openelec for MXIII-G (amlogic S812) ?

[mrf604]

The Zippyshare link in #29 takes you to a 6.0 version. Is there any reason not to try this, or is the 5.95.5 version more stable/working?

[Haba]

OK, after hosing my box a few times since OE 6.0 release, I've had to do a number of reinstalls from scratch:

OK, first things first, grab abdul_pt's twrp recovery image (I used TWRP_2.8.7.0_N200_emmc.img - rename to recovery.img on the sdcard), toothpick/boot & do a full backup of the existing rom on the box (I wanted to ensure I had a rollback for if/when I hosed my box while "playing" with OE - Make sure you select the destination of the backup to be to the sdcard or optionally plug in a thumbdrive.

Grab this: http://5.189.137.29/Openelec/MX3G/Op...G-5.95.5.5.zip

Wipe the micro sd used for the backup (after copying the backup files off it), & copy the 3 files from this zip archive onto the root folder of the sd card.

Toothpick/reboot the little 'android' upgrading icon appears, & after a few minutes, it'll reboot into openelec (hopefully

I originally used Kamik's zip, but have had to do this quite a few times over the last month or so, & in the last 2 days, using the above file.

wilro_6276 Thank you so much, the instructions are beautiful. I will be able to help test and give feedback when my unit shows up. I have over 30 years of pc experience, however Android is only something I have dabbled with rooting and side loading apps to a Firetv.

[wilro_6276]

I am a bit confused as well. Not sure where to start when the box shows up on the door step. Would someone please post the complete process and files needed. The toothpick install process is already explained nicely in previous post, thank you.

OK, after hosing my box a few times since OE 6.0 release, I've had to do a number of reinstalls from scratch:

OK, first things first, grab abdul_pt's twrp recovery image (I used TWRP_2.8.7.0_N200_emmc.img - rename to recovery.img on the sdcard), toothpick/boot & do a full backup of the existing rom on the box (I wanted to ensure I had a rollback for if/when I hosed my box while "playing" with OE - Make sure you select the destination of the backup to be to the sdcard or optionally plug in a thumbdrive.

Grab this: http://5.189.137.29/Openelec/MX3G/Op...G-5.95.5.5.zip

Wipe the micro sd used for the backup (after copying the backup files off it), & copy the 3 files from this zip archive onto the root folder of the sd card.

Toothpick/reboot the little 'android' upgrading icon appears, & after a few minutes, it'll reboot into openelec (hopefully

I originally used Kamik's zip, but have had to do this quite a few times over the last month or so, & in the last 2 days, using the above file.

[Haba]

Ah so simple when you know what you're doing. I had the 3 files in a folder.

One more thing. I've downloaded the latest file "OpenELEC-Amlogic.arm-MX3G-6.0-devel-20150919124818-r21500-gb040fa9-update". Earlier in the thread there was a discussion about loading kerber's file first. Do I still need to load kerber's file and then layer this one over it or is this download complete by itself?

Thanks for your help.

I am a bit confused as well. Not sure where to start when the box shows up on the door step. Would someone please post the complete process and files needed. The toothpick install process is already explained nicely in previous post, thank you.

[Haba]

Seems there are a lot of problems with VDR now.

[wilro_6276]

Thanks for the quick reply. The problem isn't linux support for the usb device. The problem is that for livetv to work I need to enable the 'backend', in my case that means enabling the vdr-addon in the Openelec repository. But I can't launch the repository at all. So my question is, has anyone been able to access the Openelec repository for any addon with this build?

Thanks very much for your build and your help. So far, this is the only issue I have had.

Hi Ozman,

Sorry, I saw the vdr plugin included in kodi (disabled by default), kernel drivers for many of these devices & assumed that the backend was also included in this build - This build is built off kerber's amlogic git tree, so whatever devices his supports, this one in theory also supports - Now that OE 6.0 has been released, & the Wetek Play devices being "officially" supported by OE, it should be fairly easy to add support for more of the kodi binary addons

[Ozman]

Hi Ozman,

Haven't personally played with tuners with this box (what model/chipset does it use?), I know that we do compile in support for a whole heap of dvb devices by default. Your devices modules may not be compiled by default, or not detected correctly.

As openelec 6.0 has now officially been released, I plan on releasing a new build once I sort out a couple of issues with it - I've only "played" with installing a couple of kodi addons (network streaming modules) for testing purposes, & didn't see any prob's - That being said, there are a few broken addons that refused to install/work with kodi 15.2, so hopefully this will be sorted out before the next release.

Thanks for the quick reply. The problem isn't linux support for the usb device. The problem is that for livetv to work I need to enable the 'backend', in my case that means enabling the vdr-addon in the Openelec repository. But I can't launch the repository at all. So my question is, has anyone been able to access the Openelec repository for any addon with this build?

Thanks very much for your build and your help. So far, this is the only issue I have had.

[mrf604]

Ah so simple when you know what you're doing. I had the 3 files in a folder.

One more thing. I've downloaded the latest file "OpenELEC-Amlogic.arm-MX3G-6.0-devel-20150919124818-r21500-gb040fa9-update". Earlier in the thread there was a discussion about loading kerber's file first. Do I still need to load kerber's file and then layer this one over it or is this download complete by itself?

Thanks for your help.

[wilro_6276]

Is the Openelec addon repository working with this build for anyone? I can't get it to do anything other than provide information, i.e. using the context menu. I cannot launch/configure/update. The reason I ask is I am trying to get live tv working with vdr (using a usb tuner that is supported in linux). I can't download the vdr-addon although I have read that it is rolled into Openelec (?) I don't appear to have any backend to use with the vdr ansi client.

Hi Ozman,

Haven't personally played with tuners with this box (what model/chipset does it use?), I know that we do compile in support for a whole heap of dvb devices by default. Your devices modules may not be compiled by default, or not detected correctly.

As openelec 6.0 has now officially been released, I plan on releasing a new build once I sort out a couple of issues with it - I've only "played" with installing a couple of kodi addons (network streaming modules) for testing purposes, & didn't see any prob's - That being said, there are a few broken addons that refused to install/work with kodi 15.2, so hopefully this will be sorted out before the next release.

[Ozman]

I'm a real noob with this stuff. I tried a few different OpenElec zip files I found and none loaded correctly. I think I'm doing something wrong. Can you please outline the zip file installation process?

-How do I need to prep the Micro SD Card? Fat32?
- Do I Unzip the file directly to the Micro SD card or do I just copy the zip to the card?

I managed to get the recovery process started. It saw the SDCard via the toothpick method but my card must not have been prepared correctly. It complained about not mounting /tmp/cache or something similar, I should have noted the errors more carefully.

• The card must be formatted FAT32
• unzip the file and copy the 3 files inside (not the folder that contains the 3 files) to the sd card. This means if you open the sd card all you see is 3 files: factory_update_param.aml; OpenELEC-Amlogic.arm-MX3G-5.95.5.5-update.zip; and recovery.img
• with the power disconnected, insert the sd card into the card slot of the MXIII. Turn the TV/monitor on. Place the toothpick or paper clip into the av hole until you hear or feel a click and keep holding.
• Press the power button on the MXIII and keep holding it down, as well as the toothpick pressed, until you see the android robot and the animated icon, then let go of both.
• Wait until the install process finishes. Then reboot.

[mrf604]

Hello

here you go

http://www76.zippyshare.com/v/w2Y1M9WQ/file.html

I'm a real noob with this stuff. I tried a few different OpenElec zip files I found and none loaded correctly. I think I'm doing something wrong. Can you please outline the zip file installation process?

-How do I need to prep the Micro SD Card? Fat32?
- Do I Unzip the file directly to the Micro SD card or do I just copy the zip to the card?

I managed to get the recovery process started. It saw the SDCard via the toothpick method but my card must not have been prepared correctly. It complained about not mounting /tmp/cache or something similar, I should have noted the errors more carefully.

[Ozman]

Is the Openelec addon repository working with this build for anyone? I can't get it to do anything other than provide information, i.e. using the context menu. I cannot launch/configure/update. The reason I ask is I am trying to get live tv working with vdr (using a usb tuner that is supported in linux). I can't download the vdr-addon although I have read that it is rolled into Openelec (?) I don't appear to have any backend to use with the vdr ansi client.

[wilro_6276]

Hi there wilro

Im testing these settings and i can confirm that kodi in playback seems a little bit smoother but also the UI is slower . On x264 it's better on x265 seems not so good, ill test some more with x265 content and report back. it's an improvment over x264 no doubt. Thanks

Thanks for testing - I've ran with this config for the last 8hrs straight (various video/audio, but nothing x265) - It appears to run fine, with no excessive temperatures/crashes - The x265 thing makes no sense to me however - I would think the CPUs would be less strained handling x265 content - Could you tell me the specs (res. file size. audio/video encoding) of one of the files (both audio sync prob & poor x265 playback) - I'm bound to have similar files here (I digitised my old Video cassettes back in the 90's - I thought I had a pretty good selection of oddly encoded stuff to pick from for testing purposes...

[wilro_6276]

Researching the Tronsmart MXIII Plus 2gb, there is no doubt that it is using exactly the same board as the MXIII-G 2gb. There is only a different logo on top of the box, Tronsmart may have customize a boot screen but the hardware is the same. There is a Beelink MXIII Plus 2gb that has a different WiFi chip AP6535 which includes AC.

Thanks for checking - Yeah couldn't find any real difference between the MX3G L4 rom & the Tronsmart MXIII Plus L6, so in theory, my mx3g rom should work fine on it - Shouldn't be too hard to add the extra firmware for the AP6535 if there is any interest.

[markthepig]

I decided to pick apart the latest android rom for this box (104_L1) to see if there are any significant changes in the build which could help building a better openelec experience.

What I've found is that kodi appears slightly slower, but navigation is smoother, movie playback also appears a little smoother - If anyone would like to test this (via ssh openelc command prompt):

nano .config/autostart.sh
paste this into the file:
---snip---
#!/bin/sh

echo hotplug >/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo 1992000 >/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq
---snip---
chmod 755 .config/autostart.sh

reboot

I'm think of making this the default for my next build (I've got a few more corner case files to test first

If anyone else has any good tweaks for the MX3G or the S812 in general, please let me know - I do believe that openelec on the MX3G can be optimised far more than it currently is - I just don't understand the S812 that well, & the hardcore documentation for it is mostly in Chinese (Goog translate only helps so much

Hi there wilro

Im testing these settings and i can confirm that kodi in playback seems a little bit smoother but also the UI is slower . On x264 it's better on x265 seems not so good, ill test some more with x265 content and report back. it's an improvment over x264 no doubt. Thanks