Skip to main content

Installing and customizing CoreELEC in X96 Air

I previously installed CoreELEC on another TV Box (Ugoos X3 Pro), which unfortunately died after only 9 months during the summer (due to the unit overheating, which I learned is a common problem for cheap Android TV boxes). So this time I purchased a X96 Air (4GB/32Gb) and had to do the whole thing again.

So this is a note-to-self in case I ever have to install CoreELEC again on some other device.

Installation of CoreELEC is simple enough by following this guide. Basically, it involves downloading and writing the firmware to a microSD card using usbimager. Then insert the microSD card, reset the unit and hold the reset until the logo appears. The unit will then proceed to boot into CoreELEC.

First thing is to connect to WiFi, then enable SSH. This allows me to login via ssh and execute:

ceemmc -x

from the terminal. This writes CoreELEC to the built-in eMMC storage, after which I am able to remove the microSD card and reboot the unit into CoreELEC via the built-in storage.

Now here comes the bit that was tricky enough to get me stuck for quite some time. 

I am using a Mele F10 Airmouse, and CoreELEC was able to detect it automatically when the USB receiver was plugged in. However, I wanted to reconfigure the keymap such that during video playback, the left and right buttons will do forward and back stepping by 10s, and the back button will do stop the video. 

This can be achieved by adding /storage/.kodi/userdata/keymaps/keymap.xml:

<keymap>
  <fullscreenvideo>
    <keyboard>
      <left>stepback</left>
      <right>stepforward</right>
      <browser_back>stop</browser_back>
    </keyboard>
    <mouse>
      <mousedrag>noop</mousedrag>
      <mousemove>noop</mousemove>
      <rightclick>stop</rightclick>
    </mouse>
  </fullscreenvideo>
</keymap>

The back button on my airmouse will sometimes map to browser_back, and sometimes rightclick. I am not sure why, so I have mapped both to the command stop in the keymap file.

Also change System > Interface > Skin > Fonts to Arial based so that Unicode filenames can be displayed.

Don't forget Settings > Interface > Regional > Timezone country for the correct time.

Finally, my new TV box has a LED display at the front, and I was delighted this is supported by CoreELEC to display all kinds of info (date, time, CPU temperate etc.). This is configured by downloading the appropriate device VFD file as /storage/.config/vfd.conf (I used x96-max-1gbit-vfd.conf), and also to install the OpenVFD addon.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Update: Line adapter for Ozito Blade Trimmer

Update (Dec 2021): If you access to a 3D printer, I would now recommend this solution , which makes it super easy to replace the trimmer line. I have been using it for a few months now with zero issue.
5 comments
Read more

3D Printer Filament Joiner

I have been looking at various ways of joining 3D printing filaments. One method involves running one end of a filament through a short PTFE tubing, melting it with a lighter or candle, retracting it back into the tubing and immediately plunging the filament to be fused into the tubing: One problem with this method is that you can't really control the temperature at which you melt the filament, so you frequently end up with a brittle joint that breaks upon the slightest bend. Aliexpress even sells a contraption that works along the same line. As it uses a lighter or candle as well, it suffers from the same weakness. I am not even sure why you need a special contraption when a short PTFE tubing will work just as well. Another method involves using shrink tubing/aluminium foil, and a heat gun: But a heat gun is rather expensive, so I wanted to explore other alternatives. The candle + PTFE tubing method actually works quite well when you happen to melt it at the rig
2 comments
Read more

Attiny85 timer programming using Timer1

This Arduino sketch uses Timer1 to drive the LED blinker: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 /* * Program ATTiny85 to blink LED connected to PB1 at 1s interval. * Assumes ATTiny85 is running at 1MHz internal clock speed. */ #include <avr/io.h> #include <avr/wdt.h> #include <avr/sleep.h> #include <avr/interrupt.h> bool timer1 = false , led = true ; // Interrupt service routine for timer1 ISR(TIMER1_COMPA_vect) { timer1 = true ; } void setup() { // Setup output pins pinMode( 1 , OUTPUT); digitalWrite( 1 , led); set_sleep_mode(SLEEP_MODE_IDLE); // Setup timer1 to interrupt every second TCCR1 = 0 ; // Stop timer TCNT1 = 0 ; // Zero timer GTCCR = _BV(PSR1); // Reset prescaler OCR1A = 243 ; // T = prescaler / 1MHz = 0.004096s; OCR1A = (1s/T) - 1 = 243 OCR1C = 243 ; // Set to same value to reset timer1 to
2 comments
Read more