Posts by jim_p

I think I found why...

I noticed that when selecting addons from the main menu, there is a tile saying "music addons" that just flickers in and out of the menu (it appears and disappears again and again). Sometimes, this also happens under videos, where the "video addons" tile does the same and so on for the other categories. So I thought it must be something with the internet connection...

I used ping, nslookup and traceroute on google and everything worked, so I tried downloading something. And wget told me there is no space left on the device

# wget http://speedtest.ftp.otenet.gr/files/test100Mb.db
Connecting to speedtest.ftp.otenet.gr (212.205.74.89:80)
saving to 'test100Mb.db'
wget: write error: No space left on device

Because /storage is less than 30MB and full as it seems!

# df -h /storage
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2                25.2M     24.6M         0 100% /storage

I ran parted, which offered to fix it, but nothing changed

# parted -l
Warning: Not all of the space available to /dev/sda appears to be used, you can
fix the GPT to use all of the space (an extra 7264256 blocks) or continue with
the current setting?
Fix/Ignore? fix
fix
Model: ATA VMware Virtual I (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 4295MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:


Number  Start   End    Size    File system  Name     Flags
1      4194kB  541MB  537MB   fat16        system   legacy_boot, msftdata
2      541MB   575MB  33.6MB  ext4         storage

So, why doesn't it occupy the remaining ~4gb of the space?

In case it is important, I noticed that the bootloader boots the installer option. Why? Isn't the os already installed?

That is why I also tried the run option, but nothing changed.

p.s. Can someone move this to the virtual machines section? Thank you.

Hello everyone

My friend decided that she should learn a bit more than the VERY basics about kodi and libreelec that she knows now, so I installed le 11 on a vmware vm to help her out. If she breaks it, it will remain broken.
In detail, I got the .ova file and had vmware player convert it to its own format and create a new vm. Then I beefed up its specs a bit: 2 cpu cores instead of 1, 4gb of ram instead of 1 and 512mb of video memory instead of 128. I also switched the network to nat mode. The remaining options inside le are the default ones, ssh is enabled and the vm works just fine... if you exclude some frame drops here and there when navigating the ui.

Back to my friend. One thing she MUST learn is to update the os itself and that is why I installed le 11.0.0 and not 11.0.1, so as to show her how to upgrade to it. I showed her how to download the file and place it inside the update folder that is accessible through samba, but she still finds it a bit complicated, so I went the easiest way possible: through libreelec settings > updates. Under there, I have set

- automatic updates = manual

- submit statistics = enabled (not that it matters)

- show update notifications = enabled

- show custom channels = disabled

- update channel = libreelec 11.0

And the list under "available versions" is completely empty, although kodi does show a notification for an update at startup. What is weirder than that is that kodi's log just stops at a random position every time, e.g. from 2 subsequent boots

http://ix.io/4vYl

http://ix.io/4vYm

Any ideas?

p.s. Networking was set to bridged this time, so as to connect with ssh and get the logs.

Ok I fixed it. I asked her to connect it to the router via ethernet (she borrowed an ethernet cable and yes, she did connect it with a phone cable the first time) and then I connected to her pc via anydesk and to the tvbox via ssh. I also copied the wifi key straight from the router's web interface, just in case.

After that, I connected to it via connman and it simly worked (authenticated successfully, got the ip etc). Then she moved the tvbox back to the tv.

There is no other router it can connect to, because all other wifi networks in the area protected and no one knows their keys apart from their owners.

As for its own key, of course I can not be 100% sure the user entered it correctly, but shouldn't it be already stored in connman's settings? Because mine is stored (in plain text) in a configuration file that looks like so and is unique for each interface and network the interface has connected to.

.cache/connman/wifi_(wifi's_mac_address)_(router's_ssid)_managed_psk/settings

Connecting to a different router creates a new file with similar name, but does not delete the existing one. I know that because I have deleted old configs a few times.

As for the log, if it had network access, I would grab one and study it before asking here. Unfortunately, the family can not tell the difference between a network cable and a phone one... and they only have one network cable, the one that connects the router to the pc.

Quote from dtech

Unfortunately, my answer to your question is that I have no idea. I have not yet tried to connect to a hotspot that requires authentication under LE. In general, a browser is also required to complete the authentication, which is not available on the box.

I do not want it to connect to the hotspot that needs authentication, I want it to connect to the home's wifi that has a simple wifi key. It had been connected to it from mid July of 2021 until last Friday.

dtech

Any ideas about the wireless issue I posted about yesterday? As it seems, our posts happened at almost the same time, so you may have missed it.

Little Faye complained earlier this morning that, since yesterday, the tvbox (the all black s805 mxq) plays nothing! By "nothing" she means "nothing that needs internet access", so I will start from there.

First and foremost, the box was connected to an open public network offered by the local municipality and that requires the user to open a browser and accept some terms before connecting. Let's assume that Faye found her way to libreelec settings > connections and connected to that open wifi. The home's wifi, where the tvbox is connected regularly, was still there, but when trying to connect to it, it asked for the key! Entering the key though still does not connect to the home's wifi! And this is where I decided get my hands dirty...

I enabled kodi's setting to show hidden files and folders, deleted /storage/.cache/connman and rebooted the tvbox to start fresh. I entered the key again, but it still can not connect. It can not even get an ip! I repeated all that 2 more times and rebooted the router once, but still no luck. I also noticed that instead of the 6+ wifi routers in the area, the connections tab now shows only 3 (or 4 at most) and that the forementioned public network is no longer visible. Any ideas on that?

My plan for the day is to check how crowded the wifi channels are over there and to set a simpler key for the home's wifi, because it now has the default one which is like 15-20 characters long and a pita to enter every time.

p.s. When I say "I" above I do not mean me in particular, but an adult person capable to understand basic navigation inside menus etc and who is quite fluent in English. In that case, that person is her mom.

Does the all black mxq with s805 have bluetooth capablities? If so, how easy is it co connect a bt headset to it?

I noticed that images for 10.95.1 (11 beta2) reached the greek mirror a few days ago and I was curious if I would have to redo the dtb change in the ini file again. I also had a suspicion that wifi will not work after updating

Anyway, I did the upgrade and now wifi is not detected again, so I will flash the image from here again.

Index of /testing/

Do you really create images every single day? Because it is stressful for me to update it every single day!

In other news, I am still waiting my neighbor to find or buy me a button for the tvbox! That is why I have not replied all week

Honest question. Now that the wifi works, do I have to do all that recovery procedure to get the info you asked? I have no problem doing so, but the addition will probably take a couple of days.

Moreover, I do not really want to drill holes on the tvbox's housing. And in case I did not mention it earlier, it also has a small square ~8*8cm steel plate (2-3mm thick) mounted under its top so as to weight more. Removing that will probably make it 90% lighter

You don't have to write such detailed instructions. A simple "get that file and update it" would be enough, i know what I must do

There you go. Wifi works now!

http://ix.io/4nEm

As for the realtek driver. I can say the same about wl, which (from what I see in debian's package changelog here) has not seen a major upstream update in years! Yet, that driver is provided with le (x64 at least) instead of the opensource b43.

I have an old laptop that has a wifi card supported by both drivers (hwid 14e4:4315) and it worked fine since 9.0 that I run le on it , but it is partially broken in le 11. I even remember asking for an update to it while I was using the nightly las summer because it gave kernel panics. In any case though, it would be nice to try b43 there...

https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//non-free/b/broadcom-sta/broadcom-sta_6.30.223.271-23_changelog

As for the reset button addition, I am still waiting for the neighbor to buy me a button and I will then give him the tvbox to solder it.

Where do you mean by "on top"?

There you go. I could not make the lights from either side reflect less

Please don't ask me to name the inputs/outputs again or to mark the spot where the reset switch would be.

https://imgur.com/a/f487wZP

Well, I asked a friend who does photography as a hobby and she said I have to use external lighting when I take photos of objects close up. And that is what I did for my second photo, placing 2 light sources on each side and disabling the flash completely.

I tried dtech's image, with both dtb files he provides, and it does not boot. I think I said it earlier and you said it is because of the new boot mechanism used by le 11 on amlogic socs. And I do not care about bt.

If those holes are really for a reset switch, I may ask the neighbor to solder one for me there.

The reason I do not want to quit already is because I really want to get a tvbox with kodi 19+ (= python2 addons will die completely by the end of 2023 imho) to that family I have mentioned in another thread (poor family of 5, with 3 kids aged from 3 to 9yo). It keeps them occupied when their parents are at work.

Right now they have the all black mxq with s805. Unlike the mxqpro4k, that one has a reset button inside the av port and installing dtech's image of le 9.2.x was very easy.

I never thought taking photos of something would be so annoying. This is the last photo I post. It takes me more time to really capture a clean one than to edit it on photoshop. And this time I had to use external lights so that the camera flash does not reflect on the board itself

https://imgur.com/a/GkEZmPJ

Compared to the one above, this is flipped horizontally, so the side with the hdmi and other ports is now on the left. The usb and card slots are at the bottom like before.

Here is the same photo as before, with all its inputs/outputs tagged.
The holes indicated in the red circle are where the reset switch would be. I even raised the brightness so as to make them visible!

That is what I am saying. The tvbox has no reset button at the end of the av socket. It is more than obvious from those 3 tiny holes that indicate a missing switch at that spot. And I know that since 2 years ago that I first decided to install something in it, I did not learn it yesterday that I took it apart!

Is this pic enough? I can tell the iputs/outputs on the pic just by looking at it, so I am not going to waste time for new photos.

https://www.media-max.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Review-TV-BOX-MXQ-PRO-4K.jpg

If needed, I can put photoshop their labels on the original photo.