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Linux ChromeBox Kodi E-Z Setup Script (LibreELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2017/02/21] - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Linux ChromeBox Kodi E-Z Setup Script (LibreELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2017/02/21] (/showthread.php?tid=194362)

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RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Matt Devo - 2016-07-10

(2016-07-10, 00:34)enchantedplague Wrote: I tried different cables with no change.
However, I tried hooking it directly up to my TV vs through my Denon AVR and the flickering stops.
Any ideas?

ok, so AVR-related. Assuming it's capable, ensure that the AVR firmware is up to date. After that, you might try capturing/loading the EDID at startup so that any AVR-related dropouts are ignored. See the instruction I wrote up on this OE wiki page under the 'Custom EDID' heading.


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - enchantedplague - 2016-07-10

(2016-07-10, 00:42)Matt Devo Wrote: [quote='enchantedplague' pid='2372046' dateline='1468103681']

ok, so AVR-related. Assuming it's capable, ensure that the AVR firmware is up to date. After that, you might try capturing/loading the EDID at startup so that any AVR-related dropouts are ignored. See the instruction I wrote up on this OE wiki page under the 'Custom EDID' heading.

Thank you so much for your help! It was actually the HDMI cable from the AVR to the TV.
Strange how it only effected Kodi 16.1 and not 15.2.
Anyway its working great now.
Thanks!


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Matt Devo - 2016-07-10

(2016-07-10, 01:01)enchantedplague Wrote: Thank you so much for your help! It was actually the HDMI cable from the AVR to the TV.
Strange how it only effected Kodi 16.1 and not 15.2.
Anyway its working great now.
Thanks!

one would think that HDMI cables would either work or not, but that seems to often not be the case. I have a monitor that won't wake from sleep with certain HDMI cables, but is fine with others - took me 3 diff cables to find one that worked.


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - bes3 - 2016-07-13

thanks for the http://mrchromebox.tech/setup-kodi.sh script, worked great.

i used it to successfully transform an Asus chromebox into a librelec box runing kodi 16.1

i screwed up a little bit though.

i wanted to save the stock google firmware before doing the firmware replacement so that i could have a standalone libreelec on the 16GB mSATA and then have a USB stick and boot with CTRL-U to get the original ChromeOS if I so desired.

but my mistake was I stuck a 2GB SD card in to backup the firmware to that I had not checked and it only 512MB free and was also formatted as MSDOS/FAT16 not sure if that part matters.

so when I ran the #6 "Install/Update Custom coreboto firmware", I got an error message that there was not enough disk space for the firmware backup and that writing the backup firmware had failed. Pretty sure the installer then said to press return to go to main menu, which I did, but it did not go back to the main menu, instead it just overwrote the original firmware with the new firmware.

So now I've got librelec kodi working great...

but is there some way I can make/get a USB bootable thumbstick that boots chromeOS?

Also, how would can i restore the original firmware? i think i read the the firmware unique with a MAC id? if so, is it possible to hexedit the binary to mod the MAC or am i out of luck? i'm just worried if something goes wrong now, I no longer have the reset button to get me out of trouble...


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Matt Devo - 2016-07-13

(2016-07-13, 06:55)bes3 Wrote: thanks for the http://mrchromebox.tech/setup-kodi.sh script, worked great.
great, glad to hear it!


Quote:i screwed up a little bit though.

i wanted to save the stock google firmware before doing the firmware replacement so that i could have a standalone libreelec on the 16GB mSATA and then have a USB stick and boot with CTRL-U to get the original ChromeOS if I so desired.
this is a bit of an odd scenario, and not one supported by the EZ Setup Script. It can be done, but I'm not sure of the limitations on running ChromeOS from USB - I haven't seen any articles on doing so in years, so not sure what (if anything) has changed. There's also some hackery involved since you can't just install LibreELEC with the stock firmware (same "hackery" used to install LibreELEC in dual boot mode). If you'd like to pursue this still, PM me and we'll take it offline, as it's not a trivial operation.

Quote:but my mistake was I stuck a 2GB SD card in to backup the firmware to that I had not checked and it only 512MB free and was also formatted as MSDOS/FAT16 not sure if that part matters.

so when I ran the #6 "Install/Update Custom coreboto firmware", I got an error message that there was not enough disk space for the firmware backup and that writing the backup firmware had failed. Pretty sure the installer then said to press return to go to main menu, which I did, but it did not go back to the main menu, instead it just overwrote the original firmware with the new firmware.

that sounds like a bug in the script I need to fix - I'll look into it.

Quote:So now I've got librelec kodi working great...

but is there some way I can make/get a USB bootable thumbstick that boots chromeOS?
see above re: PM

Quote:Also, how would can i restore the original firmware? i think i read the the firmware unique with a MAC id? if so, is it possible to hexedit the binary to mod the MAC or am i out of luck? i'm just worried if something goes wrong now, I no longer have the reset button to get me out of trouble...
as per the wiki, in order to restore the stock firmware, simply boot any old Live Linux USB (eg, GalliumOS or Ubuntu 16.04) and run the ChromeOS Firmware Utility Script (link in the wiki as well). When you installed the custom firmware, the EZ Setup Script extracted the firmware region containing the MAC address (among other things) and injected it into the custom firmware. The ChromeOS Firmware Utility Script will likewise extract the MAC from the custom firmware and put it back into a "generic" copy of the stock firmware if you don't have your own backup -- so no worries there.


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - bbsc - 2016-07-13

(2016-07-13, 07:18)Matt Devo Wrote:
Quote:but my mistake was I stuck a 2GB SD card in to backup the firmware to that I had not checked and it only 512MB free and was also formatted as MSDOS/FAT16 not sure if that part matters.

so when I ran the #6 "Install/Update Custom coreboto firmware", I got an error message that there was not enough disk space for the firmware backup and that writing the backup firmware had failed. Pretty sure the installer then said to press return to go to main menu, which I did, but it did not go back to the main menu, instead it just overwrote the original firmware with the new firmware.

that sounds like a bug in the script I need to fix - I'll look into it.

It more likely sounds like this SD card was previously used for Open/LibleElec installation and so was splitted to several partitions.
Just my guess.


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Matt Devo - 2016-07-13

(2016-07-13, 07:36)bbsc Wrote: It more likely sounds like this SD card was previously used for Open/LibleElec installation and so was splitted to several partitions.
Just my guess.

either way, if the user chooses to back up their stock firmware before flashing the custom firmware, and that backup fails, the script should abort and return to the main menu, not carry on and flash regardless. That's how I intended it anyway, so if it's not happening then it's a bug Smile


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Scratinthehat - 2016-07-14

Is there a way to enable the mic output on the KODI Chromebox? I'm trying to get two Bluetooth headsets working with miccus mini-jack TX4. All I need is a regular stereo output but there is not one on my TV. I can always work up an adapter if that jack can’t be used. Right now there is no output there. By the way Matt that browser it the max! How can I get you some jack for all this work you do?


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Matt Devo - 2016-07-14

(2016-07-14, 04:01)Scratinthehat Wrote: Is there a way to enable the mic output on the KODI Chromebox? I'm trying to get two Bluetooth headsets working with miccus mini-jack TX4. All I need is a regular stereo output but there is not one on my TV. I can always work up an adapter if that jack can’t be used. Right now there is no output there. By the way Matt that browser it the max! How can I get you some jack for all this work you do?

I assume are you referring to the analog audio output? It works perfectly fine, just change the audio output device in Settings/System/Audio Output to the 'HDA Intel PCH, ALC283 Analog' option.

Beer (or Rockstar) can be sent to [email protected] Smile


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - bes3 - 2016-07-17

matt, thanks for your patience for me not reading the wiki thoroughly and for your fast and informative reply and offer to help me offline.

thats really brilliant, that you saved my MAC inside the new firmware. i had thought i had lost it.

bbsc, yes you are right, i had just left my previous SD card in the box, the same SD card that I had just written the libreelec installer to, and kind of thought it would just blow that away with the new firmware backup.

i'm not quite sure what i will do now. originally i was thinking, wouldnt it be nice to have a standalone 16GB librelec install (no dual boot firmware config that might make things trickier), and then my thought was I could press CTRL-U and be able to boot from whatever happens to be on an attached USB stick... whether it was ubuntu live stick, or a chromeOS stick.

But now I think more about it I think I can see why you say it is tricker. The Ubuntu Live stick was designed by its creators for that purpose of USB booting in mind, but the ChromeOS live stick, well, it doesn't really exist now, does it? at least not provided by google. The saved firmware image expects itself to be running from the internal 16GB SSD, so it would have to be custom built i suppose. I some point I had read a thread on here that discussed doing this and i had but don't know where I saw it. I might take you up on your offer to PM you about it at some point, but for right now I'm just going to mull it over.

Thanks for your help


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Soli - 2016-07-17

I believe you can run chromixium from an USB stick.
So, a chromeos clone for non chromeboxes, on a real chromebox.

So install libreelec, but choose autoboot from usb in MrCBs script. Whenever you need to run chromeos, you just insert the chromixium usb stick and reboot.


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Matt Devo - 2016-07-17

(2016-07-17, 19:09)bes3 Wrote: But now I think more about it I think I can see why you say it is tricker. The Ubuntu Live stick was designed by its creators for that purpose of USB booting in mind, but the ChromeOS live stick, well, it doesn't really exist now, does it? at least not provided by google. The saved firmware image expects itself to be running from the internal 16GB SSD, so it would have to be custom built i suppose. I some point I had read a thread on here that discussed doing this and i had but don't know where I saw it. I might take you up on your offer to PM you about it at some point, but for right now I'm just going to mull it over.

Thanks for your help

to boot/run ChromeOS from USB, you need to have a working install on the internal SSD, then use a specific set of commands to transfer it to a same-sized (or larger) USB stick.

(2016-07-17, 19:24)Soli Wrote: I believe you can run chromixium from an USB stick.
So, a chromeos clone for non chromeboxes, on a real chromebox.

So install libreelec, but choose autoboot from usb in MrCBs script. Whenever you need to run chromeos, you just insert the chromixium usb stick and reboot.

you mean ChromiumOS, which is the open-source basis for ChromeOS. Chomixium is a Ubuntu-based distro designed to look/feel like ChromeOS (hence the 'mix'; part), but aren't at all similar under the hood.


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - bes3 - 2016-07-17

OK, thanks Soli. Thank you Matt, I will probably contact via PM at some point about the xfering to usb stick...

I just realized where i got the idea of installing a live chromeos to USB... i had read post #17 here

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=194362&pid=1704884#pid1704884

and there was a reference there to an option in the script that i had thought was to make a bootable copy of chromeOS to USB. so my plan was to do that but i couldn't find that choice in the menus and i also couldn't figure where Yellow Dog was quoting you from so I'm guessing this was an old option that was removed for some reason?


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Matt Devo - 2016-07-18

(2016-07-17, 22:22)bes3 Wrote: OK, thanks Soli. Thank you Matt, I will probably contact via PM at some point about the xfering to usb stick...

I just realized where i got the idea of installing a live chromeos to USB... i had read post #17 here

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=194362&pid=1704884#pid1704884

and there was a reference there to an option in the script that i had thought was to make a bootable copy of chromeOS to USB. so my plan was to do that but i couldn't find that choice in the menus and i also couldn't figure where Yellow Dog was quoting you from so I'm guessing this was an old option that was removed for some reason?

It was unreliable enough to where it wasn't worth the hassle of me trying to support it, and my focus has always been on the standalone side of things, so I wanted to minimize the about of dual boot headaches I had to deal with


RE: Asus/HP/Acer/Dell ChromeBox EZ Setup (OpenELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/06/26] - Soli - 2016-07-18

(2016-07-17, 20:33)Matt Devo Wrote:
(2016-07-17, 19:09)bes3 Wrote: But now I think more about it I think I can see why you say it is tricker. The Ubuntu Live stick was designed by its creators for that purpose of USB booting in mind, but the ChromeOS live stick, well, it doesn't really exist now, does it? at least not provided by google. The saved firmware image expects itself to be running from the internal 16GB SSD, so it would have to be custom built i suppose. I some point I had read a thread on here that discussed doing this and i had but don't know where I saw it. I might take you up on your offer to PM you about it at some point, but for right now I'm just going to mull it over.

Thanks for your help

to boot/run ChromeOS from USB, you need to have a working install on the internal SSD, then use a specific set of commands to transfer it to a same-sized (or larger) USB stick.

(2016-07-17, 19:24)Soli Wrote: I believe you can run chromixium from an USB stick.
So, a chromeos clone for non chromeboxes, on a real chromebox.

So install libreelec, but choose autoboot from usb in MrCBs script. Whenever you need to run chromeos, you just insert the chromixium usb stick and reboot.

you mean ChromiumOS, which is the open-source basis for ChromeOS. Chomixium is a Ubuntu-based distro designed to look/feel like ChromeOS (hence the 'mix'; part), but aren't at all similar under the hood.
Actually neither, but thanks for pointing that out. I once tried chromixium, so I know what is is but obviously had a brain meltdown Wink What I meant was Cloudready. Despite the name, it's more or less ChromeOS for non ChromeOS devices. Brilliant.