LE SETTINGS: LEDS DISABLE + NAND UPDATE?

  • Q1. As you're developing LE11 might it be possible to add a disable power LEDS option to the LibreElec settings?

    Q2. My WeTek Play 2 has a NAND install of LE 8.2.5. Will it be possible to upgrade the NAND install to v11 via the LibreElec settings?

    Thanks

    Thomas

  • A1: Probably not, because there is zero consistency on LED naming over a wide range of devices and to script that feature you need something that can be consistently targetted.

    A2: No, because in the past there were WeTek full-time paid staff hanging around to deal with their low-skill customers and the regular supply of support issues that came from that feature. These days it's mostly just me, and I have very limited enthusiasm for that kind of self-inflicted punishment. One of these days we'll figure out how to make mainline u-boot coexist with FAT partitions; then I'm fine to support an internal install on WP2 again.

  • Code
    WP2:~ # echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/leds/leds/blue:power/brightness 
    WP2:~ # echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/leds/leds/blue:power/brightness 

    ^ the first command (0) turns the BLUE power LED off, but the underlying firmware (which we have no control over) switches the LED to RED. It can be reversed with (1). It's a good example for why it's hard to have a consistent feature in the settings GUI. Put some black electrical tape over the LED and it can be silenced.

    For boot, I never understood why users are so obsessed with running from eMMC. I run an WP2 from a decent SD card (with mainline u-boot, as I wiped the emmc clean) and this works nicely. An RPi4 will be better overall, but for it's age the WP2 is still surprisingly useable.

    Note that LE11 is functionally behind old vendor kernel images (no DVB tuners, no deinterlace etc.) .. there are few developers working on media drivers so progress is a bit slow.

  • Code
    WP2:~ # echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/leds/leds/blue:power/brightness 
    WP2:~ # echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/leds/leds/blue:power/brightness 

    ^ the first command (0) turns the BLUE power LED off, but the underlying firmware (which we have no control over) switches the LED to RED. It can be reversed with (1). It's a good example for why it's hard to have a consistent feature in the settings GUI. Put some black electrical tape over the LED and it can be silenced.

    It'd certainly be easier to live with the muted red rather than the eye piercing blue. However, when I tried the command above I got this:

    -sh: can't create /sys/devices/platform/leds/leds/blue:power/brightness: nonexistent directory

    For boot, I never understood why users are so obsessed with running from eMMC. I run an WP2 from a decent SD card (with mainline u-boot, as I wiped the emmc clean) and this works nicely. An RPi4 will be better overall, but for it's age the WP2 is still surprisingly useable.

    Perhaps because having the OS on the internal feels a little less make do and mend / homebrew and more up-market shop-bought. If you know what I mean. I know it's a bit daft but with LibreElec being so slick and polished it feels nicer to have something that matches the experience. Hence the reluctance to bodge an LED solution with some electrical tape.