Posts by dtech

Quote from blackburst67

Thank you for your great work dtech !

I will try on my MINIX Neo X8-H Plus as soon as possible. I discover lately that the DD+ audio signal isn't passing through the HDMI instead of dts or DD, I hope that with this update it will work. I am still in LE 9.0

DD+ will not appear in the passthrough list, because the output is defined as S/PDIF. There was a pretty limited audio interface in the SoC, and I tried to define the output as HDMI earlier, but with the exception of standard DD and DTS (5.1), playing at a higher level proved impossible. The bandwidth of HDMI 1.4 would be enough for it, but it still doesn't work under S812, so the bottleneck is probably in the SoC. The only option is to enable Dolby Digital (AC3) transcoding, then all "HD" audio formats over 5.1 (eg. Dolby TrueHD/Atmos or DTS-HD) will be transcoded to 5.1. If you actually have a 7.1 (or more speakers) sound system, the S812 will no longer be enough to serve it.

iCrazy

This is the same limited audio interface functionality that is causing your problem too. With the exception of HDMI passthrough, the SoC audio output restricted to this PCM format: 16-bit / 44.1kHz / 2 channels. This limitation no longer exists for later generations, such as S905 (GXBB) and 905X/D/W (GXL).

Therefore, I do not recommend connecting Meson8* devices to the DAC primarily to listen to Hi-Res audio formats. Due to the above, the transmission of the digital signal will be lossy in terms of both the sampling frequency and the dynamic range (bit rate).

Quote from Synerworks

I am aware that the S802 and S812 are fundamentally the same with provision for H.265 ...

If you rely on the incorrectly filled table on Wikipedia, it may indeed seem right, but this statement is not true at all.

The real SoC comparison:

Amlogic STB SoCs Comparison - AML8726-MX, S802, S805, and S812 - CNX Software

The second quarter of 2014 is promising to be an exciting time for Android TV boxes based on Chinese SoCs with lots of announcements. Devices powered by

www.cnx-software.com

So that's the point:

Quote

• S812 – Same as S802 but adding H.265/HEVC video decoding up to 4K and Gigabit Ethernet. This makes it more future proof than S802, and it could potentially be used as a media center with a USB hard drive and Gigabit Ethernet connection.

The fact is S802 has a common MII (Media Independent Interface), but S812 has an RGMII (Reduced Gigabit Media Independent Interface) between MAC and PHY. So the S802 has 100 Mbps connection limit, but the S812 is capable of Gigabit connection if the manufacturer puts a Gigabit transceiver into the box. Therefore, it is necessary for the Ethernet section to differ in the dtb associated with the two SoCs (#445).

Quote from tico

My neighbor will be very happy, he is the owner of the M8 I just help him keep it working. He is a very nice old gentleman. Thank you.

Then I would like to greet him and wish him a Happy Holidays.

Quote from tico

I tried the new image and it doesn't boot. At first boot it act the same a the other M8 image. Thanks

Okay, second act with reverse logic: original n200-based dtb modified with S802 meson-eth layout.

Index of /3rdParty/S8X2/Universal-k200-S802_2G-AP6330/, the new project name: k200-AP6330_2G.

This should boot and there is a good chance that Ethernet will work with this snapshot image. Please give it a try.

Quote from Synerworks

I have not located a source for the stock Android firmware for your OTT box, but the specs for it appear identical to the Matricom G-BOX Q, https://matricom.net/product/g-box-q/, that I had worked with, so I have attached a copy of the DTB as pulled using Android Image Kitchen that you can try on either the Demetris or Dtech "kernel.img" images.

kernel.img-second.zip

The dtb you sent contains m8m2_n200_2G in its header, so that is for S812, not S802.

I decoded from binary to dts with dtc and it contains the same Ethernet entry typical of S812.

        ethernet@0xc9410000 {
                compatible = "amlogic,meson8m2-rmii-dwmac\0snps,dwmac";
                reg = < 0xc9410000 0x10000 0xc1108108 0x04 >;
                interrupts = < 0x00 0x08 0x01 >;
                interrupt-names = "macirq";
                clocks = "clk81";
                clock-names = "stmmaceth";
        };

I also checked the Gbox Q Android stock firmware and it contains multiple dtbs with the following IDs:

m8_k200_2gsdhc
m8_k200_2gsdio
m8_k200_sdhc
m8_k200_sdio
m8m2_n200_1G
m8m2_n200_2G
m8m2_n200C_1G
m8m2_n200C_2G

I don't think you sent the good dtb (or you have a Gbox Q2 which contains an S812 SoC). The top four pieces are S802s and the bottoms are S812s.

Quote from MIKMXIII

Dear Dhath me on my 1 Giga MXIII and with Ap 6181 I have installed your libreelec 823 mxiii ap6330 taken from third parties and everything is ok but the WiFi is very slow and the videos are very baffering while the last of Demetrio is very good. can't you change this for Ap 6181? unfortunately I cannot connect it with an ethernet cable because it is too far from my ruter

Unfortunately, wifi is a double-edged blade, because if I make changes in the driver, it will get better for someone and worse for another, so I don’t want to poke the latest drivers (or the options file for each project) anymore. I'm sorry.

However, if you really sent this message to Demetris or datrh (it seems from the description), next time you need to spell their names correctly.

Quote from Synerworks

So far it appears that both the Demetris and Dtech releases exhibit the same behaviour with the Ethernet interface. The primary motivation on testing any build with at least a working lan was that the DTB could have been sourced from it and then added to the Dtech build had anything been found. The worst case would be for the DTB being pulled from the Android image for the exact box known to work and checking the variances in configuration when decompiled. What I see so far is that the lan interface comes up, but fails to get a DHCP address, pointing to a configurational issue or caused by one of the existing compatible lan drivers being loaded not specifically geared for the exact hardware on the box and not functioning.

Did you try the latest snapshot image? The problem with the previous M8 image was that it didn't boot. The Ethernet interface was bad on M8 with the n200 image/dtb. In addition the n200 is an S812 device, but M8 is just an S802.

The Ethernet entries in dtb for Meson8/S802 (k200*) and Meson8m2/S812 (n200*) are completely different.

M8:

///    -    Ethernet
//$$ MODULE="Ethernet"
//$$ DEVICE="meson-eth"
//$$ L2 PROP_STR = "status"
    meson-eth{
        compatible = "amlogic,meson-eth";
        dev_name = "meson-eth";
        status = "okay";
        ethbaseaddr = <0xfe0c0000>;
        interruptnum = <40>;
        new_maclogic = <1>;
    }; 

n200:

///    -    Ethernet
        ethmac: ethernet@0xc9410000{
         compatible = "amlogic,meson8m2-rgmii-dwmac", "snps,dwmac";
                reg = <0xc9410000 0x10000
                       0xc1108108 0x4>;
                interrupts = <0 8 1>;
                interrupt-names = "macirq";
                clocks = "clk81";
                clock-names = "stmmaceth";
        };

tico  Synerworks

I compared the dtb source files on the M8 (k200) and n200 and tried to transfer a few things to the M8 dtb that could affect the boot process from the SD card. You should give it a try to see if it boots now.

hxxp://http://libreelec.dtech.hu/snapshots/20211221/

There is also a significant difference in the Ethernet section of the dtb, so if it boots, you should check to see if the wired connection is working.

tico  Synerworks

The only problem is that the two dtb files are completely identical (md5sum: b2f8802cdd0cf49256791ac128be79f2), not just the source code, but the binary as well. So this whole operation is a waste of time. The problem will be somewhere else because I ran into this error earlier:

Post

RE: Legacy v9.2 (LTS) builds for Amlogic S805/S8X2, S905/S912 and all WeTek boxes

[…]

I tested the above alternative today

Failed

The error is as follows

rm：cant't remove ‘storage/.please_resize_me':read-only file system

PARTITION RESIZIMG IN PROGRESS

please do not reboot or turn off your libreelec device

yibaogang

June 18, 2021 at 4:02 AM

MIKMXIII

Unfortunately, the wireless connection in these boxes is a joke, because it is not enough for HD content, and live streams (e.g. IPTV) will be constantly sequence faulty due to fluctuating latency. I recommend Ethernet by default.

Quote from tico

Thank you for your effort.

After looking at the sd cards using MiniTool Partition Wizard I noticed that the k200 sd card has two partition one labeled libreelec and the other one is unallocated. The sd card with the new M8 has an extra partition called Storage. All of the sd card were created the same way using LibreELEC.USB-SD.Creator.Win32. I also noticed that at the boot loop it says: " rm: can't` remove '/Storage/.please _rezise_me' : Read_only file system". I hope that this new information will help pinpoint the boot loop problem. Thank you'

Something is wrong here. If it really prints this out, it's not a classic boot-loop at all. You compare it unnecessarily to version 8 because the labels of the partitions are different. Here are some questions you should answer:

• Have you tried the Toothpick method? (If not, please give it a try.)
• What is the size of the SD card you wrote the image on? (If it's larger than 32GB, it isn't good. Please try a smaller one.)
• If there is a write-protect switch on the side of the SD card (or SD adapter), make sure it does not switch to "read-only" position when inserted into the box.

By the way, if you were to try the n200 image on the same "new" sd card (which had previously booted without error on the "old" sd card), then if you really have a problem with the "new" sd card, you should not boot that image either. It would be worth a try, the above questions will not help...

It can be upgraded with tar from version 9.0.2, so I didn't even make a zip version of it. But before you do that...

Quote from dtech

It is recommended that you back up your system before updating from my previous version (semi-official) or an earlier version of the official LibreELEC image (e.g. v9.0.2)

So after backing up (and copying it from the device) you need to copy the LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-9.2.8.3.tar file to the /storage/.update directory and then restart it. If you really have v9.0.2 installed on NAND, this is the easiest solution.

Quote from Ionman

Also, is there an InputstreamAdaptive binary available for this build?

Yes, sure. Although, I only tested it with the hGO EU addon before, but the hardware acceleration worked perfectly with it.

(Unfortunately, all movies on HBO Go in my country are only available in stereo with local dubbing, and that is poorly down-mixed from 5.1. So I no longer have a subscription.)

Quote from tico

I redid two new Sd card (two different makers) and I am getting the same results as the first one. I was doing some search of dtb files for M8 and I found this one in txt format, but I don't know if it is the wright one. I thing it came from the original rom k200-ota-20140807. Here is the link.

I used the same dtb as Demetris, so I don't understand why it doesn't boot. Unfortunately, I have no idea without viewing the UART output.

Quote from MIKMXIII

Code

I wanted to ask Dtech if it was possible to modify your LibreELEC-MXIII-1G.arm-9.2.8.3, as this works fine with my one gig MXIII box with amlogic S802 but all videos (of any kind) baffering continuously . Sure it's because you created it for AP6330 while mine is AP6181, but the wify works anyway that's weird, can you do something for my box? thanks anyway.

If you can provide an URL from dmesg | paste that would be good.

Quote from tico

Thank you dtech for the new file, but it didn't work. I tried to update first, no luck (it was saying there was compatibility issue). So I made a new SD card and it went on a boot loop. Thank you for your effort.

The tar-based update will not work if the two devices do not have the same name (n200 ≠ M8), so it is completely normal.

But, that boot loop is weird, because there is only difference from the n200 that the M8 image got the dtb of M8.

Are you sure everything is fine with the second sd card?

Quote from loki7777

I just ordered hot air station - nothing fancy but should do the trick.

A tip before soldering:

You should always use the right amount of good quality flux and set a well-chosen temperature, because copper foil can be damaged if you keep it at a high temperature for a long time!

If you follow these (and your hands don’t shake either), you may be able to replace this IC. I wish you good soldering.

loki7777

This Ricoh RN5T618 is a slightly more complex voltage controller, hot air is required to replace it.

Unfortunately, the 5V power supply of the cheaper boxes is not really efficient. If the load fluctuates, the power supply of the USB devices will not be stable either, due to the fact that it also needs 5V. The solutions used in 12V boxes are orders of magnitude more efficient.

The KI Plus I fixed (photo attached earlier) already used a 12V DC adapter. Meanwhile, it was proved that the 12V->18V booster IC (INN8186) of the satellite LNB power transmitter kicked back to the power line, and the indicated IC was destroyed.

I tried to transfer from a donor (with hot air) but it also went short-circuited very quickly (approx. 2 seconds).

(However, the box and the DVB-C/T2 part of the tuner remained fully usable without this booster IC, so the success rate is ~95%.)

tico

Please try this image: http://libreelec.dtech.hu/snapshots/20211214/

Quote from loki7777

I will open the box later on again and will try to look for diode but i couldn't find anything burned but one section of the board was extremely hot.

I read online on other forum that most of the time it is not even wort looking for issues with those cheap boxes.

Extreme heat disipation can indicate a short circuit, but then the faulty part must be determined.

I'm sorry, I'm an electrical engineer so I tend to go deeper into things. Including multimeter and soldering iron...

I recently repaired a box with a similar problem, although this was caused by a DC-to-DC step-down converter (STI3470) and not a Z-diode:

The dead box was this: I search Libreelec device with DVB-S2 and DVB-T2 tuner, any suggestion?

According to envagyok, the fault happened after a pre-announced power outage planned by the electricity supplier.

Unfortunately, an inductive load (such as the compressor of an older refrigerator) can deliver a transient peak pulse to devices that are not adequately protected with a phase correction circuit. If several loads are energized at the same time after a power failure or the circuit breaker switching back on, it can produce "interesting" things on the same phase in any other part of the household. Unfortunately in a bad sense...

Sorry for the late reply, but unfortunately I don’t have much time for anything outside of work lately.

Quote from loki7777

I think that will be my last time in this forum as my box just decided to die today. No power light at all but I can feel that usb hdd is spinning. Tried different power adapter but no luck.

There was no power for a sec when box was on.

Does the box's factory adapter supply voltage in idle state? Because if not, it might be broken and took a Zener-diode with it in the box. This is relatively easy to detect (with a multimeter) because the input side will short circuit if the Z-diode fails. But to do that, the box needs to be disassembled.

When experimenting with other DC adapters, pay attention to the voltage: If the box needs 5V DC, use only 5V DC power!

I already had to label my boxes separately because they operate at different voltages, but their DC power connectors are the same.

forum.libreelec.tv/core/attachment/8103/

If you connect a higher voltage adapter instead of 5V (eg. 12V), the power LED will flash for a moment, then the zener diode will go short to protect the device. Repair is only possible by desoldering and replacing this diode. (Of course, this only works if the manufacturer has installed the protection diode at all. If not, the box has gone up in smoke.)

Quote from tico

I am running LE-9.2.8 from sd card on a M8 S802 (k200) box. Everything work great except I cant connect to my network using Ethernet, WIFI works great. I would really appreciate any help to solve this problem.

My log file. ix.io/3Hvw

Thanx for the great work.

Which version was previously installed that Ethernet worked?

Quote from gthebest

Code

fb_addr=0x07900000

I know you have already sent this. This seems it is the standard address on MXIII-G/Plus, so I accept it.

However, I think it would be worth replacing your SD card because the it boots very slowly in your video, but that's not the device's fault.

Quote from viachy

Hello guys,

I have an Amlogic M8s+ tv box (S812) and I``` am running LE 9.2.8.2 and it`s been great.

I am interested if I can upgrade to LE 10 (Matrix) ? I` have been browsing through the different sections but cant figure it out.

Can someone advise please if that will be possible (in the near future if not now)..?

Thanks

This is a recurring question...

Post

RE: Legacy v9.2 (LTS) builds for Amlogic S805/S8X2, S905/S912 and all WeTek boxes

Since Matrix (Kodi v19) the legacy amlcodec is no longer supported. The old kernel (3.10) is already very outdated anyway, so the only solution is to switch to the mainline kernel. At the moment the state of the vdec is pretty much WiP. However, there is some progress in this area (Meson 8* Lives!), but it seems that Kodi v20 may be the first to run on Meson8* devices.

dtech

November 29, 2021 at 1:54 PM

Quote from loki7777

fb_addr=0x07900000

On my box it takes like ~22sec from kodi reboot menu to land back in Kodi again. Boot from Nand.

Do you also have a black screen between the vendor and the LE logos?

Mine only started a little slower because the "wait for network" (aprox. +10 seconds) option is also enabled due to loading the IPTV channel list and EPG (XMLTV). This is important because if Kodi can't load them at startup, it won't try again later. Without that, it would take me about the same amount of time.

Mine also runs from the internal eMMC, but it is not much slower when starting it from a U1 class card (a.k.a. Class 10). BTW, the sd card of gthebest seems terribly slow.

gthebest

Okay, it's really "almost" perfect. It already looks quite tolerable, but your SD card seems a bit slow.

However, the black screen between the Tronsmart and the LibreELEC logos is probably due to an incorrect framebuffer address.

I know it, because I tried the reverse (0x15100000 -> 0x07900000) on my M8S and experienced the same black screen.

However, I have no idea how this got into your device, because this is the standard value of fb_addr for S805 SoCs, not S812.

Coincidentally, isn't (or wasn't earlier) an unofficial "cooked" Android ROM installed on your internal NAND?

loki7777

Can I request an fw_printenv output from you too? I'm just wondering what fb_addr is set to on your device.

Quote from gthebest

Its working almost perfect. I can see the Libreelec logo again for 4-5 seconds!

"almost perfect" -> What does it mean exactly? For example, what is the difference on your box compared to one of my boxes?