martedì 14 maggio 2013

HackBMC version 0.02

This version of the image exploits the android-binaries via libhybris for video decoding.

This trick overcomes the decoding issues of the linux original driver which caused artifacts in the playback of some videos. I tested the performance on a couple of videos and the result is satisfactory!

You can download the new image from here (mega) or here.

EDIT: The file of the version 0.01 was corrupted. I uploaded a new version of it on mega.

46 commenti:

  1. I can't get past 3% trying to download the image.

    RispondiElimina
  2. Mega doesn't work with some browser...I'll upload the image on another server as soon as possible...

    RispondiElimina
  3. I uploaded the image on an alternative server. Can you try it?

    RispondiElimina
  4. I ended up getting it with Chromium from the original site, thanks! The new link works too.

    RispondiElimina
  5. Do you know if your image works with a Mele 2000?

    RispondiElimina
  6. I don't! But since the architecture is similar I think it is worth a try!

    RispondiElimina
  7. does this image works with a Mele A1000?

    and can you please tell me how to intall this image on Mele A1000 ?

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Unfortunately I don't have that hardware, so I can't test it!

      Elimina
    2. I tried image on mele a2000. It works better than any tried image before. Its quite awesome.

      Elimina
    3. Great News!
      How is the video decoding? Smooth? No blurry images?

      Elimina
    4. Did you apply some modifications on the image to have it working on mele a2000?

      Elimina
    5. Just heard of your libhybris try ! Great ! Will give it a try on my mele A2000, any Sata issue maybe ?

      Elimina
  8. Video deconding is quite good. I've played 720p video from sata hdd and it shows good. In the beginning there was a little lag, bet after few seconds it ended.

    One more question. Do you patched something?

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. How to write this image to the sdcard? Using phoenix card utility or something else? and does it run directly from sdcard witout modifying android on mele a2000?

      Elimina
    2. Hi, Modestas! Tell me-did you changed something to run this image on mele a2000?

      Elimina
  9. Just replaced the linux-binaries with the android-binaries via libhybris for video decoding!

    RispondiElimina
  10. As I understand base system is Ubuntu from http://guillaumeplayground.net. Do you compiled something by your self?

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. I compiled everything but the base system: the kernel (I needed some DVB card modules), xbmc and tvheadend. However I didn't apply some particular patch except the video drivers.

      Elimina
  11. How to write this image to the sdcard? Using phoenix card utility or something else? and does it run directly from sdcard witout modifying android on mele a2000?

    RispondiElimina
  12. It should.
    To write the image just follow the instruction on the previous post!

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Thanks Carlo, I got it :), I'll try it on my mele a2000 in the evening after work and report back the impressions !

      Elimina
    2. Ok here is the report:

      Transferred the image successfully on a class 10 8GB Sandisk SD card. The Mele A2000 boots fine from SD and XBMC logo shows up and then after 5 second, the hdmi signal is lost and then after few seconds a login box appears for hardly 2 seconds and that's it, The unit reboots and keep on rebooting into same sequence.

      What could be the reason? Any solution?

      Elimina
    3. That's very strange, modestas stankus as you can read on one of the previous comments succeeded in having the image running on a mele a2000.

      Have you tried to write the image again? Just in case...

      Elimina
    4. Questo commento è stato eliminato dall'autore.

      Elimina
    5. Correction: Its a 16GB Micro SD card class 10 with an SD adapter. The image was written using your macosx method and the used space shows on SD card show 12.9 MB in properties box. Does it give you any clue of a problem?

      Elimina
  13. Hi, this is the device I have, I am not sure what the proper name is:

    http://dx.com/p/x2-android-4-0-network-media-player-w-wi-fi-hdmi-av-rj45-black-4gb-1gb-ram-147971

    I have uploaded some relevant files from my run here:

    http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=60237670351378095106

    The image boots fine, but with no USB support. Neither of the attached mouse/keyboard get power, a usb drive also nothing.
    Network works ok, so I can ssh into the box and I can configure EventGhost on my PC to control XBMC.
    The stock IR remote (picture in zip file) does not work out of the box but looking at xbmc.log I can see many key events so I created a keyboard.xml file for it. Interestingly enough not all buttons work, some don't generate a log entry at all. A similar thing happens with my Samsung TV remote. Many keys register key events in the log but not all, most notable the left cursor key.
    I mounted my Windows share and tried playing some videos. These are my observations:

    - No DTS audio
    - avi file playback seems to crash XBMC and is automatically restarted
    - SD resolution .mp4 files play reasonably well, there is some stutter
    - 720p scene TV shows in .mkv container stutter more, they occasionally stop for buffering and some have no audio and I get some loud clicks whenever they resume from a pause.

    I'd be happy to test things in more detail, I think this is quite promising.

    Thanks for the hard work.

    Regards,
    Julian

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Some parts of Script.bin is wrong. Usb was not working on mele a2000 too. I'm using original script.bin from my device.

      Elimina
    2. from where to get original script.bin for mele a2000? Can you share it by uploading somewhere?

      Elimina
    3. Thanks Modestas, using the original script.bin from the stock Android OS made the USB work ok. I got this file from the boot partition of the Android OS in the device's internal memory:

      root@hackberry:~# mkdir /mnt/nanda
      root@hackberry:~# mount -o ro /dev/nanda /mnt/nanda
      root@hackberry:~# ls -l /mnt/nanda/script.bin
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 44464 Jan 1 1980 /mnt/nanda/script.bin
      root@hackberry:~#

      You should use your own because this has a very device-specific config from what I read. I attached mine here just in case: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=40582442501477615734


      Elimina
    4. Me again. DTS sound plays ok, before it was my bad because the option "DTS enabled receiver" was set. I disabled that and now it is properly decoded.
      Now that I have USB working, I tried locally stored videos on a portable drive and the results I see are about the same.

      There is some stutter and pauses for buffering, and MPEG2 and MPEG4 (xvid) crash.

      Elimina
  14. Hello, Nice work seems promising.
    I'm having some corruption issues, can you provide us some sha or md5 checksum please ?

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Sure thing! Will do soon, I don't have with me now the original file!

      Elimina
  15. I got everything working with a new script.bin on my cubieboard. But I can't mount my hdd from ssh. Don't know what to do.

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. You can mount the first partition directly on the board or using an SD reader.

      Elimina
  16. Hi Carlo,
    I installed your image an an A10 Hackberry.
    I need to set up a VPN to connect to a remote site btu the ppp support in the kernel seems to be missing.
    I guess I'll have to recompile perhaps?
    In this image are there the kernel sources od do I have to dowonload them?
    Or is there some fix or workaround to connect via pptp in this image?

    Thanks a lot fot the great work!

    Stefano

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Hi Stefano,
      I think the modules for supporting VPNs were not included in my image.
      You can build from sources a new kernel following the instructions in this guide:
      http://jas-hacks.blogspot.com/2012/10/hackberry-a10-compiling-kernel-armhfs.html

      You can compile directly on the board running (as I did), it won't take long.

      Let me know if you have any problems, I'm glad to help!

      Elimina
    2. Hi!
      i'm trying to follow the link you provided to the kernel compilation guide.
      but as son as i start to compile the kernel the process exits with this error:

      /bin/sh: 1: arm-linux-gnueabihf-objdump: not found
      /bin/sh: 1: arm-linux-gnueabihf-ld: not found

      binutils are at the latest version, arm gcc compiler also

      but those 2 programs seem to be missing and doing an apt-cache search there is no gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf .
      Do you have some hints on how to work around this step on you distro?

      Thanks!
      Stefano

      Elimina
    3. You're trying to compile the kernel on the board or cross compiling on your computer?

      Elimina
    4. Hi!
      I'm compiling the kernel directly on the board, i think i solved the problem above just making symlinks from /usr/bin/ld to arm-linux-gnueabihf-ld and so on.
      Now the problem is:

      When i launch the command:

      make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- -j3 uImage

      i get this error:

      make[1]: *** [arch/arm/common/built-in.o] Error 237
      make: *** [arch/arm/common] Error 2
      make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

      without stopping the process, it just keeps going and apparently its a minor error.

      the problem is that, when it finishes, there's no uImage anywhere!

      even the other two commands:

      "make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- -j3 INSTALL_MOD_PATH=output modules

      make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- -j3 INSTALL_MOD_PATH=output modules_install

      seem to work fine and with no error .

      do you have any hints on this issue?


      thanks!

      Elimina
    5. error whth linux-sunxi kernel downloaded from git , following the guide, and same error tring to compile kernel sources obtained from apt repository...

      Elimina
    6. Those commands are for cross compiling.
      If you compile directly on the board the commands are (if I remember right):
      make uImage
      make modules
      make modules_install

      Keep me posted ;)

      Elimina
  17. Hi again!
    i'm much less than a newbie when it comes to kernel compilation and stuff like that.
    networking is my professional field.
    i need this board to get a multicast stream though a vpn played by xbmc with pvr and tvheadend enabled for EPG.
    so your image seemed to me just what i was looking for.
    I succesfully compiled the kernel following your advice and, as a matter of fact i can launch the vpn now.
    BUT, when the board bootstraps the hdmi monitor detects the signal but the screen remains black.
    and theres no xbmc process running any more as i noticed before kernel compilation.
    no login prompt at the hdmi monitor nor graphical interface at all.
    however i can logon into the box via ssh, as networking seems to properly work.
    even mouse and keyboard apparently are not recognized.
    i installed xfce4 and a vncserver so it's possible to have a graphical inteface but as a remote desktop. useless!

    i tried to re-configure and re-compile adding more features, but same result.
    i must have screwed somewhere at kernel configuration.

    all i need is something as simple as a ppp module wich is necessary to launch a vpn.
    none of the images provided on the forum have this feature enabled and therefore a kernel recompilation becomes necessary!



    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Did you launch the command make sun4i_defconfig before adding your modules through make menuconfig ?
      Moreover you can try to download directly the tar.gz file from the repo as I did:
      https://github.com/linux-sunxi/linux-sunxi/tree/sunxi-3.4

      What are the missing modules for vpn?

      Elimina
  18. Hi again,
    after the summer I'm tring again to work this out.

    this is basically what i did:

    enlarged the / partition.

    created a 2GB swap file system and activated trhough fstab

    and finally ,succesflully , compiled the kernel with the required modules for PPP which are:

    root@hackberry:~# cat linux-sunxi/.config | grep -i ppp
    CONFIG_PPP=m
    CONFIG_PPP_BSDCOMP=m
    CONFIG_PPP_DEFLATE=m
    CONFIG_PPP_FILTER=y
    CONFIG_PPP_MPPE=m
    CONFIG_PPP_MULTILINK=y
    CONFIG_PPPOE=m
    CONFIG_PPPOLAC=m
    CONFIG_PPPOPNS=m
    CONFIG_PPP_ASYNC=m
    CONFIG_PPP_SYNC_TTY=m

    su i just did sun4i_defconfig, checked the required modules, make && make modules && make modules_install
    and everything went just fine with no errors.
    Copied uImage in the boot directory, renamed the old one and rebooted.

    So now the situation is:

    perfomances decreased with new kernel.

    networking ok, i can ssh into the box.

    xbmc wont start at boot any more, i have to manually do a : "service xbmc start" every time, but with some googling i think i can fix this...maybe.

    the real problem is that usb seems not to be working, mouse and keyboard are dead.
    maybe some module not loaded at startup?

    this is the lsmod with you image:

    root@hackberry:~# uname -ra
    Linux hackberry 3.4.29 #1 PREEMPT Thu Apr 25 14:56:16 CEST 2013 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux
    root@hackberry:~# lsmod
    Module Size Used by
    sun4i_ir 3708 0
    cpufreq_stats 2765 0
    mali_drm 2600 0
    drm 207856 1 mali_drm
    mali 109638 2
    ump 50817 3 mali
    8192cu 599159 0


    and this is the same commands with the image i compiled:


    root@hackberry:~# uname -ra
    Linux hackberry 3.4.43+ #1 PREEMPT Wed Sep 11 18:12:37 CEST 2013 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux

    root@hackberry:~# lsmod
    Module Size Used by
    cpufreq_stats 2765 0
    mali_drm 2600 0
    drm 207872 1 mali_drm
    mali 109856 0
    ump 50817 1 mali
    8192cu 453766 0


    The only difference i noticed is that module sun4i_ir is not loaded with my image, BUT, that shouldn't be usb related (?)

    What could be the mistake according to this??

    Thanks a lot!

    Stefano



    RispondiElimina
  19. Hi! I'm a Debian user, this imagen it's a great compilation and working very well on my hackberry board (1G), only I've a couple of things that do not work, Shutdown menu and usb auto mount,

    the first I think the problem is in the xbmc-watchdog.sh
    so I've got to use a ssh connection to shutdown the hackberry correctly

    the second I install a usbmount using apt-get command of course
    # apt-get install usbmount
    and it's working well, you only have to follow in the xbmc the directory /media/

    Only one question: we can expect future versions of hackbmc?

    Thanks for this work

    RispondiElimina