Kolbu

If you mess up a firmware update, either by aborting half way or feeding it a bad homebrew firmware image, you typically get a device that when switched on says LOADING… for about 15 seconds and then automatically switches itself off again. Don’t panic. You can most likely restore it totally by doing the following.

 Installing emergency rescue firmware

1. Set up a tftp-server on a local machine.

This tftp-server needs to be on the local subnet and use the IP 192.168.100.2. This IP is hardwired into the media player. In Rescue Mode, the player itself will use the IP 192.168.100.3.

Using Ubunty Feisty, this is what I did to hack up a tftp-server to listen on the required IP. My local subnet is normally 10.0.0.0/24 so I had to create a virtual interface to piggyback the normal one:

$ sudo bash

# apt-get install atftpd

# vi /etc/default/atftpd   (change USE_INETD=true to USE_INETD=false)

# mkdir /tftpboot

# cd /tftpboot

# wget http://www.kolbu.com/mvix/romimg.emergency 

# ifconfig eth0:0 192.168.100.2 up   (notice the important ":0" there, if you forget you will zap your normal interface)

# /etc/init.d/atftpd start

 2. Boot the media player in Rescue Mode.

Make sure the player is off. Then press and hold in the two buttons, OK and Setup. While you do this, press and release the Power button as you would normally. The device will more or less immediately display things like EMERGENCY UPDATE, an IP number and assorted other stuff on the display. You can now let go of the two buttons. It will then grab the rescue image from your tftp-server and start to write that to its flash memory. Once that is done it will reboot. You will now have a working device with firmware 1.1.17 on it. Now upgrade to something more recent in the normal way, and you’re good to go.

One small gotcha here is that the rescue image is fairly old in Mvix years. For example, it has to EXT2 file system support, so that if your internal hard drive is formatted that way then you can’t use that to upgrade from 1.1.17 to something recent. In cases like that, use an external USB device and upgrade from that. I use my cell phone, just connect it to the PC, copy a recent firmware to it and then plug it into the Mvix. Make sure you plug it in while the Mvix is switched off.  

Factory Reset

You also have the option of doing a Factory Reset.  I’m not entirely sure what this does exactly, but it’s worth a try if you’re stuck. Note that the description of the procedure in the manual is wrong. This is what you need to do:

• Power off the Mvix Player completely. Remove the power cord from the player for 15 minutes.
• Plug-In the power cable. Wait for 10 seconds.
• Simultaneously
  press the STOP, OK and POWER buttons on the unit (not on the Remote).
  Hold for 10-seconds "Factory Reset" should display on the LCD monitor
• The unit Reboots and returns to Factory Default condition.

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