[ROM] Mecool M8S PRO+ TVStock Nexus ROM (Android TV 7.1)

[legnosecco]

There is a good chance you will be able to revert it back to the original firmware, by downloading it and burning it using the burning tool. You may have to enter NAND mask ROM mode to get the burning tool to see the box

I have read about this "mask ROM" method but sounds a bit beyond me.
After going back several pages here, I noticed kml and ready have had success with the Burn Card maker.

I download the OEM image which my box came with (OEM_M8S_PRO+-NMF26Q-20170815.182813.V0321.img) and renamed it to m8s.img

I then wrote the image to a USB pendrive with Burn Card Maker....but it didn't work.

I then tried the image on an SD card....and SUCCESS !!! it went into upgrade mode (I had to hold the reset button for a few seconds until it started booting)
When upgrading finishes it reboots...you need to remove SD card.

After a few minutes, my box is as it was delivered...so far so good.
I hope there's a way to try the ATV rom in the near future.

Probably not. It seems this bad batch of eMMC 5.1 chips can't be successfully flashed with any ROM other than the build they received at the factory. You could check a newer OEM firmware release just to be sure, but they've pretty consistently resulted in partial writes that crash or freeze within seconds.

[kml]

I then tried the image on an SD card....and SUCCESS !!! it went into upgrade mode (I had to hold the reset button for a few seconds until it started booting)
When upgrading finishes it reboots...you need to remove SD card.

After a few minutes, my box is as it was delivered...so far so good.

So 3 boxes saved... Not bad!
I'd like to buy another one - without that faulty chip, but how can I be sure that GB or BG send the problem-free version?

You could specifically request one with the new Kingston eMMC. That should pretty much guarantee you won't see this problem So far, it's been limited to the one Samsung eMMC 5.1 chipset.

[DKAngel]

Magendanz, got both my boxes on latest install now nice work what else could possibly make this ROM more awesome?

We could get Google Cast working? But other than that, I'm pretty happy with the progress made with this V0619 release. It's pretty solid.

[DKAngel]

Magendanz, got both my boxes on latest install now nice work what else could possibly make this ROM more awesome?

what would we need to get it working?im happy to test now that i have 2 stable boxes working =] 1 old batch from july and 1 new batch with kingston =]

Google Cast? Well, it's really tedious digging through the logcats, comparing and contrasting successful connections with unsuccessful ones to figure out what failed and why. At this point, I only have successful logcat dumps from my ADT-1, which is getting a bit dated. I really need to pick up a used Nexus Player.

[essir]

what would we need to get it working?im happy to test now that i have 2 stable boxes working =] 1 old batch from july and 1 new batch with kingston =]

your boxes have not a problem with emmc... Kingston works very well and the same story with box from july... problem was with series from 29.08.2017... and the conclusion for today is that boxes from 29.08 can works only on original firmware...

Moreover, I have a box from date: 29.08, with memory emmc: sec 652 and after upload file with oem 29.08 from this forum, box did not work ....
The reason of that probably is that the person who was done this file has box with memory EMMC sec 701

Well, we also had one with 20170815.182813.V0321 that was affected, and it could only run on its original factory firmware release. That tells me that some blocks in the affected eMMC chips aren't getting overwritten during a flash as they should. It's actually pretty lucky that the same blocks are always affected so that you can flash the original firmware back, effectively restoring the whole image.

[DKAngel]

your boxes have not a problem with emmc... Kingston works very well and the same story with box from july... problem was with series from 29.08.2017... and the conclusion for today is that boxes from 29.08 can works only on original firmware...

oh i know this =] ive had a couple of soft bricks along the way, and also if you dont use a decent male/male usb cable the burn tool wont recognise, i tried 2 budget cables i made with no luck then i made one out of much better quality cable and have not had a problem since =]

[DKAngel]

what i would suggest is one of the reboot to recovery apps put inside this rom, it would save alot of people the need to poke sticks thru the box, as discovering my second box no longer has this switch then they can reboot to recovery and otaupdate easier

I just can't find one that I like, and it's relatively easy to type "reboot recovery" in Terminal.

[DKAngel]

what i would suggest is one of the reboot to recovery apps put inside this rom, it would save alot of people the need to poke sticks thru the box, as discovering my second box no longer has this switch then they can reboot to recovery and otaupdate easier

ahah true none of them are flash looking, cant remebr which one i have installed but i dont have a keyboard near my boxes to use

[essir]

Magendanz

I have a box from date: 29.08, with memory emmc: sec 652 and after upload file with oem 29.08 from this forum, box did not work .... in method by sd card... What do you think what is the reason?

Maybe is that the person who was done this file [M8S_PRO+-20170829.121614.V03 21.img and this file has 1,34 GB (1 442 230 540 bytes)] has box with different eMMC memory for example sec 701 ?


Although the original software was from the same day [29.08.17] ??

Why I can not upload that file?

[bylderup]

Magendanz said: ...That tells me that some blocks in the affected eMMC chips aren't getting overwritten during a flash as they should. It's actually pretty lucky that the same blocks are always affected so that you can flash the original firmware back, effectively restoring the whole image....

Just a noob question : is it possible to identify the blocks which cant be overwritten, declare them as defefective and use the rest of the emmc for firmware updates ? Like on hdds with bad blocks?

[essir]

Magendanz said: ...That tells me that some blocks in the affected eMMC chips aren't getting overwritten during a flash as they should. It's actually pretty lucky that the same blocks are always affected so that you can flash the original firmware back, effectively restoring the whole image....

Just a noob question : is it possible to identify the blocks which cant be overwritten, declare them as defefective and use the rest of the emmc for firmware updates ? Like on hdds with bad blocks?

Maybe its a noob question, nevertheless I try all OEM .img from this forum thread by method with sd card... This firmware I was tested too... OEM_M8S_PRO+-NMF26Q-20170815.182813.V0321.img only change was that at the beginning after flasing the box freezes on mecool logo... :/

[wrxtasy]

Thanks for the new update. Here are my experiences so far:

- After applying OTA update via TWRP, the box got stuck at Nexus Logo.

I have a working July eMMC box...

Yes I got the same - there appears to be an error and the end of the OTA update.zip process - something to do with brackets []]

I had to reflash the standard 20170825 Android 7.1 OS ROM, then the 20171001 OTA update - but there is still no TWRP recovery that I can see with that update.

- I can root supersu via the updated TWRP so that I can use dynamic refresh rate with SPMC

- Sadly, when SPMC trying to change refresh rate I always get the black screen. It seem the box did change refresh rate. Audio still get through hdmi port but no picture.

I found there was already Root access - at least from Terminal and adb

Yes confirmed - I get the same - black screens after changing refresh rate.
The is now a LOT of errors in the Kernel dmesg and Logcat complaining about permissives and Frame Buffers

But the worst of it is trying to stream Live TV - the Ethernet speed on this ATV ROM now has serious problems with SPMC.
No matter how big the video cache buffer I now get significant pauses and rebuffering which was not present on the previous 20170727 OTA update.zip

There has been one noticeable improvement - mpeg2 Interlaced picture quality with Android TV Live Channels.

I fixed the little bracket error a few hours ago, but it was harmless. (Apparently, the last command in an Edify script has to return a result, so it can't be just a ui_print() call.) You could refresh your download, but I don't think it will make any difference.

If you were using the 20170930 update, that wouldn't have included TWRP, since I at that time I hadn't been able to successfully build one with the new V0619 kernel. I have confirmed, however, that the 20171001 does successfully install TWRP. In fact, I've been running the updates all evening from OEM and custom ROMs with stock recovery and TWRP.

[hsrn]

i still had the initial release from july installed on my box.
i first tried an ota update to the latest release.
i got stuck on nexus logo after reboot.

flashing image through sd card created with bootcardmaker worked without any problems.

thanks Magendanz.

Strange. I just tried updating from 20170715.093046.V0321 and 20170815.182813.V0321 with no hang on logo screen, even when not checking the wipe data option (which I don't recommend). There were some other tweaks that I made to the install script when I fixed that bracket error, so maybe one of them did make a difference.

Well, I guess I'm recommending that if you want to use the OTA update that you refresh your download to ensure you're getting the latest version. That's the one I've been testing most thoroughly.

[Sossy]

So, if you're familiar with the BrickBug issue, you'll realize that this isn't the first time that Samsung eMMC controllers have had problems.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/sho...php?p=27074278
https://forum.xda-developers.com/sho....php?t=1693704
https://www.xda-developers.com/deter...-got-brickbug/
https://www.xda-developers.com/anoth...ous-brick-bug/

If what we're seeing is a related issue, the problem may also be that we've discovered another defective eMMC chip/fwrev that's unable to handle MMC_CAP_ERASE commands (command 38) properly.

Have people tried completely unchecking "Erase flash" and "Erase bootloader" when flashing ROMs in USB Burning Tool?

Also, has anyone had better luck flashing from Mask ROM mode? In theory, this would be closer to the conditions it would see on first flash at the factory.

Hi Magendanz. Do you still think it would be worth trying to flash an ATV rom onto the defective chips, using the Mask ROM method?
If you think there is some chance it may work differently to the burning tool, I might be willing to try it on my box

I am keen to get ATV working, and if I cant use my current box, I will just get another one anyway

Any time you short pins it's not without risk, so I appreciate you volunteering, Sossy. You'll need to queue up M8S_PRO+-V0619_TVStock-20171001.img in USB Burning Tool and hit Start. Then, with the back of the board exposed, connect the USB OTG cable. Finally, you'll need to short the pins highlighted in my diagram so that you hear the WorldCup driver recognize the device in Mask ROM mode and the flash should start automatically.

My hope is that the flash in Mask ROM mode will model closer what occurred in the factory, since that's the version that was successfully baked into the device even with the bad eMMC.

[P.X]

Hi,

Just updated using the Terminal app
Went from ATV 0930 to 1001 (09:00)
and I can't see the Terminal app in the drawer ?
Am I missing something (apart from Terminal)?