Database Info

Google TV hack!

Greetings Programs!
I have found the recovery menu for Sony's Google TV/BluRay player!
Here are the details on how to access it (from my original post here: androidforums.[COM]/google-tv/201827-sony-google-tv-hack.html)
OK... so I found out how to get into recovery mode on the Sony Google TV/BluRay player that was released yesterday.
1.Have everything plugged into the unit except the power coord. Have the power coord in your hand.
2.Press and hold the power button and plug the unit in.
3.Continue to hold down the power button for 3 seconds after plugging it in, then release the power button.
4.Wait a couple of seconds and it will say Sony, then you will see the recovery screen.
5.After it loads, press and hold the connect button on the unit. Then follow the directions at the bottom of the screen (Press and hold ALT+ENTER) for 8 seconds/until the bottom message changes. It will change back to it saying that you have to press the CONNECT button, but your remote IS connected.
6.You can now press the numbers assigned to the commands!
WARNING: This could possibly brick your unit and could possibly void your warranty. I am not responsible for anything that happens to your device.
I am going to work on trying to find working drivers and I am going to try to use the Android SDK Tools to install some applications, or at the least try to execute some shell commands. Hopefully we can root it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lets start hacking!

awesome, I will have to keep my eye on this. google TV plus angry birds would be awesome.

Looking forward to seeing this thing cracked! I'm hoping someone will be able to get a USB tuner to work on one, so those without cable or satellite will be able to get TV content without the hassle of another set-top box.

Nice.... Wonder what the possibilities are
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

OK Guys, I am still working on it. Heres a video of me booting it into the recovery mode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L21guovXDsc

Thanks for the information about recovery, I tried it, and was able to get into recovery. I tried writing the logfile to USB, and it "seemed" to work, but after mounting the USB stick on my linux machine, I didn't see any files there.
I bought the Sony NSZ-GT1 so I could port my Android app Better Terminal Emulator Pro onto Google TV. I already ported it to Android-x86 in preparation for this, but seems like I could not ADB into the Google TV over Ethernet. Frustrated, I decided to take a screwdriver to my Google TV, and did a "teardown" as a result. You can see what the guts look like here:
http://www.magicandroidapps.com/wiki//index.php?title=Main_Page#Sony_NSZ-GT1_Google_TV_Teardown
Sorry the pictures are not that great, I used my Moto Droid to take them, and the lighting was terrible.
-Howard

hharte said:
Thanks for the information about recovery, I tried it, and was able to get into recovery. I tried writing the logfile to USB, and it "seemed" to work, but after mounting the USB stick on my linux machine, I didn't see any files there.
I bought the Sony NSZ-GT1 so I could port my Android app Better Terminal Emulator Pro onto Google TV. I already ported it to Android-x86 in preparation for this, but seems like I could not ADB into the Google TV over Ethernet. Frustrated, I decided to take a screwdriver to my Google TV, and did a "teardown" as a result. You can see what the guts look like here:
magicandroidapps.com
Sorry the pictures are not that great, I used my Moto Droid to take them, and the lighting was terrible.
-Howard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ETHERNET? Hasnt anyone tried USB A to USB A cable? I've been busy all day. Gonna go get one tomorrow and figure it out for myself I guess. Can't stand that they have ALREADY corrected the hulu fix for the thing. Why shouldn't I be able to access my paid July plus account? Oh well.
Try USB a to USB a!!!!!

USB A to A will definitely not work. All of the USB ports are connected through internal SMSC 4-port hubs. There are two hubs in the unit, one in the back with 3 ports going to external connectors, and one going to the WLAN module. Up front there is another 4-port hub going to the front USB connector, and presumably to a BT module, but I didn't take mine far enough apart to be sure.
There is one large connector over near the CPU that might have some debug stuff on it.There are also about three 4-pin connectors populated, one of which might be a UART. There is also a footprint for another. Tomorrow I'll get my oscilloscope out and see if any of those pins wiggle on boot.
-Howard

hharte said:
USB A to A will definitely not work. All of the USB ports are connected through internal SMSC 4-port hubs. There are two hubs in the unit, one in the back with 3 ports going to external connectors, and one going to the WLAN module. Up front there is another 4-port hub going to the front USB connector, and presumably to a BT module, but I didn't take mine far enough apart to be sure.
There is one large connector over near the CPU that might have some debug stuff on it.There are also about three 4-pin connectors populated, one of which might be a UART. There is also a footprint for another. Tomorrow I'll get my oscilloscope out and see if any of those pins wiggle on boot.
-Howard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the big long/wide plug. I was looking at the inside of my box too. First day jitters. Anyway, I was also going to start looking for a serial port connection through one of those ports. Good luck and post right away if you find something!

If somene with an ethernet sniffer who has not booted their box yet can catch a sniff of the update download, it might be possible to get the update.zip URL, then we could try hacking the update and install it via recovery. This method was very popular with Android devices... but there you could get the update URL from the logcat
-Howard.

Have we not figured out how to use log copy? It doesn't seem to like anything i plugged in to copy to...

Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Great job guys! My friend is going to be getting a GTV later this week, and I will try to get it from him before he boots it up. Guess I will stop trying USB A to USB A.
Will post results later tonight.

Another possibility is to try and find the kernel source. If you look in Settings, system Information, Open Source Licenses, there is a site on Google Code that is supposed to contain the GPL'd components:
http://code.google.com/p/googletv-mirrored-source/
Going there doesn't show much except one user space component, and a link to a Sony mirror site:
http://products.sel.sony.com/opensource/
I couldn't find anything useful on the Sony site, but maybe someone else will have better luck.
I'll also try plugging in a USB Serial adapter, but my expectations are pretty low that I'd be able to get a console from that. It's interesting that there are so many USB ports on the Google TV. I wonder what other USB peripherals might be supported? I can see the front port being used for a USB memory stick, and maybe one on the back for a camera, but that still leaves two unused ports. Any idea what Sony/Google might have intended them for?
-Howard
http://www.magicandroidapps.com - Home of Better Terminal Emulator Pro

hmm
I have this unit and usb keyboards and mice do work . Also iremember a rep saying the logitech cam would work with the sony blu-ray also. I think you would need to wait for the android store to open though for an app that uses it.

hharte said:
I couldn't find anything useful on the Sony site, but maybe someone else will have better luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you look here : sony.net/Products/Linux/TV/NSZ-GT1.html

That looks like it, thanks! Nice that they have minicom and busybox listed there, so there is hope that some hacking tools are preloaded on the Google TV.
-Howard

Not sure if this helps anyone or not, but i ran a port scan on my box and there are 2 ports 9551 and 9552 that are accepting TCP connections.
nmap -p - <IP address of NSZ-GT1>
result :
PORT STATE SERVICE
9551/tcp open unknown
9552/tcp open unknown
I tried to get ADB to connect to those ports but did not work.
Steps that I tried :
1) export ADBHOST=<IP address of my PC>
2) adb kill-server
3) adb devices
No ADB devices were returned
4) adb connect <IP address of Sony NSZ-GT1>:9551
5) adb shell
Got error "error: device offline"
6) repeat steps 4 and 5 except with port 9552 and got same result
I am no expert in any of this stuff so the above might just be sending someone down a rabbit hole but I figured I might share in case it might be helpful to some of the smarter people on here.

Try "adb devices" and see if it show anything.
I looked at the kernel from the Sony site:
http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/TV/NSZ-GT1.html
Here are some findings:
Linux kernel version: 2.6.23.18_nl-btv
Kernel config:
arch/i386/configs/btv_defconfig
CONFIG_USB_SMSC9500=m
Note the SMSC 9500 USB/Ethernet is one of only two loadable modules in the kernel config. Maybe this has some significance, like maybe they use a second Ethernet port for development.
-Howard

Very interesting.... I am thinking of getting a second unit to try to intercept the update.zip.... would anyone be able to tell me how I would do this?

[Q] Superpad Flytouch 7/8 serial over USB host?

Hi,
I'm trying to learn about serial communication with devices from an Android tablet via USB host mode. I have a tablet, I have the devices, I have the apps... they just won't talk. It's most likely something to do with the firmware on my odd tablet, or maybe I'm just missing something stupid.
The tablet:
SUPERPAD FLYTOUCH
10.2" >24GB< ANDROID 4.0 TABLET A10 1.5Ghz CPU | 1GB RAM
"About this Tablet" says:
Model: BC1003
Android 4.04
Baseband ver 1.5rc4
Kernel 3.0.8 [email protected] #2 Mon Aug 6 15:23:31 CST 2012
There are 2 USB-A ports on this device. One has a physical switch that goes from device to host mode, comes with a male-male cable for attaching to a PC. The other port is host only. I can connect a USB thumb drive and it mounts just fine, shows up in the file manager, no problems. Same for a USB keyboard. It powers any USB device I've plugged into it.
The problem:
It works well enough for most things. But, I've now run into two applications that won't use the host USB port on the thing. Both seem to want to do basic serial communication. At this point, those 2 apps are about the only things I actually want to do with it, so I'm willing to experiment.
I have a USB oscilloscope that comes with an Android app. The app installs and runs fine, but it won't recognize the hardware usb device I've plugged in. Annoying, but I don't really need it. I've recently purchased some digital scales(DROs) for my lathe/mill. There's an Android app that interfaces these scales to an Arduino device via USB. Installs fine, won't connect to the Arduino. Okay, now this is starting to get annoying. Also, for what it's worth, the Android app for doing general Arduino stuff didn't work either.
So, the USB hardware works enough to connect a USB thumb drive or keyboard but the firmware won't use said hardware to do what I want.
The questions:
Am I doing something wrong? Is there an app I can install that enables serial communication over USB host mode? Am I missing something stupid?
Is there any other firmware I can run that will allow this communication? I think I've got the Windows utility that will allow me to flash the rom. I've watched the youtube vids on dis-assembly so I can pull the internal tf/sdcard and make a full dd backup. I'm assuming it contains the roms and everything else. Actually, I'm thinking about just pulling said card and replacing it with a smaller one for experimenting. Will I still be able to flash it using the windows LiveSuite utility even with a blank card inserted?
At this point, I'm willing to play. I mean, it's still useful enough to be careful, but I'm willing to take some chances and put a little work into it. If I can get it running with the DRO software while talking over USB to the Arduino, I'd sacrifice everything else. GPS, battery life, wifi, screen rotation, sound, whatever. I'd just bolt the thing next to the mill and that's that. Failing that, I'll put it back to stock and stick it on the fridge for my wife to look up recipes, Yeah, poor tablet... motor oil and metal swarf or cooking oil and flour. No happy retirement for this tablet, sitting in a drawer gathering dust.
Any hints, links, recommendations, or directions appreciated.
David...

Cenovo MiniPC

Hi guys. Help greatly appreciated.
I bought a Cenovo MiniPC from Gearbest 2 months ago and from day 1 I've been getting blue screen errors. I immediately reported this to Gearbest and as you can imagine with the time difference between here (Sweden) and there (China) I was getting slow responses. Cut a long story short they 1st offered me a $20 refund from a $90 device, I accepted at the time as the errors have not appeared for over a week and thought it could be the end of it. 2 weeks after this the errors came back and it wasn't just blue screen on startup but it would freeze up during a session. I again reported this demanding for a full refund and they refused. I opened a dispute with PayPal and after a while they offered me a further $20 which I refused, they then sent me an email and said if I close the dispute they will give me a full refund. I was hesitant whether this was a scam but I went along with it and to their word I got a refund 3 days later.
After I got my refund I thought I may as well try and fix it myself now so I started in BIOS and fiddled with some switches for the emmc, one was 'secure erase', I don't know what was going through my head or what I thought the outcome would be but I enabled it and restarted. Now it just boots into BIOS and I am guessing the reason is that the emmc is now blank.
So ive now got a minipc with a blank emmc, I have loaded a bootable copy of Windows 10 setup to a usb and forced a usb boot in the bios but nothing happens.
I have opened the case to look for a emmc card I can take out and put in my laptop to reformat with an os but I couldn't find anything, there was a metal grill on one side that looks like it is hiding stuff and it is impossible to lift the grill off.
There is a tf card reader on the side so i am thinking that I can extract a Android image onto the card and boot from the card but I am not sure how and whether it will work.
Can i get some assistance in this please.
James

Hello, I've got same problem, 0xc000025 error code, arrived my tentative to upgrade the PC to Windows 10 (the PC arrived with 8.1 installed)
No way to boot my USB in the bios. Have you solved? Someone can help?

try and format the usb stick to 4k sectors before using the win10 media creator, think that's how i did it

Thank you for replying and sorry for the late response.
Have you got the same mini pc?
How do you format stick into 4k sectors? What format did you use (Fat32,NTFS...)?

fat32, in windows format dialog box its "allocation unit size" set to 4096
to boot from usb the stick has to be recognised as bootable before u can run the bios command to override boot device

yep i figured it out thanks. ive now got another problem and this is totally my fault if it cant be fixed...
in bios i unchecked the option to use integrated graphics so now when i boot i see nothing
maddogbarber said:
fat32, in windows format dialog box its "allocation unit size" set to 4096
to boot from usb the stick has to be recognised as bootable before u can run the bios command to override boot device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

jamos316 said:
yep i figured it out thanks. ive now got another problem and this is totally my fault if it cant be fixed...
in bios i unchecked the option to use integrated graphics so now when i boot i see nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
intesting, daft thing to do tho, u could try borrow a usb gfx card?

Does anybody know how to reset the bios, because I've disabled the usb ( stupid x 10000 ) and I cannot use the usb ports (mouse and keyboard)

same problem here... I've disabled xhci support and no USB right now. The problem is that removing the battery does not make the bios to default.

I've still got the issue with no picture. I need to reset the bios but not sure how. Or maybe I can connect it to my laptop and get it working from there

yo. just got myself a cenovo mini pc 2, and it runs windows 10, but it's not legit. That bothers me, so I want to run android or linux. You guys mention that it's running a BIOS, but i think perhaps the mini pc 2 is running non-BIOS/EFI, because there's no preboot screen, and USB drives don't boot up at all.

Hi !
Did anyone got a chance at installing another os ?
I have a Cenovo mini pc 2 and I had troubles with sound. I had no issue for a week or two and then (maybe windows update, who knows) the sound would switch to the speakers output instead of the hdmi one. (it was plugged on my tv) so I decided (stupidly) to uninstall the audio components with the hope that windows would redetect and reinstall them with better drivers. Well, that didn't work and now in my device manager are two unknown components which don't work and I have no sound at all. If anyone found the global drivers for the device, or could make me a screenshot of their devices panel...
In the meantime I would probably try my luck to install openelec or kodibuntu on it but I couldn't manage to boot on bios. Did anyone tried using the Advanced startup option of windows 10 ?

Driver Package Cenovo MiniPC2
nyaneko said:
Hi !
Did anyone got a chance at installing another os ?
I have a Cenovo mini pc 2 and I had troubles with sound. I had no issue for a week or two and then (maybe windows update, who knows) the sound would switch to the speakers output instead of the hdmi one. (it was plugged on my tv) so I decided (stupidly) to uninstall the audio components with the hope that windows would redetect and reinstall them with better drivers. Well, that didn't work and now in my device manager are two unknown components which don't work and I have no sound at all. If anyone found the global drivers for the device, or could make me a screenshot of their devices panel...
In the meantime I would probably try my luck to install openelec or kodibuntu on it but I couldn't manage to boot on bios. Did anyone tried using the Advanced startup option of windows 10 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have my Cenovo MiniPC2 since 2 Days and its working without Problems. Because the first what i'am doing with ia new PC is a backup, i have a Driver Backup too
Use Driver Backup and ask me for a Link to the Driver Package because i cant post outside Links before i spamed xda with antoher 9 postings without links.... sorry.
Maybe i can post a Textlink
mega.nz/#!d8hgzYpa!vI5_giRvMQoWLrNZeIAua3dYNL1J3JFiWOHSK_PPcaE
mega.nz/#!wkJWXbyS!dvVQ4JRn3r2GWAANtQ99purCUrbsNdoWxq_fx8x8gKo

SomeoneYouNeverKnow said:
I have my Cenovo MiniPC2 since 2 Days and its working without Problems. Because the first what i'am doing with ia new PC is a backup, i have a Driver Backup too
Use Driver Backup and ask me for a Link to the Driver Package because i cant post outside Links before i spamed xda with antoher 9 postings without links.... sorry.
Maybe i can post a Textlink
mega.nz/#!d8hgzYpa!vI5_giRvMQoWLrNZeIAua3dYNL1J3JFiWOHSK_PPcaE
mega.nz/#!wkJWXbyS!dvVQ4JRn3r2GWAANtQ99purCUrbsNdoWxq_fx8x8gKo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still have the problem with no graphics.
I know the problem as I disabled the onboard graphics in bios... I know **** head move.
I have tried to remove the lead leading from the bios to the motherboard in hopes it will reset it but nothing.
Is there anything I can do from USB do you think? Such as flash a new bios.

yanger said:
yo. just got myself a cenovo mini pc 2, and it runs windows 10, but it's not legit. That bothers me, so I want to run android or linux. You guys mention that it's running a BIOS, but i think perhaps the mini pc 2 is running non-BIOS/EFI, because there's no preboot screen, and USB drives don't boot up at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Cenovo Mini PC 2 with 2GB/32GB. BIOS/EFI/set-up is accessed via pressing F2 after boot. Sometimes it will accept the F2 request, sometimes not. Not sure if this is an issue related to the keypress timing after boot being critical, or the unit being generally fussy (maybe selection of which of the 4 + 1 USB sockets for keyboard is critical?). Only wandered around the BIOS settings a few times but there was all manner of Android-specific options available.
Strangely, when the F2 key is accepted, a message is flashed briefly on the screen saying "Esc key pressed" or similar, as if the "Esc" key was the BIOS access key.
The NexBox T11 InsydeH20 UEFI / BIOS / set-up options are near identical to the Cenovo Mini PC 2. There is a video walkthough of the Netbox T11 Setup Utility although it does not mention the very first screen and options seen when F2 is pressed. The Cenovo Mini PC 2 very first screen titled "First Page" can be viewed at
i68.tinypic.com/35ciec7.jpg
and the subsequent video walkthrough of the T11 "Setup Utility" can viewed at
youtube.com/watch?v=WVdXbjsF5-g

nyaneko said:
Hi ! Did anyone got a chance at installing another os ?... I have a Cenovo mini pc 2... I would probably try my luck to install openelec or kodibuntu on it but I couldn't manage to boot on bios. Did anyone tried using the Advanced startup option of windows 10 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I initially had issues attempting USB boot of Macrium Reflect with my Cenovo Mini PC 2. Eventually solved by one or more amendments of changing brand of USB stick, using Rufus to generate the bootable USB stick via formatting to FAT32 with 4096 bytes cluster size, and disabling fast UEFI in settings. USB stick was inserted into the Mini PC 2 and UEFI / BIOS was accessed by pressing F2 immediately after boot. From the first setting screen, "Boot Manager" was selected and the USB device was visible and able to be highlighted to boot from.

Hi,
Can someone please share the wireless drivers for the minipc2?
I did a fresh windows 10 install and can seem to enable wifi and device manager the wireless adapter shows an yellow triangle.
I've tried with SomeoneYouNeverKnow drivers but it didn't solve this issue...
Thank you

geoair said:
Hi,
Can someone please share the wireless drivers for the minipc2?
I did a fresh windows 10 install and can seem to enable wifi and device manager the wireless adapter shows an yellow triangle.
I've tried with SomeoneYouNeverKnow drivers but it didn't solve this issue...
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All drivers can be found via URL below. Restore with freeware app DoubleDriver.
mediafire.com/file/aabn24xzj40jsc8/Cenovo++back+up+drivers+CherryTrail.rar
boozet.org/dd.htm

xdevi1 said:
All drivers can be found via URL below. Restore with freeware app DoubleDriver.
mediafire.com/file/aabn24xzj40jsc8/Cenovo++back+up+drivers+CherryTrail.rar
boozet.org/dd.htm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you.
Season greetings

Graphics drivers for cenovo pc mini 1
I Had all the issues which is in this thread so i took the steps as follows it came with windows 10 dual booting android when i looked on the partitions it was a joke several all using up space i entered bios disabled secure emmc created a windows 8.1 32 bit usb boot disk using rufus selecting gpt also fat 32 16k sectors , it worked once i entered install i delete those partitions all of them until i had a single 32 gig partition which i installed a clean windows 8.1 leaving me 20 gigs after install now the problem i have like a idiot i forgot to take a note of the device id vendor etc of the display which does not even appear in the basic adaptor tree in device manager ,, i have tried several drivers but none worked the website who made this device needs a good slap, no drivers no support but a nice device with much potential and why lock the bios to 32bit? what is wrong with these people in the mean time
if anyone has the drivers for this device please share them i would be grateful and if needed i can make a guide on how to turn this little device in to a full windows computer its locked on windows 8 in the bios and most settings in the bios is locked to but i have obtained bios editor tools for this american trends i will give it a try later once i have full gpu control the rest i do not care as it will be used with bluetooth but intel hd drivers or the device if would be appreciated
Kind Regards

Problem with TFMTKAW01232 TrekStor Surftab theatre L15 MTMT8163

Hello people,
I bought a used TrekStor Surftab theatre L15 TFMTKAW01232 and the MT8163 in the hope that I can repair it.
The problem with the device is that it is not possible to boot and after pressing the Volume + and On button for some time, I get into the boot menu. Here I have the choice of recovery, fastboot, norma bootl. No matter which selection I make, the tablet remains dark and nothing happens next.
I got myself a USB-A to USB-A cable and searched for the original Rom and found it. When trying to flash it with the SP_Flash_Tool I get the error "ERROR: S_BROM_CMD_JUMP_DA_FAIL".
What I notice is that the device seems to stay connected via USB only very briefly. I have already installed several drivers and in the tool it also shows me
the connected device "MediaTek USB Port_V1633 (COM4 on)".
Do you have any other idea how I could solve the problem?

Hi,
could you help me please?
I have here same model as you mentioned for repair.
A reverse polarity power source was attached to it, which resulted in a burned chip.
That chip I am unable to identify because it was destroyed.
I am attaching a photo of the mainboard where I've marked the position of that chip.
Would it be possible for you to have a look at your board and take a picture of the chip for me?
I would really appreciate it!
Thank you!

Help me to Identify what pins to short (amlogic tv box)

I have an amlogic tv box that i want to revive. Its a generic chinese box.
With a lot of help of the community i managed ti identify the board, Is the one from this link:
https://www.szjytx.com/?id=13299
The one from the link (as you can see by the photos i posted) is the same one physically. The only thing i couldn't identify was the real processor (the manufacturer was faking it), because when i removed the heat ink, the painting on the chip got erased.
So i started to experiment with it.
I couldn't find any ROM for the processor that that chinese page says (S905L-B)
After various tries , I could install twrp (for the s905w processor)
The first working one was one for the "x96 mini", it worked but it only showed 1/4 of the total screen.
Then i tried one for the tanix tx3 mini, and it worked like charm, i could backup and restore roms.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that introduction, here's the problem:
The box has no reset button, so the only roms i could try were from twrp update zips.
So, as i did with the recovery, i tested first installing a "x96 mini" rom, and i had the same result, a bootable rom showing 1/4 of the screen.
The next was to try a "tanix tx3 mini" rom, and after the flash it never booted again (not even the logo), so i think is bricked at bootloader level. Te power led powers on, but no image.
I think my only hope to revive it is to flash a rom trough the amlogic burn tool.
The problem is that the device can't be recognized by the tool.
i only had partial luck /really strange behavior) with a malfunctioning usb male to male cable, testing it sometimes it got recognized for a few seconds (of course i couldn't install any rom with that little gap).
With a brand new male to male usb cable it gets nothing.
This new cable works, because the power led of the device turns on, but it doesn't get recognized by windows or the tool.
I know that there's a method to force the box to go to download mode, by shorting two pins, but i cant tell what pins are the correct ones, o some hint to it.
I attached pictures form both sides of the board.
https://imgur.com/a/EBYsTYk
Thanks in advance

I am having the same problem. Did you solve the problem?