Allwinner H3 - Beelink X2

There has been much chat on here about the possibility of hacking Droid boxes..... well here is one that IS hackable and there is an image available for its download too

Beelink X2 less than £20

Debian Image

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Mod edit: this is an interesting Allwinner SoC device so I've moved it here, the proper forum.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2017 12:15AM by bodhi.

Nice, and favorable results searching "Beelink X2 Android 4.4 TV BOX" at eBay as well.

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@Gravelrash: Nice and thank you for the links.

@Joey: Perhaps, you can try this hack on your US $10 Android smartphone and see if that will work.

habibie Wrote:
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> @Joey: Perhaps, you can try this hack on your US
> $10 Android smartphone and see if that will work.

Based on the several minutes this past year where I successfully copy and pasted Qui tutorials, I can tell you with certainty, it won't work on a Huawei phone with locked bootloader.

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IC.

Gravelrash Wrote:
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> There has been much chat on here about the possibility of hacking Droid boxes..... well here is one that IS hackable and there is an image available for its download too
>
> Beeli nk X2 less than £20
> Debian Image

I wondered if the following IP TV Boxes + Free S/H will be compatible to the above Debian Image.

1. A95X 1G/8G Amlogic S905 Quad Core DDR3 TV Box under US $27.
2. X96 1G/8G Amlogic S905X Quad Core Android 6.0 TV Box currently on sale under US $32.

No - they are amlogic based and not allwinner H3

try here http://openlinux.amlogic.com/

Gravelrash, thank you.

I just checked my e-mail and found this NEXBOX MXQ PRO TV Box 64Bit Android 5.1 under $26 (if anyone is interested). Here is the Amlogic S905 vs Rockchip RK3368 Benchmarks Comparison.

Now, GearBest has this Sunvell T95X Amlogic S905X Android TV Box - 1GB + 8GB EU PLUG on sale for US $24.99 + Free S/H to any US address. This offer will last until 8/8/16. If you are interested, grab it before the offer is gone.

Up front that looks pretty cool habibie. But then again I know nothing about Android 6. In review, I've learned to like v4 KitKat but never fell in love with v5 Marshmallow. Hardware looks much finer than a lot of my little boxes here.

For all the little boxes with HDMI out, we should keep an eye out for some neat, cheap, portable monitor. Not that I lack AC-powered ones thanks to Goodwill and their 50% off sales, but something light.

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Hello Joey,

I was hoping for someone who is interested in this device to hack running Linux.

I think the both of us Habibie may have de-railed a perfectly good topic. And if you don't mind my criticizing, I did get a phone you recommended and it wasn't hackable, and while $10 isn't much of a loss, the hours down the drain for nothing is time I can't get back. Maybe hustling product is better when you know you're not locked-out and so forth?

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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> I think the both of us Habibie may have de-railed
> a perfectly good topic. And if you don't mind my
> criticizing, I did get a phone you recommended and
> it wasn't hackable, and while $10 isn't much of a
> loss, the hours down the drain for nothing is time
> I can't get back. Maybe hustling product is better
> when you know you're not locked-out and so forth?
>
Joey, you may want to create a new post about your $10 phone. This way, you won't feel to have hijacked this thread.

No, before that - Gravelrash has a perfectly good unit in its own right, with an actual image - that should be grounds to stay on that topic and not hustle purchases for items that we don't understand how it boots.

I really like the stuff you show Habibie but twice in the last month I've went to purchase something you mentioned and the seller had gone away. It's not a one-way criticism, I'm saying I need to learn more Linux and you need to stop dealing with trench-coat watch salesmen :-)

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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> I really like the stuff you show Habibie but twice
> in the last month I've went to purchase something
> you mentioned and the seller had gone away. It's
> not a one-way criticism, I'm saying I need to
> learn more Linux and you need to stop dealing with
> trench-coat watch salesmen :-)
>
Joey, you are right.

Just wanted to update here. I ordered an Android MXQ Pro S905 1/8 GB RAM/eMMc storage US $12.99 + Free ePacket shipping about two weeks ago and the shipment arrived today. I have been using and watching some Internet video/TV streamings since with no problem, yet. So far, so good.

I have to admit that's a mind-numbingly good deal habibie :-)
So congrats from me.

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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> I have to admit that's a mind-numbingly good deal habibie :-) So congrats from me.
>
Joey, not yet. The item is full of problems, i.e. AV port malfunction, bluetooth module fails, no way to set static IP Address, etc. I contacted to inform the seller that s/he shipped me a defective item and s/he seems to say something I don't quite understand that s/he wanted to offer a full refund without sending the item back, but will lose the money because of it. I replied saying that I welcome a full refund without sending back the item. So, let me know how to proceed. That was last Friday and am still waiting for the reply.

Meanwhile, I am still waiting for at least two more S905 packages ($12.55 and $16.99). BTW, this S905 MXQ Pro US $10.55 may be a good deal or may also be a scam.

For AV port, I finally managed to get my S905 TV Box to work using my old analog NTSC TV set through its AV port with some helps from folks @RedFlagDeals forum as shown in my post. As you can see, the AV port is not broken, but just factory configured for a PAL mode. I am still looking to fix the bluetooth issue and hope it too is just factory misconfigured and/or missing the Linux bluetooth driver.

That's awesome Habibie! I read pretty much all your posts but don't now what to say a lot of the time.

Sooner or later I'd like to score a little box like the ones described here, but it has to be ARM and Debian wouldn't hurt. This is because to use it for UART booting other ARM boxes.

My pennies are on hold for a little bit, but I'll be on the lookout. No on 2nd thought I'll be bugging you guys "is this an ARM box?" LOL

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Joey,

AFAIK, Amlogic S905 SoC is a 4-core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 based CPU. You will be able to find some information on how to replace its original (stock) uboot with a 3-rd party uboot, i.e. Step by Step Instructions on How to Install Openelec on MXQ Pro+ Dual Boot Via SD Card (will also work for S905 SoC), etc., so that you can make it to dual boot with an Android (stock) and a Linux (on an external storage) OS. Right now, eBay has this 4K HD Smart TV Box S905 MXQ Pro for CAN $13.68 (about US $10.62). I paid mine (4K MXQ Pro S905 OTT TV Box) from one of eBay sellers for US $12.99. However, because it had a problem with its A/V port (I did not know it was factory configured for PAL at the time), Kodi can't write to an SD card, etc., the seller decided to give me a full refund. Before you decide to place an order for this 4K MXQ Pro S905 device (chances are it also is an OTT brand), you will need to know it is fully loaded with a lot of Kodi blacklisted add-ons. These add-ons are not bad at all, except if you wanna get helps from folks in Kodi forum, they won't help if they know your Android device is loaded with any of Kodi blacklisted add-ons (see my post).

> will need to know it is fully loaded with a lot of
> Kodi blacklisted add-ons. These add-ons are not
> bad at all, except if you wanna get helps from
> folks in Kodi forum, they won't help if they know
> your Android device is loaded with any of Kodi
> blacklisted add-ons

Can't blame the Kodi developers. Kodi is open source and free, but the least those vendors could do is contributing a few cents from the profit back to Kodi. And to add insults to ..., they usually loaded the products with pirate add-ons (that's why they were blacklisted). Even though they are cheap, I would never buy any of those products because they failed all decency tests big time.

Also I also might add: I'm speaking as someone who don't like Kodi developers' attitude in the way they think how their SW aesthetics should be and everybody else should feel lucky to use it :))

-bodhi
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2016 11:52PM by bodhi.

habibie Wrote:
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> Joey,
you
> will need to know it is fully loaded with a lot of
> Kodi blacklisted add-ons. These add-ons are not
> bad at all, except if you wanna get helps from
> folks in Kodi forum, they won't help if they know
> your Android device is loaded with any of Kodi
> blacklisted add-ons

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can't blame the Kodi developers. Kodi is open
> source and free, but the least those vendors could
> do is contributing a few cents from the profit
> back to Kodi. And to add insults to ..., they
> usually loaded the products with pirate add-ons
> (that's why they were blacklisted). Even though
> they are cheap, I would never buy any of those
> products because they failed all decency tests big
> time.

The ethics go both ways, for instance in Windows land there's some popular apps where the company allowed their user base to get leaked, everything. In that case the ethical dilemma is, after paying big $$$ for something during college years, am I safer in not registering and going to the dark side? The best of both worlds used to be to have many computers fully legit and one offline that's pirated to hell. At least if you fix computers on a daily basis, which I did (Windows, not Linux!) up until recently. But that's Windows, and where I took creative license decades ago I'm pretty legit right now. I take pride in spending a lot of time to find freewares because the vibe is that much better. If it isn't freeware it's $20-30 well spent like NetLimiter, FastStone Capture, little gems like that.

But Linux is another story. On a serious box like that Kodi box I would rather wipe out an install with known blacklisted apps than risk what else is screwy. To each his own. Photoshop can bite me though.

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bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can't blame the Kodi developers. Kodi is open
> source and free, but the least those vendors could
> do is contributing a few cents from the profit
> back to Kodi. And to add insults to ..., they
> usually loaded the products with pirate add-ons
> (that's why they were blacklisted). Even though
> they are cheap, I would never buy any of those
> products because they failed all decency tests big
> time.
>

Well, I finally managed to fix the issue with RO SD card under kodi.

> Also I also might add: I'm speaking as someone who
> don't like Kodi developers' attitude in the way
> they think how their SW aesthetics should be and
> everybody else should feel lucky to use it :))
>
Can't blame you on that. But, I managed to resolve my issue with some helps from others because of their attitude and I learnt something, too. So, I just can't complain about them nor my free S905 TV Box. So far, it has been performing very well. The next thing for me is to get this HDMI Male to 5 RCA RGB cable and see if the video on my old analog TV set will improve through its DVI ports than the A/V port.

habibie Wrote:
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>. The
> next thing for me is to get this
> HDMI
> Male to 5 RCA RGB cable and see if the video
> on my old analog TV set will improve through its
> DVI ports than the A/V port.


Didn't you get one of these? The switch on the side for PAL/NTSC might be worth the extra pennies, but I dont' know.

-update- I didn't notice lack of free shipping... Still.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2016 02:48PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Joey,

> But Linux is another story. On a serious box like
> that Kodi box I would rather wipe out an install
> with known blacklisted apps than risk what else is
> screwy.

You could buy cheap Android box, and install Kodi on your own, too.

> To each his own.

Yes.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

bodhi Wrote:
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>
> You could buy cheap Android box, and install Kodi
> on your own, too.
>

At best it's weeks away, but if you've got the advice I'll do it. I could flip flop either way, but I'm just saying Linux isn't my home turf and I don't know if something blacklisted has my OctaCore running the world's largest deviant porn site behind my back lol

I know in Windows, piracy is only the first deceit of many.

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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> bodhi Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > You could buy cheap Android box, and install
> Kodi
> > on your own, too.
> >
>
> At best it's weeks away, but if you've got the
> advice I'll do it. I could flip flop either way,
> but I'm just saying Linux isn't my home turf and I
> don't know if something blacklisted has my
> OctaCore running the world's largest deviant porn
> site behind my back lol
>
> I know in Windows, piracy is only the first deceit
> of many.

Yup. Wipe the device (flash basic Android like the Nexus). Install Kodi.

-bodhi
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