MXQ Pro S905X 1GB/8GB Android 7.1.2 Nougat - Need help with customization

[atvbca]

I tracked down this impressively fast 7.1.2 Nougat firmware for the MXQ Pro (4K) 1GB/8GB boxes with the RTL8189 wifi chip. I would love to mod it but when I extract the firmware image with AML Customization Tool it doesn't extract the manifest.xml file, or the system partition for that matter & I need the manifest.xml to rebuild the firmware. That file is always extracted from other Nougat based firmware I've played with.

I tried rebuilding the system image in Linux, converting to sparse format, replacing original and then repacking with AML tool and extracting the full image again, but it still won't extract the system partition or manifest.xml file. I can extract the system partition in linux no problem but I have no idea how to generate a proper device manifest.xml from scratch and I know it's nowhere to be found in the system partition.

I'm sure someone here can help me crack this beast?

Here's the full firmware image: https://mega.nz/#!LFBTSBAD!W1-HBCiRG...ov8Cg6h92ILQi8

[PaulieP]

It won't flash onto any of my S905X MXQPro's (P212) or any other 1GB P212 boxes I have, how did you get it to flash to existing Marshmallow MXQ Pro's? Thanks