Weird problem after recovering bricked M8S+

[morty421]

I just registered! This forum seems to be the place for us fools who bricked their M8S+ with OpenElec image

After applying OpenElec, I no longer see the blue light on the front of tv box when its powered on. I get no signal to my TV.

I tried firmware given to me from the chinese dealer I bought from. I put the files to my SDCard, but the tv box would never boot or show any sign of life.

I tried a bunch of other M8S+ firmware found on this site but could not get anything to boot from my SDCard. I figured I needed to use the USB to USB cable with the Burn Tool program. I actually got my device recognized without shorting my NAND). But I could not find the proper image for my device. It kept failing at 3%.

Today after staring at all my M8S+ files, I realized the recovery files given to me from my chinese dealer did not have a recovery.img file. So I tried the SDCard one more time, and copied a recovery.img from one of the firmware images I downloaded from the chinesegadgetreview site (it was an older 2015 image).

Surpringly, after adding the recovery.img file to my SDCard (along with all the firmware files given to me from the dealer), the box actually booted and restored the firmware! Awesome! Kinda!

First I noticed the AMLOGIC boot splash screen was a little bit different. It actually has 'M8S+" on the logo whereas firmware before did not. This is not a big deal for me.

BUT... the big problem is.... The "ENTER" (or is it SELECT) button on the remote sends a "RIGHT ARROW". Its the button in the middle of the UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT direction buttons. Whenever I press the middle button, it simply goes RIGHT instead. I cant pick anything!

Of course I can try new firmwares... BUt I have a few questions first for the experts:

I am trying to determine if my remote keys are wrong due to the recovery.img I took, or is it from the actual firmware files given to me from my chinese dealer?

I can probably find more recovery.img files to test but I thought recovery.img was only used for booting from the SDCard and used to apply the real firmware files. If its only used in the boot process then I think that means my dealer sent me wrong firmware? I don't want to question them unless I know the answer myself first.

[morty421]

Well I bricked my device again and again, but restored it with my recovery files.

This firmware almost works except:
-OK button on remote simply "moves right" instead of picking selected item.
-Ethernet does not work. Always says my ethernet is unplugged but its not.

The boot logo is slightly different. Original boot logo is AMLOGIC with "S812" on bottom of logo image. Now its an AMLOGIC with "M8s+" on bottom.

I think I am going to wait until someone here replies, or I hear back from my china seller.... unless....

someone here knows how I can copy firmware from 1 m8s+ box to another. I have many m8s+ boxes and if I could find instructions on how to extract the firmware I could apply it to this problematic box (and share my stock firmware to this community too). Anyone?

[qq3y6]

Did you ever get the Ethernet port working again?

I have the same problem, I managed to brick my M8S+ (plus) and when i un-bricked it the Ethernet port no longer works. Just wondering if you found a solution?

[morty421]

Did you ever get the Ethernet port working again?

I have the same problem, I managed to brick my M8S+ (plus) and when i un-bricked it the Ethernet port no longer works. Just wondering if you found a solution?

Hi Friend,

No, I did not get Ethernet to work.

I bought my M8S+ units in bulk so I have many units exactly the same. I figured out how to use TWRP to backup a working unit, and I restored it on my M8S+ that had OpenElec. Even after restoring the unit with the same firmware it came with, the Ethernet still does not work.

I cannot think of any reason for the Ethernet to not work after restoring from a TWRP backup image other than the RJ45 port being physically damaged.

A couple notes:

-I could not find any logs on my router to indicate the box is sending any DHCP request
-I found if I changed the Ethernet from DHCP to Static and manually entered in my IP address info, the Android OS reports "Ethernet Connected". However, even after setting correct IP, DNS, and Gateway the box does not appear to really be on my Network. It cannot connect to any Internet addresses, nor can it connect to any LOCAL network devices on my network (ie: samba shares). I cant get any reply from ping or anything either. My guess is this is an Android bug and just mistakingly labeling it "Ethernet Connected" when in fact its not really. I would be curious if anyone else with the "Ethernet Disconnected" issue sees this too when entering Static IP info.

[charlesbronson]

Hi Friend,

No, I did not get Ethernet to work.

Your story sounds exactly like mine
1. Flashed OpenElec. Soft bricked box with no response.
2. USB to USB flashed the box without shorting nand
3. Got box back and running but being told 'Ethernet Disconnected' even though plug is in and working and lights display on back of box.

Did you find a solution to the problem? I would really like to know since I prefer to use Ethernet over WiFi. I copied a matching box through TWRP, I copied everything over as a backup and restore through TWRP and Ethernet still states as disconnected even though the other box it works great.

* Quick note awhile back I did find an Open Elec that worked for my box after I bricked it and could not get ethernet. The Ethernet though on Open Elec did work so I assume it's a firmware issue.

[buzzmarshall]

Sounds like while trying all the different files you've changed the bootloader to something not totally right for your hardware... thats the problem with all the different clones as other then the manufacturer of that actual box its hard to know exactly what hardware is on your particular board... OpenELEC is a great product buy i can tell you from experience that the M8S box is not officially supported by OpenELEC and the only Non-Official Build that used to be available was from Surkovalex but it only went up to Kodi 15.2 before he moved onto other boxes... So theres a good chance that OpenELEC used a bootloader that was close but no cigar... the best thing to do is if its just a problem with remote control is to ssh into the box and in the home directory theres a hidden directory called .config inside it you can play with the remote,conf file and try to get the remote working the way you want... Keep in mind that the main file system is mounted as read-only so messing around in the system directory's usually wont get you very far without a lot of screwing around... the .storage or home directory which is where you end up in initially if you ssh into it is read/write so your able to mess with a few things by working there as the compressed system file that the box runs on its usually setup to check the .storage directory to allow the end user to alter a few things...

As far as the M8S box goes overall its a great box BUT you need to pay attention to what firmware files you attempt to load as there are so many clones that dont use the same chipset on the board which is usually why you see so many people complaining about things like wifi or ethernet or the remote not working right... generally all those things are caused by the firwmare having the wrong bootloader or device tree info programmed into that particular firmware versioin...

Regarding those boxes running Android i may be off as things have changed over the years and even tho i use M8S exclusively ive not used android in a couple of years as i develope my own software using linux and applications specifically coded for Linux... Android is a waste of time on these tv boxes as far as im concerned the the group is going to stop with Kodi developement anyways so for streaming purposes people need to seriously start looking at Linux based solutions like OpenELEC or LibreElec or do their own coding and toss Android... Android is great on the touch screen devices it was written for but its a waste of limited resouces on these tv boxes...

Unfortunately the M8S isnt really all that popular with the developers so most of the Developements like LibreElec which seems more current then OpenELEC when it comes to non-official boxes are being done on other boxes so its not uncommon for M8S owners finding things not working when trying OE versions for other boxes that are close but not exactly the same...

Best thing would be to find the original software for your box, even if its old and get it to load and get the box working again under whatever Android it had on it and then go about dumping the device tree info from the working box which will at least let you know in the future what hardware is on your version of the M8S... as well its best to not cheap out and buy boxes from the box flippers as they know nothing about software and are only interested in buying as cheap as they can and make as much flipping them while passing software complaints off to the manufacturer... Ask around here what other users are using and who they are buying from as that will help with at least rudimentary software support...

In the meantime i just looked at both the OpenElec and LibreElec developements and still see NO M8S project so the chances of getting everything working may still be a issue... The M8S box is a great box and ive been using them since they came out a year or two ago but i buy from the main factory and have come across at least a dozen or more clones that are all slightly diffeent hardware wise and even my own software i need to recompile and fix drivers to get them to totally work... currently i think its the best 4K box of all the S8xx boxes but you need the right software otherwise they are one of the most picky boxes to get to run reliably... Its to bad LibreElec doesnt have a M8S project tho and OpenELEC you wont see do it as they are more intent now on their own WeTek Boxs....

anyways theres a few thoughts and i realize its not fixing your immediate needs but thats kinda what your up against...

[charlesbronson]

you need to pay attention to what firmware files you attempt to load as there are so many clones that dont use the same chipset on the board which is usually why you see so many people complaining about things like wifi or ethernet or the remote not working right... generally all those things are caused by the firwmare having the wrong bootloader or device tree info programmed into that particular firmware versioin...

Could not agree with you more, you hit the nail directly on the head with your above post. If it was not for the shutting down and not turning back on issue I would definitely prefer to run OpenElec.

I'm guessing from your above post you have some knowledge, so hopefully I can pick your brain.

I have an identical box running perfect with it's original bootloader, firmware, drivers, OS, everything. I tried to use TWRP to make a backup of (Dalvik, Cache, System, Data, Bootloader and Recovery) I then wiped the second box with TWRP and ran a restore. The box seemed to have gone back to normal except for 2 issues turning off would not turn it back on and ethernet was not working.

When in TWRP I see a message in the logs stating (E:Unable to find partition size for '/bootloader') I get the feeling it's not properly backing everything up then as I have been told bootloader controls the remote, ethernet and power functions.

Do you know of a way I can copy the entire box from top to bottom and restore it on another box?

*Note: I am not trying to hijack this post. If I can make a copy of the bootloader I believe I can help morty421 get his box running and also solve my own problem.

[buzzmarshall]

hm... not really sure how to help you as i gave up on the android portion along time ago and compile my own bootloaders with the device tree info being correct for the hardware on the board...

my quess tho is that something in the TWRP has a call of some type using that path... unfortunately im not very familiar with TWRP and its inner workings...

Originally because Eny was not very good at releasing current software i to made alot of attempts at using firmware from other boxes which usually resulted in at least one thing or more to not fully work so i finally figured out how to rig up a serial connection and used a terminal to dump the device tree and boot files so i at least then knew for sure what drivers needed to be in the boot/system kernel to get everything to work... OE was a great place to get started as far as going down the Linux path as its build/toolset isnt to bad once you figure out how it works to the point you can alter it to your needs...

Eventually i just got the point where i did my own thing and have greatly expanded on it by coding my own apps that work from either within Kodi or are just standalonei linux apps that co-exist with Kodi on the box... It helps tho that ive been coding and developing Kodi stuff since the old XBMC days... originally i started out years ago on Rockchip boxes as a legit alternative to the sat hacking scene thati was a big part of which had become totally illegal here now but i still heavyly believe in streaming being the next big thing here in Canada and its a legit market overfloaded with box flippers with next to no knowledge when it comes to coding and software... The sad part right now tho with the scene is all the clones and dealers each claiming they got the best box when the reality is most have no software other then whats on the boxes they buy from whoever they are getting them from and its tainting the TV BOX industry with alot of 1st time users who give up because everything seems to go to crap after they try and get current software and try flashing stuff... Its going to get interesting to see what happens once the group pulls Kodi developement for Andoid boxes totally but all the box flippers have driven the group to that extreme trying to protect themselves from the Digital Rights Nazi's trying to stop streaming...

anyways i digress... sorry bout that... and your right about the power thing in OE not working properly and if i remember i think i had to actually patch some of the Amlogic Drivers within my Kernel sources to correct the issue... the wifi or ethernet not working issues are usually based in the build not having the proper broadcom chip in its build... Typically the older Eny M8S(originals) used a AmPak Divice which consists of a BCM40183 bluetooth chip as well as a BCM4330 wifi chip all on one device... alot of times you'll see it referred to as AP6330... newer boxes tho i think have changed in some cases... Ive always found that OE because there never was a official M8S project had both the power and networking issues when even trying to mod one of their close projects to the point i gave up on OE... Surkovalex was the only i recall seeing a actual M8S as well as a S812 Project but Kodi was limited to old 15.2 Isengard... LIbreElec seems to have more projects but it seems to be more focused now on the ARCH64 boxes and the A53 processors...

i wish i knew more about the TWRP and its inner workings to help you but ive not ever had any use for it so im not much help...

Once Krypton comes out of alpha and is a full release and if im caught up I may release a Linux/Kodi firmware file specifically for the Eny M8S... my future is in the S912 boxes but im not sure if ill stick with Eny as they kinda burnt me on my last order so i maybe looking for another manufacturer tbut thats a ways off yet... my thing basically tho is to develope for 1 or 2 specific boxes and make them work the best they can and not compromise the developement by trying to throw everything including the kitchen sick into the fray...

let me know tho if theres anything else i could with or even try and point you in the right direction... take care...

[karlb]

Could not agree with you more, you hit the nail directly on the head with your above post. If it was not for the shutting down and not turning back on issue I would definitely prefer to run OpenElec.

When in TWRP I see a message in the logs stating (E:Unable to find partition size for '/bootloader') I get the feeling it's not properly backing everything up then as I have been told bootloader controls the remote, ethernet and power functions.

I had the same error in twrp 2.7 i don't get this error in 3.0.2
Using 3.0.2 you have to set your bootloader to 1080p or the scale is all messed up in twrp,But i don't think twrp will back up your boot loader only your boot.
I much prefer using libreelec, openelec killed my boot loader i thought it was backed up with twrp but it wasn't . Libreelec doesn't touch your bootloader all works fine for me on my m8s http://amlinux.ru/image/8xx/7.0.2/ the m8s update image is what i use, power on off works fine using the right bootloader "u-boot" the only problem i found so far is not waking when usb devices attached.

[charlesbronson]

I had the same error in twrp 2.7 i don't get this error in 3.0.2
Using 3.0.2 you have to set your bootloader to 1080p or the scale is all messed up in twrp,But i don't think twrp will back up your boot loader only your boot.
I much prefer using libreelec, openelec killed my boot loader i thought it was backed up with twrp but it wasn't . Libreelec doesn't touch your bootloader all works fine for me on my m8s http://amlinux.ru/image/8xx/7.0.2/ the m8s update image is what i use, power on off works fine using the right bootloader "u-boot" the only problem i found so far is not waking when usb devices attached.

How were you able to set your bootloader to 1080p? I tried that version of TWRP but cannot get past the first screen as you said it doesn't fit.

[karlb]

Use the aml auto script at the bottom of here http://amlinux.ru/image/devel/ on a sd card and boot into recovery you might lose your boot logo.