Hallo an alle mit toten Pearl PX-8595,

ich habe hier gelesen, dass einige nach einem Firmwareupdate ein unbrauchbares PX-8595 haben. Bevor ich mir auch so einen "Briefbeschwerer" produziere habe ich etwas im Internet herumgesucht und eine Anleitung gefunden, die vielleicht hilfreich ist, da es sich um ein vermutlich baugleiches Gerät handelt. Das LookeeTv BSI-6636D01. Das normale, nicht die HD-Versionen. Vom Bild sind die rückseitigen Anschlüsse sogar identisch. Leider gibt es aber keine Bedienungsanleitung zum download.

Wenn also jemand bereit ist, einen Versuch an seinem leblosen Pearl zu wagen, hier die Anleitung:

Dear Customer,

Our mission is to offer the highest standard product to valued customers like you. Lookee TV has built-in CPU, RAM and file system. There are some situations that may cause the system failure: 1. Power is shut down during Firmware download and upgrade, 2. Unexpected error in Firmware downloads (very rare), 3. Other unexpected situations.

These Product Recovery Procedure instructions are part of our Total Product Quality Assurance Program to help your Lookee TV back to functioning to the highest standards.

Product Recovery Steps:

1. Visit http://www.lookeetv.com/Support/

2. Download “BSI-6636D01 Desktop 4.3" LCD WiFi Internet TV & Radio Player Recovery System File, current version V2.5rc8” on your computer. This is a ZIP file, so you must extract all files and then save extracted files to the root of a blank SD Card (memory must be more than 128 MB). Do NOT change any file names.

Die Datei, die heruntergeladen werden soll ist diese http://www.lookeetv.com/Support/BSI-6636D01-2.5RC8-Recovery%20File.zip

3. Insert SD Card into Lookee TV and unplug power cord from the device.

Batterien aus dem Gerät nehmen!

4. Press and hold ENTER and POWER keys simultaneously, continue holding these 2 keys and then plug in the power cord back into the device.

    Hold the keys until you see the ‘Lookee TV’ logo on the screen.

5. Then press ENTER key when you see: “Would you like to recover it now? Yes (Enter) or No (Power Off).” Lookee TV will automatically copy files and recover the system.

6. After recovering to normal condition, press the Power key off and unplug the cord. Then plug in the power cord back in and press Power on.

The Lookee TV is now functioning as normal. You can now update the firmware if required.

Das wäre die neuere Firmware http://www.lookeetv.com/Support/bsi_d01_2.6RC0_update-firmware.bin

Für eine Rückmeldung, ob damit die Wiederbelebung möglich ist, wäre ich dankbar.

Gruß und viel Erfolg.

Thanks, but the lookee is a different model. I have it here. Also, I can not recommend it.
Better get a DisGo, Envivo from Aldi NL or the Xoro.

I will look at the Pearl issue next week. Also know that there are users of this model that have no issues with the firmware.
Given the fact that there also a lot of failures with Xenta models and that all other models have firmware that kills the flash chips it might be related to hardware problems.

~William

Danke William für die Rückmeldung.

Geht es denn mit der Firmware von Albrecht http://service.alan-electronics.de/DAB/DR800-TV/System-Recovery/  ?

Schade, aber was ist, wenn man die Anleitung von lookee/Albrecht benutzt und es damit http://www.mydisgo.info/downloads/disgo_TVGO_Update.rar probiert?

Sind die beiden Tasten denn noch brauchbar, wenn das Pearl komplett abgestürzt ist?

Oder gibt es eine Hardwarelösung für die Wiederbelebung?

There are only a few official recovery images available.
Also there are various original firmware upgrade files available.
These files are only suitable for the specific model they are made for.
They can not be used on other models (as they are). You can try but will see they are rejected.

Firmware files are normally no big problem to get. I can also produce update files after making a dump of the device.
However, this does not change the fact that with every firmware update there is a risk in damaging it.

This is not something special for the SkyTC boxes but applies to every device you want to update the firmware of, like DVD players, PC Bios etc etc.
For some devices the manufacturer was smart and has included a recovery method. In this case the risk is really small.
This recovery mode is `In theory` possible on all SkyTC boxes. However, only a few models actually have the recovery mode active.
You can test if it is active by holding two buttons (usually the two outside buttons on top of the device) and then inserting the power cable holding down the buttons until the device boots. If it shows a messsage about receovery, it is active. if there is no recovery message it is not active.
The older Pearl model does not have recovery it seems. Arnovas also do not have the recovery active.

The recovery mode has its own kernel and own filesystem independend from the kernel and file system used by the main program. This means that via the recovery a device can be fixed even if the flashing of the firmware failed.

Listenlive uses a special trick with the failsafe mechanism. Its not as powerful as the recovery and it can be killed but it is better than nothing.
Failsafe can be triggered by files on the SD card. It has various modes that can be used to do whatever is needed to gain access to the device.
Most important mode is that it allows firmware flashing even when the listenlive firmware is crashed. This could be a crash because of missing files or damaged config files. In that case you can reflash. either back to the listenlive firmware or to original firmware. However, note that the original fimrware does not have the failsafe. Failsafe is a decent alternative to the recovery mode until we are able to (re)instal the recovery mode.

With the right information (which I can extract from a working device) I can actually make an update to install the recovery mode even if its not already present. The main problem here is that I need to have access to a working device. Not just one device but one of each model.
Thats why I have been collecting special information like the PCB board version. Because of this information we now know there are 4 different main hardware models. Based on these hardware models the devices are branded with the various reseller names.
The other thing is of course funding..thats why I take donations. So that I can try to get each model and make the proper recovery files and also am able to test and verify the workings of the firmeware updates.

Last question you probably have is why these files are not made available by the manufacturer. I had some conversations with the SkyTC CEO. According to him, they do not want to make firmware modifications based on our `wishlist`. They do not want to make available any recovery images and do not want to help the people who already bought a device from them. Also they did not want to make the source code available (even though it is mostly based on open source).
He did not want to have any help with the firmware either. He also thought I would not be able to make my own firmware for the devices.