Posts by chewitt

    The remote will not work unless:

    a) the remote keymap is added to the kernel and a custom device tree created to reference that IR keymap

    b) you manually add the keymap, see: https://wiki.libreelec.tv/configuration/…ration-advanced

    Normally users need to figure out the keymap first (B), then share it, then I can think about creating a custom device-tree file (A).

    It sounds like Kodi is otherwise running .. which means the box is working. Please SSH to the box, run "pastekodi" and share the URL.

    The row of four pins next to the socket are for the serial UART .. easy to spot as one has a square marking. It's quite normal for the pin header to be omitted from the board (saves a few pennies).

    If not in the audio jack I'd expect the reset to be on the underside of the board, which we don't have a photo for.

    I have only worked up the nerve to chainload mainline u-boot on the Vero4K, pretty reluctant to format the eMMC and load that mainline u-boot. And naturally all working from SD cards. It's just not worth it, so far I haven't seen an SD card failure, and I have weekly backups anyways of /storage.

    Is that the 4K (S905X) or 4K+ (S905D)? .. I'm still waiting on a positive test report to send it upstream.

    Sam did promise to submit the FIP sources for his boards at some point (prob. minus the BL32 bits, but those are optional) .. but then he's also promised to test the 4K (for six months) and send me samples (for two years) so I'm not holding breath. Running your own business is time-consuming :)

    I'm not aware of any upstream Amlogic dtb's that have Realtek WiFi set; which is because most box device-trees are for older devices and the drivers aren't supported so kernel rules say you don't describe unsupported hardware.

    If you work with vendor kernel images the Realtek problem is less of a problem because the kernel NEVER changes. That means zero security updates and such .. but also means the WiFi driver you hacked to run stays running. In LE where we track upstream kernels the drivers tend to break with every major kernel bump and novelty of fix-hunting wears off fairly quickly.

    You should be able to revert to a legacy kernel image by putting the box in recovery mode, i.e. toothpick method, with the respective installer SD card inserted. The box should search-for and find the bootscripts and set things up again.

    The wireless module is top-left on the PCB (below the cut-out). I can't see the model markings on the chip, but the Realtek "Crab" is visible and that explains the lack of WiFi probing on the device. It's an older Realtek chip not supported in the upstream kernel (because if it was, it would probe) and LE does not add Realtek vendor drivers as they're a pain in the rear to maintain over time. They do exist though, and you could always self-build an image with the driver embedded. The BT side of the module is serial (not SDIO) and in some cases there is support for the BT part but not WiFi (as they are different drivers) but for that we need to know the specific chip model as the "compatible" string in device-tree determines which driver and how it loads. The photo isn't high-enough resolution to see the model details, and they're often a bit fuzzy to start with.

    NB: Logs from a vendor kernel boot (Android or CE) will probably show more clues about WiFi/BT chip details, although the multi-vendor DHD driver that's used in Amlogic kernels does obscure the info a bit.

    HDMI audio is dependent on the OS seeing the EDID data needed to determine audio properties. Does LE work when booted natively on the hardware (not being forced via UNRAID)? If yes, the problem lies with how UNDRAID handles the pass-though of hardware.

    NB: LE does not (and never has, and has no plans to) support being used via Hypervisors so while it might work sometimes, it's not something we seek and there could be other things missing.

    Anyways, the point of this meandering is to share that toothpick method can kill eMMC installs depending on whether they use the instaboot partition in a similar way.

    LE boot scripts don't touch partitions at all, but if the boot processes aml_autoscript then we're changing the boot flow stored in the u-boot environment to use our scripts, which will "break" legacy distro booting due to them using kernel.img not KERNEL and more. Some of these differences are intentional; partly to align with LE standard namings, but also because we (me) don't want users "updating" from all kinds of unknown legacy images to AMLGX and then showing up with tricky-to-solve support issues. Boot is already "fun" before you factor in large Kodi major version bumps and the Python2 to Python3 change which causes add-on carnage. Forcing clean installs is just a sensible move.

    1. Most S905X boxes follow the reference boards quite closely and all use internal PHY ethernet so it's hard (but not impossible) to get a non-booting box, but that assumes you can trick the box into booting LE (some require non-standard boot tricks) and things can go wrong with cheap emmc/ram parts. You might not get WiFi/BT if non-Broadcom parts are being used.

    2. Once you initiate recovery boot to load LE the u-boot environment is tweaked to use LE boot files (else it won't boot). If you remove the SD card (or USB) and force recovery boot again it should rediscover the AE install. You can't swap between distros solely by removing the SD card.

    3. AE contains embedded tools whose primary/sole purpose is the consumption of pirated content. That's the main objection. AE's creator also leeches 99% of their distro from others without preserving attribution and licensing (so it appears to be their meisterwerk, when in fact it's the work of others). In FOSS circles that's disrespectful, but kind of normal/expected in the pirate box space.