[bobones]

The factory firmware should restore all apps that were originally included in the box including XBMC. If you want to get a copy of the XBMC that was supplied you can use the App Backup & Restore App to get a copy of the apk so you can then remove and reinstall it.

I've had a bit more time to play around and have noticed that the supplied XBMC (14.0-alpha) is the only one to work correctly with Amlogic hardware acceleration. The others I've tried (SPMC, 14.0-beta2, Stane's 13.2) all result in the famous black screen/no video when Amlogic h/w acceleration is enabled.

Would rooting the box allow us to fix that? What's the best of rooting it? Has anyone tried iRoot + USB cable method?

The built-in XBMC works OK except that LiveTV mini-video display is not rendered correctly with AMLogic h/w enabled. Disabling it and leaving mediacodec enabled works for most stuff except for stuttering on 1080p material.

Ideally, I'd like to have XBMC as the Android launcher. SPMC works fine for that but no AMlogic h/w decoding. I also tried XBMC Launcher with the stock XBMC but my WiFi would not get initialized at all so no use there either

I would appreciate any tips on rooting the box, alternative firmwares, fixing black screen/no video, OpenElec ports etc.

[D-an-W]

I can see I am going to learn a lot from you as you already know more about it than me!

I did order the Measy RC11 remote so will report how that works with it.

[Swindiff]

I would like to be able to root these so I can use directory bind and titanium backup. No joy so far though

[bobones]

What methods of rooting have you tried so far?

Looks like we're stuck with the stock XBMC as it's the only one which will decode HD without stuttering as we need AMLogic h/w acceleration.

Anyone know of a decent auto-run app that works on this box and XBMC launcher doesn't work properly

[csgabe]

This rooting method should work:
http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?1...-quot-ROMs

[bobones]

This rooting method should work:
http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?1...-quot-ROMs

Tried that, but get the error:

E:failed to verify whole-file signature
Eignature verification failed

For now, I am sticking with the stock 14.0-alpha kodi and using "Autostart and Stay!" app to autload xbmc

I've mapped the menu and back keys to play/pause and stop respectively when in full screen video/live tv using the keymap editor addon, which seems to work quite well.
I can avoid the livetv mini-display glitch when Amlogic h/w accel is on just by not using it, and the back key working as stop helps here.

All the addons, livetv and HD streaming seem to work well enough so it will do for now.

One mystery for me is that I cannot find the guisettings.xml file anywhere, which is very strange.

[Swindiff]

What methods of rooting have you tried so far?

Looks like we're stuck with the stock XBMC as it's the only one which will decode HD without stuttering as we need AMLogic h/w acceleration.

Anyone know of a decent auto-run app that works on this box and XBMC launcher doesn't work properly

I tried towelroot and towelpieroot so far

[D-an-W]

The Measy RC11 Air Mouse arrived and works really well with the x4 and especially XBMC (I never had a mouse in XBMC before!), it was just a case of plugging the tiny USB dongle into the x4 and it was up and running.

[bobones]

So I have now configured 3 of these boxes for workmates, and to be fair they work pretty well with the stock firmware and XBMC. However, I probably won't buy more of or recommend this particular box as it seems there is very little community support for them at the moment.

These are some of the drawbacks I have found:

o no one yet knows how to root them
o we are stuck with supplied XBMC/Kodi which is an alpha version of helix. Other versions have black screen with Amlogic h/w accel. enabled.
o there are no alterative ROMs for Android, Linux or OpenElec
o the stock XMBC does weird hiding of guisettings.xml in some effort to protect it. Nevertheless, on one occasion I have seen my customisations evaporate when XBMC decided it need to do a fresh start. If you can't see guisettings.xml you cannot back it up.
o the stock XBMC does not seem to exit cleanly and it won't restart smoothly after exit
o remote has too few keys - no dedicated info or transport keys for example

[Swindiff]

One positive for me for this box over the X2 is that Acestream Engine runs properly. I think thats down to ICS v KK. With the X2 every time the Acestream engine stopped, it would not run again unless you first deleted the org.acestream.engine folder.

If we could just get these rooted so I could use Titanium Backup and Directory Bind I would be happy.

[bobones]

Managed to root this box with thanks to Daemonium over at Freaktab.

See this thread http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?1...-stock-ROM

Basically copy 2 files to micro sd, apply power, keep pressing menu, and install update from recovery. Needs a USB keyboard to move about in recovery.

[D-an-W]

Thanks bobones, the Measy RC11 worked a treat from the recovery menu (I also just purchased the SuperSU Pro addon).

[Swindiff]

Brilliant thanks, will give it a go. Are there any downsides to using this rooting method. Have you noticed anything that no longer works as it should?

[bobones]

@Swindiff I haven't noticed any problems. The only annoying things were the prompts and notifications from SuperSu which I just turned off it the settings.

Having done a bit more testing, it seems that Kodi 14.0 betas have got broken AMLogic hardware decoding. I installed 14.0-alpha4, which works fine, but the beta releases and current nightly have the no video/black screen problem. SPMC doesn't work either so just stick with the supplied 14.0-alpha1, which works very well.

With root I also discovered that guisettings.xml file is not in the userdata folder, rather it's in here /data/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/cache/apk/assets/system/settings/guisettings.xml so if you want to duplicate your Kodi configuration you need to copy this file as well as the .xbmc folder.

[bobones]

I decided to prise open this box: here is what is inside

Does anyone recognize this board as the same as any other well known S805 device?

Anyway, I'm growing on this box as it looks like the AMLogic problems are being ironed out by the Kodi Devs and Kodi Helix should work great on it when it's officially released.