other firmware on PBO

[videojo]

Hello All,

In lights of recent achievements in our modding efforts as well as the official Patriot Memory firmware development, it seems like now is the time to move this whole discussion into a more neutral location.

I would like to invite all interested parties to the modding and hacking section of the PBO wiki forums.

Also keep an eye on the custom firmware page on the PBO wiki, as that page will be the page where any future custom firmwares (if available) are released.

This thread is an excellent resource for info regarding hacking the PBO and other RT1073DD chipset based boxes, but it has incredible amount of noise and (almost irrelevant) side discussions, I am locking and sticking this thread for archiving. I will go through the posts and will keep the informative and reference posts.

Meanwhile whenever you feel there is any info you would like to add to this sticky, just PM me (or any of the moderators) and it will promptly added.

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.

i have flash for test other Firmware on my PBO-Box, i search Firmware with external DVD-Drive support.

The last Firmware 1.7.7 from :TeVii M500 works great on the PBO-Box with external DVD-Drive.
i have tested with Harmony 525 -Remotecontol and IR-Code from Astone AP-110D, this is same Mediabox and listed on Logitech Harmony supportlist:
Comuter-> Multimedia-PC-> Astone-> AP-110D
reflash to PBO-Firmware works simple: setupmenu-> softwareupdate-> enter

hxxp://www.tevii.com/M500_1.7.7.zip

hxxp://www.tevii.com/Firmware_update_for_M500.pdf

hxxp://www.tevii.com/Change_log-1.asp

sorry for my bad english

[aasoror]

Are the features any different? Does the GUI look the same? Sounds interesting..............

Just notice that the remote codes are different from the PBO .. so the PBO wont work thats why you need to update the harmony with the correct codes.
The Vii M500 HD Media Player is a clone of the Astone media gear AP-110D (thus the harmony entry in logitech database).
Here is the firmware release notes from Astone ..

If you are going to go this route (firmware updates with the corresponding remote codes you might want to try this as well)

- Emtec N200 v 1193 (player boots up, wrong remote control's buttons map),
- Ferguson Ariva HDPlayer 110 (player boots up, remote control won't work at all),
- Datage HDPro (remote control won't work),
- Ellion Labo 110 (remote control won't work),
- Eminent EM7080_FW_1 (remote control won't work),
- MediaGate M2TV (remote control won't work),
- MediaNow MNP-101 (remote control won't work),
- Prodigi PD-100N (remote control won't work).

[videojo]

The Labo box has no menu item in the setup menu for the firmware update, so a reflash is not possible without serial cable

in the other media boxes, I can not say that.

prerequisite for other firmware:

Chipset 1073DD
Logitech Harmony database support
other bootup firmware support
other firmware must be the link to the firmware update in the setup menu have to reflash option

So before I another test, look in the user manual if there is a firmware update menu option in the setup of the other firmware is

[aasoror]

I wonder if anyone tried Xtreamer firmware. Check this out:
hxxp://www.avforums.com/forums/streamers-network-media-players/1091137-hisense-media-player-17.html#post10828265

This is very interesting .. just stopping the PBO dvdplayer and replacing it with whatever Realtek based dvdplayer application you want to try ..
The actual details here

Speaking of trying other player's firmware: If anyone wants to try an "alien" firmware, I suggest to try the player application first, without actually flashing. It's relatively easy.

* Download the firmware you want to try
* unpack/extract install.img
* install.img is a tar file, so rename to intall.img.tar
* unpack/extract intall.img.tar using 7zip, filzip, total commander or any tool that supports tar archives
* once unpacked, you'll have some some files and a folder called "package2". enter this folder and look for a file called "yaffs2_1.img".
* This is another archive, this time in yaffs2 format. (It contains the roof filesystem of the device).
* Download unyaffs.exe from here (or other place, use google): unyaffs2.exe
* Copy yaffs2_1.img and unyaffs.exe side by side to a new, empty folder, and extract the archive using the command "unyaffs.exe yaffs2_1.img".
* you'll get a number of folders, like bin, dev, etc, usr, ....
* navigate to "usr", then "local", then "bin". you should see 2-3 folders, and a number of files here, amongst them a file called "DvdPlayer"
* copy everything from this folder - including subfolders - to an empty usb stick's root folder.
* plug the usb stick into the player
* open telnet, log in
* navigate to /usr/local/etc, and make a copy of the dvd folder, including subfolders. (cp -r dvdplayer dvdplayer_backup)
* stop the running player application: /usr/bin/stopall
* start the new application from the stick: /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/DvdPlayer (assuming that you copied it into the root of the stick).
* enjoy (if it's working)
* if it doesnt work, you may try to delete the user setting files in /usr/local/etc/dvdplayer and try again

When you finished testing, delete /usr/local/etc/dvdplayer (and all subdirs) and rename/copy back the original files: "cp dvdplayer_backup dvdplayer"

[tectrex]

Then you need a different remote like the Logitech Harmony. There is the Xtream in the remote database.
But that does not seem to work with any firmware that will work with the 2.0.1 it.
http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-181-5688.html

Because no one can edit the firmware of Xtream's how it works, the remote control?
Sry for my bad English ^ ^

[fuzzy80]

Quickest way is to run Dvdplayer extracted from other firmwares.

Extract the firmware you want to try
copy the /usr/local/bin folder to an empty USB stick
plug the stick in
telnet to the player
stop the application by issuing "/usr/bin/stopall"
make a backup of /usr/local/etc/dvdplayer folder
clear this folder, leaving only it's subfolders and the file called "dmem.bin"
cd to /mnt/usbmounts/sda1/ (the usb stick)
start the "alien" application by ./DvdPlayer

[tskitishvili]

...

I have already tried several firmwares, f.ex. Hisense, Med8er with success. My goal is to run Xtreamer on PBO, I have failed so far since my borrowed Harmony couldn't control it. ...

I don't recall where I read about similar experiment, but the point was that latest Xtreamer 2.2 firmware didn't work, but 2.0.1 did. So you might want to try it and report the results on this forum.

Running decent firmware on my PBO is the only thing which will save it from being sold on eBay .

[The Globule]

Quickest way is to run Dvdplayer extracted from other firmwares.

How do you extract the /usr/local/bin folder from the Firmware file?

[aasoror]

How do you extract the /usr/local/bin folder from the Firmware file?

using the unyaffs command.
Original Project (linux download)
Windows Rebuild.

hope that helps,

[The Globule]

Did I understand your post about the bootcode panic correctly ?! does the bootcode check for firmware signature thus wont let you boot anything other than the PBOs ?!

The bootcode check the Firmware signature during start-up, if it can't read the valid signature (VERONA__) it starts the rescue kernel.

So if you have a corrupted firmware in your PBO but it has the valid signature, the rescue process will not start and you are screwed if you do not have a UART cable and set-up.