes.

[312BhP]

ARM, but be aware that xfinity apps including iStream are all broken by the latest Kodi betas so if you care about that, just stick to the supplied alpha until the xfinity guys adapt their addon code.

Koying has also fixed the liveTV mini-display for 1080p although it's still not right under 720p, but it's shaping up that Kodi release will work perfectly on the newer AML boxes.

Didn't really know what iStream was (Until I googled it ).

Can you point me to a guide on how I best go about replacing / installing the nightly in-place of the default one?

[bobones]

Didn't really know what iStream was (Until I googled it ).

Can you point me to a guide on how I best go about replacing / installing the nightly in-place of the default one?

Just put the apk on a usb stick and install it with the app installer app. It should transfer your org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc folder to org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi but the guisettings.xml file is not in this folder so all your skin customizations will be lost unless you retrieve it and put it in the .kodi/userdata folder. The factory xbmc keep the guisettings file at this location: /data/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/cache/apk/assets/system/settings/guisettings.xml

[JustMe]

gent's here is a modded rom only few changes but it should please most

http://tinyurl.com/k3zmxof

[312BhP]

Thanks JustMe, any clues on what you added / changed please?

I am now rooted thanks to the work above but have yet to update XBMC to Kodi etc...

[bobones]

gent's here is a modded rom only few changes but it should please most


http://tinyurl.com/k3zmxof

Didn't please me as it's bricked my box apparently.

I had flashed OpenELEC, then back to Android, restored TWRP backups multiple time - no problems. I testing Koying's latest test build under Android which fixes the live TV preview problem, but then went back to OpenELEC and tried Kerber's latest build, which was working great. I probably should have left it that.

Anyway, I just thought I'd try this ROM to give you some feedback, but long term, I would have probably have stuck with OpenELEC as it is much faster and I don't really care about other Android apps.

So, I issued "reboot recovery" with your files on a USB stick and it seemed to flash just fine: no errors and the progress bar wen't all the way, blue light was still on and little Android guy looked happy. But then, ..., nada, zilch, I left it for a good long while and then power cycled it. Now nothing, just the red light.

Any ideas how to revive this box? Access to recovery by repeated pressing of menu key doesn't work. There's a little button next to the SDCard which seems like a reset button, but it did nothing when I tried it earlier.

Would creating a bootable SD perhaps help? What u-boot.bin do I use? Is there a tool that creates a suitable SD under Windows 8 or do I need to use Linux?

[JustMe]

Didn't please me as it's bricked my box apparently.

I had flashed OpenELEC, then back to Android, restored TWRP backups multiple time - no problems. I testing Koying's latest test build under Android which fixes the live TV preview problem, but then went back to OpenELEC and tried Kerber's latest build, which was working great. I probably should have left it that.

Anyway, I just thought I'd try this ROM to give you some feedback, but long term, I would have probably have stuck with OpenELEC as it is much faster and I don't really care about other Android apps.

So, I issued "reboot recovery" with your files on a USB stick and it seemed to flash just fine: no errors and the progress bar wen't all the way, blue light was still on and little Android guy looked happy. But then, ..., nada, zilch, I left it for a good long while and then power cycled it. Now nothing, just the red light.

Any ideas how to revive this box? Access to recovery by repeated pressing of menu key doesn't work. There's a little button next to the SDCard which seems like a reset button, but it did nothing when I tried it earlier.

Would creating a bootable SD perhaps help? What u-boot.bin do I use? Is there a tool that creates a suitable SD under Windows 8 or do I need to use Linux?

hmm wow really can you give me link to the original firmware?

try using USB_Burning_Tool.

[Johnoo]

Bricked my box as well, I managed to unbrick by shorting 2 Nand pins, to enter flash mode.

bobones, if you get stuck, take some pictures of the board, and we`ll go from there.

[bobones]

hmm wow really can you give me link to the original firmware?

try using USB_Burning_Tool.

Panic over I have unbricked it! I'm a bit of a n00b at this stuff so I wasn't sure if bootloader.img was the same as u-boot.bin, but I created an SDcard with BootCardMaker.exe using the bootloader.img from the stock firmware (renamed it to .bin). I then stuck the files from the stock ROM on the card and pressed the little button on the bottom of the unit in the hole nearest the SD slot while applying power, and the box sprang into life, much to my surprise and delight. I'm now sitting at the out of box android screen and can recover from the backups I have. Good little learning experience that!

[JustMe]

Panic over I have unbricked it! I'm a bit of a n00b at this stuff so I wasn't sure if bootloader.img was the same as u-boot.bin, but I created an SDcard with BootCardMaker.exe using the bootloader.img from the stock firmware (renamed it to .bin). I then stuck the files from the stock ROM on the card and pressed the little button on the bottom of the unit in the hole nearest the SD slot while applying power, and the box sprang into life, much to my surprise and delight. I'm now sitting at the out of box android screen and can recover from the backups I have. Good little learning experience that!

Good to hear I have taken the rom down for further investigation to as why it not working

[bobones]

Bricked my box as well, I managed to unbrick by shorting 2 Nand pins, to enter flash mode.

bobones, if you get stuck, take some pictures of the board, and we`ll go from there.

Thanks Johnoo, here is a zoomable pic of the board

You can see the little button above the white cable at the top left of the picture. This button doesn't trigger boot into recovery but it did seem to trigger booting from SD.

Do you see anything else of interest?