ViX 029 and 147 drivers

[IAmATeaf]

Had some spare time so I downloaded the ViX image from the Vu+HD site which was 029 and then the current ViX image.

Looking at 029 it has the normal set of 4 files in the extra folder but looking at 147 it has 2 extra file, namely bcm_event.ko and dvb_base.ko. I've had a look at the drivers released by Vu and these files aren't there as part of the drivers package so does anybody have any ideas who or what these 2 extra driver files are?

 

[ketmp]

Yes, from Vix142+ and also from OpenATV 4.2 (around build date 06/02/15), both these two images have adopted what sim2/Sunray team have referred to as xbmc drivers. These drivers (but older version) were first included in BlackHole XBMC.

The drivers are from VU+ but must still be in beta as they're not officially listed on their site from what I've noticed.

Both these images now include options to have animated screens and, at a guess, maybe needed for xbmc to work better (just a guess).

Anyone with an image which has the old Lonrison clonesafe drivers and both protections added to the drivers to prevent them being overwritten, are able to (online) update to later builds and the drivers remain the same Lonrison ones. The downside to this is that animated screens aren't available on Vix at least probably due to fact the image has noticed the drivers aren't the correct ones.***

I think at this rate, newer images will eventually be harder to come by for those with clones that aren't supported anymore.

All Vu-HD website need to do is either release an update to the flash and/or patch drivers so that their users can continue enjoying using latest images.


UPDATE: Oh and it's not just two extra files included, the main driver (which contains the clone bomb code) is smaller in size now than the last official release 09/01/15 when I had a quick glance at it.

*** I still do not recommend doing an online update unless you're prepared and understand that it's possible you risk bricking your box. As usual, any online update done is done so at your own risk.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Thanks, Lonrison support has been poor at best so I'm not holding out for an update any time soon. Is a pity really and they are only likely to do something when the sales of Sunray boxes hurts their bottom line. Look at Ferrari, they quite happily run with really old drivers pasted into new images and now have seemed to have adopted this as a standard way of running.

 

[ketmp]

Personally, I don't see any support coming for Lonrison neither. They seem to want people to pay for a brand new box that can, currently at least, take original images or to keep paying for new flash chips.

Lonrison can continue to have old drivers pasted into newer images as it's what I do. It came a lot trickier when driver format changed to xbmc ones but it's still currently possible so long as one has their box flashed with v4 bootloader.

I don't think it's acceptable to continue to have really old drivers. For those with technical know how, it's clearly not hard to patch a file.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Totally agree with you.

If I buy another clone solo2 I'll make sure it's a Sunray for sure.

 

[dubliner]

Totally agree with you.

If I buy another clone solo2 I'll make sure it's a Sunray for sure.

Would agree about support for lonrisun boxes as the Xteam seems to be in a coma. And we might not see anymore more support in the future .

And me mate was going to order a sunray v2 solo2 clone today .But i remember there,s still no recovery way yet.Bricked means Bricked no jtag yet{ hopefully on the v3 version usb flash recovery word has it from one chinese seller not me but won,t state when.

And there,s still a bit of a heat problem with sunrays{Nothing to worry about but has to be stated }

This is why people bought lonrisun in the first place as v1s had issuses .And as a Sim2team fan for years this was a kick in nuts but thanks to dirkjan73 feed back was able avoid sunrays v1s .

And i try tell people about cloud ibox 3 se support team but they don,t listen .

Another great little box going under the radar again .

 

[ketmp]

...And me mate was going to order a sunray v2 solo2 clone today .But i remember there,s still no recovery way yet.Bricked means Bricked no jtag yet{ hopefully on the v3 version usb flash recovery word has it from one chinese seller not me but won,t state when.

And there,s still a bit of a heat problem with sunrays{Nothing to worry about but has to be stated}

I agree about no recovery but to be honest no one can say for sure that even with a box claiming recovery can be done no one knows what, if anything, VU+ may do in the future which may render such claims useless.

Even if my box could run original images, I would still stick with clone safe images from sunray so long as they keep supporting it with latest images and latest patched drivers. It's better to be safe than sorry.

At one time both Lonrison and Sunray claimed all kinds but then VU+ saw and end to Lonrison claims but Sunray kept going for a few more months since original clone bomb before then their box wouldn't accept original images without a dodgy work-around (Sunray never did suffer from brick though best I know of though).

Therefore, any claims now made about original images may be true but it can't be guaranteed it would stay like this or if it can be recovered depending on what, if anything, VU do as I mentioned earlier.

 

[IAmATeaf]

I've unpacked ViX 141 and 142 and they both have the 2 extra 'xmbc' files. Do you think it would cause problems if i replaced the 6 driver files with the 4 files from the 029 image?

 

[ketmp]

I've unpacked ViX 141 and 142 and they both have the 2 extra 'xmbc' files. Do you think it would cause problems if i replaced the 6 driver files with the 4 files from the 029 image?

I tried that and it refuses to boot (gets stuck on VU+ splash screen). Tried replacing the entire 3.13.5 folder (and its sub folders) and same thing no boot. No boot meaning no boot including no telnet neither.

The images I've done for Lonrison (in download section) were done by using last image before XBMC was introduced and replaced drivers with the only clone safe Lonrison drivers around (ie August 2014 - what's in 029) and used both the version patch and write-protect drivers and then did an online update. This updated image to 142 but kept drivers and kernel, etc as the old August driver but allowed the image to boot. Features not fully working are animated screens (I noticed the animated menu doesn't exist on 142 patched with old style drivers) and I've had comments that XBMC doesn't fully work. Both of these I expected to be honest as they both require XBMC drivers to fully work.

I did OpenVix, OpenATV and BH using same technique (BH is still the non XBMC drivers for time being).

I've only had one comment problem about this and that was they noticed a crash problem in the morning on the Lonrison vix 142 but this person had done a settings restore from previous build and installed plugins. No one else, as yet, as commented on this and I've asked this person to flash again without settings restore (and before installing loads of plugins) to see if it happens again.

This obviously is a process of elimination as problem could be with a plugin and vix 142, settings restore or even fact the driver is old version designed for non-XBMC vix's. I'd have thought I'd have heard from others by now if it was a driver issue as it would effect both OpenVix and OpenATV users.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Ok I'm confused, easily done what inage version did you patch? As I said above both 141 and 142 have the 6 driver files so in theory I'd need to go back to an older image but with ViX being down 141 is the earliest image they have available.

 

[ketmp]

Ok I'm confused, easily done what inage version did you patch? As I said above both 141 and 142 have the 6 driver files so in theory I'd need to go back to an older image but with ViX being down 141 is the earliest image they have available.

I patched them Lonrison uploads I did using 137 before Vix went down

 

[IAmATeaf]

If you have unaltered images before 141 could you upload them as original images so that I can grab them and have a play around?

 

[IAmATeaf]

ketmp very kindly uploaded ViX-Apollo-137 which I mounted and copied over the drivers from the Vu+HD 029 image, flashed it to my clone and the box just sticks on Starting...

As a way of testing, I also flashed the same to my original Solo2 which booted using the altered image no problems. So it looks to me like the v4 firmware is detecting something that it doesn't like and stops the boot of the box to protect itself. No idea what it's detecting and not liking though.

 

[ketmp]

Is this the first time you have tried using those drivers from 029?

 

[IAmATeaf]

Is this the first time you have tried using those drivers from 029?

Yes it is, why?

 

[ketmp]

You need drivers from Karl68's vix 078 image as this is what I use for my Lonrison v4 flashed only solo2's

Karl68 did an online update from 029 (vu-hd website) and his 078 image he claims to be 21/10/14 drivers. I think he got this driver date info from the vix 078 image itself which I recently found out the driver date from images will always state the date the image should have not what it actually has if drivers have been swapped/patched.

I had a closer look into the drivers from Karl68 image and they were originally dated beginning of September from the file datestamp (not long after the release of drivers in vix 029 - middle/end August).

I confirmed md5 checksum of karl68's vix 078 driver and it doesn't match any original drivers released either just before or after the august release despite the original datestamp stating beginning of September.

VU didn't release any new drivers during this time so I believe Karl68's drivers in vix 078 are slightly patched drivers from the 029 version as the filesize is slightly smaller.

A lot of people have used my Lonrison v4 images I've uploaded so I know they work with confirmed v4 flashed boxes.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Thanks, I'm going to give your 147 image a try, will have to wait until the Man U game though

 

[IAmATeaf]

Did some more testing and where I said the modded image works on an original, that's not true. For some reason I thought it had flashed but it hadn't as I tried again today and I got the same stuck on starting.

So it looks like the steps I'm using to repack the image aren't quite what the box is expecting. I'll investigate this as soon as i can

 

[ketmp]

That makes more sense.

I know the Sunray team compile the images directly from the source code (for open source ones anyhow).

Are there like options available when you're repacking as it could just be something like that?

I have asked Rami (from sunray support) and he said it's complicated with programming codes/options needed.

I was hoping it would be a case of using something like WinRar and adding/replacing files but clearly it's not.

 

[IAmATeaf]

I'm essentially using mkfs.ubifs and ubinize to repack the image.