De-bricking(Debricking) your Mvix MX-760HD
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.
February 5th, 2008 at 12:28
Thank You very much ,
It is very importent that some1 will publish something like that , this article is really a helpful and eve can be a “life saver” (for your mvix of course).
April 6th, 2008 at 04:45
Hello!
I would like to go back from the mx 780 firmware to the original mx 760, but every time i try to install doesn’t work and I don’t know how to create tftp servers. I know there is a firmware file that takes care of that. can you help??
thx
April 6th, 2008 at 16:40
Hi! Which firmware are you trying to load? To get back from running 780 firmware to running 760 firmware on 760 hardware, you have to install a specific 760 firmware release that has been hacked to work on a 780 (since the update system now thinks you have a 780). After that you can install 760 non-hacked firmwares since you’re then back on the normal track. There are several older 760 firmwares hacked to be installable on a 780, but if you’re not in a hurry then a modified version of the latest 760 firmware (1.2.1) should show up on this link very shortly: http://laptopvideo2go.com/driver/mvix/MX780-1.2.1mod.pkg
April 6th, 2008 at 17:27
Thanks for the answering!
The file you talk about is no longer available on that link and I can’t find it anywhere. Do you know where can I find it?
Thx
April 6th, 2008 at 19:17
Hi again. What I meant was that the file is not there *yet*, but that the person responsible has promised to put it up shortly. So if you check back tomorrow, the file should hopefully be there.
April 9th, 2008 at 03:54
Glad you have this information up. I got so far as to have Solarwinds’ TFTP Server; however, I can’t figure out how to have the MVIX recognize the sever as 192.168.100.2. My router doesn’t allow me to set any machine out of 192.168.1.*.
I am a windows user and just today found my MVIX bricked after trying to load the latest firmware today.
Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
April 10th, 2008 at 20:48
So, I took another look at my router and figured out how to do it. The emergency file was sent over just fine and all is well. Thanks again for having this information up.
April 10th, 2008 at 21:55
Hi Dan! Sorry about the late reply, was away for a couple of days. Glad to hear you got it working on your own! You should also be able to just temporarily change the IP on your windows machine without having to mess with your router. Provided your MVIX and Windows machine is on the same network that is.
July 13th, 2008 at 16:57
Hello,
I hope somebody can help me. I have a mx-780hd and when I run this steps everything seems to be good but when mx-780 is writing the emergency file it hangs in 104/110. The screen says:
3. Writing
104/110
Writing
Anybody has an idea??
Thanks.
November 8th, 2008 at 19:44
hi
i am struggling to reset my mvix 760 tried the above but with no joy
November 9th, 2008 at 11:27
thank you very much I did finally got it working
Thanks and Regards
Herbert
January 23rd, 2009 at 01:18
Hello,
I have problem with my Media player ( NMP-530 form ViewSonic)
Impossible to find any help for this player on th net
I tried to put in nmp-530 a new firmware (modified by me >>with cramfsswap big endian to little endian
I made modification in stupid-ftpd.conf file
cramfsswap for little endian to big endian
And finally mkcramfs to rebuild the compressed rom file system.
I sent the new firmware to the media player, but on the boot the red light never stop,on normal boot the red light is on just 5 sec
I ‘m unable to ping the media player
could you please tell me what that file means ?
init8510.macAddress T_STRING
init8510.manufactHardware T_STRING 8511SMSC8M32M4M
init8510.manufactVendor T_STRING v3r
init8510.manufactDate T_STRING 1126000705
init8510.lHydraServerPort T_STRING 8080
init8510.lHydraServerAddress T_STRING 192.168.12.99
init8510.BigHydraServerAddr T_STRING 64.1.254.116
init8510.lightHydraMacUpdate T_STRING yes
init8510.SleepBeforePlaylist T_STRING 10
init8510.startInetd T_STRING yes
…
…
…
…
Sorry to disturb you with my problem.
Thanks in advance
Regards.
February 19th, 2009 at 14:32
Hi galem3
I’m pretty sure there are a few DRM-problems in unpacking the firmware and making changes like you’ve tried. There are various checksums that needs to be updated if you make changes. A better approach would be to install the telnet daemon (you just need a usb stick and a couple of programs), and then log in to do the changes you want to do. Google for nmt and telnetd, and you’ll find the procedure easily enough. Let me know if you get stuck.
February 21st, 2009 at 01:08
HI,
I have a new 780 but problem is while upgrading the firmware, i lost power and now theres no firmware on the machine and its dead. I downloaded and tried the method you described above but it doesnt work. My Mivx 780 keeps on saying connecting, then then failed and it shuts down
February 23rd, 2009 at 20:55
Hi Koen!
Not quite sure what you’re doing wrong here. The procedure should work and has been verified by a lot of relieved people. And that goes for the 780 as well, even though you end up with a 780 that looks like a 760 and you will have to reinstall with a “780 firmware for 760’s” and then finally with a real 780 firmware after that. So the only thing I can think of is that you’re either doing something wrong or that Mvix has released a 780-version that doesn’t work with the old 760 firmware at all. If it’s the former, I need more information on what exactly you’re doing and what it looks like on the unix side (does it actually get the firmware from your tftp server for example). If it’s the latter, then I’m afraid you’ll have to talk to support at Mvix as I haven’t seen a more recent rescue firmware at all.
OK
June 21st, 2009 at 04:28
Ok i have a 760HD (wish i didnt) , whilst trying to upgrade firmware unit went off , I am trying the above but it will not boot into rescue mode.
When i try it gets power then the network light stays on and after about 10-15 seconds it turns itself off!!
Any ideas please would be grateful!!
June 26th, 2009 at 14:03
Hi John!
Hm, tricky. Can you packet sniff the network (WireShark, tcpdump, snoop, etc) to see if the unit is trying to do anything at all in those 10-15 seconds? It may be that you have configured your rescue server wrongly or something, and that the Mvix stops trying and dies because it can’t reach the your rescue image for some reason.
OK
July 2nd, 2009 at 05:39
I followed all instruction, but it failed to download from the TFTP server.
From the log, I saw it detected the file, but it does not download.
What else do I need to do to make it work?
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:36
Hi Sean
What do you mean by detect here? The tftp protocol does not have a command for “detecting”, it’s basically just “connect” followed by “get” and “put” with a few extra commands for transfer type (ascii, binary). If something logged a “get” without the actual download, perhaps there is a typo in your rescue image filename (upper/lowercase etc)? Send me what you have in the way of logs and other output and I’ll have a look. (olav at the obvious domain name works for email).
OK